NBC pulled the fourth episode of Hannibal for sensitivity. "Ceuf" had a storyline that centered around kids killing kids, and in light of the events in this country in the last few months, the network decided it was in bad taste to air the episode.

Or, at least, the complete episode. Realizing that there was important character development in "Ceuf," NBC released the episode online, as a severely edited webseries. Executive producer Bryan Fuller calls it the "cannibalized" version. Interestingly, in an intro he does to the abbreviated episode, he encourages viewers to seek out the unedited episode (which will air in its entirety in every other market outside the United States).

The "webisodes" essentially focus on any scene that does not deal with the "procedural" part of the episode - the hunt for the killer o' the week. What we are left with is a sloppy - but still fascinating - collection of scenes dealing with the emotional states of Abigail, Will, Hannibal, and Alana. It is less than half the episode, but we learn some interesting things. Most important is the growing relationship between Hannibal and Abigail. Bound by their secrets, Hannibal is becoming a father figure to Abigail (a role that Will wants to fill, but fights against, knowing it is against his and Abigail's best interest). He checks her out of the psychiatric hospital and brings her back to his place for a home cooked meal and home brewed psychotropic tea.

You can watch the "webisodes" in their entirety below. I recommend checking it out before tonight's episode (10pm on NBC). And if anyone knows where to get an uncut version of the episode....

MTV is hoping to duplicate its Teen Wolf success - with Scream. The cabler has been in development on a Scream series for nearly a year; now it finally seems they are going forward with the pilot.

Based off the slasher movie series directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, the film series reinvigorated the slasher genre. The network is currently looking for a writer for the pilot (yup, a year in development and the best they got was "Yeah, let's do it") but they are in discussion with Craven to direct the pilot.

If Scream goes to series, it would debut on the network in Summer 2014, likely paired up with Teen Wolf, which starts its third season on June 3rd.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Hopefully you've been keeping tabs on the horror talk show podcast 'Killer POV' co-hosted by FEARnet's own Rob Galluzzo, Fangoria's Rebekah McKendry and Inside Horror's Elric Kane, which airs exclusively on GeekNation, but for those of you that love horror television, Shock Till You Drop's Ryan Turek hosts his own show on there called 'The Bloodcast.' So this week, the gangs from both shows decided to do special crossover episodes. The first part of the crossover is embedded below and finds the group coming together to look back at their formative years and the television horror shows and movies that fueled their fandom. From TV classics like 'Chiller' to contemporary fare like 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' this quartet discuss it all. They also weigh in on today’s genre offerings. Have a listen below or on 'The Bloodcast' page on GeekNation's website. Look for Part 2 on Friday morning!
 

Hannibal Episode 104
“Coquilles”
Teleplay By: Scott Nimfero & Bryan Fuller
Story By: Scott Nimfero
Directed By: Guillermo Navarro
Original Airdate: 25 April 2013

In This Episode...

The local cops practically have to beg the FBI to take this case over: husband and wife are found in their motel room, dead. They have been positioned on their knees in a prayer position, and the skin on their backs has been flayed and strung up to the ceiling, to make them look like angels. Will insists that this isn’t a purely religious killing. The killer, the Angel Maker, does not see himself as god; but rather is looking for protection. The Angel Maker is scared - he slept in his victims’ room and sweated through the sheets, and he vomited on the nightstand. Drugs found in the vomit suggest that the killer has a brain tumor. Will has difficulty with this - how is he supposed to profile someone who has an anomaly that changes what is in their head?

A second body appears, this one strung up in an alley, 30 feet overhead. While most of the other agents still believe the Angel Maker is killing for religious reasons, Will insists he is not. Yet they discover genitalia at this crime scene - likely belonging to the Angel Maker - and Will wonders if he is starting his own transformation to death. Will is troubled, trying to get into a diseased brain, and Jack is drilling him for answers as to how the Angel Maker is choosing his victims. Will gets testy: “You are the head of the behavioral analysis unit. Why don’t you come up with some of your own theories?” Jack does not appreciate being spoken to like that. (Personally, I think he deserved it.)

Back at the office, Will clearly feels bad about speaking to his boss like that, but it has made him a minor celebrity amongst his co-workers. No one speaks to Jack like that. Details on the victims have come back. The couple had been on the Most Wanted list for years: he liked to rape and kill women; she liked to watch. The second victim was a convicted felon. Will still stands by the fact that this is not a religiously-motivated vigilante killer - he just got “lucky” with his victims. The FBI has also identified the Angel Maker as one Elliott Budish. They talk to his wife. She left him after his diagnosis. He wanted to be left alone and pushed her and the kids away with anger and increasingly erratic behavior. She semi-confirms what Will has been saying, that Elliott was never a religious person. But he did have a near-death experience as a child, where he almost suffocated to death in a farm fire. The firefighters said he must have had a guardian angel.

