Nicholas Clark/Season 1/The Good Man

## Summary

This article contains details of the events during the episode "The Good Man" which were directly contributed to or witnessed by Nicholas Clark.

## Plot Details

In the holding area Victor Strand is calmly sitting and waiting. When Nick bashes the fence he tells him not to attract attention. Nick is agitated and Strand distracts him by asking where he's from. Strand has not only heard of El Sereno he knows about the area. He describes it as being vibrant and blue collar - and makes Nick smile by saying he would "gentrify" it. The power goes off, causing the internees to be alarmed, and leaving them with only emergency lights. Strand starts searching through his pockets. After a moment Nick asks where they are going and then makes Strand smile by giving his key back...

As they walk out the shouting in the holding cells is louder, with some of it directed at them. Strand says he doesn't see the "Value-Add" in helping people and Nick trails along behind him, looking at the people in the cells but not helping them.

They make their way along a corridor, avoiding soldiers and hearing gunfire from downstairs. They run past a stairwell and through a door into an area where there's obviously been a firefight, there's a lot of damage and lights are flickering. Strand pulls the door shut behind him and, as they go further into the badly damaged area, we see the light on the door's card reader go red and hear the lock click. This part of the building seems deserted, apart from dead soldiers on the floor and an undead man or woman eating one of them. Nick pulls back but Strand knows enough to be quiet.

They find themselves in a reception area for the building's original use, as "Raynard Community College". There are still posters on the wall from that time, advertising parties etc.

Strand salvages a torch from one body and sees that the other man, being eaten, isn't dead yet and is in fact Melvin Allen. He walks across to Melvin, making sure that he's separated from the Infected person who's eating part of Melvin's left leg. Melvin recognises him and calls him by name; he's deeply in shock and close to death. Strand retrieves his cufflinks from the pocket he saw Melvin put them in earlier but doesn't bother with the watch. Melvin asks Strand to kill him, Strand refuses as more of the dead break into the room. Melvin goes out the way they came in, he calmly takes the time to collect a pistol and a spare magazine from the body of the other soldier. He tells Nick that he doesn't know what they're going to do now because Melvin was to have been their "ride".

Running along a corridor, making good time but with the zombie horde just behind them, Nick and Strand reach the doors that Strand had so carefully shut behind him earlier. The doors are securely locked, there appears to be no way out of the corridor, and the zombies are approaching them at a slow walk. Strand remarks that "That's unfortunate." and, for the first time, appears to be in a hurry. He uses the pistol to try and slow them down but without much effect. Looking through the glass panel of the door Nick can see Travis and Madison running towards him.

On one side of the door, Madison et al are trying to open it with a hammer and a shotgun. On the other side Nick is looking through the glass panel while Strands wastes ammunition by missing headshots. The zombie horde continues to approach at its slow walk. Nick, watching his mother again attempting to move heaven and earth to save him, actually becomes calm and puts his hand against the glass. Madison touches the glass in the same way and they both appear calm for a moment. We see Liza running up behind them. She tries her pass card over and over in the card reader until it works and the doors open in time to let Nick and Strand get through. There's not time to shut them to block the dead though and they follow the group down the stairs.

They pass through a kitchen that's been abandoned 1/2 way through preparing a meal, Liza leading the way. An infected man leaps out and grabs her. She is in real trouble until Ofelia steps up and despatches the Infected man with her heavy bolt cutters. They all fight well - Madison with her hammer, Daniel with Adams' pistol and Travis with the butt of the shotgun. Liza and Ofelia, in particular, are an effective team. Madison gets taken by surprise, drops her hammer and is struggling until Nick (Nick!) picks it up and puts down her attacker. As they leave the kitchen, Strand somehow knows just where to find something to lock the doors behind them (a long mop handle) and walks calmly away from the doors as the dead approach it from the other side. "Who the hell are you?" asks Madison and Nick replies "He saved my life."

