iZombie 3×12 Review: Looking for Mr Goodbrain, Part 1

One of my [albeit minor] complaints about the second half of iZombie season 3 is that it’s been very hectic, and “Looking for Mr Goodbrain, Part 1” was no exception.

Despite the fact that this was only the first half of the season finale, part one of “Looking for Mr Goodbrain” was heavy on the death toll. First up was Ravi’s old boss Katty Kupps, who showed back up long enough to admonish Ravi for talking to a reporter about the “Aleutian flu” outbreak and then turned out to be the victim of the week.

It was definitely disconcerting to see Liv having visions of Kupps and Ravi having sex – despite seeing Ravi in relationships on the show, I’m with Liv on this…I can only see him as a good pal and I definitely shuddered right along with Liv during these scenes. Still, those visions were just about the least important part of Liv on Katty’s brain – the focus was more on Katty’s propensity for returning to the same bar night after night and, from what I can tell, picking up men at said bar.

It was also rough watching Liv do something so out of character, especially when she eventually went through with hooking up with the first of these men who was also a zombie (that man being Chase Graves). The fact that Liv ended up doing this despite having just had the ‘relationship talk’ with Justin was an extra kick in the gut that made me even more frustrated with Liv on Katty’s brain.

And yet Liv’s personal struggles with this brain of the week were actually probably the least shocking thing about “Looking for Mr Goodbrain, Part 1”. As I mentioned, this was a hectic episode, featuring Peyton being offered the job of [zombie] Mayor Baracus, Ravi’s reporter “friend” popping up to ask more questions (and good on him for shooing her away!), Clive paying a visit to Tatum Weckler’s friend Patrice (who was on the flight with Katty and whose mother is a Fillmore-Graves employee), and last but not least, Major’s friend Natalie returning (and almost immediately being stuffed into a refrigerator, though not quite so literally as in the past).

Seriously though, with all of Major and Natalie’s history I wasn’t surprised to see her return, or that they got together (come on, that will they/won’t they tension has been there practically since they met)…but for all of this to happen at such a low point for Major, and then for Natalie to not even live through the episode, has me side-eying the iZombie writers at the moment.

Yes, the end of “Looking for Mr Goodbrain, Part 1” was pretty damn explosive (pun intended, as usual). I was definitely surprised that Harley Johns ended up being a zombie at the end of last week’s episode, but I really thought they would save his story for later after Major, Liv, and Clive drugged and froze him. Unfortunately for just about everyone involved, two of the Zombie Truthers – including the security guard from the season two finale – pulled what they thought was Harley’s body out of the freezer. Not only did Harley kill his Truther buddies, but he suicide bombed Major’s ‘goodbye’ party, causing the deaths of a large portion of the Fillmore-Graves zombie soldiers and, of course, Natalie.

Granted, Major and Justin only survived because they’d gone outside to have a bro-talk about Liv, but what’s going to happen now that so many of their colleagues are gone? Will Chase Graves bring Major back into the fold? And is anyone else frustrated that they bothered having Vivian Stoll figure out that Major was human only to immediately die, but then Chase Graves figured it out all over again just four episodes later? Regardless, there’s a lot to wrap up in next week’s season finale – enough that I have a feeling we’re going to be left with more than one cliffhanger.

Author: Tara Lynne

Tara Lynne is an author, fandom and geek culture expert, and public speaker. She founded Ice & Fire Con, the first ever Game of Thrones convention in the US, and now runs its parent company Saga Event Planning.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary