iZombie 2×3: Real Dead Housewife of Seattle

iZombie -- "Real Dead Housewife of Seattle" -- Image Number: ZMB_203a_4076.jpg -- Pictured (L-R): Jazz Raycole as Bethany Miller and Rose McIver as Olivia "Liv" Moore -- Photo: Jack Rowand /The CW -- © 2015 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
iZombie — “Real Dead Housewife of Seattle” — Image Number: ZMB_203a_4076.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Jazz Raycole as Bethany Miller and Rose McIver as Olivia “Liv” Moore — Photo: Jack Rowand /The CW — © 2015 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Before we get to the episode review, did anyone else catch the Veronica Mars reference in this episode? “A long time ago, we used to be friends.”  I see you, Rob Thomas.  I see you.  And I approve.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the meat of the episode.  Peyton’s back!  After her departure last season, I was concerned that Liv would be the only regularly occurring non-antagonistic woman on the show.  For having a female protagonist, iZombie is seriously lacking some female energy through the rest of the supporting cast.  In fact, this episode was buzzing with female energy, though not all of it positive and certainly not free of clichés that make me want to grind my teeth.  But hey, at least we got some super cute shoes out of the mess of feminine character tropes, so hey, silver lining.

This week’s Brain-of-the-Week saw Liv transform into a ‘housewife’ persona.  In this case, ‘housewife’ translates to a fashionista who’s obsessed with gossip and mineral water.  There’s nothing wrong with being feminine and fashion forward, but the paint by the numbers ‘housewife’ personality felt a bit too over the top for me.  I suppose you have to stretch things to the limit to make the brains interesting, but I was a tad put off with the constant parade of clichés that this brain forced Liv to exhibit.  I must admit, though, that those shoes were super cute.  I’ve got to give credit where credit is due on that front.  If I could walk in high heels, I’d buy myself a pair.

iZombie2We’re also getting more insight into Gilda, the personal assistant to Vaun du Clark.  It was heavily implied that she’s Vaun’s illegitimate child, which explains why she can stand up to him without fear of being fired.  She’s got a fiery spirit and she doesn’t seem afraid of anything.  It’s too bad she’s on the side of evil, in this case, because I’m actually kind of enjoying her.  I predict her story will either end with her death or her redemption as she joins the ‘good guys’ to take down Max Rager.  I just can’t see her plot going any other way.  She’s become too damn important to just disappear when the season is through.

Stepping away from all the awesome ladies, I must admit I’m actually finding Major much more intriguing this season than I did last season.  He was my least favorite part of this show’s freshman year because he just felt so boring and flat.  Now we’re watching him fall, commit murder, tackle drug addiction, and deal with the massive emotional fallout from last season’s finale.  It almost sounds like I enjoy seeing characters go through pain.  That’s not exactly true, but in this case Major needed a good shot of massive emotional trauma in order to flesh him out a bit. Sure, someone he knew died last season and he was slowly starting to spiral downward, but he’s plummeted to an extreme degree.  Yay!  I feel awful for being excited about that, but oh well.  At least something is happening.

Now that Peyton is back in the picture and seems to be coming to terms with the fact that her best friend is a zombie, a lot of doors are opened as far as plot goes.  We’re also balancing out the gender disparity in the cast, which is an excellent direction to go.  I’m really excited to see what the rest of the season brings.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They’ve also written for Friends of Comic Con and is a 2019 Hugo Award winner for contributing fanfic on AO3. They identify as queer.


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