Liv has eaten one of the brains of the missing children Major is trying to find. She has a vision of Blaine abducting him and the Candyman locking him in an ice chest while he tries to escape. These visions are graphic and terrifying, especially to Liv – she’s close to Major and this case.
Major’s obsessiveness is worsening. He’s illegally bought a firearm from the back of some dude’s truck in order to go full vigilante on the Candyman and his crew. He’s Youtubing videos on how to use his new firearm for target practice. He’s not incorrect in his hunches about the Candyman abducting kids, but his sense of vigilantism is going to be detrimental to him – it already has been. He’s been beaten bloody more than once.
Liv discovers that Blaine is killing kids and selling their brains. The missing skate park kids. Liv, furious, takes the fight to Lowell, who is one of Blaine’s clients. She fiercely accuses him of lying. He supposedly didn’t know that Blaine killed kids. Liv asks about the visions he has with the brains – “Why are they so young?” Lowell reels. This fight thusly ends their relationship. Liv’s compassion toward Major’s kids outweighs her feelings for Lowell. He confesses his love for her. “Well, that’s going to be a problem,” she says and storms out.
Meanwhile, at the end of the last episode Ravi got bit by a zombie rat. He’s monitoring his own vitals and logging any changes in himself. He has not told Liv – or anyone – about this. He makes seemingly innocent inquiries of Liv about what she would do if she didn’t work in a morgue. Where would she get her brains? Liv answers with a snarky, “not with a brain pizza delivery service,” and leaves it at that. Ravi’s logistical question goes unanswered. If he is a zombie, where is he going to get his food?
This episode has a little trouble with pacing in my opinion. It’s having to balance these complicated stories and throw in a murder case on top of it. Liv quickly decides to eat another brain – a soldier’s brain – in order to get Jerome’s brain through her system. She can’t handle having another vision of him. She knows all she needs to about Blaine and his “business.”
Despite the multi-episode buildup of the discovery of Blaine’s operation, it’s quickly dismissed in this episode. Liv eats another brain, gets a new murder and the focus shifts to that. I fail to understand why Liv doesn’t leap to do something about catching Blaine and his crew immediately. Her compassionate heart should lead her to take some sort of action like that, but instead she pushes the information aside for a different victim.
The interesting part of this new brain is the exploration of PTSD and what it’s like to be a soldier. Liv gets visions similar to her zombie-induced one that are terrifying and jarring, especially when it’s a nightmare she awakens from. Liv also takes up an interest in paintball, which is what the victim enjoyed doing. It’s a reflection and a reminder of the battlefield.
As interesting as this brain makes Liv’s habits, they seem forced in this episode. I’m all about bringing awareness and giving some color to PTSD and the people who struggle with it; but it seems misplaced and off-kilter in this episode. It initially seems like a distraction from all of the other plot lines happening – zombie Ravi? Major vigilante? Blaine selling teen brains and Liv finding out about it? Lowell and Liv calling it quits? Peyton and Ravi dating? Those are the things that I came to see, not necessarily another typical case, just like all the others Liv has solved.
However, the soldier was a sniper. After patching things up with Lowell – he repents pretty hard – she decides that Blaine has to die. And that she’s going to be the one to kill him. Part of me wonders whether or not Liv would have decided to do this without the brain. The thing is, she wonders the same thing. “So we’re really doing this…” she tells/asks Lowell. Yes, she really does it. The sniper brains kick in and she sights Blaine in.
The last ten minutes of every episode never fails to make me throw my hand over my mouth, my eyes widen and maybe let a swear slip. iZombie is capable of such suspense, provided that it’s allowed enough time to cook and develop. My only hope for iZombie is that it doesn’t get in its own way. It has a lot to juggle. All of the stories and characters are so intricate and unique – I hope that iZombie doesn’t lose sight of that.