Nogizaka46: "Zambi" drama episode nine 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.....

 Have finally reached the end of the series with these two recaps. Started out a bit slow in the first two episodes but since then this has been a fine drama and it did end on an interesting note. These posts don't get nearly as many views as the regular ones for Nogi do and the fans who passed the other eight recaps over have missed out on a better than expected series. Thanks to those that have read some of the prior ones and let's get straight to the action.
 In the eighth episode we viewers and Kaede had learned it was her that had broken the seal at Zambi Village which had released a century old curse. We learned that from the reporter Moriguchi, his plan was to sacrifice Kaede in order to reverse the curse. However she had been freed by her best friend Minori but the pair had been cornered by Moriguchi who then planned to sacrifice both of them, But before he could commit the pair of murders the girl's teacher had arrived on the scene, she was now a Zambi and quickly ended his life as the girls fled the schoolroom they were in.
 That takes us to the present with Kaede and Minori roaming the school hallways looking for a way to escape. But somehow there's still a few non-Zambi students around who the pair ran into during their search. The small pack they ran into had discovered that the reason for their fellow classmates turning into Zambis was because of Kaede, they vowed to end her life right then and there. The group which numbered about ten pounced on the duo which wasn't exactly a fair fight.
 Their 'leader' was Yurie who ended up tangling with Minori. The pair were really having quite the match, as they were grappling with each other they fell down a set of stairs. Minori arose quite hurt and we learned later how bad her injuries were. But it was Yurie who was more hurt, hurt may be the wrong word as actually she was dead! As the other students gathered around their leader Kaede and Minori weren't about to stick around to make amends and quickly dashed away from the group.

 One student we didn't see too much of in this episode was Hijiri. She was a friend of Kaede and Minori but had been separated from them in the previous show. She also had an injured leg which prevented her from moving around that well but she had remained safe hiding out in a classroom. However Hijiri had heard news of her friends being safe and ventured out to see if she could find them. Hijiri couldn't but did run into another pack of students in the hallway, all looked normal but we've learned Zambi's can appear to be humans with some special spell(?).
 Even with her injured leg Hijiri managed to escape from the group of students who did turn out to be human, did this school have five hundred students? She remained safe until the end of the show where she had been found hiding in a locker. Hijiri fought the Zambis who had found her valiantly but it appears she too may have been bitten, we'll know for sure in the final recap.
 Meanwhile Kaede had come up with a solution that might work as escaping the school has been a failure. Her plan is to burn the school down with all of the Zambis inside, what she needs is kerosene and with Minori headed to the school's lab. But the lab's door was tied with a rope from the inside, when Kaede inquired who was there the above person came to the door. It was Marina who we hadn't seen before, she was in the room with a few other non-Zambi students.
 Once again somehow the rumor about Kaede releasing the curse had been learned by more students and Marina didn't want to allow her in the lab. However when Marina saw that Minori was with her she began to have an idea of her own. Marina did like Minori so she gave her an ultimatum, if she killed her friend Kaede she would allow Minori into the lab where it was safe!!!! Marina even threw a knife into the hallway for her to use, could Minori really kill her friend Kaede?

 Of course she couldn't but we were left wondering if she would for a few seconds. As you can see right above Minori ended up giving the knife to Kaede as Marina looked on in fury. But her anger wasn't going to last for too long as inside the lab all havoc had broke out. One of the students inside had been tricked by a Zambi who was at a locked back window, the student thought it was her best friend and opened the door. Huge mistake as it was actually her friend who had turned into a Zambi, once that door was opened they all came barreling in to end the human lives of all of the students.
 Kaede and Minori had watched the carnage from the tied door, they naturally fled but to where? For now nowhere as Minori was almost at the point of giving up, she was in terrible condition from her fall down the stairs and told Kaede to go on without her. Of course Kaede wasn't going to leave her best friend behind and managed to talk her into at least looking for an escape route one more try. As they were shuffling down a hallway they stumbled upon a body that was holding a phone.
 Since the Zambis arrived on the scene cellphones haven't worked at the school. But when Kaede picked up the phone it was on and it appeared the dead student had been talking with someone. But when Kaede tried calling the police the phone suddenly was out of range again, once more nothing worked out well for our pair of heroines. Minori began to walk over to her friend to comfort her but couldn't quite make it as she fell to the floor unconscious. Kaede quickly dashed to her friend's side but what the problem was is unknown for now and won't be learned until the next recap as this episode hit it's conclusion.

 What's never been mentioned is the time frame of this series. Seems as though many days have passed but have no clue as all of the action could have taken place in three days or perhaps even two weeks. Guess it doesn't really matter as this show has really gotten so much better since it's so-so start this will turn out to be one of the best Idol dramas I've viewed and have seen many of them. Next post has the recap for the final show and the ending was quite excellent.