Tonight on CBS Zoo premieres with an all new Tuesday June 30, season 1 premiere called, “First Blood,” and we have your weekly recap below! On tonight’s episode, Jackson Oz, [James Wolk] an American expat who’s working as a safari guide in Africa, has reason to fear his late father’s controversial theory that animals pose a threat to the human race is becoming a reality in the premiere of this drama based on a James Patterson novel.
For those of you who don’t know, ZOO, a new drama based on the #1 bestselling novel by James Patterson. The series, a wave of violent animal attacks against humans begin taking place across the globe. As the assaults become more cunning, coordinated and ferocious, a young renegade biologist (James Wolk) is thrust into the race to unlock the pandemic’s mystery before there’s no place left for people to hide.
On tonight’s episode as per the CBS synopsis, “Jackson Oz, an American ex-pat safari guide living in Africa, discovers a link between strange animal attacks on people occurring around the world and his late father’s controversial theories about an impending threat to the human race. Meanwhile, journalist Jamie Campbell and veterinary pathologist Mitch Morgan team up to investigate similar abnormal animal behavior in Los Angeles, on the summer series premiere of ZOO.”
This is definitely one series that you don’t want to miss. Don’t forget to stay tuned to Celeb Dirty Laundry where we will be live blogging the season 1 of Zoo.
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RECAP:
#ZooCBS begins in Botswana. A dog whines and his owner calls to the dog. He asks the dog what’s the matter then pets him. Murdoch growls and Jackson tells him to come back to camp. Jackson talks about how we’ve used animals for sport and locked them up. He wonders what would happen if we decide to bite back. At a safari camp, the tour guide tries to wake Jackson to start the Swedish tour. He tells Abraham to go away. He doesn’t. A young guy is watching a program about extinction level events.
He asks Jackson what his dad meant and he says his dad was a loon. Abraham says the radio at Simon’s camp is on the fritz and they need to check on him after the tour. Abraham hands him some hangover remedy. Jackson tells the tourists all about the animals they’re seeing and the endangered black rhino. They stop to look at some giraffes in the distance. They spot some hunters nearby and Jackson turns on his boom box loudly so the animals will run off.
The hunter comes over angry and says he has a license that cost $200k to hunt the rhino. The guide with the hunter gets him to back off. Back in LA, two guys walk and talk down a busy street. One stops to take a leak in an alley. His friends hears a roar and looks up and sees a lion on top of a nearby truck. It pounces on the one. The reporter tells the story of how two lions escaped from the zoo and killed several people after they made their break.
Jamie is on the phone looking for a comment about the lions. She thinks the change to a new feed source caused the attack. Her editor calls Jamie in and shows her a blog online she found and says the woman who writes it hates a certain biochemical company – Reiden Global. She tells Jamie that GDJ Int’l own Reiden and them. Her editor says she knows that blog is her work since she’s been editing her for years. Back in Botswana, Abraham says he wants to talk to Simon about Daniel.
He says Daniel wants to be a great scientists like Jackson’s dad Robert. He says Daniel always asks why and says he prefers when – when will he have his next drink or woman. Jackson says his dad’s tapes are nonsense and says he was coming unhinged with all his talk about extinction events. Abraham says at least with animals you know where you stand. Jackson says animals don’t have egos, insecurities or kill themselves – they’re reliable.
Looks like Jackson’s dad may have offed himself. At the safari camp, Abraham wonders where the women are that usually welcome them. They head in with a box of parts. They notice the safari vehicles are out but comment that the cooks and other staff are usually around. The place is deserted and several days old food is drawing flies. Jackson says there must be an explanation. Jackson spots a video camera on the floor of the hut and checks it out.
Abraham goes into the main quarters to look around. He checks the radio and says it’s working fine. He says he thought that the radio was out and that’s why they haven’t heard from him. Jackson shows him the video. It’s Simon and then there are screaming guests running and roars then the camera drops. They load up supplies to go looking for the others. Abraham spots lion dung and tracks from a single lion. Jackson says one lion wouldn’t scare them all off. Abraham wonders what did.
