iZombie - Eat, Pray, Liv/Wag The Tongue Slowly - Double Review
May 2, 2017
iZombie Reviews WMAnother week, another set of iZombie episodes. I'm not sure these were my most favorite episodes of the series so far, but I did enjoy them all the same. I'm just hoping that with a shorter episode order, the ball would get rolling much sooner.
Eat, Pray, Liv: This was a tough episode for Ravi. He's been spiraling ever since he found out about Peyton and Blaine, and this episode really kind of put the nail in the coffin on the Pavi Relationship. Liv promptly shut Ravi down before he goes on another rant about the Blaine of it all and suggests he take it to Peyton, which he does. It seemed like Ravi was going to apologize to Peyton for being so weird about all of this, but in the end, Peyton calls him out for acting like the wrong party here and basically acting like he has ownership over Peyton. Later in the morgue, when trying to get Blaine to be the test subject for his memory loss cure, Ravi lays into Blaine and I just wanted to reach through the screen and tell him to stop. Not a good look, Ravi. Ravi decides to use this moment to tell Peyton that he loves her, and Blaine ends up submitting himself to take the memory loss cure. I think it's interesting that Blaine is Major's foil for the cure plot and I'm interested to see how this turns out. Blaine is cautious about taking the memory loss cure as he doesn't want to remember the man he used to be, he likes the clarity he has now, while Major has his mind pretty much made up that he will take it as he doesn't want to forget his life and will take any chance to remember all of it. Ravi's old boss form the CDC shows back up, and as with most things in iZombie, I'm sure there's more to her story than just the fact she's used to drive a wedge between Peyton and Ravi. Her official reaspn for being back in Seattle is that the CDC has traced this brains-in-the-stomach-of-seemingly-dead-people epidemic back to Seattle making it ground zero. Peyton does show up at Ravi's house after the morgue debacle, ready to return his feelings, but as this was only episode 3 for the season, there was no way this plot was getting resolution and just as there's a Pavi reunion, there comes a Pavi falling apart because Ravi slept with his old boss. (I shouted, "I knew it" and then "I'm disgusted")
I honestly could have cared less about Major's Mercenary woes, because this is Major we're talking about, God's apparent gift to man, so in the end I knew he'd get his glory. The show is constantly showing us the brain tubes and I'm wondering what the reveal is going to be surrounding them. I did love Major offering Justin some real brains and the subsequent scene of him and Justin playing Liv's dancing game while on these brains. As much flack as I want to give Major, I couldn't help but get all the feels as he watched Liv and Justin dance, and I could only assume that he was worried about forgetting her. Major's hunt for Natalie, is a bit too obsessive for me, so I'm not too invested in it, but it's something for Major to do. Blaine's dad, Angus, shows up and claims his will money back form Blaine and then proceeds to open up a zombie club called The Scratching Post, with Don E. (We'll check back in on them later, I suppose, but this plot seems so left field right now) The case of the week had Liv on Zen brain that honestly just reminded me of positiveness brain from last season. There were no visions with this brain, and the case was pretty open and closed. In terms of cases, it simply existed to just move the show along while the rest of the ensemble did some heavy character lifting. Also, Blaine getting a gig as a lounge singer was just so weird, and there are some things that even I can't accept on a show about Zombies living as people. B-
Character of the Week: Peyton. I loved the way that she took charge and told Ravi off for his obsessive behavoir, he needed to her hear it. In fact, Aly really nailed the emotional roller coaster that Peyton was on this whole episode.
Moment that Slayed Me: Peyton's confession to Ravi. I was so happy my girl was opening up to him and I just knew that it was about to be ruined. Happiness was given and then taken away.
Wag The Tongue Slowly: This episode for me comes down to two things, guns and gossip. The love triangle has essentially cooled with Ravi spending most of the episode in misery and disarray, while Blaine and Peyton basically grow closer together. Blaine and Peyton spend their time together waiting to see if there will be any side effects of the memory loss cure and they spend most of the time addressing a hard hitting issue. Can Peyton love someone as bad as Blaine was? It's interesting because the show is addressing a huge moral question of what makes a man good or bad, and if you're a fan of the pair, you can't help but hope that love can conquer all. The two almost act on their feelings, but decide to wait until they know for sure the cure doesn't work before acting on it, as it would be bad for both of them, should it work. It doesn't work and there's sex to be had. Major and Ravi go on the hunt for Natalie and despite being warned by her captors to let it go. Because Major is Major and is God's gift to Earth, he persists and finds Natalie and offers her the cure, side effects and all and she turns it down. I'm not sure how I feel about Major this season so far, as he seems to be just ping ponging form one plot point to another. I hoping once this Natalie stuff is put to bed, Major gets integrated back into the humans vs zombie war plot and maybe it will be more cohesive.
The case of the week was pretty interesting, I called from the get go that everyone was in on it, so I wasn't surprised that there was a whole crew behind the office gossip's murder. Liv on gossip brain was entertaining, but it didn't quite floor me, and there hasn't really been a brain yet this season to do so. The cases of the week in these strings of episode have most felt like filler to keep the episode going, which isn't bad, as long as they remain interesting and don't become retreads of previous brains or murder plots. No matter how one-note the brain, any case involving porn stars, yogurt tainted with utopium, people posing as customers and coded messages still manages to be entertaining. The last bit of the episode takes Liv and Clive to track down a lead from the website that lead to Wally's murder. They find that the guy who posted on the site with a link to a gun range offering a zombie apocalypse special, and learn that his brother had proof of zombies. His brother was a lab tech at Max Rager and Lve and Clive had used his severed arm for assess the night of the Max Rager Massacre. The guy's chilling statement to Liv and Clive (Not the White Power Remark) that if he does find a zombie there's nothing they could do because “you can’t murder what ain’t alive” is an excellent bit of foreshadowing that the impending human vs zombie war is coming and it won't be pretty. B-
Character of the Week: Blaine. The actor and the writers have taken what could've been a really cliche plot and really turned it on it's head giving the love triangle/amnesia a fresh dose of moral ambiguity that really makes you feel bad for Blaine and hope that it works out for him. Watching him with Peyton this week, I sincerely was hoping that he didn't get his memories back, despite how delicious it might be to see him get them back but pretend that he didn't.
Moment That Slayed Me: The moment the Clive and Liv simultaneously find out that Liv's current brain was a gossip and they instantly go "of course" and the pieces fall together as to Liv's sudden inquisitive nature about things that aren't case related.
What Did You Think of these episodes? Sound off Below!
The next episode of iZombie Season 3, Spanking the Zombie, airs 5/2 /17 on the CW following The Flash!