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S02.E07: Abra Cadaver


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Liv consumes the brains of a death-obsessed illusionist who was murdered in cold blood during a magicians’ convention in Seattle. As Liv and Detective Babineaux investigate the case, she uses her new skills to help narrow down the suspect pool. Meanwhile, Blaine gives Liv some interesting news, and Ravi makes a decision but things don’t end up going quite as planned. Lastly, Major continues to distance himself from Liv.

 

Promo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5_IJeEyuZ0

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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While I understand the lying to Clive/Bozzio about the brain, it takes me back to Major in the sanitarium times. I don't agree.  I hope Liv can embrace the insanity of her life in full and ask the needed people to ride the ride with her, instead of falling back on shame and fear. 

 

So glad Ravi broke up with Try-Too-Hard Stephanie. Should have done it sooner, but I just hope she doesn't come back to (zombie) bite them in the butt.  Woman had no ability to read "her" man and boundaries?

 

Glad that Minor is still around; I just hope that he can be reunited with his master eventually.

 

Blaine is such an entertaining anti-villain/ gray character. I am glad Mr. Boss is around to be the truly nasty force of Evil, as I enjoy David Anders and how he seems to be having a blast playing Blaine. Yeah, he might go back to being evil, but if he is good to Peyton and protects her? I'm provisionally on his side.

 

I loved the kitchen scene with Peyton and Ravi trying to reassure Major that Liv is okay.  Love to all three!

 

The case was okay, but I didn't really care this week. It was a chance to poke at the magic landscape, but with all the character stuff going on, I wasn't focused on the mystery at all.

 

The mystery I was interested in was the lady who left the "Occupant" bubble envelope and who had seen Liv deliver the bogus report.

 

Despite the lackluster, imo, case, it was a fun outing and I enjoyed it!

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I didn't understand what happened at the end - Liv was using a Ouija board?  And Major looked upset and left?  Maybe I dozed off.

 

That was pretty much it. They were showing that Major may not be as willing/able as he thought to handle the many faces of Zombie Liv.

Edited by mrsbagnet
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Which is stupid. If he pulls back from their relationship because he can't handle a couple of days of variety I'm going to be really upset. He's the one that pursued them getting back together, he better not flake out. Especially since he's still not being honest with her.

I hope they let Clive in on the secret soon. I'm struggling to understand why they can't just tell him? I too am wondering who that woman is. I'm also scratching my head at Liv going back to the house in broad daylight. Why didn't she pay someone to redeliver it?

Please stop trying to make Paine? Plaine? happen. He's not a good person. I want to know why we can't have Peyton and Ravi together like before? That almost kiss was brutal for Ravi.

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I felt so bad for Ravi during that almost kiss! :( I did like their earlier conversation over the blender.

I was meh on Clive last year, but he's really been enjoyable lately.

I liked Liv's persona this week, but I,as usual, didn't really care about the mystery.

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I can't believe Liv didn't make the connection when she saw the photo of Minor in Bozzio's research.

Did she see it, though? I thought only Blaine saw it.

 

Who was the woman at the end that was watching the FBI agent's house? 

 

Someone I did recognize- a former coworker in the role of the dead guy's ex-girlfriend (hey, Fiona!) Always nice to see friends doing well in their chosen careers.

 

(And then I start wondering where I went wrong, and get all morose and moody like dead magician brain Liv. sigh)

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Even though I'm sure the main reason was the pave a way for Ravi and Peyton to reconcile down the line, Ravi was totally right to end it with Stephanie.  Going way too overboard on the British thing there, lady.  There is more to Ravi then that!  Of course, I worry that they are going to try something with Peyton and Blaine, which still makes no sense to me.  Has Liv really not told Peyton yet about Blaine's past and how he's involved in not just the zombie stuff, but the countless deaths involved in said zombie stuff?  That's a pretty big thing to not tell her, and I just can't buy Peyton overlooking that.

 

Magician Liv was fun, as was Clive's reactions to all of her antics (plus Ravi fanboying over the magic/case.)  Case itself was just there as always, and I called the duo magicians being the killers as soon as they showed up, mainly because the guy who spoke was one of those actors who always tends to play slimy characters in various roles.

 

Liv and Blaine teaming up was fun: Rose McIver and David Anders cracking me up when they are together.  But, drat!  The intercept the brain news, and now Clive is back to being clueless to what is really going on.  Although, who is this mysterious lady that left some kind of envelope at Clive's girlfriend's door?  I did notice Blaine noticing Minor in the photos, so I do wonder if that will come into play.