Will and Jack go to the farm and they find Elliott in the burned-out barn. He is dead, having flayed and displayed himself in the same way he did to his victims. I want to know how the hell he did it himself. Even if he could withstand the pain of being flayed and strung up, how the hell did he reach his back to flay himself to begin with? Did Hannibal help him out? It seems unlikely, as Hannibal was not involved with this case at all. Will tells Jack that this will probably be his last case. The work is weighing on him. Jack argues with him, saying it is hard on all of them, but if they don’t do it, these criminals will continue to kill. “This is bad for me!” Will insists. Jack tells Will he isn’t going to tell him what to do; he’s not his father. It is a fairly standard (and effective) Jewish mother guilt: “You want to quit? Fine, quit. But how will you feel knowing there are killers out there you could have helped catch but didn’t?” It is cheap, it is manipulative - but it seems to have worked. After Jack receives some bad news, will sits next to him in his office. “You don’t have to talk until you are ready, but I’m not leaving until you do.”

As has been hinted at in previous episodes, Jack and his wife Bella (a nickname; her real name is Phyllis) are having problems. She is extremely distant. After dinner with Hannibal, Bella starts seeing the good doctor and we discover that she has lung cancer and she hasn’t told Jack. When Mrs. Budish describes what happened when her husband got brain cancer, it all becomes clear to Jack. He confronts Bella, and though it will take some time, they seem to be on the mend.

Also: Will has taken to sleepwalking. When the episode opens, the police find him wandering down the road, barefoot, in the middle of the night. Winston, one of his dogs, had followed him. Another night, Will lays awake until 5am, only to blink and wake to sunlight and his dogs barking. Will is standing on the roof, with his pups barking and trying to slip out the window to rescue him.

Dig It or Bury It?

The deeper we get into Hannibal, it becomes less about the murders (gruesome though they are) and more about the psychology. Frankly, I find that far scarier.

As I’m sure you know by now, this was actually supposed to be episode 105 (I numbered it 104 because otherwise my obsessive-compulsive brain would explode) because the “real” 104 was pulled. I was impressed because I don’t feel that I missed anything story-wise. I’m sure the “cannibalized webisodes” helped. Yet I do feel as if there were some gaps. Like, what happened to Abigail? And it feels like we needed one more “step” before Will’s breakdown.

Bon Appetit

Hannibal has Jack and Bella over for dinner. For a first course he serves fois gras with fresh and dried figs. Bella politely declines the course; it is too cruel. Hannibal assures her he uses an “ethical butcher.” Even still she won’t eat it. The next course is pork loin, and Hannibal assures her the pig was “quite supercilious.”

Prophecies?

Eddie Izzard (!) guest stars as a killer who may be the Chesapeake Killer - or the FBI’s misidentification of him may encourage the Chesapeake Killer to strike again.

I have always believed in a scary Halloween; one filled with monsters and blood and scares. None of that "cutesy witches and kittens with funny hats" crap for me.

In Haunted Air, a collection of anonymous photos of Halloweens is the epitome of scary. Washed out photos, lifeless masks, and crumbling costumes make Halloweens of yore the stuff of nightmares. Compiled by Ossian Brown, Haunted Air has a forward by director David Lynch - so you know it is going to be weird.

$30.88 at Amazon.com

New comic book Wednesday has come and gone. The dust at your local comic shop has settled. An eerie silence descends as you finish reading your last superhero book of the week. Now it's time for something a little more sinister. Welcome to Bagged and Boarded: comic reviews of the sick, spooky, twisted and terrifying!

The Massive No. 11

The End Times of Bram and Ben No. 4

Witch Doctor: Mal Practice No. 6

B.P.R.D. Vampire

We are getting early word on some big genre TV pickups. First, NBC has ordered a third season of Grimm. This is no surprise, as the dark fantasy series has been a strong performer for the network. No word yet on Hannibal, but that is not unusual, since Hannibal debuted midseason. 

In another "no surprise" move, the CW has ordered The Originals to series. The Vampire Diaries spinoff, which debuted as a backdoor pilot (a "pilot" that is shot and aired as part of the series it is spinning off of) last night to steady ratings, will likely be paired with the show in the fall. TVD producer Caroline Dries says that crossover episodes between the two shows are in the cards.

