S03.E04: Wag the Tongue Slowly

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Clive's patience is tested when Liv consumes the brain of a murder victim who had the reputation of being the ultimate office gossip. Meanwhile, Blaine and Peyton continue to grow closer as they wait to see if Ravi is able to reverse the effects of the cure. Lastly, Major is one step away from fulfilling a promise.

Promo:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Scene:

[fastiller]

[xqueenfrostine]

For the second week in a row: Ugh Peyton.  Her explanation for why she was more invested in Blaine not regaining his memories than in Liv and Major having access to a cure that wouldn't wipe their memories was terrible.  She's gotten used to them being zombies?  Fuck you Peyton!  Major is dying.  He can't stay a zombie forever.  He's waiting around not taking the cure, because he wants every last moment with his memories that he can, and she's hoping that Ravi's new cure won't work because Peyton would rather keep her former child murder love interest than allow Major to survive with his memories in tact. 

It's official: Peyton's the worst.  Can we send her back to wherever she went after she found out Liv was a zombie?

Edited April 26, 2017 by xqueenfrostine

[Free]

16 minutes ago, xqueenfrostine said:

For the second week in a row: Ugh Peyton.  Her explanation for why she was more invested in Blaine not regaining his memories than in Liv and Major having access to a cure that wouldn't wipe their memories was terrible.  She's gotten used to them being zombies?  Fuck you Peyton!  Major is dying.  He can't stay a zombie forever.  He's waiting around not taking the cure, because he wants every last moment with his memories that he can, and she's hoping that Ravi's new cure won't work because Peyton would rather keep her former child murder love interest than allow Major to survive with his memories in tact. 

It's official: Peyton's the worst.  Can we send her back to wherever she went after she found out Liv was a zombie?

The season has been disappointing character wise tbh: Peyton is annoying, Blaine is just there without his memories, Ravi is stuck being moody most of the time, etc.

[xqueenfrostine]

Just now, Free said:

The season has been disappointing character wise tbh: Peyton is annoying, Blaine is just there without his memories, Ravi is stuck being moody most of the time, etc.

I agree on those three, but I think Clive has had it really good.  Major too, though to a lesser extent.

[UNOSEZ]

Well... Its official... "Ugh Peyton" will be the rallying cry for this season...  She was the worst this episode and we can't even pretend she doesn't know how her friends feel about it anymore...  Clive and Liv were awesome real season one vibes... Where's Justin... And one more time for good measure... UGH PEYTON 

[Free]

12 minutes ago, xqueenfrostine said:

I agree on those three, but I think Clive has had it really good.  Major too, though to a lesser extent.

I guess it's because they're not actively involved in the love triangle that's bringing the other characters down and Clive is finally in a more active role than before.

[xqueenfrostine]

7 minutes ago, Free said:

I guess it's because they're not actively involved in the love triangle that's bringing the other characters down and Clive is finally in a more active role than before.

Are there people out there who actually enjoy love triangles?  Writers always use them to drum up tension, but I can't think of a single trope in fiction that I like less.  It makes all of the characters involved seem horrible and it's not enjoyable to watch.

[Lady Calypso]

Yeah, they're screwing it up with four of their characters, so it doesn't even out with two of the other characters getting excellent work. Liv's now just there to be comic relief with her split brain personalities, Ravi's a mopey asshole who needs to be convinced to HELP people over being a mopey jerk, Peyton's a total dumbass who is too busy trying to get into Blaine's pants than to think about the bigger picture, and Blaine's memory loss is mostly a waiting game on when we discover Peyton's getting duped and waiting for him to call Peyton a dumbass for being an easy target to manipulate. I'd love to be surprised that Blaine isn't faking any memory loss, but I'm just expecting the obvious to happen, just so I'm not disappointed.

Clive has gotten some really great work. It's so good to get to know him and his background a little more. Having him into this zombie family case gives him some motivation to protect Team Zombie, especially with Gun Range Guy being anti-zombie and knowing their existence. I'm surprised Clive isn't convincing Liv to stop being an obvious zombie because once people start figuring out the signs of a zombie, she's an obvious target. 