 

The ending with Major was weird to me.  I mean, I'm not into the whole Ouija stuff either, but for Liv on brains, that really isn't all that weird.  If Major has issues with that, he is really going to struggle with this relationship.  I mean, if he can't deal with that, how is he going to deal with Liv if she has to eat brains that are similar to that PTSD solider or the alcoholic from last seasons?  Those were much, much worse. 

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Were we not supposed to notice the mute magician was a female in a wig? I had a sneaking suspicion it was the maid from the start - there seemed to be too much time between her entering the room and screaming. If she'd walked in and found the body, it would have been immediate.

 

I wish there was a way Liv could just have her own personality for a little bit. I'd be much more interested in getting to know her than dead-guy-of-the-week.

 

Who was that woman in the car who saw Liv and then posted the "occupant" letter? Have we seen her before?

 

How many episodes have we got left this season? Major's got to be found out soon.

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This wasn't the best episode but I continue to love this show. I love these characters so much and the show better not get cancelled.

 

I liked the CotW but then I always enjoy these magician bases cases in cop shows. But was everyone blind - that guy was so obviously a girl.

 

Glad that Ravi broke up with that girl. She was definitely coming on too strong, even ignoring the fact that Ravi clearly isn't over Peyton. But yeah, waiting till the morning after was not classy.

 

Major being wigged out by the personality changes make sense but he is the one who wanted to be with Liv. What happened to be able to deal with whatever Liv throws at him. I am hoping he'll power through his doubts. I really want these two crazy kids to make it.

 

Blaine and Liv together are a blast. Anders is a very charismatic actor(with a good voice) and he almost makes me forget what a horrible person Blaine is. But Liv sparkles with him. So does Peyton but I still don't want them to go anywhere. Peyton deserves better than a child-murdering ex-zombie. But given how scared Peyton is, I'm so glad she's staying with Major and Ravi and she shouldn't move out.

 

Liv is still making the same mistake she made with Major. She needs to come clean with Clive - this will not end well. At least Clive got to have some action with his g-man. And when was the last time Clive got to solve the CotW?

 

Who was that woman in the car who saw Liv and then posted the "occupant" letter? Have we seen her before?

 

Yes, who is this woman?

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I totally love that they used "Abracadabra" as the background music during the magic convention.

 

Blaine is fun when he's flippant and doesn't give a flying fuck ("Nobody cares about the fourth person who did something!"), but as much as I enjoyed the Blaine/Liv comedy duo this week I hope the show doesn't put them together too much. I'm glad that Liv was clear about not wanting to work with him and that she had a specific motivation for begrudgingly working with him on this specific problem. I am fine with the show making Blaine slightly sympathetic (like with his grandfather last week) but I don't want them to forget that he is one of the bad guys and shouldn't be redeemed/woobified. Loved when Ravi walked in and pointedly asked him if he had dropped by with some more tainted utopium.

 

I'm glad Ravi broke up with Steph (despite the fact that I liked her on their previous date). Even before you factor in her well intentioned but over the top Guy Fawkes celebration, it was obvious that he was still thinking about Peyton in a non-platonic way (and I found it hilarious that the tiny bit of hip shaking she was doing in the kitchen was supposed to be sexy enough to rattle Ravi into realizing he was still into her). For him to stay with Steph when his heart was obviously elsewhere would have been a dick move.

 

I loved how excited Ravi was about Liv's card trick, but I also loved how blase Clive was about being good at three card Monty. We don't play in Brooklyn!

 

I'm still not entirely convinced that Dale is a good guy, but that might just be Peyton's paranoia rubbing off on me. From the time she was introduced, I was convinced that she was a double agent or playing a long con with Clive or something shady. For Clive's sake, I hope she's just a goofy FBI agent who is into Clive without an ulterior motives.

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I was meh on Clive last year, but he's really been enjoyable lately.

 His total DGAF attitude toward Liv's bizarre personality shifts, totally cracks me up. I wish they would let him in on zombie world.

 

Liv: Pick a card!

Clive: No. 

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Has Liv really not told Peyton yet about Blaine's past and how he's involved in not just the zombie stuff, but the countless deaths involved in said zombie stuff?  That's a pretty big thing to not tell her, and I just can't buy Peyton overlooking that.

 

 

Wanted to react at this (as I scroll down the posts) : Liv doesnt know about Peyton and Blaine meeting... so far.

 

But really looking forward to see how that will play out ! 

(And I want Ravi and Peyton back together... I'm not really a "shipping" person, but damn, I think they're great together !)

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Blaine was the one who saw the picture of Minor, but he has no reason to make any connection around the dog, so he just shuffled the paper to the back of the stack. Liv didn't see it.

