Zoo Season 2 Finale Review: The End of the World As We Know It
Carissa Pavlica
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What a great day at the zoo!
There really wasn't much more you could ask for in a finale because between Zoo Season 2 Episode 12 and Zoo Season 2 Episode 13 there were several deaths, a character return, a cure released for the animal apocalypse, a time jump, and well, the end of the world as we know it.
Bravo, Zoo, bravo!!
Things started with the team's decision to stop the Noah Objective. Being reunited with Logan was a surprise, but learning Jamie wasn't a cold blooded killer after all was a relief. He was still fighting for Team Zoo Crew, too, which was another.
Davies: What is this a laser pointer? How pathetically appropriate.
Mitch: He called my bluff.
Jamie: It wasn't a bluff! [truck explodes]
Davies: You just killed the Noah Objective.
I wouldn't have thought it was even possible to do this, but the Zoo Crew appealed to the rational side of General Davies. Would you believe he actually had one?
As nuts as he was, even he knew they couldn't drop the TX gas if the DNA samples of all the animals had been destroyed.
Sergeant, we are not going to kill all of the world's animals if there isn't a way to bring them back.
Davies
His Sergeant wasn't on the same page, and somehow, the Zoo Crew never knew the message they expected Davies to deliver didn't make it. That required suspension of disbelief, but the crew was onto other tasks.
They wanted to cure all of the mutated animals. No Noah Objective meant the world was still crawling with angry animals.
Here's where I have to apologize to the world for being duped by Ken Olin and Robert Oz. I believed in him. I was as big of a patsy as his son, and I didn't even need the guy to love me to feel whole!
What a jerk. His sacrifice wasn't noble at all. He was STILL pulling the wool over the eyes of everyone on that plane, because he had been working with the shepherds to find a way to sterilize the world's population.
He managed to get the Zoo Crew to make the cure and ship it out via the birds in what was a rather lovely ceremonial type moment, and they later had to learn it was only saving the animals. Ouch.
Like I said, I'm sure there's more to this story, and maybe even a way to save Robert's soul. The Glasier's disease Clementine has, for example, it killed people, but what else does it do? There has to be a catch, right?
Because of course that was tied into all of this.
Mitch's discovery that Clementine was all alone in all of this because her mother and stepfather were killed in an animal attack and she was carrying the Ghost Gene meant the gas should have claimed her.
But it didn't. What did I miss in all of that? Admittedly, I was very busy oooohing and aaaaaahing and might have lost sight of some details. First of all, if Clem has the gene, either Mitch (no) or his ex had to have it, right? Genetics. Robert didn't pop it into her neck as he did Jackson.
And the gas spared Clem. Why? Maybe the birds got there first?
Father's sacrificing themselves was a bit of a thing, and Mitch did it with the realization he had really great friends who could look after Clementine.
With Logan's help, they found her, saved her, realized the animals were cured and reunited the animals with their owners. Poor Clem. The awful things she said about her dad at first before she knew he was dead (or not) were so perfectly childlike.
I don't want to see him. I mean it. He said he would save the animals, and he didn't.
Her inclusion was important to ensuring everyone paid attention to the animals. She never stopped loving and fighting for Henry. She's my kind of girl.
I have to wonder. Would dog lovers be that jaded by their own pets so soon that they would be unable to tell the difference between an angry mutant and a beloved pet desperate to see and be touched by their best friend?
That scene tore me apart.
And then the setup for Zoo Season 3. It felt a little weird. Did the season originally end with the end of the world?
Jackson: My father always said one day said that the animals would reclaim the planet. He made sure that his TX gas formula would help them do that.
Jamie: Yeah, by eliminating us.
Jackson: My father just ended the world.
There was no explanation about where Clem was during the 11 years we lost. Did she live with Jamie? If so, wouldn't Abe have seen her now and again? Why was she a complete stranger?
Thank GOD Mitch didn't die, because that was too much. I was in denial over that. Zoo isn't Zoo without Billy Burke. It will be amazing to see him doing his thing with Clem by his side.
Will Dariela stay home because she's raising a child? Not just any child, but one of the last children to be born on the planet. Very Children of Men, the closing of the last open elementary school, the end of rights of passage we've had for hundreds of years, other even more than that.
Jackson is off hunting the hybrids. Don't you just picture him in cargo shorts and a khaki rounded hat, a rifle at the ready? He probably blames himself for a lot of what's happened because he believed anything his father had to say.
What a great way to close out a season and whet our appetites for another. You know, I had so many witty things to say in this review, right up until the moment Mitch had tears in his eyes and was knocked to the ground by the hybrids.
The wind was taken out of my sails, you know? From exciting and fun to...dang. They just killed my Mitch. Zoo is never boring, always fun and often emotional. It's perfect summer programming and has yet to let me down. How about you?
If you need to catch up, you can watch Zoo online via TV Fanatic. You won't be disappointed. And there's another season on the way!
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.
