Oh iZombie. I sing your praises one week, and then the following week you leave me hanging. Maybe it's me, Maybe it's you. Maybe it was your decision to make the Asian brain Liv ate give her Kung Fu. Maybe it was centering the case of the week around Clive so soon when we are just getting to know the character. Whatever it was, it left a less than desired effect on me, and that makes me sad. Aside from the case, there were other things to enjoy this week with the Blaine sub-plot and Liv and Ravi going undercover as Liv lived out the Whorey version of Momento as her brother, Evan came to stay in Liv and Let Clive.
Talk about awkward. ZomCougar Jackie is back this week as we open with her and Blaine in bed the morning after they engaged in what Jackie calls a booty call and then asking for a rebate on what she is paying him for brains since she was his booty call. Blaine's response is gold."Oh Jackie, I made you a Zombie, but I would never make you a whore" We then see them go through a morning routine of tanning, swimming and drinking brain shakes.(With the very awesome They Are Night Zombies! They Are Neighbors! They Have Come Back From The Dead! Ahhh! by Sufjan Stevens playing)Meanwhile, Live heads over to Major's place with a morning coffee and apology for all the weirdness lately. Major comes downstairs in nothing but a towel as his current now ex-roommate Jesse is moving out.Liv offers Major another apology because he wouldn't be going through craigslist roommates had it not been for her breaking off their engagement. Major starts walking her towards the door, but Liv asks about the kid Eddie from last week, and Major replies not only have they not heard from Eddie, but Jerome is missing now as well. He trails off mid-thought because a lady is making her way downstairs in a University of Washington shirt, drinking from a U of W mug. A lady named Corinne, who Major thinks should meet Liv. Liv awkwardly asks if she went to UDub too, and Corinne replies that she went to Stanford, and Liv decides it's time to exit. She heads back to the morgue, and relays the awkward encounter to Ravi about Corrine and her favorite mug that she wanted to shatter into pieces so it can match her heart. To her credit though, she states she has to remain mature if her and Major are to be friends. Just as she is about to cut open the skull of this week's Doe, her brother enters in looking for a key to her place. He needs a place to crash while their mother is in one of her moods, and it just so happens that Payton is out of town at a DA conference. (Also, how ick was the line about her brother using Payton's personal massager that we know is not a personal massager?)
"Her Life is like the Whory-Version of the movie Momento"
Liv, looking for an explanation as to what exactly went down in Clive's past and her vision. heads to his old stomping ground, Vice(I refuse to believe in real life the door is labeled VICE). She meets with his old partner Detective Devore(Who is sooo distraught over Sammy's death, btw) to get some information that may help. Detective Devore's words don't help to paint Clive in a better light nor could she give Liv any information on Sammy since he was involved in an ongoing case. She tells Liv that Clive was a bit self-absorbed, a bit too close to his CI's, that he was suspended from Vice and that when he left no one was sorry to see him go. When Liv questioned why he was suspended, Bevore hints that Clive may have been a bit dirty while he was in Vice. Liv tells Ravi what she found out and how she doubts Clive and Ravi tries to tell her that Clive may have his reasons for keeping his suspension a secret. Liv takes Ravi into Hong Kong Video store where Sammy apparently worked and hopes to get some more information on who and what they are dealing with. She heads in the store and questions the clerk about Ray, pretending to be a slutty airhead named Melanie who likes asian guys(RaviOli undercover is freaking gold). Ravi manages to convince the clerk to find Ray, and then he heads off into the adult video section where Liv follows him and flashes on a giant Cobra on the wall. She has a vision, this time of a guy named A.J. interrogating someone about who he told while Sammy watches. Clive walks in and A.J. tells him that they found the rat, and it wasn't Ray (who is standing right next to him). Liv tells Ravi they need to leave immediately, but as they walk out A.J. is standing there because he heard she is looking for Ray and into Asian dudes. A.J.(Really into white chicks btw) questions Ravi and Liv on why they want to see Ray and pokes at the holes in her story. Liv tries to back her way out but Ravi keeps playing along until she mentions the Blue Cobra tattoo on A.J.'s arm that happens to be on the other guy's arms as well. They make their way out of the store and Liv tells Ravi about her vision and how A.J. is the main Blue Cobra and how in her vision he was putting wasabi in some guy's eye to make him confess to snitching while Clive was there. Speaking of Clive, he shows up after they leave the store and heads in sending Ravi and Liv into a panic about what exactly he is doing there. They decide to wait and see where Clive goes next, but are spotted by the desk clerk from the store.
