This Is Happening
Episode 9 of Zero Chill begins with Mac apologizing to Kayla for the way he’s been acting. He likens her to a leaky tap back in Canada, but it seems to do the trick. They eventually do patch up their differences. Back inside the house, it turns out the Wolverines want to sign Mac and send him off to the Czech Republic. This would mean the entire family would have to relocate again. Naturally, this completely shatters Mac and Kayla’s fresh peace treaty. Back on the ice, Ava is dropped from the team while they go over team tactics on the back of her leak. Elina catches up with a disappointed Ava and listens to her daughter, encouraging her to do breathing exercises. Elina hugs the girl and comments how she’s looking forward to training her alongside Kayla. Only, Ava refuses to leave and remains determined to stick it out with the Hammers. 24 hours away from the Blade Star competition, Kayla decides to drop the bombshell reveal about Prague, along with agreeing to kick friends and family out of training. That evening the whole family gather to discuss this big plan to move over to Prague. Mac wants to go while Kayla wants to stay. This splits the family up, as they decide to do both to appease the kids. With Blade Star about to begin, Elina drives off with Kayla to the competition. Elina is happy about the move, especially as it means more time to focus on training. Kayla however, is not sure what to do and tries to phone Mac before competing. Only, his phone is switched off. Thinking over her past glories as a pair, Kayla slips out the window and tries to decide what to do. At the same time, Bear’s father guilt-trips his son into throwing the game for the Wolverines. Off the rink, Bear tells Mac what he’s dealing with and the decision he has to make regarding throwing the game. Bear refuses to throw this though, leading Mac to decide to take one for the team. After all, in doing this he would protect Bear and avoid the wrath from his teammates given he’s shipping across to the Wolverines. Only…this immediately hits a snag when the boss arrives and tells him he’ll only be signed up if he plays well in the game against the Wolverines.
The Episode Review
The penultimate episode of Zero Chill brings a pretty big dilemma for Mac. While the choice is quite a good one and definitely adds to the drama, it also does so with a profound lack of logic. How on earth would a coach from a rival team be allowed to talk to one of the Hammer players right before heading out for the game? This is made even more difficult to believe given how enthusiastically Mac agrees to it in front of everyone. This just feels like a huge conflict of interest and takes away the thin layers of realism around this series. That’s before even mentioning how weird it is to see ice hockey in England (I know it’s a sport here but a very minor one with very little mainstream coverage). At the same time, we’ve got Kayla who – along with the show itself – has completely forgotten about Jacob and thrown her onto this solo career path with Elina but forgotten to add any chemistry of meaningful stakes for either of them. Still, the finale is up next and who knows what direction this show is going to take next. Will we receive the dreaded Netflix cliffhanger?
