“American Sniper” Liv? I know what everyone is thinking.  Why didn’t Liv take the shot? Besides taking a step back knowing that Blaine is the main antagonist, and killing him might effectively kill the show, why didn’t she do it? Are we getting a lesson in humanity from a zombie?

 

Liv is finally wising up. At last, she knows that Blaine is supplying his zombie “meals on wheels” program with runaway teens that he kills. And to make matters worse, her boyfriend Lowell is a steady customer.  The story tells us that all zombies get memory flashes and personality overlays from the brains they eat. Even Blaine’s extremely wealthy customer says that the brains of the wayward teens from Blaine were depressing. Since Lowell was eating the same brains, why didn’t he realize what was going on? Seems to me that Lowell should have known too. Perhaps it is Lowell’s love for Liv that finally got him to face the facts. He kept looking the other way when it came to his brain supply. He didn’t want to deal with the moral implications of what Blaine was doing. But at the risk of loosing Liv, he finally breaks down in what I have to say is the finest scene of the episode. Bradley James was fantastic portraying Lowell’s realization of his complicity in Blaine’s enterprise. He was so full of sorrow and regret as he confessed to Liv. It seemed so raw and genuine that I caught myself getting a little choked up. Tragically though, it was Liv’s inaction at the wrong moment that caused Lowell to sacrifice himself. We’ll miss you Lowell.

The different story lines seemed to flow together well in this episode. Liv’s memory flashes and personality changes finally come together to not only solve the murder, but give her a rare opportunity.  Coupled with “a unique set of skills” she could have taken out the sinister Blaine and his enterprise. Her memory flashes gave her insight into the sniper’s interactions with the ex-wife and new husband. She masters a paint ball course and uses her new military training to find the missing shell casing, determining that it had to be shot from a person who was 15 ft. tall. It’s absolutely brilliant the the murder weapon turned out to be a gun printed on a 3D printer and fired from a drone controlled remotely from a boardroom.

Our shot of comic relief came at the expense of Major, who is still trying to figure things out without the benefit of knowing about zombies. He actually thought he could find someone who was eating brains in order to glean chemicals from the pituitary gland, all in a effort to get bigger from weight lifting. Hilarious! Which begs the question, why is Blaine’s henchman Julien Dupont lifting weights? He’s a zombie. Zombies have super strength when they switch into “full-on zombie mode.” Is it just habit? Maybe brains are fattening and he’s trying to stay in shape? In any case, he’s an idiot (typical henchman) and ends up getting shot several times by Major.  I was hoping that Major was finally going to get some of the answers he was looking for after taking out Julien, but I guess he didn’t shoot him in the head. Man, and after everything Major has seen, I might even think I was going crazy when Julien’s body disappeared.

 

iZombie is an entertaining show and I enjoy watching it. As a fan of science fiction and fantasy shows though, I just wish the lore was a little less confusing. Liv seems to be the only zombie who has personality changes, except for Lowell’s “gay” day – nothing from the lieutenant, Blaine or Julien. And since they established that eating brains can effect sexual desire, why hasn’t that effected Liv with all the male brains she has been eating? Lowell might have said that he wasn’t searching for memory triggers, but something should have triggered as soon as he met with Blaine to receive his “food” order. Instead of that happening, he doesn’t have a memory flash until Julien calls on the cell phone. Also if Lowell dug up a grave, wouldn’t the body have been drained of blood and embalmed? Then why was the brain in the bag bloody. Would a zombie even eat a brain full of embalming fluid? I figured that’s why Liv works in the ME’s office and Blaine kills people that no one will look for.  Isn’t that so that the fare is fresh? Maybe I shouldn’t worry about it, but stuff like this hurts my brain. On a lighter note, at least we know that the zombie disease isn’t transferred from mice to humans, thank goodness for Ravi.