iZombie - Method Head

At the conclusion of “Cape Town”, Ravi realizes that his “cure” only lasts for a certain time and those “cured” (his rat and inevitably Blaine) will revert back to zombie form. In “Method Head”, Major and Blaine (Liv gave up her “cure” for them) get the bad news while Ravi needs to hunt down tainted Utopium for further testing. What’s a Christmas episode of iZombie without a dead Santa ending up on Ravi and Liv’s slab? Cause of death a pipe to the kisser! This case is merely a brief diversion as it more or less is used to show us how important Liv is to Clive's "act", her skills in the field, her "visions" so important at any point during the investigation vital. And while she obeys, it is clear she is desperate to rejoin him. There is a fabulous moment when Major, Ravi, and Liv are digging for a buried dealer with a prosthetic leg, when Liv has a vision. This time Major and Ravi look on and we get the chance to see Liv's face during the vision instead of the vision itself...because the vision belongs to a case that isn't of any real consequence as the next case matters more to iZombie Creative.

…and what happens when a group of kids face the biggest exam of all…survival. 

Liv is ecstatic to be on the set of Zombie High, a television series about high school and zombies, with an actor actually dying on set when a prop gun was swapped with a real gun. Liv is granted a temporary stay on her exclusion from Clive’s investigation, but her behavior while in the field will be kept in check if she wants to remain his partner again. I think most fans had to know that her punishment wouldn’t last long. Particularly, since Liv helped Clive solve the Santa Claus murder not long after New Year’s. Seeing McIver’s longing expressions as Clive disallows Liv the chance of investigation with him was so agonizing, how her pitiful countenance clearly softened his hardened stance.

Liv dives into the actor’s brain and her “acting workshop method” arrives on cue to amuse Ravi, with the whole “pick the imaginary apple from the tree, taste its juicy insides, and learn of the truth it provides” with Ravi responding by eating some “imaginary popcorn”.

Nothing beats all the clever moments that sneak zombie/Hollywood pop culture humor. Like the “sex tape” between the dead actor and popular starlet of the show, zombie extras at the food trailer speaking to Clive and Liv about the actor with the gun who always loses it proposing a television show where the zombie is the star (snicker, snicker, wink, wink), the good food on set that Clive takes advantage of because the muffins at the precinct are practically a day old, the discussions about what star will be killed off next, the on-set prop weapons guy confirming to Clive that a dummy gun is just as heavy as a real one, Liv getting to read with the “new star” (even slapping him because it felt “honest” while fighting away tears), the murdered actor was unpopular on set as he kept the cast and crew working overtime while also remaining quite demanding, that same murdered actor’s keeping the crew late led to a member of said crew to fall asleep at the wheel and crash her car (killing her), a second sex tape being used to blackmail the lead actress (her mocking a deaf actor that is part of their cast painted her wickedly in a bad light) might be a motive, and an affair between the props master and the dead crew member who died because of the overbearing murdered actor, and Liv using her actor’s brain to help Clive convince a suspect to confess. This is fun for Hollywood insider fans, and it does seem to be quite a kick for those involved in the episode.

The Major sidebar has him being tested by Max Rager (well, Du Clark, my nickname for him since it is his company) after the CEO’s conversation with Gilda. Gilda questions Major’s loyalty and Rager’s ego’s “gullibility” when “stroked”. Major’s helping him train, Gilda believes, is encouraging Rager’s ever-growing trust of him. What Rager doesn’t expect is the fitbit band on his arm actually housing a mic recording his conversations. The current scientist (all others before him vanishing due to Rager’s mistrust of them) is a part of the ruse, telling Major that he plans to tell the authorities…presenting a flashdrive with supposed evidence to convict the CEO of his criminality. Major, kudos to him, believes this is a test and is correct although Rager leaves the scientist in the zombie cells behind the protective glass/door longer than necessary to further attempt to provoke a response. Major, to his credit, is often as smart as the villains that continued to come against him time and again, all the way to the end of the series.

If anything, the series has Clive and Bozzio getting closer to Blaine, who is running a brain-running operation behind a funeral / burial business after his “meat cute” restaurant “went up”.  There is one more witty little nugget featuring Clive I laughed out loud to: when noticing Clive shaken up during a talk with the zombie extras by Liv, he responds that zombies creep him out! His partner is a zombie! Thumbs up to the writers for that satirical edge that just works to me. 4/5