Mercy has been a gift the team has dispensed throughout their journey and mercy has been given too many familiar faces, but the one who received mercy in this episode was by far the hardest to lose. A lot happened in this episode and no one will ever be the same again. Before I go much farther it’s obvious by now that I’m not your normal Z Nation reviewer. Kollin was unable to review this episode and asked me to cover it for him which I was more than happy to do. He will return to you next week with his usual insightful and beautifully articulate reviews.
I can’t go into this review without first talking about that creepy zombie baby. I’ve watched SyFy since its beginnings way back in 1992 as SciFi and in those years I’ve seen a lot of crazy, weird, and wacky things on this network, but creepy zombie baby catapulted itself to the top of the list of the weirdest yet coolest things ever to appear on the network. It tops shark tornadoes and hybrid creatures with ease. Major respect to the visual effects and props team behind this show for making such a creepily awesome design to bring Lucy to life…err unlife?
Speaking of Lucy, I found the opening scene hilarious as Doc, Addy, and Warren played hot potato with Lucy. It was an epic sequence and showed just how far this group is willing to go to protect her. Granted I feel as though Warren would mercy Lucy if she becomes a threat, but I also believe it was a bit premature for Murphy to start viewing them as a threat to his daughter. Addy was definitely not on board with the idea of allowing any harm to come to Lucy even if she isn’t exactly human. That child can’t be held responsible for her genetics. With that said I think it is only a matter of time before she undergoes the typical scifi genre rapid aging syndrome where she is suddenly an adult and a threat to our heroes. Especially since Murphy ditched her with that very nice, but very gullible couple. It is only a matter of time before teenage Lucy shows up and causes chaos for her dad and the human race in general.
This show is good at managing a relatively large ensemble cast and I really enjoy it when the team is united, but I think the show is at its best when the team is divided up. That happened in this episode as three distinct stories ran through this episode. Warren and the very untrustworthy Vasquez trying to survive being shot, Murphy finding Lucy a safe home, and the others trying to deal with Cassandra who is acting as their guard. Each story flowed so well and helped propel the overall story forward.
I’ve not liked Vasquez since he appeared and nothing has yet to change my mind about him. Warren should have done everyone a favor and just let those guys take him out. Instead she took a bullet for him and once again fought alongside him as they fought to get out of the hospital alive. I applaud Warren for not trusting his story about his wife and child. It was a horrible story and if true it would explain a lot about his character, but I have a hard time believing anything he says at this point. I know the team needs an extra set of muscles to survive, but they can do better than Vasquez. I hope he proves me wrong and turns out to be a good guy, but I fully expect him to screw the team over at some point. Only time will tell if he is a good guy or not.
You know it’s the apocalypse when Murphy can be considered a good dad. He was misguided in leaving the others, but he did do it with the best of intentions as he tried to find Lucy a safe home. It broke his heart, and yes apparently Murphy does have one hiding under that blue colored chest of his, but he did it to give his daughter a good life. As I touched on above this move is likely to come back and bite them all in the butts, but at least he was trying to do right by her. The sacrifice gave Keith Allan a beautiful scene to show how extensive his acting range is. It was a powerful moment when Murphy handed Lucy to the couple and for that short moment it was easy to forget the stakes and just witness the perfection of him acting out the heartache of a father having to give up his child. If I were that family Murphy left Lucy with I wouldn’t expect to survive past Lucy’s first growth spurt. Even with his bite making them compliant I highly doubt they will be spared when Lucy comes of age.
