iZombie - Blaine's World

And I have come to the close of the end of the first season with “Blaine’s World”, and the journey to conceal being a zombie for Liv and the alternating threads concerning Blaine, Major, Ravi, and Peyton continue to unravel. Major had been kidnapped and held in a meat locker to freeze as Blaine continued to demand the astronaut brains, left at Liv’s. Ravi has perfected a cure but there is very little of it, and the testing hasn’t altogether ruled out side effects although his latest rat appears okay. Liv wants to try it, but job demands and friend rescue interfere. Blaine tricks Liv into getting him the brains, believing she is negotiating a trade for Major. But Major has a trick up his sleeve, once he finds a lighter in the pants pocket of yet another kid from the home he once was a social worker hanging on a meat hook thanks to Blaine’s ghoulish human acquisitions for their brains.

Major has his Rambo moment, escaping from the locker once he distracts an employee by setting fire to meat inside, getting out, heading to his vehicle where all the weapons he got on the street illegally were hidden, and gunning down Blaine’s cooks and cronies inside the restaurant. Even Candyman gets his comeuppance, but Blaine gets him with a switchblade while his back is turned. Bleeding out, it appears Major will die while Blaine surveys the damage, himself shot by Liv. Liv has just enough of Ravi’s serum for perhaps two inoculations. She sacrifices herself in favor of Major when she feels compelled to scratch him, and injects Blaine to keep him from continuing to turn others into zombies. Major is critical of being saved from death through Liv’s zombie scratch so she gives up what little serum was left for him. She loves him that much. Blaine can’t be killed because he knows who all the zombies are, so Liv does the next best thing…return him to human and make sure he’s injected with a cure that won’t allow him to just turn back into a zombie.

Peyton, though, is still gone. There was only so much plot that could be settled in one episode, so the second season can give us more on Peyton. While she’s still gone, Ravi tells Liv the tainted Utopia drug is down to a small vial…he asks her if it is worth the risk to take the inoculation now. But she gives what was meant for her to Blaine and later Major when he dismisses her decision to save him without his permission. Suzuki arrives at the restaurant and sees the bloody mess left behind as Liv took Major home. Sacrificing his own life, Suzuki blows up the restaurant but there’s a problem…Liv’s younger brother arrives at the establishment to answer the interview Blaine set up. Taken to surgery, he loses a lot of blood and Liv match’s his blood type. So mama wants her daughter to give some blood…umm, yeah, kind of a dilemma!  

I think of what happens in this first season finale, Blaine being brought down to size was perhaps the most satisfying of developments. He has been running roughshod over people, using the zombie virus to gain clients and power. Major not letting go of his quest to find out what happened to the kids at the skatepark has been a problem for Blaine’s ongoing restaurant procurement of bodies/brains led to the explosive finale. Blaine was eventually going to invite this, and the irony of Liv using the serum on him further complicates matters because “everything was coming up Blaine”. His employees are dead, including Candyman, his muscle, which brings Babineaux’s attention to Major, wanting an officer to test his hands for gunshot residue. Liv’s life has been met with so much trouble, too. Peyton is gone, having seen her as this monster, the brother is in surgery, Major has all of the answers that were kept from him regarding Liv’s zombie state, Blaine was given her serum, and now she’s met with the understanding she might never escape her fate to remain a zombie. A lot on Liv’s plate, for sure.

Max Rager producing a “Super Max” based on ingredients that caused the zombie outbreak is a frightening thought, and Liv knows this must be stopped. Vaughn Du Clark hires a new scientist to extract the properties that have caused the zombie outbreak and psychosis so that his new drink would cure the need to sleep or rest, allowing those who partake in the company’s product to invest loyally, certain to bring quite a hefty profit. So information on a flashdrive is key to undermining Du Clark’s cause. That the company knowingly allowed their product to remain on the market despite research indicating bad results from it makes headlines. It is indeed a setback but Du Clark indicates his company isn’t about to let bad headlines deter them from a healthy profit margin. The Asshats had gained evidence that Max Rager would certainly pay to keep out of the media, but there was no loyalty in numbers so Cameron made sure no one was left to get in his way. Of course, Du Clark would prefer just to bump him off, too, having some of his henchman set a bomb on Cameron’s car. So this plot--after Cameron is found on a bus and brought in by police, revealing what was on the flashdrive as Babineaux wisely mentions the dangers of being released into the wild--tells us that Du Clark and his company aren't done for...just getting started.

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Almost forgot to mention Blaine's brain soap fed to Major while taunting him in the freezer, revealing Tommy's open-skull body hanging from a hook. This show offers a ghoulish operation here where those involved, led by Blaine, are doing horrible things to innocent people. There's no subtlety here...they are evil. And Cameron turning on his friends, including Scream's Bex Taylor-Klaus, also proves there's no loyalty when the Benjamins are involved.