Zoo Review: Zero Sum (Season 2 Episode 8)

This show was about animals at one point, right?

Once again this week, Zoo loses its initial premise, and delves further and further into territory that doesn’t seem to have much to do with our fine furry and feathered friends anymore. Or bugs. Or lizards. You get the idea.

I suppose the animals are still important, though they are becoming more and more of a secondary (or tertiary) plot each week.

Jamie continues to be the worst person ever. When will the Zoo Crew address her love of murdering folks? Oh, wait. I guess no one knows about any of that, because Jamie is being a brat and not talking to her friends about anything of actual importance, like thoughts or feelings.

Her “friends” that she doesn’t want to leave, and she kills Logan for.

Her “friends” that she fought so hard to get back to in Caraquet.

Her “friends” that she hasn’t seemed very interested in since returning to the fold.

Jamie does not truly understand the concept of friendship. If Chloe were still alive, I’m sure she would have slapped Jamie by now. Chloe was good for things like that.

Side note: I really miss Dariela. I see she’s in the next episode, so thank you TV Powers That Be.

All joking aside, Jamie’s kill count is up to, what? Four? She’s turning into a ruthless, heartless killer, and no one is concerned about it.

Also, is Mitch her boyfriend, or what? What’s happening there? Because it feels like a whole lot of nothing, which would be fine if the writers had not spent so much of last season making me care about them. Now I feel as though this is a ‘shipping disservice, especially when Jamie brings Clementine into their argument. Too far, Jamie. Too far.

Though Mitch’s calling Jamie out on her evasiveness this season does make me pretty happy. More of this Mitch, please.

As far as Mitch goes, in general, considering the fact that he is, in my opinion, the breakout character, they aren’t giving him nearly enough to work with this season. At all. I’d even take him sitting on the ground throwing a tantrum than to have him go nearly the entire hour without doing anything relevant.

Allison continues to serve no purpose on Zoo. We traded Chloe for Allison and Dariela. That trade, so far, has not been worth it. Not one bit.

The capture of General Davies brings out the old Abe, the “bad guy” we know that he can be. Watching him torture the General is a bit satisfying. That guy is terrible.

Unlike killing machine Jamie, however, Abe can’t go through with letting Davies die, though for a second there, I did wonder if he would.

The entire moment lead to the only redeeming scene in the episode, where the entire Zoo Crew has a ‘what are YOU doing?’ moment, followed by a classic Mitch one-liner about how he needs to operate on a lizard. It’s a glimmer of hope that the writers still knows where Zoo‘s roots are.

Quick thought though, how does Jamie know about the ants? If my memory is correct, she was getting her toe chopped off at that point in the story. Anyway…

Thanks to Davies, now we know that Robert Oz is a bad guy, I think. Ok. I’ll pretend that last season didn’t exist, if that’s really what the writers want.

But my bigger issue in this episode is this retro-backstory that’s being built for Jackson. Something doesn’t add up, and I have to wonder if the writers this season have given any thought to continuity.

Why did Robert inject Jackson, and his mother, apparently? Because he believes her to be a descendant of crazy circus guy? Did he CHOOSE to marry Jackson’s mom for this purpose? This fake life? If so, this is some serious CIA/Russian spy level stuff, and I can watch The Americans if I want to see that.

The writers are clearly telling us that Jackson’s entire life with his family has been a lie, including Abe’s friendship. That’s a twist I don’t care for, not just for Jackson, but because it paints Abe in a light that doesn’t fit.

Again, it’s something that isn’t adding up. If Abe is truly supposed to be “watching” Jackson, then why did he leave him last season, allowing him to work alone while Abe joined a biker gang?

And what does ANY of this have to do with the sloth?

Which brings me back to the basic issue that Zoo needs to fix in order to successfully move forward.

The animals.

This entire story is about the animals. Saving the animals. Yes, mankind is a member of the animal kingdom, I’m not denying that. But if I want to watch a show about people mutating and killing other people, I can turn on any channel and find one.

Zoo is (or was) unique because of the fear it induced in viewers by making them believe that the animals they love, up to and including their pets, could turn on them in a moment.

Summer is dwindling and I’m losing interest very, very quickly.

Get it together, Zoo, and do it sooner rather than later.

What did you think of this week’s Zoo? What happened to Jackson’s mother? Can the old Jamie make a return? Sound off below!

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Zoo airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS.