'Zomvivor' Series Recap (Episodes 1-7): Is Nonn Dead Or Alive?

Netflix’s Thai horror series Zomvivor is, as the name suggests, about zombies and survivors. Most zombie outbreaks are rooted in someone’s nefarious desire to be immortal, and in this show it is no different! A rich man’s dream to be worshipped by the common people resulted in the deaths of thousands and unleashed immense chaos all across Bangkok. The government’s plan was to simply eradicate both zombies and humans from ground zero, the college from which the epidemic started. A group of students who’d managed to survive the unexpected crisis hoped that help would come for them soon. But after a military helicopter started to shoot at them, they realized that waiting was futile. They had to come up with their own DIY solutions, and over the course of seven episodes the students fought bravely against these strange savage creatures.

Spoiler Alert

What caused the zombie epidemic?

One wrong chemical concoction and you have a zombie epidemic! The college patron, Mr. Phumtham Kiatpipat, one of the richest men in Thailand, was afraid that his son, Joe, with his many vices, would destroy his legacy. He’d come up with the idea of developing a drug that could preserve his body after death (a formulation that would stop decay). He expected his descendants to go through the same procedure so that one day his family would be elevated to a sacred status that would never fade away. He’d come to realize that money and power could easily be taken away, but if one is considered worth worshipping, then they would become irreplaceable. If, for generations upon generations, the bodies of his family members never decayed, it would prove that their bloodline was special and therefore worthy of being worshipped. 

Dr. Kanchana was hired to head the research; she was previously accused of corruption, and she feared that if she didn’t agree, her daughter, Ning, who was academically gifted, would be denied a scholarship, and she could be put behind bars for her prior offense. She and her team were working on formulating a serum to fulfill the patron’s wish. But things took a turn for the worse when Joe stopped by the facility one night. He attempted to rape one of the scientists, Dr. Aom, in the lab, and in an attempt to defend herself, she injected Joe with the serum. The formulation wasn’t yet complete, and Joe had to be kept in isolation. Kanchana was ordered to suspend the Anisong Project, and she was asked to create a cure instead. She couldn’t get over the death of Dr. Aom, and she feared that if she failed to come up with a cure, her children would be in danger. So, she decided to inject the Anisong serum into her body (just like Joe) to protect her kids, and at the same time, she continued working on the cure. Soon, her body collapsed, and she went into a coma for months. The responsibility of finding a cure was passed on to Dr. Wiroj, who, after several trials and errors, finally decoded the solution Kanchana was working on. He started researching the immortal jellyfish, and he developed a serum. He chose a group of vulnerable individuals to test the serum on. The problem was that the first batch of serum he’d developed had parasites that were transferred from the infected immortal jellyfish. He’d mistakenly injected the parasites into the bodies of the subjects who’d agreed to the experiment as well, and that ultimately resulted in the zombie epidemic. When he came to realize his mistake, he screened the uninfected jellyfish and separated them. He had developed two vials of serum—one for Joe and the other for Kanchana. He’d injected the serum into Kanchana’s body soon after the epidemic started. Dr. Wiroj accepted that he was responsible for destroying the lives of thousands of people, but he always had just one goal in mind—to save Kanchana. 

Who was Nonn’s father?

Ning and Nonn had no clue that their mother was a scientist. After Kanchana was accused of corruption, she resigned from her job and moved abroad. She was pregnant at the time, and she couldn’t afford to be locked up in prison, so she stayed away from home for the next three years. When she figured out that things had cooled down and the authorities were no longer after her, she returned home with her son. She chose to keep a low profile and worked menial jobs to make ends meet. But soon, the patron of the college she previously worked at, Mr. Phumtham Kiatpipat, tracked her down. After she accepted the position, she told her former colleague, Wiroj, about it. He couldn’t believe that Kanchana had already accepted the position, and he was all the more surprised when she mentioned that she expected him to take her position in her absence. She told him about all that she’d been through, and she also handed him a photograph of her and Nonn taken soon after he was born. Kanchana kept her pregnancy a secret from Wiroj because he had a wife and a family, and she didn’t wish to ruin his reputation, especially since their colleagues suspected that they were having an affair. Wiroj was devastated when he learned Kanchana had put her life at risk. He thought it was unfair he had been kept in the dark for so long. He never got the opportunity to know his son, and he didn’t even get the chance to protect Kanchana. So after she lost consciousness and went into a coma, Wiroj made it his life’s goal to find a cure. While Ning eventually found out the truth, Nonn had no idea that Wiroj was his father. Something that will be likely explored if the series returns with an upcoming season. 

Were Nonn and San in love?

