Be Human
The season 1 finale of Reality Z begins with Teresa looking over the carnage while the rest of the group contemplate the best way of moving forward. Given their only means of escape now lies with the building adjacent to them, they’re going to have to face these people sooner or later. As they listen to the broadcast from that room, it turns out militia are vying for control and rounding up groups. As we soon see, that militia is organized and being controlled by a man named Fish. He tells them they’re getting into Olimpo one way or another and tells Levi that if they don’t open the door, every 15 minutes they’ll kill another person. First up though is Leo – who happens to still be alive. Teresa rushes off to save him but Robson stops her before she does something rash, believing that Fish is using him as bait before killing them all. For now though, Levi manages to stop their countdown and agrees to meet them, just as Robson brings Teresa back. They decide on letting 4 soldiers in, including Fish. Robson warns that they’ll be heavily armed but for now the democracy continues and they’re let inside. Once there, Fish and Levi sit together and start to negotiate and agree on terms. As they do, the group work to try and seduce and overwhelm them… until Levi betrays them all and shoots Robson in the head. The gunshot ricochets through the house and brings with it a whole wave of zombies who overwhelm the soldiers inside the adjacent building. Luiz Carlos manages to slip away and shoots the soldiers through the one-way glass. Unfortunately he gets shot and killed while Teresa winds up stabbed in the ensuing skirmish The grandmother stabs Fish in the neck but it’s not enough to kill him and she too ends up with a bullet between the eyes. With all hope lost, Barbara races into the control room and sees the zombies firsthand, making their way through the tunnels and spilling into the house. Out in the courtyard, Teresa and Leo record their final message together as they watch the house become overwhelmed with zombies. Cristina kills Levi in cold blood before biting Barbara at her request, while Leo holds Teresa after opening a secret compartment, stuffing the phone inside and escaping. Inside the secret compartment, someone phones Levi’s number. Who’s ringing the phone? Could this be back-up? And have Teresa and Leo survived? The decision to switch protagonist point of view from Nina to Leo midway through the show actually serves a pretty unique vantage point to move the show in a different direction. Ultimately, Reality Z is a show of two halves. The first feels like a carbon copy of Dead Set and fails to distinguish itself as wholly unique, while the second half does well to branch out in its own direction. Whether people will make it past the first 5 episodes to see this however remains to be seen. For now though, it remains unclear whether Reality Z will be renewed for a second season or not and ultimately that decision will lie with Netflix. Based on this showing though, there’s enough bite to consider a second season but not quite enough originality for it to stand out against the shuffling horde of other undead IPs out there.
