“Some days, you try to do good. Some days, you survive. And there are other days when you pray. Pray to forget there’s no mercy for the living. Like so many billions of souls, the past is gone. But you try not to think about it. But sometimes, our darkest moments hold the key to our future.” | Warren’s (Kellita Smith) emotional monologue kicks No Mercy off. While she speaks, we see flashes of 10K (Nat Zang) running after a girl clothed entirely in red (Natalie Jongjaroenlarp). 10K’s face is covered in blood, except for around his eyes, where his goggles must have been. Then we see 10K being pinned to the ground, by zombies or humans, we don’t know. His face is twisted in pain and despair. And the last flash shows the girl in red running headlong at a group of zombies, wielding a club.
Now the stage changes dramatically. We see a very vibrant landscape, and people lounging around a pool. An old, withered hand takes a phone off a table, and calls someone. A bald man (Joseph Gatt) in a suit, in a barren landscape answers, “The Man.” The Man then pulls out a list, and says that there’s “just one more.” He looks into a shipping container, which is full of chained people with bags over their heads.
We next see a car drive up to the gates of an encampment. A sign nearby says Mercy Sciences. A boy (Holden Goyette) with wild hair and raggedy clothes follows the car at a distance. The Man gets out of the car, and tells the people at the gates that he needs to speak to Dr. Harold Teller (Frank Boyd). The people whom he works for need to speak with Dr. Teller, and have authorized him to use any means necessary to get him. The Kid we saw earlier hurtles a rock at The Man, who dodges it, and then shoots him in the head with a rubber bullet, knocking him out.
The girl in red tells The Man that The Kid is her brother. The Man makes a new demand: he’ll return in 24 hours to trade The Kid for Dr. Teller. The Man loads The Kid into his trunk, and drives away. The girl in red yells at a man in the crowd—Dr. Teller was hiding amongst them.
I know, I know, you’re thinking, When are we going to get back to Delta Xray Delta, and the people we actually care about?! Patience, grasshopper. We’ll see them very soon.
The Kid awakens in the trunk of The Man’s car, and manages to open it. The Kid rolls onto the ground and runs back through the fields toward Mercy Sciences, and collides head-on with 10K. 10K hauls The Kid back to where the rest of the group is, and we see a big zombie fight, featuring Warren, 10K, Addy (Anastasia Baranova), Doc (Russel Hodgkinson), Murphy (Keith Allan), Cassandra (Pisay Pao), and Lucy. The fact that Lucy is with the group puts this episode sometime between Zombaby! and Zombie Baby Daddy, episodes 5 and 6 of season 2.
“He was raised by crows—I mean, literally, he was raised by a murder of crows.” | After they’ve dealt with the zombies, 10K and Addy say they want to go with The Kid, and see if they can help. Warren decides that they have to keep pressing on. Just then, The Kid snatches 10K’s rifle, and takes off running. When 10K catches up to him, the girl in red whacks him with her club. The three tussle for a while, until the others finally arrive to drag the two off 10K.
“Is this the part where I drop my pants and show you the tattoo on my ass? You know, the one that says ‘Never Get Off the Boat?'” | Once they’ve all calmed down, the girl in red explains the situation to the group. The Kid tells the girl in red about his escape, through a series of caws—I’m talking actual crow caws, not saying “caw.” The group decides to go to Mercy Sciences, at least to get some supplies and weaponry. Murphy, of course, is vehemently opposed to this plan, because he knows, as we do, that they’ll inevitably stay and help.
The group enters the camp. It’s built around a pharmacy lab and its surrounding buildings. Warren meets with Dr. Teller, the founder and CEO of Mercy Sciences, who offers them fuel and a vehicle in exchange for help in defending their little village.
The girl in red tells 10K that she’s not really The Kid’s sister, and that she found him living with crows. She also shares that her name is Red. She wears red because “nothing says ‘I’ll kill you in a heartbeat’ like the color red.”
Murphy is rocking Lucy, when he starts hearing whispers of “kill us…” and “mercyyy…” Murphy leaves Lucy with Cassandra, and sets off in search of the source. They get louder and louder, then suddenly stop at the sound of a car door shutting. Murphy heads back to the gate, and we see The Man with a body slung across his shoulders.
