Guilt Trip
Episode 8 of Zero Chill begins with Mac giving Luke a pep talk, telling him to continue on with training. He’s conflicted, unsure what to do, and the whole Kayla situation is not helping matters. Kayla is still training with Elina though and since the incident, isn’t on talking terms with Sky or her brother. Sky does her best to try and talk to her, but Kayla is having none of it. In fact, Elina begins grilling Kayla and tells her to get her head in the game. Mac eventually finds himself face to face with Anton, who admits that he knows about the book situation. In fact, he also knows that he wouldn’t intentionally compromise the team. With the Wolverines up next, the team are fractured and divided. Determined to try and unite them, Anton calls off training and invites them all out for a round of laser tag. Straight away though they gang up on Mac and eliminate him. Even worse, Ava is the one who’s portrayed as the hero here. After a bad day, Mac heads out with his Father and they play street hockey together. There, Mac admits that he does love hockey after all. Well, in order to try and win over the team, he suddenly changes his mood and invites his teammates over for a barbecue. With Mac in goal, the entire team pelt him with shots which eventually leads to Ava jumping in and admitting the truth. She tells them all that she handed the notepad to Carson. This not only stops the team from bullying Mac, but it also causes drama with Anton, who walks away from his daughter. Back home, Sky and Kayla patch up their differences. She talks to Sky about her past but it’s immediately interrupted by Elina forcing the girl back into training again. There’s certainly no rest for the wicked. Just to inject more drama into the fold, Bear learns that his Father has a new house ready for them. Only, in order to pay for that he’s put a bet in for the Wolverines to win. That means Bear needs to throw the game and sabotage everyone. Will he do it?
The Episode Review
Episode 8 of Zero Chill sees home truths come out amidst a whole episode of Mac being ganged up on. Finally the truth is revealed with Ava though and this should help to level the playing field. However, more drama now ensues in the form of Bear being put in a difficult position by his Father. Will he throw the game? These later episodes have taken time away from the ice to see all this messy melodrama start to spill over, but none of these instances feel organically driven. In fact, everything here feels so manufactured and forced, with no natural drama evolving over time and any possible long-standing, thematic drama (Ava forced into being a competitive skater for example) petered out and abandoned in favour of something else. Unfortunately this is not a show to remember and with 2 episodes to go, Zero Chill doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon.
