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S02.E11: Fifty Shades Of Grey Matter


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Major did just leave the dog on the bus. I guess we know from Clive that the police learned of the dog's whereabouts and can presume that he's OK. But seriously, fuck Major for that.

 

I'd predicted at some point we'd get full-on nympho Liv. I have to say I'm somewhat disappointed, since if they are going to go this direction, they owe us a little more cheesecake.

 

I didn't realize that the actor who played Drake on Star-Crossed is also named Drake on this show. 

 

Kudos for the meta bit where Kristen Bell's voice showed up. 

 

Any idea how the meal-of-the-week was supposed to relate to the brain-of-the-week?

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Kristen Bell played herself with her amazing voice made for voice overs. I bought her reading of the Veronica Mars books.

 

The actress playing Dale looked so much younger on The 100 where she was getting it on with Clarke.

 

I was screaming at Peyton not to sleep with Blaine. Which first of all is unprofessional for an Assistant ADA and second of all Blaine's a psycho. But man that must have hurt to hear Liv say all thing things he's done with the kicker being he was the one that turned her.

 

I will give Major some props his reaction to Liv's wrestling question was funny. However WTF Major, you do not leave your dog on a bus. At least take him to a no-kill shelter or something.

Edited by Sakura12
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I mostly really liked this one! I can't lie, Horny Liv's idea to get Ravi and Major to wrestle? Not the worst idea she's ever had!

 

I enjoyed things coming to a head with Peyton and Blaine, and the forward motion on Blaine being identified by the cops. What I didn't really get was the murder mystery storyline. He killed her because she was going to ruin his reputation and he thought she didn't care about him? The fact that she decided to publish under a nom de plume shows that she DID care. So why would they reveal that information to the husband early on, and then later have him act like he doesn't know? Why not save that information to drop on him after his confession? From a story-telling perspective, I mean. I have no problem with them introducing that detail (the nom de plume) like it's a major plot point, but they either dropped it in the wrong place, or didn't follow up on it effectively. 

 

MINOR! That was fucking heartbreaking. I understand why Major couldn't take him to a shelter (there might be cameras, someone could identify him later), but couldn't the other bus passengers potentially identify him too? I guess no one pays attention to anyone else on the bus, and there would be enough people around on public transit that when Minor is noticed, someone will be obliged to report it through the proper channels. But still. Ouch.  That dog better have a safe and happy home by the time this season ends or I will go Full-On-Zombie-Mode!

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FINALLY! I was so tired of waiting for Peyton to find out who she was dealing with, it was really getting on my nerves. Now if they just let Clive find out about zombies (and he doesn't turn into an asshole), all will be well.

 

MINOR! That was fucking heartbreaking. I understand why Major couldn't take him to a shelter (there might be cameras, someone could identify him later), but couldn't the other bus passengers potentially identify him too? I guess no one pays attention to anyone else on the bus, and there would be enough people around on public transit that when Minor is noticed, someone will be obliged to report it through the proper channels. But still. Ouch.  That dog better have a safe and happy home by the time this season ends or I will go Full-On-Zombie-Mode!

I know! how could he just leave him on the bus? And why is he getting rid of him to begin with? Didn't he tell Ravi he found him? Why couldn't he just stick to that story & keep him?

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What I didn't really get was the murder mystery storyline. He killed her because she was going to ruin his reputation and he thought she didn't care about him? The fact that she decided to publish under a nom de plume shows that she DID care.

It turned out at the end that it was actually the husband (pretending to be his wife) who emailed the publisher to say that she didn't want to publish the book under her own name. The wife still wanted to use her own name.
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Man, it was the most obviously manipulative trick in the book ever, but all the stuff involving Minor still got me.  I'm glad they at least gave Clive a throwaway line about them finding him, but still.  Poor Minor!  Poor Major!  Poor Ravi!  I am going to miss that dog!  They better bring him back!

 

Dammit, of course Peyton finally finds out that Blaine is the worst right after she sleeps with him.  I still think that as soon as Peyton came back and knew about zombies, Liv should have sat her down, showed her his picture, and be like "See this guy?  He is the worst!  Don't ever, ever trust him!"  But I guess the show couldn't resist this time of drama.  And I'm guessing she's still going to work with him though, to bring down Boss.  Talk about awkward.  Poor Peyton.