Major found Natalie! And he gave her the cure! I wonder if she'll take it. I imagine she might do it. I totally sympathize with his actions this episode. He really has nothing to lose. It's either he doesn't take the cure and he dies, or he takes the cure and has no memories of anything, including Natalie, so why not go and be a bit suicidal if he thinks it will save her? At least for now, things worked out alright. He knows Natalie is safe for now and though he doesn't have the cure anymore, he could probably sneak into Ravi's bag to get it. Ok, this is assuming Natalie accepted the cure, since I don't think they actually gave us a clear answer at the end of the episode. 

And yes, Peyton, you are the worst friend ever. Major's supposed to be your friend and you'd rather have Blaine stay without memories than for your friends to become human. You're literally choosing a boy over your friends. It's a shame that the moment we really get to know Peyton as a person, she turns out to be selfish like this. I know this is all because of plot contrivances, as they have some sort of set plan which makes everyone look like assholes, but they really, really should have considered a different direction with this story. 

[xqueenfrostine]

15 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

Blaine's memory loss is mostly a waiting game on when we discover Peyton's getting duped and waiting for him to call Peyton a dumbass for being an easy target to manipulate. I'd love to be surprised that Blaine isn't faking any memory loss, but I'm just expecting the obvious to happen, just so I'm not disappointed.

I actually don't believe Blaine's faking, because if the zombie cure doesn't have the consequence of memory loss, what will stop Liv from taking the cure?  If Liv gets cured, there's no more series, so there has to be something plotwise holding her back from taking it.  Ravi has too many syringes for the scarcity of the cure itself to be what makes Liv wait.  Plus he knows Major is going to have to take the cure himself pretty soon and it'll be pretty obvious that Blaine was lying if he doesn't lose his memory too.  I don't think Blaine would be hanging around this closely if he was about to get called out on a lie.

[Free]

1 hour ago, xqueenfrostine said:

Are there people out there who actually enjoy love triangles?  Writers always use them to drum up tension, but I can't think of a single trope in fiction that I like less.  It makes all of the characters involved seem horrible and it's not enjoyable to watch.

Maybe they do, but this is why I don't.

[thuganomics85]

The case of the week ended up being one of the better ones, since I liked that it murder wasn't intentional, but a group of co-workers pulling a prank on someone who had made their lives miserable, but didn't realize that her anti-depressant would make things deadly.  Obviously, they are all going down for manslaughter, but that's a slightly different motive.  But as soon as they talked about the fake Italian accent, I knew that it was going to lead to them finding a video of the former porn star doing that accent in one of her films.  At least it brought Ravi some "enjoyment."

Still enjoying this show, but this Ravi/Peyton/Blaine triangle is really a bad idea, and is hurting all three of the characters.  At least Ravi was a little more fun with Major this go around (granted, I'm starting to think Major has become a character who can bring the best out of anyone), but he's still mopey and moody, and not as fun (or interesting) as he used me.  Meanwhile, Blaine continues to have lost his edge and even make David Anders kind of dull, and Peyton is just coming off kind of daft.  Again, I don't think Ravi has any right to get upset over who she sleeps with, but her wanting Blaine of all people just makes me really question her taste in men.  I'm starting to think her attraction to Ravi was an outlier.  Blaine wasn't just some bad boy: he was guy who killed a ton of people, and negatively effected people she is close to like Liv and Major.  I don't care if he has amnesia (?), I just can't see her wanting to have a legit relationship with him.

Clive is becoming the MVP of this season.  Somehow, him being in the know has made his reactions even more hilarious.  His face any time Liv got her gossip on, was perfect.  Malcolm Goodwin was made for this!

Seems like the Zombie war is getting closer.  I wonder what mission Major is on?

Hey, Major found Natalie!

[AudienceofOne]

In Peyton's defense, it's not her choice for Blaine to get his memories back. It's not like she's actively obstructing the cure in any way. What she is unwittingly doing is providing Blaine with a reason to pretend he hasn't gotten his memories back. I think he got them back overnight but is lying about them now. Which means he's just signed Major's death warrant. Peyton can really pick them.

