I have to say, I was kind of dreading this double episode because I thought it would be too much, but I was pleasantly surprised! I thought the two episodes paired together very nicely and nothing felt rushed or too slow. Although Chloe was separated from the rest of the team, she still felt like she was a part of the story and the whole episode was filled with excitement! Overall, it was two hours of my night very well spent!
After Chloe sacrificed herself and fell out of the plane at the end of last week’s episode, she is now in the custody of the FBI. The same agent who has been chasing them for two weeks over the death of his friend, Agent Shaffer, now has Chloe. However, before he can get very far, a couple of seemingly random people shoot him and take Chloe. I’m kind of happy that he’s out of the way because he was getting pretty irritating. Really, why is it so hard to believe that Shaffer was dirty?? However, what’s the point of bringing him in, establishing him as a threat to their mission, and then killing him two episodes later? It kind of feels like the whole Shaffer storyline was for nothing now. Obviously, it served the purpose of getting us to this point, but I hate when shows introduce a character or story and then just abandon it out of nowhere. Are we ever going to find out what Shaffer was up to? I won’t be losing sleep over this, but I’m not a fan of loose ends and this feels like something that won’t be resolved - they have too much going on already.
This week, the mission became much more dangerous. Chloe was held captive by the man who found everyone on the team and brought them together. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him, so it took me a minute to figure out who he was. I was thinking that Chloe should just tell him where they are…how fast could he possibly get there? But then I remembered, from his previous time on the show, how he seemed to magically travel the world outside the barriers of time and could seemingly be in multiple places at once and then understood why she wouldn’t tell him! Anyways, getting serious, this guy is crazy and terrible, he’s torturing Chloe’s sister right in front of her and all because he wants her to tell him where the rest of the team is. It’s not really clear what his motives are for wanting this information but before we can find out, Chloe is rescued by Delavenne. So now he’s back on their side. I don’t really trust him yet, but whatever, she has no other options. He takes her to a big meeting with scientific leaders in Washington, D.C. where they are discussing theories on the animals’ aggressive behavior. She’s nervous to speak in front of all these scientists, without any science background herself, but he encourages her by saying she doesn’t need Mitch, she’s picked up enough over these last couple of weeks…enough to speak to a room full of scientists? Unlikely. She makes a valiant effort but the room was against her, and it was a long shot anyways. However, there is one person in the audience who believes her and this is when we find out that there has been a whole other team out there, trying to figure out the same thing as Chloe’s team. This new team and their resources comes in really handy at the end, when they basically save everyone else from dying - talk about perfect timing!
Meanwhile, while all of this is happening with Chloe, the rest of the team has successfully arrived in Zambia. They quickly find out first-hand that this place has a serious leopard problem. These leopards are more advanced and are working together as a team. They even have a strategy - random attacks to incite fear, almost like leopard terrorists. The team finds a whole bunch of bodies hanging up in a tree and it’s super gross. I still don’t understand why the leopards would be murdering people if they’re in a Reiden-free area. It can’t only be Reiden’s fault then, right? What caused these leopards to act like this if it wasn’t the Mother Cell? In order to capture one of the leopards they have to find one, so they decide to camp out for the night and it seems like a really bad idea…obviously it’s Jackson’s. Even though they are taking the typical precautions to ward off predators, these animals are smarter than they used to be, so of course this won’t work. I’m happy that Mitch decided to go with Jamie to the bathroom because I was really worried about her going alone. It’s funny how, at the beginning of the season, I hated the idea of Mitch and Jamie but I’m so all-in now. They used to be my least favorite characters and I could see what the writers were trying to do by putting them together and I was not into it. But, jumping ahead a bit, on the plane I was rooting for them and doing a happy dance when they finally kissed! I know in my last review I wasn’t a fan of the Chloe/Jackson relationship, but the difference between them is that I think Mitch is much more genuine than Jackson. I just haven't been able to emotionally connect with Jackson for some reason.
Anyways, as soon as Ray left the camp I knew something terrible would happen. I was prepared for him to be attacked but I was still shocked when the leopard jumped out at him. They all looked so surprised that this was happening but really what did they expect? Jackson, once again, on a whim, has a great idea to ditch their plan and go after the leopards, even though they’re now weaponless. Everyone tells him his plan is stupid but they go along with it anyways because I guess he’s their “leader”. Once they get to the leopard den, Abe and Jackson go to catch a leopard. If I were Jamie and Mitch, I’d be happy to get to stay in the van! My favorite part of this scene was Abe finally saying, flat out, what I’ve been thinking for weeks. Jackson is super reckless and it’s always his way or the highway. Having this conversation also allowed for a cute, brotherly moment later on in the show, where they got to make-up. They end up finding a baby leopard, which is convenient considering how much they end up having to carry it around everywhere! But, on a more serious note, that baby leopard is actually the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and it was definitely the star of this episode.
On their way back from the den, they get stopped by an African gang in dangerous territory, because the leopards sabotaged their original route home. It’s all very dramatic and Jamie gets taken from the van. Mitch tries to stop them which was great and just made me ship him and Jamie even more. The leopards end up attacking which allows for them all to escape but Jackson was shot in the confusion so they have to rush him to a hospital. The hospital is in total chaos, in fact, the whole town is, with lions, leopards, and alligators attacking humans. My biggest question is, how do these animals get around? How are they opening doors, etc. without opposable thumbs? While Jackson is getting last-minute, life-saving surgery and rescuing children from leopards immediately afterwards, Jamie and Mitch make the cure. However, they lost the mother cell in a leopard attack, so unfortunately the cure they have is all they have. They have one chance to fix this or else it’s over. This episode really delivered on the high-stakes! After their first dose of the cure didn’t work, they tried a new, even more dangerous method, delivering the cure orally, into the snapping jaws of the dog. Thankfully, it worked and before they all got eaten by leopards, they’re rescued by soldiers sent from the other team that Chloe is with. Everyone’s fine and on their way back home but something tells me they aren't out of the woods yet. They found the cure, but now what? How do they get it to every animal that has been affected? These are questions that will hopefully be answered in next week’s finale. But, before we can get to that, the team needs to survive whatever is attacking their plane in the closing seconds of this episode.
Overall, I loved these episodes and they’re my favorites by far! There was plenty of excitement and I was never bored. Everything seemed believable in the context of the story/established world so there was even limited eye rolling. My favorite parts of the episode were the character interactions, especially between Mitch/Jamie, Jackson/Abe, and Jamie/Baby leopard! Overall, this was a solid, great lead-up to the finale next week and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
What did you think of this double episode? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!
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!
