Baron Of Hell

I thought the actress playing Cassandra did a good job in her episode. She hasn't really done any heavy lifting since then. Warren and Murphy are the best actors on the show. Everyone else is about even for me.

chowderhead

tv has taught me if you don't see them get killed onscreen, they can always come back i.e. Emily's dad on Revenge. So it's possible these two can catch up with the gang at some point.

Preterite

Didn't much like this episode. Addie's psychosis came from pretty much nowhere, and if she comes back I'm sure it will have evaporated like Warren's suicidal tendencies. It was odd that none of her friends used the plight of the male children to talk sense to her, and the bastards didn't even give that kid his lift to SLC!

The only bit I wasn't expecting was the stereotypical Feminazi villains. When I saw boys being turned out of a settlement so close to Salt Lake, I thought it was going to be a case of Mormon elders exiling young males to cut down on the competition for wives, something that happens with remote LDS communities today.

Called it!

That was a "bottle episode", done as a cost-saving measure and not to actually develop character or anything. It used only two members of the regular cast and one "guest star" (who had no lines and probably got paid as an extra or stuntman) repeating the same actions over and over to cut down drastically on the number of set-ups required. I'd be surprised if it took longer than two days to shoot.

Expect more episodes like it with the expanded season next year.

I... guess. I mean, narratively, yeah, they're supposed to have moved across country. But they've been filming in pretty much the same area the whole time. They've been reusing sets and locations a lot.

I suppose moving the setting from place to place can elicit a sensation of progress, but the story itself hasn't gone much farther than where we were in the first episode.

PhantomStranger

I don't think the TWD crew will be meeting Mormons anytime soon in the forests of Georgia.

Preterite

But the Mormon thing turned out to be nothing more than an aside and didn't have any bearing on the story.

Saying the protagonists are moving across country only means their vehicles are moving faster than TWD's do in the long shots. (And for some reason, no one's complaining about the wide open roads shown on this program.)

Baron Of Hell

Oh man the drug episode.

Murphy is turning into that one guy from Akira. I think they will be turning him into a big bad guy of the show.

Really liked the episode but wish one of the trio of bad guys thought about the world over the need for dugs. Also wish there was more a reaction to last bad guy dying.

I wasn't sure what the deal was with the doctor lady citizen Z was tracking.

Coladar1

I've got another of my long posts set to go, but wanted to address one thing as I finish polishing it:

Murphy as the big bad.

Can anybody blame him? Seriously? Watching this, I too saw the writing plain as day on the wall there. As I did, however, I thought about it... the group wanting their drugs, using Murphy with no regard for him whatsoever. Those who tested on him, not giving a damn if he lived or died with their vaccine. On and on and on, Murphy has been used by everyone.

The group he rides with to California now? Same exact damn thing: They only care about him so far as the cure pumping through his veins. They're using him, just as those scientists in CA will do once he arrives.

Everyone has been exploiting Murphy as much as is humanly possible; nobody has ever shown to be looking out for his interests, first and foremost... except the Z's, who leave him alone/revere him.

With that in mind, seeing our protagonists as little different from the antagonists in this episode -one wanting drugs, the other seeking a Z-Cure- I can totally see how Murphy will end up turning on them in the season finale. What's more, I'm not all that sure they don't entirely deserve it, at least from Murphy's perspective of a man who's been used and abused by all.

PhantomStranger

Murphy's journey has certainly been interesting. He could plausibly fill the role of villain if they chose to go in that direction.

Abob Teff

Not entirely true. The use of moving across the country has kept the plotline moving. In TWD they have been stuck in the same area for almost two years and it has become a bit of a ridiculous plot contrivance as they keep finding new locations nearby. I mean, the big journey to Washington DC made it all of 15 miles and THAT was too far to turn back?!


Zombies hopped up on Ritalin ... and Viagra! Oh man ... The irreverence is part of this show's strength.

I hate to say this, but TWD writers take note of the binocular scene in this week's Z Nation episode. For a few moments I was actually on the edge of my seat wondering what was happening. Yes, it was a silly payoff, however it shows you can convey information and character development in a few moments with a few lines of dialogue.

The doctor was the one who injected Murphy.

Abob Teff

What the hell is going on with Cassandra's leg? Last week she showed up with a gunshot wound. Odd for it to happen off camera, but OK.

This week she was OK (but bandaged) going into the commercial break during the shootout in the warehouse. Coming out of the break, 10K is supporting her. Afterwards Doc is re-bandaging her. Something got lost in the editing booth.

I started to wonder if last week's episode and this week's episode got flipped in their airing order.