5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Clive is becoming the MVP of this season.  Somehow, him being in the know has made his reactions even more hilarious. 

He's the perfect straight man. All his reactions are gold.

8 hours ago, xqueenfrostine said:

Are there people out there who actually enjoy love triangles?  Writers always use them to drum up tension, but I can't think of a single trope in fiction that I like less.  It makes all of the characters involved seem horrible and it's not enjoyable to watch.

12 year olds? Maybe? I don't just find them boring, I find they reflect badly on everybody involved. They make the object look fickle and the two love interests look desperate and/or creepy. Nobody wins.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

If this memory serum is untested, why does Ravi think that they will know if it's worked by Saturday? I need some kind of scientific reason behind that deadline besides "just guessing."

Peyton, it's common courtesy to talk to your roommate before you invite a formerly murderous ex-zombie to sleep at your place for a few nights, especially when he's potentially getting his murderous memories back during that time period.

At first I was wondering how any of these boring middle aged office workers got their hands on utopium just to prank a coworker.

I'm not saying that Liv necessarily needs to go full on with the tan and dye, but knowing that she is hunting ZOMBIE HATERS so it wouldn't hurt to do one or the other. The pale skin and white blonde hair combo is a pretty obvious clue to anyone in the know. If she just did one or the other she wouldn't stand out as a zombie to knowing eyes.

It's only the fourth episode and I'm already tired of Ravi's mopeyness. He would seriously rather lie there on the sofa feeling sorry for himself than go do something, ANYTHING (including stake out some guy's house) with Major before he loses all of his memories or dies?

Loved when the HR lady said that the dead woman was the office gossip and both Liv and Clive immediately said, "Ohhhhhhhhhh," because her new personality suddenly made sense. And maybe Liv's gossipy instinct was correct because Clive later saw the lieutenant (?) close the blinds in her office while the other detective (whose nicer clothes she had noticed) was in there. I loved that when Clive saw it happen, he said, "Liv! You're not going to believe this!"

[jtb34]

"You see, my interests run the gambit from full-auto firearm conversions to the sovereign citizen movement."

No, no, they don't. Even if you didn't kill Clive's friends, you just murdered the language.  

[xqueenfrostine]

3 hours ago, AudienceofOne said:

In Peyton's defense, it's not her choice for Blaine to get his memories back. It's not like she's actively obstructing the cure in any way.

No one's suggesting that's the case, but it does make her an incredibly shitty friend to have her hopes pinned on Blaine not getting his memories back given the implications of that outcome for Liv and Major.  That's indefensible, especially given the state of Major's health and that he's currently risking his life by waiting to take the cure because he's not ready to face the loss of his memories.

[dubbel zout]

Triangles work when all three parties are equal, but most of the time, at least one isn't. The writers have to put the work in; a triangle shouldn't be used as a lazy device. (Which is all too common, alas.)

[Primetimer]

If a murderous Klansman doesn't merit the full Z, what does?

View the full article

[Bort]

2 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm not saying that Liv necessarily needs to go full on with the tan and dye, but knowing that she is hunting ZOMBIE HATERS so it wouldn't hurt to do one or the other. The pale skin and white blonde hair combo is a pretty obvious clue to anyone in the know. If she just did one or the other she wouldn't stand out as a zombie to knowing eyes.

The Fillmore Graves lady told her that exact thing, pretty much. "We're trying to keep a secret here." I don't know why Liv refuses to. Luckily, the Zombie-haters like the gun range guy seem to have a mental picture (and apparently have seen a picture) of Walking Dead, full zombie-mode people, which is still a bit different from how Liv looks. Right now, she still just looks like a Goth wannabe.

[xqueenfrostine]

48 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Luckily, the Zombie-haters like the gun range guy seem to have a mental picture (and apparently have seen a picture) of Walking Dead, full zombie-mode people, which is still a bit different from how Liv looks. Right now, she still just looks like a Goth wannabe.

