Recap: Zombiegate brings out the worst in this corrupt town in Day of the Dead Episode 3

As the saying goes, when it rains it pours. Only when it rains in Mawinhaken, it has a way of dredging up all the bad stuff that's been going on just barely beneath the surface in the idyllic town.

We're talking egregious criminal activity by big business; a homicide cover-up involving Mawinhaken's first family; and at least more than one adulterous romance. We'd like to say the zombie apocalypse is the catalyst for all this nonsense, but the dirt in this town runs deep.

Things are getting a whole lot messier in Mawinhaken.

**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Day of the Dead Season 1, Episode 3, "The Grey Mile."**

Zombie apocalypse notwithstanding, it's important to remember that Mayor Bowman (Miranda Frigon), her hubby Trey (Christopher Russell), and her campaign manager Nicole (Caitlin Stryker) are still either murderers or accessories to murder (even if the victim is now undead), and they are still attempting to flee the scene of the crime.

And what a scene it is. That climate activist-turned-climate cannibal has temporarily satisfied his insatiable hunger on the rest of the retirees in the recreation room; by the time the mayor and company get there, the place is a bloodbath littered with bodies — a scandal in the making.

Speaking of scandals, Cleargenix scientist Dr. Logan (Lucia Walters), who was dispatched to the Mawinhaken fracking site to squash the investigation, is now taking matters into her own hands. First, she sics the rash Rhodes (Kevin O'Grady) on Blackwood (Morgan Holmstrom) with directions to keep her quiet; then under the pretext of treating him, shoots the bitten McDermott (Mike Dopud) with a sleepytime syringe and ships him off to her personal black site lab.

It's not long before Blackwood, en route home after being dismissed early from work, gets a flat. Could it be the rough terrain coming down the mountain? Or is it more likely that a knife got a little too close to that tire?

That's when the bullets start flying at her, and Blackwood must take cover in a nearby woodpile. It's Rhodes with the long gun on her tail. Looks like Cleargenix is pulling the old put-a-hit-out-on-the-whistleblower move.

Back at the Grey Mile retirement home, Bowman confides in Nicole a salacious secret: Trey is not Luke's (Daniel Doheny) father. It's this golden tidbit that Pops Parker, Bowman's opponent, is using to blackmail her into dropping out of the race.

The information adds fuel to the ardent fire of Nicole's love for Trey, with whom she's having an affair, and she sets a plan in motion: When Bowman isn't looking, Nicole takes her firearm and unloads the clip. The idea is that if the zombie returns, the defenseless Bowman will be doomed, and the widowered Trey and Nicole can pursue their relationship in the open.

Pretty sure this cements Nicole's frontrunner status as the worst campaign manager ever.

Meanwhile, Dr. Logan is at her black site laboratory performing some tests on McDermott's chewed-off ring finger. Surprisingly, the widdle piggy springs back to life, ostensibly looking to be reunited with its nine brothers and sisters. Where are the rest of the widdle piggies?

With the heavily drugged McDermott, who's been locked in a room, hooked up to all manner of instruments monitoring his vitals. But you don't need an EKG to tell that this guy has seen better days: He's starting to turn, and the zombie responsible left a tooth in his stump of a digit as a reminder that the clock is ticking.

Back at the Grey Mile, Trey, unaware that he is in fact not Luke's father, feels an obligation to protect his gun-crazy wife, and so takes the magazine from Nicole to return it to Bowman. Unfortunately, he's a bit slow in the handoff, and when the zombie that's been dogging them goes after Nicole, Bowman's empty gun is helpless to stop it. The campaign manager, like so many campaign managers before her, gets taken down by her own miscalculation.

Together Bowman and Trey make their way into the lobby, where the zombie threatens them yet again. This time, Bowman empties the entire clip in him, but he's resilient; she opts instead for the Mawinhaken city flag, which she uses to skewer the assailant against the wall. All politics is local politics.

Blackwood, still being pursued by Rhodes, jerry rigs her own boobytrap with some string and ingenuity. When Rhodes gets closer, Blackwood tugs the string, knocking out Rhodes with a jab to his windpipe. Having bought some time, Blackwood returns to her car and retrieves her own long gun from her trunk: This fight ain't over yet.