…and Jerome is ended.

When we last left Liv, the elevator door was about to open with Blaine on the other side. He was heading up to Lowell’s apartment to deliver brains to another member of Brain Club. Sure enough, it is Blaine. Liv puts her up hoodie and slouches. The quick change of posture works and Blaine seems none the wiser. But now, Liv knows that Lowell is eating the brains of murdered youths.

Last week, I wanted the flow of zombie backstory to gush. We got gush, people!

Now that Liv has had the vision of Jerome’s murder by Blaine, she knows that Major is right about the Candyman. She and Dr. Ravi, still nursing a zombie rat bite from last week, discuss this. They cannot understand how the bodies of Blaine’s murder victims got to the Shepherd house. Unless, something, as Dr. Ravi notes, is rotten in Denmark, or, in this case, the Seattle Police Department.

Liv confronts Lowell. At first, he is somewhat resistant to Liv’s words. But he changes the mood by telling her that he loves her. Liv still doesn’t want to see him anymore.

Meanwhile, Major starts looking online at how to fire a gun. He also thinks that Julian DuPont, Blaine’s right hand zombie, must work out. He starts hanging out at the local gym and drops that he hears that eating human brains makes you more buff. Soon enough, the story of Major’s idea gets to DuPont, who seems very interested in Major.

Blaine has an interesting moment of his own, as one of his richest customers has a special request. He is upset with Blaine, because he turned him into a zombie right before he bought a ticket to go into space, something he always wanted to do. Just how many people has Blaine scratched into zombie-hood (zombie-ness?)? He wants the brain of one of the astronauts who walked on the moon, so he can see what it was like. Money is no object. Needless to say, Blaine is interested.

As a side note, Dr. Ravi has been watching his behavior, looking for zombie tendencies. No desire for brains, no changes, no nothing. He realizes that the zombie disease cannot be spread between different species. He finally lets Liv in on what happened to him, who chides him for not letting her know sooner.

This episode’s mystery revolves around an accomplished sniper killed during a paintball match.

It helps Liv. She and Lowell reconcile and Liv decides that Blaine must die. Having eaten sniper brains gives her the advantage. She and Lowell form a plot to get Blaine to come to Lowell’s penthouse for a jam session. Liv will be on the roof of another building and shoot Blaine in the head.

Paintball Liv

Major comes home from a hard day pretending to want brains to find a mallet on his dining room table. Instead of beating a path to the door, he finds himself intrigued by the tool. Obviously, there is more than one tool in the room as Julian suddenly appears, grabbing both Major and the mallet. He wants to know who else knows about the brains. If Major doesn’t talk, DuPont will start with Major’s fingers and work his way down. Yes, sports fans, it’s an old-fashioned breaking! For those new to the old practice, in medieval times a favorite torture was a breaking; every bone in the victim’s body would be broken. Julian’s been doing his homework.

Major stabs Julian in the leg and runs upstairs. Fumbling to load a clip for his gun, Julian busts through the door, mallet in hand.

Now, who the hell leaves a gun clip unloaded when you are clearly expecting trouble? Just who has Major slept with to have survived nine episodes?

Major ducks as the mallet takes out the mirror behind him. He then fires two shots into DuPont, who falls to the ground. Thinking he got him, Major relaxes for a moment, only to find Julian grabbing his ankle. Major puts another slug in his chest. Too bad Major didn’t pay attention to the YouTube video that told him to put “one in the heart and one in the head.” Major leaves the house, probably to fetch the police.

He’s not dead, he’s only sleeping.

Liv is set up to shoot Blaine.

Lowell is playing his part well; buddying up to Blaine, talking about Blaine’s hero, Kurt Cobain. Liv has Blaine in her sights, but cannot pull the trigger. She realizes if she shoots, she’ll be no better than Blaine– it will lower her down to his level of evilness.

Lowell realizes something is wrong and texts are exchanged.

Major has dragged Clive back to the house to find Julian DuPont has disappeared. After three shots in the chest, Julian is likely to be very miffed. At some point while he is at Lowell’s, he calls Blaine. Blaine is furious, calling the situation “unacceptable”.

Clive wants to know if Major is taking any drugs, or if he has stopped taking some drugs.

While Blaine in one the phone, Lowell signals Liv that he will kill Blaine. He raises a serving fork to stab Blaine in the head, but he blocks it. Insulted, Blaine calls Lowell as “lousy host”, raises a pistol and shoots Lowell in the head. Liv sees the whole thing and is devastated.

I think I’m happy again about “iZombie”. They advanced the real plot of the show quite a bit and it makes me want to know what happens next.

The thing that I am interested in is Blaine’s calculated zombie making. He has scratched rich people, a police lieutenant, a future doctor (now a medical examiner’s assistant) and a rock star. Who else has he scratched and what is their positioning? Apparently, there is a grand plan that is just starting to come to light.

Postscript: Thank you to my friend and fellow horror aficionado, Michael Carter, who posted the notice that “iZombie” has, in fact, been renewed for a second season.