After the cliffhanger that ended last week's episode, this week's instalment of iZombie, "Chivalry Is Dead", was a bit of an anti-climactic one. Whilst Liv on LARPer brain was amusing, it felt like an unwelcome distraction from the more serious issues at play, and the massive cliffhanger from last week's episode felt brushed under the rug, rather than truly explored.
We left off last week's episode with Peyton discovering Liv making one of her fake ID's for the Zombie underground railroad. Pretty big revelation no? So I was kind of hoping that this episode would devote a lot of time to that, since you know, it's a pretty big thing to discover that your best friend has become the new leader of a secret, illegal movement. But it felt like the entire thing was brushed under the rug.
We get a short conversation between them at the top of the episode, where Peyton wants to join the railroad (an idea which is categorically shut down by Liv) and then she appears later on, having stolen money for the railroad, and Liv is suddenly fine with her being there. It felt like there was a whole chunk missing from this storyline. I wanted more conflict - it felt like everything was too easily resolved. Peyton just found out that her friend has this whole new secret life - surely she's bound to have feelings about that. It was a missed opportunity not to explore Peyton's reactions more.
As far as the murder of the week, I'd say it's one of the weaker ones that iZombie has had thus far this season. Sure Rose McIver was brilliant as always, speaking in her Ye Olde English accent, but I felt like there was no reason why the brain should have made her do that? I don't know much about LARPing, but I'm pretty sure they don't go around in character all the time. The murder subplot this week didn't really seem to add anything and I do wonder whether they could have done without it. iZombie proved not two episodes ago, that they can do an episode without a murder and pull it off really well, and there was more than enough that could have been mined from the Peyton and Blaine storylines this week that the LARP murder, whilst fun, wasn't totally necessary.
All the murder of the week case seemed to achieve was some rather clunky parallels to the situation with Clive and Bozzio (the murder victim was sleeping with his murderer's wife, because she was a human and her husband was a zombie) and even then, that subplot wasn't furthered. They either need to break Clive and Bozzio up, or make them have a frank, honest, conversation about their relationship, instead of what what they currently have, where they seem to retread the same ground over and over again. It's getting kind of old, both for them, and for us!
I was a little sad that Ravi didn't have all that much to do this week, but seeing him dressed up in full knight armour trying to impress Peyton and all of his geeky little reactions to Liv's brain, shows that you do not need to give Rahul Kohli much to work with for him still to produce shining moments in an episode!
Blaine and his father's story this week culminated in honestly one of the most disturbing sequences of iZombie yet, as Brother Love and his congregation attack a prison transport bus, eating people's brains while they are still alive whilst cheery music plays in the background. This ultimately ends fruitlessly as the money Blaine had been after was taken by Peyton.
However, after a largely uneven episode, iZombie does seem to redeem itself in its last few minutes, as Isabelle, the girl who Liv was making an ID for last episode, is finally rescued, and is all ready to become a zombie, when Liv scratches her.....and NOTHING HAPPENS. Honestly, the last five minutes of this episode was more interesting than the rest of it. I'm intrigued to see what this means, whether the girl is immune to the virus (and therefore could be a game changer for finding a cure), if she's potentially already a zombie, or perhaps that Liv's scratches are becoming less potent? Whatever the case, I am excited to find out!
iZombie is available to watch on Netflix, with new episodes arriving weekly.
