S02.E06: Max Wager

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Liv unwittingly crosses paths with the most dangerous man in Seattle while investigating the murder of degenerate gambler Harry. Detective Babineaux has a super-fan moment when he and Liv question NBA Hall of Famer Calvin Owens at Harry's funeral. Meanwhile, Blaine's father makes a huge discovery, and Ravi delivers some bad news. Lastly, Evan has a big secret to share with Liv, and Major continues to struggle.

 

Promo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNiyIg6qK-Y

[ElectricBoogaloo]

[curlygirl]

Woah. They actually had me convinced that Major was killing those people. I'm glad that he actually isn't because that seems to up the chances that he'll survive this season.

[blugirlami21]

They had me convinced as well but he still needs to tell Liv and maybe Clive as well. I think it would be a big help in the end of he knows that those people aren't being killed.

Liv and Major were so cute, the morning after they decided to be together, their strip poker game. I'm just glad he isn't in the dark anymore. I'm hoping Clive won't be for much longer either. I do like Clive and Dale together.

Poor Blaine. He basically killed his grandpa for nothing it seems. I'm actually coming around to his character. He's not a one note villain anymore.

[Bort]

Well, at least that explains why nobody is finding bodies. So what's Major dumping off the bridge, then? His weekly garbage?

[AuntiePam]

And if there are no bodies in those bags, why shoot them? 

[Goldmoon]

In case someone is watching? I don't care for Blaine getting these pet the dog moments. Did everyone forget him shooting Lowell?

[Cranberry]

I still don't like Blaine. I find him entertaining sometimes, but I don't like him.

 

Major is dumping mannequins, probably; there were a bunch of them in the place with his zombie-filled freezer... and yeah, he's probably shooting them because someone from Max Rager is watching him to make sure he's doing his job.

[Hollysdower]

Well now we know what Major's been up to, and that he's not a killer!

 

My favorite moment was Babineaux being all slick with his badge in front of his basketball idol  XD

 

I'm not so impressed with Stacy Boss...doesn't seem very menacing. I hope he changes my mind over the next few weeks.

[Cranberry]

I actually like that Stacey Boss isn't the stereotypical cold, taciturn, menacing businessman. The smug, almost cheerful way he talked to Liv about making a target kill himself by threatening his family, the way he kept talking about Peyton's pluck... it was almost more chilling coming from him than from someone like Blaine's dad because it was so unexpected. It's obvious that he's intelligent and intuitive, too. I'm interested to see where this goes.

[twoods]

In case someone is watching? I don't care for Blaine getting these pet the dog moments. Did everyone forget him shooting Lowell?

Yes! I had to stop watching last season because of this moment. And now, I can't warm to him even though he's cured. He also turned that innocent guy a few weeks ago who ended up dying since he thought he was injecting himself with the cure.

Major and Liv are so cute, which means it won't last for long.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

[GaT]

Now I'm confused. I didn't realize that Major was freezing the zombies instead of killing them, I didn't know why he was putting bodies in the freezer at all. I see from the comments that people think it means he's not killing them, but how do you know that? 

[Richness]

The gratuitous strip skype scene must have affected me more than I thought, cause I honestly didn't realize what was going on for most of the episode.

 

 

I'm not complaining.

[Actionmage]

I'm not so impressed with Stacy Boss...doesn't seem very menacing.

 

The guy laid out ( very probably) how he had someone ( some people) die in front of a police-adjacent agent of the court ( she does work for the M.E.). That takes a pair of stones. To me, Stacy Boss is scarier than Vaughn Du Clark because Stacy seems to be thoughtful and more hands on when the need arises. DuClark likes to subcontract, as it were, so things like Major not actually killing folks  creeps in and messes up a plan here and there. Last season ended with Du Clark ducking harsh scrutiny, so he can be inconvenienced, if not hurt, plan-wise.

