Sunday, November 22, 2015

iZombie 2x07 "Abra Cadaver" (Do You Believe in Magic?) [Contributor: Isabella]


"Abra Cadaver"
Original Airdate: November 17, 2015

Remember what I said about there being no filler episodes in this show? Well, it applies for this week too. This episode didn't do much to progress the plot, but instead was filled with jokes and pushed Liv and Blaine just a little closer into the case of the missing zombies. Speaking of which...

AN UNLIKELY DUO


In between solving the case, Liv can't help but to team up with Blaine after he lets her know that all of the missing people have been zombies. This puts her on alert because she might be next. We know she can't be next because Major's doing the "killing," but she doesn't know that. In fact, at the beginning of the episode, Liv tells Major that if they're going to continue their relationship for real, they "have to be totally honest this time around." This already isn't good for Major, who's keeping his side job of killing capturing zombies a secret from her. In his mind, he's trying his hardest to keep her away from that particular aspect of his life, but she just keeps getting closer to the truth with each episode. I've been thinking since the first episode he began this job that if Liv were to ever find out what he's doing, it would be their breaking point as a couple. I'm not sure she'd even be that understanding in his excuse that he was killing/capturing to keep her safe.

Major's also having trouble dealing with Liv's many personality changes. Their "no sex" policy is the least of his problems now. In fact, he's completely okay with that, but seeing Liv constantly change from one person to the next is starting to grow old for him. He never knows what to expect. I've seen some people on Tumblr hate on him for this, but I actually think his concern about Liv not being herself is understandable. It's not like he's outwardly hating her for it. You can just see the worry and apprehension on his face when she's muttering under her breath and using the Ouija board.

Liv seems to notice that this makes him uncomfortable, but it didn't seem to cause much of a problem in their relationship. Whether it will affect it in the following episodes though, we still do not know. I just don't think it's something Major should be hated for. I'm sure most of us would be on edge if the person we loved kept acting like someone new every few days. It's something he still has to get used to. Ravi's had months to get used to. No wonder he's pretty accepting of it.




Now back to the actual unlikely duo: Liv and Blaine. I'm pretty sure most people were looking forward to this episode mainly to see them team up. I can't say I wasn't mildly disappointed. Liv so blatantly hates Blaine that the only redeeming factor of their scenes together were his one-liners and sassy I-don't-give-an-eff attitude. We know he's a horrible person because of everything he's done in the past, but David Anders plays Blaine so charmingly that you can't help but chuckle at his jokes. I understand Liv's hesitation to work with him, but I thought that last week's more vulnerable scene between them played out better than the scene of them in the car together this week. They understand each other better than anyone and I feel like the writers can use that to their advantage. Although I like all of Blaine's witty remarks, they could've had more back and forth between them. Maybe it's because Liv was under the influence of a darkly poetic person that she couldn't come up with smart, seething comments to counter Blaine's, but I was left feeling like their interactions were missing something.

Another unlikely duo that I've become mildly interested in is Peyton and Blaine. There's no denying that there's still something between Peyton and Ravi. Especially, as we saw, on Ravi's part since he broke up with his girlfriend and tried to lean in for a kiss with Peyton, which she swiftly rejected. It seems like she's definitely started to develop feelings for Blaine, as we can see at the end of the episode when she warns him about Stacey Boss coming to see her a few days ago. I'm still not sure how Peyton/Blaine would work out. As I said, he definitely has enough charm where it's easy to like their dynamic, but what we're not sure of is if his feelings are genuine. He's always using people to his advantage, so we can't ever be really certain about how he's actually feeling. Even last week when he was grieving after killing his grandfather, I didn't find that to be too believable. Maybe Blaine is actually interested in Peyton romantically and not just to use her to see whether he's in trouble in the case. I definitely believe he's capable of truly loving her but I'm just not that convinced yet. He's still got to prove it to me.

PRESTO FEST


You know how I'm always ragging on about how the cases are oh-so boring? Well, this episode's murder was mildly more interesting.

Liv eats the brains of Sid Wicked, an overly poetic and goth magician. He's made a lot of enemies by stealing magic tricks from other magicians, which provides us with a lot of suspects. The actual killers were two other magicians, Smoak and Meers, but that didn't come as much of a surprise because Meers' makeup was so obviously fake that you could see it coming a mile away. Yet again, Clive and Liv going around and interviewing the suspects wasn't as captivating as it could've been and instead, the murder relied on Liv eating the victim's brain.

The highlight of Liv's personality change wasn't the fact that she was impressing Ravi so much with her new magic tricks. Don't get me wrong, I could watch Ravi being amused by magic tricks all day.


 


But it was her becoming a death-obsessed Wiccan that was much more captivating. When we first found out that Wicked was fascinated by death, I thought that they would make the connection between that and her literally being the walking dead. I thought they had the chance to let Liv explore her mortality, or rather, immortality, and what that might mean later on. We know there's a possibility of a cure somewhere out there, so it's plausible that she's set her mind on eventually getting it, but what if she doesn't? What if she's forced to see her loved ones grow up without her? We've seen a little bit of Blaine grappling with wanting immortality again, but what about Liv? I'm pretty sure she'd want to grow old with Major and his friends, but what if she can't? I thought the show could've had her act as equally morose, but apply Wicked's thoughts to her own life. Instead of having her recite poetic lines about flowers, they could've used that to further explore Liv's thoughts on death and how she might actually want it.

The true shocker of the episode came at the end. After Liv forges the document from the labs that say the brains found in Suzuki's freezer were from a bovine instead of a human, it seems like Clive and Bozzio are back to square one. Even though they're disappointed now, they might come ahead in the next episode. Later that night, a mysterious woman drops off a package at his front door labeled: Occupant.

Hmm...

Brainy Quotes and Undead Notes:
  • "Cause if we're gonna do this, we have to be totally honest this time around." — Liv to Major about their relationship... Yikes. This just further pushes the point that Liv will most likely not be accepting of Major keeping his zombie killing job a secret from her. I'm still calling that that'll be the factor to end their relationship yet again by the end of this season. But who knows, I may be wrong.
  • "You don't dress like that unless you do magic or you hate your parents." — Clive
  • I'm so here for Clive being absolutely unimpressed with all magicians in the same way that I'm here for Ravi being completely mesmerized by magic.
  • "Pick a card." "No." — Liv and Clive
  • Ravi's face completely softens when he looks at Peyton. He find her so amusing. He even calls her the "worst" with a smile on his face. I mean,
 
  • "Twitter, a vast collection of humanity's impetuous thought-vomitings." "I'd like to think I'm quite introspective to my 23 followers." — Liv and Ravi
  • "You killed the fourth man who walked on the moon." "Please, no one cares about the fourth person to do something." — Liv and Blaine
  • I'm just waiting for the moment when Bozzio and Clive see that Major owns the murdered man's dog. If and/or when they see it, they'll know for sure that he's been doing the killings.
  • #youlooklikeyouliveinyourmomsbasement #whowearsthumbrings
Please forgive me for the lateness of my short review! Blame my being out of town for the past few days and my crying of Mockingjay: Part 2 for the past two days.

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