Zoo Season 1 Episode 10 Review: Emotional Contagion
Christine Laskodi
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How many times can you say "electroporator" in an episode of television?
I'm not sure of the exact answer, (I lost count after five) but I can tell you that Zoo Season 1 Episode 10 holds the record with complete confidence.
When we last checked in with the Zoo Crew, they were looking for a way to get to Africa to catch a leopard. The leopard's pure DNA would be mixed with the Mother Cell, and voila! We'll have a cure.
That's where the electroporator comes in. They need one to do the DNA and cell mixing. (Science is cool, kids.) So where will they find such a device, and how will they get it to Africa?
Jackson: Let's go to Clearwater.
Mitch: Why? I mean, never in the course of human events has Clearwater, Florida ever been the solution to anything.
Obviously, all of their answers would be in Clearwater, Florida!
Raise your hand if you took one look at Ray Endicott and immediately knew in the pit of your stomach that he was bad news.
Ray, Jackson and Abraham go way back to their days in Africa. Ray got Jackson and Abe into quite a few sticky situations, and while Jackson can forgive and forget, Abe can do neither. But it does seem that Ray is the Zoo Crew's only hope of getting to Africa unnoticed as he can fly them there on an unmarked plane, so Abraham reluctantly agrees.
Ray is a member of FARM (Free Animal Rights Militia), a group of animal activists who like to liberate animals, whether it be for the good of the animals or not. He agrees to fly the Zoo Crew to Africa, but at a small cost.
He's not crazy, he's just...not un-crazy.
Jackson
The price to fly them there is just ridiculous, when it comes down to it: the Zoo Crew needs to break animals out of a zoo for FARM. But good news! There's an electroporator at the zoo that they can conveniently pick up on the way out and bring it with them to Africa. (Just suspend your belief, it's really the easiest thing to do.)
Can we talk for just a second about how Mitch has a theory in every episode? This time, it was about the animals becoming emotionally connected to one another, causing the animal behavior to spread from species to species. Just once, I'd love it if Mitch was clueless.
But then again, I suppose I wouldn't learn as much about animal behavior without Mitch's theories, and therefore wouldn't find new ways to analyze my cat's daily actions.
Mitch's theory does lead us back to the heart of Zoo, and that is Robert Oz, Jackson's father. I can vaguely recall overhearing Robert talk about the spark in his manifesto videos. The spark, which according to Jackson will pass from animal to animal like wildfire. That spark has hit the animals of the world, and now they're all emotionally bonding.
The etymology of the term 'Gung Ho' comes from the Chinese meaning, 'work together'. But I find it can also mean, 'excitable morons groping for a cause'.
Mitch
They're bonding to work against their new common enemy, man.
Robert wasn't so crazy after all. We mostly already know that, but the spark reminds us that everything is happening just as Robert predicted that it would.
Which makes me wonder, why haven't they gone back and watched the manifesto tapes? They've had nights in hotels and at Chloe's house in France. How has no one said, "Maybe we should just watch Robert's videos?" Jackson had them last time I checked. Wouldn't those videos answer a lot of their questions?
Abraham seemed just a little out of line to imply that Jackson is being rash, like Robert was during his decline into crazy. With everything that the Zoo Crew has seen in the last few months, you'd think Abraham would at least understand the judgment calls Jackson is making.
There's no easy way for them to do anything anymore. Brannigan has made sure the world knows their faces and that there isn't anywhere for them to hide. Jackson is choosing the practical ways, like working with Ray to get to Africa.
Jamie: It should work. But what if it doesn't?
Mitch: Well if it doesn't, I'm going to be breaking into a zoo with a bunch of nut job radicals, and nobody's going to have my back. But I'm not worried about that. You know why?
Jamie: Why?
Mitch: Because I have faith in you.
Besides, Chloe trusts Jackson and has faith in him. She'll always back him up. And kiss him passionately in the back of a truck full of angry animals. There wasn't time to swoon, because the truck crashed almost immediately, and they had a plane to catch, with Brannigan and cops on their trail.
Why Chloe, just why?
In an attempt not to kill another FBI agent, she stopped Ray's buddy Anissa from killing Brannigan. Only problem with that was she knocked herself, and Anissa, out of the plane in the process, just as it ascended on its way to Africa, with Ray and the Zoo Crew (and the electroporator) on board, and now she's captured.
Chloe made a sacrifice. I think she has faith that Jackson and the others will come through. I can't wait to see what happens next for Chloe.
With only three episodes left, Zoo is headed back to the place where it all began, Africa.
Stray thoughts:
- Jamie and Jackson remember seeing an electroporator in the optometrist's office when they met Evan Lee Hartley. We saw that Evan was mixing his eye DNA with the Mother Cell and re-inserting it into his eye, which ultimately killed him. Does that mean that Evan was, indeed, trying to make his own cure? Had he and Robert discussed this? Can Mitch make a cure that won't kill anything?
- That little baby warthog was too cute for words.
- I like that all of the animals in that zoo were so calm about being kidnapped.
- Did anyone else need more Brannigan? This show is jumping from bad guy to bad guy so quickly! He's got Chloe, so there's bound to be a nice amount of story for him next week.
- I was predestined to dislike Ray. The actor who plays him, Warren Christie, played a not-so-great guy also named Ray on October Road, a show I have a great soft spot for. Once a bad Ray, always a bad Ray.
- I enjoyed that Jackson and Chloe's conversation about having faith in one another mirrored the one that Jamie and Mitch had earlier in the episode. I'm still on the fence about whether or not there's a spark between Jamie and Mitch.
What is Brannigan going to do with Chloe? Will she make it back to the Zoo Crew? Will Mitch make the cure with the electroporator? Was Abraham a little hard on Jackson? What do you think is next for our Crew? Sound off in the comments!
There's just three episodes left this season! Missed any of the action? Want to go back and look for clues? No problem!
You can watch Zoo online right here at TV Fanatic, as always! Be sure to head right back here next week for the Zoo two-hour event, Episodes 11 & 12!