 

Case of the week didn't grab my attention (outside Danielle Alonso showing up as sexy flight attendant), but I am certainly not going going to forget Horny Librarian Liv.  Rose McIver getting to act sexy and say sexy, somewhat filthy things, is certainly good in my book!  And it provided some decent laughs; especially her fantasies involving Major and Ravi.  I liked how quickly the two went from confused to just nodding along with it.  Even agreed with her over Clive filling out his shirt well.  Oh, you two!

 

Hey, we get another episode next week!  Still not happy about the winter break, one episode, and then another two week break.  Need more of my iZombie!

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FINALLY! I was so tired of waiting for Peyton to find out who she was dealing with, it was really getting on my nerves. Now if they just let Clive find out about zombies (and he doesn't turn into an asshole), all will be well.

 

I know! how could he just leave him on the bus? And why is he getting rid of him to begin with? Didn't he tell Ravi he found him? Why couldn't he just stick to that story & keep him?

Could Peyton become a zombie? There's still some semi-dormant zombie virus in Blaine. I kept looking for the telltale shock of white hair.

 

There's no way Clive would have believed that coincidence with the dog. He was already suspicious of Major because of the Meat Cute stuff at the end of the season.

Edited by ketose
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I couldn't remember, when Liz and Peyton talked about zombie stuff, did Peyton know there had been a cure? And that Major was a zombie briefly? Does she know that he could revert? 

 

The COTW was a bit meh, but the brain of the week was amusing, and they really moved the over arching plot forward with Peyton getting up to speed about Blaine and Dale starting to put together the Chaos Killer plot.

 

If Blaine gets arrested, I'm hoping Liv will have to come clean with Clive about the zombie stuff. She wouldn't risk Blaine turning zombie in jail.

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Oh dear. So Peyton not only got whacked by the stupid stick, she was beaten with the paddle of no longer caring about her ethics or her professional career and then mowed down by the medicine ball of vanishing self-esteem from season one. Because violent drug dealers are, like, hot when you're drunk (giggle).

Thanks, show.

Edited by Julia
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Gah, Major. I do hope that leaving the dog on the bus brought more attention to him and got the police involved, ensuring he got back to his family quicker than had he been dropped off at the shelter.

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As an author of erotic romance, I can attest to the inaccuracy of Liv's reaction to the brain of the week. If they had portrayed her in sweats, with her hair unwashed, worrying about deadlines and writer's block, we'd be getting somewhere. Having sex is not the same as thinking about ways for fictional people to have sex. We're writers like all other writers, except we probably make more money than, say, poets.

 Oh, and Free Minor!

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I'm fanwanking that the sex-crazy erotic romance writer was like that because of her love-life, or lack there of. She hadn't had sex in five years and was obviously very, very frustrated.

 

But my fanwanking cannot deal with the mess the writers made of Peyton. What kind of ambitious lawyer has sex with the only witness of a case that can make or break her career? That too when the witness is a self-confessed criminal? In the freaking office? It's as if the writers wanted to move the plot along and the only way they could so with was by making Peyton OOC. But at least she knows now.

 

Major leaving behind Minor was also difficult for me. I just can't take pets being treated badly on tv. People getting murdered don't phase me but pets do.

 

Apart from all this, it was a nice enough episode and it's good to see all the pieces coming together. I always love Ravi's reaction to Liv's brains. But I wanted to see more of her hilarious actions on the sexy-brains.

Edited by norask
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It turned out at the end that it was actually the husband (pretending to be his wife) who emailed the publisher to say that she didn't want to publish the book under her own name. The wife still wanted to use her own name.

 

Thanks, paulvdb! I totally missed that! That makes so much more sense.

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I'd predicted at some point we'd get full-on nympho Liv. I have to say I'm somewhat disappointed, since if they are going to go this direction, they owe us a little more cheesecake.

It was enough to make me look up whether we were in sweeps period yet. Feb sweeps starts on the 4th this year, so this was just to get some viewer attention ahead of time.

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Oh Peyton. Oh...Peyton. Blaine might be cute, but he is a BAD DUDE. And a witness in your case! Bad form Peyton. 

 

Poor Minor. I hope someone finds him soon, and gives him lots of puppy hugs. 

 

Case of the Week was decent, but I really got a kick out of horny librarian Liv. Plus, we got a Kristen Bell voice cameo. She does give great narration. 

 

I honestly keep forgetting who knows what about who. I just want to gather all our main cast in one room, and everyone explains EVERYTHING. 

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Minor being left on the back of the bus was so sad. I thought most big-city buses had security cameras. Plus the bus didn't look that crowded and the driver totally would have noticed Major trying to ditch the dog. Was Minor's original owner a family man or single? I thought he had kids, so I don't know why Major couldn't have returned Minor to his family. Tie him to the front railing, ring the bell, run away.

