Zoo (2015) s01e03 Episode Script

For centuries, mankind has been the dominant species.
We've domesticated animals, locked them up, killed them for sport.
But what if, all across the globe, the animals decided, "No more?" What if they finally decided to fight back? Previously on Zoo: Rise and shine, Jackson.
We have a dozen impatient Swedes waiting for us to show them the rhinos.
Go now! My father made all these tapes.
He talks about a defiant pupil.
Indisputable proof that his theory was correct.
Maybe my father wasn't entirely crazy.
- Hey there.
Chloe.
- Oh, hey.
- You leaving? - I'm going back to Paris.
Your father's ideas were rejected by every one of his peers.
- Harvard revoked his chair.
- What if they're wrong? - He was the laughingstock! - What if everyone else is wrong? At some point, your father found his way to Japan.
Whatever is left of his research? This is where you'll find it.
Mitch Morgan? I'm Jamie Campbell.
- We spoke on the phone.
- Right.
- L.
A.
Telegraph.
- You're the animal coroner? Veterinary pathologist.
The beef those lions were fed came from cows that fed on grain that was treated with pesticides from Reiden Global.
Meaning it could cause aberrant behavior? - Exactly.
- I think these lions are communicating with each other.
- Abe.
- If you go, I go with you.
Besides, I think Japanese women are very sexy.
I'm sure they're gonna find you sexy too, in a beaten-up kind of way.
- Chloe Tousignant? - Oui.
You may be uniquely suited to help us.
I'm afraid that the fate of the world may hinge on it.
This is Nicholas Bradshaw.
He came to Kamnik a week ago to adopt a son.
Yesterday he was massacred by dogs.
Heh.
Massacred by dogs? Don't be ridiculous.
You're right.
One man does not a massacre make.
But look around.
Six - I'm sorry - I know this is upsetting, but I needed to show you tangible evidence of what I suspect - you are beginning to realize.
- And what is that? That something very strange is occurring in the animal kingdom.
And I'd like your help in getting to the bottom of it.
Why me? I'm not a field agent.
My expertise lies in human attacks, not animals.
If that is what you need, sorry, I'm not your girl.
Miss Tousignant, I've thoroughly vetted you.
You're one of the top intelligence analysts at the DGSE, you speak five languages, you understand virtually every culture on Earth.
Perhaps there are others who meet these criteria, but given what you witnessed in Africa, you are exactly what I need.
- Business or pleasure? - What? Seventeen hours in airplane seats not suited for children.
Two hours trying to hail a cab.
Another hour searching through city streets with teens dressed like circus clowns.
And did I mention, I haven't been off the African Continent in over a decade? So I am asking, which one do we conquer first? - Business or pleasure? - Let's find the address, then you can partake in whatever it is you feel like partaking.
This is it.
We are looking for the former residence of Dr.
Robert Oz.
Jackson? Thank you.
And now we border treacherously on stalking.
I don't know whether to be freaked out or flattered.
Be grateful.
What's that? The paper offered to fly us to New Orleans to meet Senator Vaughn.
He's head of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
A little premature, don't you think? We have evidence against Reiden Global.
We don't have anything close to solid evidence.
Are you kidding me? We know those lions were communicating over large distances.
That's not evidence.
It's a theory.
Yes, we have a mutation that seems to be producing a hive-like mind in lions Same kind that exists in bees, some kind of superorganism.
But that's more crazy than anything else.
And it's a hell of a long way off from pinning the blame on Reiden.
Look, Senator Vaughn is from my home district.
He's a good man.
He will listen.
Our theory is at least enough to get him to launch an investigation.
Look, I have classes, I have students.
I have laundry.
I would think that if there's even a possibility that Reiden Global is turning lions into superorganisms, that that would be a priority for you, but it's fine.
I'll just, um, take my findings to a guy I know at Caltech.
Oh, now they're your findings? This is the kind of stuff that leads to tenure and chairmanships.
Appealing to what you perceive to be my outsized ego lacks subtlety.
And Louisiana is lovely this time of year.
I recognize you from a handful of photos your father kept.
I apologize, Minako.