 

Boss feels so in control that he is amused by a 27 year old ADA tell him she's not going to just roll over. (I was pulling for Peyton so hard in that scene! I was trying to will her fears away so Boss couldn't smell them.)  Then again, I love Eddie Jemison; he's a great actor, imo.

 

Blaine.  Not a good episode for him, but my feeling badly for him will pass. Like his grandfather. Still, I hope he gets to feed his father the grandfather brains. It's an elegant revenge that I normally wouldn't condone, but it's Blaine's family. Poor Chief. Quit being mean to him, Blaine.

 

Ravi is all.

 

I want everyone to sit down somewhere and just tell everyone what kind of crap they are fielding. Maybe in the Storage Building of Secrets and Zombies? Unless Du Clark/ Rita has that wired for sound and audio too.

 

Can we hope for Strip War next? Strip Boggle? Strip Go Fish?  (Thank you, Show, for mostly nekkid Major. I can't be the only one who appreciated that.)  Major and Liv remember that one can give and receive a foot massage, if one asks politely, right?

 

Rick Fox: still looking good, for goodness sake.

 

Midseason is going to be insane; it just feels like something is going to go very wrong soon. Like Clue Boom on Hollywood Game Night, something's just going to *POP!*

 

Did I miss Evan? If I did, what was that about? TIA for that.

[txwatcher]

Major is either preserving the bodies for the cure. And Special Agent Dale Bozzio is working with creepya** Stacy Boss. Since, Dale Bozzio is the vocalist for 80s band Missing Persons.

[Cranberry]

Now I'm confused. I didn't realize that Major was freezing the zombies instead of killing them, I didn't know why he was putting bodies in the freezer at all. I see from the comments that people think it means he's not killing them, but how do you know that?

 

In season one, Blaine kept zombies on ice for when he needed them -- if he lost a henchman for whatever reason (usually him offing one for bad performance*), he'd just pull a new one out of the Meat Cute freezer. Freezing doesn't kill zombies. We assume that Major is doing the same thing because we've seen it before. In this episode, we also saw that he had a room full of mannequins that he could be putting in those bags, shooting, and dumping into the water for appearance's sake. We know that he doesn't want to kill zombies, so pretending to kill them while actually hiding them away makes sense for his character.

 

*From here: 

 

While waiting to make a delivery, Blaine's meatheads are upset that their lives have been upset by becoming zombies. They want to go into business for themselves, taking away Blaine's monopoly in providing brains to other zombies. They plan to steal Blaine's delivery list for a list of clients. Back at the restaurant, Blaine welcomes the two meatheads back and then shoots them in the head after revealing he knows their secret. He goes into a freezer and pulls out another pair of frozen zombies, saying that he buys in bulk.

[GaT]

 

In season one, Blaine kept zombies on ice for when he needed them -- if he lost a henchman for whatever reason (usually him offing one for bad performance*), he'd just pull a new one out of the Meat Cute freezer. Freezing doesn't kill zombies. We assume that Major is doing the same thing because we've seen it before. In this episode, we also saw that he had a room full of mannequins that he could be putting in those bags, shooting, and dumping into the water for appearance's sake. We know that he doesn't want to kill zombies, so pretending to kill them while actually hiding them away makes sense for his character.

 

*From here: 

 

Ah, I had forgotten about that, thanks.

[norask]

This episode had a lot going on and I loved it.

 

I can see why Mr. Boss is the Boss. I found his cheerful demeanor all the more scary because how normal and reasonable he sounded. When he was talking the barbershop in from of Liv, even the scary Barber had been freaked out. There is a lot of potential in the ensuing fight between him and Peyton who did a very good job of not backing down even though she was scared.

 

How cute and hot are Major and Liv together? Suffer bitch. lol. That strip poker was awesome. It's so great to see them not pining away making moon-eyes at each other and instead being pro-active. As they said, in order to be together, they don't need to exchange bodily fluids.

 

Blaine made me sad. Yes he is a psychopath and I don't expect him to survive the season finale but it's quite clear where he gets it from. His drunk conversation with Liv was probably the most genuine he has ever been on the show. He killed his grandfather but in vain. But now with his father gone, doesn't he inherit all the family money and the business?

