Tonight’s episode deals with misery. Believe me, there is lots to go around.

Let’s begin at breakfast, the most important meal of the day. And, look, there’s Major with his bowl of non-descript cereal, watching the two kids of the man/father/zombie he killed in the last episode. They are on TV, pleading for someone to help them find their father. The guilt and misery is written all over Major’s face as he finds his appetite gone.

Our murder takes place during a Fraternity Halloween Party, where a fully costumed blue furry sea captain stabs a brother, who ironically, is dressed as Caesar. He ends up at the morgue. Liv has brain nachos. Soon, Liv is one happy party reptile. She is now fluent in Frat-speak and begins to help Babineaux unravel the murder. She is also fluent in Frat-behavior, which will cause both Claude and Ravi no end of trouble as the episode wears on.

Gotta go before Liv gets here… too late

But the party doesn’t last for long as Liv and Major cross paths at the morgue. Major is in for his “no longer a zombie” checkup and doesn’t get out before Liv arrives. She is happy to see him and wants to talk. Major wants no part of this and leaves. Misery returns to the zombie detective.

“And what about Blaine?” you ask. With his hair back to normal, he is giving a pep talk to his main pusher, Speedy. He goes over his plan to take out Mr. Boss, Seattle’s top drug supplier. Blaine is not happy being just another funeral director/zombie brain supplier. He wants to be top dog in the drug trade. He plans to push some lower strength Utopium, undercut Mr. Boss and take over as drug kingpin.

By the by….Speedy was Green Arrow’s sidekick in DC comics. He would also be one of the original members of the Teen Titans. He was also a junkie at one point in the story arcs.

Speedy and Heroin

He also re-enforces with Sonny E about finding how the Utopium was cut at the Lake Washington Outbreak. He waxes poetic about Sonny’s dead brother. He informs him that he was institutionalized because he saw zombies. Blaine takes him to the basement and shows him that they are real. One of his men is sampling the brain of a descendent on the table.

“Hey,” he cries, “who said you could lick the bowl?”

In the meantime, everyone is combating their misery. Liv accepts an invite to the Frat Party Wake for their fallen brother. She makes a dress of police tape and drags Gilda along, who is dressed in a trash bag. Liv spends her time chugging beer and winning at beer pong. Gilda is somewhat mortified.

Fashion trend in the making, or epic fail? You decide!

Ravi and Major are at a club, trying to score some Utopium. Ravi wants to take it for research. Major just takes it. Both seem to be having the time of their lives. But Major wants more and gets it and he ends up unconscious in a stall in the men’s room. Liv is called by one of the bouncers and comes to collect Major, who is now semi-conscious, and Ravi, who has joined the gogo dancers on stage.

The Utopium Strut

Back at the apartment, Liv helps Major. He asks her to stay. Liv’s mood brightens as Major lays his head on her lap.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” he says.

Given that last week, Vaughn has Liv on his “Zombies to be Killed” list, this is a major revelation by Major revelating, or, aaah forget about it.

Ravi’s notes are not worth the cell phone they are recorded on. It does prove that you can’t be high and do scientific research at the same time. As he is trying to figure things out, a body is brought in. It turns out to be their pusher from the night before! His throat is slit and he is missing an eye. Ravi is informed that there are three more just like him waiting outside.

A frantic call from Speedy to Blaine shows that Mr. Boss has had something to say about Blaine’s plan to muscle in on his territory. Blaine tells him to relax and sit tight. He’ll talk to an old friend.

Speedy’s time is short as he wakes from a nap to find two of Mr. Boss’s thugs about to do to him what they did Blaine’s other pushers.

The bodies begin to pile up.

Turns out, the DA is also a zombie in Blaine’s employ. Blaine tried to convince him that they have to take out Mr. Boss. The only problem they have is that they need money. We now visit Blaine’s misery, namely, Daddy.

Yes, Blaine has a father. A very rich father. A very zombie father. The two share their disappointment in each other. Seems Daddy pulled strings to get Blaine into Wharton. For those unfamiliar, Wharton is the business school division of the University of Pennsylvania and one of the top business schools in the US. I attended the U of P’s next door neighbor, Drexel University, so I have seen the school and its students firsthand.

On the other side, Blaine recounts how his father ignored his mother’s threats of suicide and let it happen. Further, the only one who ever loved Blaine, his grandfather, was institutionalized by his father the first chance he got.

Blaine plans to destroy his father, but first, he needs half a million dollars to make his move on Mr. Boss.

Our murderer is detected. Apparently, he thought the Frat brother was the drunk who ran over his father. Same name, same age, but not the right person. We leave the young man in the interrogation room, crying that he killed someone who had nothing to do with his dad’s death.

I sense a trend in the murders this season. The two were more “accident” than true premeditation. The first episode was an angry kick to a car on a jack. The second was a case of mistaken identity. Two miserable murderers are in tears at the end.

Liv goes back to Ravi and Major’s apartment to get a new phone. Major had thrown her phone out a car window when she retrieved them from the club. Ravi meets her at the door with the phone. Major is there, but doesn’t want to talk to her. The drug has worn off. The cold shoulder has returned. Liv leaves despondent.

The last image we are left with is Major, laying on his bed, snorting a vial of Utopium, with footage of his victim’s two kids on the tablet next to him. Major is escaping his misery…

The show is taking a very dark course. Everyone in the cast is carrying it off very well, almost too well. It is becoming like a train wreck. Will we continue to watch, or will we turn our head away?