The cracks are already beginning to show in ZOO’S second episode, as the show struggles to toe the line between the serious end of the world thriller it wants to be and the laughably ridiculous premise it has.
In Botswana, Jackson is locked up in jail for interfering with the hunter from last episode. Well, at least he is for all of five minutes before being released again in order to investigate the lions odd behavior. He laments the loss of his friend, Abraham, before noticing that he somehow has a missed call from him, making him guess that Abraham is still alive.
Going back to where the lions attacked them, Jackson and the other hunters follow a trail of fresh blood that leads them to find Abraham up in a tree. Rescuing Abraham, everyone returns back to camp, where Jackson discusses his fathers research with a doctor, his mum. Jackson believes that Abraham was only maimed and left in a tree so that they could rescue him and he would serve as a message to everyone else; that the animals aren’t afraid of humans anymore and are starting to fight back. Jackson’s mum inspects the bodies of the lions victims, discovering that none of the kills were clean, instead of going for the throat the lions made sure the people suffered. She sends Jackson and Abraham off to Japan in search of the rest of her husbands research.
Meanwhile Jamie and Mitch’s investigation uncovers some more odd behavior from the lions in the zoo. Jamie has done some more snooping into Reiden Global and a chemical that may be causing the animals violent behavior, unfortunately while being distracted by her tenant who is demanding the rent, her computer is unknowingly hacked into and all her research is copied by an unknown person. Jamie has a personal reason for attacking Reiden Global specifically, vaguely revealing to Mitch that they “murdered” her hometown.
Admittedly I had never heard of the book in which the show is based on, so I have no idea where the show is heading or what it was going to be about when it started last week. Based on the premise I just assumed that it was going to be some global pandemic causing animals to go crazy and attack everyone around the world but now the show is starting to introduce all these conspiracy theories into the story, combined with unnecessary drama for the characters. Chloe, the tourist caught up in the lion attacks with Jackson, returns to Paris and is confronted by her sister, who just so happens to be the person who is sleeping with Chloe’s ex fiancee. It’s unnecessary and cheesy, a poor attempt to give the character some emotional baggage. Instead it would have been much more interesting exploring the characters shock or possible guilt at being the only survivor of the lion attack last episode, something which the episode only slightly explores with a nightmarish dream sequence.
The fine balancing act between goofy and serious is something the show is still trying to find out, natural for a show only in its second episode. However it’s a bigger issue for ZOO as its talented cast deliver serious performances in a show that can’t help but showcase its own goofiness from time to time. Take the final line in this episode for example, where a mysterious man tells Chloe that he needs her to come with him and that “The fate of the world may hinge on it”. That’s a bold statement for the show to make, especially considering we still don’t really know what’s going on; it’s the same with Jackson’s fathers research. Everyone talks on the show about his research and how crazy it is but Jackson now believes it may be the key to what is going on but I have to agree with the opinion that it’s all crazy talk. Unless we’re missing something, all the so called ‘research’ he did is just him talking about his theory but how did he actually come to this conclusion?
The rest of the episode gives way to a boring side story involving a British couple in Slovenia who are trying to adopt a child. They take him to the circus to watch the lions and there’s a nice bit of misdirection here, where you think that there will be an incident here. Instead, an incident happens after the circus, where the father follows a dog outside after it carries away his adopted sons toy. Being lured into an abandoned building, the man uncovers bodies littered all around him, before being surrounded by a pack of angry dogs. Why this episode decided to devote so much time to what was obviously a prolonged ‘victim of the week’ was frustrating, let alone the reveal of the killer dogs was laughably absurd. Actually, absurd seems to sum up ZOO perfectly. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
