Pass the Posole and Hold the Ammunition

Episode 7, Season 2: “Shiva”

A wet jungle. Dead bodies float in a river. Ruben-Daniel wakes up. He forces Ofelia to accompany him to the cellars that hold Celia’s dead. She can’t run anymore and stops, stripping the skin from her face with her fingers. Another bad dream! Ruben wakes up again. Double Nightmare.

Celia is pissed at Strand for shooting Thomas in the head. Now, he’ll never come back. She hits him in the face with the back of her hand. Mad Mom intervenes. Ruben is happy to find Ofelia and that her facial skin is intact. Travis finds out that Chris was wielding a knife whilst hovering over Mad Mom and Alicia. Back to Strand. Celia is still angry. Thomas would not want to have been buried! Ok, seriously, Celia is batshit crazy, I don’t care how tasty her posole is. She orders everyone off her property by the end of the next day. No more posole for YOU. Travis looks vainly for Chris, who ran off with his knife after Mad Mom and Alicia caught him in the act.

"Nobody puts Celia in the corner...NOBODY!"

Daybreak. Ruben sharpens a homemade weapon on a rock. Celia spies on him from an obscured window. Travis may have stumbled across Chris’ handiwork: a dead walker with a knife protruding from his skull. We see Chris.

Travis finds more dead bodies. He wanders through the Baja slums, armed only with a knife. He enters a hovel after hearing a noise. Oh, Travis, nothing good ever came from entering an abandoned hovel! An angry Mexican confronts him, but seems harmless. He offers Travis water. Too bad he speaks no English. Travs shows him his feet, which are bloody and disgusting from walking in homemade “shoes.”

Nick returns to the hacienda with a bound, very dead but sorta alive Luis in tow. Nick is wearing his fave outfit of late—a wife-beater and jeans shmeared in zombie blood n’ guts. Celia seems pleased, for once. A peace offering? Luis, for his part, doesn’t seem to recognize his surroundings. Mad Mom is not pleased by Nick’s efforts. Celia approaches Nick. She wants him to stay. Can his family remain, too? They don’t share her pro-death worldview. Nick assures her that his family won’t hurt anyone and may even change their minds. He assumes responsibility for their actions. However, Strand remains on her shit list.

Nick takes a much-needed shower. Mad Mom asks him what the heck is up with him and the zombie guts. Nick tells her he just brought Celia’s son back, that’s all. He claims he can move among the dead, “invisible.”

A panicked Ruben grabs Ofelia to lead her to the gate of the complex. Your mother is waiting there, he tells her excitedly. A bunch of Celia’s henchmen approach as Ofelia tries to pull away. Ruben lashes out with his homemade razor blade. Strand is digging a deep grave, presumably for Thomas. Mad Mom comes to see him about Nick. He confirms that Celia has sunk her talons into a vulnerable Nick. Strand states his intentions to return to the boat, if it indeed still exists.

Meanwhile, Travis’s host offers him boots for his seriously messed-up feet. The man tells him Chris went that-a way, but Travis figures out that Chris is, in fact, in the house. He is holding the man’s young son captive and told the man he will shoot the boy unless he can get his dad to leave. Chris is turning out to be the total douchebag that I always thought he was.

Thomas’ funeral. Celia was the hired help whose employers ignored their son Thomas, so she raised him. She’s then ready to kick Strand out. Ofelia asks Celia where her dad is. He’s safe, Celia says. Mad Mom puts on her best resting bitch face for Celia’s benefit.

Chris makes a run for it. Travis tackles him, and Chris tries to stab him. Chris affirms that he is bad, beyond help. They both look stunned.

Celia tries to spoon-feed a chained Ruben her very tasty posole. He says he’s not afraid of her, and she retorts that he’s afraid of the people he killed. She urges him to confess. Ruben hears the voice of his dead wife. He remains steadfast, revealing nothing. “There is a place for you here,” she tells him, and leaves him with the specter of his late wife, who is pretty chatty for a ghost.

A bloodied Nick finds Travis, who urges his stepdad to return to the complex.  Travis claims that he doesn’t want to return, because Chris needs a father figure. Nick sighs and hands him a knife.

Celia is tidying up Thomas’ bedroom. She knows how to make hospital corners with the sheets. Of course she does, she was a maid. Mad Mom tries to convince Celia to allow Strand to stay. Talk turns to Nick, whom Celia is a fan of because he understands her perspective. Mad Mom says she wants to understand, which is an open invitation to visit Celia’s Cellars infested with the walking dead.

Ruben talks with his dead wife. She’s mad that she never got a proper burial. Plus, she had to carry around his murderous guilt all those years. Also, he never put the toilet seat down after he peed. We see in a flashback that Daniel was a killer from an early age, like 7. He looks broken. Ruben never looks broken.

Celia gives Mad Mom a tour of the cellar where Luis is eating. Celia waxes eloquent about the beauty of taking care of one’s children, even after they turn. Mad Mom silently backs up and locks Celia in with the undead. She’s doing it for her kids, too, just like Celia! Then, she backs away. Celia tears up a bit, but seems accepting of her fate. There goes the best cook this side of Baja, posole and all. Sure, you’ll get sick of it after a while; how about a few tortilla chips to dip, or some fresh guac to mix it up a little?

A man comes to untie Ruben, who head butts him. The bowl of posole with his name on it spills all over the floor. He escapes. Strand is escorted to the gates under cover of night. He waves bye-bye.

Everybody Loves Ruben.

Ruben enters the cellar. He pours gasoline throughout. All the people Ruben killed—quite a motley crew!—notice him and ever so slowly approach. His late wife emerges from the crowd. He drops his lighter. Ruben is ready to die. Strand climbs in a truck. The fire overtakes the complex. Mad Mom searches for Daniel. Ofelia is distraught. Strand orders everyone into the pickup truck, but Mad Mom wants to wait for Nick and Travis. Nick reunites with Mad Mom. He observes that Celia was right about them all along; they destroy everything. Nick does not get on the truck. He joins the dead. Mad Mom can’t look and turns away. The truck slowly leaves the compound, with a smaller crew than they started with. See you in a few; this is the mid-season finale, so FWD will be back before you know it.