 

Clive and his FBI buddy was good too. I like them and as Liv said, it was good to see him having a life(sort of, he was taking shop, after all) out of the station. I'm so interested to see how he connect the dots he has uncovered.

 

Liv becoming another person was not so overt and I'm glad for it. She didn't go as far as to gamble away her whole savings or something like that. I was a little worried about that after seeing the promo.

 

And Major is not a killer, literally or morally, depending on how one views a zombie. He has always been shown to be too much of a good person to be a stone cold killer. Now I don't have to be worried about him dying anytime soon.

 

The show has a lot of balls in the air but I trust Rob Thomas and unlike some other shows I watch, i expect him to deal with all this is a satisfactory manner.

Edited November 11, 2015 by norask

[possibilities]

I had been wondering if dumping dead zombies in the water would result in a zombifed fish population.

 

I like Peyton. The more we get to know her, the more I like her.

 

Without a body, there would probably be a veeeeeeery long probate. I would think Blaine gets no inheritance for a loooooooooong, loooong time. For all anyone knows, Daddy went on a vacation somewhere. He's living with the missing astronaut under assumed names.

 

I'm waiting for manikins to start floating in the water. Or a pile of them, wrapped in garbage bags, to be discovered by divers.

[Primetimer]

Liv meets more guest stars than you can shake a Utopium-tainted stick at.

Read the story

[maxineofarc]

I regret to say that I cannot possibly care less whether Liv and Major manage to get it on in conventional fashion. This may be partly because I'm increasingly weirded out that Liv appears to have forgotten that Lowell ever existed. Sure, maybe he was just her rebound guy, but you'd think that she'd at least remember having watched Blaine murder him.

And speaking of Blaine, he is in grave danger of becoming more interesting than the protagonist, which is a difficult line for a TV show to walk. I know he's kind of a love or hate proposition with viewers, but David Anders is actually selling me on Blaine having layers- and weirdly he's the one who's bringing the emotion to the show, for me. Liv brought the gut-wrench at the end of season 1, especially when she had to refuse to donate blood, but this season she's been bouncing around personalities so much that any emotional conflicts she's been having feel weirdly superficial.

Has the zombie thing always been a virus? How on earth do you get a virus, a semi-living organism, out of Max Rager and Utopium?

[questionfear]

Has the zombie thing always been a virus? How on earth do you get a virus, a semi-living organism, out of Max Rager and Utopium?

They haven't really said, but my guess is that whatever tainted the Utopium might have had a virus along for the ride. Maybe it's something like mad cow disease, or even just the common cold, but viruses mutate quickly to adapt, so it's easy to handwave that it somehow adapted to making zombies. 

[sacrebleu]

I am loving how all the pieces of this show are coming together. Vaughn DuClark is pushing for the SuperMax formula that may or may not bring on the zombie apocalypse. He's also got his suspected zombie's to kill list (which also happens to overlap with Blaine's client list) 

Then we have the other bit of the zombie-making cocktail: Utopium, being peddled by Stacy Boss (who happens to be Blaine's old boss).

Peyton's after Boss, Major's helping DuClark (sort of, he's taking those zombies out  of circulation at any rate) , Ravi's working on a cure, Clive is determined to find out what happened at the Meat Cute shootout (which will out Major and Blaine, not to mention the whole existence of zombies), and Liv is at the center of all of it. 

[Julia]

Maybe it's something like mad cow disease

 

Oooh, that's good. If it's something like a prion disease, that would explain why it's too small to be stopped by barrier methods.

[blugirlami21]

I feel like Clive's continuing investigation while letting him into the secret zombie club won't do much else.  The police chief was a zombie, all those people killed by major were zombies.  Unless he's going to let the world know that zombies really exist and more than likely tarnishing the police chief's memory, I just don't see him arresting Major for it.