Hopefully you checked out our post yesterday about the latest episode of GeekNation's podcast 'The BloodCast' hosted by Shock Till You Drop's Ryan Turek which tackled the subject of horror television. As part of a special 2-part crossover week, Ryan had the 'Killer POV' group (consisting of FEARnet's own Rob Galluzzo, Fangoria's Rebekah McKendry and Inside Horror's Elric Kane) on as special guests. And now in turn, the new 'Killer POV' podcast just went live and feature Turek as their guest, this time to first talk about Rob Zombie's latest film 'The Lords Of Salem' before delving deep into the ins & outs and challenges of horror web journalism. You can check out the full insightful episode over on the GeekNation website or just listen to the embedded podcast below! 

To all of our readers out there in the Dallas, Texas area... listen up! If you're a fan of Rob Zombie's 'Halloween,' then you are in for a treat. Mark your calendar for next Thursday, May 2nd. The film's star Tyler Mane (Michael Myers) is currently on a promotional tour for his new film 'Compound Fracture,' which he co-wrote and produced along side his wife Renae Geerlings and which also features Derek Mears ('Friday The 13th'), Muse Watson ('I Know What You Did Last Summer') and Leslie Easterbrook ('The Devil's Rejects'). While the film has been on the road screening from city to city across the country for several weeks now, the upcoming Dallas event will be the first time 'Compound Fracture' is paired up as part of a double feature with 'Halloween.' So here's your chance to check out both films and hang out with Michael Myers himself while you're at it!

Not only that, but for being devoted supporters of FEARnet, we've teamed up with the 'Compound Fracture' crew to give a special discount to FEARnet readers. You can head over and buy tickets at the Event Brite page, but be sure at the end of your checkout to enter the discount code "FEARNET" and you'll automatically get 25% off your tickets. How cool is that? So pick up your tickets now so you can check out Tyler's new movie 'Compound Fracture,' as well as get the chance to see Rob Zombie's 'Halloween' with Michael Myers himself. For tickets to other stops on the tour, be sure to visit CompoundFractureTheMovie.com. Here's our chat with Tyler and Renae giving you an inside look into 'Compound Fracture.'

Grimm Episode 218
“Volcanalis”
Written By: Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt
Directed By: David Grossman
Original Airdate: 26 April 2013

In This Episode...

A geologist named Jill is excitedly researching a local volcano. As she heads back to the truck, she is attacked by a man, ranting for her to “give it back” and “you haven’t shown respect.” She maces him and escapes. But once home, she is attacked by a giant fire demon creature.

Hank is on vacation, so Nick teams up with Wu on this case. Jill seems to have been burned from the inside out, with external burn marks on her neck and arms that look like handprints. Tom, her boss, takes Nick and Wu up to the area Jill was last investigating. They are attacked by the same man who attacked Jill. He recognizes Nick as a Grimm and runs. Nick gives chase, but it is Wu who tackles him. This is Marcus, an archeologist who has been living off the grid for nearly 15 years, after his wife died under mysterious circumstances (similar to those of Jill). Judging by his rap sheet, Marcus is widely considered an eco-freak. During his ranting interrogation, he mentions the Volcanati, bent on revenge. Renard has taken over for Wu on this because of the Wesen connection, and he knows of Volcanalis, the priest of the Roman god of fire. They link Volcanalis to chunks of rock that Jill took. Nick remembers that Tom took some as well, and he and Renard rush over to save him. Volcanalis is already there when the cops arrive. Both Nick and Renard shoot at it, but it has no effect. Volcanalis flees and Nick chases, but it disappears into the sewer at the first grate it can.

Since you can’t fight fire with fire, Nick realizes they must fight it with ice. He enlists in the help of Renard, Monroe, and Marcus to gather tons of volcanic rocks. They take the rocks to an empty steel mill and pile them up in the center of the room. Marcus stands with the rocks as bait, and when the Volcanalis comes storming in, the other three men blast it with a heavy treatment of liquid nitrogen. Volcanalis turns to obsidian, except for his eyes, which glow orange as the rest of the Volcanalis is frozen. Marcus gets the honor of sledgehammering the creature, since it killed his wife.

Juliette’s hallucinations are becoming more frequent and more vivid. While trying to swat one away, she veers off the road and crashes into parked cars. Nick visits her in the hospital (just a minor concussion) but Juliette wants him to leave her alone - even after she figures out that this is the real Nick. Juliette is too scared to go home, so she visits the Spanish woman for her advice.  The woman tells her to focus on just one memory. She must step into her past to become a part of it. Juliette is scared, but goes home and tries. She is overwhelmed and runs onto the porch. Out there was just once memory, of her and Nick moving in. She is able to follow just the one memory and when she snaps out of it, all is quiet. Juliette hesitantly tests out other memories, including when Nick proposed.