Back in LA, there’s a news story about a volcanic eruption in the Philippines. Jamie listens to the news then there’s a knock on her door. It’s her secret work BF Ethan and she chews him out for not coming to her defense. He says he told her the blog was a bad idea. He says to stop chasing the unicorn after she says now she’s fired, they’re done. Ethan says she has no proof about Raiden but she says he knows what happened at Fulsum.
A news story comes on about the lion attack. It’s Fremer, the LA Parks guy she hates. She tells Ethan to get lost. She heads to Fremer’s place who is having a party. He asks why she’s there and she says she came to ask questions then asks how he’s having a party when three people died. He says they’re looking into the lion attack. She asks about changing the lion’s food source due to budgetary cuts. He says the supplier changed to a more environmentally friendly option.
He tells her she should work on a more important story and says all the cats in their neighborhood including his daughter’s cat Cupcake. He tells her to get off her property. Jackson talks about the rebel army that raids camps and says they come in single file so no one can tell how many were there. He says maybe the lions did that and Abraham says it’s ridiculous. They spot one of Simon’s vehicles. Abraham gets out his rifle and they look around then head for the truck.
Abraham spots a shoe and tells Jackson to stay back and cover him. The tall Savanna grass seems ominous. Abraham hears a noise and runs for the truck. Jackson hears a noise and looks around the grass. He hears the throaty growl of a lion. A woman runs up on him screaming in a foreign language. A lion jumps into the cab of the truck where Abraham was and he screams his name. The lion emerges with a bloody maw. Jackson shoots at it but the woman says they have to go.
More lions come at them as they sprint to the truck. Five or six swarm from all asides and they barely get into the Jeep before the animals are on them. One leaps onto the hood then onto the roof. He finally gets the Jeep started and they drive away at top speed. Jackson hands her his flask and asks her name. It’s Chloe. She takes a swig and he asks what happened. She says they were out looking for animals and there were 15 of them. She says the guide wanted them to see some gazelles.
She says they got out of the car and got closer and then she heard a noise and looked back and the bus driver was getting attacked then more lions jumped down on them from the trees. She says she tried to help the others and knew she was going to die. She starts crying. She asks how this happens. She asks how you get eaten to death. She swigs more bourbon and says it’s good. At the zoo, someone takes photos of the gorillas. Jamie is there poking around.
She spots a sign that the African mammals exhibit is closed and goes inside looking for Mitch Morgan, the veterinary pathologist. He says he diagnoses animal disease through looking at tissue and other stuff. He says animals don’t have to be dead to be of interest. He says she wants to know what happened to make the lions attack. She says yes and he says he does too. They go to his lab and he asks where she grew up. She asks why and he says it’s friendly chit chat.
Mitch shows her the body of two lions, Nick and Eddie. He says they were siblings captured in the Serengeti when they were eight months old. He says they were healthy, well fed and no signs of abuse. He says they were raised in cages though. She says he’s one of those who thinks animals are preferable to humans. He says he also prefers pizza and beer to humans. She asks about the zoo food changes. He asks if she means Reiden and she says who knows what damage they’re doing.
Mitch says bad food wouldn’t change their behavior and would have constipated or sickened them. Jamie says it’s happened nine times. She says in the 141 years of zoos in Americas there have only been nine lion attacks and says something caused this. Jackson looks at the cut on Chloe’s leg and hands her the first aid kit. She opens a bandage then laughs and tells him it’s her honeymoon. She says her husband is back in Paris and says he never became her husband.
She says she found out he was cheating a few weeks before the wedding. Jackson says it must be a shock and she says Frenchmen usually wait to get a mistress after the wedding. She says she decided to come on her own for the honeymoon trip. She asks if the guide Simon was his friend and he says yes and his cousin Abraham was his best friend. She asks if that’s the man who went into the bus and he says yes. The Jeep starts smoking and stalls out. He looks at it and sees there’s a hole in the radiator.