That may be the iconography they're using, but clearly they know that's not what zombies hiding among them look like.  I don't think they've established yet that the zombie hating community knows that zombi-ism causes your hair and skin to turn white, but they do know that the "brain eaters" among them look like regular people.  

[Bruinsfan]

13 hours ago, xqueenfrostine said:

I agree on those three, but I think Clive has had it really good.  Major too, though to a lesser extent.

Clive has moved to the MVP position for me this year, I'm loving him. Major really works well for me when being BFFs with Ravi or a badass in the field, but even though I liked Natalie his obsession with rescuing her is wearing a bit thin.

[Fireball]

5 hours ago, AudienceofOne said:

I don't just find them boring, I find they reflect badly on everybody involved. They make the object look fickle and the two love interests look desperate and/or creepy. Nobody wins.

^ This is how I always view love triangles: the one in the middle looks fickle/indecisive and the other two look desperate with no self esteem. I can never understand why the two people put up with the objects inability to make a choice. 

[dcalley]

3 hours ago, jtb34 said:

"You see, my interests run the gambit from full-auto firearm conversions to the sovereign citizen movement."

No, no, they don't. Even if you didn't kill Clive's friends, you just murdered the language.  

Maybe it was intentional by the writers. I didn't catch it, but I wasn't paying complete attention.

[questionfear]

2 hours ago, kariyaki said:

The Fillmore Graves lady told her that exact thing, pretty much. "We're trying to keep a secret here." I don't know why Liv refuses to. Luckily, the Zombie-haters like the gun range guy seem to have a mental picture (and apparently have seen a picture) of Walking Dead, full zombie-mode people, which is still a bit different from how Liv looks. Right now, she still just looks like a Goth wannabe.

At the same time, the fact that Liv works in the morgue works in her favor here-if anyone questions why she looks like that, she's just a big old goth. 

[Lady Calypso]

5 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

If this memory serum is untested, why does Ravi think that they will know if it's worked by Saturday? I need some kind of scientific reason behind that deadline besides "just guessing."

I don't think there seems to be. Ravi pretty much said that they didn't have a whole lot of time to sit around and wait for Blaine to get his memories back. They really only have until Major can't breathe on his own until they have to use the cure again, side effects be damned. I think it was more of a rough timeline that they could really wait, along with a scientific guess on Ravi's part. I do think that the whole "6am on Saturday is the absolute deadline" was dumb, and it's not like after 6am, there's no way for his memories to return. For all he knew, Blaine could have regained his memories at 9am. 

[indeed]

Ravi did tell Blaine he could give it until noon on Saturday so what are the chances B+P will do the deed and then Blaine starts getting some memories - all before lunchtime?  ;) Of course, will it be the sex triggering memories or the serum?  If seeing/interacting with daddy dearest didn't do it, then nothing should...except for possibly the miracle drug.  (I'd like Blaine to stay this way for a while longer, but I doubt they can resist returning Blaine back to original flavor.)  

I still don't get how Ravi could know if his lab mice were getting memories back, but whatevs.

(And Ravi, get over yourself already!  Not attractive.  At.  All.)

[ruby24]

The thing is, there has to be some reason for Liv to not be able to become human again, so I agree that the memory loss probably has to be real. 

[AllyB]

19 hours ago, xqueenfrostine said:

I actually don't believe Blaine's faking, because if the zombie cure doesn't have the consequence of memory loss, what will stop Liv from taking the cure?  If Liv gets cured, there's no more series, so there has to be something plotwise holding her back from taking it.  Ravi has too many syringes for the scarcity of the cure itself to be what makes Liv wait.  Plus he knows Major is going to have to take the cure himself pretty soon and it'll be pretty obvious that Blaine was lying if he doesn't lose his memory too.  I don't think Blaine would be hanging around this closely if he was about to get called out on a lie.

He only has 17 syringes. Natalie has 1 and Major will take the other. That leaves 15. How many zombie children were in the Filmore Graves classroom? At least 15. Life as a permanent 20 something has less drawbacks than life as a permanent 9 year old, (in fact staying in your 20 forever is kind of the dream for a lot of people). Liv won't take a cure from a child.

