iZombie – Return of the Dead Guy

By: Emily Cross

Mrs. Boss (Deborah Finkel) is on the phone, complaining about her lost nest egg, when Mr. Boss (Eddie Jemison) sneaks in. He goes into the basement and finds a hidden briefcase full of cash and diamonds.

Meanwhile, Major (Robert Buckley) takes a call while he’s in bed with Shawna (Sarah Jurgens). It’s Ravi (Rahul Kohli) letting Major know he’ll be in “London” to “attend his parent’s vow renewal.” Major promises to tell Liv before he hangs up. Of course, Ravi’s not going to London. He’s hanging out with the zombie truthers who are holding Don E (Bryce Hodgson) hostage at the gun range. Harley Johns (Andrew Caldwell) confiscates Ravi’s cell phone and Ravi checks out Don E, who is out cold. The truthers have a few webcams set up and are already livecasting. When Bo (James Pizzinato) suggests riling Don E up, Harley stops him. He wants more viewers to see the real-life zombie and wants to wait until the livestream has an audience of 100,000.

Liv (Rose McIver) reads a newspaper article on Baracus’ heroism when Peyton (Aly Michalka) enters the kitchen. They discuss the possibility of the first zombie mayor, the lack of shooting suspects and Liv’s love life. Liv and Justin haven’t done the deed and Liv is aching to have the apartment to herself so she can have Justin over. Peyton makes an offer: she’ll clear out any night that Liv wants as long as Liv eats James Weckler’s blue juice-soaked brain. It’s not Liv’s first choice for how to spend her day off, but she agrees. She whips up some scrambled eggs with blue brains.

At Shady Plots, Blaine (David Anders) does some business and realizes that Don E is missing. Tanner (Nathan Barrett) and Dino (Ryan Jefferson Booth) tell Blaine that Don E was rolling pretty hard on the blue brains. And he’s still rolling. Don E wakes up and is convinced he is still a World War II soldier that has been captured by Nazis.

Back at their apartment, Liv forces Peyton to wear a sexy catsuit (complete with ears) to try to trigger a dominatrix vision. Peyton is (unsurprisingly) good and triggers a vision easily. Liv confirms that Weckler killed Roxanne after she caught him stealing the camera memory card. When they continue the dominatrix roleplay, Liv is startled when she sees Drake (Greg Finley) sitting on their couch. Yeah, that Drake. Liv’s ex-boyfriend. The dead one. Liv puts the pieces together: Weckler felt guilty about the death of his ex-wife, just like Liv feels guilty about Drake’s death.

Major and Shawna get pizza delivered to their blanket fort. They realize they both went to the same stupidly-named camp (Camp Skookum) and bond. It’s a cute relationship, but one that is most certainly doomed.

Don E is coming out of his World War II funk just as Ravi checks on him. Don E recognizes him. After Ravi fills him in on what’s going on, he assures him that he will find a way to get them both out of there. Don E informs Ravi that they didn’t find his burner phone, but doesn’t get a chance to reveal where it is.

Liv is at the morgue, looking for some other brains she can consume to get away from ghost Drake. He manifests and she tries to wave him off, claiming she feels no guilt over his murder. She tells him that he is a sex fantasy and that’s the perfect time for Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) to walk in. Liv explains, but it doesn’t make Clive feel any better. When Peyton enters, asking if Liv wants to grab sushi, Liv has a vision. It’s interesting that we’re not privy to Liv’s vision this episode. I’m not sure why exactly, but it does give us a window into the perspective of the people around her and what it looks like to them when Liv has a vision. When she comes out of the vision, Liv tells Peyton and Clive that she was getting hanged, not hanging herself. Weckler was murdered, just like Peyton suspected. Even though Liv didn’t see the face of the man who killed Weckler, she’s pretty sure it was a guard.

Later, Clive and Liv speak to a prison guard, who claims he didn’t see a thing (he’s the fifth guard to claim this). Peyton joins them after the guard leaves to show them a call that Weckler made from jail to his daughter the day before his murder. Tatum, the daughter, asks Weckler if “they” made him do it. Peyton thinks the answers would be on Roxanne’s memory card. Liv leaves, making sure Peyton knows to not return home for a while.

Back at home, Liv and Justin (Tongayi Chirisa) get busy. Unfortunately, Liv is distracted by Drake’s ghost. She tells Justin about the hallucination and he is understandably disappointed.

Blaine answers the door at Shady Plots to find Mr. Boss, who shoots him in the stomach without giving him a chance to monologue (there’s gotta be a running count for how many times Blaine has been shot out there somewhere, right?). Candy (Carrie Anne Fleming) comes down, in full-on zombie mode, and then Blaine, also in full-on zombie mode (!!!), captures Mr. Boss from behind.

