Zoo – No Place Like Home

By: Patience Kapfer

After what seems like an eternity, “Zoo” has finally returned! After last season’s action-packed finale in which Oz (James Wolk) introduced us to the scientists in charge of the Shepherd facility that had been working tirelessly for a cure to the animal mutation, he and his group successfully cured all the animals while sterilizing the human population. Tonight we jumped straight into the action yet again!

We pick up ten years later where a group of lab-made creatures called “the hybrids” have taken control of the west coast and terrorize the human population. Oz’s group has since disbanded and is spread out around the country, but some are still working on a cure to sterility, while others are working to save as many lives as possible in the hybrid zone. One of those individuals trying to save lives is our favorite animal lover, Jackson Oz, who is transporting a group of people across Portland, Oregon to an evacuation zone. The terrain of Portland is dark and all infrastructure is destroyed, as Jackson radios to a woman that it is safe to bring the people forward. From the flirty banter it is safe to assume that this woman and Oz are more than just friends. As they are walking under an overpass a group of lions rushes toward the group and Oz pulls out a device that stops the lions in their tracks. Once they stop the lions and see that they make no move toward the humans, a group of hybrids rushes towards the stopped individuals and Jackson releases the button to instruct the lions to attack.

Abe (Nonso Anozie) and Dariela (Alyssa Diaz) have moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to raise their son who is one of the last children born before the sterilization occurred. Here, they meet with Clementine (Gracie Dzienny) after not seeing her for seven years. Abe explains that once her grandfather gained custody they were not allowed to make contact with her and he and Dariela apologize for failing to keep in touch. Clementine; however, has other reasons for paying the couple a visit. She explains that the only thing she cares about is finding her dad, Mitch (Billy Burke). The audience is just as confused as Abe and Dariela, as he sacrificed himself so that the rest of the group could escape the island in the season finale. Abe wonders if Mitch is still alive, why hasn’t he tried to make contact with them and where has he been hiding for the past ten years.

We then resume with Mitch who is reciting the presidents to Jamie (Kristen Connolly) and admitting to her that he was a lonely child. Even though he didn’t win the sixth grade talent show, he became the kid who knew stuff. At this point Mitch tells Jamie that he can’t move while she tells him that she’s going to find him. And low and behold, Mitch is alive! He’s suspended in a tank in a dark laboratory, but he’s alive!

When we encounter Jamie for real, she is at a swanky party enjoying champagne and rubbing elbows with some of New York’s most wealthy. She discusses her upcoming book with a man that radiates importance. After the party, she has her driver take her to the plane the team used as a laboratory and continues to use when the need arises. Here, Jamie downloads the conversation she recorded from the party and edits it to form a very specific sentence: “the last monarch will rise in June.”

As Jackson continues to escort the group to safety, they encounter yet another hybrid, but this time Jackson’s lions are nowhere to be found. So, in regular Jackson fashion, he tells his lady friend to hurry the group along while he lures the very large and very scary looking hybrid towards him in order to capture it. The hybrid chases Jackson into the back of a truck while Jackson manages to narrowly escape. He then jumps back into rear of the truck to obtain a blood sample from the hybrid as it is one that no one has ever seen before. Jackson explains that for years the only hybrids that anyone has seen are razorbacks, but this is something entirely different. Jackson attaches the blood sample to a drone to send it directly to Abe for further processing.

Clementine presents some impressive intel on the whereabouts of her father to Abe and Dariela that include photo evidence as well as his exact location. She tells them that he is being held in an abandoned research lab in eastern Sibera. But the real question is: who saved him? Since we last saw Abe, he successfully completed medical school and has been doing research at the University of Michigan as well as in his own home. When asked where she got this information, Clementine is forced to admit she stole it from the IADG, but Abe wonders why didn’t she just tell them she is Mitch’s daughter. She tells them she thinks something seems questionable about the IADG and their mission to find Mitch and insists that they need to go themselves rather than work with the organization. The IADG is on their way to get Mitch and Clementine is adamant that they need to get there first.

Unfortunately for Clementine, the IADG manages to get to Mitch before she is able to leave Abe and Dariela’s home. One member of the team is anxious to get Mitch out of there and doesn’t wait for the scientist to determine the safest way to unhook the stasis tank and just pulls the plug. This causes Mitch to come out of the stasis and begin to drown on the water in the tank as the IADG rushes to find a way to break the glass of the tank. After they finally break the tank and free Mitch, it seems as though it is too late yet they finally manage to shock him back to life. An IADG agent then attempts to speak to Mitch and ask him questions about his name, the year and what he remembers. However, Mitch is unresponsive and just stares at the agent so the agent tries a new technique. He tells Mitch to tap his left hand for yes and right hand for no and after yet another round of blank stares after questions the agent gives up and begins to walk away only to be drawn back by Mitch’s deliberate tapping on the table with his right hand. The IADG tells Mitch that they have been looking for him for a long time and the last time he was seen was ten years ago on the island of Pangaea.

We see a totally new side of Jamie as she sneaks down an ally and attacks the man guarding a secret door in order to gain entry. She uses the phrase she constructed from her conversation at the party to open a safe and take what appears to be a hard drive of some kind. Thinking she is in the clear, Jamie goes back to the plane and is surprised to find Logan not only as a detective, but also there to search the plane. Logan tells Jamie that she needs to stop hunting down the Shepherds and that if he has to he will arrest her to keep her from continuing down this path. So, takes the drive she stole from the locker from her pocket and leaves her on the plane. She then receives a phone call from Clementine convincing her that she needs to help find Mitch.

After Jackson’s brush with his more animal side last season, it is interesting to make note of the conversation he has with a young boy in his rescue group. The boy asks how he uses his device to control the lions and make them attack and stop, to which Jackson tells him that the device is merely a toothpick holder and he actually controls the lions with his mind. Obviously the boy thinks it’s a joke and Jackson allows him to believe that, but as he walks away we see him open the device and remove a toothpick. So, does Jackson really have a connection to the lions, and does it stem from him also mutating in the previous season?

An unknown woman enters the compound where Jackson left the hybrid on the truck and we see her open a briefcase containing the same hard drive that Jamie had confiscated from the locker. As the hybrid struggles in the back of the truck, we hear the mysterious woman whisper that she’s sorry. After Clementine leaves Abe and Dariela’s home, the couple notices that the blood sample from the hybrid is growing, but into what they have no idea.

The episode ends with a bang as Logan tells a police officer to find out what is on the hard drive that Jamie stole and as the hard drive that the mysterious woman planted both explode. It also ends with a more psychological “bang” when Clementine joins Jamie on the plane and Jamie tells her that she looks different. The camera zooms in on the gun in Clementine’s back pocket. Meanwhile, Mitch manages to tell the IADG agents that he wants proof of all the things they say and of who they are. They tell him there is someone there that he needs to see, even if it comes as a surprise. And here we experience the biggest surprise of the entire show. A girl enters the room with Mitch and asks if he needs any food or water. As she comes into focus she says the words “we’re together again, it’s going to be okay dad.”