Nogizaka46: "Zambi" drama episode four 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.....

 Let's delve right into the action and for the first time an episode concluded on a bit of a cliff hanger. You can read all about it in the above post but what's happened is that another student has turned into a zombie. At first the duo of Kaede and Hijiri thought their fellow student Yui had been transformed, she proved that wasn't the case but we'll soon learn that she actually could be one. The student who did transform into the school's second zombie was the shy and meek girl Suzune who we finally met in the third episode.
 At the end of that show in her room she had been entertaining Kaede, while pouring scalding water into their teacups the water had overflowed and was dripping onto her feet. But that didn't cause Suzune any pain for it seemed at that moment was when her transformation was taking place. Entering the room at that time were the other two members of the 'zombie catching' team who were Hijiri and Minori who also witnessed the burning.
 There was no time to ask any questions as before they knew it Suzune had pounced on the three gals, for a zombie she moved fairly quick as aren't they supposed to move very slowly? Suzune tried desperately to bite one of the gals but three on one was too much for her, as the girls were trying to flee the room Suzune was able to do that first. She had run to her window and like Asumi in the first show threw herself out, but when Kaede went to view her dead body there was no body to view.

 Just before Suzune had thrown herself out the window the clock had struck it's chimes. It wasn't midnight nor did it happen again but that could be a minor clue about things that will surface in later episodes. One other thing about Suzune was she wasn't one of the students that visited Zambi Village, how did she get cursed then? The answer to that was supplied by another new student who we meet, she was Shiori and she had witnessed a scene involving Suzune the day before.
 What Shiori had witnessed was Asumi dragging Suzune aside and biting her in the neck which seems to be the method of turning a person into a zombie. Had thought that's what vampires do but seeing as how this is a Nogi drama... The trio then sat down to map out what they've discovered so far, many things but really no answers to so many questions. Except for one which concerned the pinwheel that Asumi had brought back from the temple at Zambi Village.
 There's something haunted about that pinwheel, perhaps it does hold the actual curse and to Kaede there was only one thing to do with it. That's to burn it which is what she did but as we'll see at the end of the show burning a cursed object doesn't get rid of it. The trio had also figured out that the objects on the temple grounds formed a pentagram when you connected the objects, supposedly a pentagram can be used to ward off curses.

 Should be the final segment as these episodes are only 22 minutes in length, the last third of the shows are always the best. Kaede wasn't mistaken when she thought that Yui had been turned into a zombie, you can see that above. At the time she was tracking down Shiori as she had learned about her telling the others about Asumi biting Suzune. Now the total of students being a zombie has risen to four as Shiori had now joined the rapidly growing unit.
 In the first show we had briefly met a man at Zambi Village whose name wasn't revealed. It was in this episode, the man's name was Takuma who was a reporter and was working on a story about the cursed village. He had stayed on after the students had left, in this show he had called Kaede to see if any of the girls had been transformed into zombies. Takuma had told her that there had been some weird happenings at the village, he's going to try to visit Kaede but before she could respond the phone was cut off and it seems the village's curse was the reason for that.
 Getting close to the end and the trio of girls once again ran into Shiori who had been sitting in a trance like state. As we know she was in that trance because she was now a zombie thanks to Yui. The girls were dumbfounded that it took place so quickly, what also confused them was that Shiori didn't try to attack them. That brings up a good question, why are these zombies normal some of the time and at other times like a rabid dog?
 The final scene took place at the school's chapel, to the trio it seemed the safest place for them as don't monsters try to stay away from any place that's religious? You would think so but then again it popped into my head isn't a temple a sacred place yet the one at Zambi Village may have been haunted. In the closing seconds while they were in the chapel the trio heard a whirling sound, when they turned to see what it was in front of them was the pinwheel that Kaede had burned somehow has returned and is in perfect shape!. That brought us to the conclusion of this show and once again there was a minor cliffhanger.

Certainly not a must watch series but the episodes have been getting much better and the next pair of shows were the best ones yet as the horror level is creeping slowly up. Hope to have those two recaps very soon, any luck they'll be done in the next two days and that will bring us to the halfway point as I think there's twelve episodes. Though an episode is just 22 minutes in length still do take a slew of screenshots which should help you follow the story a bit better.