S01.E09: Die, Zombie, Die ... again

[ottoDbusdriver]

Episode Description:

 

Mack wants to go on a proper date with Addy, but finds himself stuck in some Groundhog Day-like nightmare.

 

Turns out it wasn't even Mack's nightmare.  

 

What a waste of an episode !!  So, Mack's repeating nightmares were actually Addie's nightmares of Mack as a proxy for Addie having repeating nightmares.  What. The. Fuck ?

 

And all of it was because she felt guilty about killing her mom.  But her mom was a Z that was trying to eat her.  And it's been over 3 years -- what was she waiting for ?  What triggered the sudden pangs of guilt now ?

 

Two episodes in a row populated with dreams/hallucinations -- this doesn't bode well for Season 2 if they have already run out of ideas.

Edited November 8, 2014 by ottoDbusdriver

[SoSueMe]

I really liked this episode although the ending was somewhat jumbled. I like dream sequences even though it was yet another Groundhog Day rehash. I would have ended it differently, but the acting was strong and the filming was terrific. I get a kick out of the different locations that are used to portray an apocalyptic world. (although this one reminded me of the oil refinery (?) location). Since Garnett got killed off there have to be some 'filler' episodes to transition that loss.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Since Garnett got killed off there have to be some 'filler' episodes to transition that loss.

 

True, but two filler episodes in a row ?   And yeah it did look at lot like the oil refinery episode.

 

At the start of the dreams when Addie started to talk to Mack about "discussing their relationship" and how they don't really know each other, I was thinking that maybe she had been reading some old copies of Cosmo and taken one of those stupid relationship quizzes.  If there was every anything good about a zombie apocalypse is that crap like that would go away.

[SoSueMe]

Lol on the Cosmo comment.

 

In fairness, Zunami was hallucinations, so a little different. All about the loneliness and isolation. Then there was some character development with Murphy or maybe more like his character devolving. These people are moving so quickly toward CA that I guess these little side trip episodes are needed or it would have been a tv movie instead of series.

 

I grant you, there were problems but on the whole I really liked it. 

[wayne67]

For me this was the worst episode of Z Nation. These two characters couldn't carry an entire episode on their own. The endless dream within a dream was tedious. Though I was a little worried for a bit that Mack would turn out to be a figment of Adison's mind or that he had died off screen and she had been hallucinating the various ways in which he could have died.

 

At least Z's hallucination was intercut with other development.

 

I really hope the next episode features 10 K heavily to make up for his absence in this episode.

[candall]

I agree with Wayne this was by far the worst episode.

 

For one thing, I was watching in real time and had to sit through endless repetitive commercials sandwiched between the endless repetitive dreamscapes.  I spent an impatient hour thinking, "There better be a really big payoff at the end of this thing."

 

But. . .NO!  Not even close!  What was the point of having each dream segment be a little bit different since there was hardly any natural progression getting closer to "the truth"--his dream, her dream, his dream, she dies, he dies, he dies again, he dies a slightly different way. . . .   What were the Big Zombie, the bird and the snake supposed to represent?  Anything????

 

Even for the Big Reveal, what was she talking about when she said, "I thought it was you, but it was me"?  Did she think he had killed her mother? 

 

And finally, if you're going to have someone sobbing hysterically for several minutes, could you please squirt a drop of glycerin somewhere on her face and make a teardrop?

 

Bleh.

 

.

 

 

[NurseGiGi]

Well.  That was pretty awful.

[editorgrrl]

One thing I did like was two people talking about their relationship—including sex. Way more engaging than Glenn and Maggie on The Walking Dead, or asexual Daryl Dixon.

[ottoDbusdriver]

These people are moving so quickly toward CA that I guess these little side trip episodes are needed or it would have been a tv movie instead of series.