 

I had a couple of laugh out loud moments in this episode: Clive's flat "No," Liv filling the morgue with candles, the "If he's even dead" running gag, a couple of Blaine's lines. Anders tosses off Blaine's DGAF lines so well. Does have a lovely voice, too. It occurs to me that Max Rager's zombie tracking algorithm probably would miss Blaine- he's not buying hair dye, he's buying bleach.

 

I picked "Teller" out as a woman right away, but I didn't make the maid connection. How'd she cut somebody's throat without getting drenched with blood? I wasn't that invested in the investigation plot this week, I think, partly because it seemed pretty thin to me. So Criss Fauxngel exposes how you do a trick- so? That doesn't mean people won't want to see you do it. Penn & Teller sometimes reveal how they do some of their tricks as part of their show, and I don't think that series of "Masked Magician" specials a few years ago has killed Lance Burton's act. Smoak & Meers is a great name for a magic duo, though, I give them that.

 

Ravi was moving too fast there, but I still winced for him when Peyton shut him down. I hope it was just because she wasn't feeling it, and not because she's into Blaine. I cannot imagine Blaine would be a very good boyfriend.

Edited by maxineofarc
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Ravi was moving too fast there, but I still winced for him when Peyton shut him down. I hope it was just because she wasn't feeling it, and not because she's into Blaine. I cannot imagine Blaine would be a very good boyfriend.

Unfortunately I think the main reason she shit Ravi down is Blaine. Startes to say, "I m-" and then Ravi interrupted her. I think she was going to say, "I met someone."

I was kind of hoping Ravi or Clive would be the one to find Liv in the morgue with a million candles and tell her it was a fire hazard, but Blaine's Edgar Allan Poe line was even better. Liv going all emo about the flowers and them Major asking if that was a yes or a no for a quesadilla was also awesome.

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A (pseudo-)scientific question - has Ravi (or Liv!) researched the possibility that having been a zombie and recovered, Major is now A) immune and B) a source for a vaccine?

In fact, I'm predicting now that A is true but not B. At some point, Blaine's father, or possibly Boss, will try to re-infect Blaine and fail. Ravi will determine that Blaine and Major are both now immune to the Zombie virus. This will leave Liv's personality changes as the ultimate reason that they break up.

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Unfortunately I think the main reason she shit Ravi down is Blaine. Startes to say, "I m-" and then Ravi interrupted her. I think she was going to say, "I met someone."

Agh, Peyton, no! Even if he weren't a remorseless murderer, you're a DA, he's your source! ABORT ABORT ABORT.

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A (pseudo-)scientific question - has Ravi (or Liv!) researched the possibility that having been a zombie and recovered, Major is now A) immune and B) a source for a vaccine?

In fact, I'm predicting now that A is true but not B. At some point, Blaine's father, or possibly Boss, will try to re-infect Blaine and fail. Ravi will determine that Blaine and Major are both now immune to the Zombie virus. This will leave Liv's personality changes as the ultimate reason that they break up.

 

Good point!

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I hope they let Clive in on the secret soon. I'm struggling to understand why they can't just tell him?

 

Clive is a very cold fish. How he behaved in this episode made me think that maybe it's a good idea to keep him in the dark, or at least to keep plausible deniability around him. Because he doesn't seem very trustworthy or loyal. I think he would turn on Liv in a heartbeat, if he thought that she was a threat or even a criminal.

 

I had a couple of laugh out loud moments in this episode: Clive's flat "No," Liv filling the morgue with candles, the "If he's even dead" running gag, a couple of Blaine's lines. Anders tosses off Blaine's DGAF lines so well. Does have a lovely voice, too. It occurs to me that Max Rager's zombie tracking algorithm probably would miss Blaine- he's not buying hair dye, he's buying bleach.

 

Agreed!

 

Major getting scared about what being with Zombie!Liv means makes sense to me. He's still pretty fragile. Liv has been his rock, but now it's turning out that she's not as dependable as he thought (because she's practically someone new every week). I think that he loves her, but he might not be able to handle the stress and unpredictability of being with her as she is now.

 

Plus, she made a gigantic point in this episode that their relationship's survival depends on telling each other the truth -- but he's been lying to her about being the Max Rager assassin, and now she's about to start investigating that case. That lie/investigation probably puts an expiration date on the relationship just on its own. That's got to be freaking him out.

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Glad that Ravi broke up with that girl. She was definitely coming on too strong, even ignoring the fact that Ravi clearly isn't over Peyton. But yeah, waiting till the morning after was not classy.

She could have gotten a clue early on; he had no enthusiasm coming in the door and was clearly just going along for the ride because of the trouble she had already gone to.

