iZombie: Season 1, Episode 9: Patriot Brains
I am both relieved and upset by the things that happened in this episode. I’ll get to that in a moment, but how awesome was it for Liv to eat a brain that was for an ex special forces soldier. Her game of paintball, which was both an investigation and a way of blowing off steam, was definitely pretty awesome. What I’m noticing is that she’s starting to get the murder of the week (which from now on will be called “brains of the week”) for whatever the plot needs at the time. The murder she solved was a good one, but the brain clearly just prepared her for what she needed to do, or what she thought she needed to do.
The revelation of Lowell getting his brains from Blaine showed her that Blaine needs to go. He’s just that bad. It’s good to see that Lowell wasn’t a spy, which is what I suspected last week. His explanation of not having triggers for visions made a lot of sense. I wondered about that, but Liv actually goes around looking for triggers so she probably gets them more than any other zombie around.
He mended his ways, which made things seems much more promising to our posthumous couple. It’s sad that he has resorted to grave robbing (which is what Gwen, the main character in the comics, does), but it shows his dedication to the woman he loves. He even joins in on her plan to kill Blaine by setting him up for her. Unfortunately she probably needed another bite of the sociopath brains, because she was far too good a person to do it. So her beloved tried and failed miserably, leading to his fairly surprising second death. He wasn’t around for that long, but it was still pretty devastating to see him go.
In terms of Liv’s reaction, I know this is going to stretch at least to the season finale. She’s going to blame herself, because it didn’t have to happen. Had she killed Blaine, Lowell wouldn’t have tried and failed. I foresee this making her grudge against her zombie nemesis much worse and having all types of other backlash throughout the show.
As far as the other characters, thank goodness Ravi is okay! Apparently zombies can’t make zombies from members of different species. That would explain why no zombies ever attempt to eat animal brains, which would be much easier to be honest. They only crave people.
Major seems to be having some serious problems in his area. I think his pursuit of the truth is very interesting, because it makes sense that a person’s last thought would be zombies if he discovered some people harvesting human brains. It’s not turning out well for him, as he is beginning to put a bigger and bigger target on his back. He has gone from the typical pretty boy love interest to a complex, single minded crusader who had completely self destructed in pursuit of his goal. He is obsessed and not bothering him at all that he might get himself killed. Now he looks even crazier in Clive’s eyes. The police are definitely going to be done with him, the man who cried wolf.
Speaking of Clive. I think he’s the only weak spot these past couple of episodes. The show has done a pretty good job of establishing his relationships with everyone else, especially Liv and the episode about his past was very enlightening, but he’s fading a bit. As the main plot starts to get more elaborate and deep, he’s losing a lot of spotlight. He’s a strong character that’s starting to become a bit more of a background fixture. I don’t think this is being done on purpose, as his presence is still very powerful and relevant, but there’s just not enough room for everyone in every episode and he hasn’t had a real arc in a while. I’m sure this will be fixed as we move into the final four episodes. I am glued though, I have to see this season through. It’s just getting to be too good to ignore!
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
