Plants vs Zombies? Plant Zombies!
Last week we were introduced to the concept of Z Weed. It’s a special brand of marijuana grown using zombies for compost. Yes, it’s about as crazy as it sounds but on a show that featured a zombie tornado it’s really not that surprising. This week Murphy is looking for an alternate vaccine for, well, becoming a zombie and hopes to find what he’s looking for in a special batch of Z Weed referred to as Batch 47.
There’s actually quite a bit of story building this week that looks like it will be paying off in the coming weeks. While Murphy is trying to get his hands on Batch 47, three characters return and expand story in directions that could prove interesting. Dr. Kurian, now sporting a disfigured face is back and has his own strange agenda that somehow involves Murphy and his kind inheriting the Earth from the human race. Kurian has gone full blown mad scientist at this point and is surely attempting to further his own agenda with Murphy playing a potentially willing pawn in his scheme. It’s not really made that clear what Kurian is actually up to but I imagine that’s part of the bigger scope of the series considering he was instrumental in the creation of the zombie virus itself.
We’re formally introduced to a character we saw earlier this season. Hector Alvarez a.k.a The Scorpion is running a drug business and is naturally responsible for selling the Z Weed to the end user. Scorpion and his gang of Zeroes don’t seem too bright however. I’m not sure why the Scorpion would destroy a key supply of product in what appeared to be a fairly advanced facility. Or why he would kill the one guy who seemed to be an expert on Z Weed. Even if you have a larger agenda, playing brainless bully to prove a point doesn’t seem effective in this situation. It’s obvious that Alvarez and the Zeroes are meant to be your stereotypical gangsters and maybe their true agenda will be revealed in a few weeks, but their motivation here didn’t make much sense.
Finally, we had the all be brief return of Serena to conclude this week’s episode. There really isn’t that much of her yet to be born Murphy love child seems to be developing at a rapid rate. As much as I love how cheesy this show can get, I was even a little bothered by the baby’s face pressing against the womb to scare everyone looking on. This is The Asylum though so I’m not that shocked.
The creative team continues to do a good job of coming up with inventive ways to keep zombies interesting. This week we’re introduced to plant zombies. It seems that their nervous system is interconnected via a vine network between them, which is then connected to one master zombie that controls them all. It’s a great idea and their used effectively. Also, shooting and killing them effectively spreads the zombie virus, even to the living, which we saw this week when the master zombie was cut to pieces and infected someone else. It was a good added touch to have Murphy tap into their vine network and actually feel what the plant zombies would feel when they get hurt.
As for Batch 47 itself, I am not entirely sure where they are going with it but we’ve seen that it does have some sort of effect on zombies. The “BRAIIIINNNNSSS” zombie was absolutely hilarious. That may have been one of the best gags this show has come up with. However, if that’s the level of cure Batch 47 offers, I’m not sure it’s going to be worth fighting for. With more testing however it could turn into something interesting.
Throughout the episode, there’s an interesting subplot concerning a woman and little girl who have found themselves together after both of their families have died. Considering how absolutely ridiculous Z Nation’s plot can be at times I thought this was a genuinely touching and down-to-earth story that was kind of lost here. It was especially sad that no effective way to save the little girl was found by the episode’s conclusion so we’re left with the image of the girl extremely sick and potentially dying with no hope of being saved. It’s possible, and I’m kind of hoping here, that the single leaf of Batch 47 that the Doc gave her to chew on has some sort of effect. This is a plot point I would like to see picked up in the future.
“Batch 47” was a strong episode of Z Nation that was focused on re-introducing us to several characters and potential storylines that will undoubtedly be an important part of the series for the rest of the season.