Quote of the episode had to be Major telling Ravi that he was good at sitting in cars. Vicious burn but delivered with such charm. Robert Buckley is nearly the treasure that season 1&2 Rahul Kohli was.

[xqueenfrostine]

1 hour ago, AllyB said:

He only has 17 syringes. Natalie has 1 and Major will take the other. That leaves 15. How many zombie children were in the Filmore Graves classroom? At least 15. Life as a permanent 20 something has less drawbacks than life as a permanent 9 year old, (in fact staying in your 20 forever is kind of the dream for a lot of people). 

 

First of all, zombies aren't vampires.  We have no idea if zombism prevents zombies from aging.  That's not something that's been established in the show and no one's been a zombie for more than a few years so we don't have much reference to check. The closest we have is Blaine's dad saying that immortality suited him, but eternal youth and immortality are not the same thing.

 Second of all, we're talking about a barely tested cure for zombi-ism that was cooked up in a morgue and that has only be tested on rats and one adult.  You cannot give that to children.  I know people don't consider medical ethics too often when they're thinking about fictional miracle cures, but the idea that you'd essentially give children a cure that has a side effect of brain damage is madness.  For one, it's only been a couple of months at most since Blaine was given the second cure.  Who knows what the long term effects of such a cure might be?  Second, the brains and bodies of children are not nearly as developed as the those of adults.  There's no way of knowing if a cure that's reasonably safe for an adult is safe for a 9 year old, so any zombie child injected with the cure would basically be a test dummy.  That's horrifying.  It's a much, much better play to test the cure out on as many adults as possible and look for ways to manufacture more (maybe by giving a syringe or two to someone with more resources, equipment and expertise to reverse engineer its chemical structure than a medical examiner in a morgue!) if that cure hasn't killed any of the adults or produced any serious side effects in 5-10 years.

Edited April 27, 2017 by xqueenfrostine

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, xqueenfrostine said:

First of all, zombies aren't vampires.  We have no idea if zombism prevents zombies from aging.  That's not something that's been established in the show and no one's been a zombie for more than a few years so we don't have much reference to check. The closest we have is Blaine's dad saying that immortality suited him, but eternal youth and immortality are not the same thing.

I mean, zombies are, by definition, dead so I think that aging completely stops in this case. Since zombies are able to technically get harmed but not hurt (unless shot in the head), it's not out of the realm to assume that they won't age. I feel fairly confident that zombism does stop their aging process. Vampires and zombies have always been similar in that vein. They're both immortal who need the sustenance from a human to survive. I think the only difference with zombies is that they have been established to look monstrous when on any kind of feeding frenzy. Vampires have, for the most part, had the ability to blend in with humans while zombies have always remained dead-looking. It's only recently that there's been the humanistic take on them, with this show and with Santa Clarita Diet (side note: no, SCD, you AREN'T the first show to have the main female lead be a zombie!). But both are immortal and ageless because both zombies and vampires are the undead. 

As for the children taking the cure angle, I agree that it shouldn't be tested on them right now. They have a lot more testing to go, and testing on even zombie children is a bad idea. They're still children, so their brains are wired differently than adults. It's better to find more Utopium for the cure and test the other 15 cures on adult zombies so that the children have a better chance of being cured with no side effects. 

But these children won't grow old, period. Because they don't have blood pumping through their veins or have beating hearts, they're going to stay their physical age, which means more people noticing children not aging. Those children will either have to constantly move around every couple of years, or they will have to hide out until a cure is established. It's risky for them either way.

[xqueenfrostine]

4 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

 

But these children won't grow old, period. Because they don't have blood pumping through their veins or have beating hearts

They do have blood in their veins and they do have beating hearts.  Not only did we see Ravi take Liv's pulse in the pilot (which was a very slow 10 beats per minute, but still there), we also see him take a blood sample.  We've also seen zombies bleed, most notably in the season two finale.  When Chief got shot by one of Mr. Boss's men in the head, we see his blood and brains splattered against the wall behind him, and the bullet hole in his forehead is red.  Don E's shirt front also had blood after he was he shot in the chest.  Same deal with Drake and Rita, and the other Romero zombies that were shot at Max Rager, though their blood was harder to spot since they had other blood on them already at the time they were shot.   

