iZombie – Dot Zom

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Cornell Piercey (Devin Johnston) is the Elon Musk of New Seattle and owner of Piercey Corp, an organization responsible for the creation of a highly-successful traffic app. He is visited in his office by a familiar albeit faceless individual – and dies. He is soon discovered by his “Principle Life Enabler” a/k/a his assistant Nora (Magda Apanowicz) who promptly calls Clive (Malcolm Goodwin), Liv (Rose McIver) and Ravi (Rahul Kohli) to the scene of the crime. Nora reveals that Cornell has recently been overcome by a desire to work on a mysterious Project Z, which was designed to create a habitat capable of surviving the inevitable apocalypse. His habitat had limited space, but a whiteboard in his underground office revealed the future community members of his new community – a whiteboard that featured Peyton (Aly Michalka) for unknown reasons. Ravi is jealous of the millionaire’s selection of his girlfriend, but Peyton is unfazed and instead focuses her attention on “Hi, Zombie” rehearsals and rewrites.

As with every unresolved murder, Liv consumes the victim’s brain in the form of kombucha while Clive gives a rundown of the crime scene evidence, which includes a blue-tinted contact lens. The brain promptly overcomes Liv’s executive functions and turns her into a self-absorbed philosophical savant. The brain engages just in time for an interview with one of Cornell’s ex-girlfriend’s and business partners, a fellow zombie named Melissa (Stephanie Lemelin). Melissa denies her engagement with Project Z and as a zombie she had been omitted from Cornell’s list. Outside the sphere of the murder victim educator Graham Moss (Dejan Loyola) loses his job for being a zombie, an act of discrimination that society manages to justify among the city’s high tensions. Blaine (David Anders) is also up to some sketchy business, flirting with and allowing reporter Al Bronson (Gage Golightly) to profile him.

After work Liv pays a visit to her zombie orphanage and bumps into Major (Robert Buckley), who is watching TV with the kids. They have a brief meeting within the kids’ earshot and discuss Graham’s case. Of course, Liv (hopped up on tech genius brain) comes up with the idea of hiring Graham to tutor Renegade’s merry band of exiled zombie children. The kids and Major agree that it’s a solid plan, one that allows zombies to serve their community and make a living despite their struggles within human society. While Major is away from Fillmore Graves, some of his subordinates are up to no good. His treasonous lieutenant Enzo (John Emmet Tracy) unfreezes the two corporals laid to an icy punishment a couple episode prior and introduces them to a powerful new player in town – Boss (Bill Wise), a creepy toupee wearing man of science hellbent on the eradication of humanity and the rise of zombies.

In the midst of an argument with Ravi on the benefits of nootropics, Liv has a vision of Nora watching Cornell replace her name on the sanctuary board with Peyton’s, giving the assistant a motive and propelling her to the top of the suspect list. Nora reveals that she and Cornell had engaged in a relationship of sorts and that Cornell had initially added her to the list until he saw Peyton deliver an impressive speech. Cornell, being gross and self-absorbed, was attracted to Peyton and thus added her to the list in hopes of being able to procreate with her in the event of a human extinction event. Misogyny aside, the interview triggered another vision in Liv of Sheldon Drake, The Fixture King (Bill Dow), a bigot in the social circle of Cornell.

Blaine and Al’s time together is nothing short of eventful. While he tries to present himself to her as an entrepreneurial genius, a zombie zealot begins to stir things up outside of his club. Blaine, not one to deny his suitors a performance, consumes a Capoeira brain and handles the haters with a fluid, musical assault. This performance seals the deal for Al, who finally sees the full appeal of Blaine’s carefully curated brand. Speaking of performances…”Hi, Zombie” isn’t going too well. Liv, Ravi and Peyton all show up to watch another run through, but the material is doing very little to improve zombie PR in the city. Peyton then elects Yasmine (Stephi Chin-Salvo) as the show’s new head writer. Jimmy (Ryan Bell) is enraged at the prospect of being fired from his own project and leaves in a huff, but he returns later on to enjoy the fruits of Yasmine’s labor. It takes him a while to recognize the importance of delivering the message of friendly-zombies, but eventually he succumbs.

Business at Piercey Corp must go on. Liv and Clive join Melissa and Nora back at HQ to discuss The Fixture King’s involvement in Cornell’s business and possibly his death. Drake is less than pleasant with Liv. Sheldon grew angry with Cornell when Cornell failed to pay him, but he is not willing to cooperate in divulging any further details. Instead, he leaves, but not without first telling Liv that her time is almost up. Liv takes her work home with her to Renegade’s operating home where a comrade gives her details on a Zombie Doxxing Operation involving user data collected by Cornell’s traffic app. Liv uses this information to conclude what Sheldon was paying Cornell for – and it’s not pretty.

While Liv is busy policing, Boss captures Graham and threatens to kill his friend unless he works as a sleeper cell in Renegade’s operation. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Graham has no choice but to agree to the man’s terms. He later shows up to Renegade HQ to teach a lesson – late. The implications of his newfound servitude are yet to be determined. Reporter Al has also been a busy woman, calling her editor to request an extension on her article about Blaine. While her conversation with her editor seems innocuous, nothing is as it seems in a town at war with itself.

Liv has yet another vision of Melissa slapping Sheldon and accusing him of planning a mass murder. While she’s not wrong about the bigot’s intentions, this makes her suspect #1. Clive, unaware of Melissa’s involvement, has already booked Sheldon for the murder – but it’s misguided. Yes, Sheldon is guilty of paying Cornell for a data mining system in order to identify and eliminate zombies, but he wasn’t Cornell’s killer…Melissa was. Liv attempts to reason with Clive in keeping Sheldon in jail, but the human judicial system won’t help her. This is something she’ll have to continue to reconcile with. Human societal structure can barely help those within it, let alone help zombies find justice. This is why she became Renegade. Clive and Liv have no choice but to call Melissa in for her confession and she delivers. Cornell wanted to save humanity and she wanted to save zombies. Liv understands, but her hands are tied by her connections to the police. The law will not help her or Melissa. This episode introduced a number of new characters and plot lines to wrap up and things are looking more and more bleak for Liv and her crew.