Black Summer – Season 2 Episode 1 “The Cold” Recap & Review

The Cold

Episode 1 of Black Summer Season 2 wastes absolutely no time getting right into the thick of this zombie invasion. A car-jacking leads to a tense chase through the abandoned streets. A zombie clings to the roof, turned after being shot in the neck.

It’s a breathless scene, and one that we catch up to later on in the episode too. There’s no warning for the jump back either so it’s worth bearing that in mind. Anyway, this carjacker eventually leaves and makes it into a police car. As he places a picture on the dashboard, he’s blindsided by that turned zombie from earlier, crashing through the passenger-side window and ready to kill.

We then jump forward four months later. Instead of the urban jungle, we’re up in the frozen forests where a plane drops a crate of supplies. However, this soon culminates in a man and his zombie chaser receiving a gunshot to the head for their troubles from Rose, who’s held out inside a solitary house. We’ll see more of her shortly so hold that thought.

We then shift again to an ambush as gunshots rain down across this frozen tundra. Now, the timeline here is slightly jumbled so we’ll write out this out in a linear fashion.

Sun is held prisoner alongside another in a green coat. The plane we saw earlier has dropped supplies nearby and this militia group are desperate to find where it’s located. The man in a green coat mentions how there’s a safe house nearby, but doesn’t divulge details beyond this. Instead, Sun is grabbed in the midst of this and taken away as shooting breaks out.

The sound of a plane buzzing overhead provides a momentary respite as these rebels manage to thwart the threat. Their leader asks the green-coated survivor about the safe house but he dies right there, quickly turning into a zombie.

Sun and Ray make it to the house. Unfortunately they’re shot down off their snow mobile and sent flying.

A man named Freddie shows up at the safehouse with firewood, but he receives a shotgun to the face for his troubles. Rose lets him in but remains sceptical over whether he’ll be useful or not. “They’re all dead,” She declares, as several dead bodies line the floor.

Determined to prove his worth, Freddie is allowed to stay if he’ll help move the bodies. Before that, he helps get the fire started. With his back turned, Rose tells him that his group messed up and they got what’s coming to them.

A sound outside brings them to the window, where a man and a zombie both start charging toward the house. Two swift bullets stops them in their tracks.

The Episode Review

Black Sumer is back and away from the tense and unnerving sequences in the stadium during the finale, Black Summer changes focus to a frozen tundra and an abandoned town.

Given the lockdowns worldwide, it’s perhaps been the best time to film this show but the editing is convoluted and confusing –  and unnecessarily so. In a bid to try and disorient viewers, the timeline jumps backwards and forwards between a group of characters we haven’t really had a lot of time with, so most of this falls flat.

However, the usual frenetic energy and frantic camera work is still here so fans should be in their element. Hopefully the rest of the season can calm down a bit though, especially given this opener is a bit rough around the edges.