Zoo - The Silence of the Cicadas - Review: “Awakening”

Episode 3, Silence of the Cicadas, opened with Chloe, now in Slovenia, on board with helping to investigate these animal attacks. We got confirmation that Nicholas Bradshaw, the man who was adopting the little boy last week, is actually dead. I was kind of hoping that he had lived somehow, since his death was off-camera, so that was pretty sad. We also found out that he was one of six people that were killed in this massacre. They come to the conclusion that the only explanation for this behavior is that the dogs were targeting tourists with no ties to the area in order to hone their killing skills, under the radar. Super creepy and disturbing.

Most of this episode took place in Japan where we saw Jackson and Abe trying to find more answers about his dad’s research. They met Jackson’s dad’s second wife, Minako, who seems like a really sweet, nice woman. I’m really upset that she was killed off so quickly. I think they could have done a lot with her character, so that was disappointing. Anyways, before she dies she tells them about the remote, radioactive island where most of the remaining research is kept. However, as I mentioned, before they can all get there a swarm of bats attack the plane and it crashes, killing the pilot and Minako. How convenient that our two main characters walk away totally unscathed in this fatal plane crash…

They’re not out of the woods yet, however, because now they have to find all the research and files before the air becomes too radioactive. This part was so ridiculous. They have zero hustle. You can bet if I were on a radioactive island I would be racing to find that info and get out ASAP. They were just taking their time, poking around in everything. They spent so much time they forgot about the radiation levels and didn't even realize the reader was off. My eyes would have been glued to that thing, checking like every 10 seconds. The island itself, was pretty weird and creepy. One of the first things they encountered was a couple of wild horses with their eyes missing. Turns out, Jackson’s dad chose this location for a reason - the radiation escalated and sped up the animals’ cognitive awakening and they started showing these aggressive behaviors and the “defiant pupil” early, making it a perfect environment to study and theorize for the future. All this research seemed to lead to one theory, that the eyes are the window to the soul and that without the defiant pupil the aggressive behavior would cease, hence the eyeless horses from earlier. I’m really confused about this guy that’s going around and recruiting everybody. Are all these characters in the same timeline? He was in Slovenia, and then Japan, and then LA seemingly one after the other. How is that possible? And how was he able to track down Abe and Jackson on a remote island, or Mitch and Jamie at some random local bar?

Speaking of Mitch and Jamie, they're still hard at work trying to find answers on Reiden Global…well at least Jamie is, Mitch is sort of reluctantly tagging along. This episode they travel to Jamie’s hometown, and Reiden’s headquarters, to meet with a Senator. They hope to convince him to help with a lawsuit based on the evidence they have found, so far, on the LA lion attack. The Senator isn’t convinced and is tired of all the fighting so he refuses. This really pushes them together and Jamie has to lean on Mitch for emotional support which was really nice. I also thought it was clever to show all the animal heads on the Senator’s walls to really highlight why the animals are turning on us and hate us. I really like the camaraderie between Mitch and Jamie. I really hope they don’t end up together romantically, because I’m not feeling that, but I love them as colleagues and friends. I also thought it was really nice how when Mitch was recruited by The World’s Fastest International Traveler, he only signed on if Jamie could be involved and come too.

We were also introduced to a prisoner, Evan Lee, in a Biloxi prison during this episode. I have so many questions about this story and this character. I don’t even know where to begin. He has a defiant pupil so clearly he’s been affected by this whole thing as well. This would make sense if the defiant pupil was something that just happened to occur in animals, as humans are animals too that would be totally fine, but isn’t this defiant pupil and cognitive awakening all about rising against the humans specifically? So now my question is, is Evan effected because he is an animal rights supporter, or is it because he’s some non-humanish person. I have some crazy theories about this character - like laughable crazy. My first thought, honestly, was, “Is this guy a werewolf?” My other theory is that maybe he was raised by wolves so he has more of a connection to the animal side of things than the human side. The thing that makes most sense though is that he’s simply an animal rights activist. He’s imprisoned for murdering a group of hunters for “celebrating murder”, so that seems to strongly suggest his feelings towards animals are rather protective. I was also very confused about why no one noticed the wolves earlier. I was actually wondering if maybe Evan was imagining them at one point. I mean a lone white wolf in the middle of a field near the fence seems like something someone would see before it was right on top of them. The fact that these wolves were able to infiltrate the prison by simply running through some open doors is ridiculous to me. If the guards had simply closed a few doors the whole situation could have been avoided. Although, presumably the lions were able to magically grow opposable thumbs and mess with the radiator in the premiere so I suppose a few closed doors would be nothing for the wolves.

This episode served as the start of our team finally coming together. They’re now all aware of each other and of all the other animal attacks that are under investigation. We also found out that the government agency that recruited them all has known about Jackson’s father’s research for a while now but have only taken it seriously recently. One fault I still have with Zoo is that it tends to move very slowly. It’s episode 3 and they’ve only just set the foundation for the rest of the season and the ensemble has just united. That seem like something that should have happened at the end of episode 1, or 2 at the latest. Although this episode was noticeably slow, it was still quite memorable so I’ll give it another free pass, but I need them to start picking up the pace now. I’m also really interested in finding out more about Abe’s background. He has a mysterious past and I bet it has to do with his brothers. It’s been alluded to in the past couple of episodes but I want them to fully explore it. He mentioned that all of his brothers had passed away or something along those lines in episode two. Hopefully they’ll give us a bit more info on both him and Mitch/Chloe (who I think have both been under-developed so far). Overall, it was a solid episode with a lot of information, excitement, and the usual dose of unbelievability/summer fun.

What did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments!

About the Author - Kate Sidwell

Kate is a 24 year old, USA based, Psychology/Public Health Researcher - but that’s just her day job! In her spare time she is an avid TV watcher (some may even say addict!!). Some of her favorite shows are Jane the Virgin, Bates Motel, The Flash, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Rookie Blue, Silicon Valley, Beauty and the Beast, Sleepy Hollow, The 100, The Mindy Project, Pretty Little Liars, Once Upon a Time, The Royals, Orphan Black…so pretty much too many to count and a huge variety! She’ll give pretty much any show a chance! She also devotes a lot of time to her tumblr (eat-sleep-breathe-tv.tumblr.com) where you can find her reviewing and commenting on most of these shows and just generally fangirling! She’s excited to be writing for SpoilerTV on Complications, Baby Daddy, Proof, Switched at Birth, Secrets and Lies, and Minority Report!

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