“Gotta admit, the Romans did have style.” | The Man spots The Kid in the crowd, and says that they came back to make sure he was alright. One of Mercy’s guards had misunderstood his intent, and had to be killed. The Man suggests they hand Dr. Teller over now to avoid any further miscommunications. He says he’ll be back at the end of the original 24-hour period. If they don’t present Dr. Teller, he’ll find him, through process of elimination.
Murphy sets a sleeping Lucy in her cooler-crib and tells Cassandra to watch her. He sets off again to find the source of the whispers.
10K and Red head out to relieve Doc and Addy of guard duty. Suddenly, up pops The Kid, dressed in a very good 10K costume, hair blackened and all. Doc nicknames him 5K, and the two numbers and the color head off to patrol.
Doc, Warren, and Dr. Teller talk about a defense strategy. Teller says that he has no idea who the people who The Man works for are, nor what they want with him. Warren decides the best course of action is to fortify the lab, but Teller tells her that it’s contaminated.
“Fertilizer, gasoline, zombies. Zombie dynamite.” | Warren, Addy, and Doc scope out a supply building. Warren reminds Addy of encountering a silo full of zombies and fertilizer in Kansas, and Addy sets out to make zombie dynamite.
Murphy realizes that the pained whispers are coming from the lab. He enters and finds a door with a window at the end of the hall. He looks in, and finds several vaguely humanoid creatures covered in lumps and growths and blue, glowing fungus. Murphy can hear their thoughts, and they’re begging him to give them mercy. As Murphy reels from their cries, the door to the lab opens, and Dr. Teller and several others enter. They’re wearing hazmat suits, and demand to know what he’s doing in there. Murphy in turn demands to know why they haven’t mercied the zombies. Teller tells Murphy that they aren’t zombies, and that they’re human inside. He doesn’t believe that Murphy can hear their thoughts, until the creature who used to be Teller’s wife talks to Murphy about their son.
Back in his own house, Teller tells Doc, Addy, Warren, and Murphy more about the people in the lab. He and his wife, Sarah, were working to find a fungus-based cure for the zombie virus. They managed to create something that stopped the zombie virus, but had horrific side effects. When zombies overran the lab, there was an explosion that contaminated the whole lab with the zombie cure fungus. Not everyone had gotten out in time, and were contaminated. The fungus stops the virus, but spreads uncontrollably throughout your body. He had no choice but to quarantine them, and has been trying to take care of them since. Murphy realizes that the reason Teller is so resistant to leaving is that without him, the quarantined people will die.
Out on guard duty, 10K teaches The Kid how to use a slingshot. He’s a natural at it.
Warren, Murphy, Doc, and Addy discuss their plans. Murphy is all for getting out of there, but Warren thinks they have a good enough defense plan to scare The Man away.
“It’s the apocalypse, baby. Roll with it.” | Still on babysitting duty, Cassandra is at a loss for how to get Lucy to stop crying. Then, she has an idea. Addy and Doc walk by, and note, jaws agape, that she’s doing something that should not be physically possible. She’s breastfeeding Lucy?! It’s safe to say that this is one of the weirder things that’s happened on this show.
Warren heads to the perimeter, where Red, The Kid, and 10K are. She tells them that she’s going to check around the perimeter, then meet up with them. She spots The Man walking away from her, and follows. When she catches up to him, she discovers that it’s actually a zombie dressed like The Man! The Man then knocks her out from behind.
At dawn, Addy discovers Warren’s machete in the ground outside the perimeter, and realizes she must have been taken.
The Man calls the person at the poolside again, telling them to have the transport standing by. He then enters his shipping container, where Warren is hooded and chained with the others. He uncovers Warren’s head, and she tells him that Teller would be willing to go with him, but he doesn’t want to leave his wife. The Man doesn’t care, and says that he has a schedule to keep.
Addy and Doc know that The Man is going to try to trade Warren for Teller, but they decide to stick with the plan. The survivors finish up their last-minute preparations for the attack. Murphy, Cassandra, and Lucy sit in the lab hallway. Teller gives them hazmat suits to put on, which all the other survivors are wearing too.
10K and Red, stationed outside the perimeter, spot The Man’s car and a semi truck approaching, and signal Doc. Red then realizes that The Kid has snuck off.
The Man tells his men that he hopes they will all meet again soon, in Zona. (That’s the zombie-free island Dr. Merch’s sub was from!)