And, no, the zombies in iZombie are not dead.  They meet every single biological criteria scientists use to determine if an organism is alive.  A big part of being alive is having living cells, which zombies presumably do as they wouldn't need to keep redoing their spray tans if their skin cells weren't constantly shedding and replacing themselves.  That's not something that wouldn't happen to a preserved and animated dead body. Neither would the flesh wounds we've seen Liv get over the course of the series have healed themselves if she wasn't made of living cells.  And if their cells are not static and they are not actually dead, then yes, aging is at least theoretically possible.  Whether or not it does happens within the iZombie universe remains to be seen, but nothing within the show has established that it doesn't.  Maybe you're right and they do have eternal youth, but until the show says that explicitly or at least gives us stronger clues that point in that direction, I see no reason to treat that hunch as iZombie canon.

Edited April 27, 2017 by xqueenfrostine

[Anela]

Hate the love triangle, and really wish the writers would stop with it. Plus, Peyton choosing the guy who killed her best friend, over her best friend does suck. 

Loved their reactions to finding out the dead woman was a huge gossip. "That explains it!!" Made me laugh out loud. 

[Bruinsfan]

21 hours ago, indeed said:

I still don't get how Ravi could know if his lab mice were getting memories back, but whatevs.

He probably established some kind of learned behavior like maze running or something, then tested the cured rats to see if they could remember. Not sure I'd trust that regaining that level of cognition would translate into a sentient human being's lifetime of memories and personality traits, but then again in Major's shoes I'd probably pull the trigger on the amnesia cure pretty soon rather than skirt too close to actual death/whatever grisly side effects happened to that rat before Ravi improved the cure.

[sacrebleu]

Regarding full on zombie-ism. I'm not surprised Liv didn't go all GRRRR on the racist (as suggested by our recapper)-- but I was expecting Major to zombie rage-out when he was being attacked. That beatdown seemed especially brutal. 

I do agree that Liv and her crime-solving (or at least case-enabling) visions have really been MIA so far this season, and I'm not happy about it. 

I'm over Mopey-Ravi and Blayton? (Peyne?) 

[Lady Calypso]

3 hours ago, sacrebleu said:

I'm over Mopey-Ravi and Blayton? (Peyne?) 

Same here. It's a "Peyne" in my ass. 

[tennisgurl]

I resisted it for as long as I could, but I have now joined the "Ugggg Peyton" Club after this episode. Did she seriously just admit he would rather Liv and Major stay zombies than her new boyfriend getting his memories back? She straight up choose ho before bros. We finally get a look at Peyton as a person beyond being Livs friend or her job, and, as it turns out, she's apparently an asshole who considers this amnesiac murderer over anything and everyone.

Ravi might be less of an asshole here, but is just an asshole, just a super mopey one. At least he got to do science stuff and hang out with Major, eventually. I don't get why they would think anyone wants to see Ravi like this. He has always been one of my favorite characters, and now he's being thrown under the bus in the name of some terrible love triangle from Hell. He should be spending time with his BFF Major, before he dies or loses his memory or something! How is he going to feel is he misses out on time with him while moping over Ugggggg Peyton.

Anyway, the rest of the episode was pretty good. I liked the MoTW, and that it was actually a prank gone wrong instead of an actual murder. That dead woman seemed like a real piece of work, I'm surprised she was one of the only bodies that wasn't intestinally killed. I figured it would be some kind of Murder on the Orient Express situation, but I liked seeing it all come together. Liv and Clive are a great team, and it was good to see them on the same page. Loved their mutual "ahhhhhh, now it makes sense" reaction when they found out the woman was a gossip.

