iZombie – Eat a Knievel

By: Emily Cross

Jeremy Chu (Patrick Gallagher) wakes up to a gun being pointed at him by Blaine (David Anders). Blaine has two “requests.” First, he wants to know where the new brain suppliers are headquartered. We don’t hear the second “request” just yet.

At Fillmore Graves, Vivian (Andrea Savage), Fortesan (Mike Dopud) and Carey (Anjali Jay) show the video of Justin (Tongayi Chirisa) in full-on zombie mode, now uploaded to YouTube. Vivan expresses to Liv (Rose McIver), Clive (Malcolm Goodwin), Major (Robert Buckley) and Justin that Fillmore Graves is not happy with the situation. Justin takes responsibility. Carey seems assured that it’s not a huge breach, as commenters aren’t believing that zombies are real. There’s another issue at hand, too. It’s pretty obvious that Harley Johns and his three brothers are responsible for the Tuttle-Reid murders, but there’s not enough evidence to make a case. Although Vivian isn’t happy, she still trusts Clive and Liv to catch the bad guys.

After the meeting is over, Vivan speaks to Major in private. She catches on to the fact that something has changed about him and correctly assumes that he’s human again.

Outside, Major fills Liv and Major in on what Vivian discussed with him. She’s taken him off active duty. Liv wants to talk to Vivian, but it will have to wait: she’s headed to Zombie Island with Fortesan. They watch the helicopter take off, only to see it explode in the air.

At home, Liv, Major, Clive and Ravi (Rahul Kohli) watch news footage of the explosion, which claims it was a mechanical failure. Liv refuses to believe it, thinking that it’s got to be another attack on zombies. Clive and Ravi think that the attack is a little advanced for Harley Johns. Vivian’s brother-in-law, Chase Graves, will take over the company (Anyone else suspecting him?). While perusing the zombie-truther message boards, Ravi learns that they are all meeting at Harley Johns’ gun range on Saturday. Since Harley already knows about Liv and Clive and Major is notorious for freeing zombies from Max Rager, Ravi is the only one who can go to get some intel. Liv volunteers to go with him, undercover with a spray tan and a wig.

Internet pranker/stuntman Finn Vincible (Robert Ri’chard) films a video in which he tries (obnoxiously) to win back Taryn (Veronika London), a woman he dated years before, by jumping a bicycle through a ring of fire in a scarecrow suit. Naturally, he dies a grisly death when his suit catches on fire.

Clive arrives at the scene to find a crowd of distraught fans, which he pushes through to find Ravi and Liv. Ravi, a connoisseur of Finn Vincible and his crew’s web series “Stunted Growth,” explains some of the pranks they would do: puking in stranger’s soup, smack each other with fish, etc. At first, the death doesn’t seem like murder until Ravi shows a scarecrow sui, identical to the one Finn was wearing. It was found in a trash can up the street and was fireproof. The theory is that someone pulled a switcheroo. The team are approached by Rudy (Adrian Petriw), a member of Finn’s crew. He confirms that the suit found in the trash can was supposed to be worn by Finn. The suit was treated with a flame-retardant spray and Finn would have sprayed that himself. When asked who could have made the duplicate, non-treated suit, Rudy replies that although Finn had a lot of Internet enemies, everyone who worked on the show loved him. After Rudy leaves, Clive suggest they bring in Finn’s costars. Where there’s an empire, there’s money. Where there’s money, there’s people who want it. Back at the morgue, Liv cooks up some grilled brain.

Blaine (looking a little worse for wear) snoops on Don E (Bryce Hodgson) as he unloads his Bangladeshi brains. Inside The Scratching Post, Don E comments to Angus (Robert Knepper) that they have regulars now: some Fillmore-Graves soldiers. Angus, who didn’t know about the Fillmore-Graves/zombie connection, gets an idea.

At the precinct, Clive has brought in Finn’s three co-stars: Rooster (Teach Grant), AD (Kyle Rideout) and Bruise (Shane Leydon). They are all trashed and obnoxious after coming from Finn’s wake. Since Liv is rolling on prankster brain, she tells Clive she can calm the boys down, but just joins in on their antics. When Clive joins her, he gets down to business. They mention an incident between Finn and Kong, the cameraman, but can’t give any details due to a hefty non-disclosure agreement.

Baracus (Kurt Evans) films a campaign video and guess who happens to be the cameraman? Clive and Liv arrive to speak to Kong Hoshi (Nelson Wong). He refuses to talk to them about the incident with Finn, citing the NDA.

Blaine unloads a bunch of supplies in the basement of the funeral home, including ammunition.

At The Scratching Post, Don E shows Tanner (Nathan Barrett) a gift basket they received from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. When he goes to put it in his office, he finds Angus discussing business with other men. Angus shoos Don E away and Don E feels a little hurt. He overhears Angus planning a global expansion of their enterprise before he leaves.

While Ravi and Liv watch “Stunted Growth” episodes, Liv has a vision of Rudy in tears and shouting at Finn and calling him a sick man. Liv thinks it was the tail end of one of Finn’s pranks and Rudy didn’t take it well.