Liv confesses to Clive everything she knows and thought about him, Sammy and the Blue Cobras, and Clive tells her that Ray was his partner when he went deep undercover. He can't believe that Liv thought he was dirty, but addressing that will have to wait until after they find Ray. He puts a call into his old partner Devore, and she gets a team together to meet Ray at the hangar. Clive tells Liv he knows where Ray is coming in, with a shipment of Utopium for the Cobras(This Drug is Everywhere!), and that it may be close but hopefully they can get to him first. They being himself, Devore and her team. He tells Liv to go home. Which she does, and also calls him several times until he picks up. Clive lets Liv know that they did get to Ray in time and busted up A.J.'s gang. Liv apologizes to Clive for doubting him and getting involved. Clive tells Liv he really didn't want her to get glimpses into his dark past and he wished she stayed out of it when he asked three times, but he really can't talk about all this now. A.J. wasn't with his crew, so he is headed down to the video store to arrest him for Sammy's murder. Except A.J. isn't at the video store, he is in Liv's apartment and he knows that she is a cop. A.J. decides to put a hurt on her because Ray is dead and it's just him and her now.(I think he was just mad she wasn't really into Asian dudes) Liv surprises him and tells him Ray is alive and then uses her acquired Kung Fu skills to fight back. Ray ends up getting the upper hand, just as Evan arrives home with pizza, and Liv worried about her brother, goes "Full-Zombie" and takes out Ray. Evan wanders in and she pulls herself back just in time to remain undiscovered.
Elsewhere this week we got a bit more insight into what Blaine has going on. After waking up next to Jackie, he heads off to the Meat Cute coffee shop/butcher shop to meet up with two hulked up minions of his, (Dante and an unnamed guy) that he refers to his two sides of beef. Blaine is obviously pushing brains like drugs and these two rather incompetent goons are his dealers, who have made some mistakes before. Blaine is willing to give them another chance to prove themselves and be closers and make some deliveries. That night, they converse over how by the time they finish these deliveries the Gym would closed, oh and also how Blaine ruined their lives and squandered their potential by scratching them. They resent Blaine for being the only game in town, scratching rich dudes and charging them for brains. They decide it's time to act on what they talked about and go into business on their own(because of frickin' science) and steal Blaine's clientele. They head to see ZomCougar Jackie and try to pitch to her to buy brains from them, at a much cheaper price than what Blaine is charging. Jackie tells them she needs time and that she is surprised that they even had this idea.
It's not their fault they didn't know that Jackie would be loyal to Blaine, so who can blame them for playing it cool when they report back to Meat Cute, and try some of the Gnocchi. Unfortunately for them Blaine does know about their unnamed start-up, and he shoots them both in the head and then places them in a freezer hanging by meat hooks. Fret not though, this is why Blaine buys in bulk, as he takes another two hulked up zombies out the freezer, one named Julien, who he tells that loyalty is job number one and he'd do well to remember that and not end up in the freezer again. As a thank you to Jackie, Blaine tells her he is sending over something that will make her feel like a teenager again, on the house. That something being Jerome's brain. We finally get a glimpse of how Blaine gets his brains as he and Julien, who took Jerome's cool shoes, push him through some sort of meat saw machine thing.
