‘Fear the Walking Dead’ recap: Nick seeks pro-zombie types in Tijuana

Apocalypse survivor Nick Clark (Frank Dillane) holds a minority opinion about zombies. Instead of regarding them as flesh-eating monsters deserving bullets in the brain, Nick sees them as misunderstood humans undergoing a mysterious transformation.

Searching for other people who share his questionable views, Nick embarks on a perilous journey across the Mexican desert in “Grotesque” (Episode 208), the midseason premiere of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” horror drama.

This sympathy for the undead puts Nick at odds with his blended family, now scattered across Baja after the walled compound where they took refuge burned to the ground.

Nick refused to leave with his mother Madison (Kim Dickens) and sister Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey) when they fled toward the Pacific with Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) and Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason).

As for Madison’s boyfriend, Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis), he took off with his violence-prone son Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie), who’s persona non grata after threatening to harm Alicia.

So Nick is on his own as he braves a hundred-mile trek toward Tijuana with an abundance of confidence and a paucity of supplies.

“It won’t be an easy trip,” housemaid Sofia (Diana Lein) warns. For not only are there zombies to contend with, Nick could easily fall victim to murderous outlaws or the desert heat.

While this hazardous journey unfolds, the episode flashes back to Nick’s pre-apocalypse days as an unrepentant drug addict in Southern California. While confined to a treatment facility, Nick learns that his gentle but emotionally distant father just died in a head-on traffic collision.

“He didn’t make it,” distraught Madison tells Nick. “They say he didn’t suffer.”

This tragedy propels Nick into a downward spiral, for soon he’s high on heroin in a “shooting gallery” with his blond girlfriend from rehab, Gloria (Lexi Johnson).

Viewers will remember from the show’s pilot episode that Gloria dies of an overdose, morphs into a zombie and terrifies Nick into running in front of an oncoming car.

Flashing forward to the present, Nick takes a break from his long hike by bedding down inside an empty house. But an angry mom (Heidi Garcia) returns with a baseball bat, forcing Nick to scamper away with his precious food and water left behind.

Nick’s luck goes from bad to worse the following day. He’s nearly shot by three vicious killers, vomits after eating a cactus, drinks his urine out of desperation and sustains a nasty bite when attacked by German Shepherds.

Hallucinating and near death, Nick limps along a road in the midst of a zombie herd. Since his body is slathered with blood, Nick is accepted by the undead as one of their own.

Observing this macabre scene are scouts from a Tijuana colony. Leader Luciana (Danay Garcia) callously refrains from rescuing Nick, despite protests by her two companions (Alfredo Herrera and Carlos Segura).

Fortunately for Nick, he’s revived by a rainstorm, hobbles into town and encounters the scouts.

“I know someone who can help you,” Luciana offers. That would be Alejandro Nuñez (Paul Calderon), a kindly pharmacist who treats Nick’s dog bite before it gets infected.

“You are foolish,” Alejandro says upon hearing of Nick’s nearly suicidal trek. “Death is not to be feared. But it shouldn’t be pursued. There’s a difference.”

Why, Alejandro asks, did Nick walk all this way, alone and unarmed, in the brutal desert?

“I wanna be where the dead aren’t monsters,” Nick calmly explains.

Sounds like the right answer. For when he opens the farmacia door and steps outside into a vibrant community full of seemingly likeminded souls, Nick realizes he has found a new home.

At least for now.