Welcome Back Undead Science Fiction Horror Fans,
We are at Episode Six and our intrepid group of Survivors has reached a temporary safe place, the closed Paymart store.
Our heroes arrive just in time to turn on each other!
If you have family in this, you are having a family feud with no cash winnings for the right answers, then this episode, directed by industry veteran Jacquie Gould, truly shines a light on fickle family feuds that many viewers will easily understand.
All the main players have found their way to the Paymart, with the exception of the mighty hearse crew and, of course, our very own Frankenstein, Doctor Logan (Lucia Walters) , and her test subject, Detective McDermott (Mike Dopud) who is being turned in to a human zombie hybrid!
I must admit that the title of this episode threw me at first.
But since the two women who appeared out of the forest arrived just in time to stop the hearse, I reasoned that they are the “Lady Birders” out bird watching when they come across their very own zombie.
Are these two ladies important enough to the story to rate their own title?
We shall see.
The Lady Birders of Nepa:
“The Lady Birders of Nepa” episode begins with two strange women running for their lives through the woods.
One is named Cindy (Stefanie von Pfetten), the other is her sister named Mindy, who has been impaled with a stick branch about an inch or so in circumference.
I bet that really hurts!
Worse, Mindy has been infected by the Zombie virus, but no one at this point realizes it.
The uninjured Cindy dashes in front of the hearse so that Lauren (Natalie Malaika) is forced to slam on the brakes in the hearse.
As they all gather around Mindy, they are shocked at the nature of the injury, wondering what could have caused such a wound? Cindy explains that something very odd has occurred to them in the forest while bird watching.
This effectively ends the ongoing argument between Herb (Garry Chalk) and Lauren.
The two ladies are fleeing from what the uninjured lady has designated, “a pervert” (Lars Grant).
As he approaches, it turns out that he is a zombie with no pants. The viewers get a shot of a zombie’s bum, but the zombie dick is cleverly hidden in the long grass.
While our four heroes stare in amazement at the naked zombie, the two ladies make off with the hearse. The lesson to be learned? Never leave your keys in the ignition. More on Mindy and Cindy and the role “The Lady Birders” play a bit later in the episode.
Somehow, Amy (Kristy Dawn Dinsmore) has lost one of her shoes as the zombie continues to approach. She is still upset that the zombies have ruined her wedding. So, as she has a meltdown, she removes the other shoe and her veil and tosses them at the zombie. Jai (Dejan Loyola) tries to comfort her, which Herb says is babying his daughter.
The zombie then goes after Jai. I guess it wants some Indian food? Along comes the country boy in a tow truck, Bobby Hart (Matty Finochio), who blows away the zombie’s head with a double-barreled shotgun. “Does anybody want a ride into town?” says Bobby.
At the lab, Doctor Logan still has McDermott locked in the cage. She is on the phone, having a conversation with someone who is obviously her boss. She says she needs more time. Then, Logan begins showing Zombie McDermott some items. She’s holding a conversation with him, or rather, she’s talking and he’s just snarling back. I’d snarl too if she did to me what she did to him.
As Zombie McDermott finds and shows great interest in his lighter, Logan is thrilled with the progress that she had nothing to do with. As Zombie McDermott continues to examine his lighter, Logan sees his wallet and attempts to grab it. McDermott is faster and grabs it back. Fearing now for her safety, she lets him have it. He opens it and removes his police badge, attaching it to his clothing at his chest. Zombie McDermott seems to still have some memories that are connected to meaningful objects. To test this, Logan picks up his phone. She can’t access it until she uses the fingerprints on his severed finger to do so. Creepy. She shows him a video of his wife and son which really seems to affect him, until she suddenly removes her lab coat, grabs her things, and leaves. Yes, that would annoy me too, my Zombie friend.
Mayor Paula (Miranda Frigon) is also involved in a conversation, or rather, an argument with Pops Parker (Jay Brazeau).
Paula wants to arm people who have arrived at Paymart while Pops wants to try to catch and reason with the zombies.
“You can’t just create a militia”, Pops demands.
Paula, who has been pushing the Second Amendment throughout the series, disagrees.
Blasting them is her preferred method. “My husband and I were attacked by those things. My campaign manager was killed by those things”.
Not to create a political debate, but in this situation, I would want to be armed too!
Cam (Keenan Tracey) is helping out by putting plywood up to block any entrances. Somehow, his efforts yield very poor results because, as soon as he releases the plywood, it falls onto the floor. His response was, “I missed a stud or something”. At that moment, Jai, Amy, Herb, Lauren, and Bobby Hart walk through the door. Cam seems pleased to see Lauren. Hugs are always good in an apocalypse.
Cam tells a questioning Lauren that his dad is still missing, “probably passed out somewhere”. Hey now, what happened to “Dad, I love you”, from the last episode? Meanwhile, in another part of the store, Luke (Daniel Doheny) is annoyed at his father and demands to know why he doesn’t stand up to his mother more. These people turn on their family members quickly. Jai invites Lauren to help in the Infirmary, “If you can sew a corpse, you can suture a live person”. Maybe not. Her bedside manner has a lot to be desired. She tells her patient that she would be more comfortable with him if he were dead. The patient’s reaction is priceless. Too much information, Lauren. As she finishes, Jai tells her to go and check on the other patients.
Bobby is enthusiastically heading out to shoot zombies.
It is easy to imagine that he is not going to be singing Kumbaya with them.
