NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “iZombie” are present in this review
iZombie carried on via much the same note as last week in this week’s episode, only with some slight improvements that resulted in an especially enjoyable episode. “Eat, Pray, Liv” gave Liv another creative and highly humourous brain to dine on, while some nice drama throughout the love triangle between Ravi, Blaine and Peyton was also mined, as Major tries to continue acclimating to his new gig at Fillmore-Graves.
The case-of-the-week in this episode involves a zen-like guru who is bludgeoned to death by a Buddha statue in his studio. After Liv eats the man’s brain, she adopts his ways of, “Mindfulness”, making her constantly speak in fortune cookie quotes. This was mostly joke fodder, and didn’t often apply to the case at hand, which Babineaux even directly points out later in the episode, but it still made for a pretty funny brain, especially when Liv takes it to the act of interrogating suspects!
Like last week, the case-of-the-week in this episode was fairly straightforward, and felt like it ultimately played second fiddle to the higher-profile events that occurred with the supporting cast. There was an interesting twist with the culprit, revealed to be an old business partner who disguised himself as a homeless person to forge a fake witness to the crime he committed, but that’s about it. Actually, why even bother going through the whole charade of pretending to be a homeless man? If the guy is so rich and successful, why didn’t he hire someone else to kill the guru? Moreover, why does he care that much about a stay in prison that is now over, and clearly didn’t affect his fortune? Disappointingly, the killer’s motive and methods were a little unbelievable.
Nonetheless, we still got lots of highlight drama with the supporting characters, as I said. Considering that he sat out last week’s episode, this means we also get more time than ever with Blaine, as Peyton also rejoins the show’s leads, now seemingly thoroughly invested in a connection with the amnesiac Blaine. Blaine has apparently become a lounge singer and piano player, on pure chance, and seems to be honestly turning over a new leaf, now that his memory is gone. He doesn’t even seem to have any interest in re-discovering who he was either, and this was something that the episode portrayed very well. Blaine continues to learn new and disturbing facts about the man he was during much of this episode, so it’s really difficult to blame him for never wanting to go back to that life he once had.
It was also great to have the new Don E./Angus partnership start properly developing in the story here, as the two find a place to set up shop, and begin building a brain-seeking zombie clientele. The interactions between the dim-witted Don E. and the business-savvy Angus led to more standout humour for the episode, and made it all the more satisfying when Don E. finally manages at least one good idea, by calling the secret brain club, “The Scratching Post”, something that Angus seems to be fine with. This should hopefully make for a promising obstacle to succeed the now-absent Stacey Boss this season, since Fillmore-Graves seems like a potential antagonist that could keep being built into a potential Season Four.
The moment where Blaine reunites with his father also provides a great sleazy turn in continuing to undo Blaine’s illicit fortune, which is why it’s too bad that the show didn’t have Angus take advantage of his son’s amnesia for a longer period of time. Peyton pointing out that Angus should be dead, after identifying him to Blaine during a meeting related to Angus’ will, is even waved off pretty casually, but I suppose that’s fair enough. It wouldn’t do to have Angus be stopped this early, especially when it’s been great to have a new spin on Blaine so far. Then again, the episode threatens to undo it after Major’s life-threatening cure symptoms start worsening, and an emotional speech by Ravi convinces Blaine to be a guinea pig for the memory-restoring serum related to Ravi’s second potential zombie cure. Hopefully, the serum is a dud, since it’s unlikely that the amnesiac Blaine has gone as far as he can go at this point.
Speaking of Ravi, his presence made for the perfect crescendo to Peyton’s renewed loyalty to Blaine. Ravi acts antagonistically to both Peyton and Blaine throughout the episode, and naturally, it’s not long before he confesses to Peyton that he’s still in love with her. When Peyton wants to talk though, Ravi nonetheless ends up hooking up with someone else, leading to her storming out, and seemingly cementing her as wanting to be with Blaine. Damn. Ravi’s big screw-up was a nice dramatic gut punch to end the episode off on, making for a bitter, yet effective conclusion to an episode that was otherwise especially packed with humour and fun.
Beyond his worsening symptoms, the only big development with Major this week is him getting slowly better at his new Fillmore-Graves mercenary job, while also making a buddy on the squad. This is setup for events to come, but it worked in filling in the gaps that weren’t eaten up by the case, the love triangle, or the new business partnership between Don E. and Angus. “Eat, Pray, Liv” offered the usual recipe of strong humour and potent emotion, something that iZombie consistently excels at, though it’s a shame that the show’s procedural element is still playing catch-up for the time being. Still, as usual, we’ll have a new brain and a new mystery to enjoy next week, even if Season Three’s real star seems to be the character dynamics so far.