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"Z Nation" Review: "We Were Nowhere Near The Grand Canyon" S2 Ep10

Liz Robinson
Nov 14, 2015
4 min read

The storm has come, thank heavens for casinos....

***Spoilers***

Welcome back Citizen Z (DJ Qualls). We have contact. After the nukes are set off at the end of season one the group lost contact with Citizen Z and so did the audience. But last night on Z Nation through Addy’s (Anastasia Baranova) persistence they made contact and there for so did we. Somehow out of nowhere Citizen Z’s isolated base has been a bit overrun by some zombies. Being that he is an awkward man with little to no contact with the zombies that plague the earth it takes him the whole episode to kill four zombies, but even with all the zombie killing, he is able to give the group the coordinates to the California lab.

The episode starts with some badass zombie killing with Warren (Kellita Smith) and Vasquez (Matt Cadeño). That quickly turns into a full on kissing fest between the two. This, of course, turns out to just be Warren’s dream. So here we go, Warren has yet anther crush on one of her team members. At least, when it was Garnett (Tom Everett Scott) it strengthened the story but this time, Vasquez could easily just be an insert. So the attraction between Warren and him just seems like a ploy to get more views and not a fully formed plot device.

So after Warren wakes up from her dream we find ourselves in a camper that has just crapped out on the group just as a massive Zombie dust storm is rolling in. They are forced to split up so of course 10k (Nat Zang) and Doc (Russell Hodgkinson) pair up and head off into the hills on foot while the rest head off toward an old casino on A.T.V.s and no I have no idea where the A.T.V.s came from.

To Warren’s surprise, the casino is far from empty. In fact, it’s got half a tribe of local Native American’s. Thank the stars the actors who play the Native Americans are of Native American heritage. The guards at the parameters tell the group to leave, but Warren quickly talks her way in by playing up that they are good Samaritans here to warn them about the massive zombie horde. Once inside they are taken to the leader of the tribe Red Hawk (Eddie Spears).

As Warren tries to explain the true danger of the massive miles deep horde of zombies heading right for them Red Hawk refuses to leave his tribe's land. He is convinced that their defenses will be enough.

Meanwhile, 10k and Doc find themselves in a bit of a pickle. A man on a horse knocks them both out and takes them prisoner. We soon find out that the man on the horse is Red Hawk’s son Danny (Gene Tagaban) who believes "white men" are evil and are the reason behind the zombie apocalypse. Luckily for Doc and 10k Danny’s sister Ayalla (Tinsel Korey) steps in, saves them, and takes them to the infirmary where 10k gets some bonding time with her and Doc gets high on peyote with Kuruk (Tonantzin Carmelo) the tribes medicine women. After 10k and Doc are all “healed” up Danny and his men demand that they leave. The two of them try to do as they asked, but get trapped and used by Danny and his men as zombie bait.

As the first of many zombies to come waddles toward them Doc concentrates real hard and there for astral projects his Native American spirit and kills the zombie with a strong whack to the head. Sadly the peyote starts to wear off and he can’t astral project anymore. The next zombie comes close to biting them, but Ayalla saves them just in time as she shoots the zombie right between the eyes with her bow and arrow. I am a big fan of seeing the women saving the day time and time again. Doc, 10K, and Ayalla ride down to the casino on horseback. I love the short cut scene of them riding in a valley. I think it added a much need artistic element to this episode. These small artistic pieces are what make ‘Z Nation’ so unique.

The three to them make it to the casino and regroup with everyone. At this point the horde is so close it’s almost too late to vacate the casino. But the group gets ready to run anyways. With them, they take most of the tribe. Red Hawk stays behind to go down with his metaphorical ship. Ayalla and Danny cry for their father. After seeing how his father’s stubborn nature ends him Danny has a change of heart and welcomes the group. Together they distract the horde of zombies away from the hills. They use the same technique Danny and Ayalla’s ancestors used to herd buffalo (fire and the sound of drums). It works and the horde is detoured away from the hills and to the edge of the cliffs.

As the Zombie horde nears the edge Murphy (Keith Allan) freaks out and tries to save them because they can feel pain. Just good old Murphy being crazy again, right? Well maybe not. We have seen a lot of evidence to support Murphy’s claim, but still Warren is right “it’s either us or them” and Murphy is going to need to decide if he wants to be a human or a zombie.