“Come and get some mercy!”
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Mission accomplished! Murphy has been handed over to the last remnants of the CDC and the vaccine that will save the world will now be delivered to the masses! Well, if it only were that easy. The Season 2 finale of Z Nation, “All Good Things Must Come to an End” is an ending of sorts as we see Warren and her group appear to successfully complete their mission when they hand over The Murphy to an organization claiming to be working on behalf of the Center for Disease Control. Of course, nothing is what it seems in Z Nation land and just as things are coming to an end it looks like they are only getting started.
The opening was genuinely tense as a group of scruffy looking bounty hunters show up with a blue zombie that they claim is Murphy. As expected, things get crazy but the good side prevails, but not without 10k seriously injured by a gunshot. Luckily, it turns out Auntie is working for who we assume are the United States military. It was a nice surprise that Auntie was actually representing the people the group had been looking for instead of representing another bounty hunter organization. The re-introduction of Dr. Merch was a nice surprise as well and I am glad Murphy got to go face-to-face with the woman who made him this way.
Despite his anger towards Dr. Merch, Murphy is more than willing to cooperate. I have to think that a big part of that was Warren working to get through to him these last few weeks when he kept trying to find ways to run away from the group. Murphy came out as a pretty stand up individual considering how he started the season. It’s just too bad that he was being handed over to an organization that didn’t necessarily have the best interests of all of humanity.
What Murphy learns on the submarine was an interesting surprise as we discover that Zona, first mentioned in “Rozwell” is actually a real place. Apparently, Dan Scully, the Peter Capaldi looking test pilot from that episode was actually meant to bring a ship back to Zona. It’s great to see an episode that seemed like a bit of a fun throwaway comeback and tie into the overarching narrative. From what we learn, which isn’t much, it seems Zona is an excluded island that has been founded by some billionaires as a zombie free paradise. The U.S. Government as we know it is gone and these zombies are spearheading some sort of new world order that they will have control of. As we don’t learn much more than this it’s obviously a huge setup for Season 3 and it certainly sounds like a great idea.
Unfortunately, we really don’t get much else from the story on the submarine. We know that Murphy chooses to breakout and uses his zombie ability on Dr. Merch and the rest of the crew to escape a sinking sub. Meanwhile we see 10k get up but we don’t actually see him escape the sub. That was a little disappointing considering the events on the sub were the most interesting parts of the episode. I wish we got a little more.
While Murphy was on the sub, the rest of the group found themselves under siege as the Zeros, with the help of Dr. Kurian’s head, managed to track them down. I get the impression this is the last we will see of the Zeros, if so, it was a nice little send off for them. Gina Gershon has been fantastic as La Reina and her final stand against Warren was a lot of fun. Hopefully they figure out a way to bring her back. If Dr. Kurian can survive as just a head, anything is possible.
The return of Escorpion was a little disappointing. It’s not that surprising that he survived but it’s really hard to buy into him being completely reformed after his last encounter with a horde of zombies. I am kind of hoping that there is something else to his story than just a baby face turn with nothing to warrant it. Vasquez seems just as annoyed as the rest of us and now he has to live with the baggage that the man who killed his family is out there again. It’s an awkward situation and kind of backtracks on some of the development that Vasquez had earlier in the season. I’m not really sure I can accept the idea that the group would be willing to travel with Hector “Escorpion” Alvarez, even if he had a truck filled with food. The whole thing just seems dirty.
Citizen Z had his own little… story. He decided to pack things up and leave the facility where he has been working for the past two seasons. At the end when they showed him frozen I just assumed he was dead and this was their awkward way of killing off the character but it appears that he may be rescued. Hope they can finally find something meaningful for the character to do next season.
Season 2 concludes with a decent ending that sets up a potentially great narrative for next year. Wish we had spent more time on that sub.
