Kyle’s Thoughts

Story lines converged once again in the pressure cooker that is iZombie. You may need an organizational chart to depict how all the characters relate to one another and that’s a great thing. It allows the characters to grow, although some have grown more than others, and it leads to some entertaining on-screen combinations and surprises.

“The Whopper” illustrated how most characters on iZombie tell lies of various degrees. Liv is on the brains of a pathological liar, dubiously known as Big Fish (because of his penchant for tall tales). It makes sense that she’s on these brains, since she doesn’t lie or keep secrets too much beyond the fact that she’s a zombie. This episode presents one of the few times she has a need to mislead Major; she doesn’t want Major to know that she has a new boyfriend. I like how the liar brains caused her to look at things differently. She noticed other folks, notably her new zombie beau, withholding the truth. Even Major has had reason to fib. He’s lying to both Liv, about being the Chaos Killer, and to Max Rager, because he’s not actually killing. But the king of lies has to be Blaine.

Blaine is an affable villain. You almost want to root for him as he deceives someone with a smile and once the person commits to an action, he lets them know he’s pulling their leg. He may be the king of lies, but he came by that title honestly. “The Whopper” delved into his tortured past and in an odd way, his actions against his not-so-dead father are clap worthy. He also feeds the growing population of Seattle zombies, a group he had a hand in building, so he remains an integral part of the story. Even Liv admits that Blaine serves a purpose.

As far as Liv is concerned, iZombie has a tendency to lean too much on the brains she eats as a means of building her character. It wasn’t a huge issue with “The Whopper,” but the show needs to be careful not to make her character a series of whoever she’s eating. Sure, we’ve seen the most of Liv, but no other zombie character is defined as much by what they eat as Liv.

iZombie has found fertile ground for characterization. The show keeps its off-beat sense of humor, while the characters bubble and broil.

Thanks for reading.