'The River' Season 1, Episode 7 Recap - 'The Experiment'

After an episode last week that had us getting to know Emmet a little better through more tapes of him, the search really picked up. By the end of "The Experiment," it became clear why last week's episode was dedicated to endearing us to Emmet: we're about to spend a lot more time with him.

Yes, the crew finally found Emmet Cole in this episode, and in the most unlikely of circumstances. They arrived at the research outpost shown in Emmet's videos, only to find it completely abandoned. Well, almost completely: there's a pile of dead bodies in the meat freezer and a bunch of cannabalistic zombies running round.

Included in that zombie group is Kurt's former fiancee, who was apparently in charge of security at the outpost here. Aww, cute, both the Germans were hard-assed private security mercenaries together! Apparently she was overseeing the research here, which was searching for a cure for cancer using some less-than-ethical methods. Ultimately, some sort of chemical compound got out, and everyone turned into a flesh-eating zombie.

Rabbit, however, somehow survived all this time, and relates how Emmet was brought in and was being treated when the outbreak happened. She didn't see anything past that, but the group follows a false clue (those darned wind chimes!) and a real one (those clever dragonflies!) up to the roof, where they discover Emmet... in a giant cocoon.

Yes, seriously.

Apparently Emmet took this whole dragonfly thing pretty seriously, and somehow created a cocoon that kept him alive. As he explains in an old clip from "The Undiscovered Country," when food is short for dragonflies, they go back into a cocoon to survive. Doesn't explain how Emmet did it, but it at least explains why.

So they cut him out and take him back to the Magus, just in time for him to save Tess from a stray zombie and deliver a pretty great ending line: "So... how was my funeral?"

Oh, and Rabbit got eaten by a zombie. Bye Rabbit.

So with just the finale left, "The River" answered the question of how they would handle this whole search for Emmet thing. There was always the chance that they would bank on a second season and keep him missing through this one, but it looks like instead they will have him join the crew for the last episode. So, of course, things are probably not going to end well in next week's finale. They'll at least be stuck on this River for a while... presuming ABC picks things up past this initial short order.