iZombie - Five, Six, Seven, Ate!

Gulliver and Nancy were poisoned with cyanide (in the ole protein shake), and why were these two such victims? Well, it seems they are were part of a dancing competition where the victors get a ticket out of Seattle. So guess who gets to eat of Nancy’s brains and investigate her demise? Liv, of course. Ravi will reluctantly join her “undercover” as replacements for Gulliver and Nancy. Ravi, nervously, has to navigate his way around not being able to dance while Liv tries to improvise for both of them. Dance competition winner hopefuls, Lars and Tina, seem to be the most likely to benefit from the absence of Gulliver and Nancy.

Tensions continue to rise as an incident at school (teachers investigating children for “zombie lice”) brings Fillmore-Graves officers to address teachers (when the teachers go to Peyton, Dolly is mentioned on accident with the principal shushing her, indicating Dolly has infiltrated the minds of a lot of humans now) for searching out children that might be zombies so they can separate them from human kids. One of the human kids attempts to draw a weapon from the holster of one of the officers with them drawing their M-16s, recorded on video (well, edited to show F-G officers pulling their weapons on kids without all of the circumstances that led to it). Peyton and Major have an argument on keeping the peace, as the two blame each other for the hostilities on the uptick.

Clive and Bozzio goes to lamas class, as Bozzio is pregnant (married after a brief rift), and they see Michelle, who is also pregnant! Michelle and Clive had sex during a separation from Bozzio…so it is possible both ladies are pregnant with Clive’s child! He obviously has to speak with Michelle which results in awkwardness. She admits that the child could be his or an ex-boyfriend’s. Bozzio wants to know bad, but Clive isn’t comfortable repeatedly asking her to have a test to determine if he is the father.

“You just have to be the frame”

Ravi having to learn salsa dancing, with an enthusiastic Liv (McIver’s mad dance skills prove that the actress continues to devote herself completely to whatever persona her character occupies) and Clive trying to help is amusing. This is seemingly the vision the writers probably had when conceptualizing the episode. Much like the last episode, “Dead Lift”, McIver had to be in great athletic shape in order to actively portray the personae of two physically demanding victims. McIver with that face full of confidence and vigor, talking about no one putting Ravi in a corner in an effort to inspire him…she’s magnificent. Of course poor Ravi up there by himself after Liv abandons him due to a vision of a lover of Gulliver’s (water polo partner) trying to go it alone is a treat. Eventually the partner cops to it after gulping some of the cyanide he aimed to just kill Nancy with (Gulliver was a tragedy of sharing).

A subplot could turn into something more substantial. Jordan was killed in the previous episode by Dolly’s sniper, and the two kids she was taking care of were left orphaned. They were victims of human bullying until one of them snapped. The ongoing crisis of human and zombie estrangement continues to remain a divide as Dolly stirs up shit quite effectively. Thankfully the boys have a home in Liv’s underground “accidental orphanage”. As Dolly instigates and connives, the human version of Blaine in regards to villainy, the likes of Peyton, Liv, and Major must somehow find a way to diffuse what could eventually be an all-consuming fire.

Seeing Major and Peyton later talk out their apologies for their outbursts (cooler heads prevail here), it does say a lot about how they are just trying to be mature and rational as best they can under the highly pressurized 

 [3/5]