While investigating the murder of Eleanor Barba, a chef at a high-end restaurant, Liv consumes her brain and becomes an unrelenting perfectionist who knows just how to break a person to their very core. Meanwhile, Major is on a mission to find out who is betraying the commander.
In 2018, there were 495 scripted shows airing amongst the linear channels and streaming services. The way people are consuming content now is so different than it used to be. It happens according to one's own schedule. As such, there is less necessity to provide ample coverage of each specific episode in any given season from a show. Moreover, it is simply impossible to watch everything. As such, this site is making the move to shorter episodic reviews in order to cover as many shows as possible. With all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the next episode of The CW's iZombie.
"Filleted to Rest" was written by Chelsea Catalanotto and directed by Michael Fields
It has been a long time since Liz's family has been seen or even mentioned. The creative team has always said that they were interested in getting back to those characters. Liv's mother and brother played an important role in the first season. But Liv choosing not to make her brother a zombie led to this major estrangement between them. Her mother still hasn't forgiven Liv for that. As such, it's shocking to see the two of them suddenly forced to interact once more. Of course, it also comes with the understanding that these family connections may not be the most pivotal moving forward. It's important that she lost these family bonds because of her being a zombie. They rebuffed her multiple attempts to reconcile and apologize. Even knowing that she was a zombie in hindsight wasn't enough to start a conversation again. Instead, her mother is full of anger and speaks on the behalf of Liv's brother. All of this mostly just establishes the final twist that could really send the final season spinning. The show has pointedly not revealed too many details about the new antagonist who presents as a zombie who understands that humans will forever be a threat to their existence. He is cultivating a hoard of full romero zombies in his basement for some nefarious agenda. He even got Justin to turn on his commander at Fillmore Graves. That too is a huge development. Sure, it also means that all of Liv's ex-boyfriends are now dead. That's a noticeable pattern that should make anyone weary about being around her. Perhaps it's setting up the inevitability of Liv and Major reuniting by the end of the series. Or maybe it signals that Major is also destined to die because of his connection to Liv. Right now though, it's simply more important that the new villain happens to be Liv's biological father. She has never met him before. Her mother was always vague about who he was. Now, he presents as a guy who found purpose because of the zombie apocalypse. He has amassed followers who already wield a great deal of power. He has already infiltrated numerous systems of this world. He has people on the inside of Fillmore Graves. He kidnaps the one zombie who is essentially preventing the U.S. government from nuking the entire city. Plus, he has sent an agent in to gain Liv's trust as Renegade. He has his hands in a lot of operations so far. But now, this new connection is bound to complicate things. Sure, this is hardly the first time the parent of one of the main characters turns out to be abusing the rules of this world. It was the same for Blaine. Of course, Blaine was just like Angus in a lot of ways. That has yet to be proven true with Liv and Martin. They are both doing what they deem best for the survival of their species though. That's an important connection they have even though Martin has never tried to reach out to her as her father. That's not how he opted to exploit her smuggling system. But the overall story of this hour makes Liv crave this connection. She doesn't like the brain she is on. She rarely does. It's only on occasion that they have some benefit to her personal life. These perfectionist instincts are warping her view of reality. They only create more animosity in these once important relationships. She wants her world to open up further with people who can mean something to her. And yet, it's all destined to end in heartbreak and betrayal. The season continues to line all of these plots up so that they can explode in succession once the end game gets closer.
