iZombie – Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2

By: Emily Cross

Liv (Rose McIver), Peyton (Aly Michalka) and Ravi (Rahul Kohli) are watching TV coverage of the explosion when Major (Robert Buckley) and Justin (Tongayi Chirisa) enter. Liv is happy they’re both alive, but the boys aren’t doing too well. Natalie and most of the squad are dead. Liv brings Justin into her bedroom to tell him she slept with Chase. He’s mad, thinking she could have fought the brain, and leaves.

At The Scratching Post, most of the patrons are rolling on choreography brain and it’s very enjoyable. Blaine (David Anders) doesn’t seem amused. Dino (Ryan Jefferson Booth) tells Blaine and Don E (Bryce Hodgson) that the feds intercepted their shipment of Russian brains, and Tanner got grabbed.

As Liv and Ravi are sorting out body parts (presumably from the explosion), Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) tells them about Patrice being a possible suspect in the Katty Kupps case. Furthermore, she was on the flight from Paris to Seattle because she was bringing Chase Graves’ dog back. Clive thinks that Fillmore Graves could have something to do with the Aleutian flu. Liv knows that there’s always a shortage of brains at Fillmore Graves and a deadly virus outbreak would give them the brains they need. Ravi remembers a type of collar that emits citronella to stop your dog from barking, and theorizes the collar could have emitted the virus instead. Liv confirms that Chase’s dog wore one of these collars, as of last night, and also tells Clive and Ravi that she suspects Chase killed Katty.

Two women walk in their boring Seattle suburb, gossiping about the Fillmore Graves house and it’s recent explosion when they come across Zack (Aidan Kahn), who isn’t dead, but is separated from his lower half. He crawls down the street before being run over by a truck.

Back at Fillmore Graves, Blaine meets with Chase (Jason Dohring) to convince him to contract out Fillmore Graves’s brain procurement. Chase rejects him because Blaine’s brains and their side effects aren’t safe for the Fillmore-Graves soldiers. Chase is also banning his men from patronizing The Scratching Post, which will severely hurt Blaine’s business. As Blaine exits, Major enters, asking for a few minutes of Chase’s time. Major wants back in and asks to be made a zombie again. Chase tells him that D-Day is rapidly approaching and he shouldn’t want to be a zombie. Major insists and holds out his arm.

That night, Clive and Liv prepare to sneak into Chase’s new house to test the dog collar for Aleutian flu. Liv drinks some Max Rager and jumps the sizable fence, landing in the pool. Before she can test the collar, Chase comes out, obviously confused. Soon, Liv (in a robe) and Clive are sitting on Chase’s couch and he asks them to explain what they’re doing. They don’t beat around the bush and Liv tells him exactly why they’re there (he’s a suspect in the flu outbreak, Katty’s murder and the Tuttle-Reid murders). Since they have no evidence and can’t arrest him, they move to leave, but Liv’s clothes won’t be dry for another half hour.

The Scratching Post is empty, thanks to Chase’s recent edict. Blaine isn’t happy.

Ravi sits in on a meeting with Mayor Baracus (Kurt Evans), Peyton and Dr. Smith from the CDC (Eileen Pedde), who tells them that the virus is spreading rapidly and Seattle is looking at a death toll in the tens of thousands within a month. She suggests starting mass scale vaccinations immediately or the deaths will be even greater.

Liv, Clive and Ravi watch a news program in which Johnny Frost (Daran Norris) announces just that when Liv has a vision of Katty in the trunk of a car. Carey Gold (Anjali Jay) opened the trunk and seemed surprised to find Katty still alive. Liv and Clive theorize that Carey was trying to frame Chase by moving Katty to the dumpster behing the hotel and leave to go question her.

Carey is at Fillmore Graves to meet with Chase. He reminds her of Fillmore Graves’s Plan A (building Zombie Island and quietly moving zombies there) and accuses her of setting Plan B (the doomsday plan) into motion. He tells her that Clive and Liv think he used his dog to spread the Aleutian flu virus. He finds it odd because Carey got him the dog as a welcome home gift. He puts all the pieces together: Carey learned of an email Fred Tuttle sent Chase earlier in the year, warning him about a disloyal faction of Fillmore Graves employees. She killed Fred, his sister and nephew and blamed it on the zombie truthers. When Vivian wouldn’t execute Plan B, Carey killed her as well, hoping that Chase would put Plan B into motion. When Chase calls a security detail to take Carey away, they make it clear they are on her side. She explains that Zombie Island was never a viable solution. Some government would take the welcome opportunity to take out every zombie at once. Before they have a chance to take Chase outside and shoot him, he shoots them – saving Carey for last. Liv and Clive arrive in time to see Chase kill Carey and he explains everything. The Aleutian flu was Carey’s Pearl Harbor: strike first, strike hard. After confirming Carey was responsible for Anna and Wally’s deaths, Clive allows Chase to take care of the bodies.