I had no idea that my father had got remarried.
Ah.
Please sit.
We met at Harvard six years ago.
I was writing my thesis on trophics interaction and plankton ecology, and I became fascinated with Robert's work on animal evolution.
After he was fired from the university, he sunk into a deep depression.
I convinced him to continue his work and offered to use my family's money to sustain us.
He was, at that time, quite penniless.
- So you were with him during? - His breakdown? Yes.
Love is difficult when you stick with someone during the hard times.
But, of course, that is when they need you the most.
If you have come now, two years after your father's death, it must be because you need something.
A pride of male lions in Africa Their Their behavior was, uh Troubling.
I believe that my father may have additional research that can shed some further light on the lions', um, changing behavior.
So it has begun.
The awakening of the animals' cognitive acuity.
I would love to give you the rest of your father's work, but it is not here.
It remains where he conducted his final experiments.
And where is that? Your father became paranoid.
He began hiding his findings.
Coding everything, even from me.
I finally convinced him that somebody other than himself needed to be in on his genius.
- What are those? - Rad meters.
You need to wear these at all times.
They let us know when we've taken in too much radiation.
Why should we be worried about radiation exposure? Your father selected an island 30 kilometers outside of Fukushima.
Fukushima? As in nuclear reactors, radiation leaks and deadly fallout? He called it his "Ghost of Christmas Future.
" Coming to this island worked for your father.
The last time we spoke, he was so thrilled.
He said he finally understood.
- Understood what? - I suspect why the animal behavior was changing.
I don't know.
He did not want to say on the phone.
But before I could make the trip out here That's a bat.
That's flying a little high, isn't it? And a little too early in the day.
What's going on out there? Mayday! Mayday! The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent's meat.
All done, Evan Lee.
You ready? God said, "Let the earth bring forth a living creature after his kind.
The cattle and the creeping things and the beasts of the earth after his kind.
" And it was so.
Let's go, Evan Lee.
Time to see the warden.
Evan Lee, I'd like to get you to reconsider speaking to the widow.
It's just kind of best for everybody if we just move on.
The answer's still no.
Well, now, you suit yourself.
But tomorrow, you're gonna be getting the needle.
And if you really believed in a hereafter and any kind of mercy there, go and give the widow what she's asking for.
I'm beyond mercy.
- Get him out of here.
- Yes, sir.
- Okay.
- Okay, what? Okay, you're right.
It's time to make amends.
- Abe! - Over here.
- I can't find the pilot! - Keep looking.
Come on.
The pilot's gone.
She not breathing? Don't stop.
What are you doing? What are you doing? Don't stop.
- Jackson - Come on.
Come on.
Jackson.
Jackson.
- Come on.
Come on.
- Jackson.
Jackson! I still have no idea what help I can be.
I study patterns.
I process information.
Your skill set is exactly what I need.
Those poor people were attacked by dogs.
Presume the attack was human.
- This is ridiculous - Ridiculous? You mentioned that.
Humor me.
Look with a different eye.
The bodies in the morgue were in various states of decomposition, indicating the attacks took place over weeks.
It is clear why the victims weren't discovered for some time, but why were they not missed? Perhaps they were targeted because they had few ties to the community.
For instance? Visitors.
People without roots in the city or the area.
Tourists.
Good.
Anything else? It's a question of motive.
If the victims were killed with no possible gain to their killers What? If we were dealing with a human suspect Multiple victims over time, murdered in a place where their bodies wouldn't be discovered.
- There would only be one possible explanation.
- What is that? - They're honing their skills.
- Honing their skills? - Yes.
But why? This was not humans but dogs.
What purpose would it serve them to be more efficient murderers? You do understand the problem.
The question remains, are you willing to join me and do something about it? I'm sorry, miss, I can't rent you a car because your credit card is declined.
Are you sure? - Could you try it again? - Sure.
Well, I knew the newspaper biz was in the weeds, but getting a corporate card knocked back Actually, now it's saying to cut up the card.
No, no, no.
That That won't be necessary.
Um All right.
Okay.
Suppose we can use one of mine.
I'm sure The Telegraph will reimburse me.