I’ve put off addressing the Cassandra story in hopes of living in denial just a little bit longer. Cassandra was paired up with the people she had the closest bonds with. Doc risked himself more than a few times for her, Addy became a dear friend and confidant to her, and 10k held a big place in Cassandra’s human heart. Doc and Addy didn’t want to give up on her, but 10k had already accepted the obvious fact that Cassandra was already gone. I believe some part of the old Cassandra was desperately trying to hold on through the fog of the transformation. She could have so easily broken Addy’s arm or even killed her, but she showed some level of restraint. What little humanity was left in her realized Addy was her friend and she couldn’t bring permanent harm to her. When 10k was talking to her there were brief moments of clarity in her eyes. I believe under the right circumstances they could have retrieved her from the zombie infected void she was lost in. That is why watching 10k mercy kill her was all the more heartbreaking. She wasn’t a full on zombie nor was she human any longer. The performances delivered by Pisay Pao and Nat Zang were truly heartbreaking as each expertly led their character to a crossroads of life or death. One thing is for sure, after this 10k will never be the same again. He gave Cassandra mercy at the cost of his own peace. I believe we’ll see a very different 10k going forward after this event.
The burial was equally as heartbreaking for the other characters as they realized Cassandra was lost to them. Nat continued to break hearts as 10k accepted what he did and Anastasia Baranova swept in at the end and guided Addy through another painful loss. First she lost Mack and now Cassandra and the pain of this loss played equally as heartbreaking as did the loss of Mack. The whole cast were phenomenal in this sequence with even Murphy showing the impact losing Cassandra had on him. This was an emotional episode for Murphy and Keith did an incredible job showing the humanity within the sarcastic hybrid Murphy.
We may have witnessed Cassandra’s mercy killing, but is anyone else skeptical about it sticking? The show made it a point to make sure the audience knew that she was no longer human and not exactly fully zombie. Perhaps the rules of how to kill a zombie are different for her? This may be the denial talking, but some small part of me believes we may see her again one day. When we least expect it a very much alive Cassandra will reappear in the most unexpected way and present yet another challenge for the team. If that ever happens would they welcome her back? For that matter would she want to be welcomed back into the group which consists of the man who killed her? Would her human love for 10k be enough to overcome what he did? Yes, I’m aware this is all pure fantasy since she’s likely gone for good, but if it does happen I’ll be overjoyed. Pisay owned this part and she has a bright future ahead of her whether it is on this show or another. If this is indeed the swan song for Cassandra I hope to see Pisay land another series regular role very soon because she has a gift that any show would be lucky to employ.
This episode served as a great launch point for the back half of the season. The stakes are higher than ever and only time will tell what else the apocalypse has to throw at the team. They are down by one and the possible queen of zombies is out of their custody, so things are about to get very interesting.
Don’t miss the next episode of
Z Nation at 10/9c on SyFy next Friday.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Will you miss Cassandra? Do you think she is gone for good? Do you trust Vasquez and his story about his family? Will Lucy grow up to cause trouble for the team?
About the Author - Aimee Hicks
Aimee works for a local newspaper and has a BA in Broadcasting and Cinema. She has been a TV lover since before she really understood what TV was. She has a long list of shows that she loves to watch and can be found on twitter (@ahicks83) live tweeting about each new episode whenever she can. A list of her favorite shows includes (but is not limited to) the following: 12 Monkeys, Orphan Black, Outlander, Chasing Life, Scorpion, The 100, The Night Shift, Bitten, Black Sails, 2 Broke Girls, Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Continuum, Lost Girl, Faking It, Falling Skies, Finding Carter, Once Upon A Time, Orange Is The New Black, Switched At Birth, The Fosters, The Flash, The Originals, Teen Wolf, Under The Dome, & Z Nation. The upcoming shows she is most excited about are: Supergirl, Dark Matter, UnReal, Blindspot, Lucifer, Legends of Tomorrow, Stitchers, Recovery Road, Shadowhunters, Quantico, Code Black, Heartbreaker, and Chicago Med. She has a large and passionate dislike of ""reality"" TV, especially ""reality"" dating shows, but has a weakness for Americas Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance. But those two don't really count as ""reality"" shows, at least that's how she justifies those guilty pleasures. She was the original creator and co-founder of LOST Video Island (lostvideo.net) which is still operating under the management of the very capable and skilled group she turned it over to.
You can email her at aimee@spoilertv.com.
