Alright, I'm sorry it took me so long to get this done, it was never my intention. I ended up getting some dental work that put me at a delay. I did however, get the advance preview posted for the episode and I mentioned there that I had a mediocre reaction to the follow up of the pilot. It's not that Brother, Can You Spare A Brain? was bad, it just kind of there. I only have the pilot to compare the episode to and coming off a rather good pilot, this was sort of lackluster. It's not that Rose McIver wasn't great (More on that later) or RaviOli was all sorts of adorable, it's just it kinda felt routine. To me, feeling so routine early on is not a positive. There were highs, there were lows, let's dive in below shall we?
This week's case centers on a popular artist, Javier Abano, who is found murdered in his home, impaled through the eye by a paintbrush. (It was pretty instantaneous, like pushing an off button if you ask Ravi.) At the crime scene, Clive thinks this one is in the bag, it's the wife, it's always the wife, though he was hoping Liv would get all psychic on him and expedite the process of, you know, actually working the case. (I wish Liv would have as well, since in the end it turns out Clive was right) At the morgue, Liv gets a vision after Ravi tells her to chill and check out a sex magazine, a vision that is a front row seat to Javier having an affair. Liv heads to Clive to tell him about her vision, and she lets him know in great detail (Fifty shades of Psychic as Clive calls it) what she saw. Clive decides this may be motive enough for the wife to murder Javier, and he takes Liv to visit Lola, (Judy Reyes) to see if she gives off any vibes. They arrive and Liv points out that woman Lola is hugging is Javier's butter skinned lover from the vision. Turns out the mistress, Tasha, is Lola's good friend and her favorite of all Javier's mistresses.
Yes, Lola knew about his mistresses, but it was a mutual thing, Lola accepted his fidelity because it was apart of his process and it's not like they have kids or anything. Liv is not paying much attention to Clive question Lola, because she's busy giving the eye to Tasha thanks to Javier's brian kickstarting her libido. The duo leave after they question Lola, and Ravi texts Clive that the killer must have been about 6'2 or 6'3. Though Tasha is short, Clive stands by his assumption that it's always the spouse. Later, Clive questions Javier's art dealer about his whereabouts the night of the murder, and while Mr. Artie Fiss lets on that he wasn't a fan of Javier's treatment of his wife, he maintained that he did not sleep with Lola or kill Javier and tells Clive to look at he boyfriend's of Javier's lovers. Conveniently enough Liv's next vision is of Tasha's boyfriend walking in on Javier and Tasha and not being as cool as Lola is with the whole mistress thing. She heads to Clive to tell him the news, and Clive already has a line up ready. Liv points out Tasha's ex thanks to his gleaming crystal eyes and mouth that looks like he just finished eating a peach, and his cerulean shirt. Clive takes him into the interrogation room and despite Liv's advances, he does give them a juicy bit of information, Javier had dumped Tasha for 18 year old Becca, who is Artie's daughter.
Liv, while on her vision quest, is confronted by Tasha's ex-boyfriend, Tito, who was rather turned on by her "Good Cop, Horny Cop" routine. Liv has another vision after seeing a painting of a sonogram, that reveals that Becca, Artie's daughter, was pregnant and that Javier knew. Liv escapes Tito by going "Full-Zombie" for a brief moment and escapes his clutches. She heads to Clive, who is busy confronting Artie, implying that he killed Artie to save himself from bankruptcy, or because he loved Lola. Artie remains unbothered until Liv accuses him of killing Javier because he got Becca pregnant. Artie denies her accusation, because Javier loved Becca like an uncle (Hey, that's accepted in some states) but Liv keeps drilling into him. Ravi notices from the other side of the room that based on where Liv was standing, someone of Liv's size and height could have killed Javier from that exact spot. Clive then confronts Lola once more, stating that she said Javier never wanted kids, but she never said if she did. Clive deduces that she must have found out that Javier was going to have a baby and family with Becca and killed him and then came to dinner, and that Artie had been covering for her. Clive mentions that Lola was about to give Artie up and Artie spills the beans resulting in Lola's arrest. Liv concedes to Clive that he was right, it's always the wife.
