“There’s also a zombie sheep.”
“Zombaby!” Well, that was a really mixed bag of some interesting serious moments and some of the more outlandish gags that Z-Nation has committed too. While there are some great moments, the episode as a whole is all over the place tonally. That made it a frustrating watch considering just how potentially game-changing the birth of a zombie baby could be on this show. Then again, this is Z-Nation, a show that excels at not adhering to any standards or expectations when it comes to narrative flow.
Maybe discussing the baby is the best place to start. Right now the inclusion of this creepy-looking blue zombie baby feels really, really strange. I mean, of course it’s strange, it’s a blue zombie baby. Even for Z-Nation, this particular gag and it’s importance to the narrative might just be a bit too much suspension of disbelief that we’re expected to have.
We want to hear it.
It really starts with the baby pressing up against its mother’s womb with some terrible CG. As strange as it is to say for something coming from The Asylum, it’s just a little too out of place on Z-Nation, especially when you juxtapose it with some of the more serious moments that this series has excelled at this season.
That’s not to say that a narrative shift to focusing on more serious subject matter regarding the zombie apocalypse is what I want to see, we have enough of that already. It’s just that the way this baby has been handled feels like they are pushing things a bit too far into the realm of the ridiculous and that it takes away from the impact of when they attempt to do something serious.
With that in mind there are some really fun gags and some serious moments that stay well within what we’ve come to expect from Z-Nation. The cheese wheel was a great call back to the Liberty Bell moment from the first season. It’s such a simple gag but there’s something hysterical about seeing zombies being crushed by a giant cheese wheel in Wisconsin. I have simple pleasures.
Keith Allen and Kellita Smith on Z Nation
While I found the actual birth dragged on a bit too long, the weird references to the birth of Christ were actually kind of hilarious. The star of Bethlehem hanging over the barn and the inclusion of a zombified version of the three wise men, complete with a zombie camel, were all inspired bits. It also speaks to the potential importance of the child and its ushering in of a new evolution for mankind — something that Dr. Kurian hinted at last week.
There were a few really interesting serious moments sprinkled throughout this episode that may have deserved more screentime than they actually got. The encounter with the man who was drugged out and attempting to kill himself came out of nowhere. It actually felt a bit out of place considering how silly the content had been thus far, but it was a stark reminder of the realities of survival during a zombie apocalypse.
However, the reaction of the Mennonite who went with them made it seem like it would have more of an impact later in the episode than it actually did. The Mennonite seemed disappointed and maybe even slightly disgusted by what Vasquez had to do in self defense, yet it never really had any bearing on what came up later when they had to steal the drug required to save 10k and Addy.
We want to hear it.
Speaking of that scene, it was another serious moment that stood out this week. Warren and Vasquez stealing medicine to help their own people while condemning some of the anthrax-infected Mennonites to an assured death was an important scene that is also somewhat lost amongst the silliness surrounding the baby’s birth. It’s another do-or-die moment for the growth who realize their mission outweighs a few lives that are most likely not going to live that long anyway. The Mennonites not defending themselves while Warren and Vasquez take the medicine was surprisingly unsettling.
Lucinda’s moments this week were situations playing up a protective mother fighting to save her child. Most of it was ridiculously over the top in The Asylum style, but a lot of fun nonetheless. Her death was decently handled as she went down fighting. It’s probably best she was killed off now because I could imagine the character becoming somewhat annoying rather quickly.
So where do we go from here? Murphy and the team are now responsible for a child. I can’t imagine that lasting too long since a baby will be constantly slowing down the group. I doubt they will kill it off, so right now I am thinking it’s either going to be taken by Dr. Kurian or maybe it becomes one of those super fast growing babies that are over so popular in any sort of science fiction. I think almost every science fiction show I have ever watched has a had at least one super fast growing baby. Maybe by the end of next week Murphy will have to deal with an adolescent.
“Zombaby!” delivers on the promise of a zombie baby hybrid. As of right now, we’re not sure that’s a good thing. Still, there are plenty of decent gags and a couple of emotional moments that give this episode some depth.