Ning and San were in a relationship, and just like any other couple, they had their good and bad days. San was envious of Ning’s friendship with Jean, and that often became the reason behind their conflict. San came from privilege, and he covered Nonn’s tuition fees and provided Ning financial support whenever she needed it. Gradually, we discover in Zomvivor that San was driven by guilt. He had witnessed Joe murder Dr. Aom, and he couldn’t believe that even though he was at the scene of the crime, he’d failed to stop his friend. All along, he knew the truth behind Kanchana’s deteriorating health, yet he had to stay tight-lipped in front of his girlfriend, who had no idea what her mother had gotten herself into. Although guilt had begun to eat away at him, San couldn’t confide in anyone about the truth. The Kiatpipat family had threatened that if he spoke of the incident to anyone, he would also be imprisoned as an accomplice. 

San had a lot going on, but he couldn’t discuss any of it with Ning. But with her brother, Nonn, it was different. He never explicitly told Nonn what exactly had happened, but he never felt embarrassed to emotionally express himself. One night, after too many drinks, San broke down, and Nonn comforted him. When they were stranded on the college premises during the zombie epidemic, San always made sure that Nonn was safe. One of the students had also caught them in a vulnerable position, and it was soon rumored that Nonn and San were having an affair behind Ning’s back. Towards the end of Zomvivor, when their affair was discussed publicly, Nonn and San cleared the air, stating that they would never hurt Ning. The only reason why San felt safe with Nonn was because he believed that Nonn knew that he was broken and he wasn’t afraid of being completely vulnerable with him. They adored one another, but love? Well, at least for now they have denied being romantically attracted to each other. 

What happened to Aunty Jit?

At the very end of Zomvivor, Nonn was injected with infected blood. Nonn always felt that the people around him, be it his mother, sister, or even San, made decisions for him, but he never really got the chance to take a stand for himself. The survivors had planned on capturing the leader of the zombie clan, Aunty Jit, but their plan failed. She was taken by surprise when Ning and Jean walked down the staircase, and Nonn assumed his sister was in trouble. He tried to distract Aunty Jit, and in the process she became extremely aggressive. They attempted to tie her down, but she was too powerful. Seeing no other option at hand, Jean shot Aunty Jit in the head, and just like every zombie film/show, the only way to ‘kill’ a zombie was by shooting/attacking her head. Aunty Jit was loved by all the students on campus. She was a sweet janitor who maintained a good rapport with the kids. She was hardworking, though most of the money she earned went to the loan sharks. So when Wiroj offered her THB 10,000 to undergo the secret trial, she was extremely grateful to him. She never thought the authorities would ever experiment with a liquid that could turn her into a man-eating beast. She trusted Wiroj, and he used her vulnerability to his advantage. Since Aunty Jit was the first individual to be infected, she was organically chosen as the leader of the zombie clan. The students had assumed that if they held the leader captive, then maybe they’d learn more about the behavioral pattern of the zombies and come up with an effective way to counter them. But things didn’t go as planned.

So, after all the students started blaming Ning, she decided to inject herself with Aunty Jit’s blood. She felt guilty for briefly being a part of Wiroj’s research team. His desperation to find an immediate cure had resulted in such a massacre (though of course the patron was equally, if not more, responsible), and Ning thought she had to pay the price for it. Just as she was about to inject herself with the infected blood, Jean stopped her. He held Nonn at gunpoint and suggested they all die since they were clearly not capable of coming up with a solution. They were more ready to watch their classmate turn into a zombie willingly than to stop her and think of an alternative. The zombies had already started to bang the door of the room they were locked in. Soon, chaos erupted, and a shot was fired. More and more zombies started to follow the sound of the gunshot, and the students ran for their lives and ended up on the terrace. They stopped the helicopter that they noticed was approaching their campus. 

Why was Nonn held captive?

Ning showed Wiroj Joe’s serum that she’d found in the laboratory. The patron didn’t care about rescuing the students, and he had only allowed Wiroj to return to campus to get the serum that could cure Joe. Ning hopped onto the helicopter, and when her friends followed her, they were stopped. It was evident that they weren’t considered important enough to be rescued. Wiroj begged Nonn to enter the helicopter, but the choice wasn’t easy for him. On one hand, he saw his friends struggling to contain the zombies, and on the other, an escape from the madness awaited him. He chose the former because he knew his friends needed him. He consented to being injected with the infected blood, because he assumed that only if he transformed into a zombie could Ning and Wiroj come back with a solution. And moreover, holding a zombie, who could probably be the leader, captive was the only option they had left now. So, Nonn is not dead per se, he had turned into a zombie, though there were probably some traces of his old self still left in him. 

The ending of Zomvivor suggests that Ning and Wiroj had decided to help Nonn and the other survivors. They’d escaped from the facility where Kanchana and Joe were being treated. Suggesting that perhaps they had been working on a solution for a month and had finally come up with a cure. The final scene of the series also confirms that Kanchana survived—the serum worked, but she wasn’t completely herself. One of the pupils had turned blue, just like the zombies, indicating that maybe there were traces of parasites left in her. Zomvivor will likely return with season 2, and we’ll finally get to find out if the survivors managed to contain the zombies! 

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