Episode 1 of Tales of The Walking Dead dropped last Sunday night and told the story of Joe (Terry Crews), a doomsday prepper, who met Evie (Olivia Munn) while on the hunt for a fellow prepper.
The new show is an anthology series, meaning each episode will cover different characters. Mostly, they will feature new people not yet seen before in the world of The Walking Dead.
However, Season 1 of Tales of The Walking Dead will be returning to explore Alpha’s (Samantha Morton) story, giving viewers an insight into how she joined the Whisperers.
This also means that there will be no more Joe and Evie in Episode 2.
Instead, viewers will get something entirely left of center and not yet seen before in The Walking Dead universe.
Sure, the undead will be there, as the world starts to spiral after the initial outbreak. But AMC has decided to give viewers a version of Ground Hog Day: Zombie Edition.
Also, this is my favorite episode so far and I hope AMC delivers more of this sort of content in the future regarding this new series.
Welcome to Circle of Trust
Episode 2, titled “Blair/Gina,” introduces Blaire (Parker Posey) as the worst boss ever as she heads an insurance company called Circle of Trust.
Not only is her taste in clothing atrocious but she sees the outbreak as being excellent for business.
Meanwhile, the receptionist Gina (Jullian Bell) is keeping notes on which undiagnosed mental health issues her boss may have.
While things are starting to escalate regarding calls to the company, Blair decides to take off for the weekend with her fiance, making sure to let Gina know that she is expected to stay back until everyone else has left.
Things are getting crazy already
Blair and her fiance, Brian (Matt Medrano) line up for gas but things are slow going as it seems there is already a shortage of fuel.
It is here that we learn Brian is already sick of Blair’s s**t but seems just as determined as her to get out of the city ahead of the zombie apocalypse.
You see, even though Blair is pretending everything is okay to her employees, she has definitely packed more than required for a dirty weekend away. And, it’s on an island to boot, no walkers will harass them there.
While they are waiting in line to fill up, Gina turns up and Blair is livid, approaching the receptionist to chew her out about not being at work.
Gina immediately notices just how much stuff Blair has for just three days.
Blair responds by firing Gina.
Things escalate quickly after that as a car arrives with a bitten passenger. Of course, they have no idea yet that this is bad news but Gina is too busy holding the oil tanker to ransom as she tries to get some gas for herself.
Luckily, Leo Rodgers (Ameer Baraka) from Homeland Security is there to try and talk Gina down from using her gun while in a gas station.
Except, a walker attacks and Leo decides he wants out of the situation, attempting to take the tanker over as well.
The driver, now sick of absolutely everyone’s s**t grabs the gun, it goes off and the tanker explodes killing everyone.
Except…
Welcome to Groundhog day!
We’re now back at Circle of Life and Blair is looking a little confused as she rattles off the same speech she gave at the start of the episode. Just, this time, with a little added smoke, which Blair blames on Gina’s coffee-making skills.
She then suggests that maybe Gina is a serial killer with a shotgun under her desk. Spoiler alert: She’s not.
Blair is suffering some pretty serious deja vu by this point so heads out, once again, for her dirty weekend.
At least she seems rattled this time. Even Brian seems concerned that she is suddenly acting, well… nicer.
At the gas station, things happen pretty much the same again so when Gina turns up, Blair is all over her, telling her not to screw things up like last time.
Gina doesn’t care, though, only having eyes on that tanker truck.
So, as to be expected, it blows up again.
And again, and again. Each time reveals new small details that help to flesh out the story and explain why the people around them are reacting the way they are.
Blair also gets a bunch of home truths about just how much she sucks as a boss.
All the while, everyone else has no idea why Gina and Blair are spiraling so badly.
Finally, Blair agrees to let Gina take the truck and she lets everyone else go home early in order to try and break the cycle they are stuck in.
When her fiance turns up, she also dumps him after seeing him not help her at all on repeat at the gas station. He really doesn’t care and leaves to save his own hide.
Then, she lets the undead kill her.
Does that break the cycle?
Nope, it’s still Groundhog day.
However, at least Blair can now apologize for being such a b**ch to Gina all these years.
Something new
Now that Blair and Gina are apparent besties, they decide to try something different.
This time, they pair up and work together, actually managing to get the truck out of the gas station.
They have to just get to Gina’s nieces and rescue them before escaping Atlanta before the city is shut down by the authorities.
However, they come across a situation where people are trying to escape the hordes of the undead.
In order to help them, they run the hose from the tanker down to the road below. Setting fire to the gas then saves the people below and they escape as the walkers burn.
Except, the tanker still blows. And, while the pair are really close to it and should die like they have every other time, they manage to escape with only some burned hair to show for it.
Well, Blair does question if they are dead. However, Gina has an explanation for that.
While researching possible mental conditions to explain Blair’s s**tty behavior, she came across something called folie a deux. This is where two closely associated people can share the same delusion.
So, did the pair invent the zombie apocalypse? Well, fans of The Walking Dead know the answer to that.
(Unless, of course, that theory about it all being Rick’s coma dream is true.)
Tales of The Walking Dead airs every Sunday night on AMC at 9/8c.