Z Nation Season 4 Episode 8 Review: Crisis Of Faith
Ron Gilmer
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Oh, Canada!
Z Nation Season 4 Episode 8 strays even farther away from Warren's mission east, this time all the way to the Great White North.
The dueling tones of the episode didn't really work for me this time.
What has made Z Nation compelling so far is the decidedly more dramatic take on the crew's journey.
The mystery behind Warren's terrifying visions of the black rainbow, and the rain of ash that burns everyone to cinders, is a great story arc for the season.
Most shows with such an arc usually sprinkle in standalone episodes, because doing such a highly serialized show week in and week out is sometimes hard to follow. I get it.
Z Nation Season 4 Episode 7 took a wacky side trip to Juggalo-land, and it felt like a step back to me.
It had its moments, but overall I think it stalled the narrative momentum the show had built up to that point.
Sadly, another step back was taken here IMO.
Aside from this conversation between Warren and Murphy, very little was advanced on the black rainbow front.
You were there in Zona. You were awake. What did they do to me? Because, if these dreams are true, then nowhere is safe. Not even Newmerica.
Warren [to Murphy]
The look on Murphy's face during this back and forth suggests Murphy knows more than he's willing to admit about what happened to Warren at the hands of the Zona scientists.
If so, it will surely come out, which will put the hard-earned trust they have in each other to the test.
That trust was further strengthened when Murphy and Warren had a mind meld of sorts, with Murphy experiencing first hand the horrific visions that have plagued Warren from the beginning of the season.
Murphy: What I felt, what you've been feeling. You been feeling that this whole time?
Warren: Yeah.
Murphy: Whatever it is, are we going towards it, or away from it?
Warren: I don't know.
Murphy will now follow Warren's lead wherever she wants to go, as evidenced at the end when she leaves the group (again!) to head east. Murphy is now totally Team Warren, which is a good sign.
The cheap Canada jokes at the beginning were stale and predictable.
The Hockey player Zs, Canadian Mountie Zs, and Nun Zs hearkened back to the more gonzo earlier episodes, but now they seem strangely out of place.
Those gags have been done on the show many times before, so it doesn't seem as fresh or funny to me anymore.
The same goes for all the religious funny-business with the nun Zs.
I'm not the least bit religious, so maybe the jokes would be funnier to those who are, or maybe they would be offended by them.
Skewering religion is a long-held comedic trope, so I imagine it would get a reaction, good or bad, out of a large portion of the audience.
The crux of the episode, using religion as the jumping-off point, is to examine Warren's crisis of faith in her new mission.
The grave robber Louis' purpose is primarily for exposition, and to use his life story as a teaching moment for Warren, who is questioning the validity of her quest to stop the black rainbow destruction.
Have any of you ever heard of Saint Teresa of Avila? There is a relic here, A bone from the finger. It's supposed to cure the sick.
Louis
The evidence is mounting that Warren may not be entirely human anymore and is possibly a robot/Z/human hybrid.
She is compelled to follow her "programming," and it's messing with her head big-time.
So the story of Louis, a regular guy who is just trying to make his life have some meaning, touches Warren deeply.
Warren: How do you know you're doing something good, or you're just delusional?
Louis: I don't.
In the end, Warren is once again convinced that she is the only one alive who can save the world from whatever the Zona scientists have planned.
The "miracle" of finding the dead girl who looked exactly like Lucy, holding the relic of Saint Teresa, was pretty cheesy.
I expected a better conclusion.
So it's off to the east again. I was getting a little tired of the will they/won't they aspect of going east, so I hope they stick with it once and for all.
The b-side hit us right off the top: Zona is invading Camp Northern Light, with Kaya in the Skya hustling her Gram and son (little Jay Z!) to safety while getting out a distress signal to Operation Bite Mark.
Thanks to Louis, the crew got a battery, and they were able to hear Kaya's distress broadcast, but were unable to respond.
All in all, I found this episode disappointing. The religious overtones were meh, and the stale Canadian Z stuff didn't mesh well together.
Random Bites:
- Still no Red, Sun, or Addy.
- Also missing from Camp Northern Light was Uncle Koukou, along with Citizen Z.
- Murphy pretty much sums up his life so far:
I got issues.
Murphy
And Doc gives us the "Line of the Night":
Look at these two hosers. Take off, eh?
Doc
That's my take: tell me yours. Did the Canadian Z stuff work for you? What about the religious angle? Fire away in the comments section.
As always, you can watch Z Nation online, anytime, right here on TV Fanatic!
