NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, “iZombie” are present in this review
After setting up a mostly good, if slightly rushed climax opener last week, this week’s season finale for iZombie, “Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2” largely continued on that same note. The final episode of the show’s third season was largely pretty good overall, as major shakeups are made to the status quo, and Discovery Day finally dawns on Seattle. Again though, the show visibly suffers from the shorter length of this season, since it has to rush several story developments into place to pave the way for next year’s fourth season.
Among the biggest casualties from the shortening of Season Three’s order to a mere thirteen episodes is the final resolution of the Tuttle-Reid murders and Weckler conspiracy that have both been built up so much throughout this season. It seems like iZombie hit a wall with this dual conspiracy, and is now just trying to apathetically sweep it under the rug. It turns out that Carey Gold, one of the executives at Fillmore-Graves, and Patrice Gold’s mother, was the one responsible for the Tuttle-Reid murders and Weckler extortion alike, to frame a scenario that would accelerate Discovery Day after Baracus becomes mayor, while simultaneously blaming Harley Johns and his zombie-truthers for the incident. That might have been a solid resolution, had it not been hastily and awkwardly tossed into an already busy season finale, where it looked like a half-cocked effort that was full of holes. Making matters worse is that there are ultimately no real consequences for Chase when he discovers this, since he just shoots Carey and her security thugs dead, and Babineaux just seemingly shrugs off the answers he’s been looking for all season. Really? That’s it? That’s all the ceremony behind the Tuttle-Reid killer being discovered?
Fortunately, even if it had its own share of contrivances, and I’ll get to that in a bit, the execution of Discovery Day and how it pans out did feel exciting, and did change up what we know to expect on iZombie at this point. The show finally clarified the Aleutian Flu situation a little more, when it’s believed that the Aleutian Flu is a ploy by Chase and Fillmore-Graves to kill a bunch of people in Seattle and ensure a large brain supply. Chase being a surprising red herring in the investigation of the true evil forces behind Discovery Day was also a fairly solid turn too, since it makes the otherwise ruthless-looking Chase seem justified in his efforts to prepare for the enemies conspiring against him in the city. He’s still not exactly likable, but at least he’s doing what he thinks is right by his own people, and that’s now indisputable.
The one time where a lack of ceremony with certain story developments sort of made sense in this season finale as well is with Blaine and the Scratching Post, as Chase bans his men from attending the zombie bar. This has Blaine and Don E. spending the remainder of Season Three down and licking their wounds, as their business establishment starts becoming ruined. More than likely, this is going to lead to Blaine having to revive Angus to set the business right again in Season Four next year, but for now, it was interesting to see Blaine end up in anywhere but a position of power for the end of this season. Don E. at least makes plenty of zombie friends on the outside, after Discovery Day has zombies announcing themselves to the world, but what does that matter if all of the Scratching Post business has been chased away by Fillmore-Graves?
On a separate note, the real twist behind the Aleutian Flu outbreak, which was indeed a plot that Fillmore-Graves had prepared in case Discovery Day wasn’t looking good, was pretty awesome as well, as it’s revealed that the vaccinations are fake, and have been spiked with zombie blood. Babineaux is warned away by Liv just in time, but Dale Bozzio ends up getting one of the spiked vaccinations after Babineaux tells her about zombies and rushes her to a clinic, with the results turning Dale, and a whole bunch of Seattle’s citizens, into zombies. Major decides to re-join Team Z as well, when he demands that Chase scratch him so that he can rejoin the Fillmore-Graves ranks. This is well-timed with Liv’s relationship with Justin also imploding, after she confesses to sleeping with Chase while on Katty’s brain, and even if Major becoming a zombie yet again initially feels like irritating backpedaling, at least it fits with his grief at the shocking loss of Natalie and many of his fellow Fillmore-Graves soldiers during the previous episode’s party bombing.
This however brings me to the other major flaw in how Discovery Day ultimately goes down; Its immediate hysteria when one news outlet reports that zombies are real and the vaccinations are spiked with zombie blood, even considering that a newspaper tried to push the scoop of zombies recently too, which unrealistically went right to the front page. Really? Not one person is doubting this? Not one person is laughing this off? If anything, they should see the zombie scoop as a big, desperate joke by the media to start! I could understand people starting to panic after zombie symptoms start to set in for people who got vaccinated, but not before! Even as Johnny Frost is coerced by Liv into delivering the fully serious zombie news live on the air, it’s impossible to believe that every person in Seattle immediately takes it as gospel truth and panics, because come on, it sounds ludicrous! Again, I think having to toss Discovery Day into a crowded season finale rounding off a shortened Season Three for iZombie is possibly to blame here, but even so, the show probably should have been just a bit more realistic with how Seattle reacted to this sudden claim that the undead walk among them.
Despite some of the rushed and excessively unrealistic elements behind how Seattle learns of the existence of zombies though, the powerful and dramatic end to the season did work perfectly. Chase’s surprisingly optimistic video about how humans can co-exist with zombies being broadcast on Johnny Frost’s show was a great tease for Season Four, especially as it’s complemented by scenes of Major, Justin and other Fillmore-Graves soldiers having to shoot humans who are moving to attack zombies. Ravi finding enough tainted utopium to develop another stab at a zombie cure was pretty promising too, especially when it came with him convincing Liv to scratch him and zombify him in the final seconds of the season! If this cure doesn’t work, Babineaux and Peyton are going to be the only human representatives on the series’ lead cast next season, it seems. A zombie Ravi could present some interesting promise though, even if I doubt it will make his sense of humour any better!
“Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2” had to hurry through a lot of big developments, sometimes to its detriment, but it still managed to provide a tense and exciting conclusion to Season Three of iZombie. By the end of the episode, Seattle has learned of the existence of zombies, many more of its citizens have become zombies, and even Dale, Ravi and Johnny Frost end up turned by the end. The zombies are starting to outnumber the humans on this show, and even then, Blaine’s business has hit a pretty big setback after Chase’s intervention, likely spurring the revival of Angus to set things right again. There’s plenty to look forward to as we settle into the long wait for Season Four, which isn’t airing until 2018, and by then, we’re no doubt going to be in for a very different series than what we saw before!