So who was the clueless one who didn’t realise the last
episode of Zoo was a double episode? That would
be me. I thought it lasted longer than expected.
Anyway, last episode there was a plane crash which
everyone survived. That’s a surprisingly lucky plane crash. Even the baby
leopard cure survived. Did they land on a giant pile of mattresses?
Nope, they landed in the ocean. Near Canada. While flying
from Zambia to US. Via Canada
 |
| what they didn't drop in on Belgium on the way? |
Ok, maybe they got lost.
The whole gang does think Jaime is dead because she’s
been found by a First Nation’s Canadian who doesn’t speak English who she assumes
has kidnapped her when he’s actually saving her and nursing her back to health.
The rest of the gang is super depressed because they
think Jaime is dead and because everything is going terrible. Now they’ve got
the help of officialdom, they’ve also lost control. And officialdom has made a
deal with Reiden Global, basically letting them off the hook. The gang is not
happy. Jackson is quickly sidelined. Mitch climbs into a bottle, Abe gets a job
escorting people around the city. On Chloe remains in power
That note of Abe escorting people across the city – the animal
attacks are approaching dystopian levels. Crossing the city is a menace as
Jackson finds out going to buy some meds; to such a degree that Abe now works
for a company bodyguarding people across the city in the face of animal
attacks. Animals are being quarantined and the plan of the powers that be is
literally planning to wipe out ALL the animal kingdom and hoping to restore the
world’s devastated ecology by cloning cells they’ve taken samples of
They’re literally planning to destroy the world and
humanity. I just can’t even imagine anyone would think this is a good idea. But
the source of the cure in devastated Zambia is gone and they know no way of
distributing it either
More interesting twists – people are turning to
vegetarianism because Rage Cows are not something anyone wants to eat. And
there are underground cat fancier clubs (what, cats hate you now? You have
clearly never been owned by a cat).
Everything is awful. Everyone is sad.
But after some inspirational moment, the deeply depressed
Abe steps up and does what he does best – dragging everyone back into the fray
just as Jaime gets a satellite phone to tell them she’s alive and so is the
leopard cub cure! Just as Jackson has an inspiration moment about how to spread
the cure! Time to reunite and make everything better
Except there’s a wall of angry animals stopping them –
and preparing to eat/squish/maul them.
And lo finale.
Ok the next season promises to be a full on dystopia –
and I generally like the story and characters a lot once it finally went out of
its way to explain their bizarre secrecy plot line. I am actually looking
forward to the next season
But I do have issues
On this episode we had 2 disabled characters introduced –
Jackson’s neighbour (who Jackson went for medicine for) and a man dying from
cancer who inspires Abe to get back into the game. I’m happy to see disabled
characters but both feel like they’re there for… inspiration. Which is a
fraught concept.
Which also brings me to Abe. I’m torn with Abe – because Abe
is awesome. He’s strong, he’s deeply moral, he’s thoughtful, he’s tough without
being dangerous, he’s kind without being weak, he has a deeply poignant and
passionate history. He has a number of skills. He is the rock of this group. He
is the heart of this group. He is the group that makes the whole team stay
together. I love Abe. Abe is by far the best character on this show. But Abe’s
concept is one that centres around inspiring others, supporting others and
helping others: He’s amazing at it, but he’s, above everything else, a
caregiver to the white characters (sure he’s a lot more than that. It’s also
interesting to see a man so physically imposing as Abe be such an utterly
gentle character). There’s also an ongoing depiction of Africa in this show as,
well, a war torn wasteland. Abe’s poignant and painful past rests on this. The
way we see the police in Botswana and the way Zambia is presented (overwhelmed
with animals we still have militias) and the gang deciding they had to take
technology to Zambia (or “Africa”) even if it meant delaying their escape
I love Abe, I love everything he does but there are…
issues which aren’t objectively terrible but are troubling when we consider the
tropes that dog POC, especially as he is the only recurring POC except for the
evil-then-not Delavene
In terms of the worst treated character, I am frankly
annoyed by the portrayal of Chloe. She was the leader of that group. She was
the one with the resources and expertise. This was her role. Like a well
balanced Dungeons and Dragons group, a group cast has everyone having different
roles and skills that complement the group. Chloe is the Cleric who can no
longer use divine magic (it’s possible this analogy is waaaay geekier than I
imagined). She’s now out on a limb with little real role – worse: her skills
have been completely undermined from the moment it was revealed that they were
Reiden’s puppets. All her skills have been pretty much shredded and degraded.
What is she now other than a love interest with a gun?
Speaking of that – was it necessary to have all four of the white cishet characters hook up? Really, was it that essential? When we consider that Abe is conspicuous as the only character who didn’t and that the only LGBTQ characters was a pair of lesbians who were introduced in the same episode they ended up dying. And they were singled out for death by bats that literally embraced their death by crossing to Antarctica to bring them down. Those bats hate lesbians more than a CW writer.