That’s when Pops stops him, “Those things out there used to be our friends and our neighbors. We don’t even know what’s causing this. What if there’s a cure? What if this is temporary? We need to help them and not destroy them.”
Pops does have a bit of a point but saving creatures that want to kill and eat you might be a bit one-sided.
All first aid trainers will tell you to only save a person if it doesn’t cost you your life.
Naturally, Pops’ position sets up the next political debate with Mayor Paula.
Lauren comes across one of the two women who had made off with the hearse.
At this point, I’m wondering why Jai and Herb didn’t triage the injured? Medical personnel always do this to treat the most badly injured first.
Anyway, the one lady still has the protruding branch in her abdomen. Jai rushes over to assess the injury. It’s bad.
Herb also comes over after suturing another injury and tells him that the woman won’t survive. Her injury is too severe.
Jai, who is obviously a dedicated doctor, refuses to give up.
Herb has the experience to understand the woman’s predicament, so he sends Lauren to get some meds from the now-closed pharmacy; pain killers even if they are expired could help the lady die with dignity.
Lauren listens to Herb in this case. His request is a good one, so she proceeds to the pharmacy office. She doesn’t find much, except a bottle with four pills in it. She recognizes them as the medication they need as she examines them.
When one pill drops to the floor, she picks it up and stashes it. Is she keeping it for herself because she was a drug addict in a past life?
One pill will not help her very much if that is its purpose.
Cam and Lauren hug each other. Luke and Cam finally have some interaction on Neutral ground. Luke has found a baseball practice apparatus that he is using as he swings a baseball bat. Luke asks Cam to try it out. Hopefully, these two enemies have buried the hatchet, at least for the time being.
While they are getting to know one another as friends, Amy is mixing a drink from a stash of alcohol that she has found. Not far away, Trey (Christopher Russell) is sitting on the floor, up against some commercial refrigerators, polishing off a six pack of beer. Misery loves company.
We find Captain Pike (Marci T. House) outside still trying to convince the National Guard to help them out. The fact that she’s not getting anywhere suggests that there is more going on than bureaucracy. Pike is a smart lady. She asks Mayor Paula to borrow her phone. A different number may yield results, but I doubt it.
Amy joins Trey on the floor with her drink. Just beforehand, a nice touch is included as an “Easter Egg” tribute to George A. Romero. If you look closely, it can be seen on the wall behind Amy in a “The Day of the Dead” poster.
They discuss Trey’s pathetic existence, or so he calls it. Amy commiserates that her life isn’t a fairy tale either. Her father is very controlling, she says. She manages to get Trey feeling good enough, with a little Dutch courage, to go and confront Paula with his decision to live his own life.
Amy murmurs, “Now all that you have to do is live long enough for you to do it.” Amy’s comment is prophetic since that won’t happen.
Jai splashes cold water on his face in one of the bathrooms. As he exits, Amy is coming the other way. They hug for a moment until Jai realizes that Amy smells of alcohol. He is not impressed that, while he has been trying to save people, she has been partying. Amy tries to explain, but Jai is not listening. His mind is already made up. His patient, the lady with the stick has passed away so Jai is not feeling too good about himself right now, “What kind of doctor would I be if I didn’t try (to save her)? Oh, yeah, I’d be your dad. I can’t believe I almost married you.” Oh, my. That’s not good.
Whenever Herb is alone he is self-treating a nasty wound he has across his abdomen. So far, we have no idea how he got it. When Amy comes back to the Infirmary to see him Herb tells her that Jai would be a good husband for someone, but not for her. He isn’t good enough. Amy seems much more concerned that her life is ruined than about the Zombies.
While all this is going on, Mayor Paula and Trey are arguing about their relationship. Lauren, who has been busy cleaning up the dead woman leaves her as Trey walks away from Paula leaving the Mayor alone in a hallway adjacent to the dead lady.
Pops is being the distraction of the moment.
He tells Cindy that everyone in the community is just like they are part of a big family, It is clear that Pops Parker sincerely believes this to be true.
That’s when Mindy, the lady who was impaled with the stick shows up as a zombie.
Pops tries to reason with her.
Pops mistakenly thinks it is going well and turns around to confirm with the bystanders that his way is working.
As expected, Pops is completely surprised when Mindy, now a full fledged zombie, instead pounced on the naive Pops Parker.
Trey, filled with his strong man attitude after swizzling a six-pack of beer, grabs a shovel as a weapon and starts beating the zombie. He also makes the mistake of turning away. She pounces on him and bites his neck. As he bleeds out and dies, and Mayor Paula falls on him weeping.
As we learn a few minutes later in a flashback, that when Paula was alone in the hallway, she approached the room that the dead woman was in and let her out. Karma has paid a visit to Paula whom paid the price with her husband Trey, instead of her intended victim, Pops Parker.
At this point, I am hoping that neither Pops nor Paula become mayor since both of them have been underhanded in this crisis. Who should be in charge of the town? Jai, of course. He may not be the doctor that Herb wants but Jai seems to be the one who can handle emergencies far better than the rest of the townspeople. Other candidates seem to be biting the dust at an alarming rate.
Hopefully, we will also find out exactly who Logan’s boss is, what happens to Zombie McDermott, and whether Captain Pike manages to convince some National Guard folks to show up.
What’s next? Tune in at SYFY in the United States and CTV Scifi in Canada next week to see who lives, who is undead, and if Detective McDermott remembers more about his human life as a police detective!
Thanks to Kenn for staging images, the featured video, and, many thanks to you for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency!
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Regards,
