Monday, December 17, 2018

Z Nation: Season 5, Episode 11: Hackerville






Time to follow this nonsensical storyline further - they need to bypass Altura’s security so they have gone to Hackersville, an old telephone switching centre which is now occupied with Hackers who have been hacking into Altura’s systems. At one point we even see people using mobile phones

To which I have to ask… how?! Why? For most of this series people have been hard pressed to even find electricity - and a radio mast is something unique and special. The whole power of Citizen Z was that he still had the technology to speak to the world. So where did this all come from?

And why does Altura even have public network? How are the Hackers attacking this? Why does Altura have a network that isn’t self-contained? Given that outposts are pretty self sufficient in this new world, why would it have any kind of open internet which the hackers can access? And why would they connect their CCTV to it? My own firm doesn’t link their CCTV to the internet! Why is Altura? Why can Altura connect to the internet?

But hey let’s not let common sense get in the way of a plot. So they go see the Hackers and shenanigans ensue. There’s a series of geeky clues to get in which is solved by George kicking down the door. The head of the hackers can be a little awkward but Warren keeps pointing a gun at him. Because she has no time for arguments. Also Citizen Z is super protective of Kaya and it’s nice to see the power of their love… but at the same time there’s way too much jealousy about it all

There’s a brief attack by zombies and some nifty drones hunting them down which everyone loves except Warren who has no time for these nonsenses.

Between them they do guide Kaya through Altura and past the security to find Estes’s laptop. There they find about his plan for “The Final Mercy” which has some unpleasant words about elimination. This is not good.


Estes himself is away because he’s tracked the missing Talkers to Limbo where he confronts Murphy and the others about the Talkers they’re hiding. They try to hide them with Murphy both pretending to be co-operative while at the same time making it clear that he hates Estes and everything he stands for. Despite their best efforts they cannot hide the Talkers because Estes is entirely awful and uses a lost child for leverage. And Murphy shows he’s still a decent guy despite pretending not to be and insists on going with the Talkers.

And he may be the key to saving them all though… As Sun Mei continues to try find a way to stop the Talkers craving brains. She is testing more and more blood samples and she has a match… to Murphy. Which is a problem because there’s so much weird stuff in Murphy’s blood she has no chance to isolate it.

But we see how it could be effective when a new Talker, who died from an infection, is brought in by Red. She wants Sun to find some way to help since they have no biscuits and no other choice than to kill her. So they use Murphy’s blood as a last resort…

… and it works. Ish. Murphy’s blood makes her more human, meaning she doesn’t crave brains. But she then becomes vulnerable to the virus that is killing her, she dies again… and craves brains. And Murphy’s blood kicks in again for her to live and die and live and die and live and die over and over again. It’s a truly horrific fate and Sun Mei is left with no choice but to Mercy her. Which is somewhat bleak