iZombie, S1 E3- The Exterminator

If there’s one thing Liv should have learned in this episode of iZombie, it’s: don’t eat the brains of a hit man/criminal.

“Am I even more of a zombie now that I feel no feels?”

Well okay, so a zombie girl’s gotta get her brain fix. But not only does she have a numbness for feelings (which comes in handy in seeing Major move on; not so much with her fight with Peyton), she also can spout off random useless facts that should land her a spot on a game show.

Interesting fact about “the case of the week”: it’s not even a proper case at first. Courtesy of a vision on Liv’s end and her practically forcing Clive to drop his case and help her catch the correct proprietor in charge.

I’m going to be completely honest here. The murder of the week didn’t really do it for me. It’s not that it wasn’t compelling, in fact the end result of the case had me jumping for joy and yelling at the TV, “Yes, you got the bad guy!” like I was watching Dora catch Swiper.

What really intrigued me throughout this episode was the heaps amount of zombie mythology and “Livton” screen-time we got (as captain (and most likely only occupant) of the Peyton and Liv ship, I will cherish every scene we get of their friendship). Let’s start with the zombie lore.

To kill a dear old friend or not? That’s the question.

Two teenagers act all cool and totally not scared in this abandoned building. Little do they know that they’re actually going to get scared (typical). They find trapped in a man made hole (closed off drain perhaps?) a zombie! A snap there and a post on every social media possible has Ravi’s ‘Seattle zombie’ Google alert in a frenzy. No Liv it’s not you. After investigating what lies within the hole, Liv realizes it’s her old friend from her medical residency, Marcy. Yeah, she’s not looking to good. Ever the scientist, Ravi throws a brain down there in hopes she’ll magically be cured of “full on zombie mode” 24/7. Once a day goes by, no progress has been made. The result: Liv plucks up the courage to kill her.

So what we’ve learned with this is that once a zombie reaches a certain threshold of not being supplied brain, in iZombie world they stay in ‘full on zombie mode’. Or how we most commonly see zombies portrayed in various books, films, and TV shows. Even though I don’t know if Blaine knows this information or not, it sheds some light on why recently he’s killing people so much. Dude’s gotta get his brain; not every zombie has a job like Liv.

Liv’s smug face is adorable.

I also adored seeing more of Liv and the relationship with her friends (I say friends because we unfortunately haven’t seen any family members since the pilot). Acting primarily as a cold, anti-social psychopath through most of this, it was jarring to see when Liv was being her normal self with both Peyton and Major to the brain effected Liv. As Peyton is showing Liv a Facebook video of Major with some girl (“I only saw it because she tagged him and he liked it. Which I didn’t realize would sound so sexual.” Comedy gold), she’s supposed to be feeling a least a little hurt…nothing but numbness. Of course once the psycho brain wears off she feels the exact emotion over Major’s new relationship as she thought she would: sadness.

What did you zombies (is that our fandom name?) think of 1.03: “The Exterminator”?

And I’m sorry that this recap/review is kind of all over the place, even though it’s newly spring, I’ve found myself with a horrible case (say case again in this post, why don’t you) of sickness. Liv, you’re already dead. Take my cough and sore throat off my hands please. Also, I have yet to figure out a more organized approach for this show. Anyone have any suggestions or certain aspects of the show you’d like me to tackle each week? Let me know in the comments.

Next week it’s 1.04: “Liv and Let Clive” (oh the puns!) which airs Tuesday at 9/8c. The trailer can be viewed below.

It appears in next week’s episode we see a different side of Clive. Uh-oh.