Frau Pech takes Adalind to meet Stefania the gypsy. Before they can open negotiations on how much Adalind’s baby will be worth, they must test the fetus’s blood to make sure the father is who Adalind says it is. This is done with a heinous torture tool that made me cringe. Once Stefania determines that Adalind is indeed carrying a royal fetus. She offers 500,000 Euros for a boy or 750,000 for a girl. But Adalind doesn’t want money; she wants her powers back. Stefania says she doesn’t even know if that is possible, so Adalind threatens not to carry the baby to term. This grabs Stefania’s attention.

Dig It or Bury It?

Big glowy fire demon. What could be wrong with that? Nothing, that’s what. This was a fun episode with a monster that is very unique for the Grimm world. It was nice to step away from the strictly procedural episode and focus on something that is just plain monstrous. It was strange that the bull Wesen was introduced in this episode, but his Wesen-ness seemed unnecessary. 

I don’t know what that gypsy did to Adalind, but that was horrifying. 

Big Bad...

Taureus Armenta. These bull Wesen are stubborn and courageous in the face of adversity. They can often be found in the front lines of battle, and have nerves of steel under fire.

Fun fact: Volcanalis wiped out Pompeii because many of the villagers took rocks from his volcano.

Prophecies?

Apparently we are now getting aliens thrown into the mix, which is usually not a good sign. But Juliette finally asks Monroe what a Grimm is, so maybe we will get some closure on this damsel-in-distress storyline. Also, don’t forget: Grimm moves to Tuesday nights at 10pm.

Bates Motel Episode 107
“The Man in Number 9”
Written By: Kerry Ehrin
Directed By: SJ Clarkson
Original Airdate: 29 April 2013

In This Episode...

Sheriff Romero comes to the Bates house. He takes Dylan’s gun, looks at Shelby, all quietly, in a scene that is pure Hitchcock. “We better talk,” he says to Norma. So they do, and she lays out the truth behind the mayhem: everything from the rape to Keith’s death, to Jiao, to Shelby’s involvement. Romero takes this all in and concocts an “official” story. Shelby shot Keith over a business dispute, and Romero had his suspicions about Shelby, which came to a head during a confrontation at the Bates property.

With all that “unpleasantness” behind them, and no more secrets in her closet (well, at least regarding what has happened since they moved to town), Norma is bubbly and excited to give the motel some finishing touches before the grand opening. She even makes Dylan breakfast - until he tells her that he still plans on moving out as soon as his arm is healed. She then switches to intense passive-aggressive behavior, guilting Dylan into taking out the trash before she stomps out of the kitchen. While throwing out the trash, a man in an expensive Cadillac drives up, asking about the Seafarer Motel. Dylan explains it is under new ownership. The man seems displeased, and drives off.

Norma takes a stack of brochures to a local restaurant in the hopes of doing some cross-promotion. Despite the large rack of brochures in the lobby, the manager declines. She finally admits that she heard about the “trouble” there and says the Bates Motel has been tainted now. (Shouldn’t Norma try to advertise at out of town restaurants?) Norma returns to her office, defeated. While there, she notices a man trying to get into room number 9. She goes to investigate. This is the odd man Dylan spoke to earlier. He introduces himself as Jake Abernathy, and claims he had an arrangement to rent room #9 every other month. He has a key - naturally it doesn’t work, the locks have been changed. Norma is happy to honor the arrangement and brings him the correct key. Despite the fact that they don’t open for another week, she is happy to have at least one customer. Dylan sees the light on in #9, recognizes the car, and warns her that this is the strange man he saw before. Norma blows him off, but agrees that Dylan should register him now. Jake is hesitant, but he does, and he pays for the room in cash.

The next day, Emma comes over to see Norman. He doesn’t want to see her and tells Mother to tell Emma that he isn’t feeling well. Norma does so, but takes pity on the girl when she turns to hide her tears. Norma suggests Emma show her where the drapery store is, and the two will get lunch. In the car, Norma asks about Norman, and while Emma is hesitant to “rat out” her friend, she does mention Bradley - but has no idea if they are sleeping together. Emma seems to idolize Bradley, “but you can’t even hate her because she is so nice.” Norma thinks it is ridiculous that a teenager could have so much power. Emma points out Bradley at a yoga class, and Norma is strangely jealous.

