'Z Nation' Season 2 Spoilers: Finale Leaves A Character's Life In Jeopardy, Teases Invasion For Season 3 [RECAP]

After two trying years of trying to cross the zombie-infested U.S., Operation Bite Mark finally ended its mission in the Season 2 finale of Syfy’s “Z Nation.” However, just because the mission is over doesn’t mean anyone is safe from improbable new threats and past loose ends.

The episode picks up immediately where last week’s very telling flashback episode left off. Warren (Kellita Smith) and Vasquez (Matt Cedeno) are trying to figure out why the GPS coordinates they’d been following to the CDC outpost led them to a sweet old lady running a beaten down restaurant in the woods. The unnamed old lady doesn’t ask them about their mission so they don’t say anything. Once the duo deems it safe, they invite the Addy (Anastasia Baranova), Doc (Russell Hodgkinson), 10K (Nat Zang) and Murphy (Keith Allan) inside. They’re not there for more than a minute before a group of rowdy bounty hunters pull up and bring a zombie that resembles Murphy inside. Not being the most well-educated survivors in the apocalypse, they think they’ve captured the last true hope for humanity.

Meanwhile, in a moment shown in the episode’s teaser clip, Murphy is disguised as a woman to avoid being recognized by bounty hunters this close to the destination. The rowdy gang starts pouring themselves drinks and one starts to hit on Murphy. When he does, their leader notices that Murphy’s powers seem to be affecting his fake Murphy zombie. He realizes who he’s dealing with and Operation Bite Mark is forced to spring into action and shoot them all in cold blood. The old lady, realizing that the real Murphy has finally wandered into her establishment, reveals that they’ve come to the right place to find the CDC. Unfortunately, their celebration is short-lived when it’s revealed that 10K took a shot in the stomach during the fight. The only lady rushes outside and shoots a flare in the air. When asked who she’s signaling, she points them to the water where a large nuclear submarine submerges.

An army general greets the team at the restaurant and reveal that they’ve been tracking Operation Bite Mark for two years. He makes himself open to any questions that Warren and the others may have for him until they feel comfortable turning Murphy over to his men. However, what finally proves he’s the real deal is when he invites Dr. Merch, the medic that injected Murphy with the experimental cuer in episode 1 of the series, inside. After all this time Murphy wants nothing more than to give her a piece of his mind, which is why he’s furious that she can’t recognize him. Once all their respective trusts are gained, Operation Bite Mark concludes its mission and delivers Murphy, along with a wounded 10K, to the CDC.

What ensues is a sweet scene in which the less-than-likable character has a small but meaningful moment with each of the people that helped bring him this far, except for 10K who he still hates for killing Cassandra (Pisay Pao). He even confesses to Doc that he’d been cheating him at cards all along.

The gang doesn’t yet take a moment to reflect on the end of their journey, and instead gets to work cleaning the bodies out of the restaurant. Suddenly, they're shot at by the remaining members of the Zeros cartel who have apparently followed them there. After Murphy had tricked Dr. Kurian (Donald Corren) into injecting himself and the others with a virus that would make them all susceptible to his mind control, things went awry. Now, the Zeros and their queen, La Reina (Gina Gershon), are obsessed with finding Murphy and killing him.

Although she has the team outgunned, La Reina decides that she doesn’t want to give any of them a quick death by just shooting through the walls of the restaurant and opts to send in her general to attack them. While the others are either pinned down by gunfire or holding off advancing Zeros, Addy and her trusty “Z-Whacker” weapon square off with the villain. They fight and he gets the better of the hero, even managing to break her signature weapon in half. Luckily, she manages to stab him from the ground and escapes.

La Reina goes in and confronts Warren, and the two practically break the building down from the inside with their fight. It looks like La Reina is about to stab Warren to death when she’s killed from behind by none other than Escorpion (Emilio Rivera) who is somehow still alive. As fans will recall, the last time we saw him Vasquez had beat him nearly to death and pushed him into a pit of zombies. It turns out, he managed to survive without getting bitten and followed the Zeros all the way here.

Vasquez puts a gun to his mortal enemy’s head, but the villain makes a heartfelt apology for killing his family and insists that the man who fell down that pit died. What emerged was a reformed psychopath that’s in desperate need of atonement for his past sins. Warren leaves Escorpion’s life in Vasquez’s hands, who ultimately decides he’ll have a better chance of sleeping at night if he lets him go. The entire ordeal was clearly trying on the former family man, who tells the group that he’s not going to continue on with them now that the Murphy mission is complete. They leave him in the bar and venture off towards the beach. Once they’re gone, he pounds back a few shots and races out into the woods by himself.

Meanwhile, on the CDC submarine, Murphy is learning what the organization’s plans are for the antibodies in his blood. With the United States government having collapsed, a collection of the world’s top leaders in business and government got together and established a zombie-free island called Zona. Murphy recognizes the name from the pilot in Roswell, New Mexico, that said he was flying a bunch of advanced technology to a place called Zona.

Dr. Merch says that, although she’s never been to Zona herself, her research has been used on vaccines similar to the one she gave Murphy. However, those shots were starting to ware off on the people of Zona, including its leader. It becomes clear that the doctor isn’t interested in distributing the cure to the people that are scrambling to survive, but rather just the rich billionaires of safe haven. After hearing all of this, the already reluctant Murphy decides that he’s not going to participate in the rescue of some safe haven he’s never heard of. Instead, he finally exacts his revenge on the doctor that left him to die at the hands of zombies so long ago.

As the survivors from the restaurant, and Escorpion, arrive at the beach, they find that the submarine is on fire. Speeding away from the wreckage is a lifeboat carrying Murphy, Dr. Merch, the general and three soldiers. Each one has a bite mark on his or her cheek indicating that Murphy has infected them and can now control their minds.

Before the survivors can figure out how to help the situation, two jets fly over their heads. Just before the credits rolled on a fine Season of “Z Nation,” Doc and Warren notice that they weren’t American planes and immediately turn to find themselves surrounded by a group of soldiers that don’t appear to be affiliated with the United States.

Odds and Ends:

• Zombie kill of the week goes to Doc for getting a Zero to bash the old lady with an axe through the door.
• Is 10K still alive or did he get taken out in the submarine explosion?
• Citizen Z (DJ Qualls) looked like he was going to die in the midle of the arctic, but a mysterious figure appears to be saving him.
• Let's hope Escorpion isn't a new addition to the team, he's been too much of a bad guy all season.
• Does foriegn invasion trump nuclear holocaust for a Season finale?