Z Nation is really checking all the boxes of the horror genre, from torture basements and forests full of monsters, and now an insane asylum! If Doc’s recap of Z Nation: Doc Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (“Well, have you ever seen the movie ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’? Add zombies, a black Elvis, and mix well.”) wasn’t quite enough to catch you up to speed, we’ve got the rest of the important stuff right here.
An Apple A Day? | Doc (Russel Hodgkinson) gets separated from Addy (Anastasia Baranova), Warren (Kellita Smith), and Hector (Emilio Rivera), and is kidnapped by Nurse Ratched (Kate Witt), and taken to the Serenity Falls Institution for the Criminally Insane! She had heard him yelling about being a doctor, and makes him prove himself by diagnosing the other patients of the institution. Once he has, Nurse Ratched lets him out of his restraints and has him put his clinical psychology knowledge to work. His first patient? None other than 10K (Nat Zang)! 10K is in bad shape, having been without the vaccine that keeps him out of Murphy’s (Keith Allan) control for too long. Nurse Ratched wants to lobotomize 10K, but Doc frantically convinces her that he’s only suffering from “10K Fever,” which is treatable. However, the meds he needs lie beyond the “Z Ward,” a section of the hospital overrun with zombies turned during electric shock treatment. Elvis (Brandon Marino), the man who did the kidnapping for Nurse Ratched, grabs his guitar and helps Doc smash his way through the zombies to reach the pharmacy.
Calling the Shots | Doc then mixes up a cocktail of drugs that seem to help 10K, and starts giving appropriate medication to the other patients there. 10K, still fairly woozy, tells Doc of Murphy’s plan to take over the world. Doc knows they have to escape and find the rest of their group, but Nurse Ratched thwarts their attempt, and puts Doc and 10K in straitjackets. Their tale of a blue messiah who is trying to take over the world is more than enough to convince Nurse Ratched that they’re delusional, so she decides to lobotomize both of them! Looks like the zombies aren’t the only ones hungry for brains. Unfortunately for Nurse Ratched, the patients rise up against her, and one of them kills her. They tell Doc of a bus that’s parked outside, and the group makes a break for it as zombies crash into the hospital.
Vial-ated | 10K collapses as they’re running, and Doc stops to help him. But the rest of the patients board the bus and leave them behind. Doc is dismayed to discover the marks Murphy’s teeth left on 10K’s neck, and wonders if the potion in the vials is the cure, or what’s making him sick. 10K is too out of it to tell him, but he makes Doc swear not to tell Warren and the others. He doesn’t want to be thought of differently, like Cassandra (Pisay Pao) was. Doc reluctantly agrees, and the two head off to find Warren and the rest of the gang.
Z Nation airs Fridays at 9pm on Syfy.