Overall Thoughts: Least. Favorite. Brain. That's how I felt about Liv and Let Clive. Not only was the paranoia not explored as much as some of the other brains, the fact that it was an Asian brain that gave her kung fu was annoying and really stereotypical. Something about it left a bad taste in my mouth. I get that it paved the way to give the viewers a really cool fight scene where Liv kicked ass, but in the end, her going Full-Zombie saved the day, so the Kung Fu really wasn't needed. I'm not sure how often it has been done, but the suspecting your partner was dirty thing felt pretty over-done to me. Did anyone really think that Clive was working with the Cobras? Sure, it caused some dissention between Liv and Clive temporarily but it was fixed by the end of the hour and Clive and Liv were okay once more. As for the actual case of the week, while it provided some hilarious moments like Liv and Ravi undercover, it suffered from the same too much at once thing the case from The Exterminator had, where it made the case really fall prey to the background and just feel unnecessary. I just wasn't a fan of the brain this week and it really just felt like it really was only in place to help teach Liv her lesson this week and then everything was built around that. Not a good look.
What was good was how much fun I felt the sub-plot with Blaine added this week. I will admit it was a clever way to show us rather than tell us what exactly Blaine has been doing. By taking these two characters and showing us their dissatisfaction with Blaine, we not only got to learn how Blaine operates, but how he gets his brains, who his clients are, and where his base is. It's not much in terms of where this story with him is going, but I do think the fact that the search for Eddie, coupled with Jerome now missing and the focus on his shoes indicates this story is headed to convergence at some point and I can't wait to find out.
As usual the dialogue was amazing and there were several quips and references(I want Meat-Cute to be a real thing) to go around, and I loved all the RaviOli scene whether they were undercover, discussing the case, or discussing Major related things it was nice to see their bond. One bond that felt pointless was Liv and Evan, I felt that was just another squandered opportunity in the episode and really felt like it went nowhere. All-in-all aside from a few good scenes and lines I felt really let down by iZombie, especially after I enjoyed The Exterminator so much. Though what is impressive about this episode is that despite airing behind a Flash repeat it managed to stay steady at it's current ratings level, which for the CW is above average, so I'll let this episode slide as it helped solidify the show's chances for more iZombie in the future to redeem itself from this episode.
Wow. Just wow, not only was iZombie's fifth installment good, it also reunited Veronica Mars alum Ryan Hansen and Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas. Though Ryan wasn't even the best part of an hour that featured a moment I didn't even see coming. This week's episode shined in a sense that there was so much movement in quite a few of the character arcs, and one of the main players ended the hour in a not so good place. Sure, the case was predictable but the case wasn't the real focus of the episode. After Flight of the Living Dead, let's just say love in the time of Zombie-ism just got real shall we?
Back at the morgue with Holly's body on the table, Liv reminisces about how different she and Holly were. Holly was adventurous and broke rules, liv was disciplined and followed them. Liv's says while she didn't understand her, part of her wished she could be her. Then in comes Ravi telling her that she doesn't have to eat her, that she has options. Still, Liv wants to eat her because that friend of Holly's seemed so sure that something was off about all of it and because if she can do it for stranger, she can do it for Holly whom she feels she owes. Back at home, Payton and Liv discuss Holly's live free or die motto over a glass of wine, while pouring through her facebook. Payton feels that holly was a bit senseless and just wasted her potential in life. Liv disagrees because she thinks Holly was a dying is a consequence of life kinda girl and shares with Payton about a time in college when she was having a bad day (she ended up scoring an 89) and Holly convinced her to jump a fence and swim in a strangers pool. Liv then mentions how both she and Payton voted to kick Holly out of Mu Theta Zeta for behaving like a normal college girl and that maybe she had something figured out that she didn't. Payton finds a video on Holly's page taken the night before her plunge to death, where Holly seems to be antagonizing the accused man from before name Lowell of being a buzzkill. (Lowell, like Chris Lowell, also known as portrayal of Piz, also known as one of the worst things about Veronica Mars season three?)Liv gets a vision triggered by the video, of an angry Lowell, telling Holly to just go the day of the jump.
"Doesn't it freak you out that Facebook somehow knows you were thinking of buying boots and reducing belly fat?"
