iZombie - The Scratchmaker

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The matchmaker brain Liv eats and the mystery of who murdered the victim is perhaps one of the least interesting subplots within an episode of the entire series, I felt while watching it. Called “The Scratchmaker”, Liv does try to set up a spy infiltrating her underground (the teacher of the adopted zombie children forced to help since his lover is kidnapped) with Major after interviewing her as a new “member” (she poses as a lawyer who wanted to do more for those disenfranchised), but overall this personality is kept almost exclusively in the background, with Don E begging her to remember something that would indicate who his “perfect match” would be. Nothing ever comes of it.

The episode is actually very Blaine-centric, focusing on his release from prison, frozen assets, burned mansion, dismissal from brain distribution for Seattle (in actuality, Stacey Boss (Eddie Jemison) was truthfully the smuggler, as Don E was the low man of the hierarchy, soon agreeing with Boss to cut out Blaine and form a partnership with a well known Seattle distribution, similar to Amazon, thanks to some cunning masterwork from Major), and even the Scratching Post named after Don E. Don E sighing in disappointment when asking Blaine why he kept the mask he wore when shooting the former mayor, often the patsy and now the one seemingly with the upper hand, this episode almost does a seismic shift in terms of how characters turn in terms of status. Blaine once lived a life of privilege and luxury, now reduced to securing the brain of a teen with the Isobel disease for a millionaire desperate for a zombie cure. Don E still playing the role as if he is Blaine’s friend, as if they were all out of the brain distribution business—Stacey asks for double the price of what Blaine was getting from Major, before Major figured out a different strategy, needing a “new face” for who would be supplying brains to zombies in Seattle—does show you how the pupil learned from the master. Stacey and Don E caving at Fillmore-Graves, agreeing to cooperate, is a significant win for Major. And this episode really gives us one of Major’s most impressive victories, gifted the idea when Ravi speaks about how much he paid for night-goggles through the distributor.

Major contacting the US government, and their refusal to ship them any brains, leaving him with a major crisis that seemed inevitable, he was in dire need of some spark of genius in order to divert a disaster. And he does…but for how long? A motivating factor for Dolly’s anti-zombie protest is revealed: her zombie son is part of Fillmore-Graves! Major getting hot dogs for all of his officers through a warning towards Dolly is another clever bit of one-upmanship. Dolly uses the media to her advantage, but “discrimination” towards zombies at her food truck is a slick if slight victory.

So while Bozzio is off on maternity leave, Clive steps in as Acting Lieutenant with Liv getting some fun digs in. Their case against a mother who killed the matchmaker because she set up her son with a zombie in the episode is disregarded, almost discarded as minuscule. Thankfully Clive is back on his feet considering in the previous episode he was unable to walk due to a slip and fall.

I didn’t write a review for “Dot Zom” but it entailed an internet/computer tech genius murdered for conducting a list that detailed all zombies in Seattle, essentially marking them for death. He also had a whiteboard with lists of special inclusions from Seattle that would get free passage in a saferoom, chosen according to his analyses of their importance overall. I just didn’t have much to say about it, although the one responsible for hiring the genius to do this was a zombie hater. The episode really conveys that there are many who hate zombies, considering them bigots. You realize that zombies might go crazy without brains and turn on humans but if they are satiated, often the humans appear far more monstrous.