After last weeks anticlimactic ending, ZOO finishes off the dangling story lines it’s left hanging.
Working around the modest budget that the TV industry offers, ZOO has had to come up with ways to keep the conflict at the head of the show; animals versus humans, interesting. But with less than desirable CGI (those bats particularly look horrendous when doing anything but staying still) the show has written in some half developed human antagonists for our heroes to face. ZOO had a semi decent antagonist within Evan Lee Hartley but unfortunately has now squandered that chance by killing him off in this episode. His demise comes as he’s forcing an eye doctor to retrieve something from his eye to than… Put it back in? Honestly, I’m a little confused; ZOO delivers its exposition so haphazardly and in such a rushed manner, it’s like being around someone who is in such a rush to tell you something potentially interesting that they stumble over their own words.
Replacing Hartley as the shows antagonist for about five minutes is Agent Ben Shaffer, who apparently is working for Reiden Global, because the show needs someone to be actively against the group. Before his betrayal makes any sense or can be processed, he’s quickly shot by Jamie, and that’s the end of that. Likewise with Silva, the gangster in Rio De Janeiro who’s imprisoned Mitch and Chloe. To establish that he’s not very nice, he shoots a rat… And that’s about it. He’s merely a bookmark so the Mitch and Chloe story line can wait for the ‘mother cell’ story line to catch up.
It’s not all bad though, as the show included one of the most hilariously unintentional animal attacks this week. A woman walks around her apartment, unaware of the GIANT BEAR BEHIND HER. Apparently not making any noise at all, this ninja bear surprises her in the kitchen and she locks herself in the cupboard, desperately trying to get her phone that’s sitting on the counter top. I’ve said it before but ZOO keeps wasting time on random animal attacks, mainly because the main plot is so paper thin but if they’re to demonstrate how animals around the world are changing they could make them more exciting. This episodes attack amounted to nothing more than; bear attacks woman, woman hides in cupboard, bear falls asleep. The end.
Honestly though, Billy Burke had some nice moments as Mitch, who’s continued arrogance/sarcasm has yet to get grating. The show thankfully added some depth to the character by expanding on the daughter subplot we saw before. His confession to Chloe and subsequent phone call home was well delivered by Burke, who’s perhaps the best actor on the show and now the most well developed character.