Liv then takes the case to Clive and asks him to look in it, but Clive refuses because it's not a homicide, and it's not under his name on the board. Liv tells him that accident may not just be an accident like the FAA ruled and it can't official until her department says so. Clive says he already two cases and that his lieutenant is in a mood, but when Liv explains her vision and that Holly was a friend, Clive agrees to bring in Lowell Tracey. Liv also tells him to get the helmet cam footage. The next day, instead of taking her car to station, Liv decides to take her bike in what we can assume is an impulse from eating Holly's brain. From the moment Liv walks in the interrogation room, Lowell seems preoccupied with her. Clive presses into Lowell, asking why the Max Rager skydiving group and why the energy drink company is footing the bill for him to jump out of the plane. Lowell admits the Max Rager makes it a requirement he does stunts like that since he is signed to their record label. Liv questions what happened in the plane and why Holly didn't jump last, and Lowell tells them they should check the helmet footage and that he got nervous. He claims that he also landed far away from the drop zone and that's why he disappeared from he scene. Clive leaves to check on the footage, and Liv takes over the interrogation asking why he was miserable at the party and were he an Holly sleeping together. Lowell only agrees to answer her question if she answers a question, which Liv agrees. He says he was miserable at the party because he blew and that he an holly were just friends. His question for Liv? Does she have a boyfriend? Liv is a bit rattled, but luckily Clive comes in stating that Max Rager has destroyed all footage from the jump and it must have been to protect him.
"Mhmm. And where exactly is this feeling originating from?"
The next day, Ravi informs Liv he did find the order at a pharmacy in Tacoma, and that'll fax it over and then they'll know who the killer is. Liv then informs Ravi she met another zombie. Ravi is all, bring him in so I can get samples and Liv is all his eyes were really blue(Which apparently all zombie eyes are) When Ravi asks how does he sustain himself, Liv admits she didn't ask because she wasn't thinking about it, and the Ravi realizes that the zombie in question must have been hot. Liv reveals that he asked her out, and Ravi teases that she liked it. Ravi reminds Liv that he could be the killer but Liv seems pretty sure it's not him,and the fax proves it because Carson's name is on the prescription. Clive brings Carson in and put the heat on him saying he killed Holly so she'd keep quiet about him and Ren, and when Carson denies it, Clive shows him the prescription with his name on it. Still, Carson insists that it wasn't him that it had to Eliza. See, he was copied on email that mentioned that Max Rager users had a 1 in 100 chance of dying and Holly was with him when he got it and wanted to expose it. Carson disagreed and told Eliza thinking she could talk Holly down. Clive heads to pick up Eliza, but she's gone. Her shower curtain is gone, but the shower is still wet and there's something cooking in the oven. (My Theory? Lowell knew she did it and ate her because she was a criminal)
Despite what I feel, it was pretty hard not to swoon when Lowell showed up at the morgue with a ridiculously hot bottle of hot sauce. His speech about the whole zombie thing and being alone, but finding hope when he saw Liv was pretty killer. (She's the only thing he sees in color despite being so pale!) She does tell him that she is free this weekend and has his number before heading to work on a new body. Liv then laments that she is ready to feel again good or bad. She's ready to be alive again.
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Overall Thoughts: Well that episode surely was different change of formula. Sure, there was a case of the week, but it was different in the sense of the fact that Holly's brain didn't provide any interesting residuals. Well, any obvious residuals. I would say that Liv's decision to actually give Lowell a chance could have been a effect of Holly's take risk personality. Still, it was really good to see Liv decide to get her feet wet in the zombie sating pool without using Z-Date. Now she not only knows that there are more zombies out there besides herself and Blaine, she actually has a chance at romance. I did not see either the Lieutenant reveal or the Lowell reveal coming either, so I was really excited about both. There are zombies everywhere! Are they both clients of Blaines? This could get messy. I felt this week was a bit less procedural than usual and a bit quieter overall, with a case that seemed pretty obvious. The reveal of Lowell really overshadowed the Ryan Hansen guest spot as well.
Poor Major. I knew something was going to happen, but I didn't think it'd happen so soon. I found myself really upset that he was beat up and left laying there at the end of the episode, meaning we have come far from his wallpaper image from earlier in the season seeing as he has something of his own to do now. Anyway it looks like Clive is about to become invested to, so I can't wait to see the point of convergence between all the characters once we get there. All in all, it was really good hour that gave Liv and me some hope about the future.
