iZombie - Patriot Brains - Review: "Everything's coming up Blaine"

Did you hear that sound last week? Kind of a high pitched sound that sounded something like a banshee wail? That was me! A lot happened in the past couple of weeks in the world of iZombie. Season Two! iZombie was officially picked up for a second season by the CW! Tuesday's this Fall! iZombie was announced as being on the fall schedule and it's same spot, with a spoilery synopsis of season two that may just ignite the hearts of Blaine-Liv shippers out there. Most importantly though, last week Wallace Fennel Percy Daggs III guest starred in Patriots Brains (Love me some VM alums) and Lowell got shot in the head by Blaine! I had to cradle myself after last weeks closing moments.

"There is no us. There's me and this guy who I don't recognize who eats the brains of murdered homeless kids"
I'm really glad that for the sake of plot the show didn't drag out Liv's discovery that Blaine was providing brains to Lowell. Seeing Blaine and the Candyman Julien dropping off a delivery helps Liv puts the pieces together because seeing them triggers visions that reveal that the brain she took a bit of at Lowell's was that of Jerome aka the young ward that Major has been so desperate to find. She sees all the delivery bags and realizes just what Blaine is up to.(Also can I add, I totally called it about Lowell! I knew he was too good to be true) After last week's big moment for them when Liv basically confronted him with thoughts I had a few weeks ago, I knew we were bound for a shake up. (Why are they even together? Because of Zombimism? That's not the most solid foundation.) What I love even more is what Liv does when she's trying to figure out what to do with all this information. She goes and tells Ravi about what she found out. Which is good and a nice reminder that no matter how well adjusted in this life she is now and no matter how many people she's let close to her, she's still only got one true confidant, Ravi. (Despite his protests to getting the girlfriend experience.) Ravi though is still keeping that secret from Liv. You know the one where he isn't telling her that he got bit by the zombie rat created. I tried to defend Ravi for not telling Liv straight away, thinking maybe he thought it was just poor timing, but I don't know. I want to say I felt his initial response not to tell her was from fear. Fear that he was becoming just like her. It's cool to have a zombie as friend and research object, but to be one must be scary. Thankfully, he finally fesses up to her later, when he deduces that the virus must not be transferrable from different species. (I'm not sold this is the end of this. Maybe Ravi will get bit by a human-zombie and discover the rat bite made him immune) I figured that once Blaine's secret was out Liv would want to do something to stop him, but what could be done?

How cute was it when Ravi sniffed those brains and was utterly disgusted? I said a few weeks back after The Exterminator, that Liv's morality was most certainly going to come back into play this season. Even though Marcy was too far gone to be saved, Liv appeared to have a hard time reconciling what she had done to her. Could she kill Blaine? Also, I love how quick Ravi and Liv were at deducing that something must be up in the SPD as well, since those missing bodies were found at the Shepherd's compound. Ravi tells Liv she has to go back to Lowell to find Blaine. (I just wanted Liv to air her grievances to her would-be soulmate as she called Lowell) I was surprised that even Lowell was willing to let Liv kill Blaine. I think that in contrast Major, when he finds out, won't want Liv to kill him. If it had been him, he would have talked Liv out of it, at least that's what I think.

Can we just talk about how Rob Thomas and Co. know how to really subvert my expectations and make me just swoon. He did this before with Logan and Veronica in Veronica Mars, and he did it again in Patriot Brains with Liv and Lowell. I can't say what I found more exciting, the fact that Liv despite saying she couldn't see Lowell again, ended up going to Lowell, or Lowell telling her he loved her, and Liv saying that would be a problem. I liked Lowell's speech to Liv. Liv has it easy, she doesn't have to work for her brains. Lowell was turned by Blaine and he didn't have a choice, it was either take Blaine's brains or become like Marcy. He even mentioned that he tried to avoid trigger visions unlike Liv. I was pleased that even though she walked away initially, when he came back to her, she accepted his apology and they reconciled. This half-life is complicated enough and I didn't think Liv realized how good she had it. Later, post-coitus, Liv decides that she has to kill Blaine for what he is doing and Lowell is willing to help her. (Maybe it's just to get on her good side, but I was surprised that he was willing to help her) Also, Blaine is going to kill an Astronaut for his client who always wanted to see space. (This seems to be a pretty good business idea, I'll kill who you always wanted to be, so just for a little while you can live your dreams) I had no doubt that Liv wouldn't be able to go through with killing Blaine, even with this week's brain in her. She was right, this would make her a murderer like Blaine if she took his life. I assumed we'd just be getting a melodramatic moment for the sake of defining Liv's character and all would walk away unharmed. Lowell invited Blaine to his boat under the ruse of listening to a new album for some band, while Liv set up a sniper rifle across the way to kill Blaine. Once Lowell got the message that Liv couldn't kill Blaine, he took it upon himself to try and kill Blaine with some BAR-B-Q forks while Blaine took a call from Julien. Blaine must be eating ninja brains, because he turned around and blocked Lowell's attempt with his arm and then after accusing Lowell of being a bad host he shot him point blank in the head as Liv watched from afar.

