“It’s like, I’m always Britney, but sometimes I’m ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ Britney, and sometimes I’m head-smashing car windows Britney,” Liv says, aptly summarizing zombie life, in which her personality is partially contingent on whose brain she eats. “Real talk, I thought both of those Britneys were hot,” Major responds without missing a beat. As they grow closer, Major’s secret grows heavier and Liv finding out about his extracurricular activities for DuClark would certainly throw a wrench into the gears of their newfound happiness. They don’t need anything else gumming up the works, since Ravi discovered that condoms would do nothing to prevent the spread of the zombie virus. This means if Major and Liv don’t keep things strictly middle school, he will unequivocally wind up a member of the undead.
As much as Liv is in the dark, so are we, since the revelation that Major hasn’t killed anyone after all. Unfortunately, this week’s installment doesn’t do much in the way of advancing the overall plot. This is a sort of return to form for iZombie, focusing on the case of the week rather than the larger story arc, which after how serialized this season has been, does feel a bit jarring. It sort of leaves you waiting for a shoe that never drops. That doesn’t mean it’s not a killer episode.
The victim of the week is magician Syd Wicked. Someone went straight Bullseye, killing him with a metal-edged playing card to the throat. Syd built his career on destroying others in his profession by revealing the secrets behind their greatest tricks. Gee, wonder why anyone would want to kill that guy. The murder takes place at Prestofest, which Ravi explains excitedly, is a convention for magicians. “This is the best brain ever! I almost want to start killing magicians so it never ends,” he tells Liv, who, upon consuming Syd’s brain basically becomes an angsty goth kid who can do magic tricks. In fact, Ravi is such a fanboy that he actually relishes the arduous task of scrolling through hours of Twitter beefs in order to catch the killer.
This is a confusing episode for Ravi. He dumps his adorable girlfriend, whose only crime is trying too hard, only to be rebuffed by Peyton. Yeah, living with your ex is awesome. While she wants to keep things strictly friendly with Ravi, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is sparkage between Peyton and Blaine. She visits him over at Shady Plots (makes me laugh every time) Funeral Home with a warning that Mr. Boss may know he’s the one helping with the investigation. The show has done an amazing job painting Blaine in a more human color the last few weeks and David Anders makes him the most lovable villain since Hannibal Lector, but the guy is a monster. It’s easy to forget at this point, because he’s funny, charming and dreamy, but Blaine murdered homeless teenagers! Obviously Peyton deserves better, but while I was rooting for her and Ravi, the chemistry between these two is undeniable.
Peyton may have stars in her eyes, but Liv knows exactly who Blaine is. “I’m an acquired taste, like Gazpacho or that free U2 album,” he explains, while attempting to convince her that in order to crack the case of the missing zombies, they’ll have to team up. Although his reasons are dollar signs and hers are to actually help people, it would seem that their interests align for the moment. Together, they head over to Agent Bozzio’s to ascertain what exactly she knows about the disappearing men. While there, they are fortunate enough to intercept the test results for the brain found in Suzuki’s fridge.
Thanks to the skills granted to Liv by Syd’s brain, she can doctor the results, changing them from human to bovine. Looks like poor Clive (who is totally sleeping with Bozzio now and good for him) will have to wait on his initiation into club zombie. After divvying up the evidence, Liv and Blaine pour over it and Blaine is the one who comes across a photo of Minor, the dog Major took in after abducting his master. Lucky for Major, Blaine has no idea what he’s looking at.
The resolution of this week’s case was both clever and satisfying, which is great, since this is the first episode in a while where it was actually the point. It was a magical mystery, replete with twists and turns, as well as a flair for the dramatic. If the show was going to take a breather after months of breakneck storytelling, “Abra Cadaver” was a brilliant way to do it. While adding little to the larger narrative, it definitely served as an excellent way to build suspense, after all the questions left at the end of the previous episode. Seriously, what is Major’s plan for those frozen zombies? Does he even have one?