Tread softly and carry a big stick.
The zunami appears to still be continuing into this week’s episode. An incredible dust cloud and hordes of zombies plague the group, who manage to find shelter in a hotel inhabited by a quirky group of corporate types. I guess the great Grand Canyon purge last week lowered the numbers enough that the zombies aren’t tearing down buildings. That’s a relief.
“Corporate Retreat” features guest star Anthony Michael Hall, of The Breakfast Club and The Dead Zone fame. Hall is absolutely great here as a Gideon Gould, a corporate communication workshop coach who was thrown into the role of leading a group of fellow corporate types after the zombie apocalypse hit four years ago. He’s been using his unique skill set to keep everyone safe ever since.
The attempted murder mystery after Murphy was shot was an interesting setup for the plot, but there was no real meat to it at all. The potential that 10k did it could have been played up a bit more to create some suspense but Addy was right, he doesn’t miss. It was great to see 10k handle the situation calmly when he was accused as well. Still, while there was an unknown suspect there was no real bread crumbs or intriguing hook to the mystery to make it interesting. Instead it was really about the interaction of the characters and trying to maintain order in what was a chaotic situation that was exacerbated by Murphy’s dreams attracted the zombies. The reveal of who the attempted killer actually was really wasn’t that interesting at all, but learning Dana was involved — someone who showed a particular interest in Addy — did make things somewhat exciting.
The obvious attraction between Dana and Addy was a bit of a surprise, but it was a welcome little distraction from everything else going on this week. At first it seemed like Dana was definitely more into Addy than the other way around, but as the episode closed, there was some obvious affection pointing the other way as well. It’s good to see Addy finding someone after the death of Mack, and it seems to be about the right time for her healing process to finally begin. Dana’s deception was also handled well as it was obvious she didn’t plan on anyone getting hurt and simply didn’t want to die trapped with Gideon and the rest of the group she was stuck with. Who can blame her? Especially when you consider they were trapped in the hotel for four years straight. I am not sure they can bring Dana. Besides her attraction to Addy, there really wasn’t that much to the character than an intense yearning to escape.
While Gideon was overbearing, I think in the end he really did get the short end of the stick when it came to respect for the work he put in keeping everyone alive. The problem was he took things too far by playing judge, jury and executioner without any sort of real investigation or trial, as was witnessed with Iggy’s undeserved banishment. That being said, the rest of the group never did much to stop him and were just as quick to be the accusers. In the end it was most likely Gideon’s unique style of workshopping out disputes that drove his group mad. As someone who has been to one of these types of retreats, I can sympathize.
Iggy’s return was hilarious and I kind of had a feeling he would survive the zombie horde. As I mentioned, I’m not sure killing Gideon was necessary but for Iggy it was something that had to be done and the rest of the group seemed to be pleased with the decision as well.
“Corporate Retreat” was a fun little story that was made better by Anthony Michael Hall’s great performance as Dr. Gideon Gould. The attempted murder mystery fell a little flat but the focus was clearly more on survival and the group work-shopping a solution instead of just find the killer. The hint of a love interest for Addy was an intriguing new development but it doesn’t really go anywhere, at least for now.