Right? This trip has nothing to do with The Telegraph, does it? It did.
And then it didn't.
Because I was fired.
I spent my last 800 dollars getting us here.
I'm sorry.
I know I shouldn't have lied to you, but I did it for a good reason.
Yeah.
That's the problem with you.
Your "good reason" barometer is on the fritz.
Wait, where are you going? We have the meeting with the senator.
You have a meeting.
I'm getting on the next flight back.
Call your guy at Caltech.
Although, unlike me, the guys at Caltech are smart.
They're not gonna fall for your ramblings.
No, no.
Wait, wait.
The flight doesn't leave for eight hours.
Yeah, I'll get one of those chair massages.
A really long one.
Or you could spend two of those eight hours meeting the senator, laying out the findings that could eventually lead to your securing a Nobel Prize.
A Nobel Prize? Okay, maybe not a Nobel Prize, but But a different kind of prize.
The kind of prize that makes you feel really good about yourself.
Come on, Mitch.
Can I? Can I at least show you something first? The pilot sent an SOS beacon on our way down.
We can expect a rescue.
But who knows in how long.
How do hundreds of bats fly 5,000 feet higher than they normally do? Perhaps the radiation? How far do you think it is to my father's compound? From the plane, maybe three kilometers.
We could make it there and back before the rescue arrives.
This thing survived the crash.
But I don't even know what these numbers mean.
Green.
Maybe we're safe.
"The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
" Ms.
Blanchard, thank you for taking the time to come down.
I was surprised to get your call.
Well, most death row inmates, in the end, they like to clear their conscience before execution.
I hadn't held out much hope for Evan Lee, but, well, here we are.
I can't believe she's dead.
Jackson, we did everything we could for her.
I know.
But I would have liked to have thanked her.
For sticking by him.
It's a hell of a lot more than my mother and I did.
Well, from everything you told me, that was the best thing that could have happened to all of you.
But what if we were wrong and he was right? Is it possible that we were looking at the situation all wrong? What we thought was a man on the edge of sanity was actually a man on the verge of an extraordinary evolutionary breakthrough.
Perception can sometimes stain reality.
That is why I don't tell everybody about my past.
We should keep going.
I was 11 when my mom got sick.
She was one of the first ones.
Eventually, there were 26 more.
Twenty-six formerly healthy members of the community.
Cancer clusters.
We tried to make a case, but by then, Reiden was this huge, monolithic super-corporation, and we were just a bunch of sick farmers in a tidewater town.
And who knows what causes cancer, right? All you can do to avoid it are good luck and good genetics.
Or so the thinking goes.
I'm sorry.
Do you have family? I never asked.
Yeah, we're not close.
As you can imagine, I'm an acquired taste.
Yeah, in the beginning.
In the end, though, you come through.
Anyway, I wanted to bring you here to show you that I wasn't completely nuts.
I'm just very, very angry.
This must be the place.
What's the radiation level? It's up to yellow.
We need to get in and then get out.
Dear Lord.
Who removed their eyes? It's okay.
It's okay.
It's okay, boy.
It's okay.
Don't worry.
Don't worry.
It's okay.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Don't worry.
Don't worry.
Oh, my God.
Jackson? What exactly was your father doing here? Thank you for making the time for us, senator.
Oh, my.
Beautiful.
Bag that yourself? In Alaska, my 40th birthday.
Reiden Global.
Heh.
We have been fighting that fight for some time, - haven't we, Ms.
Campbell? - Yes, we have, senator, but Dr.
Morgan has found the smoking gun we've been waiting for.
Yeah.
Right.
Uh It's possible that a new mutation is allowing lions in Los Angeles to communicate with each other over long distances.
Functioning as some sort of superorganism.
Although the evidence of this is observational, not quantitative.
What Dr.
Morgan didn't mention is that the mutation in the lions, and some disturbing behavior we witnessed in cats, was preceded by exposure to Reiden pesticides.
We can finally show that Reiden is radically - altering animal genetic code.
- I have been with you on this, Jamie, from the beginning.
But as is the case sometimes in these matters, things change.
