iZombie – He Blinded Me With Science

By: Jamie Steinberg

He Blinded Me…With Science is the latest episode in our “iZombie” Liv Moore adventures. A scientist, Dr. Cash, is murder and it is up to Liv and Clive to uncover the killer. We begin though with Blaine (David Anders) looking disheveled (to put it mildly) on a bus – starring at a fellow passenger’s skull. Clearly, our buddy Blaine is back to his old zombie form. Yikes! A jazzy version of “Reflex” by Duran Duran begins to play, Blaine remarks that he is “hungry like the wolf” – lyrics to another Duran Duran song.

Meanwhile in the morgue, Liv (Rose McIver) is recapping her run-in with Rita. She explains that she found out Rita/Gilda had been sleeping with Major and there was a confrontation that ended with Liv getting a punch in. Rather than getting more gossip, Ravi (Rahul Kohli) pushes Liv into focusing on their current corpse (the scientist). Babineuax (Malcom Goodwin) arrives to talk about the case. He explains the scientist was being sued by a woman who had a bad reaction to the makeup that the doctor created. Liv thinks the murder might be a revenge plot and heads off with Clive to do some investigating. Upon their departure, Blaine arrives to Ravi’s dismay. Clearly, “the cure” isn’t a cure-all and Blaine is back begging for brains.

Annie (Ali Liebert), our makeup victim, explains that thanks to modern medicine and some plastic surgery she’s back to her old self. She, therefore, has no motive to kill the scientist at fault. She was also working that night. Back to square one…

Major (Robert Buckley) arrives to Max Rager and meets with Vaughn Du Clark (Steven Weber) who is all hyped up thanks to drinking his new product. He has some new zombie names for Major, who is still confused why Rita (Lianne Lapp) was spending time as Liv’s roommate. He wonders if Rita seducing him was part of the spy game, but Vaughn was unaware. Rita brings in Major’s new list and digs at Major’s expense for fessing up about their affair.

At Blaine’s funeral business, he explains to his henchmen that Mr. Boss (Eddie Jemison) hinks he is a dead so they’ll shut down for now and lay low. Over at the police station, Clive meets up with Dale (Jessica Harmon) who has found out that Blaine’s father had a cabin in Whistler where they found brains. Clive is doubtful they will be a good lead because of Sazuki’s testing bovine. Dale phones a friend to prove Clive wrong about the new collection where they learn that Sazuki’s actually tested as human brains so someone must have changed the report they received.

At Liv’s house, Drake (Greg Finley) comes over to pick her up for a date. Liv suggests visiting the bar he works at “for scientific curiosity.” Clearly, this brain she’s on is at work. While at the bar, a patron named Molly wants to speak with Drake. Once whisked away, Liv explains that this probably means it was a good idea to slip a disposable phone under his car seat in order to track his moves.

Heading over to the morgue, Ravi talks about how their rat “New New Hope” didn’t survive their latest testing for a zombie cure. Thanks to her new scientific stimulation, she suggests some helpful tips that may aid in finding the right solution. Interrupting the medical minds, Clive says he has confirmed that Annie was at work during the time of the murder and that his next lead is the scientist who was working with the victim at the time. It turns out, the man is no longer in the pharmaceuticals business. Due to his lawsuit, he now works at a pirate themed restaurant. He reveals that he blames the scientist for his downfall, but he was at work at the time she was murdered. All conversation halts though when Liv gets a vision of Vaughn yelling at our victim.

The gumshoes go over to Max Rager to meet with Vaughn about the victim. Vaughn says that Dr. Cash was working on energy drinks for them. He explains that she had issues with her because she continually failed to meet deadlines, but he doesn’t murder people for that shortcoming. Vaughn invites them to come back in the future when they have a warrant. With a space open at the facility for a scientific research at Max Rager, Liv gets the idea to go to undercover as her former self to see what she can find out.

