• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Z Nation - Psychotronic Season 5!

RJDiogenes

RJDiogenes

Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion
Premium Member
I couldn't find a new thread, but the search utility has trouble with the term Z Nation, so sorry if this is a dupe.

Well, we've got at least one new regular and maybe two, so I don't think there's much hope of Red and Addie ever showing up again. Also no sign of Citizen Z and Kaya. 10k and Sarge didn't have much to do in the premiere, with Doc and Murphy only doing a little bit better. Basically, the premiere was Warren's story, as she was nursed back to health and began a romance with a sexy farmer-- who just happened to be keeping his Z'd wife and daughter in the car, sort of like Hershel on Walking Dead, although not to that extent. Warren convinced him to mercy them and the resulting funeral pyre gave Murphy his final clue as to her whereabouts. Apparently, where there's smoke, there's Warren.

Murphy is still red. He can no longer speak to or control Zs, but he can gain their memories by eating their brains. And in this episode, he seems to have mellowed a bit compared to his old self.

But the biggest change so far this year is the effect that the Black Rain had on the Zs. Now, in addition to the walking ones and the fast ones and the radioactive ones and the unkillable ones, we've got talkers-- Zs who are dead but retain their human personalities. At least for a while. The implication is that they eventually devolve into regular mindless Zs if they don't get their "Z Biscuits." It's not just the Zombie Apocalypse, it's also the Pun Apocalypse.

As for Newmerica, it doesn't actually exist yet. There's just a bunch of independent communities, probably thirteen of them, who are about to vote on whether to become Newmerica at the encouragement of the coincidentally-named George. But they make a big deal how anyone can become a citizen, even if you're dead-- so take that Right Wingers. :rommie:
 
I was surprised with how traditional this episode was compared to the normal Z Nation zaniness. This could almost pass for an episode of one of the Walking Dead series.

I think Warren could do worse than Mario Van Peebles in the Zpocalypse. He still looks pretty damned good and are those his duds from Posse?

Supposedly a producer has said we will see Addy this season but whether that's only a quicky cameo or something substantial, who knows? She was in some web series called Syn and there's a listing on Amazon Prime but it's not available to watch and there is a trailer on Youtube and almost zero other mention on the web. Both her and the cast and crew have been pretty mum about her official status on the show however her twitter seems promising: https://twitter.com/annyawesome. :) EDIT: Just noticed Addy and Citizen Z are on the Season 5 promo art so hopefully they're coming.
 
Ah, Mario van Peebles. I thought that guy looked familiar.

Nice to know there's a little hope for Addy and Citizen Z....
 
Another respectable episode. I think I prefer trashy Z Nation to unremarkable respectable episodes.

We do get the return of Red, Citizen Z and Sun Mei but the whole thing has a somber end of summer feeling which I'm hoping gets shaken off sometime this season. Even Mario Van Peebles was sort of like a little summer fling.
 
Yes, much to my surprise, Red has returned! And, after a little bit of a "red" herring, she and 10k have been reunited. I can't believe we got a little bit of a happy ending there. And Citizen Z is hanging around, too, acting as a reporter or vlogger or whatever there is in the Zombie Apocalypse. No real explanation of what he's doing there. It seems to me that the last time we saw him and Kaya and the kid they were all still up at Northern Lights, but I may have forgotten something. It was also nice to see that Sun Mei has survived. I'm not sure if she's going to be a regular or not-- it kind of felt like she was just getting an appearance as a gesture to the fans to show that she was okay, but I hope we see more of her.

Unfortunately, Warren did not get the happy ending that 10k and Citizen Z got-- her guy was contemplating killing Murphy to preserve their love nest, so he ended up in the trunk of the car with multiple Zs swarming him. I'm not sure if that's the end of him, or if he'll turn up in Newmerica plotting revenge.

Speaking of Newmerica, not everybody has adopted George's all-for-one attitude. There is some divisiveness going on between the humans and the Talking Zs, and one Talker in particular named Pandora, who wears a creepy half mask, probably to disguise some disfigurement, seems to be plotting against George. The bomb that went off at the very end would seem to support that theory.

But with Warren and Murphy in Newmerica, all of our current band are now reunited. All we need now is Addy (and hopefully Kaya will be seen at some point as well).
 
Oh, come on! We just get Red back and we lose Sarge. And 10k lost his right hand. So much for hissharpshooter skills. Why must they do this to characters?

And so much for Newmerica, too. Looks like that guyfrom Zona is not so benign after all, as wasforeshadowed. The country is barely confirmed, if the vote even counts now, and he's declared martial law.

And Murphy made a run for it, which is right incharacter. And he's got some of his Blend apostles back. And Limbo? What's that all about?

I hope this show doesn't end on a down note after all this.
 
That was pretty shocking for me... Sarge barely got time in and now she is gone. Hope that is because she had another gig.

yeah...this definitely feels like final season.

Any other characters that could show up again (and possibly die)?

