iZombie - Brother, Can You Spare A Brain? - Review

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?

"So, if it's always the spouse, maybe it's wife number two that's the tall one?"
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.

Armed with this information, Clive looks into Artie and Lola's alibi for the night of the murder.He shows up at the morgue and invites Liv to the posthumous art showing of Javier's work at the loft set for that night, hoping she might pick up on something. He informs RaviOli that Artie left and went to an ATM and did an attempted withdrawal at an ATM right down the street from the Javier's loft at 6:45 pm, close to Javier's time of death. Ravi, the sly devil, catches that Clive said attempted withdrawal and Clive explains that Artie is broke. Liv wants to know why Lola was covering for Artie and Clive mentions he is going to ask her just that at the art show in loft, which Ravi invites himself to. (In case they need help with the art, open bar or models) Turns out that dying is the best thing an artist can do for his broke ass art dealer as the prices of all the paintings have gone up with Javier's death. (#RaviOliMoment of the night: Ravi asks Liv how her visions work and she admits that she just walks around until one just kinds of happens,and he quips about her being on a quest for visions, a vision quest) Clive confronts Lola about why she didn't mention Artie's disappearance at dinner and she plays coys about how it wasn't worth mentioning.

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.

"I saw a kid eating a Peanut Butter Cup last week, I almost cried. I miss food so much"
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.

We get to see Blaine work his mojo on a gorgeous older lady who later ends up on the receiving end of his "Rage Mode". He comes to see Liv the next day and explains that he wasn't going to eat Ravi. He tries to appeal to Liv, who rightfully doesn't trust him, by telling her that he has cut off all the poisonous people from his life and that he's no longer a dealer. Then he proceeds to ask Liv to be his dealer, his brain dealer. Liv, agrees and suggest they meet later for the handoff. While waiting, two of his former dealers co-workers roll up, because their boss, Blaine's former boss, requests his presence. He tries to set up a meet for later, and an Ill-timed slip of an address leads to a misconceived moment from Liv, who is walking up with his brain. She runs off, and misses the part where Blaine gets in the car with the two stooges, prattles on about running the city before going "Rage Mode' on them.

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)

Later, Liv is reflecting on the fact that she doesn't want the residuals from Javier's brain to leave because she likes the feeling he gave her, the passion, the wanting to create and make love to beauty. She is riding the high and contemplating on what she was going to leave behind when she does die(For good I assume), and how all that matters is beauty and love. The heart wants what it wants and her heart wants Major. She shows up at his door, using the mix CD as an excuse and asks him to sit with her on the couch. She coaxes him over to her and admits that she can't take not being close to him and kisses him. Major explodes on her, and tells her go, and that he waited for so long for her to give him something and she didn't, so now she needed to leave. Liv's voiceover reveals that it is residuals of eating Javier's passionate brain that caused her to act on her passions, but she knows she can't act on them in the future.

"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."

Overall Thoughts: Like I said in my preview, I was not the biggest fan of this episode. I felt the case of the week was really uneventful and just kind of filler. Though, upon rewatch maybe that was point, maybe it was a meta attempt to call out procedurals for their cut and dry formula by using Clive's "It's always the spouse" motto. Choosing to look at it that way brings a whole new outlook on the case and while it surely wasn't original, if viewed as tongue-in-cheek commentary it's actually passable. The case did present us with a chance to watch Liv do some pretty hilarious things, like hit on both Tito and Tasha. Rose McIver really shined this week taking on the aspects of Javier's personality. I had rewind to watch the seriousness on her face as she describes both Tasha and Tito in their respective moments of discovery. I also liked how they found something for Liv to live for in dealing with Javiers case. Sure, this may become tiring at some point, but it's a great way to give Liv some character growth relating the brain to her outlook on life. I was glad that Javier's brain pushed Liv to admit her feelings to Major, because it gave Major a chance to express himself and he side of the story of how he has truly felt over the last six months. Liv, in his eyes because he doesn't know the truth, was selfish and she needs to know that. I do hope(and can confirm) Major will have more to do than act as cardboard cut out love interest so I look forward to that. For a moment it looked Liv was able to control her "Full Zombie" mode so I do hope we touch on that again.

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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So, What did you think of the episode? What do you think Blaine is up to? Do you think Major was right to kick Liv out, after showing up twice just to see her? Do you think the case of the week was meant to be viewed as satire or not? Are you loving #RaviOli? Are you still watching iZombie, or is it dropped? Sound off below.

About the Author - Winston Mize

Winston is a 24 year old goofball, born in the north, and currently living in the south. He loves TV.... for some it's coffee, for him it's TV talk that gets his day going. He wants to be a screenwriter, and watches some of everything. You name it, he's probably checked it out. And he would like you to know that it is okay for a 24 year old to play with action figures... well, he does anyway

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