iZombie Review: "Real Dead Housewife of Seattle"

One of the things that iZombie has managed to do well is balance. It can spend one episode dealing with the zombie mythology, and the next focusing solely on the case of the week and Liv's personal relationships. "Real Dead Housewife of Seattle" put the case on the back burner, while finding a nice balance between exploring what's going on at Max Rager, and how Liv's zombie-ism has isolated her.

With the focus of the episode, and even the case of the week, being centered around Max Rager, a lot was revealed about what is still a fairly mysterious enemy to Liv. Not only did the show reveal that Liv's roommate (I had to look up that her name is Gilda because it has been used so little on the show) is Vaughn Du Clark's daughter, but that both of them are still very in the dark about how being a zombie works. With all of their spying and research it was somewhat surprising that neither of them could figure out Liv knew information about the murder victim from eating her brains, but I guess even evil corporations have their limitations.

Major's story in the episode was mostly tied to Max Rager and his blackmail driven quest to kill zombies. It's apparent that Major's story arch this season will just get darker and darker until he has reached his breaking point. His zombie kill in the episode was much more dark and disturbing than the first time, and under the influence of utopium, he slept with Gilda, who put him in this horrible position in the first place. I imagine times will only get rougher for Major in future episodes.

Liv's case was mostly a dud, but the personality she took on brought about some great character development. How better to highlight Liv's isolation than to have her consume the brain of someone whose relationships are all superficial. The brain also allowed Liv to vent some frustrations. Liv has made some bad decision over the course of the show, but the scene where she slapped Major was somewhat cathartic. Not only because somebody needs to smack some sense into him, but because Major has spent the whole season blaming Liv for being something that is completely out of her control.

Peyton's return was a small, but nice, diversion for the episode to take. I expected her return to be dramatic and for her to still push Ravi and Liv away, but the show handled it much better than that. The scene between Peyton and Ravi was a nice reminder of the chemistry between those characters. Peyton being the one person to remember or care about Liv's birthday was the perfect emotional touch that such a dark episode needed. With isolation being such a strong theme on the show for Liv, it was important for her to be reminded that there are people who will never give up on her.

Observations:
-I noted that the first two cases of the season were both murders based on mistaken information. This episode definitely ended that pattern with the murder being carried out by a hired hitman.
-If Peyton works for the D.A. who is essentially working for Blaine, then a Peyton and Blaine encounter seems like a likely occurrence in a future episode.