Zero Chill – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

We Do Our Talking on the Ice

Episode 5 of Zero Chill begins with Carson reading Mc’s diary, sneering and chuckling as he checks out all the different team tactics. At breakfast, Mac realizes that Carson has read his book and frantically searches around his room to try and find it. Unfortunately, it’s gone.

Mac eventually scrambles into training late, realizing that the missing book spells big trouble.

After the team meeting, Mac finds Kayla and confesses that Carson and the team know all about the team tactics. He worries that they won’t be good enough, but Kayla gives him words of encouragement.

When he leaves, Kayla and Sky come to blows. Sky gets annoyed that Kayla isn’t listening and storms off. In fact, she even encourages her Mother to let her go home.

At the same time, Anton catches up with Ava and buys her a new hockey jersey for the evening. As they talk together, he encourages her to sit with him on the bench.

Mac is a wreck, worried about what’s going to happen in the game. This is only made worse too when he learns Kayla and Jacob are planning a big coup on the ice later on. Mac forces Jacob to leave, eventually leading to him packing up his things and leaving Kayla high and dry. In doing so, he slips out without telling Kayla what he’s doing. Sky refuses to let her friend embarrass herself, and scrambles to get her skating gear on.

The game begins and The Orcas take an early lead against the Hammers. Tensions eventually spill over, leading to all hell breaking loose and both teams fighting. Kayla heads out onto the ice…alone. There’s no music and no Jacob.

Thankfully, Sky shows up just in time and dances with her. The performance goes reasonably well… until Sky takes a nasty tumble and lands hard on her back, heading slamming against the ice. Paramedics rush onto the ice as Kayla stands, shocked and wide-eyed.

The Episode Review

The middle chapter of Zero Chill sees more ice-skating action come to the foreground as Kayla and Sky take to the ice and perform. There’s obviously that nasty injury at the end, which is going to be a big talking point, but also an increase in tension surrounding the situation involving Mac and the team.

Ava’s sub-plot just seems to have petered out too, with very little development beyond her deciding to take up hockey. Hopefully we see more of this later on down the line.

The biggest problem with this show though is its tone. The lighthearted drama and contrived character relations really holds this back from being a better picture. It’s a shame too because there’s some nice ideas and themes here but it’s constantly held back with little characterization or compelling drama.

That ending does look to spice things up though, and hopefully that’s enough to elevate this one.