Tag: 90/100

No Mercy kicks off Season 3 of Z Nation with the introduction of a new character. “The Man” has come to town. He works for some very serious people, and he’ll do whatever it takes to find his target, Dr. Teller.

The Man is pretty certain he knows Dr. Teller is in the survivor’s compound. Worse, he is willing to take a kid hostage to get what he wants. The kid manages to escape The Man and meets up with Team Murphy in the process.

This leads an an awesome opening montage with lots of Zombies receiving Mercy. My two favorites were 10K’s double kill:

Followed up by Doc’s hammers of mercy:

Red

After Team Murphy kicks some Zombie *ss the kid asks them for help. They balk, leading the kid to grab 10K’s gun. This leads to another new character being introduced, Red. She’s the The Crow Kid’s adopted older sister and has an awesome war club.

The team is still hesitant to help, but they are low on supplies and that drives their decision. They have to get involved to get supplies, even if they don’t really want to. Red leads them to her survivor’s compound and we see 10K crushing on Red. She tells him she’s wearing red to scare away men, and not the undead. It doesn’t bother 10K at all.

Later that day The Man shows up again, and he wants Dr. Teller. This leads to the classic “I am Spartacus” response as all the survivors claim to be Dr. Teller

After The Man leaves once more, 10K and Red head out to scout around, and bump into Doc and Addy. Doc gives 10K some advice to “be careful”.

As 10K is trying to get close to Red, Warren, Doc, and Addy are planning their defenses.

We then see what Dr. Teller might have been working on. Murphy is hearing the Zombie whispers again, which leads him into the research building where he finds strange zombies coated in blue who beg him for mercy.

Dr. Teller catches Murphy which leads to a bit of the truth coming out. Dr. Teller has been keeping his wife and other infected inside the building. He’s unable to give them mercy. He’s also unable to let them free for fear the fungus they were working on could escape into the world.

Slingshot

Out on the plains, 10K is teaching Crow Kid how to use a sling shot. This earns 10K points with Red, who is very maternal towards the kid.

Team Murphy thinks they have a plan, but Warren is the first to go down, tricked into attacking a Zombie wearing The Man’s coat. This leads to her capture.

When The Man and his team arrive at the research center, Team Murphy is there to meet them, but The Man isn’t just rolling in guns, he’s got a truck load of badness to unleash if Dr. Teller isn’t handed over.

There is a brief moment of negotiation as The Man tries to put Warren on the phone to prove she’s alive but Kid Crow has found her and helped her escape before she can be used as a bargaining chip.

Siege

With nothing left to bargain with, The Man unleashes his Zombie Horde. This kicks off a very cool siege battle.

The team takes care of the first wave, but The Man has armored Zombies, and his “Kraken” horde doesn’t go down quite so easily, event after taking a direct hit from an improvised mortar.

The research facility survivors fall back into the building with the fungus infected staffers. The fungi Zombies can talk to Murphy, and with his ability to communicate with them, the fungi Zombies form the last line of defense.

It almost works. Dr. Teller is forced to give his gravely wounded fungi wife mercy just before The Man blows a hole in the wall and takes Dr. Teller by force. He is after all The Man.

With the Dr. taken, Team Murphy flees the building. None of the townspeople survived.

We then see a helicopter flying away with The Man’s already captured targets. The Man is puts on his glasses and starts his car, preparing for his next hunt. We can’t see whos name and picture were in the envelope, but I’m sure its not going to turn out to be good for Team Murphy.

We then see the heartbreaking ending of Crow Kid’s story as 10K comes back, covered in blood, forced to tell Red that her adopted little brother didn’t make it. Red goes into a rage and attacks a massive horde before 10K can stop her. It appears she threw her life away in a moment of blind rage.

We then cut to Zona and the people relaxing by the pool. They have the scientists, but we don’t know why…yet.

The episode ends with the crows surrounding Crow Kid, attending him one last time.

No Mercy Score

No Mercy was full of action and excitement, and had some excellently done zombie hordes, complete with a siege fight, which is why No Mercy scored a 90/100, setting a high bar for the rest of the season.

Day 1 tells the origin stories of our main characters, and does a kick *ss job of doing it.

