iZombie Season 5 Episode 2 Review: Dead Lift
Jasmine Blu
at
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After a lackluster premiere, iZombie returned truer to form with an hour which had Liv on brains, two tragic deaths, and a whole lot of fake news.
And ever prescient vibe from iZombie Season 5 Episode 2 is the city is on borrowed time. It's on the cusp of war with an escalation of tension between zombies and humans.
However, there is the matter of DC itching to nuke the entire city the first chance they get.
Would iZombie be so bold as to end this series with New Seattle and the characters we've come to love obliterated? Sometimes it feels like a real possibility.
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The hour was limited to Clive and Liv continuing their investigation of the presumed missing/dead woman who was attacked by zombies in her car, Peyton trying to work a PR angle for Seattle, and Major commanding zombie soldiers who don't respect him.
All of those stories shared a common theme on the importance of image. Clive and Liv were running themselves ragged trying to find out what happened to Lisa. It turned out she was not the woman attacked; she was off with her lover tripping balls and wasting everyone's time.
It's not a real shocker that the video was a hoax. The tension among radical, anti-zombie humans and zombies is an all-time high and hasn't simmered for a second since before the zombie reveal.
Lisa's Boyfriend: What's going on Lisa?
Clive: My guess is Lisa and Glenn's work retreat took a somewhat romantic and psychedelic turn.
Glenn: I totally get your energy, brother, but could we table this? Because I am totally peaking right now and I'm going south.
Dolly is an irritating as f**k antagonist whose sole purpose is to instigate a zombie-human war. She knows humans outnumber zombies, and she'll risk it all for her agenda.
True to form like most radical leaders of terrorist operations, she's sacrificing and screwing over everyone else, while she stands behind the scenes as the mastermind orchestrating attacks.
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She knew a violent video of zombies attacking humans would spur people on, so she had someone fake it, and then when the woman was annoyed about not receiving credit as the hoaxer, Dolly gave the signal for her henchman to kill the woman.
No way she's not getting killed off for the cause, right?
During iZombie Season 4 the allegories and symbolism were subtler. Dolly is cartoonish -- a caricature. I already want her dead, and she has barely put in enough work.
Some people want to watch the world (or in this case the city) burn, and Dolly is one of those people. It's disgusting how she has to put so many people in danger and provoke violence to get her way. If she's the one instigating the incidents, how does it confirm her beliefs about zombies?
She and the rest of CHIC are doing the absolute worst things to innocent humans as well as zombies to show people zombies are the worst. No matter the context, there will never be any logic to that line of thinking at all.
She may have a formidable opponent in Major without even realizing it, and it's impressive. I felt terrible for Major; he's trying to be the best leader her can be for Fillmore Graves, and he's thinking over the bigger picture and attempting to be rational, but many of his soldiers are less than enthused about his tactics.
Yes, some of us are going to die, so that all of us don't die. If that's not what you signed up for then go. That goes for all of you.
Major
They make some valid points sometimes about him coming across too passive. He's struggling with leading his soldiers, and I get it. But during this installment, it proved how in the right Major was in this. He had a turnaround from his antics in the previous season.
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Zombies have a biological advantage in many ways to humans, so humans have reason to be fearful, and it means zombies cannot afford to act on impulse or high-emotion. Because while they have advantages over humans, humans still outnumber them and will haunt them down and kill them all.
Many of them claimed they missed Chase, but the city wasn't any better under Chase's tyrant reign; it certainly wasn't for zombies who weren't in Fillmore Graves.
If the zombie soldiers didn't go through a proper investigation and opted to slaughter anyone who caused them any harm a full-blown war would take place. They barely got the city back on track from the last time.
They do need a special election to get some zombie representation in the criminal justice system though. It was a fair criticism by Spud and the others. How can they trust a judge and jury of humans to enact justice?
Spud: To hell with the police. Ain't no one getting blown up. Blue lives matter? Uh uh. White lives matter.