"No, I'm serious. I think Blaine scratched me because he's into my music."
They weren't kidding when they said they would take about 20% of the story beat planned for the case of week and take it away. The case of the week this week felt a little bit too background. While it's not always my favorite part, by condensing it down, it felt like they had to make it a bit more predictable in order to include it. Realistically, this week its only real purpose was to provide Liv with her weekly brain, which contributed to her weekly dilemma. Since this week's victim was a former soldier with PTSD, it means that Liv came equipped with sniper skills, skills she intended to use to kill Blaine. The rest of the case was not very memorable, which was a letdown for me, because why bring me Wallace if you didn't plan to really use him! I was disappointed that I called him as the killer from the start. With iZombie returning in the fall and the episode order TBD, I'm hoping that if we do get more than 13 episodes, we get episodes with some fun case of the week brains. But since we don't know how the season will end yet, it is hard to know if it will make sense that Liv is still solving crimes next season. I did love Liv being all badass on the paintball field! Next season, Liv should get recruited by the FBI, and each week she eats a brain to help solve different cases while being trained as an agent, while working in conjunction with law enforcement to stop the impending zombie apocalypse as someone is threatening to drop a bio-weapon full of Max-Rajor/Utopium mixture on large cities around the world and one of these agents on the inside is in on it! Of course, Ravi having discovered this virus is brought on as a consultant and Liv only agrees to go if Clive goes.

I must say, I'm enjoying the path that Major is going down. For a character that started off as a little too perfect, seeing his dark descent as he tries to uncover something he doesn't understand is great. Liv may feel guilty about telling him to back off, but I don't care, he's getting too close to the truth for his own good. (Also, who goes on YouTube to look up how to fire a gun, also how did Major get said gun? If he had a license and purchased it legally, that'd mean he'd already know how to shoot, so he must have obtained it illegally) Of course Blaine would want to end Major because he's becoming too much of a risk, so I was worried when he was fighting Julien that he may get hurt more. What did happen, with him shooting Julien, calling Clive and Julien being gone was kind of cliche to me. (Let's have Major really appear to be crazy!) Though it helps to provide us with the hope that maybe Lowell won't be dead after all after being shot. Lowell loves Liv and Liv said he was her would-be soulmate. Would Rob Thomas and co. really pull a Whedon on us and kill Lowell just as he and Liv had done a very mature thing and made amends? Lowell's sacrifice was commendable, but it was also heartwrenching. Could this be the kick in the pants Liv needs to kill Blaine?

Overall, I think iZombie has been on fire storywise over the past couple of weeks. While I was a bit annoyed that everybody seems to be a zombie, I'm finding myself really feeling for all the characters. I do hate that Clive is so out of the loop on what the real story is. Lowell can't be dead right? I have a feeling that being shot in the head doesn't kill these zombies. Remember the meatheads that Blaine had working for him he shot in the head? He put them in the freezer! Presumably Blaine did this to teach them a lesson and when he feels they are ready to be loyal he can pull the out again. So what if that is where Lowell goes? Especially since Bradley James has another show to be on, it'd be convenient to store him away in the fridge to just unthaw him until the actor is available. I know the goal is to make sure we have hope that Liv and Major can make it work one day, and Lowell being around eclipses that hope, but he's just so good for Liv, so I'd hate for him to be really gone. They can't end the story this way. I don't think that bullet killed him, which poses a more interesting question, if a bullet to the head isn't how you kill zombies in this lore, how do you? Either way, this weeks episode certainly opened up more than few doors as we head into the home stretch of the season. Thank goodness we have a season two to look forward to!

What did you think of Patriot Brains? Do you believe Lowell is dead? Do you think Ravi is really unaffected by his bite? When do you think Clive will find out what is going on around him? Do you feel bad for Major? Sound off Below!

iZombie, Mr. Berserk airs Tuesday May 19th at 9pm EST on the CW.

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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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