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And a witness in your case! Bad form Peyton.

 

That bothered me the most. Way to compromise your professionalism, Peyton. Ugh.

 

Plus, we got a Kristen Bell voice cameo. She does give great narration.

 

"I'll show you what a cockpit really is." Hee.

 

Why did Major have to give Minor away in the first place? AIUI, the GPS was in the dongle, and didn't Major dump that in the bushes outside the grooming place?

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Peyton, I understand you girl. You didn't know Blaine was a bad guy, you were drunk, and he's David Anders, so how could you resist?!

But I liked that she found out about him right away, and that they didn't drag the reveal out.

 

I'm very against abandoning pets on buses, but Major knew they were looking for it, so he realized what a liability the dog was, even after getting rid of the GPS tracker.

 

Liv was hilarious on this brain, being all over Clive and wanting Ravi and Major to wrestle, that got some laughs out of me.

 

All the foreshadowing at the end with Drake doesn't bode well, does it? Too bad, because I'm enjoying the actor on this more than on Starcrossed.

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Why did Major have to give Minor away in the first place? AIUI, the GPS was in the dongle, and didn't Major dump that in the bushes outside the grooming place?

I think Major, like me and the police, thought the GPS was implanted in the dog. Taking the collar off was a lucky break where he was just trying to make it harder to identify the dog on sight.

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I'm fanwanking that the sex-crazy erotic romance writer was like that because of her love-life, or lack there of. She hadn't had sex in five years and was obviously very, very frustrated.

 

But my fanwanking cannot deal with the mess the writers made of Peyton. What kind of ambitious lawyer has sex with the only witness of a case that can make or break her career? That too when the witness is a self-confessed criminal? In the freaking office? It's as if the writers wanted to move the plot along and the only way they could so with was by making Peyton OOC. But at least she knows now.

I also assumed the horniness was more about her actual sexual frustration and less about her facility with erotica.

 

And as to Peyton, holy crap. All of what you said.  The WTFery of this story is sort of global.  I get that Peyton, all 2/3 year lawyer of her, was given this case partly because she's considered expendable (which is the only way they've gotten me to buy that an ADA that is barely felony experienced would be working a case about a major criminal enterprise... solo) and that it might be why she doesn't have much of a team (only leave one newbie out on that limb).  But all of that should make her even more circumspect about everything she does.   Sleeping with her star (and only) witness was insane even if he wasn't an established criminal. 

 

My heart broke seeing Minor framed in the window of that bus.  I actually said (out loud to no one) "Minor! Nooooo!" I may have even let out a whimper. 

Edited by RachelKM
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Count me in as one of those yelling at my TV trying to get Peyton not to sleep with Blaine. Poor Peyton.

The brain meal this episode looked pretty tasty. I always look forward to seeing how they'll have Liv prepare them. And now that I think about it, I would totally buy an iZombie themed cookbook.

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Plus the bus didn't look that crowded and the driver totally would have noticed Major trying to ditch the dog.

If Major bailed out of the rearward door when the bus stopped to let out somebody else, he would have been long gone before the driver could react.

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Oh, Peyton. They don't give her enough screentime but when they do, she does something so idiotically idiotic. Gah. 

 

I liked Liv flirting with Drake. I hope he sticks around, he's adorable.

 

Still love the Major/Ravi relationship and their response to Liv's "Do you guys ever wrestle?" But I am angry at Major for just leaving the dog on the bus. 

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Drake is no Lowell, but Liv could do worse. And I'm with her on the Ravi-Major wrestling. 

/shallow

 

I was yelling at Peyton not to do it but like PP am glad that at least they didn't drag the reveal out for half a season. We've already got the weird Major-Gilda thing in the far-far-background - is she even still Liv's roommate? - and a whole lot of other balls in the air that they didn't need this one up there too. Although I worry for what Peyton does now. 

(Also Anders is cute and all but Ravi is still *right there*. Come on.)

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(Also Anders is cute and all but Ravi is still *right there*. Come on.)

 

Plus, didn't she dump Ravi in part because he knew about the big zombie secret and didn't say anything? Now that's she slept with a post-zombie, there's no excuse to stay away from Ravi!

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We're writers like all other writers, except we probably make more money than, say, poets.

 

That's what I suspected; it would be like if there was a poet-Liz constantly talking in rhyme.

(It would be even worse if they had her doing that all the time.)

