Zero Chill – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Sucker Punch

Episode 3 of Zero Chill begins with Sky talking to Kayla about her big secret. With no chance of them skating together, the pair decide to stay friends.

Kayla is convinced that Jacob is in the country to surprise her but Sky isn’t so sure. Well, Kayla grabs her friend and takes off to get the jump on him before he can do that.

The pair show up at the ice rink and see that Jacob is performing on the ice with a brand new partner, a girl called Maia. As we soon learn, he was paired up thanks to his Mum and Dad, who have shipped him over to England to compete.

Things are immediately awkward when Sky and Kayla join the pair for lunch that afternoon. It turns out Jacob’s parents actually knew about Maia a year prior and have been trying to get them together for a long time. Obviously with Kayla out the picture, this gave them the perfect opportunity to do just this.

Jacob promises to phone Kayla that evening and heads back inside to skate. While they do, Kayla deliberates on Jacob’s cryptic notes about glucose tablets. She interprets this as Jacob wanting to skate with her, and heads back inside to sort this out.

This leads her to dupe Maia, convincing her to team up with Archie. Unfortunately this plan quickly goes awry when Maia learns that he’s not the superstar skater Kayla pretended he was.

Meanwhile, Ava decides to audition for the Hammers, despite her Mother’s wishes against this. Well, Ava’s Mother has a surprise for her daughter – which comes in the form of a harness and harsh training.

Mac plays his first game with the Hammers but he’s subbed out by the coach. Unfortunately he goes full on Kepa (Inside football joke – Kepa is a Chelsea goalkeeper who refused to be substituted) and eventually lashes out, striking the hockey puck across the ice. Predictably, this does not go down well with Anton.

After the game, Coach Anton speaks to Mac about his attitude. He promises Mac that he won’t be able to disobey him again. If he does, he’ll be straight back on a plane to Canada.

As the episode closes out, Kayla heads back home but it’s quickly revealed that she’s smuggled Jacob out in her car back home.

The Episode Review

Zero Chill returns with an episode that develops each of the supporting characters and their subplots, including Ava’s overbearing Mother and training. This sequence is quite good, hopefully setting up some psychologically charged drama to come. I know this is a family-friendly series but the mental health aspect can still be portrayed in a way that doesn’t betray that tone.

On top of that we’ve got the tensions between Kayla/Jacob/Sky/Maia. which continues to simmer, promising lots of drama to come. There’s a fair amount of skating action in here but with thin characterization and very little depth, it remains to be seen whether Zero Chill can crack the ice and actually deliver some compelling drama.