Baron Of Hell

Pisay Pao aka Cassandra was on this weeks afterbuzz show.
http://youtu.be/Tp9A50c0SEw

Abob Teff

Is it any good? I quit listening to Afterbuzzprgrams quite awhile ago. Their good hosts were gradually replaced with unsufferable twats and I couldn't take it any more ...

chowderhead

I think they said she cut her leg on some barbed wire or a fence. They got her to the sisterhood camp and they gave her some antibiotics and bandaged her up but since they didn't stay long there, she didn't have time to fully heal.

Baron Of Hell

I haven't seen a aftershow that I haven't liked and like all the hosts I have seen so I might be the wrong person to ask. However, the shows they have with actors, producers, writers, and the like are above average in my opinion just for the added behind the scenes insights. For example someone on here was talking about Cassandra's limp. During the show she stated she put a rock in her shoe to get a realistic limp.

writer106

I can also possibly see Murphy becoming a villain and he would have good reasons to, as Coladar mentioned. I watch some of the Afterbuzz programs for a few shows that I watch. I watched the Afterbuzz Z Nation shows that had Nat Zang(10k) and another one that Keith Allan(Murphy) and Kellita Smith(Warren). I'll check out the Pisay Pao one later on.

SuckaMC

Really cool finale. So glad it got picked up for a second season. A cliffhanger like that would piss me off if that was it.

Wonder what Murphy looks like now. My guess is that the missiles will land with a thud. Also some verification that our other characters are still alive. Good stuff.

Coladar1

Few comments - First and foremost being? Holy crap. Excellent finale. Amazing. I've got to wait almost a damn year?!? Argh. Of course, imagine if this didn't get renewed -like probably any sane person should've expected. I'd still be screaming to the heaven'ss right now. I can only hope they wouldn't have been so stupid/cruel and had an alternate end filmed... a Series versus Season finale final scene.

Hmm... where next? Citizen Z: I very, *very* rarely laugh out loud at anything. Ever. Like, once a year if I'm lucky. The reaction he had to the nuke? Plus the simple thought of some lunatic alone in the arctic wilds in a deep NSA facility after the zombie apocalypse having a nuclear ICBM coming his way? I laughed. Hard. It made Citizen Z's nonsense all year 110% worth it.

Cassandra? What the what the is up with that ****? They have this pivotal thing (her injury) play out over multiple episodes -that results in the characters ****ing death, no less!!- as something nobody had/has any clue how it happened? Wait, sorry, somebody said some character muttered a single line in some episode at some point saying a fence did her in. Man, crazy town - somebody screwed up biiiiiiiiiiiig time. Either they cut a scene out for length purposes that shouldn't have been cut, forgot to film a vital scene on the script that day, or one writer needs to find another line of work for thinking that's something that a line of dialogue would suffice as explanation.

But when the preceding is really my only criticism of the entire show -never mind *this* show, Z Nation, by Asylum, on (**** I hate even typing this) "SyFy"... and what I, and the whole planet, anticipated going in- I'd say they've done pretty damn well for themselves. Simply fantastic. And not only for what it is, but indeed, for any show.

All's I can say is that Robert *hack* Kirkman and TWD ought to learn a thing or two from Z Nation. *This* is a season finale. *This* is shock. *This* is how you do a supernatural action piece of fiction, especially of the undead variety. After this week's past TWD in particular, TWD is like Mad Men with a hunger for brainz - perfection in characterization, a show driven 900% by personal dynamics and *inter*personal relationship development.

ZN did some crazy things, but they also showed across the entire nation post Z in 13 episodes. (Like someone else already pointed out, "We're going to DC!!!" Fifteen miles later... Oh, noz! No DC! And we're so very, very far away from where we came! Or... how about the fact that in five seasons, we're probably a couple blocks from the pilot's location?) They truly did some very, very new things here - Murphy's transformation (gradual, no less!) and vaccine, his abilities, delving into the origins of the plague head on, showing a show that *really* means the concept of "nobody is safe, no matter who!" Z Nation killed off Andrew Lincoln not once, but *twice!!!!!!!* in a *single!!!* season!!!!!!!oneone!!!!one! First the pilot's main protagonist dies in the pilot, then protagonist #2 midway through.

But here's the insane, incredible, impossible thing there: They rebounded, not once, not twice, but three times changing up the lead character thrice in 13 episodes. Z Nation, folks - succeeding with three separate "main" characters. Indeed, I'd go so far as saying that, without a doubt, each successive time they did so the show only improved when the new lead took over. How this nobody show on a shoestring budget with nobodies both on and behind the screen that no one expected anything but trash out of pulled that one off? Well... "The world may never know," to coin a phrase.

