Missed last week’s episode of Z Nation? Need a break from the real election? Z Nation: Election Day was a well-timed parody of Donald Trump, and involves a nuclear football, presidential mooning, pig kissing, and experimental medicine from Naked and Afraid, among other things. Let’s get to it!
A Hairy Situation | Doc (Russel Hodgkinson) and Addy (Anastasia Baranova) are on their way to find Lucy, but don’t make it very far before the Murphy-mobile bites the dust. Fortunately for them, a presidential motorcade, carrying none other than Sketchy (Mark Carr) and Skeezy (Doug Dawson) pulls up! Their latest con? Relieving people of their valuables—by claiming that Sketchy is Thurston Howell IV, President of the United States, and Skeezy is Wendall Lincoln Jefferson, his spiritual advisor. Sketchy wasn’t elected President, but as Assistant Fish and Game Warden for the District of Columbia pre-Z, was 192nd in the line of succession. Their great plan? Build a giant wall to keep zombies out of populated areas. But it won’t be cheap to accomplish, despite their claims that they’ll make the zombies build it, so Sketchy and Skeezy are looking for donations. Doc and Addy accompany the two to a town called Wall Drug, where they hope to get supplies before heading off in search of Lucy again, but of course, things don’t work out quite that way.
Eyes Peeled | All is not as it seems in Wall Drug. Upon learning Doc’s name, a woman named Erin (Jesse LaTourette) (who, incidentally, looks almost exactly like one of my physical therapists) asks him to help her husband, who is sick. He’s not the only one, according to the Mayor of Wall Drug (Lisa Carswell), and the illness isn’t anything Doc has seen before. The victims’ irises are surrounded by a ring of yellow and red flecks. A man from a nearby town comes bursting in and tells the Mayor that everyone in the town has gotten sick and died, so Doc heads over to the town to check things out. He finds the well, which Wall Drug also uses, and discovers a zombie head stuck in the filter. It’s got the same yellow and red coloration on its eyes, and so do the dead townspeople. Thankfully, Doc discovers an easy remedy: ingesting charcoal, which binds to the toxins. (He learned that one watching Naked and Afraid.)
Writing on the Wall | Sketchy is challenged for the presidency by a “John Jay Lannister” (Robert Blanche), another con artist with a nice orange toupee. Lannister demands that the people of Wall Drug vote between them, so of course, they have a debate. Addy moderates, and Lannister lays out his plan of stopping the zombies with a series of large holes for them to fall into. The ballots are being cast when some heavily armed Z-Partyers kick down the doors, furious at having been conned by Sketchy, Skeezy, and Lannister. We have ourselves a good ol’-fashioned shootout between factions, which attracts a bunch of zombies in the area.
Clear as Mud | Doc and Addy decide to make their exit as the citizens of Wall Drug slaughter the zombies. Doc exchanges a wistful gaze with Madam Mayor, telling Addy that they’ll be fine. Doc and Addy commandeer the limo Sketchy and Skeezy had stolen from Lannister, who had stolen it from who-knows-who else, and pull away from the chaos just as Sketchy and Skeezy run out of the building. Doc and Addy debate stopping for them, but accidentally knock over a makeshift water tower, which makes a conveniently-placed mud pit. Lannister catches up with Sketchy and Skeezy, and they all crash into the mud pit, along with their buckets of loot. Quite the mud wrestling match follows, along with some literal mud-slinging, and Doc and Addy drive away.
But wait, what about the election? Erin and her husband are leaving Wall Drug, and ask the Mayor. Turns out, everyone wrote in the same thing: “that weed doctor.” If only, y’all, if only.
Z Nation airs Fridays at 9/8c on Syfy.