iZombie Season 3 Episode 13 Review: Finding Mr. Goodbrain Part 2

This iZombie review contains spoilers.

iZombie Season 3, Episode 13

Everyone discovers an awful lot of things. Zombies are real, Liv slept with Chase Graves, Clive doesn’t pick up on hints. This episode was just chock full of revelations. It also had a whimsical choreographed dance number, which they can get away with because: brains. I have to admit, Liv telling Johnny Frost to come right out and say that zombies are real seemed pretty direct. It makes me hopeful for whatever relief efforts she’ll cook up next season.

Blaine was weirdly absent from this episode, except to have his business proposal knocked down by Chase, and to have Major pretend not to know him. It’s cool Major, there’s no way Chase picked up on the obvious look of recognition. Wink. I’m looking forward to some serious Blaine/Boss/Graves shenanigans next year, because I think Blaine will annoy the other two in a delightful fashion and I love a power struggle.

Fillmore Graves

The multi-episode murder arc of Katty Cups is actually solved by Chase Graves, after Liv rather unceremoniously dumped herself into his pool and had to lay all her cards on the table. Carey Gold was playing the long con this season, which would have been more satisfying if she had managed to put Chase on the run for a bit, or at least in a position where he needed to enlist the help of Clive and Liv. She took out her own people to rile them up and sink the plans for zombie island so they could move on to a more aggressive, and public zombie homeland in Seattle.

But once he cleaned house (RIP the butter and cheese puns), Chase proved there’s a reason we all suspected he was an ambitious, anti-human jerk, and went ahead with Plan B anyway, dosing the Aleutian Flu virus with zombie blood and shooting a television producer for disobeying him when he came to interupt Liv’s kumbaya broadcast. Contaminating the virus has to be one of the most obvious things that has ever happened on this show, on multiple levels.

First, it seemed pretty clear to us as an audience watching that the vaccine would be no good. Second, in-world, the zombies took a yellow vaccine and turned it red when they added their blood. My god, medications have packaging with a physical description, how could this possibly get past the medical staff? Plot holes aside, it’s time for the show to move forward, and a bunch of clueless baby zombies opens up  so many possibilities beyond the murder of the week format for Liv.

While it sometimes feels a bit forced to have Jason Dohring in such a large role on the show, it really paid off during the back half of this season, especially this episode. I don’t think there are many other actors who could play Chase’s nonchalant “I suppose you think I’m the murder” charm with such ease, or give such a great line read for the, “want to watch tv?” joke.

It takes a lot of chutzpah to sidle up to Liv and flirt right after shooting someone in front of her, and Dohring is just the guy to pull it off. There are certainly times, like his, “you’re a hair too late, you could’ve rescued me,” line that make his character feel like Logan 2.0, but I’m hoping he stays different enough to keep my interest.

Team Z gets a little crowded

I’m glad Clive finally let Dale in on the reason he went behind her back and lied to her, but it was crushing to see the two split up again so soon after by zombieism. I have a feeling that Clive will be one of our ride or die humans, so I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship plays out. It’s been a while since we’ve watched a couple try to struggle across the zombie/human divide.

Major asks Chase Graves to scratch him, without consulting any of his friends. Even worse, he had to pledge some serious zombie fealty in exchange. Hey remember that time where you all sat in a room and decided no secrets between the five of you? Good talk. Are we even going to discuss the scientific concerns around what happens to people who take the cure and are re-zombified?

Ravi, at least, should be concerned that we now have two re-Zombies running around, and no idea if they will have more intense symptoms. Did Major know about Chase’s plan? Was he part of it? How will this affect his relationship with Liv? On the one hand, he can now (theoretically) have a physical one with her, or any other zombie. On the other hand, she’s gonna be pissed.

Ravi is my other shoe-in for human for life, which is why I have hope for his possible zombie inoculation. In fact, I’d bet Blaine’s memories and undead life on it. Ending a season on a quiet moment of intimate friendship is about as different as you can get from last year’s finale. While we have some tension in this scene – Liv’s reference to Major’s lack of regard for humanity, the potential to save the human race, and the future of Ravi’s life – as well as the rest of the episode, it largely hinges on the same reasons Ravi wanted it to be Liv who scratched him: bringing us back to the show’s center, when it comes to characters and narrative strengths.

This season has expanded the world of iZombie and our team of heroes, but it was nice to go very small, as emphasized by the final lighting cue, with just Ravi and Liv. This show is at its best when it is about friendship, and there are many to choose from, but Liv’s friendship with Ravi was the first of her new life as a zombie where someone accepted her at face value.

Here’s hoping the rest of Seattle can be as accepting. See you next season!