Zoo – Diaspora

By: Patience Kapfer

Following the dramatic conclusion of the previous episode, we must ask who is the real Clementine? And as we must ask that continuously throughout this week’s episode – perhaps that should be the theme. With new enemies around every turn, which Clementine is Mitch’s (Billy Burke) daughter and, also, what are the motives of the fake Clementine?

After the explosions at Jackson’s (James Wolk) safe zone and Logan’s (Josh Salatin) precinct, this episode begins with our new mysterious female character removing a case of some strange objects from her vehicle and disappearing, but not before accidentally dropping one of the objects beneath the vehicle. Meanwhile, Jackson is bound and determined to find the woman who killed so many of his people, no matter what it takes. Facing the same problem, but in a different city, Logan focuses on identifying who is responsible for the bomb on the hard drive.

As Clementine (I’ll refer to this version as 1.0) and Jamie (Kristen Connolly) take the plane to Siberia, she shows Jamie the intelligence she obtained about her father’s whereabouts. Jamie tells her she’s learned not to get her hopes up after searching for ten years and coming up empty. Jamie shows Clementine 1.0 (Gracie Dzienny) satellite images of the building that Clementine insists her father is being kept and is adamant that there is no traffic in or out indicating that there is no way Mitch would be there. However, Clementine 1.0 shows Jamie the photo of her father in the stasis tank as proof that he is in fact alive and being held in that facility. At this point Jamie finally believes her, but is suspicious about who else could know about Mitch’s location.

Clementine 1.0 seems to know a lot more than she’s letting on as she snoops through the drawers in the plane to find a button that leads down to a secret area complete with jail cells. Surprise! Not only are there cells, but Jamie is also holding a man prisoner. Jamie is really developing some interesting depth in this season between her killer party skills and her shepherd hunting. Jamie uses this shepherd to gain information on the other shepherds that she continues to hunt. The prisoner proves to be useful once again by informing them that the group that is currently with Mitch is a group of shepherds and most likely not the IADG.

Clementine (I’ll call this one 2.0) tries to gently explain to her father how she found him and what the IADG agents are trying to do and learn from him. The agents seem unsupportive of giving Mitch the time necessary to remember the information they wish to obtain from him. Mitch asks Clementine 2.0 (Madison Wolfe) to stay with him when the agents leave, which would be a sweet gesture if only we knew which Clementine was his real daughter. As Clementine 2.0 attempts to acquire any information that Mitch may remember, he tells her the only thing he remembers when he looks at her is 79 60. She looks at him with confusion (but if she’s really his daughter, should she be confused?) and he explains that it was the parking ticket he got on the day she was born, seventy-nine dollars and sixty cents. Now, it’s time for Clementine 2.0 to get down to business. She tells Mitch that the IADG is looking for some extremely important information concerning blue diaspora and they think that he knows exactly what they need.

When asked by the IADG if he knows about blue diaspora, he tells them he has no idea what they are talking about. So, once the agent leaves to get something to “help” with his memory Clementine 2.0 tells Mitch not to take anything they give him and that they need to escape. These men aren’t from the IADG, they’re shepherds…dun dun dun! Luckily for Mitch and Clementine, there is a security breech that allows them to attempt their escape, but considering Mitch hasn’t had to use his muscles in ten years it is a little challenging. They are caught by the leader of the group of shepherds who threatens to shoot Clementine 2.0 if Mitch doesn’t tell him what he knows about blue diaspora. Clementine 2.0 shows an impressive ability to take down an attacker as she frees herself from the shepherd’s grasp and Mitch shocks him with cords from the old stasis tank.

After giving Clementine 2.0 a gun, they try to make their escape, but they then encounter Clementine 1.0 holding a gun of her own. Mitch is pretty surprised to hear Clementine 1.0 call him dad and lifts his gun towards her. Clementine 2.0 insists that she is his daughter, not this other girl who just walked onto the scene. Now talk about some intense family tension as Mitch tries to understand what is happening and who is his real daughter. Clementine 2.0 tells Mitch not to listen to the other girl and they should just shoot her and get out of there, which justifiably causes him to point his gun in her direction. When Clementine 1.0 sets her gun down she reaches into her pocket to prove that she is in fact his real daughter Mitch panics and shoots her. But we still don’t know who is the real Clementine! Did Mitch just shoot his own daughter!? He drops the gun and investigates what it was that she wanted to show him. And, of course, it’s the parking ticket from the day she was born.  Thank goodness Clementine was only shot in the arm and the family can be reunited. However, the family might not only be Mitch and Clementine. After the entire ordeal, we see Clementine listening to a heartbeat of what can only be a baby, but how can that be since the human race is sterile?

