Nogizaka46: "Zambi" drama episode ten 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 go over any details for where we stand is in the above post which I hope you've all read. That show ended with Minori falling to the floor unconscious, hr injuries had been from her falling down a set of stairs grappling with Yurie who wanted to kill her and Kaede. Minori's injuries are serious but as we'll soon find out those are the least of her worries.
 This show was the best of the all ten though the first few minutes did start out slowly. Minori eventually came around and Kaede dragged her friend to a lecture hall where they locked themselves in. The pair had a brief conversation where they discussed their friendship, seems both were sort of outcasts who had very few if any other friends. Before it got too sappy a song began to play over the school's loudspeakers, it was a tune that Kaede had heard with Hijiri. To Kaede that song was a signal that she was alive and well, leaving Minori behind she rushed to the school's broadcasting room.
 And in the room Kaede did find her second friend in the world, the pair had been separated in the middle of the eighth episode. But there's something seriously wrong with Hijiri, we were unsure at the end of the ninth show but now we're sure of what happened. Hijiri had been attacked by a group of Zaambis at the end of that episode, we didn't know if she escaped or was bitten. The correct answer is Bitten as she she's now a Zambi and tried to bite her friend Kaede in the neck. That method of turning one into a Zambi still makes it seem like a vampire show.

 Kaede had noticed her friend was a Zambi as Hijiri's reflection in a mirror was quite hideous, that and a few other things were definite take offs from the 'Ring' movies. Though a Zambi Hijiri did seem to retain some of her human traits and wanted Kaede to remain with her as she was Hijiri's only friend. Kaede wanted nothing to do with a Zambi even if it was a friend, she quickly fled the room and suddenly came up with another idea to kill all of the Zambis at once.
 In the previous episode Kaede wanted to blow up the school with kerosene but was unable to obtain any as it was locked in the school's lab that was teeming with Zambis. After she fled Hijiri Kaede ran through the entire school and was yelling at the Zambis to chase after her. With seemingly no more human students left that's what the creatures did as Kaede headed straight to the Home Ec room.
 In it she began to take off all of the gas tubing that was installed to the ovens. Her plan was to fill the room up with gas, once all of the Zambis were there she was going to flick her lighter to send them all to kingdom come. It was a suicide mission though for Kaede as she would be in the room too but to the main goal was to destroy the Zambis before they could create havoc on the world. It was quite a struggle, first the lighter was knocked out of her hand and then her once close friend Asumi had pinned her down while trying to bite her.
 But then suddenly there was the sound outside of many flying objects, helicopters perhaps? All of the Zambis rushed to the room's windows to peer out which gave Kaede the time to retrieve her lighter. Kaede lit it and as the Zambis all turned around she threw it in the air towards them, you can see below what the result was.

 On to the thrilling conclusion and it really was one. As you can see above Kaede's plan worked out perfectly, the main school building is burning down with all of the Zambis trapped inside. But you may be wondering, if they're trapped inside isn't Kaede too? The answer tot hat is a big NO(!), mentioned above that though Hijiri is now a Zambi she's kept some of her human traits. One was caring for her friends, she only had two with one of them being Kaede. Just as the explosion went off Hijiri came out of nowhere, jumped in front of Kaede which gave her enough time to flee the burning room which is what she did.
 Sadly Kaede never got to thank her once human friend as she perished in the explosion. With the main building burning down Kaede made her way to a safe spot which was the school's chapel and there she found her best friend Minori. She appeared safe and sound though she was still battling her injuries plus her face seemed to have become very pale. It was a look which so many humans get just before they transform into a Zambi.
 As the pair were reuniting they heard the whirling of helicopters outside. They dashed to a window to see many of them passing overhead but where to was unknown to the duo. They quickly made it to the roof of the chapel when even more copters flew above them. Shortly after Minori once again slumped to the ground because of her injuries or at least that's what Kaede thought. As Kaede tried to help her friend Minori told her to stay away, as she raised her head to Kaede's surprise the transformation to becoming a Zambi had started though we viewers had an inkling she would.
 Kaede still had the knife that Minori had given her in the previous show, Minori told her friend there's no chance for survival so she screamed to stab her to death. There's no way Kaede was going to stab her friend and Minori knew that which left her no alternative. As Kaede slumped to the ground Minori dashed to the roof's ledge, Kaede had attempted to scream something out but it was to no avail as Minori threw herself over the ledge. We presume to her death but her body was never shown. Kaede scurried over to the ledge, just as she did another group of copters flew overhead. Finally Kaede was able to see where the army of them had headed and there's no need to explain where as you can see in the bottom two screenshots.....

 The recap probably didn't do the ending justice but it was a thrilling one. The only problem was that it left no chance for a second season unless it stars Asuka by herself. After a sluggish first two episodes this turned out to be one fun watch for the remaining eight, will be viewing it again and think the second time around will be even better. Final rating for this drama will be an 8.5/10 which is higher than I thought it would be going in, recommended for Nogi fans. Unsure what's on tap next for recaps as the list of what I want to view is extremely long.