 

I hope that Dale isn't working with Mr. Boss.  I really like her relationship with Clive and she has a great sense of humor.  Mr. Boss was really scary.  I think the low key nice, rational crime bosses are a lot more scary than the over the top ones like Steven Weber's character, his name escapes me.  Peyton was pretty bad ass this episode.  She does have pluck, I just hope it doesn't get her killed, though I would love Liv defending her in zombie mode.

 

I haven't forgotten that Blaine killed Lowell but I honestly thought that Liv and Lowell's plan was really stupid.  I also felt like Lowell knew what was going to happen when he hesitated before trying to kill Blaine.  

[norask]

Without a body, there would probably be a veeeeeeery long probate. I would think Blaine gets no inheritance for a loooooooooong, loooong time. For all anyone knows, Daddy went on a vacation somewhere. He's living with the missing astronaut under assumed names.

 

That is very true. Well, at least Blaine doesn't have to deal with him for a few episodes until he is inevitably defrosted.

 

I regret to say that I cannot possibly care less whether Liv and Major manage to get it on in conventional fashion. This may be partly because I'm increasingly weirded out that Liv appears to have forgotten that Lowell ever existed. Sure, maybe he was just her rebound guy, but you'd think that she'd at least remember having watched Blaine murder him.

 

I don't think Liv has forgotten about Lowell. Liv coldly reminded Blaine of what he had done when she went to his funeral parlor. But Lowell had no connection to Major and I don't think she has to bring that baggage to her already complicated relationship with Major.

[maxineofarc]

Liv is at the center of all of it.

She's at the center of it all, in the sense that all of those plots are happening around her. She seems to be tangentially at best involved in making any of it happen. I think trying to get Blaine to reproduce his Utopium recipe is the most active step she's taken in the metaplot? Correct me if I'm wrong; I hope I am. There's a lot of plot threads that have the potential to come together with her, but so far she seems to have sidestepped most of it - I'm hoping it all starts coming to a head quickly.

I don't disagree that Liv and Lowell's plan was completely stupid.

[ratgirlagogo]

I must really be dim, because if I had not read the recap here I would NEVER have gotten that Major was freezing and saving all the zombies and dumping the mannequins into the river. I just saw him carry Blaine's dad over to the freezer and stack him on top of two frozen guys I didn't recognize - and I wondered why he was saving THIS guy plus those other two guys.

[kieyra]

Yep, I had to come to the forums to find out what I had just seen. Show is a little oblique with exposition (and reaction shots) sometimes.

Blaine is in another show that I fast forward through. Also why does he still have zombie hair?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

He was maintaining his zombie look for appearances. He doesn't want anyone to know he isn't a zombie anymore.

 

with his father gone, doesn't he inherit all the family money and the business?

Without a body, you have to be missing for several years before the courts will pronounce you presumed dead which means Blaine would not inherit anything for a long time.. If he can convince the board to let him take his father's place until he gets back, then he will at least get a fat paycheck. I don't know if he wants the business that way though. I mean, he wouldn't say no to getting paid (even though he's already getting paid a lot for providing brains to zombies) but I think he wanted to take the business from his father, not slide in while he's gone. Plus having a real job might interfere with running his drug business and his zombie feeding business.

 

One of the side effects of Major stashing/faux killing the rich zombies that are on his Max Rager hit list is that Blaine will be losing income since he is charging them a lot for his brain service.

 

Isn't zombie-ism spread through bodily fluids? If that's the case, what about all the open mouthed kissing Liv and Major did before she stopped him in the previous episode? Not to get overly technical about it (or too grossly detailed) but that means Major swallowed some of Liv's saliva but he didn't turn into a zombie. Not that I'm encouraging risky zombie sex but I am really trying to understand how it's transmitted. I'm still unclear as to why a zombie scratching a human transmits zombieism since the human is the one bleeding, not the zombie.

