iZombie, S2 E1- Grumpy Old Liv

Previously on iZombie: Blaine’s treasured brain restaurant, Meat Cute, was destroyed thanks to Major bombing the place (and killing every inhabited zombie). Bad news: Evan accidentally got caught in the bomb explosion and was last seen in serious need of a blood transfusion from Liv. Liv, being a zombie, couldn’t exactly help her brother out. Awkward.

Everybody Hates Liv.

It’s been three months since the Meat Cute explosion as the second season premiere unfolds. Poor Evan is still in bad shape, as Liv tries to visit him at the hospital. Tries is apparent because neither Evan or Mama Moore want to see her. Since Liv didn’t partake in donating blood, Liv’s Mom assumes she must be doing drugs or the like. No, more like she’s a zombie. Fortunately, one of the doctors was a match for Evan. Unfortunately, Liv is still on their ‘dislike’ list by the end of the episode. I wanna say they’ll come around, but I feel that would require Liv to spill the zombie beans.

The “case/brain of the episode” is the death of a much-hated elderly man, Wendell Gordon Gale. Once having eaten his brain, Liv is your stereotypical cranky old man. She’s yelling at teenagers as they bump into her, nap times are crucial, and the majority of the time being a tad inappropriate. For instance, telling Clive he’s “one of the good ones.” “I’m just going to be somewhere and forget that you just said that,” Clive responds. Wendell wasn’t exactly the friendliest man on the block. Throughout the episode, we’re introduced to two known frenemies of the elderly man. One being his sister-in-law, who thanks to him can’t sell her house because of the pigsty that is his house. The other is hipster Bryon; a seemly nice guy that, like most, can’t stand Wendell’s antics. He also has the cutest dog, which I will get into an a second (the pup is key).

“Yeah, no one’s going to buy this car now.”

For simplicity reasons (since so much occurred in regards to Major and the rest of Liv’s family/friends), I’m going to quickly recap the “whodunit” to unlovable Wendell.

Remember how the dog was important? Well, turns out grouchy man Wendell was not a fan of yappy dogs or more particularly Byron’s. Wendell even went so far as to threaten the poor dog’s life. His annoyance with the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel led to it being dog-napped! Of course, Wendell would never ‘fess up to it, so when Byron went to confront him, he completely denied the fact that he currently had the pup stashed away in his house. Frustrated beyond belief, Byron kicks the car under which Wendell was working. From the force of the kick, the car collapses on top of him. When Byron tells this story to Liv, Clive, and police company, it’s apparent that he’s doing jail time.

Don’t worry folks, the dog was not forgotten in Rob Thomas’ mind. He explained via social media, that the dog will go to his parents until he’s released. Phew.

By the end of the season premiere of iZombie, it became clear that not everyone was on “Team Liv”. Some, like Major and Peyton, needed some space after the zombie bomb dropped. For your convenience, I’ve composed a list of each family/friend member of Liv’s and where their current relationship stands after “Grumpy Old Liv”.

• Peyton Charles: M.I.A. Can probably be seen traveling around the country, avoiding zombies as much as possible. But don’t worry, she’ll be back. Hopefully to kick Vaughn Du Clark’s assistant out of her room/apartment.
• Moore Family (Evan and Eva Moore): Mentioned above. Not a Liv fan at the moment.
• Ravi Chakrabarti: I honestly can not imagine any situation/scenario that would cause Ravi to hate Liv.
• Clive Babineaux: Clive has yet to even have a mere hunch about his psychic sidekick. All in due time, Clive.
• 

  Human!Blaine seems more serious.

  Blaine DeBeers: When we last left Blaine, he was just coming to terms with his new human state. Gone were his zombie lackeys (thanks Major) and thriving business. So what’s a human!Blaine to do? Create a fresh new life for himself. DeBeers is still a successful business owner; this time it’s a funeral home. Hey, at least if needed, he has brains at the ready. Currently, Blaine and Liv still don’t see eye to eye, but who knows where this season is going to take us. Come the end of season two, could we have a Blaine/Liv friendship?

• Major Lilywhite: Major and his current career was easily the most talked about in the premiere. Over the past few months, he has accomplished two things. 1) He’s a champion at avoiding Liv’s texts and phone calls and 2) He has a new job as a personal trainer. Wait, scratch that. After some serious blackmail on Max Rager’s Vaughn Du Clark’s part, Major forcibly has a new job at hand: zombie slayer. Using his freaky new zombie detecting skills (a skill that both Major and Blaine possess), he’s forced to kill any zombie that comes in his path or Liv’s the first zombie to go in Vaughn’s killing spree.

What did you think of 2.01: “Grumpy Old Liv”?*

Catch new iZombie episodes Tuesdays at 9/8c on the CW.

Next zombie brain’s bro-tastic.

*Note: I apologize for the late-ness of this recap. Future iZombie recaps/reviews will be posted in a more timely manner.