That night while helping Mother with the dishes, he makes his case for having a dog. He found a sweet stray living under the house and over the last few days, he had been earning her trust with bits of food. He even named her: Juno. Norma is hesitant, but when Norman points out that “normal families have dogs,” she relents and agrees - but Juno is his responsibility. Then they sit down and talk about sex. Besides just being uncomfortable to talk to your mom about sex, Norma talks about how it causes physical and mental changes in a woman, literally. Norman really likes Bradley and assures Norma that she is a really nice girl. Norma rolls her eyes and mentions that she has hired Emma to work at the motel a few days a week. Norman is horrified and sees this as his mother’s attempt to force the two of them together. He storms out and goes to see Bradley.

Bradley won’t let Norman in the house. He had been giving her her space because of her dad, but he just needed to see her, needed confirmation that they were together, yadda yadda yadda. Bradley looks embarrassed and apologizes saying that “what happened, happened” and “I shouldn’t have done it with someone like you.” She isn’t going to dump her boyfriend, and she doesn’t have romantic feelings towards Norman. Stunned, Norman takes off. Bradley feels bad and races after him. He marches along, repeating to himself what his mother told him earlier that night. This is the first time we have seen the Norma/Norman duality within Norman. Bradley finally catches up with Norman and gives him a hug and another apology. This seems to snap Norman out of it, and he hurries home.

Jake visits Norma in the motel office, telling her he is much happier with the motel since she has taken over.  He wants to continue the agreement he had with Keith, and block out all the rooms in the motel for the first week of every other month for him and his co-workers, who are all involved in various “sales” positions. He will pay in cash at the beginning of the week, and she doesn’t even have to clean the rooms during the week. Norma is only too happy to oblige. 

Norman is across the street from the motel and he sees Juno. But a car is coming, so he urges her to stay. You all know where this is going. The driver feels terrible, Norman is heartbroken, and Norma tries to blow it off. Norman picks up Juno from the street, and Mother tells him to put her down, she is dead. Showing more passion than any other point in the show, Norman screams that he won’t leave her in the street. Norma’s compassionate side comes out, and she goes to bring the car around so they can take Juno to Emma’s dad, the taxidermist.

Dig It or Bury It?

I know I am a giant wuss, but did we really need to see Juno get hit by the car? That was way too traumatic. I have lived through that trauma before in real-life; seeing it on-screen, even though it was super-duper fake, was just painful.

Okay, back to the important parts of the episode. I am still not 100% sold on the idea that Norman and Bradley actually slept together. Maybe that is just stubbornness on my part. Bradley insinuates that “it was a mistake” but she didn’t specifically state what that mistake was. It could have merely been inviting him to the party in that first episode.

I am not sure why Norma didn’t draw a connection between Jake and Keith. She’s a smart woman. It seems incredibly obvious that he was involved in Keith’s shenanigans (even before we saw a preview for next week’s episode). Maybe it was pure denial; maybe she didn’t want to believe Dylan was right about something. I have to assume she is just trying to look on the bright side. Still it just doesn’t sit right.

R.I.P. Juno.

Mother Dearest

While Norma watches Bradley doing yoga, she has flashes in her head of Bradley seducing Norman. It is really, really creepy to watch a mother imagine this about her teenage son. This isn’t Law & Order: Special Victims Unit!

Prophecies?

Jake is looking for something... and he refuses to believe that Norma had nothing to do with the little side business Keith and Shelby were running.

The Following Episode 115
“The Final Chapter”
Written By: Kevin Williamson
Directed By: Marcos Siega
Original Airdate: 29 April 2013

In This Episode...

A child wearing a Poe mask shows up outside the FBI command center. The kid was paid $20 by a woman named Emma to deliver this mask. He takes it off and hands it over to Ryan. A phone number is inside. The call goes to a cell phone in the coffin with Debra. They can’t track the signal (naturally) so Debra describes what she can remember about where they took her. In the meantime, local cops spotted the car that Debra was abducted in. Mike and Ryan arrive, along with half the FBI, and discover it is a trap - they wanted the car to be found. Alex is laying in wait in the woods, and opens fire. Mike and several other agents lay down cover fire so Ryan can sneak up behind Alex. He is arrested without incident. Nick gives Ryan and Mike the OK to transport him in their vehicle, and to “do whatever needs to be done.”