The story starts with Citizen Z, in federal custody, about to go on trial for hacking when a man from the NSA comes with one last offer. We drop the charges if you work for us, while passing Citizen Z a very odd note…

While Citizen is facing a hacker at Camp Northern Light, the Rest of Team Murphy has made it to the California border, and there isn’t much there. With all our survivors walking across a barren, destroyed landscape, there is plenty of time for each of them to remember where they were when the biting started.

Warren was in Trenton NJ when she encounters her first Z.

It doesn’t take long for Warren to encounter Z’s two, three, and so on. Lucky for her she had a .45 on her hip and instinctively went for headshots as her army buddies come stumbling in.

Doc

Next we get to see what Doc was going when the Zombie Apocalypse started, and I have to say, his story was one of my favorites. Doc was a drug and alcohol counselor, and I love his story.

Doc is who I aspire to be. Fun, upbeat, and yet when push comes to shove, just fine with doing the shoving, and then hugging it out afterwards. After Doc helps the therapist next to him, he comes back and encounters his first Z, eating his patient.

One of the things I love about Doc walking in on Zombie Lunchtime is how quickly he assesses the situation. He says he didn’t mean to intrude, but his eyebrows are already furrowed, going through the options before he settles on “It’s a damn Zombie.”

Sadly for Doc, his five years of sobriety prior to the Z are about to end, because when people starting eating people, a few drugs are in order.

Citizen Z

We cut back to Citizen Z next as he figures out what his hacker has been after. Someone hacked Camp Northern Light so they could keep track on the world’s most valuable asset…Murphy.

We then cut to Addy watching ice hockey and get a blast from the past as we learn how she and Mack ended up as survival partners. She’s watching the game when Mack and another skater get into a fist fight that is rapidly interrupted by an angry hobo zombie. If you look carefully in the shot below you can see just over the skaters right shoulder.

Addy ends up saving Mack before they flee the stadium together. This was a fun segment, but it was tough seeing Mack again. I did enjoy the Addy and Mack segment though.

As 10K is watching the birds overhead its his turn to remember where he was when it started. Of all the backstories, 10K’s makes him look the youngest. He’s out fishing when he stumbles upon a game warden with a few arrows stuck in her.

Lucky for 10K his father is there to pick off a few of the horde.

The next flashback is just as heartbreaking as Addy’s. Vasquez is at the funeral parlor for his wife and daughter when the outbreak hits.

Sadly for Vasquez, after he takes care of the mortuary attendant, he has to face his turned wife as she breaks out of her casket.

The final flashback belongs to Murphy. He’s in prison, playing cards in the yard when the outbreak hits. It feels so wrong to see Murphy without blue skin!!!

The card game doesn’t last long. Two inmates get into a fight and after one stabs the other a few times, Murphy gets introduced to what is about to become his life as the stabbee quickly turns…

Murphy survives, but as he flees the yard, he is true to his “Murphy First” policy, locking the door behind him.

The writer’s have done an amazing job making Murphy a complete d*ck, but yet he’s likable. It’s one of those things about Z Nation that is just so well done. Murphy is a horrible person in many ways, but he also has moments of good that shine through. I guess that appeals to all of us for obvious reasons.

Murphy’s scene ends with him telling Warren he doesn’t want to keep going. He’s scared and is afraid it will hurt. Warren tells him she’s not going to lie, It might hurt, but it’s what has to happen.

We then cut to Citizen Z coming to the realization that someone has been using him to track Murphy the whole time, and he shuts down the servers that are left, trying to protect people he’s never met, but has a deep connection to.

Day 1  ends with Team Murphy reaching the west coast. They’ve reached the ocean, and are just a few steps away from the meeting place where the CDC is supposed to pick them up and help make a vaccine from Murphy’s blood.

Instead of finding a CDC lab Team Murphy finds themselves at a diner, or a Greasy Spoon as Murphy says. Warren and Vasquez go in to check it out only to find an older woman behind the counter, ready to offer tea while she keeps a MAC-10 just out of sight.

Day 1 Scoring

Day 1 was just a masterpiece in flashbacks and scored a 90/100, making it Worth Your Time.