Liv stops by Major’s house to pick up Ravi’s supply closet key and encounters Shawna. Major arrives, making the situation more awkward than it already was, and gives Liv the key.

Later Liv is taking care of the rats and complaining to them about Major’s new bunk buddy when, once again, Clive overhears. He tells her that a prisoner is claiming he can identify the guard that killed Weckler. Of course, he wants a deal in exchange for his testimony. The prisoner in question? Mr. Jin (Tim Chiou) who tussled with Liv in Season One Episode Four “Liv and Let Clive” and saw her in full-on zombie mode. Peyton and Mr. Jin’s lawyer convince him to drop the “mutant” story and tells them what they need to know. Mr. Jin has a telescoping mirror so he could speak to the prisoners in the cells next to him and saw Gary Oberman murder Weckler through the mirror. Oberman hasn’t been on duty since that night and Liv and Major haven’t talked to him. So, they track him down to make a house call. Unfortunately, they arrive at his house to find a wake in honor of Mr. Oberman. They ask his widow, Mrs. Oberman (Chilton Crane), how he died. Apparently, he fell off of a cruise boat in the Mexican Riviera after having more than a few margaritas. She also tells them that Gary used to say that all of the prisoners were human garbage. Clive takes a call and fills Liv in on what he learned as the exit the wake. Tatum Weckler has been staying with the family of a friend since her father’s death. Clive and Liv head to the address.

Alone in the room, Ravi has to entertain Bo’s theory about how zombies came about. I’ll spare you the details, but it involves the Shah of Iran and couch potatoes. Ravi drugs Bo and wakes Don E up to find out where the burner phone is. Of course, it’s taped between his buttcheeks. Poor Ravi. When he reaches down there (ew), Don E is so hungry he tries to bite Ravi’s head off. Literally. Then, he remembers the phone is in his sock. Ravi retrieves it, but can’t remember Liv’s number off the top of his head. He rings Blaine, whose number is programmed into the phone, but gets his voicemail. This isn’t going very well…

Mr. Boss wakes up in a coffin, tied up. Blaine reveals his zombie nature to Mr. Boss, who doesn’t believe him (remember, this is the first Mr. Boss is hearing about zombies). Candy brings Blaine his phone because Don E won’t stop calling. Blaine answers and Ravi blurts out what is going on, just managing to get off the phone in time for the truthers to reenter the room. Blaine returns to his monologue and offers Mr. Boss a choice: be buried alive or stay alive and listen to Blaine’s business plan.

Back at the gun range, Harley enters with Rachel (Ella Cannon), the girl that Ravi flirted with at the meeting. She seems to be as apprehensive about the whole plan as Ravi is, but they both have to play it cool.

Blaine shows Mr. Boss the basement of Shady Plots and the brain business. Mr. Boss stabs Blaine in the neck with a brain instrument, but Blaine goes full-on zombie mode, evading death and staying calm. He explains that Mr. Boss’ international business connections will help their business get brains from abroad. Mr. Boss smartly accepts the offer.

Liv and Clive arrive at the home where Tatum Weckler (Ava Frye) is staying. When Tatum’s friend Patrice (Anisha Cheema) answers the door, they ask to speak to her. When Liv tells her that her dad didn’t kill himself, she lets them stay. She explains that the “they” she was referring to were Weckler’s hallucinations. After Clive and Liv leave, we learn that Tatum and Patrice are zombies of the Fillmore-Graves variety.

Liv is getting ready for a date with Justin, but Drake is still haunting her. She apologizes for pushing him out of her mind completely after his death by disappearing into all the brains she’s eaten. She didn’t want to face the grief of losing him. This admission helps them both heal and they say a proper goodbye: a nice makeout session. However, Peyton and Justin come home in the middle of it and is see Liv making out with thin air. Oh joy. Peyton makes her exit quickly and Liv explains to Justin that he shouldn’t be jealous as she leads him to her room.

That night, after all the shenanigans are over and Liv and Justin are asleep, she wakes to a knock on the door. It’s Blaine asking if Liv wants to go kick some ass.

At the gun range, the truthers are near to sleep waiting for the livestream to hit the requisite number of viewers. It’s getting close so the boys wake up and get riled up to torture Don E.

Liv and Blaine are out in the parking lot, trying to figure out a plan. Blaine burns Liv with the cigarette lighter, triggering her full-on zombie mode. She bangs his head against the dashboard to the same effect.

Inside, the livestream hits 100,000 viewers. Bo is the chosen one to go in to use a cattle prod to torture Don E. Ravi begs them to not go through with the torture, but they don’t listen. Harley raises a gun to Ravi’s head and counts down from five. The episode ends before he gets to one. How are we supposed to last a week not known Ravi’s fate?!