So Mike and Ryan take Alex to a warehouse in the middle of nowhere where they promise to question him the same way Alex’s guys “questioned” Mike. Alex laughs, assuming that since they are with the FBI, they won’t actually harm him. Ryan and Mike prove him wrong, brutally, with a barrage of kicks and punches and a pipe to the knees. Alex is still pretty confident - he knows they won’t kill him. And they won’t, but they “will get pretty damn close.” Ryan gouges Alex in the eye, and this is his breaking point. He gives up Debra’s location.

Ryan and Mike call it in, then race out to the woods on Alex’s directions. He was not lying. Mike leaves Alex on the ground while he and Ryan dig into the freshly turned earth. They dig up Debra, but she is not breathing. Mouth-to-mouth doesn’t help. Debra is dead. Alex mocks them and their dead friend, so Ryan marches up to him, calmly, and shoot him point-blank between the eyes, execution-style. While the guys are waiting for backup to arrive, Ryan notices something in the bottom of the coffin. It is Joe’s manuscript, and he describes this scene detail for detail, as if he were narrating while watching the scene play out. Mike asks what comes next, and Ryan lies, saying there isn’t anything written. It actually says the next part requires Ryan to go alone.

Claire wakes up and finds she is no longer on a boat. She is in a large seaside house that has fallen into disrepair. It shares the property with an enormous lighthouse. Joe finds it fitting; Claire finds it predictable. She keeps pushing his buttons until he is fed up, and locks her in a bedroom. There is another man in there, but he is also a victim, Neal Meyer. Joe had hired him to bring the boat to this house, then broke his ankle and locked him in the room. Joe soon becomes “lonely” and brings Claire back into the main room with him. There he grills her on when she knew that Joe liked killing “things,” and when she fell in love with Ryan. This turns into a pity-party where Claire blames herself for not knowing earlier that her husband was a lunatic, and feeling responsible for the coeds he killed. Enraged, Joe drags Neal into the room and brutally stabs him to death in front of her. “This is what it is actually like to kill someone. You killed no one. I earned this.”

Ryan follows the directions in Joe’s manuscript and finds Emma. A guy catches him from behind and sedates him, Dexter-style. When Ryan wakes, he is in the seaside house with Claire, Joe, and Neal’s corpse. It is time for Joe’s ending, in which he kills Claire. Ryan begs him not to, insisting that it is a hackneyed ending that will ruin the story; Joe insists Claire must die to “honor Ryan’s death curse.” Ryan pushes all the right buttons, getting under Joe’s skin and causing him to attack Ryan instead of Claire. Ryan’s wrists may be bound, but he is still able to grab a gun and get a couple shots off. Joe runs. Claire assures Ryan that she is okay and encourages him to “go kill Joe.” Ryan pursues him to a small shed right on the water. Ryan’s shots miss Joe - but they hit some barrels of flammable liquid and start a fire. The decrepit structure begins to crumble almost immediately, trapping Joe behind a wall of flames. Ryan decides Joe is as good as dead and escapes before the entire shack explodes.

It seems that every government agency in the country shows up at the crime scene that morning. They have human remains, but neither Ryan nor Claire will be at peace until there is a DNA match to Joe. Claire speaks tearfully to Joey over the phone. She will go with Ryan to his place that night, then they will meet up with Joey in DC the next day. Nick puts several agents on their detail.

Once at Ryan’s apartment, he gets a call from the agency: dental records and preliminary DNA tests match the remains. Joe is dead. Claire and Ryan share in a well-deserved kiss then she showers while he orders dinner. His agents deliver the food, but while Ryan is trying to cut the knotted bag open, he hears something at the door. He goes to check - nothing. So he goes back to the food. He barely has time to register the fact that the knife is gone before Molly jumps out and stabs him in the gut, screaming “Joe promised me you would be my chapter!” She wasn’t expecting Claire, and hides when Claire comes out in a bathrobe. She sees Ryan, panics, and Molly jumps out and stabs her in the back. 

Dig It or Bury It?

Well, that was an ending. I was a little concerned because it felt like a very rote episode. I hope that Joe stays dead - while I love James Purefoy, the only way to end the season is to kill Joe, and the explosion on the water is a very convenient way to say “oops, all a joke, he’s really alive.” Ryan, clearly, won’t die, but Claire might. She is a wild card. Kevin Williamson has no problem killing off main characters in his shows (The Vampire Diaries) so you can’t count anything out. I feel like the cut to black after Claire was stabbed without actually seeing her dead means that she will return next season. Molly getting stabby wasn’t a surprise, if only because the “previously on” mentioned her portion of the story, and there was no need to show that if she didn’t show up.

