iZombie Season 3, Episode 6 Review: Some Like It Hot Mess

I just want to say: we told you so. Kayti’s and my suspicions that Blaine was still lying turn out to be true, but somehow that’s not even the most intense thing to happen on this episode of iZombie.

Clive solves the crime, almost by himself.

To give the rest of Team Z time to chase around Major and the cure, Clive wound up solving this week’s murder largely alone. If this is a sign of things to come, I’m not looking forward to less screentime with Liv and Clive, but I did enjoy their goodbye when Liv still thought she would be cured soon. This week’s brain did seem to affect Liv more drastically than usual, but perhaps that’s because she’s less inhibited around Clive now that he’s in on her secret, or maybe even residual effects from the blue brain.

That said, did anyone actually think Liv was taking the cure tonight? Probably not. For one thing, it seems bizarre that she wouldn’t at least stop for a moment to consider remaining a zombie for the sake of justice, or to at least consider some of the positive effects it has had on her life. Her immediate commitment to taking it post haste was a clear indication that something would go awry, even if we hadn’t already seen Blaine getting sinister of Don E. trying to swindle Ravi.

The cure works.

The headline of the evening is that Blaine is a big fat liar because the cure works, with no longterm side effects to boot. We also got an adorable shout-out to Minor, and more Ravi and Major bromancing.

I enjoyed getting more of Major’s backstory — he has a mom! It turns out his parents separated and he chose his father, but apparently has regretted it and not known how to address it. Facing memory loss, he made the trip to see his mother and her girlfriend to take (what he thought was) his last opportunity to make it right and say goodbye. This is adorable, and I hope we get to learn more about Major’s backstory throughout the season. And some Ravi backstory wouldn’t hurt either!

Through the haze of drama queen brain, Major and Liv tired to suss out how to handle their passionate farewell, given that Major had not yet forgotten her. In fact, due to his going to Walla Walla, we never saw a genuine moment of Major not remembering Liv, which would have been the toughest moment (other than him not remembering Ravi.) I’m glad to see that Major and Liv seem both interested in seeing where their relationship takes them, while realistic about the fact that things are complicated. It sounds like we might be in for more safe zombie-on-human lovin’.

Blaine’s pants are on fire.

After reaching new levels of goopy couple PDA, Blaine and Peyton’s relationship is in tatters. I’m glad Ravi wasn’t gloating, and I hope he gives Peyton the space she will likely need to process the violation from Blaine.

Watching Blaine savor that martini made me instantly fearful of what kind of man he might be, now that he’s tried and failed at the straight and narrow. He strikes me as a guy who would become even more terrible and reckless than he already was, given that Peyton rejected him. Adding to that, he now has the recipe for the cure, and a ton more information about Liv and friends.

I don’t know about you, but my money is on Don E. or perhaps Blaine’s father for the theft. I think Blaine has plenty of other plot to keep him busy, but it’s about time to Scratching Post storyline comes back into play with our core group of characters, and this would be a great way to do it.

As far as reveals go though, I’m torn on whether “Blaine was lying” is worth it. Blaine being a jerk was always the most obvious way for this to go, and having Major take the cure made this direction essential to the plot — I don’t think anyone believed we would permanently lose Major as we know him.

I suppose it comes down to whether the show convinced you to believe in the new, better Blaine, or if the protracted attempts to convince us seem obviously hollow, a la (spoiler alert from 5 years ago) How I Met Your Mother‘s failed season-long gamble to attempt to both convince us that Robin and Barney would be a happily a married couple and subsequently “surprise” us when it failed. To the show’s credit, even with the better Blaine not ever really convincing me, I still think it did more work for the plot and the development of these characters than HIMYM”s gambit.

It also helps that the show didn’t bill this reveal as the culminating moment of this episode, but rather a step on the way to other action that will drive us forward for the rest of the season. After we learn Blaine lied, the remaining events from the episode leave us with even more questions: How much did Blaine really change? Has Natalie taken her dose of the cure? Who really stole the remaining doses? What will Liv and Major’s human-zombie relationship look like? How will Philmore Graves feel about the existence of a cure? Perhaps this will bring out the militant pro-Zombie side that was on full display in last season’s finale, but has since been softened.