 

I missed the line about finding the dog on the bus, but I'm glad it was included.  I'd have rather had them handle this any other way (even if they threw cliches at it, like a previously unknown brother showed up to take Minor to a farm upstate, where he becomes a guide dog to someone slowly regaining her sight from an accident getting precious metals out of the ground, so they can do Minor rescuing a minor miner.)

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(edited)

Three awesome shout outs in this episode: (1) obviously the Kristen Bell one (2) another VM reference was Peyton saying, "You sleep with someone, you think you know them. But they could be anybody." See: VM 1.5 You Think You Somebody, the episode where Veronica learns her new boyfriend Troy is a drug dealer who was planning to leave town with his other girlfriend. Bonus: this episode also includes a tracker on a dog collar. (3) Buffy fantasizing about Angel and Spike oil wrestling.

 

There are moments when I can see why Major and Liv were together, and the wrestling conversation was one of them. Instead of asking WTF, he just rolled with it, as did Ravi.

 

But that doesn't make up for leaving a dog on a bus, Major! He could have just left it in the client's neighborhood. Either the dog would have walked back to his own house or one of the neighbors would have seen him and taken him back.

 

Major parkouring all over town during rush hour traffic was hilariously silly.

 

I didn't consider what Liv did to be giving Drake roofies. She told him she had horny librarian brains. He agreed to eat them voluntarily. To me, that's like offering someone ecstasy.

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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I didn't consider what Liv did to be giving Drake roofies. She told him she had horny librarian brains. He agreed to eat them voluntarily. To me, that's like offering someone ecstasy.

 

I don'think she roofied him, but I do think he consented to the porn brain (instead of starving or whatever they're calling degenerating, so less like a party drug) when he was in his own head. Having sex with someone you barely know when you know they're making that call under the influence is a bit questionable, consent-wise. 

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Drake didn't actually quit working for Blaine so he is still getting funeral home brain. To me, that makes the librarian brain an option he chose to partake in because he thought Liv was hot, not because he was starving and had no other access to brains. He didn't seem in danger of devolving into the super hungry zombies we saw in the lab.

 

I do agree that sex under the influence makes consent sketchy though. On a related note, can you imagine if there were zombie laws about what was unacceptable behavior after eating certain brains? Like if someone ate the brain of a murderer or an alcoholic, would zombie law consider them responsible for their actions? I know I shouldn't be trying to picture a zombie court system where things like that would be prosecuted, but now I am!

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Wasn't he trying to get away from Blaine by making her his supplier? I had a sick kid home, so there were many kitchen trips, but I thought that was in there.

It is an interesting question, especially since presumably drunks have some experience staying sober if they need to and there are people murderers don't kill, but someone on those brains would be resisting an impulse they've never had before. I have to think that would be harder.

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The elaborate prank about the GPS was rather a cheat in the story line I think. And frankly a heroine who Does It should be tolerable in this day and age. 

 

All the real emotion is in the case of the week. They shortshrifted this and the episode suffers for it. 

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This episode didn't work for me because of the case of the week this time. I'm still baffled why Liv started acting like the character in the book instead of like the actual owner of the brain. And further baffled why Grace's husband would think she was doing the things she was writing about. And further further baffled about why the stories somehow had to be coming from a real world source. I'm pretty sure nobody ever thought E.L. James was telling true stories about her life (and if so, someone should help her!). Nobody ever seemed to give any thought to the notion that Grace was writing fiction!

Major, YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD THE COPS YOU FOUND THE DOG IN THE PARK LIKE YOU TOLD RAVI. I try to like you but then you leave a perfectly adorable basset hound ON A CITY BUS.

Drake was asking Liv if she could supply him with morgue brains so he wouldn't have to be under Blaine's thumb. I can't recall if she agreed; she went back and forth on it. I wonder if she'll still be keen on him after the brain wears off- can't see why not.

Liv didn't know Peyton had any contact with Blaine, and I guess I can see why she didn't give her a list of Known Seattle Zombies. She did remember Blaine killed Lowell this time, which pleases me. Even though she had Drake there, I feel like she should have let Peyton stay at her place- the poor woman is a mess right now, understandably. Of all the reasons she shouldn't have had sex with Blaine, I would have hoped the first reason would be because he's her informant and star witness and she immediately sets up a conflict of interest defense- but also, did she really think somebody who knew enough about Boss's organization to give her all of this information wasn't SUPER BAD NEWS and not someone to crack open drinks and get horizontal with (appealing as this thought might be)? Poor woman got stuck with the idiot ball this week. Also surprised her response to learning Blaine zombied Liv wasn't "WTF HE'S A ZOMBIE?"