[rue721]

Blaine made me sad. Yes he is a psychopath and I don't expect him to survive the season finale but it's quite clear where he gets it from. His drunk conversation with Liv was probably the most genuine he has ever been on the show. He killed his grandfather but in vain. But now with his father gone, doesn't he inherit all the family money and the business?

 

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about Blaine. Angus is genuinely scary, but Blaine was the one who suffocated his beloved grandfather to death in this episode. And it seemed like his grandfather knew he was going to do it, with the way he kept trying to protest. Blaine apparently has more ~adequacy~ issues and less polish than his father, but he doesn't actually seem less dangerous than he is.

 

That said, I hope that Blaine sticks around. He's fun to watch, and I buy that he's a horrible person *and* that he has real feelings. He's also probably changed/grown the most out of all the characters over the course of the show so far. I mean, he was a loser before he was a zombie, and he transformed himself into a monster to adjust to becoming one, and now he's torn about whether he wants to be one again -- because at least when he was a monster, he was getting things done and had a lot of power! Idk, I think that makes him more interesting as a character than Liv is right now. That's a more interesting dilemma than Liv's, anyway, since hers seems to be "how can I date someone without having sex with him?" atm.

 

I don't even know why Blaine killed his grandfather, though. He obviously wanted to give his father a brain that would be terrified and would remember being murdered by Blaine. But wouldn't ANYBODY Blaine killed have a brain like that? And Blaine had been feeding everyone the brains of murdered street kids before this, so it's not like he really shies away from feeding zombies the brains of terrorized/terrified people who he's killed.

 

Hmmm maybe he had forgotten what being at his father's mercy felt like, and now that he's been reminded, and reminded that his father also has had his grandfather at his mercy for decades, too, he wanted to put his grandfather out of his misery.

 

Weird that he didn't just KILL HIS DAD instead of his grandpa, though. Blaine apparently was the one to infect Vaughn, so I guess he had the opportunity to kill him at some point, and he just zombified him instead.

 

Not that I actually want him to kill Blaine. Angus and Blaine were giving me a Lex/Lionel Luthor vibe in this episode, which I enjoyed. And I love both David Anders and Robert Knepper -- always happy to see either/both of them on screen, tbh.

 

Anyway, I did feel bad for Blaine when Angus said he'd scratch him unless Blaine murdered his rival's son. Was Angus *this* cold-blooded before he became a zombie? And if being a zombie does make people more cold-blooded, then does that mean it happened to Liv? That seems like a bigger threat to her ability to be with Major long term than their (hopefully temporary) inability to have sex is.

 

Speaking of Major, I'm SO RELIEVED that he's not a murderer!

 

And speaking of Blaine, he is in grave danger of becoming more interesting than the protagonist, which is a difficult line for a TV show to walk. I know he's kind of a love or hate proposition with viewers, but David Anders is actually selling me on Blaine having layers- and weirdly he's the one who's bringing the emotion to the show, for me. Liv brought the gut-wrench at the end of season 1, especially when she had to refuse to donate blood, but this season she's been bouncing around personalities so much that any emotional conflicts she's been having feel weirdly superficial.

 

I agree.

[thuganomics85]

Eddie Jemison of all people playing Mr. Boss was so out of left field, but it totally worked for me.  He doesn't look or sound like your typical menacing big baddie at all, but there was something about the way he played him that I found chilling.  I actually really did get worried for Peyton in that scene, and that's rare for me.  Because, realistically, they aren't going to kill off Peyton this early if they ever plan too, but I really didn't know what Boss was going to do.  Either way, I enjoy this.  As much as I enjoy the villains played by likes of more natural to these roles actors like Robert Knepper and Steven Weber, I think this could be very fun.

 

I liked that the case of the week was a continuation of last week (continuation!), but it didn't hold any real surprises.  Of course it was going to be Rick Fox.  Gambler Liv was fun at least.

 

Ravi was put in the background in this one, which was disappointing, but I loved the moments we did get.  Condom ballon animals!

