Mikes Film Talk

Z Nation with “Zombaby!” have delivered  that highly requested zombie  baby that fans have  been begging for ever since season one, episode one. Now The Asylum have come up with the baby goods  and the tyke is an infant “Wednesday Addams lookalike.”   Not that this happens too quickly, first Serena and rest have to get through a Wisconsin cheese day parade of zombies.

Doc has a bit of cheese from  the world’s biggest wheel of cheese and the same object is used to dispatch a load of zombies. “Like Philly” Roberta says and when Vazquez questions it, Doc tells him to watch.  This episode is a perfect blend of comedy and tragedy, dealing with Serena’s pregnancy, Murphy’s reluctant participation and anthrax.

There is also a sort of Malcolm in the Middle hamster in the ball action going on with the giant cheese wheel still rolling across the Wisconsin landscape with an ever increasing amount of zombies grabbed by the wheel. In essence a cross between Dewey’s hamster and a snowball made of cheese…

Zombaby! also introduces sheep zombies, goat zombies, camel zombies, horse and mule zombies and anthrax filled zombies with head’s that explode in a puff of white deadly dust.  There are also Mennonite zombies, Billy Boy condoms (“Don’t be stoopid” Addy says to 10K later in the episode.) and a zombie hoard who all arrive to witness the birth of Lucy, the “first of her kind.”

This episode was one, for and by the ladies being written byJennifer Derwingson and directed by  Rachel Goldenberg. Serena’s pregnancy, the continual projectile vomiting, the screaming, the “monkey noises” while doing the breathing exercises were all very funny, as was Murphy’s reaction to all the above.  Both ladies who delivered one of the oddest, and strangely funny, episodes of Z Nation, did so with a style that impressed. 

There was also the “pregnant” woman rage scene where Serena shoots a machine gun clip of bullets at two ambushers while screaming insults. Hysterically funny.

The two storylines, three counting the shadowy presence of the cartel who still want Murphy, blended together beautifully.  The Mennonites with the rationed drug to combat the anthrax, the possibility of 10K and Addy dying because they inhaled the powder and Murphy actually bonding with his baby momma and the newly born infant, “Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do,” worked perfectly.

On top of all the things going on in the foreground, there was the “three kings” gag with the camel, horse, mule and wisemen zombies following the “star.”  Which made perfect sense as a joke, and plot thread because, well…look at the setup  of the episode.

Roberta says, when they arrive at the Mennonite community, “let’s move on there is no room at this inn.” When Serena’s water spectacularly  breaks, they hustle the mother into a barn. Bales of hay make up the birthing area and, well you get the idea.

Very, very funny and obviously a clue as to the importance and relevance  of baby Lucy. Sadly, amid all this humorous peripheral zombie action, Addy and 10K are dying as there is not enough of the drug because the religious community are rationing it out. Serena gives birth, but the baby is tired of waiting and climbs out of the womb.

Things were never going to turn out well for “Pie Girl” and after Lucy come clambering out of the birth canal, mom turns zombie and Roberta has to give the new mother mercy.

*Sidenote* Pisay Pao steals every single scene she is in. Her Cassandra “not zombie” has become a feral creature who, when not sniffing Mennonite women with bowls of water, rests on quivering haunches. Murphy’s creation/pet has become more animal than zombie and each time she appears one watches transfixed, waiting to see what she will do. Pao is just brilliant.

Kellita Smith, as Roberta Warren, goes through some defining moments in this episode, as does Keith Allan’s Murphy, and her character becomes that bit harder. After discussing the issue of 10K and Addy possibly dying because of the rationing, Warren decides to take all the drug from the Mennonites to save her two group members.

There is no doubt that this decision will haunt Roberta and may signal a karmic reaction later on.  Before the end credits rolled, Murphy names the baby, Addy and 10K recover, and the latter gets a box of Billy Boy condoms with the promise from Addy that he will not die a virgin, that “girl” is out there somewhere.

We also learn that Lucy is “Plan B” if anything happens to Murphy.  The Asylum have stepped up their game for Z Nation‘s second season. The humor is still there (after Addy tells 10K “Don’t be stupid” Vazquez points to Murphy and the baby and says, “Yeah not like that guy.” He then asks, “how did that happen anyway?” Doc responds, “Man you gotta understand…there was pie.”) only tighter and that little bit slyer than before.

Z Nation airs Fridays on SyFy and now features a baby that looks like a zombie version of a baby Wednesday Addams.  Tune in and see what Lucy and Murphy get up to next and there may just be pie.