iZombie - S1E1 - Pilot

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iZombie is about a medical student, Olivia Moore (Rose McIver, Power Rangers RPM) (Liv is her nickname. Play on words, Live More) who seems to have her life mapped out. She’s on her way to becoming a doctor, and she’s engaged to be married to hottie, Major (Robert Buckley, One Tree Hill). Taking advice from her fiancé, Liv accepts an invitation from a colleague to go to a boat party. All hell breaks loose when zombies start attacking the partygoers. Liv wakes up in a body bag, unzips it, sits up, spits out water, and freaks out the EMT who had thought she was dead.

Flash forward to 5 months later. Liv went from a healthy-looking brunette to an alabaster skinned, white-haired zombie. She is no longer a medical student, she broke up with her fiancé, and lost all hope of a future.

Liv arrives at her apartment that she shares with her best friend, Peyton (Aly Michalka, Easy A). Liv has agreed to meet with her mom, Eva, her brother, Evan, Peyton, and Major. Liv finds out quickly that her mom and Peyton have arranged an intervention. Major had no idea, and Evan knew Liv would figure out what the other two women were up to. Eva is concerned because Liv gave up her residency for a job at the morgue, and she also broke things off with Major. Peyton tells her she has changed drastically and lost her spark. Peyton and Eva have concluded that Liv suffers from PTSD. Liv finds the whole thing absurd and leaves to go to work at the morgue.

Her boss, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti, is there eating cereal and staring at his recent autopsy. He gets Liv up to speed on a Jane Doe. Ravi receives a text, and he is off to his next case. He asks Liv to close Jane Doe, bag her, and box her.

As soon as Ravi is gone, Liv removes Jane Doe’s brain and prepares it to eat with noodles and hot sauce. Instead of killing people, Liv uses a more humane method of getting her source of food. She just removes the brains from the dead bodies in the morgue. Ravi returns unexpectedly and catches Liv during her meal. Mortified, Liv sits there while Ravi explains he has known for awhile she is a zombie. He examines her enthusiastically and is surprised she has dealt with this burden all alone.

Ravi and Liv are interrupted by Detective Clive Babineaux who is checking in on his victim, Jane Doe. Suddenly, Liv has a vision that belongs to the victim. This is one of the side effects to munching on human brains. Liv blurts out that the victim had been arrested in Vancouver for shoplifting. Babineaux is confused by how Liv would have such a detailed hunch. Ravi covers for Liv and tells Babineaux that Liv is psychic.

Liv arrives at the haunted house her mom and Peyton have guilted her into helping. As she picks up a handful of plastic red eyeballs, she wonders why she felt the need to take them. Attempting to put Liv and Major working together, her mom suggests she go to where they are building the Mad Scientist Lab. Liv refuses. She is still in fear of infecting Major with her zombie virus. Liv hears a scream and sees someone running. This immediately triggers another vision. This time Johnny Frost (Daran Norris, Veronica Mars), the local weatherman, is chasing the victim, removes his ski mask saying, “Here’s Johnny!” What a weirdo.

Urged by Ravi to tell the police, Liv dutifully goes to see Babineaux. She inexplicably takes a red photo frame from his desk before he returns. Liv tells him about the latest vision. Being taunted by the other detectives, Babineaux informs Liv the name she supplied him was Lady Gaga’s real name. Why should he believe her now? He decides to check it out, but only if she goes with him.

At the television station Babineaux and Liv question Johnny Frost .He discloses that the victim, Tatiana, worked as a call girl. Liv sneaks a red paperweight into her bag, while Frost shows Babineaux the victim’s friend, Tess, on the computer.

Back at the morgue, Ravi insists a reluctant Liv continue to assist Babineaux in the investigation. First, they interview Tess, who speaks Romanian. Strangely enough, Liv speaks Romanian, too. I don’t think this is a coincidence. They learn Tatiana’s last name. Second, they search Tatiana’s apartment. Learning Tess called her, “Klepto,” Liv realizes that the brain she ate caused her to steal things and speak Romanian. Babineaux discovers there was a third girl involved the night of the murder. Another of Liv’s visions discloses the murderer dropped Tatiana from a balcony while yelling he wanted his ring.

At the morgue, Ravi enlightens Liv on his intentions with all of the tests. He is looking for a cure for her. She is stunned because she didn’t think her condition could be cured. Immediately, she goes to Major’s house only to find he has a date. She leaves broken-hearted. The hope Ravi gave her for a normal life is demolished because the love of her life seems to have moved on. She can’t do a lot of normal things, but she decides she can return the items she stole and help find the murderer.

While returning the stapler and picture frame to the police office, Liv overhears they have an address for “those girls.” Liz sees a detective write the address on a note pad. Returning to the morgue, Liv interprets a Romanian phrase Babineaux learned from Frost. It meant bearded pig. Babineaux deduced the killer was a cop. He figured the cop was Pratt, the one who wanted Babineaux off the case. Liv told him Pratt had the address for the girls. Babineaux and Liv rush off to save Tess and Monica.

Pratt has the girls tied up in a house undergoing renovation. Babineaux breaks in. Liv sees Pratt escape, starts the car, but is stopped by Pratt who’s holding a gun on her. Shooting Liv, he takes the car and drives off. Babineaux saw Liv was shot. But when he gets down there, Liv is missing. She is on top of the car trying to get to Pratt. A fight ensues resulting in a crash with Pratt unconscience on the hood of the car and Liv sitting up on the ground. Ready to consume some brains, she moves over to Pratt, her first live meal. Then she hears Babineaux calling her name. She shakes off the overwhelming desire to eat Pratt’s brain. Babineaux is curious how she overcame being shot and Liv responded that he missed. She indicated she chased the car. “Adrenaline is no joke.” They solved the murder together and saved the girls.

At the morgue, Ravi does open-heart surgery to remove the bullet as Liv is talking about changing into an out-of-control, bad-ass zombie. Then she refers to herself as a patient who is dead. Ravi puts it into perspective, “You saved two women’s lives, got justice for another, and got a very bad man off the streets. And God is my witness, you’ll never be hungry again.” He gives her a fresh bag of brains. Liv decides to embrace who she is. All she needed was a purpose for her non-life.

 

Weird Traits Of The Week

The idea Liv takes on traits from the people she eats is genius. This week, Liv spoke Romanian. Apparently, she never spoke the language before. She also became a kleptomaniac of red items. Why red items only? I can’t wait to see what happens to her next week.

Favorite Quotes

Rob Thomas, the creator and writer of iZombie, was also the creator and writer for Veronica Mars. Those familiar with Veronica Mars know the show was famous for its witty quotes. I was thrilled to see this aspect of Veronica Mars carried over into iZombie. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from this week’s episode:

• “Why the hot sauce? Is that a zombie thing?”
• “You could use some sun, young lady.”
• “Why’s there a bullet hole in the roof of my car?” “Maybe he was celebrating drunk cowboy style.”