 

 

So Criss Fauxngel exposes how you do a trick- so? That doesn't mean people won't want to see you do it. Penn & Teller sometimes reveal how they do some of their tricks as part of their show, and I don't think that series of "Masked Magician" specials a few years ago has killed Lance Burton's act.

Lance Burton has talent; he'd start a TV special with what would be a finale for David Copperfield. The hacks can't survive if the audience knows what to look for, which was why the Masked Magician did what he did.

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A (pseudo-)scientific question - has Ravi (or Liv!) researched the possibility that having been a zombie and recovered, Major is now A) immune and B) a source for a vaccine?

In fact, I'm predicting now that A is true but not B. At some point, Blaine's father, or possibly Boss, will try to re-infect Blaine and fail. Ravi will determine that Blaine and Major are both now immune to the Zombie virus. This will leave Liv's personality changes as the ultimate reason that they break up.

 

and most likely when Blaine finds out, he doesn't tell anyone, because then he can threaten to reinfect Major if he needs to.

 

Peyton and Blaine is ridiculous and contrived. She's been nothing but goal oriented all her life, she just got a chance to make a splash after taking off and seriously threatening her career trajectory, and she's going to toss it out the window to get next to a 'charming' drug dealing felon with no degree who's the linch pin of her big case? Even if Blaine was in some way actually charming, I wouldn't buy her even flirting with that.

 

Ravi's friend was really over the top creepy. Enough to make me wonder if she wasn't keeping an eye on Ravi for someone.

 

Were we supposed to think the Teller magician was a guy?

Edited by Julia
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Clive is a very cold fish. How he behaved in this episode made me think that maybe it's a good idea to keep him in the dark, or at least to keep plausible deniability around him. Because he doesn't seem very trustworthy or loyal. I think he would turn on Liv in a heartbeat, if he thought that she was a threat or even a criminal.

Okay, I think this is a bit unfair. If Liv is a criminal, why won't he report her? He's a cop - that's kind of his job definition. That doesn't make him untrustworthy or disloyal. And I'm glad there's someone on this show who does the job he's supposed to instead of using the job to get the next meal or do personal mad-scientist stuff or get close to literally fridge them.

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I think they tried way too hard to give a zany reason for Ravi to dump Stephanie. She's barely been on the show; did they really think we that invested in the relationship? Honestly, I wasn't even clear that there was anything monogamous there. With him and Peyton, yes, it seemed like they were very very serious before she ran off. But Stephanie is just one of a bunch of girls that he's dated since then. Are they going to have to keep giving him a Seinfeldian subplot for every single time he plays cowgirl and Indian? "She was a low talker, Liv." "You think that's bad? I think I just ate the brain of a doll collector." Actually, the Seinfeldification would probably leave Liv's subplots exactly the same...

 

About Blaine...Stop trying to make Spuffy happen.

 

I wonder if Penn and Teller watch this show.

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Not sure I agree about Clive. He's a really nice guy and he's a really good cop. I've seen nothing to indicate otherwise. I also hope that by now he would consider Liv and Ravi friends.

It's only going to hurt Liv and company in the long run if Clive finds out about zombies from someone else

By refusing to let go of the meat cute case I think he's trying to be loyal to the former police chief and to the truth.

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I'm Team Ravi all the way, all day, every day, for everything, but Peyton and Blaine have crazy chemistry and (unpopular opinion) I wouldn't mind the show going somewhere with that. Liv/Blaine I would mind - that would feel lazy and while I love their scenes together I don't feel any sexytimes chemistry there. 

 

The writing on this show is great, but I just think Rob Thomas got so lucky with this cast - they're all so good and work so well together. In lesser hands I feel like some of the characters could have slipped into one-dimensional and boring but as it is I'm totally invested in all of their storylines. 

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After seeing transgender storylines on a few of my shows recently, I thought that maybe Meers was a trans man and everyone was just being cool about it.

Yes, that crossed my mind as well until the Big Reveal, and then I made up some complicated Prestige story in my head where Meers would drop her disguise on the outside unless she was doing appearances with Smoak and thus could go around doing stunt prep and stuff in the open where no one would notice her, and then I decided that I was putting way too much thought into this episode. But I did start to wonder if I was being transphobic about it, same as Eve mentioned in her review.

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Not sure I agree about Clive. He's a really nice guy and he's a really good cop. I've seen nothing to indicate otherwise. I also hope that by now he would consider Liv and Ravi friends.

 

I think he's a good cop. But more brusque than nice, and I don't think he considers Liv and Ravi friends.

