iZombie Round Table: Brain Pong
Lindsay MacDonald
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Did any of you post-grads start having non-zombie power induced flashbacks to college after "Zombie Bro?"
A few of us on the round table surely did! This week, we talk about iZombie Season 2 Episode 2, and how that Major and Liv scene either broke our hearts or our brains – no pun intended. Also on the table are Ravi's shirtless drug antics and that super tense introduction of Blaine's father!
Join TV Fanatics Caralynn Lippo, Whitney Evans, Stacey Glanzman, and Lindsay MacDonald for a discussion of all things iZombie. And be sure to leave your own answers to the round table questions in comments below!
Favorite joke/quote/scene of the episode?
Caralynn: The entire Ravi/Major clubbing sequence was just great. It's hard to choose a single moment from those scenes but the aftermath (where Ravi is listening to the recording he made while on Utopium) was so funny.
Whitney: I don't know if I can pick just one. I think it's a tie between virtually everything frat bro Brody said and Ravi wearing makeup while keeping a completely straight face. This episode was hilarious.
Amanda: Hands down Ravi dancing shirtless while on Utopium.
Lindsay: I have to go for the Blaine and Angus meeting. That scene had so much raw tension to it, and it was the first time we've seen Blaine be vulnerable, even if it was in his usual wicked way. I loved it.
Major and Liv had such a touching moment, but then he went right back to the cold shoulder. What are your thoughts on their relationship at this point?
Caralynn: Looks like we're in for another season of Major's slow-motion downward spiral. There's a lot going on with him right now (zombie assassin for hire, now the drug use) so it's understandable that he wants alone time. I did love their moment and his confession that he'll never let anyone hurt Liv. That was really sweet and amplified her heartbreak when he rejected her again. They need a lot of time to deal with things and grow as people before they can be together again.
Whitney: Major is clearly out of control right now. He's racked with guilt and probably feeling very alone. Their scene in the bathroom was very sweet, but it's too soon for them to be back to normal.
Amanda: Major is well on his way to a breakdown. Like Caralynn said, he's a zombie assassin and now he's using drugs. Major needs to come clean to Liv. He'll be better off he's just honest.
Lindsay: I love seeing those peeks into just how much Liv and Major love each other, even if they never last. Major would literally kill to keep Liv safe, which is just another reason they can't be together. He's transferring some of that guilt and blame onto her. It's tragic, and I love it.
Ravi went shirtless on drugs. React.
Caralynn: Amazing. That whole scene was priceless. Plot-wise it didn't make a whole lot of sense, but the humor of it all made me overlook that. I love Ravi!
Whitney: Ravi is and will always be one of the best aspects of this show each week. He is absolutely hilarious and the whole club scene was laugh out loud funny.
Amanda: I think I covered this is question 1. I loved every second of it. Ravi is by far my favorite character and it was hilarious to see him cut loose like that.
Lindsay: Ravi really just brings the quality of every episode up. I did like how they used Ravi's night of craziness to reveal Blaine's master plan. I love it when plots intersect like that. It makes the story hang together in a very believable way.
How are you feeling about the murders of the week this year?
Caralynn: I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I think the case-of-the-week format is really uneven. Sometimes it works SO well. There are a handful of examples in the first season that fit perfectly. Those were typically the ones that ended up tying into the overarching mystery in some way (like "Flight of the Living Dead" and "Mr. Berserk") but a lot of them just seem to detract from the main plot. The premiere episode's weekly case was really bad, this episode's was really good (because seeing Liv on bro-brains was amusing, and the whodunit twist was great) but still didn't have any kind of larger importance. So I'm feeling iffy about it, basically.
Whitney: I enjoyed this one much better than the premiere, but the cases of the week are never as fascinating as all the other things going on in the iZombie world. At its core, it's a procedural, but the cases need a lot of work in my opinion.
Amanda: They're always hit or miss. I thought this week's murder was entertaining. The frat murder was much more interesting than the one in the premiere.
Lindsay: I've said this before, but I think iZombie could ditch the procedural aspect entirely and become a way more interesting show. Focusing on the crime of the week is really killing character development and the central story arcs. That will never happen, of course, because if Arrow won't ditch those damn flashbacks, then there's no way Liv will ever stop crime-fighting. It's aggravating to solve everyone else's crimes, especially when they're just not very interesting or relevant, but we'll just have to live with it.
Blaine and his dad had an AMAZING first scene together. How do you think their dynamic is going to evolve this season? Does the small peek we got into Blaine's past make you feel differently about his villainous ways?
Caralynn: It was a lot of information to digest all at once, to be honest. They kind of threw a backstory on Blaine to humanize him. "He loved his grandpa! His dad's a jerk! See, he's not so bad!" I would have preferred the gradual reveal, the slow humanization of his character that would give us a more complex view of him. That said, his dad seems like an interesting character. Their vibe is way too antagonistic/tense for me to see them successfully working together, so I think they'll remain at odds. Maybe Dad will make a power play of his own in the zombie world, or something?
Whitney: I totally agree with Caralynn. I immediately thought to myself, "Are we going to get a Blaine redemption story this season? Ugh." Sometimes it's okay to make the villian be villianous. I always imagined Blaine was just a spoiled, con man pre-zombie attack, who just became a more exaggerated version of himself once he turned. I never gave much thought to his childhood and how that affected him.
Amanda: I agree! It's okay to show why Blaine is the way he is, but it's also okay to let him be the villain that he is. I'm excited to see what happens between Blaine and his father, but I'm not exactly hoping to empathize with Blaine anytime soon.
Lindsay: I think that scene actually did a flawless job of showing us a vulnerable side to Blaine, without actually making us sympathize with him too much. We got his tragic past, but in the same moment, he threatened to overthrow his dad and lock him away in home. That's dark. We're never going to really like Blaine after all that he's done, but this could be the start of a very (very, very, very, very) long semi-redemption arc.
Be sure to watch iZombie Season 2 Episode 3 and be back here for a full discussion afterward. Here's a preview!
