The gang’s back together as they hunt down bears in Paris.
Continuing to add some depth to our unruly gang of misfits, ZOO tries to repeat what it did last week with Mitch by revealing that Abraham was part of a rebel army as a thirteen year old, while Chloe butts heads with her ex husband. Abraham telling Chloe that as an initiation he was told to shoot one of his brothers, and that his decision to shoot neither, resulting in both of their deaths, felt like one of the oddest reveals of the show yet. It arrived in an episode that had bears with impenetrable skin, skin that bent needles and caused darts to just bounce off their bodies, creating some unintentional comedy. Abraham’s particularly dark and depressing confession was at such odds with the rest of the episode it came out of nowhere, like the ninja bear that the gang run some tests on in this episode. Yes, after sneaking around and attacking a woman in her home last week, the bear has decided to go into hibernation, leading Mitch to conduct some tests.
Meanwhile, Chloe’s run in with her ex, who helps them with their case in Paris, ended up going nowhere. It lacked the emotion of Mitch’s previous phone call home or the randomness of Abraham’s story. It was just kind of… There. Nora Arnezeder’s acting has been the weakest of the bunch and the writing for her character didn’t help here. You wouldn’t think that this man had run off with her sister and left her after the wedding, instead it was more like they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other for a while.
It seems the only character the show really cares about is Mitch, as he continues to be developed even more here, beyond the erratic scientist he started out as. Now in possession of the mother cell and uncovering the fact that it’s speeding up animals natural developments, Mitch calls Reiden Global wanting to make a deal; he’ll give them it if they supply his daughter with the medicine she needs. It’s not a very surprising betrayal, Mitch has always been self centered, and it’s a development that’s happened pretty quickly, but it’s a conflict that for once didn’t feel entirely forced and it at least can now take the story in some interesting directions.
Hopefully the next couple of episodes will look to give Jackson and Jamie some well needed backstory they can delve into. Jamie had been skating on the journalist persona for too long, while Jackson’s most interesting potential plot thread; his relationship with his father and how his fathers work killed their bond and eventually him, has seemingly been dropped.