Major heads to the funeral home to meet up with Blaine. Major is freaked when he finds Blaine back in zombie form. Blaine riffs off some medical mumbo-jumbo thanks to a self sampling of Dr. Cash’s brain and bottom lines it for Major: He is probably going to end up a zombie. Major hoped they would have more time, but Blaine assures him they have their “best minds working on the cure.” With that, Blaine and Major get down to business – a new zombie for Major’s mission. Unfortunately, he chooses Drake. Wonder how this will play out for Liv losing another love interest…

At Max Rager, Liv meets with the scientists on Dr. Cash’s former associates for a job interview. They let it slip that there is a basement to the facility, but they don’t have access to it. Heading out of the lab, Rita spies Olivia heading to the elevator. Liv opens the control panel to see if she can locate the Basement button only to find a biometric system that requires fingerprints for access. I’m not exactly sure why Liv thought pressing her own hand to the system would gain her access, but she goes for it and it gets her in some hot water. An alarm sounds and just as she attempts to get off the elevator she is taken into custody by Max Rager security and Vaughn. She pretends that her visit to the facility is Babineaux approved, but they aren’t buying it. Vaughn explains that Liv met with scientists that didn’t work with Dr. Cash, which she already knew because she had found out that she worked in the basement. Vaughn tries pushing Liv’s interest aside by saying that all companies have a basement in order to work on their secret projects. Liv thinks that Dr. Cash could have died due to trade secrets issues, but Vaughn tells her it’s time to leave.

Back in her usual attire, Liv meets up with Babineaux at the precinct. Liv tries explaining her incident at Max Rager, but Clive isn’t interested. Liv wonders what the deal is with some Canadian lighter fluid used to kill Dr. Cash so the two head over to Annie’s home to get some answers. Startling Annie in her car, Liv suddenly gets a vision of a zombie. They ask Annie about the lighter fluid, but she claims to have no clue what they are talking about. They begin to arrest her when Annie’s sister, Jenny, comes outside and confesses. Jenny explains she killed Dr. Cash because their lives were put on hold because of Annie’s accident. Neither of them got to pursue their dreams because Annie was injured and she needed to care for her. She says it wasn’t because she made a mistake, but because Dr. Cash lied about it and never apologized for hurting her sister.

We return to the morgue where Liv and Ravi are talking about her vision. Liv says that Max Rager has a zombie in the basement that they are keeping captive. Again, Blaine interrupts looking for their new attempt at the cure created thanks to Liv’s scientific adjustments. Ravi hands over a sample “in case of emergency” because if Blaine dies than zombies would be on the loose with no where to go for brains. Liv gets an update on her cell with an unlisted location for Drake. It seems he is meeting with Dr. Boss who is explaining that he got rid of Blaine – “a minor former employee.” Drake recognizes the name, which catches him off guard. Outside of Dr. Boss’ business, we find an unhappy Liv spying. She’s found out who Drake really is and that’s got to hurt. Liv meets up with Ravi to discuss possible ways to confront Drake about her findings.

At the funeral home, Blaine’s henchmen don’t understand why they have to bury the brains. One of them doesn’t understand why being a good person doesn’t keep you from dying. Blaine explains there is no point to it, which is why he enjoys the scam they are pulling: selling caskets and keeping the corpse for their brains. Blaine explains that he is going to be picking out his own casket today, but he also could take Ravi’s new cure and see what happens. It seems the good guy brains he has just eaten have quickly taken effect because Blaine is now explaining his henchmen probably shouldn’t continue his business when he is gone. He also lifts a glass of wine to toast them, thanking them for their loyalty and faithful service. Creepy…

Back at Max Rager, we see Vaughn, Rita and a scientist watching a zombie on a treadmill. There is a slice of brain at the end of the treadmill and they are gaging how fast the zombie can go in attempt gain the goods. They explain that thanks to a new Max Rager product in their system those who drink it will have extra adrenaline. Rita explains there will be a greater number of complications thanks to this increase but Vaughn explains it is a win/win for them since someone will have to drink the product in order to take down those who have already had some and are experiencing side effects. Firing up a stun gun, Vaughn pokes at the zombie to see if it will make her speed up. The increase in adrenaline gets the zombie so strong that she breaks free of her confinement. She attacks the scientist and while Rita attempts to use the stun gun to tame the beast, she falls on an injured ankle. Vaughn is quickly trying to escape the area by catching the elevator while Rita yells, “Dad,” while looking at him to hold the doors for her. A cold hearted Vaughn lets the doors close and heads up to his office without his daughter. We hear a partially high-heeled Rita make her way over to his office. She screams, “Let me in,” but it falls on deaf ears. We are left wondering if Rita is now a zombie or if she survived.

We close the evening watching Blaine take the new cure, Liv drinking alone and Major taking down Drake.