iZombie: Fifty Shades of Grey Matter Review

This iZombie review contains spoilers.

iZombie Season 2, Episode 11

The zombie conspiracy is getting more treacherous for those involved on iZombie.For the first time in show’s history, Blaine was backed into a corner. Luckily (for him — not so much for the larger Seattle population), he has the not-unformidable assistant district attorney Peyton on his side. Guys, this is why Team Liv needs to have check-ins.

Peyton finds out who Blaine really is.

Whenever Team Liv lets someone in on the zombie drama, they should get an introductory packet complete with important information — i.e. a whole bio on Blaine, the dude who has pretty much Liv’s undead life a living hell since Day One. 

Since the beginning of narrative, writers have been using miscommunication as a way to complicate plot and create drama. It’s Juliet not mentioning to Romeo that she is only fake killing herself. That being said, it can be done lazily. Someone should have told Peyton about Blaine. That’s just common sense, Team Liv.

The case of the horny librarian.

iZombiereally liked using the phrase horny librarian this episode. As anyone who has read my iZombierecaps knows, I’ve struggled a lot with the murders-of-the-week. Part of this is subjective taste. Part of it has to do with the show’s uneven ability to create character moments for Liv while she is “on” someone else’s brain. 

Like iZombie, the best murder-of-the-week shows combine some serialized plot with the case of the week. However, and this is vital for most TV drama, the case of the week works best when it has moments of character development for our central protagonists. We want to know whodunnit, but we want to hang with and learn about our protagonists even more. (Or at least I do.)

The murder mystery formula breaks down sometimes on iZombie, though, because — in the most cariactured examples, such as tonight’s horny librarian brain — we can’t learn about Liv. She is taken over by someone else, and — in this case — that someone else is a stereotype.

Is anyone else worried about Bozzio?

Guys, Agent Bozzio has Expendable Character written all over her. She is the Lowell of this season: a recurring character with a romantic connection to one of our protagonists (in this case, Clive) who knows too much about the zombie conspiracy.

Bozzio is a pretty great detective. She’s broken this Blaine Zombie Conspiracy thing wide open, and Blaine now knows that. Worse, he knows where she lives and out-right threatened her in a police interrogation room. Prediction time: I think Bozzio’s death may be the thing that forces Liv to finally tell Clive the truth about Seattle’s little undead problem.

Minor gets out while he still can.

Sure, it was heartbreaking to watch Minor’s little dog face fade into the distance as he gazed forlornly back at Major from that bus window, but, let’s be real: Minor is probably the safest “character” on this show. (You know, if he isn’t just abandoned on the side of the road by that bus driver. Major couldn’t have dropped him at an animal shelter or something?!)

Unlike Blaine, Major has managed to evade police suspicion for one more week — but Ravi looked pretty suspicious when Major mentioned Minor’s departure. And, if that cute little dog’s face gets splashed across the news channel (as Major predicted to his former canine companion), then, surely, Ravi and Liv will start to ask questions. Major is living on borrowed time — not only in regards to the ticking clock that is his temporary zombie cure, but the many, many lies he is keeping from literally everyone he knows. Without Minor as his confidante, Major is truly alone.