Ok, looking again at the opening spiel – when did the
narrative become “we have to save the animals!” rather than “animals be killing
us all?!”
Anyway, the gang is all moody after Dariela killed their
little monster man and Mitch continues to be an utter arsehole (best moment of
the episode, Abe finally calls Mitch out in epic terms. Abe remains awesome. By
far and away the most awesome character on the show.) Dariela snarls at
everyone but Chloe quickly steps in to prove who is Officially In Charge, damn
it. And I’d cheer her if it weren’t for the fact every decision Chloe has ever
made has been wrong wrong wrong. Most recent example being her utter insistence
that they don’t tell anyone that Jackson is infected with the evil death animal
plague.
Abe and Deriela also have a fling. And I’m both glad isn’t the glaring man out while at the same time more than a little tired by everyone having to couple off at all times.
The evil animals this time are… ants. Nasty electric
ants. Yes, electric ants. Electric ants that crawl inside people and
electrocute them. Electric ants that want to reach the particle accelerator in
Switzerland and cause massive explosions
As I said last episode, I’m more engaged by the animals
that are a little warped, rather than those that barely even resemble the
creatures they were before. Electric ants? Where one ant can electrocute someone
to death? Really?
The team naturally rallies and kills lots of ants and
saving the day before the particle accelerator does scary things. Perhaps more
important to the characters rather than the random animal weirdness of the week
is some level of co-operation between the group – with Mitch seeming to bury
the hatchet sufficiently with both Abe and Dariela to not snarl like a bad
tempered child every 5 seconds. Please let this continue because it’s beyond
tiresome!
While struggling against the ants, Mitch also realises
all the evil animals ignore Jackson. After which Jackson realises that Chloe
the wrong one is, indeed, wrong and he needs to tell Mitch the truth. Remember,
whatever Chloe says is wrong – always.
One of the casualties to the electric ant assassins (the
sentences this website makes me type!) is Eleanor, alas. Apparently by total
random coincidence and not to stop her exposing a conspiracy (uh-huh… actually
to doesn’t seem to be total random coincidence which is just sad. Either that
or the Noah plan supporters are secretly working for/with animal kind)
The conspiracy is led by General Davies, a big fan of the
Noah project who will do absolutely anything to implement it. Including
assassinating anyone who opposes it (or conveniently benefitting from electric
ant murder…). He even goes so far to shoot Eleanor’s assistant in order to
search him for her files – except those files have already been taken by
Jackson and the gang
What is on those files? The explosive evidence that the Noah project which Davies is such a fan of will not only kill lots of animals but also, *gasp* over 2 million people!
Wait… 2 million people?
Is that all? I’m not downplaying how big a number that is
– but if you slaughter animal kind you are literally destroying ecosystems, you
are annihilating agriculture – and that’s with animals that aren’t fighting
tooth and nail to kill you. Destroying the number of animals the Noah project
calls for will kill way way more than 2,000,000 people. You don’t need stolen
files and a computer model for this – you just need even a basic idea of how
ecosystems work. If anything it isn’t even a secret – it’s a propaganda piece that
radically DOWNPLAYS the damage of the plan.
Amazingly, I don’t find this revelation all that
shocking.
But Dariela witnessing the murder of Eleanor’s lackey
seems to cement her as a member of the team. Not a bad thing – so long as Mitch
can stop snarling at her and everyone else.
Meanwhile, Jaime still isn’t dead despite frostbite. She
is hilarious though – because when wandering through the wilderness she decides
a RIVER HAS MOVED rather than accept she’s reading a map wrong. I kid ye not.
That’s the ultimate stubborn refusal to ask for directions
Also the guy she’s hiking with turns out to have been
stalking her – claiming to be a pilot paid to claim her leopard which she doesn’t
have and isn’t that useful any more. That’s all a little irrelevant though
compared to her frostbitten toes…
I’m not sure how I feel about wall-to-wall conspiracy
theories – we’re three episodes in and it feels vaguely like Zoo doesn’t know what story to tell. Or
whatever story it wants to tell, it doesn’t want to tell the story of animals
rising against humanity which is how it started – it wants government conspiracy
and plagued zombie men and whacky powered animals. It feels almost like they’ve
lost faith in their premise.
