The worst thing about this week’s episode of Zoo is that I can’t immediately tell you about my favorite part, which may just be the funniest thing that’s happened on Zoo this season. I’ve got to explain a few things first. Like the fact that Mitch Morgan is currently a passenger in his own body, his mind overridden by Charles Duncan, a persona living on a tiny bio-drive in his brain. Or that Jamie has a device to wipe Duncan from Mitch’s mind, but left Duncan in control so he would do something less than moral for her. Just remember all of that for a minute, because there are some crises unfolding on Zoo Force One.
Two of them to be exact. First, Clem is going into convulsions following the tainted blood transfusion given to her by Sam Parker; Abe stabilizes her by giving her a dose of hybrid growth serum, which will accelerate the pregnancy. The other is the race to save Abigail Westbrook, which everyone not named Jackson Oz seems to think is a bad idea. But since she’s also a hybrid and might know things that can help them stop the Hybrid Apocalypse, Jackson talks Abe and Pop Morgan into the idea. They relent, but it’s going to set them back — they have to use the spinal-fluid samples they’ve gathered in order to save her. And that little evil favor Jamie asks of Duncan? It’s making sure that Westbrook dies. She wants to stop the bad guy but keep the Zoo Crew’s hands clean in the process, so she promises Duncan he can stay in control of Mitch Morgan’s body permanently if he does this for him. How … devious.
Duncan agrees, but he’s forced to more or less stabilize Westbrook anyway, because Abe and Pop Morgan are constantly assisting and they’d spot any sabotage attempt.
In Milwaukee, Dariela has settled into a new home with Isaac, only to be approached by Agent Grissom and asked to join the IADG. After a call with Abe that’s actually really sweet, she accepts and pretty much instantly heads over to IADG mission control, which means she’s now works with Logan. Honestly, that should’ve been a deal-breaker.
Anyway, now that she’s back in action, Dariela’s job is to help the IADG solve their hybrid nest problem. Logan, along with a crew of agents, have gone to work suppressing the spores so they can plant explosives and blow the nest, which is actually quite creepy looking and really well done. Good job, Zoo!
Back on Zoo Force One, Duncan manages to kill Abigail by swapping an anesthetic with epinephrine, causing Abe to accidentally overstimulate her heart and put her in cardiac arrest. She flatlines, which triggers a tiny transmitter chip implanted in her neck. That chip, in turn, starts to activate the beacons hidden in cities around the globe and make the hybrid nests to start to hatch — along with the hybrid egg Pop Morgan took from the snake den a few episodes back and stored in a trunk.
In Seoul, Agent Grissom wants to blow the nest but can’t, because Dariela tells him Jackson Oz is there with Logan, sneaking in to replace their hybrid spinal-fluid samples. You know, as you do. Anyway, with the eggs hatching and everyone freaking out, they get to a stairwell just in time to ride out the blast and all’s well there.
Now we get to talk about my favorite thing that’s happened this season. So remember that deal Jamie made with Duncan? She was fibbing. She had no intention of ever giving the bio-drive wiper to Duncan so he could destroy it. But Duncan anticipated a double cross, so he holds a scalpel to his own throat, threatening to do himself in if Jamie doesn’t give him the drive. At first, she gives it to him — and then triggers some floodlights to blind him and they fight. It’s a pretty standard TV fight, but then the most amazing thing happens. Remember that hybrid egg Pop Morgan put in a trunk? It hatches and out comes … a mini invisible snake. As Jamie knocks the bio-drive wiper out of Duncan’s hands, the snake appears in the room AND EATS IT WHOLE.
This show is so genius.
After a bit of manic searching, Jamie kills the snake, gets the device, and Pop Morgan uses it to bring his son back — but not before Duncan gives an ominous threat about what Abigail Westbrook had planned for them: that maybe her death was all part of the plan.
That warning turns out to be the biggest mic drop the show has done since its ten-year time jump, as Abigail Westbrook sits the hell up from the operating table, stabs Abe in the back, and shoots every single member of the Zoo Crew on her way off the plane, like the most nonchalant badass in the world. Jackson Oz, Abe Kenyatta, both Morgans, and Jamie Campbell are all left bleeding out on the floor. Things look pretty hopeless.
Then Clem wakes up from her stasis, extremely pregnant, all alone, and about to walk into a dang nightmare.
See you next week.
