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I have mentioned that last season, the zombie story moved very slowly, letting out little bread crumbs for everyone to follow. The first six episodes were the exact opposite, with story and content gushing like a severed artery. Then we have episode seven and eight. Drip, drip, drip. The show slows to a crawl again. Don’t get me wrong, we still get some foreshadowing of things to come. But, rather than an all you can eat buffet of brain omelets, we are getting celery sticks with peanut butter and brains.

Did someone say peanut butter on celery with brains?

In Episode Seven, Blaine (who is absent in Episode Eight) approaches Liv. He is losing customers at Brain Club, which he is supplying by running a funeral home. He wants Liv to help him find out what the FBI knows about the disappearances. She refuses, noting that Blaine is still a heartless murderer. Blaine, being Blaine, does the only thing he can. He points out that “nice people will die” if they don’t do something.

“Help me Zombie-wan-Kenobi! You’re my only hope.”

The repartee between David Anders and Rose McIver is some of the best banter since Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd in “Moonlighting.” It still is the highlight of the show. I really have to say that the show does suffer a bit when they don’t have time together on-screen.

The two get a handle on FBI Agent Bozzio’s schedule and break into her house. The file is large, so each takes a pile and reads it to share notes on her investigation. In Blaine’s pile is the file for the dog walker that Major has killed. There is a photo of the basset hound, Minor, that is now residing at Major’s apartment. Liv didn’t see it, and I cannot be sure that Blaine didn’t either.

That dog is going to be the source of a lot of trouble.

While there, a report comes to the house with the analysis of the brain found by Suzuki’s wife. The report says “Human Brain.”

Liv takes the report, alters it to “Bovine Brain,” and gets it back to Bozzio’s place.

On the romance front:

Babineaux and Bozzio are shown in bed together.
Ravi dumps current girlfriend Steph, because he is still carrying a torch of Peyton.

Major tells Liv he can handle her brain-induced personality changes. That is until he comes home to find her still looking Goth and working with an Ouija Board. He turns tail and goes back to his place.

At the end of Episode Seven, an unknown woman walks up to Bozzio’s place and leaves a large envelope with the word “Occupant” on it, on the welcome mat.

In Episode Eight, our unknown package leaver turns out to be the victim of the murder and an ex-girlfriend of Clive Babineaux. In fact, the gun used to kill her was his gun that she stole from him before they broke up. Turns out, the woman was a stalker and a “Badge Bunny”, someone who is into police officers.

Among the lines that are worth remembering is one from the sleazeball cop investigating the murder (Babineaux can’t, as he is a prime suspect).

“If this case was any easier, I’d have slept with it in college.”

Liv’s current brain consumption is of the stalking female, which she refers to as “Fatal Attraction Brain.” This causes several uncomfortable moments for Major, who has to dodge questions about his time with Rita, Vaughn’s assistant, whom you may remember is portraying Gilda, Liv’s roommate. To make matters worse, Rita/Gilda has keyed in on Liv’s current personality change and is doing her best to poison the relationship between Major and Liv, including sending an explicit text photo to Major’s phone that Liv sees. Not cool.

Rita Relaxes

Speaking of Rita, earlier in the show we find her in Vaughn’s office.

Super Max is getting ready to roll.

There is a flavor test going on. Vaughn says that the first is bubble gum with a hint of mint. The other is well, yellow. Rita tries the first and makes a face. Trying the yellow, she says it tastes like urine, but it is better than the bubble gum flavor.

A trip to the research facility finds a new doctor in charge of research.

“What happened to Dr. Irving?” she asks.

“Lab accident,” Vaughn says.

“It’s like drummers for Spinal Tap,” Rita quips.

Research is not always pretty

At the end, we see Vaughn at the company gym with Major. Vaughn has had some Super Max and can now bench press full rack of weights, much to Major’s surprise. But, Vaughn has also lost his temper and throws a ball into the gut of an annoying noisy lifter a few machines down. He just continues yelling and lifting.

Major wonders what to do with the can of Super Max that Vaughn just gave him.

As you can see, there is only minor advancement in the zombie stories. In fact some of it parallels a soap opera. This brings me to the point in our little drama to ask the question, What Do We Know Now?

Det. Clive Babineaux and FBI Agent Dale Bozzio (who was lead singer of “Missing Persons” in the 1980’s and married to Frank Zappa drummer Terry Bozzio) have gotten very close. Makes sense that Bozzio is looking for Missing Persons. Bozzio also spilled the beans to Liv and Ravi about Clive’s private life, especially the part about him being a huge fan of “Game of Thrones.”

Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti is currently unattached and would love to get back together with Peyton. He currently has nothing to work with to find a cure for being a zombie.

Peyton Charles has come back into the Seattle picture, trying to bring down the drug trade and put Mr. Boss away once and for all. She has already met Mr. Boss, who has scared her by threats and his whistling of “My Darling Clementine.”

Mr. Stacey Boss is the current drug kingpin in Seattle. Blaine would love to get rid of him and take over.

Rita/Gilda was jilted by Major. She also was dropped from Vaughn’s love nest. She’s doing her best to poison Liv’s belief in Major. What will she do to Vaughn if she doesn’t get Major back?

Vaughn is unstoppable at Max Rager. Super Max is now ready to roll. His consumption of the new product has caused major anger issues. Also, he needs to address the revolving door that he has in the position of Head of Research and Development. He holds Liv’s well-being over Major’s head to get him to kill zombies.

Minor is the basset hound that Major brought home after one of his kills. He is the smoking gun.

Major Lilywhite is Liv’s on-again boyfriend. They cannot have sex without Major becoming a zombie. He is also Vaughn’s trainer and saw the Super Max anger first hand. Currently, there are eight zombie notches on his belt and a storage locker with a freezer containing at least three bodies. One of the bodies is Blaine’s zombie Father.

Blaine DeBeers is no longer a zombie. He runs a funeral home and still supplies the “Real Zombies of Seattle” with brains, although he has lost several major customers to Major, but he doesn’t know that…yet. He is doing his best to charm Peyton and get Liv as an ally. He also has no family left as his Father is missing and he killed his beloved Grandfather to try to get even with Dad. Although he wants to take over his Father’s business, if they don’t find his body, it’ll take seven years before they can legally declare him dead. This is ironic as he was already undead.

Liv Moore got her love (Major) back. She also got her best friend (Peyton) back. They both know that she is a zombie. Her family is nowhere to be seen. She still despises Blaine, but will work with him to avert a zombie outbreak, which is what Vaughn is now planning to do. She is doing her best to keep Babineaux and Bozzio from finding out that zombies exist. Further, her relationship with Major is hitting major snags, mostly thanks to Rita/Gilda. What will she do if she finds out that Major is “Killing the Great Zombies of Seattle?”