NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “iZombie” are present in this review
iZombie seemed like it wanted to shift gears with its usual story focus a bit this week, focusing more on a fleshed-out case-of-the-week a bit more liberally, though one that didn’t completely sacrifice an amusement factor from Liv’s latest brain. “Dirt Nap Time” still didn’t perfect the latest case-of-the-week, sadly, since it still peters out on a bit of an underwhelming conclusion, but fortunately, some great subplots with Don E., Blaine, Peyton and Major helped to nicely fill out an overall strong episode.
Seattle’s latest murder victim is a jovial, optimistic preschool teacher who seemed to see the best in everyone around him. That said though, the man was also a known womanizer, and when he’s found in his house with thirteen nails shot into his skull, it would appear that one of his relationships went very sour in the end! Liv having to consume the teacher’s brain made her especially, annoyingly upbeat, as well as super-encouraging to the extreme, which was often funny to see, especially when it inevitably gets on Babineaux’s nerves pretty fast.
The brain humour with Liv was a bit more understated this week, albeit still very funny. Fortunately, the latest brain also proved to be fairly helpful in the case-of-the-week too, as Liv gets a good dose of visions that show off the victim’s final hours with various women he was involved with. Like I said, it feels as if the show is trying to move a bit further away from putting the humour above the workings of the case in this latest episode, though it sucks that the latest murder case still had a weak, hasty resolution. Turns out, the culprit was an angry husband that was lying about being alright with his wife’s affair with the victim. As far as crimes of passion go, that’s almost as textbook as they come, which is disappointing.
Nonetheless, Don E. and The Scratching Post also took up a big chunk of this episode, especially as Major’s subplot also ends up intertwined with them. Major’s mercenary friend, Justin learns that Major is human in this episode, though agrees to keep his secret, as Major continues to try and fit in with zombie-kind, not having any other options after being accused of being the Chaos Killer. This has Major going to The Scratching Post for the first time with some Fillmore-Graves comrades, where Justin asks if he can date Liv.
Moving Liv on to a new romance is a big development, and she and Justin do indeed seem to hit it off, as they pay a visit to Don E. to ask about the stolen cure doses. Don E. seems to be ignorant about this though, pointing out that he would be very rich if he had a bunch of zombie cure, and certainly wouldn’t be lugging around boxes at a club. Neither Blaine nor Don E. seem like decent suspects in the crime of the stolen cures at this point, though the prospect of a new budding romance for Liv, one approved by Major no less, is still a satisfying and worthwhile development.
Blaine also headlined a highlight subplot this week, as he begins to hit a sizable rough patch in the wake of his lie to Peyton and everyone else. After his lounge singer gig stops working out, he gets a beatdown from Liv, after she believes that he stole the cure doses. Later, Don E. also takes away Blaine’s business, before Angus sends an enforcer to shoot Blaine in the gut, with orders to kill him soon afterward. Blaine’s definitely at a low point right now, and the sudden, aggressive move by Angus and Don E. definitely cemented that, as Blaine nearly loses his life very suddenly! As Blaine offers the enforcer a payday to let him live though, it looks like he’s going to cheat death for the umpteenth time. This sudden move is likely the final ingredient to fully restoring the old Blaine, and the sudden success of The Scratching Post is probably going to be threatened very soon, after this attempt on Blaine’s life!
Fillmore-Graves continued to mostly sit out this episode, beyond some of their mercenaries partying at The Scratching Post with Major and Justin, though we nonetheless got some more developing threats, particularly through Peyton’s subplot. This provided a nice carryover from, “Spanking the Zombie” a couple of weeks ago, as Peyton tries to convince that case’s murderer to relinquish the memory card into evidence. After a bigwig lawyer unseats the public defender though, the killer ends up dead in his jail cell, having allegedly hung himself. Peyton, of course, suspects that something else is up, since it seems like blackmail material wasn’t the only thing on that memory card! The idea of linking more than one case-of-the-week through Peyton is pretty promising, so hopefully a few more murder victims end up incorporated into this recurring storyline over the rest of the season.
The episode ends with the zombie conspiracy theorists also catching a ‘full zombie’ Justin on video, chasing after their car, after Fillmore-Graves tells Major and Justin that the men are headed their way. Is this bad luck for Seattle’s zombies, or is this an agenda being engineered by Vivian and the higher-ups at Fillmore-Graves? These questions and more are keeping the intrigue and engagement high on iZombie this week, even if Seattle’s latest pedestrian killer proved to be another let-down for Liv’s and Babineaux’s police work. Still, a past highlight case coming back into play via Peyton’s subplot was great, not to mention that Blaine’s new opposition at The Scratching Post is starting to hit hard and fast! Even with Fillmore-Graves continuing to hide in the background for now, it looks like this show still isn’t wanting for plenty of interesting turns and villains!