Liv and Clive investigate, as a group of rebellious teens start turning up brutally murdered.

The CW

“HOPE’S DEAD.”

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

Damn, iZombie has been absolutely killing it recently. I believe it was just last week that I was saying I thought Major would be the only of the central characters to find out about zombies before the end of the season, but then suddenly Peyton learns everything. There’s only one episode left in the season, and the show has managed to keep everything incredibly well-paced throughout. I can’t think of many times I was left exasperated by filler, and that’s why many shows would be more suited to the shorter season order that iZombie has taken full advantage of.

So getting right into it, the whole Peyton thing was pretty awesome. I enjoyed Sebastian’s previous appearance on the show, but this time he brought it to a whole new level. Some elements of the episode were lifted straight out of a horror film, with Sebastian lurking in Liv and Peyton’s apartment. The zombie brawl between Liv and Sebastian didn’t exactly flow perfectly, but it was brutal as hell. There were knives being stabbed into people all over the place, but of course with very little blood. For the whole fight I was wondering whether Peyton would see any of it, but sure enough she’d seen it all. Peyton witnessing Liv in full on zombie mode was a huge moment, and Liv had no choice but to tell her the whole truth. Peyton reacted exactly like I imagine most people would and bolted for the door as soon as she could. It’ll be interesting to see how she comes back into play next week.

Major also inserted himself into the main story again in a big way. First he decided to do something incredibly stupid and pose as a health inspector to get into Blaine’s base of operations. Out of all of the misguided things Major has done in his search for the truth, this was the worst. DuPont could have recognized him and then he would have been in all sorts of trouble. He then decided to get completely tooled up with some extra firepower, but his plan to kill all of the zombies ran into a DuPont-sized hitch. Major’s now locked up in Blaine’s back room, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Liv’s brother just walked in looking for a job. I think it’s looking increasingly likely that there will be more than one zombie in Liv’s group by the end of the season.\

The CW

The case of the week was a real treat, too. Not only did we get to see Liv under the influence of more than one brain, we also seem to have a brutal new killer added to the show. We thought it was just Sebastian killing people off, but that scene in the motel near the end proves that someone (or something) else is out there. Liv’s two very different meals this week brought a lot of laughs to the episode. First of all, seeing Liv as the majorly peppy cheerleader type was a lot of fun. It’s the most lively we’ve seen her in a while, and watching Clive react to her was hilarious. She went from one extreme to the other with the next brain, but stoner Liv was equally as funny. It may have been a little over the top at times, but watching a completely baked Liv interact with her friends brought the laughs in a big way. Going back to what I said last week about Clive growing more suspicious, I’m now certain that he’ll soon be snooping around Liv’s life a bit more. At the very least he has to be thinking that visions aren’t the only thing she’s being affected by. I just sure hope there wasn’t any brain on that bite of pizza he took.

THE BREAKDOWN

One episode remaining and iZombie is perfectly primed to end its first season with a bang. Peyton knows Liv’s secret and has hightailed it out of there, while Major knows half of the story and now finds himself in a seriously tricky situation. I’m really excited by the prospect of a new villain popping up in the form of this week’s other murderer, but I’m not sure if they’ll have time to really fit that in along with everything else. With her brother and Major now in Blaine’s clutches, it looks like Liv is set for another zombie showdown.

90/100 – Superb

Simple round of questions for you this week: Who lives? Who dies? Who gets zombified? Tweet me @OldSnake24. And be sure to follow us @YouNerded!

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