iZombie – Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be

By: Jamie Steinberg

We join this week of “iZombie” at Pacific West University’s student radio station. There are two candidates running for the Student Senate and they are about to take questions. Frat bro Brody (Justin Prentice) hogs the conversation with his idiocy while post-debate feminist Bailey (Hailey Marie Norman) claims not to have gone for the jugular because she is a pacifist.

Waking up on the sofa, we find Major (Robert Buckley) with a white streak in the front of his hair. Ravi (Rahul Kohli) recaps the events of the night before (finding out he was the Chaos Killer and tranquilizing him). Major tries to explain that he hasn’t killed anyone and that they are just frozen. He also confesses the role Max Rager plays in his after-hours activities (identifying potential zombies from their purchases and send him in to handle them). Ravi wants to know if Major ever considered turning down Max Rager’s mission and, of course, learns that Liv (Rose McIver) would be at risk if he had nixed this. Major confesses to naively thinking that by convincing Max Rager he was killing the zombies, but simply just freezing them that Ravi would be able to come up with a cure that would lead to happy campers all around.

The best buds head over to the morgue to get Major a meal and discuss how close Ravi is to finding a cure. Ravi explains he has had success; however, Blaine (David Anders) took it upon himself to take the cure only to mixed results: he’s human again, but has amnesia.

At the funeral home, Blaine is questioning Don E. about his new job assignment. He doesn’t understand the secrecy and why he can’t recall previous customers. Don E. can only respond, “Fake it until you make it.” Blaine also wants to know what is happening on the lower levels, but Don E. is not interested.

Back at the university, a couple sneaks into the pool for some smooching only to find a dead Bailey floating in the water.

Liv shows up to the morgue and downloads Ravi on her visit to Mr. Boss’ office where she had tried to get some information on MIA Drake (Gregg Finley). Ravi confesses that Major has returned to zombie mode and reassures Liv this was her only way to save his life. Liv gets a text from Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) about Bailey’s body. Bailey’s buddy from the debate believes Brody is the murderer because he was her Student Senate opponent. Plus, the girls had discovered Brody had someone take his SAT’s for him and was blackmailing him to drop out of the race. Bailey’s friend says she was overachieving and hyper-focused, reminding Liv of who she used to be. It also makes her wonder if Ravi would have been friends with former Liv as well, earning the retort, “Definitely! Like me for my antidotes. Love me for my anecdotes.”

Clive and Liv head over to the frat house to speak to Brody. They ask him about Bailey’s murder and about his SAT issue. Brody says that he isn’t the killer because Bailey never planned to push the SAT issue because they had dirt on her, too. Brody’s campaign manager explains someone recently caught her selling Adderall, but the school pulled some strings to get the charges dropped since she was their golden girl.

In a zombie holding cell at Max Rager, Gilda (Leanne Lapp) has a heart to heart with papa Vaughn Du Clark (Steven Weber). He won’t let her out because she is “a threat to human existence, but more importantly me.” He says she should think of this as rest and relaxation while they try to figure out a cure.

Liv heads to the police station to look for Detective Vega, but finds Detective Benedetto instead (Enrico Colantoni). She wonders if it would help to know that Drake was last seen getting into a car with Stacey Boss. Clive comes over to ask about Bailey’s drug dalliance and he says that he scared her straight and set her free. Liv gets a vision of the very conversation they had and explains to Clive that the detective was more than just scaring her – he threatened her future. Clive gets a call from the university’s newspaper asking if Brody is their leading subject, but hangs up on them. In the meantime, Liv has gone through Bailey’s student records and Clive points out a charge on the day she died. Heading over to the school, Clive spies a student newspaper that claims he confirmed Brody as a suspect and that unnamed sources in the police department classify him as a lone wolf with a preoccupation of police work. They also learn that it was Brody who used Bailey’s meal card at the Student Union. Noticing Liv’s odder than usual behavior, she confesses to her relationship with Drake – an undercover cop. Clive says that she should hold out hope because when he was undercover he disappeared for months at a time. Interrupting their chat, a student comes over to explain he knows who killed Bailey – it was Benadetto.

The student explains that Benedetto caught him buying drugs and forced him to do six drug buys while wearing a wire to expunge his record. He saw Bailey popping Adderall one day before class and bought some pills off of her, which was how she was arrested. The student is sure that Benadetto would have given her the same deal so he told the detective he wanted out of their agreement, which only got him a death threat from the detective.