David Anders stole the whole show for me this week. I feel like if I just put that out there, maybe it will be understood why everything else paled in comparison. This week we found Liv searching for answers to the vision she had at the end of the pilot of someone running away from David Ander's zombiefied character about to be eaten. Liv has since scoured social media looking for survivors of the boat massacre and she has come out empty handed to any matching the zombie from her dreams. Ravi gets his friend, a sketch artist to see Liv, which doesn't work out so well. This week's brain residual allows Liv to create a sketch of her own which Ravi puts out there. Liv shows back up to work and there is David Anders character Blaine, waiting for her. He confronts Liv as to why she has been looking for him. The two bond over the hunger for brains, and how awful they taste, and about how they go about getting them. When they mention "Full-on Zombie" you see Blaine light up as if he enjoys it, but when he sees Liv's face he changes the subject. Ravi arrives and begins running some test on Blaine, who admits that he doesn't know how he became a zombie, and when Liv tells him that he was responsible for her change, he seems remorseful. Liv happens to have a vision and asks Blaine to leave, more like demands him to, because she doesn't trust him alone with Ravi.
Blaine then shows up at an apartment door belonging to his cougar hook up from the night before, now a zombie. Turns out, Blaine didn't eat her, just turned her, and he's willing to help her get brains and keep up appearances for 25k a month. (If Liv were to go into business as a brain dealer, girl would be set for life at that rate) ZomCougar is quick to call for checkbook as her desire for brains takes over.Later, Ravi wants to run some more tests on Blaine, and asks Liv if she maybe got his number and that he appreciated how protective she was of him. Liv is adamantly against this idea as she doesn't trust Blaine. As she shouldn't, we don't see any more of Blaine but the seeds have been planted and the setup was strong that Blaine has a plan that he plans on enacting.
"Liv: Why was I such a jerk? Major: Who knows? It was just one of the many things I accepted because you were super-hot"
Liv's libido kicked into overdrive this week, one of the residuals from eating Javier's brains, so I won't fault her for that really intense moment between her and Major this week. Let's back up, and start from earlier where Major shows up at Liv and Payton's apartment with some of her things and joke's how it's an excuse to see her.Cue the awkwardness as Major makes a joke about her "I left my heart in San Francisco shirt" and how it explains a lot and maybe they should road trip there. (Too Soon!) Thankfully, Payton arrives to break the mood and Major takes his cue to exit but not before Payton asks for the juicer they received in their engagement gifts. Liv suggests to Payton that Major shouldn't be just dropping by and Payton points out, the fact that it is hard for Liv having him drop by says a lot. Major returns to the apartment with the juicer and sees Liv working on a piece of art and listening some Chet Baker. Which shocks Major, who is of course a Jazz fan, who had tried to get Liv to listen to jazz for years, but she hated it. Liv ponders why she was such a jerk and Major jokingly replies, who knows? He offers to make her another CD, and Liv exclaims that she would love that and how amazing he is, and then kisses him on the cheek. (GULP!I hope Zombie isn't saliva transferrable)
"There were parts of me that were dead before I became a zombie, so maybe that means it's possible for parts of me to spring to life, even now that I'm dead."
The RaviOli time was kinda of short this week, but it was sweet, especially watching Liv get protective of him over Blaine. Ah yes, Blaine, how I loathe/love thee. (David Anders really plays a good villain..Alias, Heroes) I really like that the show didn't waste time introducing us to him. I thought we, like Liv, would be left in the dark and ponder his ambiguity as to whether he was good or bad, but thankfully we weren't and we got to see that Blaine is up to something. He enjoys being a zombie in a way that Liv doesn't and he likes going into "Full Zombie" mode. Honestly I'm relieved because this means that show plans on having a serialized arc of some sort, and with David Anders involved it's sure to be enjoyable. The problem here is that iZombie just had a really strong pilot, so it made the second episode feel a bit filler, but that doesn't mean Brother, Can You Spare A Brain? was bad, it was rather solid and had a lot for great character moments for Liv, it just felt a bit unbalanced. Blaine may feel that zombies are played out and a bit over-saturated, but I think iZombie is a fresh take on zombies and there's so much to explore, let's just hope we don't get stalled out on the case of the week stuff.B
The next iZombie, "The Exterminator" airs Tuesday March 31st at 9 EST on the CW.
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