iZombie – Death Moves Pretty Fast

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Harris Burrows (Philip Bolden) is another vapid teenager with more money than responsibilities on the cusp of hosting the last party of his life. Surrounded by friends and admirers, including a lady suitor named Amy (Brianne Tju) with an unappreciative ex-boyfriend. Speaking of rich and vacuous souls…Blaine (David Anders) just so happens to be his neighbor. As he continues his attempt at courting report Al Bronson (Gage Golightly), who is still very much interested in completing her profile on the homicidal entrepreneur. He pulls out all the stops: expensive wine, those darling cavernous dimples and his signature wit, but Al is a tough nut to crack. Much to Blaine’s pleasure, an attendee of Harris’ party has blocked Al in. Blaine makes a chivalrous attempt at getting the party-goer to move their vehicle, but Harris refuses – bringing out a zombie rage in the older man. Later in the evening, purely by coincidence, Harris finds himself locked in his own sauna before being steamed to death.

Dolly Durkins (Jennifer Irwin) is also in the murder market as she instructs her lackeys to mix some messed-up brains in the brain Go-gurts consumed by Fillmore Graves and other unsuspecting zombies. Fillmore Graves is dealing with their own clandestine business. Enzo (John Emmet Tracy) discusses defensive strategies with Major (Robert Buckley), who in the midst of their conversation begins having some very apparent cognition problems. Major loses focus and exhibits signs of executive dysfunction. Enzo meets his commander’s mental misfire with little concern and instead dismisses himself to commit treason. The zombie food supply may be under attack, but Major is in no position to handle it. Wonder why.

Enzo soon learns of a higher than expected brain-tube count, followed by reports of unusual zombie activity. Zombies in the FG regime short-circuiting in the same manner as Major. Enzo begins to piece together the connection between the memory lapses and the brain tube consumption and he intends on taking full advantage of the temporary freedom.  Enzo, suspecting the Dead Enders as the culprits, orders a Riot Team and water cannon to teach the humans a lesson.

Liv (Rose McIver) and Ravi (Rahul Kohli) make their way to the scene of the crime to investigate Harris’ murder. Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) takes a mighty fall at the scene and quickly gets carted off on a stretcher, leaving the two scientists to their own devices. The first stop they make is Blaine’s house, following up on a tip that he threatened the victim just a few hours prior. In the mist of Blaine’s questioning, Al perches herself outside of the room and eavesdrops on the conversation. Blaine pulls her into the conversation and claims that she is his alibi, which she reluctantly agrees to. Ravi senses Al’s trepidation and the team returns to their lab where Ravi comes across some very bad news.

Details on Freylich’s Syndrome becomes mainstream, which means that Ravi’s work trying to protect victims of the disease was all for naught. Soon children with Freylich’s may come under attack as the involuntary arbiters of the zombie cure. Liv tries to comfort her friend, leaving her food unattended. Al makes her way into the lab to tell Liv and Ravi the truth, but stumbles upon the brains Liv prepared. She then takes a bite of the brain before casually interjecting into the conversation between Liv and Ravi. Al expresses some of her suspicions regarding Blaine’s innocence and leaves the lab. Al leaves just as quickly as she arrived and Liv is once again tasked with healing Ravi’s chakras while solving the murder case.

Liv’s overzealous Harris brain encourages her and Ravi to take the law into their own hands while Clive is out of commission and high on pain medication. While they wait for warrants on Blaine’s house to go through, the pair interview some witnesses, including Harris’ best friend and sidekick: Hamm (Kristian Wang). Hamm provides some alternative routes for Harris’ potential killer, including Mr. Mooney (Kurt Long) who is a teacher whom Harris pranked and swindled. Hamm also provides Seattle’s finest with Jamie’s (Mitch Ainley) name, the ex-boyfriend of Harris’ lover Amy.

Liv’s first stop is Mr. Mooney. They bump into him at a memorial service at Harris’ school. Hamm is giving a speech, egging on Mr. Mooney while Amy chases Jamie into the crowd. Alarmed by the running, Liv and Ravi follow Amy and Jamie to a bench. Jamie is disoriented and confused, exhibiting clear signs of memory loss similar to Major’s. Ravi performs a preliminary examination and determines that Jamie has no signs of trauma. He recommends that Jamie go to a hospital, but Amy outs him as a zombie and says that she used to be one too, until Harris got her a black-market cure. This is when Liv is stricken with a memory of Mr. Mooney threatening to end Harris after falling prey to the teen’s outlandish pranks.

Enzo returns to Major’s office to test his theory on the brain tubes and diminished mental capacity and confirms that the good-hearted commander has fallen prey to Dolly’s food pollution plan. As Enzo’s evil shenanigans ensue, the good guys are also taking advantage of their boss being out of commission. Ravi and Liv return to their home base to find Steve (Kett Turton) napping on an exam table. Once they lecture the sleepy goth they find a recorded video Harris has recorded for publishing in the event of his untimely death. In the video Harris vows to give Hamm his radio equipment…giving the teen motive for killing his best friend. Liv turns to Steve to get him to hack Harris’ social media account in attempt to trap the killer into confession.

Ravi returns home to find an incredibly confused Major. He calls Liv over to feed Major some pure brains and deduces that Major consumed Alzheimer’s brain – put into the zombie food supply by some angry humans. Ravi calls it in to Peyton (Aly Michalka) to make an announcement on the matter and is then left to deal with an over-excited Steve and Liv who, since re-feeding Major, have successfully hacked Harris’ social media accounts. Together Liv, Steve and Ravi cut together a clip manufactured clip of Harris insinuating the fabrication of his death. They continue to cut audio clips of Harris on his radio show, drawing the killer out of the darkness by literally faking a faked death. Their plan would have been perfect if it weren’t for the sniper shooting Steve from an undisclosed location. Fortunately, a deputy on guard managed to catch the shooter – Hamm.

With the entire gang making breakthroughs, Major also regains his ability to operate fully only to see on the news the results of Enzo’s water cannon assault on brain dispensary protesters. Al also experiences a revelation of her own when a flower delivery man triggers a Harris memory within her. The memory is one of Blaine’s right hand Don E delivering the zombie cure to Harris and Amy. Across the city Liv has the same memory. Liv brings her findings to Ravi while Al visits the Scratching Post to question Don E (Bryce Hodgson) on Blaine’s business, including his relationship with Peyton. Once she pumps him full of information, Al pays a visit to Peyton and insinuates Peyton’s involvement in Blaine’s criminal operations (mostly homicides). Al implies that Blaine’s murder of the mayor was a romantic gesture to Peyton, sparking her rise to power. All the while Blaine continues his pursuit of the beautiful journalist – who stands him up hours before publishing a raw expose. This expose doesn’t just harm Blaine though – it undermines Peyton’s competency and suggests that she’s complicit in his crimes.

The parallels between the city’s authoritative forces continue as Major confronts Enzo about the water cannons unleashed on the Dead Enders. Major, aware of his prior affliction, asks Enzo if the riot team was a response to his direct orders. Enzo says that they were in fact given to him by Major, but Major and a fellow solider know that he would never encourage such violence. Enzo plays dumb to the situation, forcing Major to take disciplinary action. Major prepares to freeze Enzo for a while to which Enzo replies, “Vive Chase Graves!” in an anticlimactic attempt at threatening to the good commander. Lt. Collins (Elfina Luk) ensures that Enzo’s sentences are carried out and in doing so she discovers that seventeen previously frozen soldiers are missing from the freezer.

Just as Enzo’s cover is blown, Blaine’s story is mass-published along with the reports of Freylich victim’s brains being the cure for zombieism.