At camp Northern Light Kaya is facing an invasion from Zona - which has Kaya hiding with Nana the eternally silent and her son JZ and trying to figure out what Zona actually wants. She calls for help… and Citizen Z, Simon, answers
And she hits him in the head with a gun
She totally did it because she thought he was Zona and in no way was it a passive aggressive attack for him knocking her up and disappearing for 2 years. Simon points out he’s actually wearing a parka not a uniform. Kaya changes the subject
Kaya continues to be the incredible intense person we know and love - along with her and Simon just really have a powerful relationship. They’re also funny but not in the comical cartoonish Doc fashion.
Simone does explain his absence - and the death of Nana’s husband when the plane crashed and he had to walk home. And he’s still being chased by an immortal Mad Z (which also seems to be spookily intelligent and fixated on Simon) which Kaya explains to him since she’s been connected and heard lots of information on these much harder to kill zombies.
Together they navigate zona troops, zombies et al - they don’t manage to stop the Creepy Zona guy from copying lots of information from Camp Northern Light (which is a super secret spy base) but they did survive and Kaya decided to save Simon rather than stop the Zona bad guys because they’re in love and this relationship is definitely something of a gem on this show.
Warren and the team heave heard Kaya’s distress call and look to find some kind of transmitter so they can get in touch with Kaya and see what’s happening - while reflecting how helpless they feel being so far away
They go to a TV station which was heavily barricaded and try to use the transmitter
This is where this episode does something very different and kind of awesome. While they work through the TV station we also get cuts to when that TV station was operating with all the reporters, support staff etc al. It’s really smoothly done and the pacing and blending is excellent. More on point this this news station reports on a plane crash - and the first appearance of zombies; showing the reporters trying to interview survivors of the crash and bringing a bitten reporter back into the studio with obvious risk and disaster in coming.
We particularly see the story of Carly, the weather girl turned news anchor desperately trying to be a professional news anchor and survive as everything fell apart.
Warren & co work their way through the building and Mercy many of the zombies that we’d previously seen in the flashbacks as people which is slightly haunting. Until they reach the roof and find the lone, tragic zombie of Carly and that’s more than just slightly haunting, that’s full blown tragic
They contact Kaya and Citizen Z which is a wonderful reunion and reconnection for everyone - and learn about Zona and that the files they stole are called “Black Rainbow.” Which ominously matches Warren’s visions and pretty much serves as confirmation that they’re real
Z Nation the show which will give you ridiculous juggaloo zombies and then turn around and give us an episode like this. I don’t know if it’s just me - but I was actively rooting for Carly. In fact, full kudos to this episode - in that short space of mind introducing us to Carly, the weather girl who got her big break and was desperately, fiercely being a consummate professional right up to the end. I was all Team Carly and every time the gang turned a corridor cringing that here we may find her zombie. Until the roof - and despite the single episode that was such an utterly tragic moment. In a zombie apocalypse show, a program as silly as Z Nation managed to make the one off deaths of a bit character meaningful
And it managed to have that pathos in an episode full of Murphy and Doc clowning around and Kaya and Simon’s epic yet slightly comedic relationship. All while adding small but real bricks to the actual road forward in the metaplot and Warren’s visions.
