The supernatural crime comedy iZombie series premiere aired tonight, leaving Liv in the mindset of a dead call girl.
A zombified party
The show opens on Liv working as a medical student, pre-zombie attack. She rashly saves the life of a patient, and is then invited to a party by a coworker named Marcy. Hm…
Enter Major. “So basically, every day of your life is like the ending of Sixteen Candles?” asks a bitter Marcy. Set to be married to Major in three months, he tells her to go to the party.
Cut to the party. Horror. Zombie outbreak. Body bag. “Followed by a sudden desire to eat brains.” Waking up shoreside, Liv scares a worker collecting the bodies.
Five months later, Liv’s buying very zombie-esque items from the grocery store.
Brains for dinner
Liv’s best friend Peyton throws a surprise “pot luck Tuesday” for the new zombie. However, it turns out to be an intervention, involving Liv’s breaking off the engagement and switching to a job at the morgue.
“We think you have PTSD.” As traumatized as she may be, Liv has more going on than a stressful past event.
Liv’s coworker, Dr. Ravi, introduces a Jane Doe found in the back of of a garbage truck. Liv makes some insta-noodles, chops up the brains, and slurps away. And with the first chomping of brains, we finally have the reveal of Liv the zombie.
Psychic brain visions
Ravi reveals that Liv was one of the only ones to survive the party, at which a lot of brains were missing. Her heartbeat is 10 BPM, making her a “living” zombie. Ravi used to work for the CDC, but was fired because he wouldn’t stop warning everyone about the potential oncoming disasters.
In a flashback at the party, Liv gets hit on by a guy trying to give her an intense drug. All hell breaks loose, the guy scratches Liv, shooting us back to Liv in present day.
Detective Clive walks into the morgue, asking about the dead woman. As Liv sees the play handcuffs, she has a flashback in the eyes of the dead woman, and reveals that the dead woman was arrested for shop lifting. When Clive becomes suspicious, Ravi explains that Liv’s a psychic-ishhhh.
Life as a zombie
Liv hasn’t slept in five months. She drinks hot sauce from the bottle, and feels alone and purposeless. At a haunted house, Peyton and Liv’s mom try to cheer Liv up. Liv reveals that she doesn’t want to be near Major in case her condition is contagious.
Suddenly, Liv has another brain flash witnessing the local weatherman murdering the dead woman. At Clive’s office, Liv tells him about the latest vision. It turns out that the dead Jane Doe gave Lady Gaga’s real name in Liv’s vision, making a fool of Clive at the office. Clive and Liv follow her next lead to Johnny Frost (a very fitting name for a weatherman).
The investigation
At Frost’s weather program, Clive shows Frost a picture of the Jane Doe, now named Tatiana. Frost seems shocked that Tatiana’s dead; Liv’s vision was a roleplay of a break-in with the call girl. Liv mysteriously grabs for a brain-like substance in a glass decoration.
Chatting about the potential of the spread of zombies, Clive asks Liv to come along to an appointment with Tatiana’s friend Tess. At an apartment complex, Tess pretends to not speak English after seeing Clive’s badge. Liv somehow is able to speak fluent Romanian with Tess. Tess freaks out and shuts the door when Clive mentions that Tatiana has been murdered, but gives Clive the dead call-girl’s last name.
Related:Hypable interviews iZombie pilot guest star Elysia Rotaru (Tess)
At Tatiana’s apartment, Liv and Clive find her phone and purse. Listening to a message from Tess, Liv translates a threatening-sounding message from Tess about Tatiana’s kleptomania (of which Liv has now adapted). As Clive stands at the window, Liv “remembers” Tatiana being thrown onto the street to her death.
A cure
Back at Tess’s apartment, her neighbor mentions a young-looking girl named Monica. Fearing Moncia’s murder from this episode’s killer, Liv turns a lot more ravenous in solving the mystery. Ravi is doing tests on Liv in an attempt to come up with a cure for her “condition.” Liv blows off Clive when he asks her to come along to Monica’s. With a cure in mind, Liv drives to Major’s house in an attempt to rekindle their relationship. Ironically, Major is playing a zombie killing video game with a new girl.
A pity party
Liv laments over giving up her heart surgeon dream and loosing Major. Clive’s case on Tatiana is being passed on to a more seasoned detective named Pratt. Clive tries to cling on to the leads he has in an attempt to finish the case. Eating extra-spicy cheetoes and watching a workout infomercial, Liv’s pitiful state is broken by a conversation with Peyton about the heatache the best friends are feeling toward each other. In voiceover, Liv chooses to stop her kleptomania, returning all of the items she took before, including the “brains” in the glass casing. Liv tells Clive that she’s back on the case, and triggers a revelation that Pratt is the call girl murderer.
A true zombie
Pratt has Tess and Monica tied up, threatening to kill them if they don’t reveal where his wedding ring is. Arriving at Pratt’s house, Liv delivers this week’s standout Rob Thomas line: “What else am I going to do? Subdue him with a good verbal flogging?”
Pratt shoots at Clive, and the two cops chase each other around the house. As Pratt tries to drive away, Liv blocks his path. She gets shot, but when Clive goes to check on her condition, she isn’t there. Riding ontop of Pratt’s car, she breaks the windshield, grabs the steering wheel, and crashes Pratt into a tree. Her eyes change color, and she goes in for the kill.
In the nick of time, Clive calls her name. Liv explains away the injuries and condition of the crash in typical Thomas-script fashion. “Seriously, how did you solve crime before me?” asks a snarky Liv. Ravi investigates her wound as she recalls “I was a dead alabaster badaass!” There’s nothing to suture up on Liv’s undead body, and she’s rewarded with fresh brains to chomp on.
At a Halloween party, Major and Peyton are impressed by Liv’s intricate zombie makeup. Liv voiceovers her happiness in helping out the call girls, and is finally able to sleep. She’s rudely awoken by a dream of the original zombie chasing after her.
iZombie airs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on The CW.