What things? See those shelves? That is the result of the investigations my committee has launched into Reiden Global.
For every motion we file, they file ten.
For every lawyer we have, they have a dozen.
Reiden is just too powerful.
They're everywhere.
Well, senator, this I know this has been important to you for some time, Ms.
Campbell, but it is over.
- Well, we should go, Jamie.
- Please.
Knowing when there's no longer any sense in a fight, Jamie, is what separates the proud from the pathetic.
Goodbye.
Senator, I did my grad school thesis on the inverse proportionality of taxidermy wall mounts to their owners' penis size.
My condolences to your wife.
I'll check for a generator.
Oh, I found the horses' eyeballs.
Lovely.
I think I know why he came here.
- What do you mean? - My father.
He came here because of the radiation, because the animals were already changing.
But he was already experimenting on animals back in Boston.
Yes, on changes and behavior that were naturally occurring, but I think here he realized the radiation accelerated changes in the animals' biological makeup and behavior.
He would go to such lengths, even to the detriment of his own health? It's exactly what he would do.
This entire island was his petri dish.
The Ghost of Christmas Future.
This question resides in the most primal aspect of the brain in both animals and humans.
That they have the capacity and the capability to rule the planet.
Gentle Gentle! Bring it down, bring it down, bring it down.
Bring it down.
No, no.
No.
He looks like he's aged 30 years since I last saw him.
Easy! Get the lead rope! You see that? The defiant pupil.
Just like the lions.
So Vic, who owns this place, he's kept the decorations up for 15 years.
Since his wife died Christmas Eve.
How very Miss Havisham of him.
All right, is this what you're gonna do? "Bartender, pour me another"? You're gonna drown your sorrows because of a little setback? A little setback? Dude, I don't have a job.
I don't have an apartment.
I don't have any money.
And the last best chance I had of nailing these bastards just showed us the door.
Mm.
- Encore.
- Yes, ma'am.
Wow.
Yeah, I was awful to my mother the last year she was sick.
You were a kid.
Kids' brains access fear more easily than they do compassion.
Fear of losing your mother made empathy impossible.
I was ashamed of her.
Of her baldness.
Maybe that's why you're doing this.
Why you're off on this crusade.
Hm? Make things right? Well, no kidding, Sigmund.
Duh.
Okay, listen.
Maybe I can work on the theory back at the lab.
Few more tests, I can come up with something that even Reiden Global and their legion of lawyers can't deny.
No.
Don't bother.
It's over.
Why? Look, I really appreciate everything that you've done so far, but there's nothing for me there.
I'm gonna go call my uncle.
See if I can crash with him till my next setback.
Mitchell Morgan.
Uh Do I know you? As you can see, the matter is rather urgent.
So you claim, Mystery Man in a Very Nice Suit.
I'm in town, actually.
Um Heh.
Yeah.
Yeah, for work.
Yep.
With the paper.
Uh I, um I was thinking maybe we could We could catch up? Yeah.
Yeah.
I'd love to come by.
I thought you'd jump at the chance.
With the funding in your department severely cut, your proposal for a state-of-the-art lab being turned down and your fervent desire for confirmation as to whether or not lions can now communicate over long distances.
Mystery Man in a Very Nice Suit Who Knows Things.
Yeah.
- All right, I'm in.
- Very good.
On one condition.
I'm surprised you agreed to see me.
Seems it's God's will.
Or some might say a veiled attempt to stave off any kind of unforeseen unpleasantness in the hereafter.
But I don't answer to them, Miss Blanchard, only to you.
It's Missus.
You've always maintained your innocence.
But I need the truth, Mr.
Hartley.
Did you kill my husband? I wasn't always like this.
Lusting.
Craving.
We played God.
And we paid a horrible price.
I was out there looking for the cure.
Out there in the woods.
That night, seeing your husband and his friends on that hunting trip, it triggered something.
Watching men celebrate murder.
They made it easy.
Easy to kill.
Your husband was the first.
He was a little slower than the rest.
I took him down fast.
You should know he didn't suffer, Miss Blanchard.
My knife is fast.
Missus.
And before I got caught, I was out there looking for another hunting party.
