Somebody Throw a Pie or Something — Peter Griffin (at a performance of “Uncle Vanya”)

Didja ever have one of those moments when the “new car smell” wore off and you started to notice the imperfection on the dashboard and the CD player skipped every time you hit the slightest of bumps? Yeah… I’m there.

The long and short of it is that “iZombie” is slowing down. In its last two episodes, the mystery has become more commonplace and the subplots less mentioned.

Allow me to elaborate.

The episode centers on the electrocution of an obnoxious radio talk show hostess. After eating her brains Liv finds a couple of men, one married, one in a serious relationship which could be the killer. But they weren’t. So they focus on the wife and the girlfriend, respectively. No again. Finally, they determine that the partner of the hostess set up the girlfriend and killed the hostess. Apparently, the partner wanted to go back on the air and the hostess got her blackballed so she couldn’t get a job like that. In the end, she’s arrested on the air. Case closed.

Now to the Crumbs

Liv and Dr. Ravi look in on the test rats. If you remember from last week, Rat E turned white and ate the brains of his fellow rats. Liv retrieves the rat, which does not bite her. Seems zombies have a form of professional courtesy. Dr. Ravi is a bit upset by the rat. Okay, he jumps up on a table, a la 1950’s Sitcom.

“That rat could destroy civilization as we know it!” he utters.

After analyzing his results with the rats, he now believes that he may be able to produce a cure for zombie-ism through gene therapy.

Meanwhile, Blaine finally has a speaking part in this episode. He meets with; you guessed it, the police Lieutenant aka Zombie with a Badge. It turns out that he is on Blaine’s payroll, or brainroll, if you will and hid the bodies of Meat Cute’s victims at the house of last week’s villains. He doesn’t like doing this stuff (as he really is an honest policeman) but Blaine has him by the “short and curlies”. Those are Blaine’s words, not mine. He tells the Lieutenant to suck it up and sends him off with the words “Protect and Serve… me”.

The Lieutenant, by the way, mentions Liv to Blaine, saying that he thinks she plays for “Team Z”. Blaine states that he is aware of Liv and she has her own little role to play in this drama. (Insert organ sting here)

Major gets out of jail after his cellmates use his face for whittling practice. He tells Liv about the brain and Julian DuPont. Liv tries to convince him that he is overreacting and he should let the whole thing drop. He agrees, but after she leaves, he continues to research brains and DuPont.

Major’s New Look

Here, we hit the fast forward button and go to the last two minutes of the show. In this time, Dr. Ravi, while on the cell phone with Liv’s roommate (whom Ravi likes), is bitten by the zombie rat. It manages to get though the steel and the oyster shucking gloves that the good Doctor is wearing and takes a chunk out of his finger. Dr. Ravi may now be on a fast train to Zombietown.

Major is seen in a back alley, buying a gun out of the trunk of a dealer’s car. This cannot be good. How is Major’s aim, anyway?

After a night of passion with Lowell and a quick zombie-style breakfast, Liv heads down the elevator to the first floor. The glass elevator affords her a view of the parking lot, where we see Blaine, with about a dozen yellow soft coolers in the back seat of his car. I guess the position of Delivery Boy is still open. She sees him with one in hand, as he heads for the entrance. This triggers a vision from the brain she had at Lowell’s. It is Jerome, Major’s friend, just before Blaine kills him. So, Lowell is a member of Brain Club.

The elevator has reached the bottom floor. The door is about to open. It may be Blaine on the other side.

Everything from the big letters to here accounted for about five to eight minutes of a show that runs about 42 minutes.

I spent much of the time tapping my pen on the tray table. The problem has become that what is going on in the background is far more interesting than the murder mystery that takes up most of the show. Don’t get me wrong, the dialog is still fresh and often funny. The acting by all members of the cast is above most shows on TV right now. Rose McIver is terrific and still is a great shape shifter. From week to week, she carries off each new persona with style and wit. The writing is sharp with many moments of excellent banter.

Team Z, Team Blaine, Team Liv. Which one are you one?

But the subplot of the zombies and their interplay is coming at a trickle. Would it be so bad to gush a little? Are they going to wait until Episode 13 to tie everything up in a neat little bow? The show “Burn Notice” ended their run with a shortened season and seemingly fast and too convenient conclusion to the series. Many of its fans still complain about this. I know this first hand as I am married to one of them.

Let’s hope that “iZombie” does not follow the same path.