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(edited)
Wasn't he trying to get away from Blaine by making her his supplier?

He told her that he wanted to get away from Blaine so he asked if he could get brains from her. She said, "I don't really know you...but I would like to." He apologized and said he would make the Blaine situation work. Then she invited him over to her place and they had more of the librarian's brain (which made me wonder how many meals she gets out of each brain!).

 

ETA: I went back to rewatch the scene to make sure I was remembering it correctly and it's not until after they start making out that Liv says, "I roofied you with horny librarian brain." For some reason, I thought she told him that before she invited him over, so I had assumed he knew what he was eating beforehand but apparently not. Drake countered by saying that his actions were not far from normal for him and that he would have been interested in hooking up with her before he ate the librarian brain, before he was turned into a zombie, or any time after he turned 12.

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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I forgot to mention, this episode brought up the fact that Liv is in a relatively privileged position as Zombies go.  And though I understand that she cannot possibly supply every zombie with brains (both due to limited supply and the fact I'm not sure Blaine wouldn't just kill her for fucking with his enterprise), she has never seemed particularly conflicted about sharing NONE of the brains to which she has access, even with the zombies with whom she's had some sort of relationship.

 

It came up previously when she confronted Lowell about his involvement with Blaine and Blaine murdering teens to feed his clients.  She seemed somewhat chastened by his retort about not everyone working in a morgue and having a constant and ready fresh brain source that requires no murder on her part.  But she has never really seemed to consider the issue since. This seemed particularly stark in this episode with Drake, considering she turned him. 

Edited by RachelKM
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I do agree that sex under the influence makes consent sketchy though. On a related note, can you imagine if there were zombie laws about what was unacceptable behavior after eating certain brains? Like if someone ate the brain of a murderer or an alcoholic, would zombie law consider them responsible for their actions?

For a while now in the U.S. the thinking has been that as long as you know what you're getting into when you partake of something that compromises your decision-making, then you can't use that as an excuse for your subsequent choices (whether that's to drive through the nearest mall or have sex, as long as it was foreseeable). That didn't used to be the case, and judging by the news about Bill Cosby, some would like to roll the clock back.

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Don't the writers on this show ever talk to writers in, y'know, publishing? The idea that you could sell a book "to a major publisher, book tour and everything" and have it come out within a couple of weeks... and change from using a real name to a pseudonym even after Advance Review Copies (ARCs) have come out... it's bonkers. More bonkers than zombies.

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For a while now in the U.S. the thinking has been that as long as you know what you're getting into when you partake of something that compromises your decision-making, then you can't use that as an excuse for your subsequent choices (whether that's to drive through the nearest mall or have sex, as long as it was foreseeable). That didn't used to be the case, and judging by the news about Bill Cosby, some would like to roll the clock back.

This is not entirely accurate.  You cannot use your own intoxication as a defense for your own criminal conduct, for instance getting high or drunk and driving, or committing a robbery.  (I have no idea what the rule is if you have an unanticipated reaction that renders you incapable of forming the requisite mental state, but that is getting deep into criminal theory.)  

 

Sex is trickier because that is a thing that is not an inherently criminal offense unless one party does not or is not legally capable of consent (due to intoxication, competence, minority).  You cannot simply say "I was drunk when I raped that person (whether accomplished though physical force and restraint or chemical incapacitation of the other party) so I'm not liable."  But you can be raped as a result of incapacitation.  How they determine that when both parties are intoxicated is unclear and possibly differs by jurisdiction, although who is the aggressor and level of intoxication likely plays a role.

 

From what I understand, the Bill Cosby thing is different as he was allegedly purposefully drugging people with the intent of rendering them incapacitated to accomplish sexual conduct without consent. 

Edited by RachelKM
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Major, YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD THE COPS YOU FOUND THE DOG IN THE PARK LIKE YOU TOLD RAVI. I try to like you but then you leave a perfectly adorable basset hound ON A CITY BUS.

Except Major was already a major suspect in Clive's eyes. That would add just one. more. connection. to the already pretty-connected meat-cute/murder/blaine saga. Why would he put himself in the crosshairs if he could avoid it, right?

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Except Major was already a major suspect in Clive's eyes. That would add just one. more. connection. to the already pretty-connected meat-cute/murder/blaine saga. Why would he put himself in the crosshairs if he could avoid it, right?

But... adorable basset hound... :(

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