Hello iZombie fans! First, I would like to apologize for my absence last week. I was at a screening for The Witch, followed by a Satanic Ritual and I wasn’t able to watch The Whopper until the weekend (I would have given it a 3.5/5, in case you were wondering).
On to this week’s episode, whose title is a pun on one of my favorite movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (if you’ve never see it, stop reading this review and go buy it now and watch it). “Eternal Sunshine of the Caffeinated Mind” sure was spinning its wheels for a while there with a rather ho-hum case-of-the-week, but nearly buckled under its own weight when is essentially threw a surplus of plot developments at us in the final ten minutes.
There wasn’t anything particularly noteworthy about the case-of-the-week, in which a bubbly coffee shop owner named Leslie walked outside only to have an AC window unit fall on her and crush her head. It did give us a very positive Liv, whom we haven’t seen in a while what with all the drama going on in her life, so that was a refreshing change of pace for the character. Slightly random was the return of Pam from Liv’s stint in jail. Her presence seemed superfluous (that could have been any random new character), so maybe she’ll become more important in the season’s final five episodes.
It was a little obvious that Leslie’s daughter Cher (played by the actress who played Abigail Hobbs on Hannibal) turned out to be the culprit, but it wasn’t obvious that she would get away scott-free! This conclusion was a darker turn from iZombie. It has let the killer get away before, but it’s been a while so the fact that her taxi wasn’t pulled over by the cops (or hit by an 18-wheeler) as she left for the airport was surprising to say the least.
How about the crazy plot developments this week, huh? Major and Rita/Gilda come face-to-face in front of Liv! Mr. Boss finds out that Blaine has been ratting him out to the D.A. and has him “killed!” Drake is actually an undercover cop whose boss (Enrico Colantoni, aka Keith Mars from Veronica Mars).
First, Major and Rita/Gilda! It was great to see Liv vocalize the audience frustrations with that whole “How weird that it took this long for you to finally meet!” line, but just when you think the writers are going to sweep it under the rug, Major calls Gilda “Rita,” immediately clueing Liv into the whole situation. Then, Liv actually confronts Rita by punching her in the face. It’s all rather fun, but it came at the expense of Major confessing his identity as the Chaos Killer, so that was a bit of a disappointment. The show can’t show all of its cards though so I’ll give it a pass. His whole “No I suddenly know why you didn’t want to tell me you were a zombie” bit was a classic example of too little, too late though.
Drake’s surprise identity as an undercover cop (for a year and a half!) was a relief, since last week’s episode made his relationship status with Liv a little worrisome. Never fear though, because he’s actually a good guy! He’s sort of playing a triple agent though, hiding his zombie identity from his cop boss, his undercover identity from Blaine and Mr. Boss, and all of it a secret from Liv. It’s a lot of lies to juggle, and they’re probably going to come bit Drake in the ass soon. We’ve got five episodes left this season and it would be nice for that to happen sooner rather than later. If anything, it’s nice to have a clearer image of who Drake is and what his motivations are. Seeing him defend his relationship with Liv spoke volumes about the character.
As Drake is working on getting closer to Mr. Boss, Mr. Boss discovers that Blaine is the one ratting him out to the D.A. (and as Mr. Boss points out, has accrued a total of 400 years in prison sentences to his lackeys). Seeing Blaine get his throat slashed was shocking to say the least, but as soon as the camera cut to those picnickers you knew he was going to come crawling out of the ground. Now that Blaine is a zombie again things should really start to get interesting. It also means that Major will probable be reverting to zombie status again soon, which will be an interesting twist in Liv and Drake’s relationship.
With only five episodes left in the season, iZombie just kicked things into high gear. It’s too bad so much of the episode was focused on the case-of-the-week, but that last act really stuck with you.
Random Notes
- Chapter Titles of the Week: Dug U Fresh; A Piece of Her Mind; Wide World of Corpse; Aproned Saint; Money & Cher; Undercover Lover; But Is It Art?
- Brain Recipe of the Week: Brain scones! I’m not the biggest fan of scones. They’re just so dry!
- That death by AC unit was very Six Feet Under. More of this please.
- “What’s your notion of heaven, Clive?”
- Candy had sex with Blaine and now she’s a zombie. Bummer.
- That CGI rat was….CGI. I won’t hold it against the show since it so rarely uses it, but I’m betting that’s not the last we’ve seen of it.
- “Oh Star Wars, right. I’ve never seen it!” -Poor Ravi just can’t catch a break.
- “Don’t worry they’ll remember me. They were out of toilet paper. I had to improvise.”
- Liv whistling “When the Saints Go Marching In” while she was cleaning the blood off of the autopsy table was a hilarious image.
- “I’m optimistic.” “No argument there.”
- “Oh look! A hole! Someone could fall in there!” -Blaine, sarcastic to the very “end.”
- “You’re a sick bitch and I just want you out now!” -How cathartic was that punch? I think I actually fist-pumped.
- “Have you seen Blaine? He’s been ignoring my texts all day. He knows I have abandonment issues.”
- Looks like we’re on another month-long hiatus. See you all on March 22nd when iZombie returns for the final five episodes of the season!