 

Clive pointing out Liv remembering basketball stuff last week, but not now, was great.  Of course, Liv inadvertently helped herself out by making him she was watching basketball games on the down-low to impress him, but I'm hoping that is a sign that Clive is going be more obvious that something is off about Liv.  That said, I really don't understand why Liv doesn't just say that her psychic powers cause her to assume some of the victims personality traits.

 

Never though Skye Strip Poker would actually be kind of sweet, but there you go.  And this is coming from someone who really doesn't even care about Liv/Major.

 

Speaking of Major, he isn't a killer?!  He's been hiding the bodies in a freezer instead?  And I'm guessing all those shots of mannequins means he has been using them instead.  I guess I'm glad he hasn't gone down that path, but I don't want to be in his shoes if/when Gilda or Vaughn find out about this.

 

All the Blaine/Angus scenes were great; as was his scene with Liv; and David Anders continues to shine, but I do worry that the show will make him join the good guys, and go down some kind of "redemption" path.  I rather he stay bad, and just align with them, because his enemies are a bigger issue.  Still, this episode still ended with him killing his grandfather, so he's not exactly Mr. Nice Guy, thankfully.

[CletusMusashi]

My guess is that Blaine thought that Grampabrain would allow him to guilt-trip his father into signing over the family business.

[FurryFury]

I've really enjoyed Blaine in this episode. Finally they're starting to flesh this character out, but I kinda suspect it's too late. They should've done it in season one, and also given him more scenes with the rest of the cast. Right now, Blaine's storyline feels very disconnected from the rest of the show. Although I did enjoy his short drunken talk with Liv a lot.

 

This season's starting to give me Veronica Mars season 2 flashbacks (and not just because of a sports star with dirty dealings), there are a lot of plot lines and connections between some of the side characters which I'm having trouble following because I'm just not invested enough.

 

Also: really? The "can't have sex" trope, AGAIN? It was awesome in Buffy, but I have horrible flashbacks of it in Dark Angel, and so far, iZombie's closer in quality to the latter, sorry to say.

 

Major didn't actually kill people. Sigh. Of course, they can't have him be too bad for the heroine. Even if he were shirtless all the time, it wouldn't save this character for me. Just boring.

 

I liked that the season's trying to flesh out Clive a bit, but what about Ravi? He really seems to be losing screentime and importance. I miss him and Liv/Ravi.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

My guess is that Blaine thought that Grampabrain would allow him to guilt-trip his father into signing over the family business.

Or at the very least just making his dad feel miserable for a little while.

[jhlipton]

Liv becoming another person was not so overt and I'm glad for it. She didn't go as far as to gamble away her whole savings or something like that. I was a little worried about that after seeing the promo.

 

 

When Liv found out that Harry's major personality trait was that he was a gambler, she said "This is not going to be pretty", or something like that.  I like that she actually came out ahead until the Arizona game.  Did we find out if they won or lost?

 

[Peyton] does have pluck, I just hope it doesn't get her killed, though I would love Liv defending her in zombie mode.

 

I love her character now.  I too hope Liv goes "full zombie" on his ass protecting (successfully!) Peyton.

 

Isn't zombie-ism spread through bodily fluids? 

 

Blood only, I think.  HIV / AIDS is spread through specific bodily fluids -- you can't get it from kissing.  Zombe-itis seems to work the same way.

 

I don't even know why Blaine killed his grandfather, though. 

 

So dad would know what it's like being dumped in a rest home, and experiencing his betrayal of his father from the other side.  Then Blaine could use Gramps to give him back his company.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Isn't zombie-ism spread through bodily fluids?

Blood only, I think.  HIV / AIDS is spread through specific bodily fluids -- you can't get it from kissing.  Zombe-itis seems to work the same way.

If the zombie virus is only spread through blood, then Liv and Major shouldn't be overly concerned about having sex unless it's going to be really rough!

[FurryFury]

Why wouldn't Ravi test Major's blood to see if it's even possible to be infected after having been cured once? Or have I forgotten this?

