iZombie: All's Well That Ends Well

"This is why the time of patty cake is over..."

Last night Mrs Llamastrangler and I bit the bullet. We’d been delaying seeing the last ever iZombie, because then it would be over. And we weren’t disappointed, although there was a lot to cram in. It’s not the creators’ fault, but would it really be too much to extend the running time beyond a paltry forty-two minutes...?

Anyway, we begin with half an hour of narrative in which all the plot threads are concluded and, although there’s a lot of dramatic tension (I love the moment where Liv, Clive and Ravi are caught on the plane- only to find the police officer to be on their side) and drama but things end as happily as the title implies. I love the way both Blaine and Don E end up down the well with Blaine’s sad for all eternity, rushed though the sequence inevitably is, and how we think for w while that Peyton may be dead after her fatal shooting although, of course, that pervert Blaine scratches her. We also have time to see Clive become a dad (aaah!) and Major’s heroic sacrifice to prove in live telly that the cure works; it’s not his fault that Ravi made damn sure he survived. And as for Enzo, his fate is poetic; the ultimate zombie racist dies human. It’s a pity that Durkins seems to survive.

But we then end with the coda, ten years later- a brave choice but one that pretty much works and gives happy endings for our heroes, perhaps a little trite but not unearned. Zombieism can be cured now so zombies are not a threat- is it that simple? At least Liv and Major are together. That kiss...!

Yes, it’s rushed. But within its forty-two minute constraints the episode works well. And I salute the firm decision, heralded by the title, not to go grimdark and have a defiantly happy ending. Wonderful,  and a fitting end to a series I will very much miss.

iZombie: My Really Fair Lady

"Mama was the railroad."

Thankfully it's a less intense and funnier episode this week as Liv, on luvvie brain, uses her acting skills, including an... interesting stab at a Kiwi accent- to pretty much take over from Mama as boss of the benevolent people smugglers, right up to the point of getting filmed committing a capital crime. There's no turning back now, and the stakes for her could not be higher.

Other stuff happens, mind; Ravi, it being that time of the month, survives a few days of junkie brain to reunite a kid with a dog and impress Peyton- and is rewarded with a snog. Is this them back together for good? Clive asks out the rookie cop girl without Liv's influence, only to have to explain to her his situation. Johnny Frost is back, and is hilarious. And Blaine finally finds out, dramatically, that this new zombie cult he's hearing more and more about is led by his own estranged dad, with whom he still has so many unresolved issues.

This is a fairly "meh" episode, I suppose; not as worryingly bad as the earlier episodes of the season, and no more than quite good. This season continues to be far poorer than any of its predecessors. But at least the recent upswing in quality is just about continuing. Let's hope we get an episode soon that's more than just adequate and perhaps a good run that can save this underwhelming season. We can only hope.

iZombie: Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2

"Well, at least it's not just us with our wangs hanging out..."

Oooh boy. This is quite the eventful finale. Hard to believe this all managed to fit within 41 minutes. Where to start...?

It's a downbeat beginning as Major and Justin briefly (41 minutes!) mourn their dead friends and Liv's confession to Justin about sleeping with Chase Graves leads to him, quite reasonably, being very upset and dumping her, knowing full well that resisting the urges of a particular brain is far from impossible.

But there's scarcely time to breathe before we get straight on to the web of intrigue and revelations that pretty much defines this episode and which I'm certainly not going to summarise; this is not a synopsis.Suffice to say there's been skulduggery within the ranks of Graves' underlings, Baracus was always a red herring and what seemed to be a nefarious genocidal plot turns out in fact to be a plot to seize control of Discovery Day so that humans and zombies can live together in (theoretical) harmony; scenes towards the end indicate that reality is not quite so idyllic.

The role of Johnny Frost in all this is both hilarious and inspired- I love how he uses the fact he's reporting on live television to jump the queue and get vaccinated- and it's heartwarming that Clive is finally able to be fully truthful to Dale, and equally heartbreaking that he's just too late to stop her being infected. But a short, silent scene shows that they're together, and he's staying with her, even though sex is now seemingly out of the question.

But nothing is more moving than the final scene, as Liv sees the final stages of Ravi's truly splendid lab experiment with many vials of bubbling liquid all connected intricately. It seems Ravi has concocted a vaccine and is testing it on himself. Liv is quite moved by this and the two of them have a deeply moving conversation in which they each declare their (platonic) love for each other. And Liv scratches him...