FG Soldier: Hate to break it to you; you're far from white, Spud.
Spud: Tell that to the deadenders calling me whitey.
For a moment I feared Jordan's murder would lead to Major succumbing to the sentiment of his unhappy soldiers and kickstarting the lawless Fillmore Graves storyline again, but he did not.
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It's impressive how he chose to use Dolly's tactics to their advantage. Image is everything now, and he knew they couldn't come out and say the zombie attack at the convenience store was a hoax or be dismissive of the Warmblooded attack because of the victim's status as DeadEnder.
He didn't have to like it, but the best way to fight the fake news was with more fake news. He had to put on a show and give the people what they wanted which was a form of justice and reassurance.
Major's false flag video was freaking fantastic! He had to punish Spud and his buddy for being insubordinate and more.
The FG zombies and all zombies needed to know they couldn't do whatever even out of retaliation and get away with it, but he also had to show humans even those pesky Dead Enders and CHIC humans (who orchestrated it), he's willing to punish zombies including his soldiers.
Come on, CB! We're police. We have the right to bear arms.
Liv [flexing muscles]
Faking a beheading had the desired effect making people feel as though there was justice, and Spud and his bud were giving the fridge treatment as punishment.
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It seems only a select few of the FG soldiers know what happened to their colleagues, so Major instilled the fear of God in them too which will cut back on insubordination.
Major cares; his greatest asset and flaw is he cares too much. It was awful of any of them to suggest he didn't know anything about those serving beneath him. He knew everything there was to know; it's who he is.
It seems Major and Liv have better interactions now, but I don't know what to make of the state of their relationship or if we can expect them to be together by the end of the series.
Liv was adorable when she cooked for him after a rough day, and I respected Major trying to hide how he switched out the brains with mash so he could have a clear head.
Ravi: It's corn syrup.
Liv: Nice work, Ravi.
Ravi: Thank you.
Liv: You just ate 57 empty calories.
The anti-zombie human groups are growing, and it's hard to crack down on them. The militia crew patrolling the borders were surprising only because of how new it was. You would think people would have jumped on that task eons ago.
Jordan wasn't the only casualty of the hour, Barron went out in a hail of bullets protecting kids from asshats, and there is no more honorable and badass death than that. I'm going to miss Barron, but I also happen to adore Francis Capra, so there is that too.
He even got to channel his inner Weevil by hotwiring a cop car and taking off with the kids. Renegade's operation has lost one of its best, but now they have these children, and they are going to bring about a mess.
The sick teen wasted no time asking for Liv to scratch him mere seconds after breaking the news Barron was dead, but he wasn't supposed to turn the two girls, so now what?
Peyton is stressed out trying to find a solution for the zombie PR problem, and she couldn't even get the two other members of the council to get on the same page.
Zed played by the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the more progressive of the two, but she didn't get the answer she wanted from him either.
She has stepped in it big time with how she acquired the money for Ravi and Jimmy's zombie-human sketch idea. It's only a matter of time before it catches up to her. I respect her hustle to make improvements when all seems hopeless.
Seattle is going to hell, and Clive has a baby on the way, but it hasn't stopped the D&D gang from their weekly games. Those scenes are some of the best of the series.
In addition to those scenes, Liv on fitness guru brain had its amusing moments too, and I loved how she gave Ravi advice on how to be his absolute best in bed with Peyton.
He was put off by her advice and imposition, but he listened to her anyway. Ravioli are all friendship goals.
Ravi was more of a supportive role during the hour than having a specific storyline of his own. We didn't find out anything new on the cure front with Dr. Collier.
We also didn't get anything new with Blaine or the brain shortage.
Over to you, iZombie Fanatics! Are you surprised Dolly was behind the fake video of the zombie attack? What do you think about her?
Which death if any affected you the most? Do you enjoy Major as the head of Fillmore Graves? Is he a great leader, or should he consider channeling Chase more?
Hit the comments below with your thoughts!
You can watch iZombie online here via TV Fanatic!
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