 

This was the first episode where I felt like if Clive found out about this zombie thing, that that could mean trouble for Liv. I mean, I don't think he would just give her red-eyed, murderous side the "eh, but that doesn't happen much though" minimizing treatment that Peyton gave it when she was trying to reassure Major about being in a relationship with Liv.

Edited by rue721
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Blaine is such an entertaining anti-villain/ gray character

 

Here's the thing: Blaine is NOT a gray character. He is a killer. There is no gray area as far as I'm concerned. It's not even like the show has forgotten -- Liv referenced his killing people in this episode (he killed your boyfriend, too, Liv), THEN PROCEEDED TO WORK WITH HIM. I mean WTF? 

 

That outraged me. The rest of the episode was okay. Though I liked Clive's "No" to Liv when she told him to pick a card.

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I have to agree. Even if Blaine wasn't human garbage who spent last season making monsters to create a market for the children he murdered, he would have passed the point of no return last week when when he murdered the only person he loved, who loved him, to make a point.

Edited by Julia
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When the case of the week is good, the episode is good, even if the continuing story lines are weak, as I think they were. The thing is, even if we know the magician is female when we first see "him," that still doesn't solve the case. They played honest, and gave a line that "Irina" hadn't been back to work. 

 

Making a woman look like a man is hard, but inadvertently making it look like Blaine recognized the dog shouldn't be. While watching, I assumed that Blaine was familiar with the dog that lives at Ravi's house. It seemed like he noted the connection and withheld it from Liv. 

 

Having a brain surface at Suzuki's house meant Major could be vindicated even if he was tagged for the Meat Cute massacre (which after all, he did.) Immediately undoing it serves no purpose I can see except to make Liv put Major on the hook for murder. His only defense is zombies! and she's taken it away. 

 

Peyton has condemned Ravi for dumping the nut job because she assumes that Ravi did it for her I think. She seems to see it as actually cheating, even if it technically isn't, and she's having none of it. How she didn't know anything about the lunatic party display is a mystery to me. Also, it really doesn't work when she simultaneously dumps a cheater and flirts with a self-confessed killer. But then there are an awful lot of people more uptight about sex than violence.

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David Anders is so great with this dialogue. Him and Liv were great together tonight.

 

I love everyone in this cast so much, except for Major. Tonight again confirmed for me that he's the weak link. I just don't think there's a real long-term place for him on the show. Buckley tries but Major's just too boring.

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The thing is, even if we know the magician is female when we first see "him," that still doesn't solve the case.

 

Yes!  I didn't spot it, though something seemed different about Meers--that doesn't make someone a murderer. As Houdina showed, wigs and costume changes don't make you a murderer either.  (I loved her alibi and she was good at the magic stuff.) 

 

I wonder if the spelling of Smoak was an intentional reference to Arrow.  Personally I'd like them to stay open to the possibility that it's a shared universe, but leave some doubt as long as they can.

 

Is there an Emmy for "best overall cast"?  This show makes me wish there were, though it could also be the writers fitting to the actors--when that works, it's harder to tell how much is great acting and how much is great writing and great directing.  Even when the plot is just OK, the dialogue is very crisp.  And lines like "I hate to break this to you, but magic isn't real" being delivered with just the right amount of sarcasm were nice touches.

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The Meers "disguise" looked eerily like the same wig and facial hair they used on Tim Foyle from Veronica Mars.

Has Blaine ever been to Ravi and Major's house? I don't think he's ever seen the dog there, so he wouldn't have made any connection between Minor and the dog in the photo.

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In fact, I'm predicting now that A is true but not B. At some point, Blaine's father, or possibly Boss, will try to re-infect Blaine and fail. Ravi will determine that Blaine and Major are both now immune to the Zombie virus.

 

I will take this one further and predict that Blaine tries to re-infect himself, since he feels like Human Blaine is a loser and Zombie Blaine was "the man," even though they do not behave in demonstrably different ways. He will discover that he can't, they'll try it on Major, and they'll decide Blaine and Major are the keys to a cure.

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David Anders is so great with this dialogue. Him and Liv were great together tonight.

 

I love everyone in this cast so much, except for Major. Tonight again confirmed for me that he's the weak link. I just don't think there's a real long-term place for him on the show. Buckley tries but Major's just too boring.

 

They have a really good chemistry in their scenes and glad this gave them some other interaction than "I think you're scum" "I know you do but aren't I charming?" "Go away." "OK but I'll be back." Hope they get more scenes like this together.

 

And I hope that they give ALL the characters more backstory. I still feel like I don't know any of these people. Making Blaine a grayer villain would actually do this show some good--it worked for Major.

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