 

That's one thing I forgot about -- Mack/Addie are already in Utah.  Last episode the group was in Western Nebraska, so I guess Mack/Addie just outran the zombie haboob (which was right on their asses the last time we saw them two episodes ago) and breezed through Colorado without incident.  At this pace, they should be in Cali by next episode -- so what are they going to do for Season 2 ?  Because it won't involve crossing the country.

 

And, was it really necessary to show all sorts of clips of Mack/Addie in the previouslies -- and then show almost all the same clips again at the start of the episode itself.  That seemed like padding for the sake of padding a weak episode.

Edited November 8, 2014 by ottoDbusdriver

[walnutqueen]

What a steaming pile of dog turd this was.  I was done with the dream a few minutes into the episode, and the rest was a ridiculous repetitive mess with absolutely no redemption.  She killed her mommy - BFD.  I want both characters and the hack who wrote this episode to Die, and Die Again.

[Helena Dax]

I really like Mack and Addie and I want to know more about them, but this isn't the way to do it. It was too confusing and it didn't make any sense. 

[Ohwell]

Well, I was upset that I missed the episode last night, but I guess I didn't miss much.  Hopefully next week's episode will be better.

[Latverian Diplomat]

At the start of the dreams when Addie started to talk to Mack about "discussing their relationship" and how they don't really know each other, I was thinking that maybe she had been reading some old copies of Cosmo and taken one of those stupid relationship quizzes. 

It's a bit silly as well. Think of all the time these two have spent together in the last three years. Little or no electricity, few entertainment opportunties, heck, just in the last few weeks they've had hours on the road together with nothing to do but talk. By now, they should know each other better than most pre-apocalypse couples ever do,

 

I think TWD does "tragic origin stories" (i.e., your darkest apocalyspse moment) better or perhaps just more sparingly than ZN. I'm finding them boring here. Are we almost out of characters with flashback-itis? Who's left, Doc? 

[cheatincheetos]

Episode Description:

 

 

Turns out it wasn't even Mack's nightmare.  

 

What a waste of an episode !!  So, Mack's repeating nightmares were actually Addie's nightmares of Mack as a proxy for Addie having repeating nightmares.  What. The. Fuck ?

 

And all of it was because she felt guilty about killing her mom.  But her mom was a Z that was trying to eat her.  And it's been over 3 years -- what was she waiting for ?  What triggered the sudden pangs of guilt now ?

 

Two episodes in a row populated with dreams/hallucinations -- this doesn't bode well for Season 2 if they have already run out of ideas.

Don't worry, neither of those episodes actually happened. It was all a bad dream that Pamela Ewing had before she woke up and found Bobby in the shower.

For me this was the worst episode of Z Nation. These two characters couldn't carry an entire episode on their own.

It reminded me of last season's Walking Dead with some of the lamer side episodes with little going on and featuring only one or two of the cast members.

[LexiconDevilOne]

By the fifth time groundhogs day came around my son was yelling, "NOT AGAIN"...

Boring episode, very boring. Please, never bore/Beth me to death again, pretty please, with sugar on top.

[tveyeonyou]

I grant you, there were problems but on the whole I really liked it. 

<<waves>> Over here! Me too!

Granted, I'm a sucker for dreams, and I may be the only person in the world who never saw Groundhog Day but I really liked this episode a lot.

I figured it was Addy's dream the first time they showed the door, with the door/wall representing Addy's inability to confide in Mack, and I kinda enjoyed the way the dream went a little differently each time.

Even though it became obvious to me that we were going to find out what Addy's backstory was I still wasn't prepared for her having to kill her own Mother. I know it's personal with me, since I lost my Mom a year ago, but I could put myself in Addy's shoes/dream so I felt the heartbreak with each stab as well as the guilt of being responsible for her Mother's death (because I constantly wonder if there was something different I could have done for my Mom, used a different hospital, a different doctor, etc, even though my brain knows the answer, my heart still cries).

