iZombie - Mac-Liv-Moore


**½ / ****
While the formula of the show is featuring your seasonal arc as background while a current case from crime scene to morgue to eaten brains of the victim to the investigation serves as primarily a distraction (sometimes actually benefiting the arc that functions as a means to keep the show continuing on its track from season station to season station), I think Mac-Liv-Moore finds a way to try and address its subplots as the most important part of the episode while the case is a minor diversion that peeks its head out from time to time to remind us it exists. Liv eats the brain of a dead white underground Seattle rapper, carted into the morgue with his girlfriend, soon learning through her work with Ravi and Clive that the one responsible was a zombie killer who escaped from the convict bus that was overturned by Angus’ church of the undead. Chase Graves didn’t know about Major’s report when he (and his kid soldiers) was nearly killed in Angus’ church, which sends him into a rage. The show has done a swell job of communicating Chase’s quietly stewing rage he’s kept held in check which surfaces from time when he slightly loses control (in this episode he smashes a locker with his fist collapsing into it a major Hulk Smash hole), confiding in loyal Major. Major’s tug-o-war between Chase and Liv, on opposite sides of the turning-humans-zombie ongoing battle within Seattle as brain supplies continue to dwindle, also remains a dilemma he must consistently withstand. Blaine has now devised a masterplan to spread the zombie virus across the country so that Seattle doesn’t serve as the enclosed “Lost City of Z” so that he can reap the rewards of “real estate price hikes”, paying a major price for a cyber-genius brain (that came from a virgin brainiac with socially awkwardness) fed to his cohort, Don E. Blaine will give the mayor of Seattle the zombie cure then kill him in cold blood when he is human again to be displayed on the internet (the dark web). Those with enough money will more than pay millions for the cure, so Blaine eyes the financial investment of killing the mayor, while the dark web beckons payers to reach out to him. The city goes on “lockdown” intruding upon Clive and Liv’s case, so that Fillmore-Graves officers can search the streets for the missing zombie serial killer. With the brain of a rap artist, Liv slings “mad rhymes” and speaks the language while also dressing the part, as Clive, Ravi, and members of the police force congregate in private to play Dungeons & Dragons! The show has been moving Clive away from Bozzio and towards another female police officer, Michelle (Christie Laing) during the season, and with the D&D game, her involvement (and desire to play) results in the two kissing while fighting over a recording of their activities (the skewering from fellow police officers would assure plenty of giggles for years to come). The discovery of dead human mayor and Blaine’s dark web recording of it places Peyton in the role of acting-mayor! Peyton, who knows of Liv’s underground activities replacing Renegade and dying Isobel’s status as an outsider who entered into Seattle illegally, secretly opposes Fillmore/Graves. So Major’s inner circle is against his boss, certain to increasingly make things more and more difficult. Peyton informs Ravi of Liv’s replacing the guillotine-head-smashed Renegade, and Isobel’s immunity against the zombie virus piques Ravi’s curiosity. Isobel, before she dies, will not leave Seattle, wanting Ravi to investigate her for a possible immunity that might just serve the public at large in regards to the zombie virus. And even Major’s underlings, who follow his lead as officers for F/G, begin a romance with each other, trying to determine if it is serious or not. 



McIver, dropping rhymes, gets into the part for sure. That is no surprise, but this persona isn’t altogether overwhelming as has been in times past. Rhymes at the end as narration is a nice touch. Graves entrusting in Major when it appears there is dissention in the ranks will only tighten the squeeze as Liv, Peyton, and Ravi continue to work against Chase. Graves also contending with the uprising in Angus’ church and Blaine’s own hatched plot to spread the zombie and reap profits from a cure offered to the highest bidder doesn’t do him any favors.


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