Clive really has become the VIP of the season so far. He is a perfect straight man to all the craziness going on around him. And I liked Majors borderline suicidal attempts to save Natalie. It might get a little old that he keeps going on about saving her, but I appreciate that he is selflessly trying to help a person he feels responsible for getting into an even crappier situation, and I certainly feel bad for Natalie, so I'm rooting for him. I really hope he gets better soon though, I would seriously miss him if he wasn't around.

[itainttippithebird]

Ha, I love it - taking the "is it ok to punch a nazi?" question to its ultimate, brains eating extreme. (The only wrinkle being then LIV will be a nazi for several days, which, nooooo, her being that racist grandpa dude was plenty bad enough.)

[Jacks-Son]

While I am not ready (yet!) to get on the "Ugg Peyton" bandwagon (I always thought she was a major league hottie), her infatuation with Blaine (who I have detested since his "Fringe" days) is disgusting. Also, not a way to be a true friend to Liv, Major, and Ravi.

I do want to promote Rose McIver's (Liv) nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy on TV category. She has taken over Tatiana Maslany's top spot for the "Multiple Roles in a Single Television Series". Although, Maslany is outstanding in her roles, a large part of her roles are makeup, hairstyles, gaits and mannerisms. She IS gifted. McIver, however, not only has to portray herself, but a new character every single episode and has to differentiate the character solely through facial expressions, mannerisms, speech, and demeanor. I wonder which actress has the most difficult job?

This question may have been posed to posters on another thread but I'll go ahead and ask posters their opinion on why it seems that Liv, and now major (for a single episode), are the only two "zombies" that take on the characteristics of the person whose brain they partake of? Is it solely because that is the main premise of the show and they want to focus on Liv's transformations and not clutter the episodes with too much switching of personalities? They've indicated, at Major's Zombie Training Camp that others have experienced the same effect but they don't really show it. Is this just a simple case of "Tell" not "Show"? Don't get me wrong, I think Liv's transformations are spectacular and very well acted, and they serve the double purpose of confusing Clive and Ravi, who have learned to expect them but always seem surprised when it happens. Maybe the answer is really quite simple and I don't think it's an accidental plot hole, but it seems that it is quite deliberate by the show runner/writers.

[LoneHaranguer]

1 hour ago, Jacks-Son said:

This question may have been posed to posters on another thread but I'll go ahead and ask posters their opinion on why it seems that Liv, and now major (for a single episode), are the only two "zombies" that take on the characteristics of the person whose brain they partake of?

They're not. Blaine has, one of his clients complained about one he had received, and Blaine was taking special requests for a price. You're not going to see Liv on "everyday ordinary person" brains because that's not going to make for an interesting story, but that may have been what other zombies in a story have eaten and you wouldn't be able to tell that they're actually "on" those.

[Jacks-Son]

What made this episode especially unique was the fact that Liv, rather than acting in a manner indicative of the deceased's profession, was drawn to the unknown quirk of the salesperson, her penchant for gossip. It caught both Liv and Clive by surprise. Meaning sometimes, Liv herself is unaware of the subtle transformations.

[MisterGlass]

I've been leaning toward the idea that Blaine has actual memory loss (I can't see him serving as Don E. and Chief's gofer otherwise).  This episode, they actually sold be me a little on Blaine as not a horrible person with "what if I murdered animals?"  That's either the best manipulative fake concern ever from a serial killer, or the best manipulative real concern from the writers.

Ravi managed to climb out of the pit of despair for a moment or two this episode and it was a welcome sight.  I don't hate Peyton.  I think she has incredibly bad judgement, but I thought that before.  I am the person who forgets the incredibly obvious reason why something is bad, so I can't really throw stones.

On 4/26/2017 at 11:00 AM, dubbel zout said:

Triangles work when all three parties are equal, but most of the time, at least one isn't.

I've been trying to think of one that wasn't horribly annoying.  There have to have been a couple of good ones for us to have so many terrible ones now.  Casablanca?  Yeah, I guess that was an acceptable use of a love triangle.  That was a nobody's fault scenario. 

On 4/26/2017 at 6:58 AM, AudienceofOne said:

On 4/26/2017 at 1:02 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Clive is becoming the MVP of this season.  Somehow, him being in the know has made his reactions even more hilarious. 

