iZombie – Thug Death

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

Things are looking bleak for the cranium-connoisseurs of Seattle.  In fact, they’re looking pretty dismal for every inhabitant of the city. Channels for brain-smuggling are drying up, as are the soda taps at every bodega in town. Tensions are high and we find ourselves privy to an exchange between a clandestine zombie patron and an anti-living dead convenience store clerk. In the background, we watch the bodega’s security footage depict the murder and subsequent consumption of a woman unfortunate enough to dent the fender of a zombie’s car. The zombie attack is ill-timed considering the rampant zombie hatred plaguing the city – and only serves to exacerbate the tension building across the city.

Soon after Liv (Rose McIver), in the morgue, is ruminating on the last available brain, the cerebral folds of a particularly violent Thumb Breaker Barnes. As she sautés the last of the former thug – she steps away from her food only to re-enter the room and bare witness to Ravi (Rahul Kohli) devouring the Thumb Breaker’s brain. Rough times ahead for Ravi. Elsewhere, Blaine (David Anders) is doing just fine. His brain smuggling business has enough inventory to last…for a bit, though he and Don E (Bryce Hodgson) are worried about zombie PR after the leaking of a certain zombie attack outside of a convenience store. The revelation of the tape has thrown a wrench in their relationship with the border patrol agents who helped facilitate their black-market business.

The news brings Blaine to the offices of Commander Major (Robert Buckley) where they discuss the ever-narrowing funnel of brains into the city. Without brains, the zombies they are, know and love will perish. Major and Blaine discuss how to improve zombie public opinion while Liv, Ravi, and Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) meet with Peyton (Aly Michalka) on how to solve the mysterious convenience store murder. The police business is punctuated with minor outbursts from a Thumb Breaker possessed Ravi, but the team makes it through. Upon their meeting adjourning, a pregnant Dale (Jessica Harmon) requests Clive locates her some chocolate – a task not easily accomplished in a city with sealed borders. Even so, the trip brings him to the fated convenience store where he, Liv, and Ravi go through security footage.

Major is experiencing occupational troubles of his own as he walks the line between enforcer and man with real emotions. Major has been tasked with reviewing applications for people to leave or enter the city – a Sophie’s Choice no matter how you slice it. Liv is doing the same with Peyton, reviewing an adolescent’s pleas for help. While Major rejects his pile of applicants, Liv’s bleeding-heart drives her to orchestrate another teen rescue – with Baron (Francis Capra) running point. While Liv is out to play, Ravi Skypes with a new CDC doctor by the name of Dr. Collier (Quinta Brunson) who is dangerously close to discovering the cure for zombies – though she doesn’t quite share the concerns Ravi has for children who host the cure.

Blaine’s business is taking a nosedive, so much so that he attempts to bribe the police department into expediting the search for the convenience store murder. Clive politely declines the $10,000 “reward,” but the team still manages to find a lead in the victim’s identity. Things keep crumbling in and out of Seattle, especially for the younger generation. Baron’s excursion outside of the city to bring a teenager within city limits becomes a four-person journey. Meanwhile, Dr. Collier is determined to tell the CDC about the Freylich’s brains – thereby putting a price on the heads of children with the condition and one Bix Cahill (Alex Parra) is about the learn about the violent death of his girlfriend at the hands of zombies. Unfortunately, things only get worse from here. Local bigot and business owner Dolly Durkins (Jennifer Irwin) is visited by an anti-zombie extremist who enlists as a suicide bomber attempting to wipe out some of the Filmore Graves team. The man straps himself into a vehicle, accompanied only by large barrels of explosives, and speeds towards the checkpoint while meeting defensive fire from the Filmore Graves crew. The explosion caused by the man results in multiple fatalities.

The police department lights up with calls about the FG Checkpoint, causing Clive and Liv to dismiss Alex in the midst of discussing his deceased girlfriend. Alex won’t be able to let this go so easily though and uses the “Track My Device” application attempting to find what’s left of his love, Lisa. Of course, where one string frays – other loose ends are tied up. Ravi, despite being hopped up on Thumb Breaker brains, manages to convince Dr. Collier to keep her Freylich’s discovery to herself. Baron and one of his three charges slip under the radar, while the younger two are caught without travel papers.

Growing tired of waiting for the police department to locate and publicly charge the zombie murderers for their crimes, Blaine capture the five Border Patrol agents who threatened to cease helping him as a result of the Zombies-Are-Killers snafu. Hopped up on an intellectual’s brains, Blaine threatens and extorts the Border Patrol agents into helping them. The consequences for refusing? Become food, or watch their loved ones become food. Here Blaine proves to have morally developed very little and Don-E has grown about as much as his hair has. This incident will surely come across not only the police department’s radar, but Commander Major’s as well.

Clive and Liv revisit the woods that they frequent when seeking the remains of victims past stumble upon sobbing Bix in the dead of night. His amateur sleuthing skills brought him between the trees where he found Lisa’s phone and jacket – a sure sign of her untimely demise. Liv and Clive are shaken by the discovery though certainly not surprised.