iZombie‘s ‘Dirt Nap Time’ is the long suffering plague of all shows…the filler episode where they set aside really important issues to the way side to buy some time and fluff the season with micro issues. It’s only saving grace is that these issues are little breadcrumbs setting up the future of iZombie and thus wholly acceptable and necessary.
Not fun or truly eye-catching, but necessary.
The zombie brain dominates Liv once more and I’m left again not knowing what is going on in her life/journey. Don’t get me wrong, she was hilarious and Rose McIver killed it once again. But the only glimpses of her journey come at the beginning of the episode when she confronts Blaine and the end for the briefest of glimpses. And even then it wasn’t a lot because we needed to see a glimpse of Major and Justin mucking things up, which I believe was on purpose.
Let’s dive right in!
Getting a Zombie Freakout on Tape…By Accident?
We haven’t seen a full blown out zombie freakout for a while and this episode gave us two. Once when Liv was socking Blaine in the face and the other when Justin was straddling the plaid wearing, zombie haters trunk. They got away without a scratch and with a video of Justin’s zombie freakout.
It’s evidence of the zombie apocalypse, which will set a fire in anti-zombie haters hearts to fight for human survival and I…think it’s a set up.
Vivian Stoll, Major and Justin’s boss, knows what’s at risk here. Still she sent two soldiers to take care of threat that could expose zombie kind to the world? I don’t buy it. She’s been ready for this for ages, building a home for zombie kind in her company and on an island. She already believes she is under threat, that Seattle will be the home of the zombie nation, and that she is superior to humans.
So instead of waiting for the zombie secret to get out on its own, why not control it? It’s my belief that Vivian is getting ahead of the game, slowly moving the chess pieces that benefit her, as a means of getting ahead of the game and securing the survival and superiority of zombie kind. She might even be the one that stole the cure from Ravi. A cure would threaten everything she’s worked for and she’s not taking any risks.
Not now, when she’s so close to securing the future of her people.
Liv and Justin? What About Liv and Major?
Major and Liv are the forever kind who have been circling each other since the beginning. And I thought after they had sex, expressed their feelings, and made it through Major not losing his memory, that they would get back together. But instead of that happening I was given Liv going on a sorta date with Justin at a speak easy for zombies.
What gives?!
We’re back to the same place we were before where Liv can’t be with Major because she might accidentally turn him into a zombie. And it’s rubbish! She can be with Major without having sex or kissing him. A relationship is so much more than bumping uglies. It’s about supporting, loving, and being there for each other when things are easy and when they’re especially hard.
A relationship is about weathering the storms together, that storm being one of them is a zombie and the other one isn’t. I’m not ready or willing to see Liv start dating Justin when we know where her heart truly resides, with Major. That is where I want to see the focus shifted to and time invested in. I don’t need another random boyfriend that will be gone in a couple episodes.
I’m here for Liv and Major trying to make it work despite the challenges they may face.
What’s Liv’s Journey? Anyone?
At this point I feel like a bit of a broken record. I love the zombie brains and Rose McIver is an amazing actress who seamlessly transitions from brain to brain. I know what I was getting into when I signed up for this. But I feel like I’m losing Liv or already lost her and am just starting to realize it.
I feel like I don’t know Liv anymore.
In the beginning, each brain was a touch of self discovery for Liv. She got to experience new things and step into other people’s shoes. She was living for the first time in her life. Fast-forward to season 3 and I have no idea what her journey is. She wants to be human again but that’s something she’s always wanted. A chance, an opportunity, to get back what she lost. Is that it?
The zombie brain dominates Liv’s everything and deprives us of rich storylines where she deals with her best friend sleeping with the enemy, getting closer with her partner Clive, connecting with Ravi or Major, and even re-connecting with her family. Instead everything is about the brains and what is going on with secondary characters.
We need to know what drives Liv. What plagues her mind in quiet moments. And what she hopes for her future, zombie or human. And if iZombie writers were able to balance it before, why not now?
iZombie airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.