 

I do wish that they would have flashed back and forth from Addy and Mack to the rest of the gang, but I get what they were going for. I guess they needed the entire episode to keep the dream going but I don't love when shows concentrate on one or two characters only (I'm looking at you too Walking Dead).

I might actually watch it again just to see it knowing for sure it was Addy's dream so I can pick apart the stereotypical dream meaning stuff, like the snake, IMO, representing Mack's, umm, 'snake' and her fear that Mack could turn (the snake's teeth).

 

I'm thinking about this way too much, perhaps more than the writers lol

[editorgrrl]

I do wish that they would have flashed back and forth from Addy and Mack to the rest of the gang, but I get what they were going for. I guess they needed the entire episode to keep the dream going but I don't love when shows concentrate on one or two characters only (I'm looking at you too Walking Dead).

Z Nation tries so hard to be the anti–Walking Dead, it's especially unfortunate that both shows ran bottle episodes at the same time.

Then again, it gives us the opportunity to compare and contrast—and I liked Mack 'n' Addy's excellent adventure better than TWD's Beth-centric episode.

But it was a bit much on the heels of Simon & Yuri's excellent adventure. I can only imagine what make-believe playmate he'll conjure next!

[maczero]

Yeah this one was bad.  I really do wish I had that hour of my life back.

 At this pace, they should be in Cali by next episode -- so what are they going to do for Season 2 ?  Because it won't involve crossing the country.

Speaking of California, why is citizen Z so vague about their destination.  California's a big state.  Can't he give them an address or at least a city?

[technorebel]

I found this episode boring as well as confusing.  I don't know what the bird or the snake represented.  It seemed out of character for Addy to have a mental breakdown since she comes across as a tough chick, even though I know they're probably all suffering from PTSD.  I don't watch this show for serious drama.  I won't be able to stand it if they put Doc through an episode like this.  Get back to the trip and contact with Citizen Z. 

[editorgrrl]

I don't watch this show for serious drama.  I won't be able to stand it if they put Doc through an episode like this. 

 

According to Russell Hodgkinson (who plays Steven "Doc" Beck),

“Doc does a lot of talking in episode 13. I was like, ‘Damn! I got lines, I better get serious!'" Episode 13 is the season finale, and the title is "Doctor of the Dead."

Edited November 11, 2014 by editorgrrl

[Arynm]

I was about to cut a bitch when I thought Mack was dead. He hasn't really made an impression before this episode(I don't think I have even posted on him before) but I was really bummed he was dead. Then he wasn't, and I got a little bored. I thought Addy was going to be all PTSD about her letting her brother die, but it was about her Z mom. Whatever, let's move on.

[ladyrott]

I was so excited to find out about Abby's backstory.  The flashbacks in the last few episodes had me intrigued....and then they handed us this crap.  Her big trauma was she had to kill her mother and didn't know she had to go for the brain so she stabbed her in the abdomen repeatedly?  Really?  I imagine a HUGE portion of the population that has survived this long had to kill one or both of their parents.  And I have no idea what she meant when she said "I thought it was you, but it was me".  WTH?  Did she think he had killed her mother?  Worst episode of the season for me.

[editorgrrl]

I have no idea what she meant when she said "I thought it was you, but it was me". WTH? Did she think he had killed her mother?

I thought she was so deep in denial that none of the elements in the dream were even vaguely familiar to Addy. So all along she was assuming that this was Mack's dream rather than her own.

Speaking of Addy & handwaving, where's she getting hair dye in the ZA? Did they raid a Hot Topic?

[peach]

Count me as one who liked it.  It wasn't my favorite, but I thought it was a creative experiment, I guess.  Z Nation is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.  lol

 

It had that Twilight Zone vibe to it, for me.  Like, the original black and white, not the awful, newer TZ.  It did drag on a bit too long, but they were able to capture that uncomfortable feeling in a real nightmare when the dream pattern keeps recurring and you can't seem to escape it.  And I admit it, they totally fooled me with the first incident of Mack dying. 