[Chicago Redshirt]

Isn't zombie-ism spread through bodily fluids? If that's the case, what about all the open mouthed kissing Liv and Major did before she stopped him in the previous episode? Not to get overly technical about it (or too grossly detailed) but that means Major swallowed some of Liv's saliva but he didn't turn into a zombie. Not that I'm encouraging risky zombie sex but I am really trying to understand how it's transmitted. I'm still unclear as to why a zombie scratching a human transmits zombieism since the human is the one bleeding, not the zombie.

 

We don't know all the ways that zombie-ism is spread for sure, which is why Ravi was right to be the voice of caution.

 

We know that people can become infected through tainted Utopium + Max Rager (Lowell), through being scratched by a zombie (Liv, Major, the drug dealer turned Christian) and through licking a zombie's blood (the Max Rager hitman who licked Liv's blood).

 

Why scratching works? We can fanwank that a lot of the zombie virus lives under the nails of a zombie.

 

Blaine apparently was the one to infect Vaughn, so I guess he had the opportunity to kill him at some point, and he just zombified him instead.

I don't think they have established that Vaughn is himself a zombie, let alone that Blaine was the one who turned him, unless I've missed something.

[Impish Dragon]

Liv and Major do nothing for me.  I found nothing hot between them.  The actors just don't have the right chemistry for me to believe in them.  It doesn't help that (for me) the actor playing Major is seriously lacking in charisma.

 

Clive really needs to be brought in on the secret.  I also liked Peyton, and the little we got of Ravi this ep.  Still trying to decide if I like Clive's new partner.  And I still have yet to decide if I like Blaine.

[rue721]

I don't think they have established that Vaughn is himself a zombie, let alone that Blaine was the one who turned him, unless I've missed something.

 

Oops, I meant Angus, not Vaughn. Got their names mixed up.

[AuntiePam]

 

I don't even know why Blaine killed his grandfather, though.

 

I thought Blaine used grandpa because grandpa's brain was compromised -- Alzheimer's, a stroke, something that might have a different, more permanent effect when eaten.  I forgot that the personality/memory effect was just temporary.

 

We don't know yet what would happen if a zombie ate a diseased brain. 

[Julia]

I thought that Liv telling Blaine that she couldn't stand reliving the people behind the brains dying over and over gave him the idea to torture his father by making him relive the pain he caused his grandfather. I couldn't exactly pin down why I thought that, though.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Julia

[rue721]

In any case, it'll be nice for Blaine to be able to spend time with his "grandfather" again. :P I mean, once his father takes on his grandfather's personality traits and ways of thinking, as well as his memories. And takes on his likes and dislikes, too, hopefully (since I guess that his grandfather actually likes Blaine).

 

Thinking about that, Blaine's grandfather probably hates Angus at least as much as Blaine does, so maybe that'll be part of the "torture" that Blaine will put Angus through by tricking him into eating his own father's brain. Being stuck with a brain that hates you must be pretty awful.

 

It doesn't help that (for me) the actor playing Major is seriously lacking in charisma.

 

Major has really grown on me. He won me over by how much he cared about the missing kids at his shelter. I mean, searching for them basically drove him nuts. Idk, at this point he seems to me like a genuinely sweet person. That's why I'm happy that he's not actually a murderer! At least not anymore. I think he did actually kill at least one of his "targets" -- didn't we see him shoot that first guy? (I don't really remember).

 

Up until now, I was rooting for him and Liv to get together, too. When Major was a druggie mess and went to Liv for help, I really felt for him. And Liv has clearly had feelings for him since the beginning of the show. But in this episode, their relationship kind of fell flat for me. There wasn't really any chemistry, and Major himself seemed kind of blah. He was written slightly blander and more douche-y than usual imo. Not that it was TERRRRRRIBLE, I just wasn't feeling it.

 

Liv grew on me over the course of last season, too. But this season, her personality has been so all-over-the-place that I don't feel like I know her. Like other people have said, it's been tough lately to differentiate between her as a character and her personality-of-the-week.

