SYFY’s latest horror series Day of the Dead has just wrapped up a thrilling first season, leaving zombie fanatics hanging in a state of exhilarating anticipation from an ending that projects future havoc on the world beyond the small Pennsylvania town of Mawinhaken.
Actor Natalie Malaika, who plays the badass mortician-with-a-mission Lauren Howell, hopped on the horn with PopWire for an exclusive interview to discuss the Season 1 finale episode “Choke On ‘Em,” the show’s deeper meaning behind the gore, and what she wants to see in a second season.
In the span of just twenty-four hours, Mawinhaken became ground zero for a rampant zombie virus that spread through the rural town like a California wildfire. By the end of Season 1, Day of the Dead fans learn that the infectious virus was spread by Mawinhaken’s water source after Cleargenix conducted drilling in what was an underground cave meant to eternally imprison a zombie who had resurrected centuries earlier. Leave it to a big corporation to dredge up a mess for the locals to deal with, am I right?
One of the biggest revelations from the George A. Romero-inspired series was that Cam McDermott’s (Keenan Tracey) zombie-fied dad, Detective McDermott (Mike Dopud), is clinging onto small bites of human consciousness. Recalling the finale episode, Cam is tossed from a tow truck in the middle of a zombie-infested suburbia during a mission to lead the undead to a drill site. McDermott’s dad instincts ultimately conquer his quest for flesh and he saves Cam from zombie mutilation.
When Natalie is asked what her take is on McDermott’s behavior, the actor likens the detective’s “human side” to that of a cat wanting a belly rub. “You don’t know if he’s… like a cat. The cat’s okay one second and then it scratches you!” All jokes aside, Natalie ponders where Day of the Dead writers will take this plot twist. “[It’s] a very new element that they’re exploring,” Natalie says. “It leaves the door wide open.”
McDermott and Cam had a complicated relationship prior to the zombie-pocalypse and it seems that contracting the zombie virus has prompted McDermott to repair his broken bond with Cam. “At the start of the season, [Cam and his father] were struggling with their ability to connect, [but McDermott is] a zombie now and they’ve found this connection,” Natalie points out. “Somewhere in his zombie mind, he has a memory of his son”— a memory that encourages McDermott to make up for his absence in Cam’s life. Viewers might conclude from Cam and McDermott’s tender father-son interactions that maybe zombies can be reformed after all.
Talking about McDermott’s second chance after death brought us to our next topic of discussion – what Natalie defines as death being a catalyst for evolution. As with any well-written horror story, there’s always a deeper meaning to the fear-provoking terror. For the grotesque Day of the Dead series, death is used to catapult more than one of the series’ protagonists into a fit of necessary growing pains.
Natalie designates Amy Fischer (Kristy Dawn Dinsmore) as the character who did the most growth over the course of the season, especially in Episode 10. “All of the [characters’ development] was so unique… The one that had the biggest evolution was Amy… When you first meet her, she is very privileged… [and] gets everything she wants,” Natalie explains. “But by the final episode, she’s out here slaying zombies!” Leading up to Herb’s (Gary Chalk) death, Amy had stood behind her father and allowed him to define who she was in the world. When Herb died, we witnessed an exponential amount of growth occur in Amy, to which Natalie believes “[Herb’s] death was the catalyst.”
Ironically, Amy had tried to carve out space for an identity separate from the one Herb was forcing on her by taking Krav Maga lessons, which Natalie reminds us is “ultimately what she uses to kill her dad.” With the killing of zombie Herb, Amy found her autonomy (and a chainsaw).
When talking about the possibility of Day of the Dead being renewed for Season 2, Natalie says she’s “hoping and praying that we get a second season [to] explore all of… the little tidbits that… are so original to [this] series.” From the possibility of a zombie cure to the background story of Lauren and the other protagonists, the horror series has left us with many avenues to travel. Creator-showrunners Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas have set up Season 2 for just that by ending “Choke On ‘Em” with a tormenting cliffhanger.
Despite survivors Lauren, Sarah (Morgan Holmstrom), Amy, Paula (Miranda Frigon), and Luke’s (Daniel Doheny) best efforts to end the zombie infection from making its way out of Mawinhaken, Dr. Logan, a Cleargenix researcher, injects the zombie virus into her dying daughter at a Pittsburg hospital. Seconds before the finale episode finishes, Dr. Logan’s daughter revives into a white-eyed, flesh fiend ready to send the city of Pittsburg into a state of emergency.
Catch all of Day of the Dead’s Season 1 episodes on SYFY’s official site at SYFY.com or download the free SYFY App.
