iZombie - Dead Lift

“Dead Lift” sure places Major (Commander of Fillmore-Graves after Chase’s “exit”) in a significant predicament. Mostly instigated by Dolly Durkins, who orchestrated a hoax on a gas station video recording which depicted a human woman attacked by zombies (the car later found, with syrup and a wig found in the hidden lowrider car), how does Major and Peyton (with help from Clive and Liv investigating) try and prove it? Including a drive-by shooting at a “warmbodies” bar (inclusive only for humans, with no zombies allowed, the watering hole quite different than Blaine’s club), soon discovered by Major to be two of his own Fillmore-Graves officers (pro-Chase, anti-Major, very vocal in their disregard for the current boss’ “softness”), the hits just keep coming. You sure can feel for Peyton, trying to keep the city from apocalypse, and Major, needing to corral his officers. It is not an easy task to keep the peace for either one of them.

Liv meant for Major to have the brains of a fitness instructor, but he tricked her. She eats them instead and the fitness mantra/lifestyle is soon infiltrating Liv’s personality. It is definitely fitness overdrive! Advice to others like Ravi and Clive on how to eat, lift heavy objects (like garage door), proper exercise techniques and routines are all part of this newly adopted persona. McIver, as always, fully inhabits that sort of personality with full gusto. When Clive is interviewing a woman (78 cellphones pinged the area where the human woman was supposedly killed in the lowrider car, so Clive and Liv must conduct that many interviews if no one answers their phones when he calls), played by Jackie Debatin (she later is shown to have worked in the hoax with Dolly, and it is hinted she’ll be silenced for wanting to come clean about taking credit for it), Liv is pushing garbage containers up to the house when she isn’t stretching. While I think she’s cute as the energetic exercise freak, the next episode where she embodies a dancer is even more lively and vivacious.

Jordan’s death is definitely the big tragedy of the fifth season, a major supporter of Major in his F-G regime, Dolly’s sniper taking her out sets back all the efforts of Lillywhite and Peyton to try and calm the storm of racial tensions between humans and zombies. Dolly’s antics are a major nuisance. The hoax and drive-by both only serve to make matters worse. Dolly knows that the zombies are outnumbered and her hatred of them fuels all of her efforts to manipulate other humans (like faculty in a Seattle school in the next episode) into her cause. The previous episode ended with a potential victim leading Clive and Liv into the woods, following after her husband, only for this to be a false alarm. His wife was actually with another man; it appears they were both inebriated with some good herb.

Major coming up with a hoax of his own in regards to using the guillotine on his officers involved in the drive-by (they are sent out of the city while Oliver and the girls eventually gain access to Seattle, at the cost of Barron’s life when human zombie hunters interrupt their celebration) as a ruse to inform the population that he’s not going to tolerate such vigilantism. And they bring in Dead-Enders as perpetrators of the hoax, calling Dolly’s bluff (she can’t very well publicly claim responsibility for it!).

Still at this point in the season, tensions are high and our heroes continue to try and maintain peace any way they can, but with Dolly’s malfeasance, insidious and calculated, keeping Seattle from tearing itself apart might not be so easy.   

Ravi and Peyton's sexcapades (God I'm so jealous of Ravi!!!) are played for some light-hearted moments and Ravi's D&D buddies inspire him to request funds from the city to conduct a comedy show to help ease human and zombie relations.     

[2.5/5]