 

Why wouldn't Ravi test Major's blood to see if it's even possible to be infected after having been cured once? Or have I forgotten this?

 

When Ravi burst in on them in the bedroom, I thought they were lying about not having had sex yet. Why would they be sitting in the bed like that without having had sex, if they'd been so ready to get it on that they'd left a trail of clothes all through the house? The show played it afterward like they had told Ravi the truth, though, so who knows.

 

Anyway, I guess that if Major and Liv screwed, that it would be proof that once you're un-infected, you can't be infected again. Which would make sense, I guess, since it's a virus. Once you've had a virus, how are you going to get infected by the same exact virus again?

 

(Actually, I think that "plot twist" of former zombies being unable to be re-infected might come up w/r/t Blaine. He's probably not going to be too happy if he can't become a zombie again).

 

Thinking more about re-infection, Ravi could probably figure out how to make a vaccine relatively easily. More easily than he could figure out how to make a cure (again), anyway. Maybe he could vaccinate Major and "help" him and Liv have sex that way, lol.

Edited November 12, 2015 by rue721

[Julia]

In any case, it'll be nice for Blaine to be able to spend time with his "grandfather" again. :P I mean, once his father takes on his grandfather's personality traits and ways of thinking, as well as his memories. And takes on his likes and dislikes, too, hopefully (since I guess that his grandfather actually likes Blaine).

 

Thinking about that, Blaine's grandfather probably hates Angus at least as much as Blaine does, so maybe that'll be part of the "torture" that Blaine will put Angus through by tricking him into eating his own father's brain. Being stuck with a brain that hates you must be pretty awful.

 

Except I think the brains have a sell-by date, and it seems unlikely that Major is going to defrost Blaine's father while his grandfather's brain is still viable.

[rue721]

I guess Blaine could give it to Liv or somebody instead. Or just put it on ice until his father gets back.

 

Or both -- the zombies only have to eat part of a brain to take on the personality/memories of the person, right? Not the entire brain?

[Julia]

I could have this confused with Stitchers, which has more or less the same plot, but I think there's only a limited window when the brains are viable to pass along memories.

[dcalley]

Anyway, I guess that if Major and Liv screwed, that it would be proof that once you're un-infected, you can't be infected again. Which would make sense, I guess, since it's a virus. Once you've had a virus, how are you going to get infected by the same exact virus again?

That may be key (the bold). The flu virus, for example, can change enough over time that you can be reinfected.

Edited November 12, 2015 by dcalley

[sjohnson]

I'm kind of confused as to why Major was so torn up he went on a long drug binge. Freezing the zombies is a great temporary solution, given enough backup generators and locks on the doors. And if there's no cure, maybe permanent. Do this is vastly better than merely hoping none of the functional zombies is feeding on brains of murder victims and they'll never make another zombie, not even accidentally. Ravi's (and Liv's) plan relying on humanity being lucky enough to avoid zombie apocalypse until a cure is available is very Ravi the Mad Scientist. Feeling self destructively guilty (as opposed to a little guilty,) is incomprehensible. Unless he thinks he's killing them? But if he thinks that, why is he leaving the evidence in such an unsafe location?

 

Yes, I was surprised to see Evan was supposed to return in written promos. Didn't notice he didn't show up though. 

 

If zombiism is a virus, the real route is vaccination. It is not at all certain that Blaine and Major haven't been immunized by the natural operation of their immune systems, now that they have recovered. 

 

PS See I missed rue721's post above. How dull of me, sorry.

 

As for mutation making cured zombies susceptible to re-infection, influenza is one of the most mutable. Yet even with a world-wide pool of viruses to mutate into newly infectious forms, it has been pretty effective to develop new vaccines on a yearly basis. There is a much tinier pool of zombie virus and only a couple years. Of course, applying plausibility to zombie virus is what do they call it, "problematic"?

Edited November 12, 2015 by sjohnson