In this episode we learn that Jackson has been lying to his new lady friend, Tessa (Hilary Jardine), this whole time about his real identity. In one scene we see him type out a message that inquires if there are any updates on Jackson Oz. When Tessa notices Jackson’s concern she assumes that Jackson thinks this is somehow his fault and he is carrying hatred for Jackson Oz and his father. Here we also learn that he has been going by the name Dylan Green and Tessa knows nothing of his past or who he really is.

Jackson and Tessa pursue the mysterious female and manage to find her vehicle, but no trace of where she went or who she is. Jackson does manage to find one of the objects that she dropped out of her case, but little does he know she is watching them discover her one missing piece. While Jackson stresses about being unable to locate the woman, he receives a surprise visit from none other than Logan. Logan explains that he wants the same thing as Jackson – to find the woman responsible for the attacks.

In the fight to end the sterility of the human race, a female scientist or CEO (we aren’t exactly sure which), hosts a virtual meeting in order to obtain funding to continue with the organizations research. She tells the board members that her organization has managed to induce ovulation even if the egg wasn’t viable, which is something no other group has been able to do. She insists that their ultimate goal is to bring a child to term and the only way to do that is through support from those members. The board members agree to continue to support her, but once she ends the conference call we learn that her organization is nowhere near the milestone of inducing ovulation. Even though they haven’t hit that milestone, the organization has found another protein structure that provides the NLRP2 protein which will allow them to move forward on their main goals as a company. Interestingly enough, this protein structure was found by none other than Abe Kenyatta (Nonso Anozie).

Since Abe and Dariela’s (Alyssa Diaz) frightening discovery that the blood sample from the hybrid has been growing, Abe has been working to understand why and how this is occurring. Unfortunately for the couple, a growing blood sample is not their only concern. When Abe goes outside to investigate an unknown noise, he discovers that it’s definitely not just a tree branch scraping against the house, not unless the tree has mutated into a terrifying part dog and part prehistoric porcupine creature. Abe and Dariela rush their son to the basement and hide him in a closet while they arm themselves against the razorback attack. And, finally, Dariela is again our favorite gun wielding chick that is definitely not to be reckoned with. As the razorback slams against their reinforced basement window, Abe notices that the tissue sample has grown into a fetus-a baby hybrid! Abe also thinks that the egg is calling for help and the hybrids have come for it. Dariela thinks they should let the hybrids have the egg if that’s what will save them, while Abe argues that if they keep the egg they could study it and perhaps it is the key to solving human sterilization. They finally agree to try to save the egg so Abe attempts to build a structure to put around the egg similar to a Faraday Cage that will block the electromagnetic fields and keep the egg from communicating. As soon as they think that they are safe and make a break for it, a razorback manages to get inside their house and Dariela drops the cage containing the egg. Everyone comes out of the situation alive, but Abe loses the egg to the razorback.

Now that we’ve cleared up who is the real Clementine, it’s time to uncover who the mysterious woman taunting Jackson is. Logan manages to identify the bomber off of the disk that they found and here comes the plot twist. Her name is Abigail (Athena Karkanis) and she shares a strikingly similar genetic profile to Jackson. But how is that possible, did Jackson simply contaminate the disk? No. Abigail is Jackson’s sister.

But who is this woman and what corporation is it that she is responsible for you might ask? Radon Global. The company responsible for starting this entire mess to begin with and creating mutation in the animal population that caused the sterilization of the entire human race. Radon Global has a new initiative, to end the sterilization epidemic and this begins with selecting children for the pilot program. Heartbreakingly, one of those children selected for this program is Isaac Kenyatta (Jesse Muhoozi). What is Radon planning to do with these children? How will Dariela and Abe get Isaac back? And, while we’re asking questions, who is the other girl that had claimed to be Clementine?  “Zoo” really knows how to get your heart racing and keep the twists coming episode after episode. We will just have to wait until next week to get closer to the answers.