iZombie: Bye, Zombies

"We are in the South now. You don't put stolen jewellery in a black man's pocket."

The penultimate episode. Nearly there.

Confession time; this is a heist episode (it's too close to the end for murders of the week), and the pop culture references centre around Mission Impossible and Ocean's 11, neither of which I happen to have seen. Still, I'll do my best.

So Ravi sent the tainted Utopium to a scientist at the CDC in the hop of a zombie cure... and the money-grabbing bastard has realised there's more money in palliatives rather than cures. This is why state health services should always be allowed to veto this kind of evil. Anyway, the point is we have a pretext for Liv, Ravi and- after some persuading- a Clive who is touchingly emotional, to carry out said heist in a clever, entertaining and ultimately successful fashion with the help of some appropriate brains from the restaurant of a grieving Don E. It's splendid stuff.

It's the penultimate episode, though, so other arc threads are gently nudged towards their respective conclusions. After all, we have racist extremists for both humankind and zombiekind respectively trying to start a war. The nuclear bomb of Damocles still metaphorically hangs over the city. But not all is bad; Ravi gets to rub in Blaine's face that Peyton is his girl ("That was genuine cockiness!") which is cool and, I think, just on the right side of not being misogynistic.

Blaine reminds us, however, that, despite being the witty villain we love to hate, he is in fact an absolute ***, making Peyton genuinely afraid as he kills one of the Freylich kids and threatens the rest. I predict he's going to die. We also get the most touching grave robbing scene ever as Liv and Major remind each other that they like each other and kiss. Awww. Except... this is near the end and anyone could die. Could they...? Would they...?

While the heist is successful the episode ends on a grim note; Major is alone, a fugitive, in a New Seattle where he's been usurped by Enzo and the extremists are merrily warmongering. And he has to get some Max Rager from Fillmore Graves...

What an episode. What a season. What a series. One more to go...

iZombie: Filleted to Rest

"She fired people for existing wrong."

Another superb episode that, as this season is continuously doing with admirable skill, manages to pull off a genuinely impressive whodunit while still having lots of jaw-dropping arc stuff happen against a steadily deteriorating background of human vs zombie tension. And we end with quite the cliffhanger. Halfway through this final season...

The murder/brain of the week, a delightfully rude chef, is a particularly good one, and Liv on chef brain is a real treat. The murder of the week, to be fair, takes up a lot of screen time, and deserves to. It's too easy to forget that iZombie's basic format, still fundamentally there in spite of everything, is a bloody good one. Burgling as a murder alibi is a bloody good one.

And yet...a load of Fillmore Graves troops are killed in a terrorist attack, and after a far bit of intrigue Major gains proof that Justin- who is, let us not forget, a former boyfriend of Liv- is a traitor, shooting his recently former close friend while trying to escape. Ouch. Liv has a massive row with her mum, who we haven't seen for, well, seasons, but it's finally time to start tying up the loose ends.

There's a heartwarming scene where Michelle tells Clive that, no, he probably isn't the father... but she thinks he's a decent man and kind of wishes he was. Aw. Ravi's relationship with Dr Charlie Collier (and her twin sister!) develops a little, which makes me think they are going to share a more blatant sub-plot about a zombie cure.

But that cliffhanger, that this new player who is de-thawing zombies and appears to be Durkins' zombie mirror image is probably Liv's dad... wow.

iZombie: Thug Death

"This is the spot where lazy murderers who don't want to fight traffic dump their victims.""

So it's the fifth and final season and we're a few months into the new status quo- Peyton is, effectively mayor and Major is the new commander of Fillmore Graves. But lonely is the head that wears a crown and Major is already feeling the tension between his principles and what is likely to help him maintain his position. Meanwhile Liv and Ravi are doing the same job as ever while Liv continues to moonlight as Renegade, and "real" brains are becoming scarce- for all except Blaine, who is incredibly rich from the brain business and has a fridge full of the bloody things.

This episode has two main strands. The first is that this time it's Ravi, not Liv, who's on the brain of a thug, and bloody hilarious, showing us that Rahul Kohli is every bit as good at this sort of thing. But the other strand is, of course, that the zombies of New Seattle rely entirely on the goodwill of humans, and things are precarious beneath the surface. One viral video of a woman being ripped the shreds by a zombie has led to the end of the brain supply and, while Blaine can solve this problem with threats, the potential remains. Worse, we have a new anti-zombie demagogue, Dolly Durkins(!), who is also running an anti-zombie suicide bomber network which is sure to keep Major stressed. And, as we find out, her first volunteer is the eviscerated woman's husband.

Elsewhere we have Clive being as deadpan witty as ever, a new scientist character in Dr Collier who, to Ravi's relief, turns out to have ethics, and three abused ill kids who Liv's network are trying to smuggle in. Already there are a lot of balls in the air and the fact that this is the final season suggests to me that this feeling of precariousness will grow and grow. But this pisode on its own is as fun and witty as ever. More please.