“This is What it Sounds Like” is episode six of season one of Zoo.
In the previous episode, “Blame It on Leo”, Jamie, Jackson and Agent Shaffer had tracked down Leo Butler in Mobile. Butler told them that the reason for Reiden Global’s success was the vector (presumably what they were using to transfer the needed material) they used, the ‘Mother Cell.’ By the time Reiden discovered it had unfortunate side effects (the Mother Cell may be what is behind the change in animal behaviour), they were using it in everything, and it would cost too much to stop. Leo had taken Jamie to retrieve the sample he had but, on the way back, there vehicle was rammed by Evan Lee Hartley, who took the cell. In Boston, the dog Mitch had given his daughter was injured, but treated – and sent home from the vet with tramadol from Reiden Global. In Rio, Chloe suggested that maybe the bats were being attracted to technology . Mitch said that humans were not an apex predator, and what allowed it to act as if it was was the ability to reason – and technology.
In Rio de Janerio Mitch and Chloe have been picked up by the leader of a street gang when they tried to steal his cell tower. The tower was going to be used to draw the bats away from the city. The gang leader, Gustavo Silva, thinks they are working for Interpol and the DEA. Silva is not convinced. Abe goes to find Chloe’s friend Gabriela Machado to ask for her help, as he knows what men like Silva are like. She promises to, but then the power goes out and the planes start spreading the, generally banned, insecticide. This does not work. In the process of looking for Mitch and Chloe, Abraham reveals that he’s not to be trifled with.
Silva wants Mitch and Chloe, if they are what they say they are, to fix the problem, which now seems to be affecting mice in some way. Using his cell phone antenna is not an acceptable solution. If they don’t find another way to get rid of the bats, he will kill them. They do seem to have come up with one – only it’s mostly a way of keeping them alive until Abraham can find them. The bats are getting worse, but maybe Mitch actually has come up with something.
In Mobile, Jamie is injured but Leo is dead and the Mother Cell is gone. No-one knows what Hartley wants with the Mother Cell. Jackson discovers that Hartley has the same blown pupils as the animals, and it happened some time after Hartley met Jackson’s father, so it might be connected. Jamie can’t recall much about what happened, and Shaffer says he has a way of helping her to remember – he’s going to hypnotise her. Hartley seems to be doing his own investigations – despite what he might sound like, he is a trained scientist.
In Paris, a woman comes home and a bear starts following her around the house. The bear does not seem friendly. Bears do not normally roam around Paris.