Back to this episode: Loved the new Doctor. The lab? Great. Mutated zombies, origins of the disease, and Murphy's forebear. The fight with flashing lights? Suspenseful, and how you work around said shoestring budget. Very well done cinematography, in my opinion, during the entire lab bunker affair.

Finally, and add this to my, "Z Nation bits of brilliance," but Murphy/Cassandra? I dunno what the hell she is now, but definitely original. And intriguing. It was even kind of cool just having Murphy do what he did when she was where she was, on death's door, and the character dynamics that might arise from that in S2... "She was one of us, and Murphy did that to her...?!" This, assuming Murphy and the group reunite absent jumbled up relationships (Murphy a villain.) Heck, I thought the choice of wound placement rocked, too - it was just awesome having it so prominent on her face. Not a hand, nor shoulder or leg - he took a bite out of her freaking face!!!

Speaking of which, just what the bloody hell (figuratively *and* literally) is Murphy now? Shed skin, naked and driving about in a van filled with Oxycontin as ICBMs fly high above... followed soon afterwards by a few dozen megaton nuclear warheads detonating in one spot.

*Now* finally... the hell? Both Dumb and Dumber survived from a couple episodes back? Huh? How on earth is former Mr. Joan of Arcadia still alive, to say nothing of walking around? He very clearly didn't get the girl - but furthermore, she's obviously still with the cult with the wacky hairdo and blankly vacant stare. He went back guns blazing, we *heard* gunshots, and... still alive? And she never left with him? That ought to be a heck of a story for S2 - assuming they don't pull a Cassandra's Leg on us again.

Honestly, there can't be any way the three survive. I'm sure they will, but they can't. You couldn't get far enough away in a half hour... and they had maybe two minutes? Jesus, assume they just floor it figuring they're dead either way - let's generously give them 100mph. 3 minutes? I count five miles. Figure the whole 7:00, I believe? That's *still* roughly 11 miles. Going 100mph the entire seven minutes -an utter impossibility.

Argh, we've gotta wait almost another year to get resolution here? Argh... brains!

Baron Of Hell

Really cool episode. Didn't see any of it coming. No idea where they are going.

SuckaMC

Well like I said, I expect the nukes to not be armed and just slam into the ground without detonating. Otherwise everyone besides Mac and Addie are dead for sure. That would be the Alien 3 of season openers.

Coladar1

One last last comment on the episode... rereading what I just posted, vis-a-vis Citizen Z and the nukes?

It's part of what makes Z Nation so great, and why I praise its quality so: A crap show would cheaply have Citizen Z working his compooter magic to get out of the bind. He'd bang away most furiously at his keyboard and voila! Nuke warheads, be gone! "Disarming Complete."

I might be counting my chickens here, before S2's premiere proves me a fool, but if they were ggoing to/it were possible, he doesn't jump up and run outside to stare at the blazing trail in the sky. He's a goner, for sure.

The simple fact though that they could have gone that route and didn't; that most every other show placing characters in that situation and with a character in *his* situation (Hacking genius at NSA Central) wouldn't even have to debate in the writer's room about pulling precisely that.

Coladar1

Hmm... the not armed thing is definitely possible, something I never thought of. In fact, I'd bet good money you're right. Not for any of the main characters we'd lose, either (and assuming Murphy could conceivably survive, either due to what he now is or by having *just* enough of a head start), but the Doctor.

Fact is they spent faaaaar too much time in setting him up as a future big baddy, then furthermore allowed him to escape the fight intact, to kill off in the opening seconds of S2. If not for that one thing, I'd day they're all goners. But because of him, I've little doubt they'll survive some way or another.

Shazam

The nukes was beyond dumb. Anyhow everybody's dead if they actually explode because EVERY single missile was launched. The entire USA is going to be destroyed.

I figure DJ Qualls will go in and disarm them all with his Magic Computer.

writer106

There were some things I liked about the finale. I liked the evil doctor and the backstory about the outbreak. But I thought Mack being alive was dumb. Addie still being alive and with the sisterhood cult was believable. I liked the scenes of Cassandra kicking ass and now there is the mystery to what is going on with her and what did Murphy do to her exactly. I'm also betting that Dr. Merch is still alive.

Baron Of Hell

I think only one nuke was launched to destroy the medical base. The idea was that the base was so dangerous if anything got out the country or world could be destroyed. If they launched all the nukes they would be doing the exact thing they were trying to prevent.

Coladar1

No, or else the nuke headed for Citizen Z wouldn't be. I took it that triggering the one nuke set them all off - that the system needed a human upon the launch of the first warhead, or else it was to assume the entire US had already been nuked into oblivion, setting off a retaliatory/clean slate launch of them all. I'm just unclear where all the others were/are supposed to be headed.