Liv and Clive track down Benedetto to see if he has a court order for those wired drug buys. Benedetto says that he’s not worried about study drugs, but it is Lucky-U that he is after. He says that they caught a dealer last month that they believed was higher up the food chain, but when they offered him a deal to rollover on his boss the guy is a no-go, fearing for his life. When they push the baddie a bit more, he says he can’t because he works for zombies.

Peyton (AJ Michalka) goes to the funeral home to confront Blaine for ruining her case against Boss. She knows his true mission to get rid of the competition in order to be Seattle’s new drug kingpin. Blaine feigns ignorance as his amnesia has blocked out Boss. Once Peyton is gone, Blaine goes downstairs to speak with Donnie to figure out what is really happening. Donnie teases Blaine about losing his short-term memory in hopes of putting him off.

Benadetto show sup to Liv’s home where he explains Bailey was actually working for him. Bailey did have the six drug deal gig, but he didn’t want to talk in front of Clive because of his reputation and wanting to keep his program private. Liv confesses their lead is Brody, but Benadetto asks to be kept in the loop.

Bozzio (Jessica Harmon) and Clive talk about him joining the FBI when Blaine shows up at the precinct. He’s looking for the morgue, but can’t place Clive when he receives a snarky remark from the police officer. Down in the morgue, Ravi runs some tests on Blaine because of his memory loss. Clive thinks Blaine is faking and suggests Ravi keep an eye on him. Based on this interaction, Blaine is unsure why everyone seems to be so negative around him. Ravi goes down the list of Blaine’s transgressions, which shocks him as he thought the worst part of this would be forgetting the people who loved him yet it seems no one actually did. As Blaine heads out, Major walks in. The two discuss the consequences of taking the cure, which now Major is opposed to finding because if he can’t remember his loved ones then what is the point of living? Ravi suggests that they need a talking rat to help find out if amnesia is a real side effect or if Blaine is busting their chops, which sparks an idea in Major. Major says he can scratch Vaughn, give him the cure and if he doesn’t lose his memory than they’ll know that Blaine was playing possum.

At home, Peyton finds Liv organizing and taking inventory. Peyton makes a joke about Liv being the life of the party, which triggers a vision. Bailey wanted to buy a boatload of Lucky-U from the snack shop clerk on campus that told them about Brody using the meal card. She heads to Clive where she confesses to meeting with Benedetto and the two head over to see the Student Union snack shop clerk, Steve Wolf. We also find Benedetto breaking his door down and threatening him because he knows Bailey came looking for him the night she died. He figures she knew he was the guy to get drugs from so she set up a buy and found the wire she was wearing since he had known where to look for it. Benedetto explains the money Steve stole from Bailey were marked bills. Steve explains the money is hidden in a cookie jar in the kitchen. When Benedetto heads to get it he gets punched by one of Blaine’s former lackeys (now ordered around by Don E.). With Benedetto passed out, the lackey turns around and snaps Steve’s neck.

Benedetto explains that Bailey was his informant afterall and that another CI told him that they had seen her with Steve. He shares that Steve had helped him make a love of Utopia busts – so many that he wondered if he was being double crossed. He came over to confront Steve, but at the same time Bailey was being set up and that Steve used her undercover wire to strangle her. Clive bashes Benedetto for his unauthorized CI program, but Benedetto claims it saves lives. Clive lets him know that Internal Affairs will take it from there.

At the precinct, Bozzio smiles seeing Clive has filled out his FBI application when a fellow officer lets her know someone is waiting to talk to the person in charge of the Chaos Killer case. A woman speaks with her and says she thinks she knows the identity of the Choas Killer because she knows the dog from the newspaper article on the incidents. She explains she worked for a dog groomer where someone brought in the pup, but was picked up before the guy could be groomed. She says the dog was found on the bus the same day the guy picked up the pooch and that guy was Major Lillywhite.

In Vaughn’s office, Major says he is ready to train when their chat gets interrupted by Vaughn’s assistant. Vaughn says they have to delay their training, but they are off to Tacoma instead. Major says he’s off to put his bag in his car when the FBI busts through and Bozzio puts the cuffs on him.