Oh..i am also wondering about Kaya and the baby... any timeline out there (not that this series takes it too seriously)
 
It seems like it was a few weeks, or a couple of months between the time Warren crashed and when Murphy found her. Long enough for Citizen Z to get from Northern Lights to Pacifica and then to Newmerica-- I think he said Kaya and the baby were waiting for him back in Pacifica.
 
The political allegory is pretty heavy handed this season, but we live in pretty trying times so I've got some admiration for them-- George Romero would certainly approve. Using the Talkers as a metaphor for the social underdogs of the world, just like mutants in X-Men, though, is kind of an imperfect approach-- because, while one group of people in the real world is no different from another, Talkers and mutants do represent a legitimate threat. Still, the point is valid.

Poor 10K really got the shaft in the last couple of episodes. Will he still be able to shoot with a prosthetic hand? If not-- or even if so-- how will it change him?

But I was happy to see Kaya and the baby show up. No sign of Murphy, though. I'm sure whatever's happening in Limbo won't be good news. That's Murphy's Law.

And now somebody is bombing the crap out of Pacifica. That was almost prophetic, given the events of the past week.
 
Well, this episode mostly detailed the aftermath of the multiple bombings of Newmerica, culminating with the partial exodus of the human survivors to Altura-- who are not nice people and probably had a hand in the attacks. Things are pretty much at a low point for the dream of building a new society based on American principles, but everybody is forcing themselves to go on, more out of stubbornness than real hope at this point.

Citizen Z, Kaya, Nana, and the kid all survived the attacks, but have relocated to Altura at Warren's insistence-- partly to be safe and partly to be the inside eyes and ears for Newmerica. Somebody set up the bombings by creating Suicide Zs, old-school Zombies with explosive devices strapped on, and they need to find out who, where, and why. 10k, in his morose wanderings, may have stumbled upon some of those terrorists when he found some people herding Zs and turning them into a Zombie Ball. How long has it been since we've seen a Zombie Ball?

Doc got a couple of nice moments in this episode. First, he encountered an unexploded Suicide Z and lured it to an elevator shaft where it could blow up fairly harmlessly. Then, in an inspirational moment, he gave George a pocket-sized copy of the US Constitution-- and made explicit the coincidence of her name.

This episode was mostly the chaos of people dying, rising from the dead, and dying again, so there are still a bunch of mysteries yet to be explained, including Dante's involvement in all this, if any.
 
Well, I finally got my wish and Addy has returned, but it was not the heartwarming reunion that I expected. The last time we saw her, she was headed for Newmerica and promised to meet up with Lucy there. She apparently got to Newmerica, but is taking no part in it, and pretty much abandoned any thoughts of reuniting with the gang. Furthermore, her current occupation of running an underground railroad for Talkers brought her into conflict with Warren and George, since she is sheltering Dante-- who is apparently taking his vocation as a Zombie seriously, since he literally rose from the ground when she brought them to him. Still, I'm happy she's back to bring some closure to the character in what is probably the final run of episodes.

Murphy is also back after being absent for an episode or two, and was reunited with Doc-- it's always fun to watch their shenanigans. Limbo is definitely Murphy's perfect place. And poor Doc was down to his last sock trying to save it for him. :rommie: And what is up with that stripper who was making googly eyes at Doc? Is she a mole from Altura or something? I can't imagine that's going to go well for him.

Speaking of Altura, their good squad stormed Limbo, took Dante, and killed his wife. I don't think there's any doubt that they are the Newrussia to Newmerica and want to be the only power in the area, without any competition. They are behind the bombings and executions and other disruptions, and I don't think Dante has anything to look forward to outside of a firing squad.
 
So this episode was largely concerned with Doc teaching George about the American Revolution and the Constitution, which is something that is largely misrepresented in these Millennial Days, so I was looking forward to it with a little trepidation-- it was not as bad as I feared, or as good as I'd hoped. But I liked it.

Doc's stoned version of history was actually really funny. It reminded me vaguely of a story in F&SF a few years ago, where iconic elements from various eras in American History got conflated into a jumbled mythology in some far future era-- the same way we do with myths from ancient civilizations.

That being said, I feel compelled to expound on things a bit, since the version of the story that Doc presented is the one that is popular today-- i.e. that the Founding Fathers were fine with slavery and did not care to take a stand on the subject. I'll note first that I am a history buff, with special emphasis on the American Revolution and the Colonial Era leading up to the American Revolution. I admire (most of) the Founding Fathers, and Thomas Jefferson in particular is a hero of mine. The hate for the Founding Fathers in the current generation really gets me down.

The truth of the matter is that the Founding Fathers did indeed take a stand on slavery, and the abolition of slavery was part of the concept of the Revolution from the start. In the Declaration of Independence (as written by Thomas Jefferson), slavery was denounced and blamed on King George-- this part was edited out in committee, so was not part of the final Declaration. You can find annotated versions online. They basically took out slavery and added God. Anyway, this was a prelude to the problems that followed. When it came to creating the Constitution, it needed to be ratified by a majority of the States-- and the Southern States would not ratify anything that did not include slavery. Basically, without that compromise, the United States would not exist. This is dramatized very nicely in the musical 1776, if you like musicals.