Another obvious death was Debra. Frankly, I couldn’t get torn up over her death. I wasn’t a fan of her character (actually I don’t really care for her as an actress; she was one of the worst district attorneys on Law & Order) so seeing her die was a kind of, “yeah, well, that was bound to happen.”

Aw hell. If Claire is dead, does that mean Ryan will play daddy to Joey?

It has been a long time coming, but Zombieland has finally come back from the dead. The 2009 cult movie went through a number of rumored iterations, including a film sequel, a TV series, and an animated series. It finally landed as a pilot for Amazon Studios. What is different about the Amazon model of programming is that the pilot is online, allowing anyone in America to watch it and leave comments. It is this super-direct focus group mentality that will decide whether more episodes are made.

We spoke with Zombieland writers and creators Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick about the many different versions of their story, what we can expect from a TV series, and what it is like working with Amazon.

It's kind of widely known that Zombieland started as a television pilot. Why don't you give us a little bit of the history of how it began and how it has evolved to where it is now on Amazon?

Rhett Reese: Well we always intended Zombieland to be a television series. And we originally sold a pilot script to CBS back in 2005. They decided not to make it, which was a blessing in disguise because that pilot script we ultimately expanded into the movie Zombieland.

When Zombieland came out and succeeded as it did there was a lot of talk of a Zombieland 2, a sequel. And we tried very, very hard to make that happen. Unfortunately the movie gods didn't smile on us. We had a few key departures and any number of factors that played into Zombieland 2 not happening. At that moment we decided, “Why not go back to our original passion and our original vision,” which was to make Zombieland into a TV series. And we found a partner in Amazon to do that. And now we've brought out the pilot.

How has Amazon been as a partner?

Paul Wernick: Amazon's been just amazing. We really feel they're trailblazing here on the content front, putting their pilots up online and letting the viewers decide. Zombieland is a nontraditional show. Amazon is a nontraditional network and content provider. And we've really had the creative freedom to do what we want, how we want to tell the stories we want to tell. They've given us incredible resources, dollar for dollar, minute for minute. It's really on par with the feature, budget-wise. The feature was shot for $22 million. Dollar for dollar and minute for minute we're really on par with that.

I think the viewer response is great. People are clicking on Zombieland and watching it and loving it. And it's been really fun to watch. It's the ultimate focus group. You put it out there for all of the public to watch and they get to decide whether we move forward or not.

Why bring back the same characters - Tallahassee, Wichita, Little Rock, and Columbus - knowing that you couldn’t get the same cast back, instead of creating a new batch of characters?

RR: I think the biggest reason we brought back these specific characters is, to us, Zombieland really is these characters. Without Tallahassee, Wichita, Little Rock and Columbus I think Zombieland really wouldn't be much more than a title and a tone. It would be like watching The Odd Couple movie and then doing The Odd Couple TV show and not having it be Felix and Oscar, having it be another odd couple of two different people. It just didn't make sense to us. We always loved these characters; they were the reason we wrote the movie in the first place.

It's about a dysfunctional family. It's about a fearless guy paired with a fearful guy. It's about two really live-by-their-wits con artist sisters. And at its heart we just didn't want to stray from that. We didn't want to create a bunch of new characters.

Obviously what that created was this comparison between new cast and old cast which we think is incredibly unfair. Obviously our first cast was tremendous. We had four Academy Award nominees in Zombieland the movie. And it's clearly impossible to replace those actors and the indelible market they left.

That said, there's a long history of parts both on stage and in TV shows that have become movies and movies that have become TV shows going in each direction of parts being played by multiple different actors. That is a precedent that has definitely come long before Zombieland.

We think we found a tremendous cast, people who really captured the essence of the characters without imitating the actors who came before them. And we're very, very proud of them. We just want everyone to give them a chance. Our feeling is if the more time [viewers] spend with them the more they're going to love them and the more they're going to embrace them.

Because of the series format are you planning on exploring a lot of the country?

PW: We do envision this as a road show. We're going to head east and travel towards Detroit, towards the East Coast and Fisher Island to this safe community. So absolutely. We feel that actually going on the road and shooting it on location [is the way to go]. Vegas will hopefully be the next spot we hit and hit spots along the way, like Mt. Rushmore and Graceland. Again, we have to kind of chart it out on a map. This inherently is a road show and I think we ideally would love to take the production on the road.

How does working with Amazon impact the amount of gore that you’re able to show, versus what you can show on a network or in the theaters?

