Episode Recap: Philly Feast

Staring in a flashback, we get to see a bit of Cassandra’s past. See, a while back, she was part of a group of grifters who had sex in trailers to lure men into something. But what? Now, in the present, she’s riding with Roberta and Charles into Philadelphia. They find a truck with the liberty bell attached to the back of it and when they open the door to steal it, a zombie pops out. Which, this is a rule of Z Nation we should probably establish right here and now: when a door is closed, let’s just always assume there’s a zombie behind it. The team steals the truck and drives off with the Liberty Bell, but are quickly diverted when the truck swerves to miss an oncoming zombie attack. The bell falls off and kills some zombies. Yeah to national monuments being killing machines!  

Up in the Arctic, Simon makes steak for the dog. It turns out that they have a whole lot of food to last a while up north there. Meanwhile, back in the part of town where Cassandra’s people live– the “Family” (as they call themselves) gathers around the table to eat meat they’ve cooked (What’s the meat?! What’s the meat?!) And one of the members of the “Family” come back and says that Cassandra has been located.

Meanwhile, our fearless team of zombie hunters is finishing the last of the food they’ve found (mostly Twinkies). They decide to split up and look for food and some kind of antenna dish to contact Citizen Z. Addy and Mack find a cop-car radio and end up killing a police officer zombie and the criminal in the back. Doc, 10K and Cassandra have a conversation about porn while stealing a satellite dish (it happens) and Cassandra runs off when she realizes that those creepy “Family” people have found her. When Cassandra gives them the slip by ducking behind a dumpster, the "Family" come up with a new idea. Just as Addy makes contact with Citizen Z, she is abducted by the "Family."

The good news is that Simon figures out how to talk back to the cop car and when Mack returns, he learns that some humans took her. So it’s not the zombies! Mack grabs Addy’s camera as more zombies attack. The leader of the "Family" tells Addy not to be afraid and plays a weird little song on a piano, and then tries to feed her whatever weird meat that could be. (Any guesses?!) Addy says she’s not interested in joining their group but they take her off to get some new clothes.

The team confronts Cassandra because Addy’s camera reveals that one of her abductors was also one of the bikers from the refinery. And that means Cassandra is implicated. She cracks and tells them about Tobias, the leader of the “Family.” It turns out that the "Family" does something worse than kill and rape. But she doesn’t say what it is. (Any guesses?!)

It’s people. They’re eating people. Much like zombies. Except they don't eat dead people (those are infected with the zombie virus). They capture live people and slowly cut off their flesh. See what they did there? So the team decides to go and rescue Addy as the "Family" sit down and eat a person. Addy is told that it’s time to either eat or be eaten. The team rolls up and Charles gets into a stand off with the leader of the "Family". Finally Cassandra comes back and makes a prisoner swap for Addy.

Back at the truck, the team assembles to discuss what’s next: whether to go back and rescue Cassandra or not. They call up Citizen Z from the police car and ask Citizen Z to play them some music. And then they put their plan into effect by sending Doc in to pose as a john looking for a good time. As Cassandra is sent into the trailer with him, he tells her to follow his lead. As they hear the team approaching with music blasting, the diversion is enough: Cassandra and Doc are able to kill one of the guards and tasers Tobias right in the mouth.

The team rides into the family compound where Cassandra and Doc are rescued. Additionally, Tobias ends up in the room with the people slated to be eaten, and instead they kill him. The team rides out of Philadelphia, an intact group of people, listening to the music that Citizen Z is playing for them. They’ll live to see another day.