iZombie - Love & Basketball

*** / ****

A night watchman is shot dead while at his desk and the video recording system was off during it! Liv will certainly be depended upon by Clive to help him solve this murder, that's for sure.

 Liv and Major kissing at the end of the previous episode doesn't go anywhere in Love & Basketball, of course. Liv worried about Major becoming a zombie through a cut or passage of fluids puts the kibosh on any good lovin'. But gaining back friendships puts Liv back in good spirits.

The brains of the night watchman give Liv a particular fondness for and knowledge of basketball. Included in this new personality is a severe dislike for the Knicks as fan Clive soon learns! Gilda is to somehow get some of Liv's blood for the Super Max experiments, realizing Major might just be her way to do so.

Liv giving Major a pep talk is the absolute highlight, coaching him up as he looks on from his disheveled bed, perplexed but amused. And Clive beating the shit out of an abusive father who choked the night watchman while he was serving as a boys basketball coach sure competes with that pep talk, though!

Robert Buckley sure understands how to convey anguish. Having to kill and under the addiction to Utopium is taking its toll on Major. One such target is greeted by his wife and child. The hairs stand on end and Major knows what he must do.

Liv snookers Major into taking the basketball duties of the deceased night watchman. It is exactly what Major needs to give his life purpose beyond serving as a fitness trainer and blackmailed zombie executioner.

Gilda, meanwhile, gets her blood through an "accident" while Liv is chopping vegetables. She also learns of Liv's makeout with Major, not exactly sitting well with her. Of course she doesn't respond well to Major no longer wanting them to have sex. She has leverage against him for sure.

Clive still unsure about Suzuki's death, his wife bringing him brain she found in the fridge, and FBI agent, Dale, informing him of the astronaut's hair found in the sink of Blaine's old meat restaurant. The wheels are turning and Clive is like a dog after a bone.

The case involving the night watchman soon unravels a company employee with a gambling addiction responsible for the bat head smash of a thug with a bean hammer looking for cash owed him and the boss of said company almost getting away in his jet when linked to the initial shooting.

The unfortunate Reverend Zombie injects himself with uncut Utopium, with the results of body acidification inspiring the devious Blaine to fight Ravi in a scuffle in the morgue for what remains. Thankfully Ravi breaks the vial across the floor before Blaine could get to it!

Liv and Major not quite getting back together once again is soap opera melodrama that milks the wedge between them put in force by the writing team.

Gilda is a danger to Liv, Blaine a danger to Ravi, Gilda a danger to Major, and Blaine always a danger to Liv...how the writing team keep our heroes from their ultimate doom is what makes them clever and creative because it takes serious smarts to find ways for them out of harm's way.

And Harmon as the FBI agent with a sense of humor and personality is a breath of fresh air.

The case is once again treated as a side excursion while the meat of the second season is all the additional, ongoing character stories, tied together but working separately also. Each character seems to alternate in and out of each other's lives, yet mysteries are concealed and developments continue to play themselves out. The case presents something to occupy our attention and the principles. While the main seasonal story arc involving all the principles continues to be zombies loose in Seattle and how some realize it while others don't, crimes committed by folks and solved by Clive, Liv, and Ravi serve as episodic fodder. This episode is a good example of a case without a whole lot of inspiration devoted to it. The season character developments are what receive greater emphasis.