He says the lions got to the radiator. She asks what they can do and he says the camp is six miles away and they have to walk then get to the radio to call for more help. She’s terrified. Jackson says they can make Simon’s camp by dark and she says it’s not safe. She says free will and this truck separate them from the animals. Jackson says the lions fed recently and won’t do any long trekking in search of dinner right now and says they’ll be fine.
Chloe says she can tell he’s lying to her and Jackson says something clearly is not right. He says there were at least five male lions and they don’t travel like that. He says prides are females, offspring and maybe one or two males. He says they do not want to be there when night falls. He gets out of the Jeep. She reluctantly gets out as well. At the zoo, Jamie chats with Mitch and he says he’s got to work on his lesson plans. He says the good news is, it should be another 15.6 years before something else happens.
She says maybe she is chasing unicorns and he says sometimes a mystery is a mystery. She tells him about the missing cats in Brentwood. He asks how they know they’re missing and makes a joke. She hangs him her cell number and she says it’s in case he has an inkling about the attack. Jackson tells Chloe they need to keep moving and she asks if he’s been in Africa a long time. He says 12 years and she asks why. He says it’s a long way from home that’s why.
Lions approach them out of the tall grass and he tells her not to move. He tells her to get behind him as the lions approach. They are at the edge of a cliff going down to a river. The one male growls at him and he stares it in the eye. He says the defiant pupil his dad was talking about. The lion takes a swipe at him and he lunges back knocking them both down the ravine. Thankfully it was muddy and they’re pretty much okay. They see the lions watching from above and start moving again.
They make it to the camp and Chloe asks what he’s thinking. He says his father had some crazy animal behavior theories. Jackson says he wondered why animals live in fear of predators rather than coordinating to take them out. He says his theories never added up and it drove him crazy, literally crazy. He says his father made a bunch of tapes like a manifesto. He says he has them back at the camp. He says is dad would talk about a defiant pupil, the proof that his theory is correct.
Chloe asks what it is and Jackson says he thought he meant a student but now he thinks he means the pupil of the animal’s eye. He says he saw it in the lion’s left eye right before they fell. He says he thinks his father wasn’t so crazy after all. He cranks up the radio and calls for help. He says they have missing persons and need a search and rescue team. In LA, Jamie packs up her desk and Ethan stops by. He says he talked to Brenda the boss who agreed to conditionally reinstate her.
She says she’s going to work on her website instead. Ethan suggests they take a vacation and she says no. Her cell phone chirps and it’s a text from Mitch asking to talk. Ethan asks who Mitch is then nags her about the vacation. Jamie says she doesn’t feel good about their affair but he says they can have a do over at work and in their relationship. He says they can reset. Mitch texts again saying he found the cats. She ditches Ethan and goes to meet Mitch.
He’s got a flashlight and tells her dozens of missing cats seemed odds. He says domestic cats always come back to their food source and a mass catnapping seemed odd. He says he thought it might be a predator. He says he drove around and Jamie jokes he went on a cat stakeout. He says he followed a lone Siamese and followed it. Jamie says he’s freaking her out then asks where the cat is. He says she needs to see for herself.
Jackson makes them coffee as they wait for help. Chloe comes back out and she thanks him. They hear trucks and comment that it was fast. It’s local officers who arrest Jackson for interfering in the guy’s Rhino hunt. Jackson tells them something is going on with the lions. Chloe is held back. Daniel watches Robert’s tapes as he talks about lesser species and man. He says our world is on the edge of destruction. He asks what survival strategy animals will employ.
Outside, there are lion growls. Robert asks if animals will give up on mankind. Mitch takes Jamie to a tree that’s full of cats. They are all meowing and look unhappy. Jamie says this is an elementary school but he says in summer it’s a day camp that starts tomorrow. A lion drags a man’s body up a tree. It’s Abraham. He’s still alive, but barely. He’s placed across a branch and left there. The lion watches him.
