A quick review of tonight's “iZombie” coming up just as soon as I do chest compressions to the beat of “All For the Best” from “Godspell”…
“Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat,” did what the penultimate episode of any new serialized drama should do. It ramped up the tension, began tying together different threads, and put the episodic stuff almost entirely on hold. Yes, Liv and Clive still investigate a case – and one that causes Liv to toggle back and forth between the brains/personalities of a cheerleader and a stoner – but the killer is tied directly to both Liv and the larger question of what caused this zombie epidemic, and the climax of that story brings a stunned Peyton in on the secret, though her initial reaction is to simply run away. I haven't minded the murder investigations, in part because they give Rose McIver the chance to do fun things like revert to a super-perky teenager, but it's never been the most engaging part of the show, and tying the recent cases in to problems with Blaine and/or Max Rager has brought that area of things more into balance with the rest of the show.
The episode also slows down Ravi's search for a cure by killing Hope (“How on the nose,” remarks Liv, before the audience can do so for her), while bringing the Blaine situation to a boil as he has Major prisoner and is on the verge of doing the same with Liv's brother. I'll be curious to see whether things resolve next week with his death – which would cost the show a great villain, but also not force the writers to contort themselves to keep him in play – a detente between the good and evil zombies, or a cliffhanger that pushes all of that off into next season. I'm also wondering if (or maybe hoping that) the drummer played by Bex Taylor-Klaus (from “The Killing” and “Arrow”) turns into a zombie whom Liv can train next season, because she's great (if fairly typecast here), but we'll find out what's up in that motel room regardless.
And this continues to be a lot of fun, and a show I'm very glad will be back in the fall (and that it has continued to do solid ratings even after “The Flash” ended its season).
What did everybody else think?