Z Nation Exclusive: Russell Hodgkinson Discusses Doc’s Love Life, Zombie Kills, and Shenanigans
“Doc has another crazy flash back….or rather, flash forward….don’t miss it!” was Russell Hodgkinson’s sneak peek of the shenanigans Doc will get dragged into while off on his own.
The end of “They Grow Up So Quickly” saw Doc and Addy (Anastasia Baranova) parting ways—Doc to find a radio tower to try to contact Citizen Z, and Addy to chase down The Man (Joseph Gatt), who has kidnapped Murphy’s (Keith Allan) daughter, Lucy (Madelyn Grace Obermeier/Bea Corley). In episode 11 of season 3 of Z Nation, we’ll follow Doc’s adventures:
Doc tries to find a way to communicate with Warren, but instead encounters something much more menacing
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Take a look at the menace in the promo below, and read on for more of our interview with Russell!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Own9MCxFZvI&w=620&h=349]
The Man is a pretty big, intense character, who, as we know from our chat with Anastasia Baranova, becomes Addy’s arch-nemesis. Will Doc run into him again before the end? “Well,” said Russell, “I’ve already had my run-in with him in the flashback movie. I go a different direction, and go into another episode altogether.” That episode is, of course, episode 3×11, “Doc’s Angels.”
What about 10K (Nat Zang)?! He might as well be Doc’s own son, and Doc was pretty upset upon finding that Murphy had bitten him. Then we saw Murphy forcing 10K to bow to his will in “They Grow Up So Quickly,” so we don’t know if 10K would even recognize Doc anymore!
10K’s current mission (I read through the paper he was holding) is to find Warren (Kellita Smith) and bring her to Murphy, so he’s not after Doc at the moment, but will they run into each other? “Yes, they will,” Russell confirmed. Speaking of Doc’s biological son (mentioned in episode 4 of season 1, “Full Metal Zombie”), we won’t be learning anything more about him in season 3, at least.
We of course wonder whether the gang will reunite in, if not before, the season finale, and Russell told us, “I think that’s when we reunite, in the season finale, actually,” qualifying that, “honestly, it just becomes one big story and I forget where exactly we reunite.” Whenever they reunite, Operation Bitemark won’t end the season scattered.
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Now, one of the most iconic things about Z Nation are the gory, creative zombie kills. None of the rote repetitiveness we see in other zombie franchises. So, what was Russell’s favorite zombie kill by Doc? “I liked the Shocker Zombie in ‘Doc Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ where I electrocuted him. That was pretty good, cause then the wheelchair caught on fire, and flew down the hall . . . ” Pretty darn iconic, in my book.
Of all the zombie kills in the show, though, Russell’s favorite was the eggbeater to the face, performed by Addy in episode 6 of season 1, “Resurrection Z.” “Shocker Zombie for me, but eggbeater overall.” He also liked the safety flare to the head, seen in the most recent episode, “They Grow Up So Quickly.”
Catch Z Nation in all its cheesy, gory glory Fridays at 9/8c on Syfy!