So, Clive brings the three pranksters back in. They tell him and Liv that they weren’t there for that particular prank and Finn deleted all of the footage. AD hangs back and shows Clive and Liv the footage that does exist: Rudy walked in on Finn in bed with his girlfriend Stasha. Finn claims that nothing happened and it was just a prank, but Rudy is torn up.

Clive brings Rudy in and wonders how he and Finn were such good friends after everything Finn did to him on the show. Rudy shows him and Liv, through a practical demonstration, that he always wears a cup and he fakes his reactions for the camera. Rudy maintains his reaction in the video with his girlfriend (now wife) was all for show. He also manages to give them some information about the incident between Kong and Finn. Since he wasn’t there, he didn’t sign an NDA, but he heard about what happened. Kong’s son Lee tried to skateboard off of his roof into a pool and missed, ending up paralyzed. The rumor is that Finn gave Lee some pointers, and the show paid some serious money in a settlement with Kong’s family.

Down in the morgue, Ravi tells Liv that they’ve scored invites to the zombie-truthers meeting. Liv is excited and there’s a funny bit where Liv tries to do an English accent and Ravi tries an American accent. It’s even funnier when you consider that Rose McIver is from New Zealand and was playing an American trying to do an English accent. Acting!

When Liv gets home, she invites Justin over and he’s a little confused by her prank brain. She suggests that they hop on the same brain train so the date can go well (Remember when Lowell was rocking a gay brain? Not the best date material…). He agrees and is soon rocking like a prankster. Liv wants to take the night to the next level and the two end up in a park, drinking SuperMax and crushing the cans on their heads. They play that game where you throw oversized darts in the air and one lands in Justin’s chest. Liv straddles him to yank it out and the two share a kiss. Liv has a vision of Finn being interrupted mid-kiss by AD bringing him his scarecrow suit and a new flame retardant suit from Rudy.

At The Scratching Post, Don E and Tanner bring another shipment of brains in. Angus orders Don E to make him a drink, rather rudely. While he’s making it, Don E gets a call from Blaine. He’s surprised to learn that Blaine is alive. Blaine tells him that he knows about The Scratching Post and he’s coming for them. Don E tells Angus and Dino (Ryan Jefferson Booth) insists he killed Blaine. One shot in the gut, and one shot in the mouth (only half-true). Angus orders them to find Blaine, and kill him for good this time.

Clive and Liv arrive at Rudy’s house. He’s not home, but Stasha’s aunt Essi (Catherine Barroll) tells them they can take a look in Rudy’s workshop, where the props for the show get made. They find the can of flame-retardant. Liv tests it on her arm and it works. So much for that lead. Stasha (Kylee Bush) arrives to kick them out. On their way out, Aunt Essi brings out a fussing baby. It’s Stasha’s four-day-old son and his skin is dark. Clearly, Finn is the father.

Clive and Liv interrogate Rudy again and ask him why he stormed out of the delivery room after his son was born and hasn’t been home since. Rudy claims that Finn’s death has upset him, but Clive knows better. He tells Rudy that the video of Finn and Stasha was recorded thirty-nine weeks earlier. He theorizes that Rudy found out in the delivery room that Stasha lied to him and that led him to kill Finn. Rudy doesn’t deny it and in fact claims he did the world a favor.

At The Scratching Post, Angus has one of his cronies open the brain shipment. Like a Trojan horse, Blaine pops out of it, killing the two cronies and then turning the gun on his father. He shoots him in the side and chest. Angus tries to talk Blaine into sparing him so they can conquer the world together, but Blaine doesn’t fall for it. He makes Angus stand in a tub, which he fills with cement. He then brings Angus to the old McDonough family estate and hangs him above a well he used to visit as a child. He pontificates for a while before dropping him into the well.

Don E arrives at The Scratching Post to find Blaine in the office. Blaine offers to go into business with Don E again. Don E will run the bar and Blaine handle the brain business, using his father’s business plan to make tons of money. Don E agrees.

Justin DJ’s a party for the Fillmore-Graves soldiers and plays the traditional Irish song “Finnegan’s Wake,” which the boys surprisingly love. New CEO Chase Graves (Jason Dohring!) stops the music, proclaiming that Discovery Day is coming and they need to be prepared. He thinks the soldiers have gotten soft and lazy. When he learns that Justin took some Max Rager, he shoots him in the stomach. I don’t think Justin will be doing that again anytime soon…

Liv (with a spray tan and dark blonde wig) and Ravi go to the zombie truthers’ gathering. The Johns brothers are testing blood pressure to make sure everyone who enters are humans. Liv thinks she can pass the test if she gets some adrenaline going, but Ravi is skeptical. Harley (Andrew Caldwell) spots her, but can’t place her. Ravi manages to cover for Liv, sending her “home to “tend to the kids.” Ravi goes in alone, but what happens inside the meeting is going to be a story for next week.