Earlier this week I talked with the immensely-talented Keith Allan, and the interview ended with Keith mentioning that Murphy was going to do something this week that was “pretty awful” and we might be pissed afterwards. Ever since then, I’ve been racking my brain on what it could be.  We knew a giant zunami was coming and so, I immediately thought he might get someone in the group killed. Or, even worse, will he actually kill someone in the group himself? The answer turned out to be none of the above, and while Murphy’s actions were a tad bit unsettling, they did tell volumes on this character that we’ve been so anxious to learn more about. In the meantime, Citizen Z (DJ Qualls) gets an unexpected visitor at the North Pole — with the emphasis on “unexpected.”

Thank God for Imaginary Friends

The episode opens with an escape pod from a Russian space station crash-landing at the North Pole with a stranger named Yuri (Conner Marx) emerging and claiming to be Citizen Z’s “friend.” Ooooooookay. Not a single visitor in over 2 years and one just falls out of the sky. At the North Pole. Right in front of Citizen Z’s post. Oh, and it’s immediately after Citizen Z detects someone trying to hack into his computer system.

Did someone just try to hack me? Sneaking in the side door. Nobody hacks me! — Citizen Z

It all sounds pretty hinky to me but hey, this is Citizen Z. We know we’re going to get some hilarious scenes as he’s trying to figure it all out and that in itself will make it worth it.

And, we do get those crazy-funny scenes and in spades. Citizen Z is a hoot when he’s drunk, isn’t he? And, I thought he was great when he got wasted and filled the dog’s water bowl with whiskey. That’s nothing compared to Citizen Z and his new best friend, Yuri, getting tipsy on vodka minis, playing golf, and driving around on that cart like they’re old college buddies. Some truly fantastic scenes.

That all changes when Yuri slips and calls Citizen Z by his real name, Simon. We all know that no one calls Citizen Z that, and this immediately clues us in that this guy probably isn’t on the level. It gets worst when Citizen Z looks up Yuri’s space station and finds that it ran out of oxygen and the entire crew is presumed to be dead. If they’re all dead, who in the hell is this guy?

Fortunately, Citizen Z has a gun, but even with it pointed at his face, Yuri doesn’t flinch. He just stands there and continues to point out to his new “friend” that his dog has been sleeping since he got there.

What is wrong with the dog? — Yuri to Citizen Z

This is the million dollar question and one that Yuri won’t stop repeating. Over and over and over again. Citizen Z thinks Yuri is some psychotic asshole who poisoned his dog, and it takes Yuri nearly choking the life out of Citizen Z to get him to see the truth.

We’ve known since the beginning that Citizen Z occasionally creates imaginary friends as a defense mechanism due to his being in total isolation. It turns out this was no different with Yuri being just a figment of Citizen Z’s imagination created to warn him of a system malfunction that was depleting the post of oxygen.

Wow, this was some great stuff. DJ Qualls always does an exceptional job as Citizen Z, but dude, you really hit it out of the park tonight.  Good luck with trying to top this performance. And, where did this Conner Marx come from? Isn’t he fantastic! What a stellar performance as Yuri and even his Russian accent was right on target. I had never heard of the guy before tonight’s episode but I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing more great things coming from him in the near future.

Good Murphy, Bad Murphy

We knew from the ending of last week’s episode that a massive horde was heading straight for our survivors. And, we knew that they would get holed up in a morgue to ride out the storm and wait for it to pass. The only question that remained is what would Murphy be doing what all of this is going down.

Don’t you leave us, Murphy. Don’t you leave us! — Warren to Murphy

Then, he zips Warren up in the body bag and walks out the door. For a second, I really thought Murphy was going to abandon the group, and I swear if he had done that, I would have hurled a whole mountain of curse words at the television screen.

But he didn’t, not at all.   He goes across the street to an abandoned building and stumbles on a woman and her small child. They really don’t interest Murphy much, but their stockpile of food and water does, which Murphy immediately throws in a knapsack and leaves them with nothing left. Oh, BTW, on his way out he lets the zombified father of the family in, presumably to finish them off.

Now, I was on Twitter when all of this went down, and I must say that a lot of fans didn’t like it and immediately start to vilify Murphy. I didn’t, but I was definitely in the minority. Instead of concentrating on what appeared to be a bad act, I tried to focus on what the writers were trying to tell us about this character whom we know so little about. He took those people’s supplies because he knew the people in his own group were going to die without them. Murphy may not say much and at times may be rude, but this act clearly demonstrated that he cares about everyone in the group. What’s more, this act alone showed more kindness than anyone in the group had ever shown him. In their eyes, he’s just a mission and not even a human being.

I also think the ending was quite telling. Did you notice the smile on Murphy’s face as he was watching everyone at the table eating the food he just brought them? I think this is the first time we’ve ever seen Murphy smile! They call him their “friend” for the very first time, and I think he feels like he belongs now. We still don’t know Murphy’s back story but I have a feeling we’re going to find out he never was really accepted in his pre-apocalyptic life either.

All in all, another great episode and probably the best one of the season thus far. Great writing. Great acting. Great everything. And, while Keith Allan as Murphy was definitely the MVP of the episode, DJ Qualls and his sidekick Conner Marx come in at a very close second.

So, Z Nation, what’s next? The episodes each week have been getting better and better all the way back since episode 4. And, if the point is to try and outdo yourself week after week, you have a very tough act to follow after tonight.

 Z Nation  airs on Fridays at 10/9c on Syfy.

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