 

As I said, it wasn't my favorite (that goes to FUBAR), but after I watched TWD on Sunday, with the tedious Abraham road trip, I decided it was pretty good after all.  Then again, I like Beth, so my opinion is suspect.

[editorgrrl]

Z Nation tries so hard to be the anti–Walking Dead, it's especially unfortunate that both shows ran bottle episodes at the same time.

Then again, it gives us the opportunity to compare and contrast—and I liked Mack 'n' Addy's excellent adventure better than TWD's Beth-centric episode.

But it was a bit much on the heels of Simon & Yuri's excellent adventure. I can only imagine what make-believe playmate he'll conjure next!

Someone added to the Z Nation trivia on IMDB that this episode was originally supposed to have aired before "Going Nuclear," but a quick Google search turned up nothing.

[fiftynamesofmarduk]

http://www.snakedreams.org/snake-dream.html So apparently snakes are a common element in dreams. Here's what the website says common interpretations are: The unconscious, Transition times, Phallic symbol. I'm not sure about the first one, and the second one makes sense. Addy's dreaming about Mack, so hey I guess it is a phallic symbol. An interesting high brow reference if you ask me. Here's something about hawks: http://www.astrology.com/dreams/hawk/2-d-r-154495.

 

 

Edit: So a summary I read on the episode suggested that the snake had bitten the zombies. Previously I thought it was just hinting that Murphy appearing the dream when Mack says: "Are those bites? What bites a zombie" The snakedreams.org website says this about snake bites: "If you are dreaming of being bitten by snake, it means that you need to pay attention to something that you've been avoiding because it was too intimating or uncomfortable." Addy's been avoiding trying to figure out what happened, even though she has some glipses of the truth, so that's what her subconscious is trying to tell her.

Edited December 9, 2014 by fiftynamesofmarduk

[natyxg]

I was so excited to find out about Abby's backstory.  The flashbacks in the last few episodes had me intrigued....and then they handed us this crap.  Her big trauma was she had to kill her mother and didn't know she had to go for the brain so she stabbed her in the abdomen repeatedly?  Really?  I imagine a HUGE portion of the population that has survived this long had to kill one or both of their parents.  And I have no idea what she meant when she said "I thought it was you, but it was me".  WTH?  Did she think he had killed her mother?  Worst episode of the season for me.

 

THIS!

 

That was exactly what I thought. Don't get me wrong: killing your mother, even if she is a zombie, must be horrible, but they built it up too much, for too long. So for me as a viewer, the pay off wasn't enough. Pretty much everyone must have been in similar situations, and the actual situation, when we see it, turns out to be quite ordinary, the same thing we always see in zombie stuff, there was no twist. They should've made her accidentally kill her mother. Not zombie mother, but alive mother.  Then I would've found all of the build up more fitting.

 

The line about her thinking that it was Mack meant that she had blocked out that night, mostly, and had spent all that time suspecting that Macked killed her mom, when it was her who killed her.

[Rockstar99435]

For what it was, I liked this episode. I liked "Mack" learning from his mistakes/deaths and changing his behavior each dream. It reminded me of Edge of Tomorrow.

 

I liked that Addy seems to be working through her PTSD stuff. I really like her, but I'm getting tired of only the women having emotional tramas. Cassandra was going through stuff when we met her, Roberta was having a hard time dealing with Charlie's death, and now Addy is having PTSD flashbacks. None of the men are having these problems. 10K had to kill his dad too, but he's not crying or going catatonic. It's just annoying that it's only the women and it's all of the women.

[SyncMaster]

For what it was, I liked this episode. I liked "Mack" learning from his mistakes/deaths and changing his behavior each dream.

Yup, this was really a great episode with Mack constantly encountering that massive zombie-with-a-'tude and with him repeatedly seeing the black bird and the snake.  I was surprised when it turned out that it wasn't Mack's dream or at least I don't think that it was.