iZombie – Dead Lift

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Bix (Alex Parra) makes a brief appearance at the start of the episode where he mourns the death of his girlfriend Lisa (Abbey Dutton). Unfortunately, Lisa is not dead. Instead, she is frolicking through the woods, tripping on psychedelics after a weekend of debauchery without her doting boyfriend. This means that while Bix’s relationship has met an untimely death, Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) and Liv’s (Rose McIver) murder case is no closer to being solved. There is a crime, but no body. Across the city the gaggle of foster kids and Baron (Francis Capra) make an attempt to circumvent the city’s human patrolmen in order to seek entrance into the walled off metropolis. Just a few kilometers away,the Fillmore Graves enforcement officers express concerns with Major’s (Robert Buckley) leniency as Commander. Major’s “gentle’ approach to policing the city makes his team feel uncomfortable as he attempts to tread the line between occupying force and positive member of the community.

After a hard day’s work, Liv decides to surprise Major with a romantic, comforting dinner of Brain Canelloni. The pair bond over sautéed Fitness Guru and discuss the trials and tribulations of their occupations. They make it through dinner, but Major reveals to Liv that he swapped out her fitness junkie brains for brain paste in attempt to maintain a clear head. Major and Liv aren’t the only couple attempting to rekindle some kind of spark. Ravi (Rahul Kohli) and Peyton (Aly Michalka) are also enjoying an evening together – although it’s a little more rated R compared to Liv and Major’s wholesome dinner. And just like their friends, Ravi and Peyton can’t quite let themselves fully experience the joys of…coming together.

The following day Peyton finds herself listening to conflicting opinions on zombie-human relations. Peyton’s hope for the city is to improve public opinion on zombies and is seeking PR funding from a whole host of unwilling donors. Tensions continue to rise. Where Peyton seeks support from sponsors, Liv seeks fitness junkie support from Clive who is reluctant to call himself her “swolemate” in the midst of a homicide investigation. The pair of crime solvers head over to the suburbs following up on a lead for Mrs. Jones (Jackie Debatin). Mrs. Jones, for all intents and purposes, seems fine. After their initial interview with Mrs. Jones, Liv heads back to the lab to give Ravi some unsolicited advice on how to improve his sexual relationship with Peyton. When Ravi declines the advice the conversation turns to Ravi’s diet and then…a big jump cut to Ravi, Clive and their nerdy zombified friends playing some good old-fashioned D&D style tabletop games. In the midst of their gameplay, one of the players appeals to Ravi’s interest in zombie public relations. The man, part of a comedy troop, pitches a skit about living next to a zombie couple. The bit promises to humanize zombies and to Ravi this is just what New Seattle needs to solve its crisis.

And speaking of that crisis…a human extremist ambushes a small fleet of Fillmore Graves officers killing Major’s beloved protégée Jordan (Jade Payton) just as she attempted to support Major’s gentle approach at policing the city. Major barely has time to mourn the loss of his subordinate when he hears some other officers bad-mouthing his tactics. No longer willing to sit down and take their anger quietly, Major confronts his soldiers. This time they seem to take his commands on board – despite their disagreements. Violence is the theme of the hour. Jordan’s death diffuses through the city, a shocking precursor to another series of imminent deaths at the hands of the War on Zombies. Liv and Clive respond to a call from a bar in which a patron was more or less mortally wounded from a GSW, but the patrons won’t let an out zombie like Liv help. He dies before Liv has the chance to assess the damage. Another body for Fillmore Graves to investigate and address.

Ravi brings the idea of the zombie comedy show to Peyton where they attempt to sell her on the skit’s viral potential – and thus the seed for “Hi, Zombie” is planted. Despite the lightness of Ravi’s web series New Seattle is rampant with death. Dolly Durkins stirs up trouble for the zombies by firing up a group of violent extremists while Baron and the foster kids come under fire. Baron sacrifices his life protecting the kids, who don’t hesitate to make their way into the city without their selfless guide. If that wasn’t enough to really send the message home of just how dire circumstances are within the city the mysterious murder case Clive and Liv have been working on is looking more and more like a cover up or even a hoax.

This new theory brings the crew of Liv, Ravi and Clive to a garage with a bloody car. Upon further inspection Ravi tastes the blood – which isn’t blood but corn syrup. As it turns out the murder with no body wasn’t a murder at all. It was simply someone’s successful attempt at hate-mongering. The discovery of the hoax has an impact on all parties involved, human and zombie alike, and so the police department meets up with Major to devise a plan. The hoax, already having gained disastrous traction, will resonate with human audiences. The fact that it was a hoax will be moot unless the stakes are raised. Major elects to fabricate more aspects of the crime, in having someone confess to the hoax. Clive and Dale (Jessica Harmon) are hesitant, but they know what must be done.

While Major makes moves to solidify the hoax story and reassert himself as a powerful presence, Liv learns of Baron’s sacrifice and turns the eldest foster child into a zombie to prevent his illness from taking his life, who in turn gives the scratch to his siblings. Dale holds a press conference discussing the arrest of a major hoax player, a supposed Dead Ender. The news blasts a video of Fillmore Graves using the guillotine to punish the suspected drive-by shooters and appease the true Dead Enders. In return for facilitating the cover-up, some key players are granted passage out of the city in exchange for their participation and future silence on the orchestration.

And, of course, Ravi ends up taking Liv’s sex advice and treats Peyton to a happy ending. Upon their mutual climax, Peyton nonchalantly reveals that she sold the naming rights of the Space Needle in exchange for “Hi, Zombie” funds. While this would have been a slightly pleasant place to end, the world continues to turn and not always for the best when it comes to our protagonists. They may have won this battle, but a war wages on within the city walls. We haven’t seen the last of Dolly Durkins (Jennifer Irwin), who is well-aware of Major’s involvement in the cover-up. Dolly, after all, is the instigator of the murder hoax and she is not happy to have been one-upped by Fillmore Graves or the police department. Dolly meets up with Mrs. Jones to discuss their own obstructions of justice, but Dolly doesn’t trust Mrs. Jones. Dolly, revealing herself to be quite the cut-throat ,signals her hitman Benny (the same man who killed Jordan) to eliminate the security threat.