If you thought it was going to be tough to top last week’s fantastic episode, you would be incorrect. I know I was. I’m still relatively new to the TV reviewing game, so I admit that I’m still learning. I gave last week’s episode a perfect score, and dammit this week’s episode was better. If I could give “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie” six skulls, I would. Unfortunately I can’t, so I’m just giving it another perfect 5-skull rating. Consider my lesson learned! I won’t be so quick to hand out such high marks any more. Anyway, on to this superb episode of iZombie.

The obvious saving grace for this episode (and other episodes like it) is that the case of the week was directly linked to every single subplot in the episode. This removes the episodic element and helps iZombie to embrace its procedural roots. The episodic structure has been criticized in the past, and unfortunately that is just the type of show that iZombie is. That just means when an episode eschew that structure for most of its runtime, it makes that episode stand out more, and it’s all the better for it.

This week the case centered on three hitmen whose decapitated bodies were found washed up on the shore. Of course, this ended up being tied into a much bigger case involving Mr. Boss. Eddie Jemison made an imposing first impression a few weeks ago, but he has been mostly absent since then. It was great to see him come back and show off his range: vulnerability when learning of his nephew’s death and a mencacing vibe when cornering Blaine in his basement (how fun was that scene?). With the debt that Blaine now owes Mr. Boss (for walking out on the utopium dealing operation after the boat crash in the pilot), it looks like we’ll be seeing many more scenes with the two of them together.

Turns out the three dead bodies were actually Mr. Boss’ hitmen, and they were sent to kidnap District Attorney Baracus, who is actually a zombie under Blaine’s control. Baracus went into full-on zombie mode after being held hostage for a little too long without brains, and he ended up storing the heads of his captors in his refrigerator while throwing their bodies in the lake. Still with me?

Baracus’ kidnapping also brought about trouble for Major, who came under Vaughn du Clark’s suspicion when the hitmen turned up dead. If a D.A. was kidnapped by three professional killers, then that D.A. would be dead unless he had the superhuman strength of a zombie. The fact that he had a lot of hot sauce purchases on his credit card didn’t help matters.

I try not to recap too much in my reviews, but it felt necessary for this one since there was so much going on in the episode. “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie” pretty much brought everyone out of the woodworks. Gilda even showed up to torment Major a little bit! Props to you if you even remembered who Baracus was. I had to Google him.

Liv was able to interact with pretty much all of these characters as well (except du Clark), but she was mostly concerned with herself after eating the brain of a ditzy social media butterfly that Ravi had on reserve for her. Said brain ended up helping her confront Drake about his past (more on that in a bit) and figure out that Baracus was hiding out in a nook in his cabin.

du Clark also reinforced his role as a psychotically evil super-villain. He pretty much did what all bloggers wish they could do: murder trolls. It may not be the most original idea, but it’s treated with the utmost seriousness and actually does make du Clark a more threatening villain. Credit should be given to Steven Weber, who has been doing a bang-up job in the role.

For a show with three main villains, iZombie certainly does an excellent job with fleshing them all out and making them feel like real people. Blaine and Mr. Boss (who has had the least amount of screen time between the three) still manage to feel like actual threats, as opposed to stereotypical “comic book villains.”

This was an episode that paid off tremendously to fans who have stuck with the show since the beginning. It can be easy to forget that creators Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero pepper little clues and Easter eggs throughout the most episodic of episodes that will pay off remembering in a later episode. It will probably make a re-watch of the series much more rewarding.

Less prominent but still important this week were the romantic subplots with Liv and Peyton. After doing some internet research with her brain powers of the week, Liv learned that Drake spent 22 months in prison for aggravated assault. The overall explanation was a little anticlimactic, but it was a serviceable hurdle for the two to overcome.

More interesting was Peyton, who had to deal with the aftermath of learning about Blaine’s true identity. After a stellar scene in which she and Liv cornered Blaine in her office, Peyton spent the majority of the episode getting drunk with Ravi. After spending a good chunk of the season Peyton-less, it was nice to see her emotional fallout and spend so much time with her this week. Aly Michalka is a talented actress and she deserves more to do on iZombie.

Hopefully next week’s episode isn’t better than “Physician, Heal Thyself,” otherwise I’ll look like quite the fool. Nevertheless, this was yet another first-rate episode of iZombie and we can only hope that the remaining seven episodes of the season can maintain this kind of quality.

Random Notes

• Chapter Titles of the Week: Brain Trust; Head Case; Chaos Theory; Lillywhite Lie; Deaux, A Deer in the Headlights; Cabin Cleaver; Takeout For Dinner. I’m a sucker for musicals so the Sound of Music reference in “Deaux, A Deer in the Headlights” killed me. That “Cabin Cleaver” title is timely though, considering the release of the Cabin Fever remake on Friday.
• Brain Recipe of the Week: Brain Sushi, and it looked awesome.
• Liv discovers that Blaine is the Mystery Man/Mr. U. Have I mentioned how nice it is that iZombie is zipping through these plot lines now?
• Love how Clive Red Dragon‘d du Clark by tricking the reporter into believing Baracus’ kidnapping was the work of the Chaos Killer so that he could try to bait him out of hiding.
• “Looks like a no-brainer to me, Liv.” -Ravi, on the headless corpses.
• “For the record: all you are to me is a giant mistake.” -Nice to see Peyton get a lot of great lines this week.
• I’ve never heard of the #BootyHadMeLikeWhat, but I’m going to start using it all the time on Twitter.
• “What does it mean if a guy you’re dating isn’t on Facebook?” -I think it’s weird when someone isn’t on Facebook too. Sorry!
• “You look just like this doll my little sister used to have.” -This is an apt description of Liv.
• “Tell me more about this Mystery Man.” “It’s like you don’t know wha the word mystery views.” -That informant was pretty funny though, wasn’t he?
• “153 people watched you unpack a box. How? Why?“
• “Why obsess over the trolls?” -When I first started writing for BD I obsessed over the meanest comments. I’d like to think I’ve gotten better at handling them.
• “If you post that you have to tag me in it.” “I don’t know what that means, honey.”
• “You work up the nerve to resign and your boss gets abducted!”
• The stakes rise again next week as Major comes face-to-face with Blaine again!