SYFY’s latest original horror series Day of the Dead premiered with a terrifying pilot that triumphantly resonated with George A. Romero’s infamous zombie universe. Creators, executive producers, and showrunners Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas have gifted zombie-fanatics with all of the beloved Romero flesh-eater gore, action, humor, and political commentary in a show that boasts the same name as Romero’s 1985 film.
The Meat Lockers | Day of the Dead’s second episode, “Chum,” throws us right back into the morgue basement of the funeral home with Cam McDermott (Keenan Tracey), Lauren Howell (Natalie Malaika), and “Peepaw’s” funeral party. As if things couldn’t get any worst for the trapped group, the “meat lockers” containing the deceased begin to bust at the seams as the dead become the undead. In the same instant, we are reminded that Lauren was served a brutal bite to the neck by zombie Peepaw before she was able to take him out with an urn.
Common knowledge about zombies sets in among the group and Peepaw’s grandson Bobby offers to shoot Lauren before she has the chance to become a walking flesh-eater. The tension is broken when another member of Peepaw’s family decides to take a peek into one of the meat lockers, giving the hungry zombie it contained a chance to escape. Lauren is quick to unload Bobby’s gun onto the zombie, but the zombie prevails.
House Call | Meanwhile, Dr. Jai Fisher (Dejan Loyola) makes a home visit to his 88-year-old patient, Mrs. French (Paula Shaw), to break the news that she has terminal cancer. What begins as a conversation about Mrs. French’s future turns into a discussion about Jai’s. After all, he is to be married to Amy (Kristy Dawn Dinsmore) by the end of the day.
With the help of a liquor bottle disguised in a pink, knitted poodle cozy, Jai spills all about his concerns for his parent’s untimely arrival at the wedding and his insecurities surrounding Amy choosing her strapping ex-boyfriend Shawn (Victor Zinck Jr.) to be her “Man of Honor”. With a little liquid courage and Mrs. French’s sound advice, Jai is prompted to ask Amy if they can delay the wedding for a couple of hours so that Jai’s parents won’t miss the ceremony.
A “Hole” Lot to Clean Up | Back at the Cleargenix drill site, Sarah Blackwood (Morgan Holmstrom) wakes up restrained to a chair after her supervisor Rhodes (Kevin O’Grady) had knocked her out cold to prevent her from further delaying their drilling. Sarah is somehow able to free herself and deliver a revenge punch to Rhodes’ face sending him down to the dirt.
Seconds later, Dr. Logan (Lucia Walters) from Cleargenix arrives and Sarah tells her all about the petrified body and the detective in the hole with it. Dr. Logan retrieves a frightened, beat-up Detective McDermott (Mike Dopud) from the hole, injects him with a sedative, and sends him with Cleargenix. Before leaving, Dr. Logan instructs a frustrated Rhodes to silence Sarah. Rhodes agrees to do so with an eager smile.
Polls are Open | Across town, the Green Mile Retirement Home polling place is open for the current mayoral race and a group of local anti-fracking activists gather at the front doors to protest Cleargenix’s drilling in Mawinhaken land. Mayor Paula Bowman (Miranda Frigon) attempts to go home after placing her vote when she is approached by an angry protestor yielding a jar filled with Cleargenix runoff water.
Paula, her husband Trey (Christopher Russell), and assistant Nicole (Caitlin Stryker) choose to avoid confrontation and go right back into the facility. The persistent protester follows them in, and a nervous Trey ends up accidentally killing him with a ricocheted bullet when he shoots off Paula’s pistol in an attempt to scare the protester.
Cruisin’ for Brews | 18-year-old Luke Bowman (Daniel Doheny) and his friend Trent (Trezzo Mahoro) are on the hunt for booze to bring to the Senior Cut Day party at a nearby lake. After a long morning, the high school seniors convince Trent’s cousin to give them a keg. Determined to have a good time, Luke and Trent park their car at a trailhead near the lake and proceed to drag the heavy keg towards the lakeshore they believe the party to be located; On their way, the boys note not a single soul in sight or car parked anywhere around the trailhead.
Trouble on the Green | After Amy denies Jai of a ceremony delay to accommodate his parents, Jai heads to the Lenape Hills Golf Course and plays a round of golf with his soon-to-be father-in-law Herb (Gary Chalk). Out on the green, we learn not only did Herb pay for Jai and Amy’s home and wedding, but that Herb brought Jai on to his practice.
Herb informs Jai that he no longer intends on retiring and hands Jai a prenup before ditching him on the course. A usually passive Jai finally gets angry and he throws Herb’s club into the forest. Immediately regretting his impulse, Jai heads into the dense woods where he stumbles upon his first sighting of a zombie devouring another golfer. Jai runs away as fast as his legs could take him.
Who Opened the Meat Lockers?! | Danger continues to mount for Cam, Lauren, and the funeral gang who are forced to seek new shelter when a zombie hand begins releasing all of the other hungry zombies from their meat lockers. They soon find that the funeral home is infiltrated further by zombies coming from the cemetery. Cam and Lauren are eventually able to escape in the funeral home’s hearse. The same can’t be said for poor Peepaw’s descendants.
Blackmail | Going back to Grey Mile Retirement Home, Paula, Trey, and Nicole are frantic to clean up the mess that trigger-happy Trey made. They decide to wheel out the dead protester disguised as a Grey Mile resident roll him out the front door. Of course, things never go as planned. In walks Mawinhaken resident Pops Parker (Jay Brazeau) who had been participating in the protest outside. Trey ditches the body in the TV room to avoid suspicion while Paula and Pops hash out her connection to Cleargenix.
Pops blackmails Paula to encourage her to drop out of the race, telling her that she has until 4:30 PM the following day to forfeit before he goes public with information Paula doesn’t want to be exposed. Paula, Trey, and Nicole leave Grey Mile without a second thought about the body they just left back in the TV room. The dead protester turns out to be not so dead after all.
Day of the Dead airs Fridays on SYFY at 10/9c.
