iZombie Season 4, Episode 2 review: Blue Bloody

In Blue Bloody, some golfing and gossiping goes horribly wrong, as a rich middle-aged woman gets killed. As this particular brain is bitchy, stuck up and totally unsympathetic, it has some major ramifications for Liv.

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After the “catch-up” we received last week, we go back to the case-of-the-week formula. This week a very prim and proper upper-class woman gets bunked off by a golf-ball gun. The case itself isn’t all that interesting and the comedic elements of having Liv interact with everyone as though she is better than everyone else tire quite quickly.

Then that plot thread takes a left turn by introducing a sick child, which in turn leaves Liv horrified by her behavior and how it has affected those around her, which to be honest is a very interesting aspect of her personality shifts. We don’t really see the ramifications of these switches on Liv. “Blue Bloody” attempts to show it, but it feels almost tacked on. Maybe one day we will get an episode where Liv goes full-on Dollhouse, one can dream of Eliza Dushku et-al appearing.

The brain that Liv is on is very bitchy as Ravi calls her. She takes it as a vodka martini with brains instead of olives. Very classy; a hint as to the acquired taste Liv would become. Liv’s behavior very much hints that money can be an excuse for someone being a terrible person, almost as though they are saying hunger for brains turns zombies into unpleasant creatures.

The treatment of Clive is very much on the nose with this. He even flat-out says “Driving Miss Daisy” just as the joke and references were being shoved in our faces a little too much.

Dale Bozzio and Clive are together, which is a surprise, as this wasn’t what was implied in the season premiere. Perhaps they should’ve made it more explicit. We learned that despite them being together they are very much struggling with the human and zombie relationship. It is known that zombieism is also an STI, meaning that for Clive he becomes very sexually frustrated (even asking the ever-welcoming  Ravi for advice). The solution of Clive taking anti-anxiety meds is surely just a way to make this story thread drag a little further.

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Speaking of relationships, Liv and Major have been secretly hooking up, but her actions have repercussions. The child she helped to save had to be smuggled out of the city, directly contradicting Major’s position within Fillmore-Graves. The break-up (even though they weren’t strictly “together”) is a little forced, almost as though the writers had to come up with a conflict in order to separate them. They both want to do right in a bad situation but are at supposed loggerheads on how to do so.

At Fillmore-Graves, Major has been taking the chosen two from last week out on patrol, but as things progress it goes from bad to worse as their inexperience gets the best of them. Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of the iPhone video that was being shot.

Next: iZombie Season 4, Episode 1 review: Are You Ready for Some Zombies?

Finally onto Angus. He has formed the Triple Cross Church, handing out free brains and forming the “righteous undead.” His preaching and the effects of such are being set up as the ultimate problem for Liv and co. It is very troublesome having outcast zombies being told that brains are their God-given right and that appealing to a higher power gives them meaning and something to look forward to. This all sounds very, horribly familiar.

iZombie has to return to the mythology-heavy side of things in Seattle, along with delving into the actual relationships between the main characters and letting them interact more fully. This episode seems to just be dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s from last weeks episode. Not that it’s a weak episode. It just felt as though something was missing. But then again, we have just started the season and there is a lot more to come, bring it on.

iZombie Season 4 continues Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.