“Just like The 300. Minus a few hundred.” | The semi truck points its trailer at Mercy’s barricade, and The Man approaches. He tells Doc that if he gives him Teller, The Man will give him Warren. Doc demands proof of life, and The Man radios the man guarding the container, telling him to put Warren on the radio. We then see the guard sprawled on the ground, radio by his hand. The Kid runs up and grabs the guard’s keys, and The Man gets impatient. Finally, we hear Warren saying that she’s alive, but that the guard isn’t anymore. And she’s coming for The Man next.
The back of the semi trailer opens, and a few dozen zombies pour out. The survivors are behind a barricade behind the gates, with full-body shields made of sheet metal, and lots of guns. They kill off the zombies fairly easily, and none are bit.
Red, 10K, The Kid, and Warren, are running back to the camp, when 10K and The Kid get separated from Warren and Red by zombies. Warren assures Red that 10K will protect The Kid, and they make it to the barricade. Just then, The Man blows the semi horn, and more zombies come out of the semi. But these won’t be so easy to kill. There are 6 of them, their heads completely covered by metal helmets, and all on chains held by a man with a whip. After fruitlessly firing away and not killing any, they brace against the shieldbearers to prevent the zombies from breaking through. Red and Addy throw bags of something into open barrels facing the barricade, and on Warren’s signal, they light them off. The rest of the group opens the shield wall to let the zombies through, and the makeshift cannons take care of all 6 zombies.
Or so it seems.
The Man picks up the zombie-driver’s body, and cracks the whip. The zombies stumble to their feet, and The Man lets the chains loose. The members of the camp, all wearing hazmat suits, retreat to the lab. Teller’s wife leads Teller, Murphy, and Cassandra (and Lucy, in her cooler) to a room where she says they’ll be safe. She then leaves to help the others.
The Man’s men drive the helmeted zombies into the lab, and begin searching for Teller.
Outside, 10K and The Kid skulk around the abandoned camp. They spot The Man standing outside the lab, and The Kid hits him in the heart with a gear from a slingshot. It should have penetrated his chest, but instead barely stuck into him. 10K grabs The Kid, and they take shelter in an abandoned building. Suddenly, they are attacked by a zombie wearing hazmat gear. 10K kills it, then they sneak out the back as The Man enters. The Man finds a roll of tape and plastic sheeting, and takes the hazmat face guard from the corpse.
“And that’s why he’s called The Man.” | In the lab, Sarah returns to Murphy, Cassandra, and Teller. She’s been wounded in the chest. She asks Teller to end her suffering. Teller takes off his gloves and mask, kisses her one last time, and gives her mercy. Moments later, The Man blows a hole through a wall and enters the room Teller is in. He’s covered in plastic and duct tape, wearing the hazmat mask. Teller refuses to go with The Man, and tries to shoot himself in the head. He’s out of bullets, however, and The Man knocks him out and carries him away.
The battle is still raging inside. The quarantined kill as many of The Man’s men as they encounter, and Doc fights off zombies, both in metal helmets and in hazmat suits.
Outside, 10K and The Kid flee from the zombies that have flooded the camp. They find themselves surrounded, and fend them off back-to-back. Suddenly, 10K realizes that The Kid isn’t behind him anymore. He can’t see him anywhere.
Warren, Doc, Addy, Murphy, Lucy, Cassandra, and Red get out of the lab, and realize that they are the only survivors. They see a helicopter carrying The Man’s container of people away. As they strip their hazmat suits off, 10K walks toward them, his face covered in blood, except where his goggles had covered his eyes. Red knows by his expression that The Kid is dead, but refuses to believe it. She runs the way he came from, and he follows her.
“Sometimes we forget the worst thing that can happen to you in the apocalypse. The worst thing that can happen to you isn’t dying, or turning zombie. The worst thing is surviving. But sometimes, that’s all we got.” | Warren resumes her voiceover monologue, and we see again what we saw at the beginning of the movie. Cassandra tackles 10K to keep him from running headlong at the horde of zombies. Red meets them, and starts bashing heads with her club. Then—
We see the building with the pool. The helicopter drops the container off, and the doctors are led inside by a woman in a swimsuit. Another woman takes the bags off their heads, and the old person’s lips smile.
The last scene shows The Kid sprawled on the ground, covered in blood, but no visible wounds. Crows surround him.