Daniel leads the way through a locker room but then stops and asks Liza where Griselda is. Ofelia stops to talk to her as well. Daniel accepts what Liza says but Ofelia becomes angry and wants to see her mother's body. Daniel tries to dissuade her but in the end it takes Liza saying "There's nothing left to see" to convince her.

Liza leads the way into the hospital ward area. The bodies of the critical patients are on the beds, each neatly tagged and each with a wound from the captive bolt device in the centre of their foreheads. Bethany Exner is still there, having taken care of her patients in the only way left to her. She is sitting and staring at nothing. Madison scavenges drugs while Liza asks Exner for the way out. Exner eventually tells her but refuses to go with them because there's "nowhere to go to". As the families leave Bethany Exner picks up the captive bolt device again and looks at it.

As they go where Dr. Exner has told them, Strand suggests to Madison that they go to his house, that he has supplies and is prepared.

As they leave the building, they see what's left of the bodies that have been incinerated. Ofelia and Daniel in particular are devastated by the sight of the pile of ash, bones, partially burnt bodies, and the bulldozer that was used to move it all around.

Back in the underground car park Travis calls out for Chris. They see that the car is not there and get louder, causing Daniel to tell them to be quiet and not attract the dead. Travis shoves him out of the way and ignores him. Alicia and Chris appear from a door at the far end of the car park. Travis, Madison and Liza greet their children while Ofelia sits down on the floor by a pillar, drained. Daniel calls out "We must go now".

Andrew Adams appears, with a pistol and says "Salazar!". He points the weapon at Daniel and Ofelia gets up to intervene. She talks to him and tries to stop it escalating further until Andrew suddenly changes aim and shoots Ofelia instead.

Travis, overcome with rage and guilt, leaps on Adams and hits him over and over. We hear Liza say to Ofelia and Daniel - "It's ok." but Travis doesn't hear and doesn't stop. The whole group are stunned by his reaction which doesn't stop until Madison tells Travis to leave him, even Daniel does not intervene when Madison gets Travis to stop. Adams is badly beaten but still alive.

The two cars, Madison's car in front, are on an almost deserted stretch of road. Daniel, Ofelia and Liza are in the back of Travis' pickup. Chris is in the front with Travis driving. Madison is driving her car with Alicia in the passenger seat and Strand in the back. They are discussing the best route to take to the sea; they pass some (undead) pedestrian traffic but see little else. Two of the main office blocks in the city are burning. At Strand's suggestion they turn left off the main road and onto the concreted LA river, where it all started for Madison and Travis and where Nick killed Calvin. There's very little water and no traffic at all. They pass a crashed and burnt out military helicopter with a badly burnt but still active Infected man or woman struggling to get at them from the wreckage. Nick holds his hand out to feel the wind as they drive along, and then puts his whole head out to feel it. The concreted river bed is clear and straight. It takes them to Strands home with no problems.

Strand lets them into the property with a code, he explains to Nick that there's a generator that starts automatically when the power goes off. They all go in, Liza and Daniel helping Ofelia who, while she is walking, is obviously in a lot of pain. Strands home is beautiful and looks very expensive; you can hear the sea and the sea gulls as you walk up to the house. Strand lets them in the front door asks them to help themselves to food.

Strand goes into a large bedroom and packs a bag with expensive shirts and other clothes. After a few minutes Nick comes in and asks where he's going and if the family can stay here. Strand is picking up a small picture to pack, he looks at the picture and says "No, no we cannot. No one stays."

Nick asks where "Abigail" is, and why have they come here if they're not staying. Strand doesn't answer and Nick asks if he's insane. He still doesn't answer and Nick says "Strand!" to get his attention. Strand unsettles Nick by saying "The only way to survive in a mad world is to embrace the madness." and beckons Nick out onto the patio and a pair of mounted binoculars. He aims the binoculars and calls Nick over to look through them. Nick sees a large and impossibly expensive looking yacht, Strand says "Abigail".

Nick and Strand are still looking through the binoculars when they hear the shot, it startles them but they don't know what it is.