Review: Z Nation Season Finale...and Beyond

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Well, the ending of Z Nation certainly didn't hold anything back. The introduction of a human "big bad" who was most likely the father of the zombie pandemic, further de-evolution of Murphy, the death of Cassandra (probably?) and, of course, lots of freaking nuclear warheads. It left many viewers wondering...where do you go from here? It's kind of like if there had been a season six of Angel. How do you explain away a situation that would seemingly have to kill almost everyone in the show? It's a big question and it presents a big challenge to SyFy, one that they could either really nail or totally screw up.

Although the situation seems pretty futile, I have some ideas for how they could go on with the narrative.

Idea #1: Only Murphy Left Alive

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Murphy is the only person from the show that could even plausibly have escaped the blast zone if, in fact, the nukes do detonate. If they follow through with that idea, then he could hypothetically find a new group of survivors or the next season could be a lot of him exploring his role as "king of the zombies". I would applaud the idea in some sense because I really am a fan of the realness of the narrative in which lots of people die because, you know, it's the freaking apocalypse. Also, Murphy is the best character, so keeping him alive would give the show the opportunity to create new characters that match his level of intensity. I would especially miss Citizen Z if they did this, though. Citizen Z is a good tool for the writers to be able to see the scale of the zombie plague and comment on larger themes about humanity (aka: Citizen Z's reaction to the nuclear launch: "What is wrong with us?"). It would be a daring turn that might lose a lot of fans for them though. Not sure if they are willing to take that chance. Also, I'm really worried about how Murphy is going to look sans skin. I'm just not sure they're going to be able to pull that off without it just looking hecka silly. They've done very well with his makeup effects thus far though, so hopefully that's a baseless concern.

Idea #2: Hackers Save The Day

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In episode 9, Citizen Z thought he was being hacked by someone else. At the time, I attributed this to the fact that he was suffering from oxygen deprivation and was clearly experiencing some powerful hallucinations. But...what if that part was real? If he was, in fact, being hacked, that means there's another facility out there with the same (maybe even better) capabilities as Citizen Z. That person could potentially scramble the nuclear warheads, causing them to veer off of their targets and detonate somewhere that would cause less damage (the upper atmosphere, unoccupied tundra in Canada, the desert, etc). That could really set season 2 up for some interesting conflict for Citizen Z, who is also one of my favorite characters. How does he deal with the idea of not being the only one watching, the only one in charge? How might he like it when his privacy is in jeopardy just like all the other people that he watches, hacks, and follows? That would provide an excellent opportunity for theme and plot, so it might be interesting to go that route.

Idea #3: Citizen Z Saves The Day
This one is probably the least likely since he seemed to flee his computer console pretty quickly, but what if there was a scene that we didn't see where he scrambled the warheads just like in my last idea? Again, there's not much in the episode to support this claim, but I did keep wondering why, if he's such a computer genius, he didn't at least try, especially once his life was at stake.

Additionally, there are some other elements of the finale that are worth examining. First, how/why is Mack still alive? I thought he got shot. If he didn't get shot, what the heck is he doing? His reason for leaving the group was to stay with Addy, but he doesn't seem to actually be in the compound or attempting to get in. Given, we only see him for a second, but I was a little disappointed to see him alive, not because I don't like him, but because it seems to take some of the impact out of the earlier episode.

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Also, there's the issue of Cassandra's transformation. I'm not 100% clear on what Murphy's bite does, but we seem to have a little bit of contradiction on that matter based on the handful of examples the show has given us. At the very least, we know it puts them under Murphy's control. But with Cassandra, it also seemed to turn her into a mini-Murphy, but also into the hotter, cheaper version of River Tam from Firefly. If she basically becomes like Murphy though, is there a chance that even a nuclear explosion at the facility wouldn't kill her? After all, think about Murphy 1.0 (aka: that rotting pile of yuck draped over the lab counter). Seemingly nothing except a headshot can kill Murphy's breed (which, on a side note, I'm salty about because that's one of the details of a YA zombie fiction piece I'm working on). If that's the case, could we see Cassandra down the line, walking around the planet killing doctors in the name of Messiah Murphy?

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And, sadly, we have to discuss Doc. Now, I know that SyFy is very good at explaining away logic, but the man took a bullet to the chest. That often equates to death, even in a world with emergency rooms, surgeons, anesthesia, and antibiotics. In the world of the dead, not only do you not have medical attention, but you also have nowhere to rest or recover. That can lead to things like infection and a weakened immune system, even if they are somehow able to keep his organs functioning and stop the bleeding. If the show goes on and the nukes don't kill everyone, my guess is that he'll live, but I'm already side-eyeing it. Not because I don't love Doc (I do), but because it's just a little ridiculous. Kind of like Carl getting half his face blown off without dying or suffering severe brain damage...but hey, another comment for another day.

Whatever the writers decide to do going forward with the narrative, they'll certainly have to do something because season 2 of Z Nation is greenlit and has been since October. That means they've had time to plan ahead and are probably already working on the next step in the journey. Knowing SyFy, we probably won't find out until Fall 2015, but I'll certainly be tuning in. Will you?