“…he’s finally decided to take charge of his own life and his own mission.”
That’s how Keith Allan, star of Syfy’s zombie apocalypse series, Z Nation, describes where his character, Murphy, is currently at.
OMFGTV had the opportunity to chat with Allan about what viewers can expect from episode 7 of season 3, titled, “Welcome to Murphytown.”
“I think one of the things that’s interesting about this [episode] is we first get to see Murphy really taking charge of his camp—it’s really starting to come together now,” Allan tells us. “And he’s really learning what it takes to be the boss.
Allan says that while Murphy is feeling a little pressure, he’s really enjoying the progress that he’s making, adding, “he’s also enjoying taking charge of his own life and his whole situation. So it’s a double-edged sword for him, because he’s finally getting to be his own boss, but at the same time, he’s having to be his own boss, so he’s really realizing how much work this whole thing is gonna take.”
The Man (Joseph Gatt), who has been lurking in the background of the first half of season 3, also finally catches up with Murphy in this episode, which “throws a wrench into the thing, because he knows that this man is a force to be dealt with, and from the get-go, Murphy is very unsure of what this guy’s intentions are when he shows up.”
What about Murphy’s intentions behind trying to vaccinate everyone he possibly can? We’ve been wondering if he really has the survival of humankind in mind, or if he’s just trying to make his blend army the biggest it possibly can be, for his own personal gain. Allan was able to shed some light on the subject.
“You know, I really believe it’s a little bit of both,” he says. “I think that he is trying to save—well, he’s not really trying to save humanity itself. He’s trying to create a new world. Because I don’t think he sees—and I think, you know, partially rightly so—that humanity has much of a chance of surviving.”
“Since all humans contain the virus already, people, eventually, when they die, are going to turn into zombies,” he continues. “And so Murphy is taking this opportunity to really sort of say, ‘Wait a minute, let’s look at the bigger picture here. Maybe this is evolution, and human beings are on their way out. And what will survive, and be stronger, is a blend society.’ So I don’t think it’s quite as selfish as it might appear on the surface. I think he actually has good intentions about wanting to save the world, per se, but it’s just not the world that everyone thinks that it’s gonna be.”
Something that’s taken a bit of getting used to this season is seeing Murphy opposing Warren (Kellita Smith) and the gang, instead of working with them. They’re almost looking at each other as enemies these days. Murphy is getting ready for a siege or a battle, and Warren is trying to track Murphy down in an attempt to stop him from filling the world with blends.
Allan tells us that this opposition has been hard for Murphy, because he has conflicted feelings about it. “I don’t think he sees them as enemies,” he says, “but they certainly are, you know, the problem for him. He’s so close to them, and they’ve been through so much together that to say that they’re just his enemy now, it’s just too easy.”
“It’s much deeper than that,” he continues. “I mean, he respects Warren, and he respects what she’s trying to do, but he thinks she’s wrong. He thinks that her mission has failed, and she won’t let it go, and he’s finally decided to take charge of his own life and his own mission. So I wouldn’t say that they’re enemies, but they certainly are getting in the way of him trying to do what he thinks is right.”
Lastly, there’s lots of brain-eating goodness in Z Nation: “Welcome to Murphytown,” so of course we had to ask what those brains are actually made of. Allan’s response? “Gross sh*t.” Specifically, a very dense gelatin substance, and eating them is “like eating erasers, like a mouthful of erasers.” He then told us, “I try my best not to swallow it—as soon as the cameras stop rolling, I spit them out.”
Be sure to tune in to Z Nation: “Welcome to Murphytown,” to see Keith Allan eat gross eraser brains, catch up with Addy (Anastasia Baranova), Warren, Hector (Emilio Rivera), and Citizen Z (DJ Qualls), and watch The Man use those muscles for some pretty gruesome stuff.
Z Nation airs Fridays at 9/8c on Syfy.