Z Nation: The Murphy Recap

Synopsis for 2×1: Everyone lives (for now)! The team gets reunited, but a broadcast by Citizen Z causes more harm than good by offering what people want most – a cure.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Picking up mere minutes after the season finale, we find out what happened to the gang in the wake of the defensive missile launch. Murphy clearly survived, while Warren, Doc, and 10K survived by driving as far away as possible and using a tunnel to shelter themselves from the blast. Cassandra, already changed, survived the blast relatively unscathed, but the bad Doctor Kurian was literally nuked in the fridge (take that Crystal Skull!). Citizen Z got the worst deal, though Camp Northern Light had defended itself, the blast uncovered his previously fallen – and frozen – soldiers to attack. In a last ditch effort, he sends out word about Murphy to the world and lies about the CDC offering a reward and the cure for his safe delivery.

Mack and Addy reunite after Addy explains that one of the boys that the Sisters of Mercy had banished burned down the complex and let loose the zombie bear in retaliation. They were all dead now and Addy didn’t have many more options than to leave with Mack. In the same area, we see Pie Girl, heavily pregnant, with probably a zombaby in her stomach…

On a shopping spree, Murphy demonstrates his command of the undead as he piles them high with clothing while they follow him around. Unfortunately, a bounty hunter makes quick work of Murphy’s new friends in an attempt to collect on Citizen Z’s earlier promise. Fortunately, Cassandra makes quick work of him and it’s his turn to hold the bag.

Doc isn’t doing great, after getting shot in the season finale, and Warren has no choice but to leave him and 10K alone while she tries to find Murphy, transportation, and supplies. In a moment of weakness, she almost gives herself mercy, but is interrupted when she finds a young girl fighting off a group of zombies on her own. The effort she expands causes her to pass out at the end of the fight. When she wakes up again, she’s at home with the girl’s family, which gives her a renewed sense of hope for the apocalypse. Fed and refueled she heads off on her way.

Murphy and Cassandra are holed up with new zombie friends, though Cassandra insists she’s not one of them – and Murphy agrees, she’s better. His attempt to get zombie girls to make out goes horribly awry when they begin to eat each other’s faces. It’s the kind of macabre comical absurdity that I’ve come to love about Z Nation.

10K and Doc save Mack and Addy from a zombie, effectively re-uniting more of their group. The four of them set off to collect Warren and then end up in an unfriendly Cheyenne. Attempting to think like Murphy leads them to a strip club full of zombies and it’s a less than warm welcome. Warren wants to continue on the way to California, but Murphy’s not so sure about that plan anymore. Instead, he introduces them to zombie strippers and the results are hilarious.

Another bounty hunter finds the group at the end of the performance and drops the bomb that the CDC isn’t the only group that wants Murphy – he’ll be going to the highest bidder if the bounty hunter has anything to say about it. Spoiler: He doesn’t. Murphy himself takes Cassandra and lets the zombies loose on the rest of them. 10K literally explodes a zombie with a fire extinguisher in one of the more creative zombie deaths before they regroup to head out after Murphy once again. No clue where the bounty hunter ended up as of yet.

In the final shot, Pie Girl asks her stomach which way daddy is and, as if babies aren’t freaky enough, this one can poke and point in the direction that Murphy is, wrapping up the season premiere. Creative, crazy, and hilariously gross, the first episode of the new season did not disappoint and sets high expectations for the rest. What did you think? Let us know in the comments!