Rahul Kohli, Rose McIver
iZombie, Season 1, Episode 3: “The Exterminator”
Story by Rob Thomas, Teleplay by Graham Norris and Lee Arcuri
Directed by Michael Fields
Airs Tuesdays at 9pm (ET) on The CW
Last week’s episode of iZombie established what the pilot hinted at; that Liv wasn’t the only survivor from the boat party gone awry, and that whatever had affected her and turned her into a zombie had affected others too. While the discovery of Blaine came only with the prior history of his off-putting behaviour on the boat and his active role in her death, this week sees Liv and Ravi come across yet another zombie, one whom Liv has a closer connection with. This forces Liv to make some difficult choices, in a strong episode that helps develop a key secondary character.
Watching how Liv deals with Marcy provides some fascinating insight into the former’s current mindset. The entrance of Blaine last week drove home the fact that Liv will have to deal with other zombies sooner or later, and while her suspicions about Blaine give her a good reason to avoid him, sooner or later she would have to deal with someone with whom she has a closer connection. Dealing with Marcy, despite Liv’s sociopathic tendencies this week and her general feelings about pre-zombification Marcy, is a relatively straightforward decision, as Marcy is clearly too far gone, and Ravi’s life was in danger. How Liv handles similar situations that are not so clear-cut, however, will be intriguing to see. As Blaine’s actions last week and this week show, he’s working on turning a number of people into zombies, and sooner or later Liv will have to deal with them. As a zombie herself, she is the only one capable of going toe-to-toe against them, as the last two episodes have indicated that humans are no match for the zombies. However, the others she goes up against will be victims of circumstance, actively turned by Blaine in his attempt to gain power, which means Liv will have to think very carefully before dealing with them. While she had no choice with Marcy, the others may be less dangerous or have retained more of their humanity, which is likely to make the decision more difficult for Liv on what to do. And none of this presupposes a personal connection to any of the victims, on the level that Liv had with Marcy. How she deals with these kinds of situations and their aftermath will go a long way towards establishing just who post-death Liv is.
Rose McIver
It’s also nice to see Liv and Peyton’s relationship get fleshed out a bit. Peyton as a whole has been a fairly one-dimensional character so far, seemingly there only to admonish Liv for not dating Major and closing herself off, but this episode helps establish a few more character traits about her, making the friendship moments more poignant as a result. With Major firmly moving on, and both Liv’s mother and brother absent since the pilot, Peyton remains the most concrete connection Liv has to her old life. Developing their friendship thus gives Liv a reason to maintain that connection that doesn’t involve just guilt, as it’s clear this week that Peyton truly does care for Liv’s well-being, and it’s likely that Liv feels the same when her emotions aren’t clouded by the brains she’s eaten. Thus, Liv is clearly intent on ensuring this connection doesn’t get cut, especially with Major now practically gone from her life. It will be worth seeing, however, how far Liv is willing to go to keep her friendship with Peyton. It’s clear that Liv is already on thin ice with her roommate, and her personality shifts every week are likely to fray that bond even further, especially if they continue to interfere with Peyton’s life. Peyton is likely to tolerate only so much, which means Liv may have to make a decision before long about whether or not to reveal her true nature to Peyton, or risk losing her friendship altogether. The decision she makes when faced with that dilemma will set the course for how the show proceeds.
Overall, however, the strong character and relationship work the show displays this week goes a long way towards solidifying the show’s foundation. Getting to see the serious side of the relationship between Ravi and Liv is also effective, and works as a nice complement to their friendly banter in last week’s episode. Ravi’s genuine concern about not being able to bring Marcy back from the edge proves that curing Liv is more than just a scientific curiosity for him. His eagerness to help Liv instead stems from genuine human empathy for her condition, and the condition of others who may have been unwittingly turned. This adds another layer to his experiments, as it proves that he will stop at very little to try and reverse the zombification, something that could come in handy for Liv once she learns of the existence of Blaine’s army. Liv’s decision to let the pain in is similarly a strong moment, as her unwillingness to escape from her problems even when the lives of others don’t depend on it points to her growing maturity, adding a nice touch to her vow last week of living life more fully than she has before. While there’s a noticeable lack of Babineaux-Liv interactions this week, seeing Liv and her friends come together to solve the case more than makes up for it, and hopefully future episodes will continue the relationship-building work of this week’s episode.
– Deepayan Sengupta