Something fishy is going on and it’s up to The Middleman to save the day. In episode five, “The Flying Fish Zombification” Wendy and The Middleman are up to their necks in trout. As always the following sentences contain spoilers.

The story opens as Lacey and Wendy decorate their apartment building in anticipation of an Art Crawl, where the inhabitants, all artists, show off their stuff. Wendy talks Lacey into inviting her mother, Dr. Barbara Thornfield, MD, PhD, to the show, even though she’s shown little interest in her daughter in the past.  To Lacey’s surprise, her mother accepts.

At work Wendy begins her training under Sensei Ping. Ida expects her to die, like most of the other trainees and is shocked when Wendy does better than The Middleman himself did when he began his training. Later Wendy and The Middleman investigate a woman throwing an RV at her husband. They find the woman at a fish market and take her to headquarters where the zombified woman craves trout.

Meanwhile Lacey is disappointed when her mother declines at the last minute after Henry Kissinger calls. Not wanting to disappoint her friend further, Wendy rushes through her job, killing a Peruvian Flying Pike by mistake, and then blames The Middleman for delaying her on purpose because of his jealousy of her doing better with Ping than he did. They track the pike to a fish hatchery where they subdue a group of men with Ping-taught techniques. They discover the mastermind of the hatchery as a Mr. White. Thinking she’s done enough, Wendy returns to the Art Crawl in time for Lacey’s performance, delayed for her arrival by a Pip, a boring performer whose dad owns the building. However, after only a few minutes, and Wendy ignoring both the middlewatch and middlephone summons, The Middleman shows up and takes her away due to a new zombie attack. This woman is subdued and brought to headquarters for treatment with an antidote made from a living pike.

She states she had just finished trying out for a modeling job for !!!! and drank their fishy-tasting energy drink.

At the !!!! warehouse Wendy and The Middleman find Mr. White, a man they had previously subdued, but was unaffected by the Ping technique because of his experience with the pike previously. White tells of native curing him after thirty days in the jungle where he’d gone to hunt endangered species. Then Mr. White dumps trout on the heroes and leaves them with zombie models. Wendy and The Middleman fight their way out and catch up to Mr. White in a rocket-powered middlemobile just before he can distribute the energy drink.

Wendy apologizes for her behavior and she and Lacey bond back at home.

I really enjoyed this episode. The dialogue was clever and quick. The special effects for the Peruvian Flying Pike were detailed and scary. I also like that the show is not a clichéd action adventure where everything is fine and dandy. The relationship between Lacey and her overachieving mother was realistic, albeit sad. Noser is coming out of his shell, wearing a purple jacket for the Art Crawl event, and becoming more interesting, but at a slower pace than I like. Wendy’s dress resembling shiny fish scales was brilliant.

I’m glad the show is getting some much-deserved buzz. According to TV Guide, The Middleman will be represented at Comic-Con, July 24-27 in San Diego, California on TV Guide’s Hot List panel by some of the show’s talent and creators. Also ABC Family will be giving out free buttons to promote the show, according to the July 21 – August 3 issue of TV Guide.

I can hardly wait until next week’s episode.