PW: I don't think we got overly gory in the movie. I think we tried to maintain that same level of horror and comedy and heart. We tried to maintain the tone of the movie in the pilot. Amazon’s edict was basically: “Make the show that you want to make. Make Zombieland.” As gore goes, we do see some blood and guts. But that's all part of the tone of the show and something that Amazon encouraged.

Kirk Ward, who plays Tallahassee in the pilot, was originally cast in the role in the network pilot. What is it like working with him post-Woody Harrelson?Did he struggle with interpreting the character?

RR: We worked in Kirk Ward in 2005 on a show called Invasion Iowa with William Shatner. And we fell in love with his talents and him as a person. When we wrote Zombieland as a spec pilot, we were really inspired by Kirk. We intended him to play the part of Tallahassee. We kind of wrote the part to him, based on some of his acting strengths and what he likes to do in his physicality and his sense of humor and things like that. When Zombieland became a movie it was impossible to cast Kirk because, you know, Hollywood wanted a star and they found that star in Woody Harrelson, who was just amazing and awesome. And Woody left a very indelible mark on Tallahassee. But interestingly Tallahassee was never really intended to wear a cowboy hat and to talk with a more rural accent. He was supposed to be from a big city in Florida and was supposed to be Kirk Ward originally. So much of what Woody brought to the role was Woody bringing himself to the role and it was awesome. He created this wonderful Tallahassee that was different from the Tallahassee we had originally envisioned.

When it came time to do the series we had a lot of actors come in to audition. We wanted Kirk and but we had to go through an audition process. We had a lot of actors come in and essentially ape Woody Harrelson. We had a million guys come in with shark tooth necklaces and cowboy hats and T-shirts and jeans and do the southern accent. Our immediate reaction was that that was a mistake. We didn't want an actor to imitate Woody or to try to invoke Woody because we just thought that would have been playing an actor as opposed to playing a character. When we went to Kirk and said, "You've got to come do this," we told him not to try to imitate Woody, not to do a southern accent. We said, "We're not going to put you in a cowboy hat or cowboy boots. We're going to let you be the urban Tallahassee we originally imagined and you just have to be what you originally would have been in the character."

Can you talk a little bit about finding the balance between honoring the movie while keeping the TV series its own entity?

RR: Ultimately we're trying to recreate the movie without imitating the movie if that makes sense. We want to try to capture the tone of the movie which is dramatic, scary and funny - with the emphasis on the funny. We want it to have a heart the way the movie did. We want the relationships to play out similarly to how they were playing out in the movie and how they would have played out in movie sequels, which is a father-daughter relationship that developed between Tallahassee and Little Rock and a romance that developed between Columbus and Wichita.

We're bringing back a lot of elements from the movie like the rules and the zombie kill of the week. We have a lot more of those in store, not just rules and zombie kills of the week, but also a lot of other fun little... I hate to use the word “gimmicks” because it sounds gimmicky, but a lot of different elements that will bring new graphics and new fun runners and jokes that we always had intended to bring in.

I think overall we're not trying to imitate the movie or do exactly what we did in the movie. But we are trying to make it feel like it's from a consistent tone and world.

PW: If you think of Zombieland the brand, think of the movie as the pilot episode of the show. And now we're continuing on and telling more stories. The movie was essentially episodes 1 and 2 of the show put together. And now we're basically hitting the road on episode 2 or episode 3, depending on how you look at it. We're not necessarily trying to emulate it as much as we are just trying to continue to tell that serialized story that we wanted to tell of a dysfunctional family coming together and trying to survive in a world of zombies.

One of the biggest surprises of the film was the Bill Murray cameo. Can we expect more celebrity cameos like that if the show goes to series?

RR: Yes. We will likely see a celebrity cameo down the road. It's tough to predict who it will be because celebrities are notoriously hard to pin down and convince. And their schedules are always difficult and getting them in.

What kinds of zombie “rules” will you have?

RR: Well we're basically using the 28 Days Later model. So our zombies are infected humans who are fast and they're not undead. They're not slow. We are not adhering to some of the previous zombie rules like zombies don't eat other zombies. Obviously you see a zombie eating another zombie in the opening scene of the pilot. You don't have to shoot the zombie in its head in order to kill it. We have a moment where Tallahassee shoots a zombie in the chest and it dies because they're just human beings. They're human beings whose brains have been ravaged to one degree or another by a virus. So I do think that depending on when they got bit you'll see some variation. We'll have some smarter zombies, some stupider zombies.

But beyond that I don't think we're going to get too much into the mythology. Ultimately we hope to be able to lead our heroes to a place that's zombie-free or maybe find a cure or something like that.