Nogizaka46: "Zambi" drama episode eight recap

 Start Date: January 23rd on Hulu at 1:00 am
The following day it airs on NTV

Cast:

Asuka Saito as Kaede Yamamuro

Miona Hori as Minori Morodzumi

Manatsu Akimoto as Asumi Saijou

Yuki Yoda as Sei Kai

Mizuki Yamashita as Yui Kanenura

Ranze Terada as Sena Sakaki

Miria Watanabe as Suzune Sakura

Junna Ito as Rena Igarashi

Momoko Ozono as Yuzuki Sakikawa

Ayane Suzuki as Marina Fujusaki

Minami Umezawa as Kana Kiuchi

Kaede Sato as Azusa Seki

Shiori Kubo as Honoka Hanamura

Mai Shinuchi as The beautiful woman....

..... plus seven other third generation members.....

 No need to rehash anything as you can read about where we are in the above post. But where we stood was with Kaede turning around after lighting the ceremony candles in the school's boiler room, as she did there was Moriguchi behind Kaede seemingly about to strike her. And that's what he did as when this episode began Kaede was trapped in a cylinder which could also be referred to as a coffin. Moriguchi seemed to be a level headed reporter but he's on the verge of losing his mind and perhaps he already has.
 He's told Kaede that his daughter had been bitten by a Zambi and it was all because of her. For a long time we had though Asmai was the student who broke the sealed curse of Zambi Village but that wasn't the case. According to Moriguchi it was Kaede who had peeked into a forbidden item at the temple the girls had spent a night at. Since then Zambis have been killing everyone in the village including Moriguchi's daughter or should say they're alive but not as humans.
 The only way to make a Zambi return to being a normal human is to sacrifice the person that broke the seal, that was Kaede which is why she may not be long for this world. This drama has so many references to the 'Ring' movies such as when Kaede was in the cylinder she saw scratch marks inside of it as if a person was trying to escape. Another reference was that having your reflection in the mirror look all distorted which we've witnessed several times before.

 Instead of just sacrificing Kaede Moriguchi had to go into a long oration on what the curse was about, though long it did clear up many mysteries. A century ago in the village there had been a beautiful woman who had been falsely accused of being an adultress after giving birth to a baby. She was innocent as she had been planning on marrying the father, however for some reason he denied everything and led the attack of the other villagers upon the unnamed woman. They devilish men ended up burying her alive, you can see that above and it's the same coffin Kaede is currently in.
 The woman tried valiantly to escape to no avail, in her dying breaths she swore to come back and take revenge on the village. Which is what happened as the woman's spirit reappeared in the village as she began to slowly kill the men one by one. However they were eventually able to subdue her and did what they had been unable to do before which was to kill her. Once again in her last moments the woman made another vow, this time that the whole village was cursed. For over a century the curse had been sealed but thanks to Kaede it was spreading like wildfire through the region.
 Meanwhile Kaede's two best friends Minori and Hijiri were holed up in a storage room, they had been discovered by a pack of Zambis who eventually were able to break in. The pair fled but Hijiri was rapidly losing her mind to the events and was in a full state of panic. Somehow the pair got split up but for Kaede's sake it was a blessing as during Minori's escape she ended up in the boiler room.

 Naturally she discovered Kaede trapped in the coffin and was trying to free her when Moriguchi appeared. There was no way he was gong to let anyone interrupt his ceremony but he had been momentarily distracted by the noise inside Kaede's coffin. This allowed Minori just enough time to grab a pipe and to bash him over the head, Moriguchi was down for the count but not for too long. But long enough for Minori to finally open the coffin's hatch, she was now free and just in time for the duo to see Moriguchi recover from his bashing.
 Once again there was no way Moriguchi is gong to let Kaede leave the room, if he has to kill Minori to do so then that's what he'll do. He's backed the pair into a corner with seemingly no way out when Kaede screams to watch out behind you! When Moriguchi began to pivot he was quickly grabbed by a Zambi, not just any one but the girl's teacher. What his fate will be is unknown as this eighth episode came to it's close, remember a show is only 22+ minutes in length.

 Just as much happened in this episode as the other ones but for some reason it was shorter which may bring some smiles to many faces. Am once again 100% caught up with this series as the ninth episode doesn't air until tomorrow which means the next pair of recaps should be in two weeks. So far would recommend it to Nogi fans but think others may enjoy it, had a sluggish start but the past five shows have all been quite good.