He's the perfect straight man. All his reactions are gold.

He really is.  And his reaction to Ravi stalking around outside the interview room was as much fun as his reactions to Liv.

[AllyB]

15 hours ago, MisterGlass said:

I've been trying to think of one that wasn't horribly annoying.  There have to have been a couple of good ones for us to have so many terrible ones now.  Casablanca?  Yeah, I guess that was an acceptable use of a love triangle.  That was a nobody's fault scenario. 

I think the Brenda-Dylan-Kelly triangle made BH90210 ratings go through the roof back in the 90s and is the reason why so many CW type shows shoe-horn one in.

[sweetandsour]

Love triangles are generally a terrible idea in my opinion.  They can work if they feel organic and if one of the three parties is not a regular - you can write that person out and move on from that storyline without said triangle continuing to plague the characters or the fans.  But when they feel forced or done only for drama, it's annoying, and when all three parties continue to stay on the show, it can be super annoying.  They also make no sense to me as a business/creative decision if you know the triangle will be really polarizing and you'll alienate/lose a huge subsection fans who probably would have stuck with the show longer if you hadn't messed with them so much. (Which I'm sure was the case with Gossip Girl (Dan/Blair vs. Chuck/Blair) and I bet Vampire Diaries.)

Re: case of the week, I did enjoy this one and the busybody brain, but in the flashback of what really happened during the fire alarm, it seemed so dumb to me to have the lady who pulled the fire alarm clearly do so with bare fingers.  It made it apparent that the police never even dusted the fire alarms for prints as you would expect in any halfway-competent investigation.  Fixing that detail only would have required the lady to touch the fire alarm with paper towels or a scarf or something - not difficult to write.

[bilgistic]

What did the anti-zombie gun range guy say at the end? I rewound it several times. You can't murder me alive? You can't run me alive? Nothing I came up with made sense. Reading his mumbling lips didn't help.

[sweetandsour]

16 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

What did the anti-zombie gun range guy say at the end? I rewound it several times. You can't murder me alive? You can't run me alive? Nothing I came up with made sense. Reading his mumbling lips didn't help.

I don't have the episode playing right now, but I remember from the first time I watched it, he basically said the equivalent of "you can't kill what's already dead."  Maybe he used different words - kill/murder, dead/not alive, but that was the gist.

[kieyra]

9 hours ago, bilgistic said:

What did the anti-zombie gun range guy say at the end? I rewound it several times. You can't murder me alive? You can't run me alive? Nothing I came up with made sense. Reading his mumbling lips didn't help.

If you heard the word "alive" then it was probably "you can't kill what ain't alive". 

I've been playing the "love triangle that wasn't infuriating?" game and I'm coming up dry. Part of the problem is I never fall for the "redeemable bad boy" shit, and that's almost always one leg of the triangle. 

I've also never enjoyed the Blaine character. They've consistently cast people like his "father" and "much older date" (S1) who don't look old enough as compared to the actor's appearance; there is no explanation as to why he still has zombie hair; and honestly this whole memory thing feels like a cop-out on making him an actual villain. i.e., reset button. Even when he does get it back at the twistiest possible moment, they'll tease "good Blaine is still in there somewhere!" for the rest of the series. La la, vampire with a soul, humanity switch or whatever they called it on TVD, etc etc. 

Then again, I never believed in the redemption of Logan Echolls, either.

Major is one of my favorite characters at this point. And his noble, if possibly pointless quests are his signature move. 

[Fireball]

8 hours ago, kieyra said:

I've been playing the "love triangle that wasn't infuriating?" game and I'm coming up dry. Part of the problem is I never fall for the "redeemable bad boy" shit, and that's almost always one leg of the triangle. 

The only thing that I've got is---at least the love triangle doesn't involve Liv, Major, & Blaine.

[kieyra]

12 hours ago, Fireball said:

The only thing that I've got is---at least the love triangle doesn't involve Liv, Major, & Blaine.

You're right. I seriously could not.