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iZombie, Ep. 1.13: “Blaine’s World” is a strong finish to the season

iZombie, Ep. 1.13: “Blaine’s World” is a strong finish to the season
Rose McIver

Rose McIver

iZombie, Season 1, Episode 13: “Blaine’s World”
Written by Rob Thomas
Directed by Michael Fields
Airs Tuesdays at 9pm (ET) on The CW

Throughout the first season of iZombie, the differences between Liv and Blaine have become clearer and clearer. While Liv only ate brains of recently deceased people who end up in the police morgue, Blaine actively built up a ruthless system revolving around killing neglected youth. While Liv isolated herself for fear of infecting people, Blaine actively turned more people into zombies to expand his influence and control. With Blaine capturing Major at the end of last week’s episode, the season finale formally pits Liv and Blaine against each other, in a compelling finish to the season that sees Liv make some major decisions as a new threat arises.

The resolution of Major’s character arc is a strong aspect of this episode, and is wonderfully written and executed. In many ways, Liv’s concern about how Major would react to her transformation became a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Liv had been honest with Major about being a zombie, she would’ve been his first exposure to this phenomenon. While some of the more unsavoury aspects of the transformation would have certainly given him pause, such as the craving for human brains, it’s possible that he would’ve seen who Liv is now and compared her to who she used to be, and found the differences negligible. Her silence, however, meant that Major now instinctively associates zombies with Julien and Blaine, and the negative aspects are only magnified in his mind. Major has spent so much of his time fighting the only people he knew were zombies that they have now become his most hated thing, and his willingness to die rather than be a zombie is very telling, even if it’s Liv who infects him. On Liv’s part, Major’s reaction also spells a big change to her character. So far, she’s been careful not to infect anyone, accidentally or deliberately. Scratching Major, however, is the first time she’s treated the abilities that come with being undead as something positive, and being able to save the people she loves could have been one of the upsides of her condition. Her willingness to do so is right in line with her insistence on helping solve murder cases. Major’s reaction, however, effectively rules that out going forward, and with Evan’s life on the line at the end of the episode, it appears that she’ll have to either reveal the truth or betray her principles before long.

David Anders, Robert Buckley

David Anders, Robert Buckley

Liv choosing to cure Blaine is also an intriguing aspect of the finale. On one hand, as Blaine himself demonstrates near the end of the episode, no longer being a zombie has its definite upsides, like being able to taste food again. Blaine has also clearly been interested in the cure, given that he’s willingly given his samples to Ravi for testing in the past. On the other hand, being cured right after Major cuts a swath through his operation puts Blaine in a severely weakened state, but not entirely out of the game. Blaine now being human not only means he can’t make any more new zombies to do his bidding and expand his kingdom, it means he will have to be extra careful around the zombies he did create. Providing brains to his clientele in the past was a way for him to retain power over them, but now it’s a matter of survival. As Jackie demonstrated earlier this season, some zombies are not against simply cracking open the deliverer and feasting on their brains if their appetite isn’t sated in time, and that’s not accounting for all the ruthless people Blaine turned. Blaine is physically no match at this point for anyone who goes into full-on zombie mode, which significantly alters his role now in the world of iZombie. What hasn’t changed in Blaine is his personality, and his greed for power and control. Thus, how he adjusts to his reverted condition will be fascinating. Blaine will be unwilling to give up everything he’s built so far, and on some level, he’s right; his ability to deliver brains to the people he’s turned into zombies may be the only thing that keeps them from going out into the streets to hunt for brains themselves.

Overall, this is an excellent finish to what has been a very good first season for iZombie. Ravi having found what seems like a workable cure to the zombie infection is a heartening moment, although the usage of both possible doses by Liv does present a setback, in addition to not knowing the real long-term effects of the cure. Liv’s imminent alienation promises to be a compelling story in the show’s second season. While she cut off contact with the people in her life, for the most part, in the first season, Major would still call her in a crisis, and she could still have dinner with her mother and brother or watch a movie with Peyton. With Peyton having run away and Major expressing an intense distaste for Liv’s zombie condition, however, the severing of the bonds feel more permanent this time around. With her secret about to be revealed to her mother, and her brother possibly dying, things will only get worse. It’s sad to see Suzuki go this week, mostly because it rules out the possibility of a team-up between him and Liv in the future, but also because it was always clear that Suzuki was a reluctant ally to Blaine at best, in it only for the brains. Clive setting his sights on Major for the Meat Cute massacre is also a promising idea. While he’s not incorrect in following that instinct, this may put Detective Babineaux on the path towards discovering the existence of zombies himself. Vaughn Du Clark’s statement to Max Rager’s new head of research about zombies not being a problem soon is an ominous idea, and altogether, it opens up many avenues for the show to explore in its second season. If the first season is any indication, it will make for entertaining viewing.

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