The whole show is in Citizen Z's head.
We already know he's a gamer who plays zombie games, and he seems rather excited about the Zombie Apocalypse. This is just the kind of world he'd dream up. Alternatively, Citizen Z died in prison, and the whole show is him going through some limbo form of afterlife where he as to earn his redemption.
We know that he did get arrested for espionage charges which he apparently used his computer skills to commit said espionage-related crimes in the episode Day One. Perhaps he was convicted in a court of law, sent to prison and died there. Then he is sent to a purgatory where he has to atone for what he did in life. This is to imply that the limbo in this idea has an entity that rules it and said entity has a Blue-and-Orange Morality. In this idea, the aforementioned eldritch being in this idea has created a hybrid of Purgatory and Valhalla that they molded based on any sort of traits of the people who are sent there, and said people sent there will have to fight to survive or else they won't earn their redemption. It just so happens that the eldritch creature decided to use a monster from games Citizen Z happened to play and let him have access to computers in the hopes that this time he will use computers for less shadier purposes. 10K will die in an explosion that takes out his 10,000th zombie.
Kind of an obvious one. Once he reaches his goal, watching him kill more won't be nearly as much fun, and no one wants him to become just "Jeff." It's also quite possible he might come back wrong.- Alternatively, for dark and tragic irony, after the series, 10k reanimates and turns into his 10,000th zombie.
Kurian's associates will stop the nukes.
Obviously, they're going to have to start season 2 with a Deus Ex Machina, there's no way around that. However, if they use a Deus Ex Machina that creates additional consequences, it won't be as much of a Cliffhanger Cop Out. What could have more consequences than The Conspiracy still having that much power.- Not stopping the nukes, and adding fallout and maybe nuclear winter to the setting might have more consequences.
Next season Citizen Z will be captured by The Conspiracy.
He was useful when he was guiding the party to California. Now he's a threat. Most of the season will consist of him in captivity, and the others trying to find him. Murphy can control what happens when he infects someone.
The end of Season 2 shows Lucy's enforced adoptive parents have become zombies, yet nobody else Murphy infected seems to have suffered the same. Add in the fact Cassandra practically became superhuman whilst his first four infectees remained human, it is entirely possible he could specifically choose the result- Assuming he even considers it possible.Lucy and Murphy can undo zombie immunity.
Alternatively to the above, Lucy could have somehow zombified her adoptive parents when they died- Thus the presence of a permanent vaccine might not be certain if they really did gain an immunity instead of just a mind control infection. The zombie virus was originally released intentionally.
Flashbacks to Day 1 of the zombie outbreak show that EVERYONE was taken by surprise, indicating multiple simultaneous outbreaks. The outbreak at the hockey game seems to have occurred at the same time Warren's National Guard post was hit. Flight 409 may have crashed because of zombies on the plane and there were definitely zombies after the crash, but even before they dispatched a news crew, there was already a zombie in Channel 9's ladies' room. Zombies suddenly popping up everywhere at once with no time to setup defenses suggests that the virus was released in numerous locations simultaneously. Kurian may have underestimated the potency of his creation and thought he'd simply encourage more funding for his efforts to develop the cure for his own creation, or maybe he was just crazy. Murphy actually died, and the whole series is him living in his own personal Hell.
Let's just say the version of Hell in this idea has a very....Disproportionate Retribution sort of mentality. 10K wants to call himself Jeff after reaching his goal because his birthname Tommy brings painful memories of what happened to his father.
Had there been a Season 6, it would have shown Blends being mistaken for Talkers
In the Z Nation universe, Blends have also been victims of Fantastic Racism as well.
The Election Day episode was meant to foreshadow Season 5
Doc is 10k's Grandfather
- This is based mostly on episode in season 1 "Full Metal Zombie" which focuses mostly on 10k and Doc, Doc said he has a kid, but left because Doc was only 19 at the time, we are never told exactly how old Doc is, but if he is the same age as his actor was at the time, about 54, and guess that 10K is about 16-17 at the start of the series, if he is Docs grandson then ironically, 10ks father had 10k at 19, but stuck around (to be unlike Doc who left), this is only based on the fact that this episode focuses heavily on Docs story to the zombie, and 10ks backstory with his dad, the fact that they do actually seem have the role of "grandfather/grandson" in the series helps support it.
Voodoo magic exists in the Z Nation Universe
One of the DNA samples Dr. Kurian took was brain matter of a Haitian man in a voodoo trance (In the episode titled "Doctor Of The Dead").