Johnny Frost, clearly a little freaked by the outbreak, pushes past the many people waiting in line for the vaccination to get the shot live on air.

Clive enters the precinct to find Dale Bozzio (Jessica Harmon) sitting at his desk. She was the one who caught Tanner and Blaine’s Russian shipment. Once she brings Clive to the interrogation room where Tanner (Nathan Barrett) is she describes a number of connections to Major, Blaine and brains that feels awfully familiar to her (major props to Jess Harmon for killing it in this scene). Clive punches Tanner, triggering his full-on zombie mode, and tells Dale that zombies exist. If she lets Tanner go, he will tell her everything.

Down in the morgue, Ravi tells Liv that he found two vials of tainted utopium among Katty’s things. It’s not much, but it’s enough to make a little more of the cure. He allows Liv to press the release valve, and she has a vision of Katty ringing the doorbell at the Gold’s house. Katty then saw Patrice (Anisha Cheema) and Tatum (Ava Frye) eating brains so Patrice chased her outside and killed her.

So, Liv goes to the Gold house. No one answers her knocks and she sees Patrice in a tanning bed in the garage. Without disturbing Patrice, Liv reads messages on her phone from other zombie teenagers who seem to still be preparing for D-Day and all-you-can-eat brains. Since Liv’s phone is dead, she goes in the house and uses the landline to call Peyton to warn her. Liv thinks that somehow Carey’s Fillmore Graves contingent has tainted the vaccination. Peyton tells her where they are being kept, but before Liv can leave she runs into Tatum. Liv tells Tatum that she knows she is a zombie and she can help her. Tatum was scratched at the Fillmore Graves July 4th party and they were the ones extorting her dad. Liv pulls Tatum in for a hug, only for Patrice to hit Liv on the head. They know she’s on the humans’ side. All three zombies go into full-on zombie mode, but Liv easily knocks the two girls out (without killing them).

Liv then sneaks into the middle school where the viruses are being held, and sees Fillmore Graves soldiers infecting the Aleutian flu vaccine with zombie blood. In the midst of trying to sneak back out, she runs into Justin, who calls for backup. Liv gets away, but it’s clear that relationship is done for.

Clive and Dale are standing in line to get the vaccine, flirting it up, when Clive gets a call from Liv. The reception is bad, so he steps outside. Liv tells Clive not to get the vaccine, because the zombie blood will turn him into a zombie. Clive runs back inside to warn Dale, but he’s too late. She’s already taken the vaccine.

Liv visits Johnny Frost, who is now sporting a white streak in his hair and feels a hunger for brains. Liv fills him in on his new zombie status, and gives him a brain tube. When the broadcast goes back on the air, Johnny informs the public that everyone who has gotten the vaccine is now a zombie.

Discovery Day is here, ladies and gentlemen, and people aren’t taking it lightly. Riots begin with people clamoring for guns and ammo.

Back at the station, Fillmore Graves soldiers led by Chase bust in. Chase has a video that he wants run on air where he explains Fillmore Graves’s role in the new world order. As the video plays, Clive cares for a newly zombie-fied Dale, Tatum and Patrice are visited by Fillmore Graves soldiers and re-zombie-fied Major carries out Chase’s orders: scratching people affected with the Aleutian flu. Chase also explains how zombies will remain in brains. All across America willing donors will supply brains upon their deaths. Fillmore Graves will then distribute those brains in tube form to Seattle’s zombies. This is also a promise to the rest of America: keep supplying Seattle with brains and zombies will stay in Seattle. At one of the distribution points, Don E offers samples of pure brains, regular and blue, to some zombies, giving them his business card. Soon The Scratching Post is filled with zombies clamoring for the good stuff, and Blaine is happy.

Back at the distribution point Major and Justin defend against some angry humans while Chase (in voiceover) hopes that zombies and humans can live in harmony.

Mayor Baracus is reading a book to some schoolchildren when Peyton, standing nearby, gets a call where she presumably learns about D-Day. She tells Baracus and he continues with his reading.

Back at the station, Liv confronts Chase about his plan. She’s not happy, but he reiterates that this wasn’t his choice. He couldn’t just let everyone with the Aleutian flu die. Chase also comments that he likes Liv’s non-zombie look, which is enough incentive for her to ditch it altogether.

Liv goes back to the morgue to check on Ravi who hasn’t taken a break. He’s been working on is a vaccine for zombie-ism, something he’s been tinkering with since he told the zombie truthers about it. It looks like a sugar cube and Ravi eats it. Liv wonders how he will test if it works and Ravi’s look answers her question. She doesn’t want to be responsible for turning him into a zombie if it doesn’t work, but he convinces her otherwise. After they reminisce on how this all started, Liv scratches Ravi and we fade to black. Over black, Ravi groans in a stereotypically zombie way and Liv asks him to not be a dick. Guess we’re going to have to wait until 2018 to see if Ravi becomes a zombie!