After last season’s exciting cliffhanger, which left everyone face-to-face with a giant stampede of animals, I have been eagerly awaiting this premiere. I really enjoyed this episode and it kept me on the edge of my seat but I was left with more questions than ever! Everything just keeps getting crazier and crazier on this show. Although, there were some parts of this episode that were great and exciting, there were also a lot of parts that just left me in disbelief that they were actually happening and at times, things felt way too far-fetched even for this show.
The animal situation has actually gotten worse this season because the mutation has now jumped to the insects and possibly humans. The premiere picks up right where it left off with the animals cornering the team’s car in the street. Luckily, they’re able to get away but unfortunately then they get stuck in a big hornet swarm where we see a woman dying protecting her baby (this really set the tone for the rest of the episode). Within the first few minutes we also find out that Jackson is having some sort of strange reaction to the animal bite on his arm. It seems like the mutation is somehow affecting humans now because there’s something weird about Jackson’s blood. His blood changed from O-negative to something else and for some reason this possibly makes him immune to animals picking up his scent, as we saw when the tiger from the stampede sniffed around Jackson and then moved on without attacking. Throughout the episode it only becomes more clear that the mutation has spread to humans when they come across a weird man-creature that is being tracked by a scientist and a group of rangers.
During the premiere we were introduced to some new characters, including a scientist, Dr. Vickers, and the group of rangers assisting him in tracking a new “Phase 2” animal, which could be helpful in finding a cure. This team is tracking the creature through Patagonia and they are discovering some pretty disturbing things, including a lot of dead bodies. Almost the whole team is wiped out by this creature during a vicious attack which leaves only one ranger, Dariela Marzan, alive. Meanwhile, Chloe, Mitch, Abe, and Jackson all boarded a plane (it’s a great, huge plane but still, I would think after their last experience they would never want to be on any plane again!) to go and meet up with Dr. Vickers to learn about what he’s been tracking. However, when they get there they just find the slaughtered group, Dariela, and the injured creature. They decide to take the creature back to the plane to run some tests. Chloe and Jackson are pretty worried that he could be turning into the same thing as the creature because the man has the same scarring as Jackson has on his arm. Throughout their testing they determine the creature is a Red Cross doctor named Kovacs. It’s not all scientific testing for Mitch and Chloe though, they have a few scary encounters with Kovacs when he manages to escape and attack them on the plane but they’re able to outsmart and recapture him so they can resume their testing.
Dariela has to bury all her friends who died in the attack but soon something really creepy happens. One of the radios that was buried with her men is being activated so they have figure out what’s going on. When they get to the burial site, they see that these giant vultures are taking bodies and eating them, then flying high up above the clouds and regurgitating their acidic, toxic bile and blood which is causing a gross, red acid rain to fall. This is some next-level thinking from these animals and it’s also really disgusting. During this excursion, they also find out that there is a giant African Elephant that is going around biting and killing people. Jackson collects some of it’s blood to determine if the mutation has changed but in the process ends up getting in an elephant chase through the forest. Luckily, they manage to make it back to the plane where they make a pretty impressive mid-takeoff getaway. Using the elephant blood they are able to determine that there is something specific in Kovac’s genetic makeup that made the mutation effect him, which is hopefully good news for Jackson. They were going to study Kovacs more but then Dariela shoots him in the head. I can already tell this girl is going to be frustrating.
While all this was happening, and before, we got to check in with Jamie who basically had a completely separate storyline from everyone else. She’s still in Canada with the leopard and waiting for the rest of the team to come get her. We think that she’s in the clear but then all of a sudden the man who was helping her gets killed when the animals breach the fence that has been holding all this time. She stores the leopard in the basement and runs outside to draw the animals away so that the leopard can be picked up safely. I’m not really sure why she couldn't just stay there with the leopard, the team had weapons and probably could have managed to rescue them both - but I’ll let it go. Anyways, Jamie manages to outrun wolves, bears, and a bison in their own habitat and hides in a tree. Surprisingly, this actually works because I guess the animals can’t smell anymore…just kidding but seriously this whole survival in the wild part was so ridiculous and unbelievable. The team ends up having to leave her behind, which Mitch is devastated about. Jamie somehow survives and makes it back to the house, only to board everything up and then just leave…so I’m not really sure why she wasted all that time preparing the house. Now she’s stranded in the forest with all the crazy animals but luckily at the end of the episode she runs into a guy named Logan, who I guess is also stranded in the woods. He seems a little flirty so I’m kind of worried, but hopefully Jamie will be able to make it back to Mitch soon before she has a chance to fall for this new guy. The only good part to come out of this failed rescue attempt, is that Mitch is still so obsessed with Jamie. I loved seeing how much he fought for her and how much he cared. Hopefully they’ll be reunited soon!
I thought this episode was really exciting with all the creature attacks and animal chases, plus we got a lot of new information (although also a lot of new questions). However, I’m not completely on board with this man-creature, human mutation development. They’re kind of losing me with this. The rest of the animals aren’t deforming, and maybe the mutation expresses itself differently in humans, but it seems like they're just doing this in a desperate attempt to make things more shocking or interesting. It makes sense that the mutation would spread to humans, after all, we are just animals too, but why now? I forget if they explained last season why humans weren’t also effected right away but if not, that’s definitely something I want them to answer.
Zoo has always been the type of show where you have to seriously suspend your disbelief because otherwise it’s no fun to watch. I’m at the point where I basically just go with whatever happens and I don’t question things too much. However, sometimes these crazy unbelievable things can hurt the show. One of my biggest issues with Zoo, as a whole, is the number of unexplained convenient moments. They really seem to pick and choose when things are going to be realistic or not. For example, when the Rhino slammed their car just as tons of animals are chasing them, yet somehow the rest of the animals are blocks behind them when they need to abandon the car and escape on foot. Basically everything with Jamie also felt this way, with the fence all of a sudden not holding up and her outrunning the animals and hiding from them. Now that there’s this new super predator the whole show is starting to feel kind of zombie-ish. I’m not saying I don’t like it, I was just doing a lot more shaking my head than usual during this episode. They were throwing a lot at us though so that probably caused some developments to feel more overwhelming than they really were. Like I said before, this type of show is best to just enjoy and not think about too much and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
What did you think of this 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!