Because it had become It is now my nature.
I know you got questions about what I did.
But all the answers are right here, Miss Blanchard.
Damn it, it's missus.
- Mrs.
Blanchard.
- Is it, though? Is it still? You see, I thought I removed the missus when I removed Daniel's heart.
Guard! I want to leave now! Guard! Open this door right now! The defiant pupil has been present for 16 days.
I have failed in isolating and reversing the mutations.
The horses are becoming increasingly aggressive.
This is impossible.
Everything is in code.
A little help here, Jackson? The eyes are the window to the soul.
How does that help to decode this stuff? Like you said before, perception stains reality.
What if the defiant pupil is a signifier that the way the animals see the world is now changing? It's affecting how they interpret what they see.
What used to be a friend is now an enemy.
And because of this, their behavior's changing.
What if that's what my father had discovered and he thought that the only way to change them back was to remove their eyes? He couldn't blind every animal in the world.
No.
I mean, of course not, right? That's ridiculous.
Only a crazy person would think that.
The radiation on the island seemed to accelerate the horses' violent behavior.
Equine Number 12 at one point attacked my assistant biting her hand and removing two of her fingers.
At this point, I had to act.
Ten minutes.
Then I get to watch you eat your last meal.
- What'd you ask for? - Fish sticks.
Heh.
Jackson? What is it? I remember this day.
We were in Western Mass.
We'd gone to go observe a family of deer.
You see? A joyful piece of your father still remains.
Yeah.
Alongside the guy who thought he could blind all of God's creatures.
It's quiet.
Why isn't? The meter has stopped working.
That can't be good.
Come on.
Hey.
- Hey! Hey! - Hey! Hey! - Hey! - Hey! - Let's go, Mr.
Oz, Mr.
Kenyatta! - Who are you? There will be time for questions, but first we must get out of here.
Quickly, s'il vous plaît.
You realize we traveled halfway around the world because some random French guy asked us to, right? Anything's better than that Christmas bar.
Jackson Oz, Abraham Kenyatta, Dr.
Mitch Morgan and Jamie Campbell.
I know you all have many questions, but if you'll please take a seat.
I know this was difficult, but I'd like to think at least it brought you some small measure of closure.
It didn't.
Thank you for coming, Miss Blanchard.
Damn shame to go and get murdered when you got that fine thing waiting at home.
No, no, no! No, no, no, no! Open the gate! - Okay, this is weird.
- Yeah.
What exactly are we waiting for? Monsieur Delavane.
Greetings.
I apologize for all the cloak and dagger.
The four of you are here because your suspicions over the last few weeks are correct.
You are all aware of lion killings in Botswana and Los Angeles.
But there have also been a series of dog attacks in Slovenia.
And in Japan, hundreds of bats swarmed a plane and brought it down into the ocean.
In Jakarta, three Sumatran rhinoceros turned over an SUV belonging to a family of Norwegian tourists.
The rhinos waited for the family, a father, mother, two children, to exit the vehicle and then trampled them.
In Wuppertal, Germany, six brown bears came out of the Kothen Forest, making their way to a playground in mid-afternoon.
The massacre that followed left seven children dead and another 14 injured.
Taken individually, each of these incidents can just be seen as a horrific, tragic event.
I believe they are evidence of something else.
And what is that, exactly? The global pandemic your father believed was about to emerge, it appears it has arrived.
Sorry, his father? Professor Robert Oz.
We're all here because you believe that the scientific theories of a notorious crackpot are now coming to pass? Watch yourself, scrawny.
Mitch Morgan, as advertised.
This is all very interesting and definitely disturbing, but none of this proves anything.
Certainly not the coming of the animal apocalypse.
That's why I had Monsieur Alves bring the five of you together.
Five? I count four.
This is Chloe Tousignant.
- She will also be working with you.
- Hello.
Miss Tousignant will function as my proxy.
Open it up! Come on! Open it up! As my eyes and my ears.
Let's go! Every decision that is made will go through her.
Miss Tousignant is in charge.
Something is most assuredly going on out there.
All we want is for you to figure out what it is.
Before it's too late.