‘Fear the Walking Dead’ recap: Island offers no refuge from danger

There’s no escaping the zombie apocalypse — even for an island-dwelling family with top-notch survival skills — on “We All Fall Down,” Episode 202 of AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead.”

Well-armed pirates are possibly chasing the “Abigail” luxury yacht, so skipper Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) ducks into a cove at Catrina (think Catalina) Island to avoid detection.

Overseeing a wildlife refuge on the isle are George Geary (David Warshofsky) and wife Melissa (Catherine Dent). Their children are Seth (Jake Austin Walker) and his much younger siblings, Willa (Arya Lyric Leabu) and Harry (Jeremiah and Maverick Clayton).

George informs “Abigail” crewmember Travis Manawa (Cliff Curtis) that the military firebombed the entire West Coast in a futile attempt to stem the zombie outbreak.

“The interior’s no better than the coast,” George says, revealing that ranger stations in the California desert, Utah and Colorado went dark. He’s not concerned, however.

“The world couldn’t sustain itself,” George opines, “so it stood back and said ‘enough.’ This is its course correction.”

Melissa, meanwhile, pointedly asks Travis’ girlfriend, Madison Clark (Kim Dickens), about her days as a high school counselor and her attitude toward little kids.

“Got two of my own,” Maddie says with a smile. “I liked them better when they were little.”

One of those kids, teenager Alicia (Alycia Debnam-Carey), watches Willa sing “Ring Around the Rosie,” a nursery rhyme inspired by the bubonic plague. Why, Willa asks, did people put posies in their pockets?

“A long time ago, across the ocean in Europe, there was a virus that made a lot of people really sick,” Alicia explains. “And they didn’t have the medicine we do now so they gave them flowers to make them healthy.”

Did it work? No, Alicia sadly tells Willa.

Alicia’s brother Nick (Frank Dillane) befriends Harry, who says he has “power pills” to ward off the zombie virus.

“It’s like a vitamin,” Harry enthuses. “If I take it, my family stays together!”

As for Travis’ rebellious son Chris (Lorenzo James Henrie), he eagerly helps Seth perform “maintenance” by whacking zombies with a pickaxe when they press against a chain-link fence.

This gruesome chore proves cathartic for Chris, whose mother was infected by a “walker” then shot by Travis in an act of mercy.

Despite their isolation, the Gearys are endangered by a horde of zombies roaming around a nearby marina, George tells Travis.

“We all die,” George says fatalistically. “It’s a question of surrender or survival, acceptance or denial.”

And while Travis is determined to survive, George calmly accepts his dismal fate.

Actually, George isn’t waiting for zombies to attack. He plans to end it all, Jonestown style, by poisoning his family. Melissa wants to save her youngest children, however, by letting them sail away on the yacht.

“I had a strange hope, like maybe Willa and Harry will have a chance,” Melissa says to Maddie. “The kind of chance they’re not gonna have if they stay here.”

Willa, tragically, won’t be leaving the island. Harry finds her dead on the floor after she swallows one of those lethal pills.

“You can’t hold her! It’s not safe,” Maddie yells at Melissa. But it’s too late. Willa turns into a tiny zombie and bites her mom on the neck.

After Travis and Maddie rush Harry onto the yacht, Seth threatens to shoot if his brother isn’t returned. As Seth leads Harry away, their zombified mother staggers toward them.

“Just keep waving” at the “Abigail” crew, Seth tells Harry, not wanting him to see what happens next.

For Seth stoically aims a rifle at his mother and takes her down with a single shot.