Wow… this episode brought all the action!
With Major and Liv on Jenko soldier brains, they plant to
enter Max Rager and free all the zombies he has kidnapped
We do have a reason why he has kidnapped them though – he
wants to experiment on them to make a cure for Rita (apparently the Rita/Gilda
debate is settled – Rita is her real name) who is less than appreciative of his
terrible efforts. Oh, her “you’re doing all this for me but couldn’t hold an
elevator door for 3 seconds” may be one of the best lines of the season.
On ruthless soldier brains, Liv and Major want to chop off
Jenko’s hand and use it to get into the basement via the security lift. Clive,
who is getting a great crash course of what it means to be a zombie which is
kind of awesome, vetoes this. So instead they’re sneaking into Vaughn’s party
and relying on Major having some good friends still there to help them sneak
in.
Oh and the party is “prison themed”. Clive’s comment: “White
people.”
To the party – and things rapidly go wrong and Clive ends
up joining them as he worries over them being late. That leaves the three of them
in the party and caught by Vaughn and his guards
Luckily for them but unluckily for everyone else, some of
his scientists have been taking Utopian to party. And drinking Max Rager. Max
Rager + Utopian = mindless raging zombie. The three now get to move through an
awesome zombie action movie (even considering turning Clive – which was so
tense and could have been really awesome – so his brains don’t attract them) as
Clive gets a crash course in many more zombie elements: zombie skills, different
kinds of zombies, what happens to zombies like Liv and Major when they go
without brains and it’s generally all kinds of awesome.
And yes, they do chop off a hand. Of course they do
Among all the chaos and awesomeness they make it to the
basement to find Rita – who helps them find the rest of the zombies Major put
on ice. Unfortunately, Vaughn is still alive and decides to interfere with them
all with Rita finally realising what an utter arsehole he is. Yes she already
kind of knew but he confirms it.
For trying his many shenanigans he gets shot in the hand
and then eaten, thanks to Rita and Major. Eaten by Rita for that matter. Rita
later tries to chow down on Clive and Major puts a bullet in her brain. That’s
a shame, Rita was kind of fun. But that’s the Max Rager contingent out of
action.
More poignantly, Liv finds Drake – but he’s been used to
experiment on… and has become a full on zombie. Liv tries to reason with him
but he tries to eat Clive. To save him, Liv shoots Drake. Powerful, tragic and
Clive got to live!
Time for a twist! Along the way they were rescued by
Vivian Stoll, the owner of the military contractor and one-woman-rambo with
many many guns. Her company, by the way, is called Fill More Graves
Fillmoregraves. No, really, the military contractor that
Vaughn has sold his company to is called Fill More Graves. That’s either in the
worst terrible taste or hilariously awesome.
She also helps them cover up the massacre afterwards –
because she’s a zombie, along with all her cohorts, and she intends to turn
Seattle into the new capital of a zombie homeland – and she’s recruiting Liv.
Ooooh this looks fun.
Time to look at Peyton and Ravi and Blaine
Now that Stacey Boss knows that Donny and Chief are
muscling in on his business again, he sends the goons to kill them.
Surprisingly Donny manages to survive by speaking quickly and relying on his
zombiness to survive. Who knew he had it in him!? Chief isn’t so lucky – they also
learn that Blaine is alive…
Blaine runs and hides with Peyton and Ravi which ends up
with Ravi unconscious and Peyton kidnapped… Blaine has some cool toys to help
in the rescue though (and, yes, new amnesia Blaine is still snarky but still
willing to help people unlike old Blaine). He does save Peyton – which means
Ravi is all sad because he thinks Peyton and Blaine are going to get back
together now
Nooooo… choose Ravi! Choose Ravi!
With all this action and twists I am definitely looking
forward to next season.
I do think that this season hasn’t necessarily been as
great by Ravi and Clive, especially as the recurring POC in the show
(especially since the show still has a bad habit of taking POC brains and
washing over a lot of what would be implied by that). Not that they’re minor by
any degree –but Clive not knowing the secret has always separated him from Liv,
especially as more people around Liv – Peyton, Ravi, Major, Blaine, Vaughn –
know the big secret. That’s a huge number of storylines Clive has to opt out of
by definition. In season 1 we had more focus on the individual crimes and less
people knowing the big secret – and Liv and Clive were almost as big a factor
as Liv and Ravi. Now we have more meta that Clive isn’t part of and less crime
focus so he takes a step back. They give him some of his own storylines and
avoid him becoming an antagonist. But next season I hope for more – and the
fact they’re already pulling him in gives me some hope for that.
Ravi, of course, is much more prominent, in on the secret
from the beginning and maybe the second most important character here except
for Liv herself. And I love him, every scene he is in he effortlessly steals.
The only issue? He’s somewhat Liv focused. Ok, nerdy interest gives him his own
motivation but this is why I like his friendship with Major and his
relationship with Peyton. Too many shows have a central character and then
everyone focused on them – Ravi having relationships with people beyond Liv
makes him more of a character. Now, more Ravi! More Ravi storylines!
I also think Liv badly needs more time with Peyton. I
mean their relationship is awesome – but she’s the only woman in Liv’s life –
the other two women on the show are not present enough and definitely not really
connected to Liv. Liv needs to spend some time around women – she has a very
male world. There’s also, again, no LGBTQ people.