A bit of digression about Jefferson himself: Although he is a bit of a mystery and some of his actions are inexplicable even to me (e.g., his slaves were free to go, and some did, but he never formally freed them, which caused some of them serious problems after his death), he was a strong opponent of slavery. His first action upon being elected to office in Virginia was to propose the abolition of slavery-- he was loudly shouted down and learned that he had to play the long game. When he was elected president, he was able to outlaw the slave trade, but all that did at that point is put a few slavers out of business, since slaves are kind of a self-renewing resource. Also, his partner for most of his life was a woman named Sally Hemings, who was ostensibly his slave, but really the love of his life, though they had to keep it in the closet-- his political enemies tried to use this to destroy him with accusations of miscegenation, which is the word bigots use for "mixing the races." They were right, of course, but it didn't work. (I can also add that the love of my life was Black, too, which makes me relate to Jefferson even more.)

In short, the Founding Fathers were indeed brilliant men, intellectual and philosophical products of the liberal Renaissance that followed the Dark Ages, and from that came the ideas that created America-- but they still had to live with the realities of their time, just like we do, and some of their decisions seem wrong to us, because they are indeed wrong by the standards of our time. But our time is what it is because of what these guys gave us, so I always give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, despite the show's little lapse in historical accuracy and their mandatory blaming of White men for everything, I loved the episode. I loved the dramatization of the Founding Fathers, I loved Doc and George bonding on their stoned road trip, I loved the Mackenzie Brothers and their mom, and... I was befuddled by Warren's statement to Murphy. Where's that gonna go? I mean, I know these guys are bonded, but-- uh, wow?
 
So what was George's major in college? It seemed strange that she was so clueless about the constitution, yet was running for office and seemed to be really understanding the fundementals of democratic government.
 
I'm getting close to caught up and it seems as I mentioned before the show is being semi-respectable these days and I'm missing a bit of that psychotronic component. Doctor Who is kind of doing that as well. It seems really different from the zanier (Z-anier?) comic book stuff that came before. (Might be me as I've been kind of just disinterested in TV for a bit, my DVR has never been so full... I think I've been wanting more out there escapism than is reasonable to expect) It sounds like the last couple may be interesting from a sociopolitical aspect though.

Did 10K lose his shooting hand? If not, I could see still being able to use the other one to steady the rifle and not be too compromised with time.

Or start pistol shooting?
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Morpheus 02 said:
So what was George's major in college? It seemed strange that she was so clueless about the constitution, yet was running for office and seemed to be really understanding the fundementals of democratic government.
Click to expand...
I don't think they've said, or what year she was in. She just seems to have vague, learned-it-from-a-blog knowledge.

Mr. Adventure said:
I'm getting close to caught up and it seems as I mentioned before the show is being semi-respectable these days and I'm missing a bit of that psychotronic component. Doctor Who is kind of doing that as well. It seems really different from the zanier (Z-anier?) comic book stuff that came before. (Might be me as I've been kind of just disinterested in TV for a bit, my DVR has never been so full... I think I've been wanting more out there escapism than is reasonable to expect) It sounds like the last couple may be interesting from a sociopolitical aspect though.
Click to expand...
It's not just you. It's definitely less psychotronic and more sociopolitical this year (much of it aptly timed). But it's still there to a degree, as the Zombie Ball and Doc's Stoned History Lecture attest.

Did 10K lose his shooting hand? If not, I could see still being able to use the other one to steady the rifle and not be too compromised with time.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's his shooting hand, but he seems to be trying to adapt-- like those maneuvers he pulled off with Addy in the latest episode.
 
Cool. Which episode? I don't normally watch that show (I've only seen the Woodstock episode so far).
 
"We were nowhere near the Grand Canyon." I love it. :guffaw:

Well, this was interesting. I'm a little worried that 10k might end up as a Talker, but I'm also remembering that he was bitten by Murphy. How will that effect him in the post-Black Rain world? I'm thinking that he'll either die and turn into a Talker or grow his hand back.

I'm also wondering about Mask Lady. I've been assuming that she's a Talker, but it's possible that she's actually a human. Hard to say, since she seems to have a stash of biscuits.

Charlie was a very sad and touching character, despite having the worst makeup prosthetic in the history of TV and movies. And "Daisy" was a nice touch. He didn't just give his life to help the Talkers, but he gave his life and and his mind, slowly and painfully, like a degenerative disease. It's too bad that we didn't get to meet him sooner or see some flashbacks about him, so that we could have known him before he was compromised.

And Addie, meanwhile, has an activist boyfriend, who is now a Talker. I wonder if Addie will end up a Talker herself.

Next up: More Native Americans of the Zombie Apocalypse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top