‘iZombie’’s debut season wraps up with an explosive episode, as Major tries to escape Blaine’s clutches while Liv works a deadly case.

“NO”

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

iZombie has been one of the surprises of the year for me. It’s not ground-breaking television, but what sounded like a bad idea on paper to me has turned out to be a delightful show. The pacing of this season has been pretty much perfect, and all that was left to do was tie it together in a satisfying way. Did “Blaine’s World” achieve that goal? Even though I felt there were a couple of stumbles near the end, the answer is a resounding yes.

The performances have really helped make all of these characters likeable in their own way, and the finale really cashed in on that. Blaine is a despicable character, but David Anders has done such a good job in making him stand out from other creepy bad guys. It’s just so much fun to watch him be evil. He even ended up making a very good point here: his brain delivery service is obviously a really bad thing considering the source of the brains, but it’s also the only thing that is holding off a potential zombie apocalypse right now. Without his brains, all of his zombie customers are going to have to find their meals somewhere else. Let’s not kid ourselves here, Blaine is definitely in this for personal gain more than some duty to protect mankind, but I don’t think even he would want the world to go to hell.

Major’s arc throughout the season has been great to watch. He went from super nice ex-boyfriend to psychiatric patient to near unstoppable zombie killer. I say “near” because he was stopped in the end by Blaine, but in the moments before that, he went on an absolute rampage. After finally escaping from the freezer, he grabbed his weapons from his car and just went to town on those zombies inside Meat Cute. It was a fun action scene, even if the cutaways from the headshots were incredibly awkward. It all had to come to an end somehow, and there was Blaine, appearing out of nowhere to stab Major in the gut. Then came the big turning point for the series. Liv shot Blaine, gave him the experimental cure that Ravi had developed and then decided to turn Major into a zombie to save his life.

All of that happened in the space of a few minutes, and that was my one big complaint about the finale. There was a hell of a lot of stuff packed into the last five to 10 minutes of the show, and it actually felt like too much. Most of this was setting up plots that will develop in the second season, but I could have done with less of that and more time spent dwelling on a few of these big moments. I mean in the space of a few minutes Major was turned into a zombie, had a huge chat with Liv and then shortly after that was injected with the last dose of the cure available to Liv. This was a huge moment for Liv, and I kind of wish we had more time to see it play out.

When Liv’s brother Evan showed up at Meat Cute last week, I assumed that he would be used as leverage by Blaine. Instead, we got a big twist where Suzuki decided to blow up the place (while he was still inside) to cover up all of the zombie carnage. Evan happened to arrive at the exact wrong time and ended up getting caught in the blast. This was another surprising moment, and it led directly to Liv being put in a terrible situation in the last scene of the episode. With her brother desperately needing a blood transfusion and Liv’s blood being an easily accessible match, Liv was forced to refuse to donate her blood so that she wouldn’t turn her brother into a zombie. That’s where the episode ended, and we’ll have to wait for next season to see the aftermath of Liv’s “no,” but damn, I just felt so bad for her there. The anguish of her choice was written all across her face, but she had made the decision to not turn anyone else into a zombie against their will. She was really put in an impossible situation after injecting Blaine with the first dose of the cure. She used the final dose on Major, not knowing that she later could have used it on her brother after giving him her blood. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes right now.

THE BREAKDOWN

iZombie’s Season 1 finale was almost too jam-packed. I didn’t even really dig into the Max Rager arc here at all, but it kind of became an afterthought once Major started mowing down zombies left, right and center. Max Rager has taken a blow, but they’re still standing, and I assume they’ll have more of a part to play next season. I’ve been suspecting that Clive would come close to the truth soon enough, and now that Suzuki blew himself up along with DuPont and the rest of the zombies that Major took out, he’ll be closer than ever. Blaine is now seemingly cured, but he’s definitely going to be out for revenge soon enough. It’ll also be interesting to see whether the cure has any side effects on Major and Blaine, or whether Ravi really is a genius. Ravi didn’t have too much to do, but Peyton was completely missing—thanks in part to Aly Michalka’s uncertain future on the show (it’s now likely that she’ll be returning for Season 2.) iZombie has been incredibly fun to watch, and it now has a huge amount of material set up for Season 2, and I have every confidence that it’ll knock it out of the park once again next year.

What did you think of Liv’s decision making in this episode? Tweet me @OldSnake24. And be sure to follow us @YouNerded!

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