iZombie - Return of the Dead Guy

 So the episode has a lot. Drake returns to haunt Liv after she eats the brain of Weckler, the Dominatrix killer, learning that he was hung in his cell by a security guard who lands a windfall and seemingly falls out of a cruise boat while imitating DiCaprio in "Titanic". Liv sees visions of Drake (he was a "Romero", a zombie so far gone she shot him out of respect, her guilt seemingly encouraging the Weckler hallucinatory mental illness part of brain to keep him alive) and must make peace with him (in a way) in order to be free to have a relationship with Justin, who she makes understand the current situation. Weckler did indeed kill the Dominatrix as Liv sees a long blue-brain-juice extended vision, so that is settled with Peyton. Meanwhile, Stacy Boss shoots Blaine multiple times, soon realizing he's a zombie. Blaine's plans are to use Boss as an international brain supplier and spread the zombie virus in order to make lots of cash. Stacy even tries again to kill Blaine by burying a lobotomy spike in his throat. In this episode there are plenty of CGI mad red-eyed zombie effects as Blaine reveals himself to Boss in order to emphasize he's not kidding about being a zombie while later one he burns Liv with a cigarette lighter in a car to initiate her own zombie rage. What is neat about this episode is that the police investigation is focuses on a dead character in the zombie main story arc, in Weckler, while also focusing on Harley Johns and his group of anti-zombie hunters holding Don E prisoner while a live stream concentrates on his gradual starvation until he's closing in on being a Romero. I commend the writer's room for closing with a fade to black that has Ravi with Harley's gun pointed right into his forehead while Blaine and Liv are "hulking up" outside the building. With Major once again involved romantically with yet another female love interest while the writer's room had Liv in a relationship with Justin, I remained rolling my eyes at the soap opera plotting of avoiding what we know is inevitable...these two are kept apart despite on again/off again fuck every now and then. During the series run, I admittedly remained annoyed at how the show kept doing that. I was like, "Enough already!" This episode really does a swell job of building up to Ravi trying to keep Don E alive as Johns and his boys waited until their stream was up to 100,000 viewers before planning to use a cattle prod to initiate a mad zombie response on camera as proof of the existence of zombies in Seattle. 

To add to the overall story arc, Weckler's daughter (and her friend) is a zombie, knowing after Clive and Liv visit them for a few questions that Liv is a zombie working for the Seattle Police Department. So I have only a few episodes left and I'll have completed iZombie. 

This episode gave me a couple of very memorable moments to remember: a fun reference to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" by Peyton in interrogation as a prisoner who was there when Weckler was killed (wanting to cut a deal) claims Liv is a "mutant" and Peyton in a dominatrix outfit (and cat ears) whipping Liv (who is on all fours) in order to strike up a vision. Peyton as a Dom for just a few minutes gets this episode the highest rating I have of 5/5.