Liv insists on having a serious talk about Major and the
downside of zombiedom relationship – not just the lack of sex but also because
her personality is inclined to change so radically based on her last meal.
Major insists he’s not going away
Time for this week’s death – a man in goth clothes who
has apparently been killed by a playing card.
The man is called Sid Wicked (he’s a magician apparently
– and part of a huge magician convention) and the card did have a sharp metal
edge. They interview the maid (who has a very expensive manicure for someone
working with their hands all day) who says Sid was yelling at the “angels”.
Ravi also finds that a not-big-fan of Sid’s sent him a
rotten fish. Also Ravi is, of course, geekily happy about the Magician
Convention because he’s Ravi.
At the morgue we are reminded that Ravi is still in a
relationship with the hardly-seen Steph (and not unhappy but not thrilled) and
Liv makes another disturbingly tasty brainy meal. She now has magician skills
and morbid showmanship. Nahhh, not running with this one.
And Ravi’s relationship issues are shown by Peyton still
living with him and Major and she decides to dance in random shorts in the
kitchen (is that breakfast? Because dancing in the morning is forbidden by
international treaty). And Ravi is being all kinds of leery about how quickly
Steph is moving in the relationship (albeit not that quickly) and apparently
celebrating Bonfire Night in late November or December. Peyton amusingly treats
him accordingly for his silliness
Especially when Major joins them to discuss just how
extreme Liv brains can get. They don’t reassure him much.
Ravi is also very unenthused about his date with Steph
which is fully understandable when we see the trainwreck of awful that is her
Bonfire Night celebration. She’s also clearly put a whole lot of money, time
and effort into producing this Awfulness which is all kind of sad and adds to
Ravi’s unease.
He wakes up hung over with her planning waay more time
together and he breaks up with her.
Police investigation points to Sid being widely hated in
the magical community because he kept revealing the methods beyond their magic
tricks which is a big no-no. They go on to interview another magician and find
she is both skilled with playing cards – and may have been getting married to
the victim. She’s also missing a card from her metal tipped card deck. She
tells them all about why she hated him, doubts very much that Sid is dead – and
has a good alibi.
More angry magicians, more lack of evidence to prove
anything. More threats. More dead ends – until they realise they had only seen
one person enter Sid’s room – the maid who they dismissed. Surprise, the maid
was someone else in disguise, all revealed by Liv who makes a big show of the whole
thing.
Meanwhile Blaine visits Liv to tell him that three of the
missing rich guys who FBI agent Dell has been investigating are his customers –
they’re zombies. Zombies are being killed and he’d rather she stop that for the
sake of his profit margins. Blaine is, as ever, always fun And he uses his
snarky sales pitch convinces her to help him or the sake of all the poor
innocents.
Which means Blaine and Liv spying on Delle – who seems to
be hosting Clive. And hosting is a euphemism. They finally break in and read
through all her files for much snarking between them without gaining any
information (because Blaine sees the missing dog picture – which Major adopted
– not Liv). They also intercept the lab results Delle was getting for Clive
showing Suzuki kept human brains in his freezer.
Liv doctors the evidence and returns it – and is watched
while doing so. Clive is all sad in bed with Delle, because he was sure he was
onto something. And the watcher leaves an envelope on the doorstep.
When Liv goes home, she tells Major about the dead
missing rich zombie people… Awkward.
While Blaine is visited by Peyton and offers his card and
comfort should the mob boss she’s trying to prosecute, Stacey Boss, intimidate
her.
And post break up, Ravi plans friendly stuff with Peyton
– and tries to kiss her. Peyton quickly backs off – and she uses the same break
up times that he used on Steph.
Liv does many things well… but morbid and creepy? I don’t
think she pulls it off – which is odd considering how many other personalities
she’s done really well. Morbid just feels forced and weak (which is really
ironic when you realise she’s playing a zombie as well). Unfortunately that
kind of undermines the whole brain this week – because it’s magic tricks and
play acting.
Blaine is always fun. Yes, yes he is.
The undocumented Latina maid is such a background staple
of American media that the whole cast – and most of the audience, I imagine –
completely ignored her. I actually give points for everyone saying “no-one
entered the room but the maid!” and no-one ever thinking “uh, then the maid did
it?” Because this stereotyped trope has become background furniture in so many
shows that having her do it is almost as unthinkable has having the curtains do
it.
On Steph – on the one hand I’m kind of annoyed that she
was introduced, never really developed or used but just kind of batted around
before being kicked out when Ravi’s “real” love interest showed up. On the
other hand, if the writers had so little for her to do, I’m glad she is gone
NOW rather than after several episodes of Ravi pining after Peyton and her
being neglected. I also like that Peyton wasn’t quick to say “hey you dumped
her? Yay romance!” Because “I broke up with her” followed by “now let us kiss!”
within a few hours of that break up? Not classy.
I am actually glad Major is a little uncomfortable with
Liv’s mood swings- because his acceptance of the whole zombie thing after being
so epicly freaked out is just too much too quickly. This is going to take time