Wow. THAT'S how to do a finale. And tonight it's Doctor Who's turn...

iZombie: Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 1

"It was a grudge boink."

Into the two-part season finale, then. We begin with Ravi admitting to Liv that he's the source for the story with the big front cover photo of her in full-on zombie mode on the cover and getting away lightly. He gets less lenience from his old boss Katty Kupps. That's his last ever such bollocking, though, as Katty is promptly murdered and Liv spends the episode on what turns out to be her rather promiscuous brain. For this late in the season the form of the episode, at least, is closer to story-of-the-week than one might expect.

It's bizarre to see Liv made up to look human, at last worried about her anonymity; she looks so unlike herself. But the investigation proceeds as usual, with a nicely written scene where Ravi discreetly calls out a witness for her racism. Liv's flirtiness is anything but, though, and we're left feeling a little uncomfortable about what this means for her relationship with Justin.

Most tragic, though, is Major's rekindled relationship with a besotted Natalie, who invites him to Italy to live happily ever after. This automatically means that everything has to end in tears, and the episode ends with an explosive finale as the zombie Harley Johns kills everyone at Major's goodbye party except for Justin and Major himself. Dramatic stuff, and there's still the finale to go...

iZombie: Spanking the Zombie

"Draw the nipples, Jimmy!"

This is a somewhat odd episode, albeit a fun one with a heartbreaking ending. Peyton and Blaine take an episode off as Liv entertains us while on dominatrix brain while a couple of the more amusing supporting characters (and, indeed, the zombie who's running for mayor) turn out to have been submissive clients of the late lady, sadly strangled by her own whip. But the whole murder-of-the-week seems to get resolved awkwardly quickly and awkwardly unsatisfyingly, unless it turns out there's more to come.

In arc news Liv and Clive are warned off their illicit zombie killer investigation but there is further intrigue as Harley Johns, our racist gun nut, is bugged by the paramilitary zombie people. None of this stuff is particularly outstanding. But the awesome ending makes up for it all as it's finally time for a very sick Major to take the cure. There are emotional scenes between Liv and Major as they finally make up in advance of Major losing his memory, and make love to the splendid sounds of Pearl Jam.

We end with Major getting the injection. Something tells me it won't be as straightforward as his being cured and having his memory wiped. Will he die? Or something else?

iZombie: Pour Some Sugar, Zombie

"That was like interrogating a puddle."

There's a murder just outside a strip club, and Liv ends up eating stripper brain. This is a particularly good and clever whodunit, but we're far too close to the end of the season for that to be the only focus of the episode, much as it takes centre stage more than it has lately. 

Peyton's new roommate is Peyton, meaning that they, Major and Ravi have a Friends thing going on- nice bit of metatextuality going on there. And the twist here is that stripper brain gives Liv an insight into Mr Boss that Peyton is eager to glean; cue comedy scenes of her trying to get Liv to have a vision. And the episode gets bonus points for Ravi humming "The Stripper".

It's good to see Johnny Frost again: he's the same actor who played Spottswoode in Team America: World Police, you know. 

The end of the episode is littered with bombshells, though. Post-cure, Blaine has amnesia! Ravi opens Major's safe and realises he's the "Chaos Killer"! Liv realises that Drake is an undercover cost, and missing! And... Major is now a zombie.

Excellent stuff. But,considering all the arc-related bombshells we get, I suspect that it's the last big emphasis on the weekly whodunit we will get until the end of the season...

iZombie: Astroburger

""Careful! Don't open yourself up to the classic reverse Sicilian gambit. That's a chess thing, right?"

"Sounds more like something a call girl would make you pay extra for..."

We know iZombie by now; yes, Majoy may be in a mental hospital because Liv thought he'd be safe there, but he isn't: his chess-playing mate gets murdered. Liv duly acquires said delusional brain, complete with chess skills, voices in her head and (we discover) an imaginary friend. Meanwhile Ravi and Peyton start dating, and it seems to be going well.

Major, after this, discharges himself and returns to his obsession, made so much worse by his not knowing the truth. There is ascent in which Liv reveals all to him but this is, rather predictably, a delusion.

Also, Blaine has stick zombie client who wants the brain if someone who has walked on the Moon(!) and Ravi's successful cure for the zombie rat seems to hold out hope.

Another good episode, then, if predictable in places. And it reminds me that a) weed is legal in Washington State and b) I must watch Vertigo again, and blog it.