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iZombie: Mac-Liv-Moore

“I came to slay I'm the real Renegade! Pick up where Mama left off, run with a pack of dogs!”

Opting for a lighter investigation that usual, 'Mac-Liv-Moore' uses a deluded white rapper's brain as fuel for more light-hearted side action, as the episode's main focus falls on the wider narratives. Despite being plagued with potential ways to derail itself, the episode manages to cut through a lot of interesting story beats, with a few laughs along the way.

Naturally rapper brain is absolutely more deserving of a side plot than a full on investigation, partially because the victim is completely absurd, but mostly because the mystery is an easy solve that leads us back down the brain littered road to Fillmore Graves. The prison bus ambush at the close of the previous episode released Zombie Killer Cain (played by double Veronica Mars alum James Jordan), who kills one of two rapping brothers. He then goes after Chase Graves at Fillmore Graves HQ, which begs the question, what level of dumbass is Chase recruiting as part of his security team?

Major is probably the only member of said team with any level of intelligence. It's a shame the same can't be said for his morals, which seem to have vanished into obscurity. He follows Chase's order's to turn Zombie Killer Cain into a zombie with no hesitation, all in the name of capital punishment. The writers are going to have a serious amount of work on their hands if they want to try and redeem him before season's end, because right now he's easily the most reprehensible of the core cast.

Even Blaine has better principals than Major at this stage; he at least sticks to his own guns and has stayed true to being an evil genius. He has finally dropped the details of his latest money making scheme; buying up the plummeting Seattle real estate market using funds from the stolen cure, and making off like a bandit when he unleashes the zombie virus on the rest of the country. Yikes. I can see that plan spiralling out of Blaine's control really easily, but it will be fun to watch it all unfold.

Whatever miraculous discovery Isobel is going to give Ravi – now aware of who she really is and how she got into Seattle – would want to materialize pretty quickly, because I'm finding it hard to deal with her large presence and influence on the characters she surrounds herself with. It's obvious from a practical viewpoint that her immunity to the virus is going to provide us with some kind of vaccine, or at least a vital piece of information, to help stem the growing zombie population. It's her growing bond with the team that reeks of emotional manipulation.

In order for the vaccine to be viable, Isobel will always have to stay sick. If she gets better, the potential for a vaccine disappears. There only seems to be one viable outcome here, and it’s a bit morbid to be playing her up with all of these, admittedly likable, scenes with Liv and her friends. It's going to make such an obvious outcome even harder to digest when the time comes around.

Plus

Ravi is now in on Liv's role as Renegade. I never doubted that he'd be more than willing to help Liv so it's great to have the truth out in the open.

Rose managed to pull off the shoddily written raps with a certain amount of elegance, which is no easy feat considering the lyrics she was working with.

I didn't really touch much on the lockdown which, among other things, gave us that hilarious D&D scene with Clive leading the group, and subsequently making out with Michelle.

Another point in regards to the lockdown; I like how these smaller characters, like Clive’s D&D buddies, pop up every now and again. Veronica Mars was always very smart in how it built its world of characters, with familiar faces reappearing regularly. iZombie has that same quality, which I think is really important in a show where it's more likely than not that you would run into the same people.

He Said, She Said

Here’s Liv’s closing rap:
“Always been the baddest bitch, take down the biggest bads. Solving murders on the daily, I got skills you wish you had. New Seattle got me shook. Everywhere I look All I see is F-G and other two-bit crooks Top bid's at 10 million, and climbing. Some millionaires out there really don't wanna be zombies. Woke up to a wall Now we woke, no doubt. No place like home That's truth Locked in or locked out. No cure for what ails Seattle. Got a case to catch Oz a powder keg now all we need is a match.”

There was a lot of exposition in this episode, making it a bit too busy for its own good. Thankfully, the decision to keep the case-of-the-week in the background kept things from going off the rails, and helped make light of some rather heavy plotting elsewhere.

3.5 out of 5 poorly written raps.

Originally posted at PandaTV.

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