So last season we saw
the city of Seattle have a huge amount of their populace turned into zombies,
and zombies now being revealed to the world.
The US responded by
building a huge wall around Seattle, declaring it a quarantine zone and
threatening to shoot anyone who tries to cross. They do seem to be sending
brains though - there’s a huge factory run by Fillmore Graves (who basically
run everything) grinding up brains into tubes. And Fillmore Graves does run
everything - much to Blaine’s annoyance that he has to play spymaster to Chase
Graves in order to keep his businesses going
They have also
designed a guillotine to work on zombies - it smushes heads. And scratching
humans and turning them is a death penalty offence. Peyton - having dinner with
the mayor - disapproves a lot but her fellow lawyer (and date?) Derreck thinks
it’s just being used for gesture politics to reassure the humans
There are still
plenty of humans in Seattle; though there was an exodus before the wall went
up. And the Mayor puts their continued presence as the reason why the US hasn’t
just nuked Seattle by now: too many innocent humans
We have standard
tropes of prejudice against monsters: the homes of zombies are being vandalised
with giant “Z”, zombie children being kicked out into the street by hating
parents and Major’s night time military patrol was attacked by humans with
molotov cocktails. On top of this, society does not seem to be super happy:
there’s a curfew and Blaine more than implies a little corruption in how
Fillmore Graves soldiers are treated
Despite all this
radically changed setting, we’re still a crime show which has Clive, one of the
human workers in the brain factory being killed (all the workers are human.
Including one who is really concerned that his random statements may be
offensive to zombie Liv).
Clive has two
defining features: he’s a rabid Seahawks fan (apparently a sport of sportiness)
and he hates zombies. Since Liv eats his brain in one of those very
disturbingly tasty looking meals, she then gets both of these traits. Mainly
the rabid sportsfan thing in which she talks a lot about sports.
Which leads to
classic red herring suspect who is a rival sports fan who likes another sports
team who does sporty things. This leads to lots of arguing of what is better,
Seattle vs San Francisco, comparing landmarks et al (and no third party comes
in to say “earthquakes vs constant rain” which is just kind of depressing.
There’s no sarcastic New Yorker about?)
While they both hate
each other for their sporty stuff, he’s clearly a distraction. Distraction no.
2 is the reveal that Clive caught a Fillmore Graves soldier selling brains on
the black market. While he’s definitely doing this and spending lots and lots
and lots of money at Blaine’s bar on women (who are treated like ornaments),
blue enhanced brains for hyper visions (a Shakespearean actor which is honestly
kind of hilarious to see this angry soldier go all Elizabethan) and top shelf
booze -but he isn’t a murderer. He also appears to be at least a little
untouchable as a soldier.
The real killer,
aided by visions (and the very very awkward moment of telling the dead man’s
widow and son about zombie visions and how Liv ate hubby/daddy’s brain), Liv
sees Clive violently rejecting his zombie son - they arrest him and despite his
protests, his mother confesses. She killed her husband because he forced her to
pick between him and her son.
Dale, the FBI agent,
seems to be the new police chief in Seattle, also brain eating for the sake of
justice. But she doesn’t need to eat a brain to solve her latest case - and
instead Ravi does.
Yes, Ravi. Last
season Ravi took his zombie vaccine and then asked Liv to scratch him to test
it. So… it worked. Kind of. Sort of. He does turn zombie about once a month
with white hair streaks and brain cravings - but it wears off after 72 hours.
So when he eats the nudist professor’s brain and spends most of the episode
naked, Liv, Peyton and Major are not surprised though we do get some basic,
“time of the month” jokes.
Other than Ravi we
also have the return of Angus. While Blaine is chafing under Chase’s reign, he
still takes time out to torment his dad who he has buried at the bottom of a
well. Unfortunately he would do well to spend more time and energy on employee
relations. An often abused Dino has had enough and rescues Angus hoping for a
payday. I don’t know what brains Angus has been eating but he’s ranting
prophecy and vaguely religious mumbo jumbo as he bashes Dino’s head in with a
hammer. From there he goes to a religious revival with a human priest preaching
to a zombie congregation
Angus ramblers
slightly worrisomely about needing an army - then bashes the priest’s head in
and eats his brain - inviting the congregation to join in
And we have another
storyline which maaaay be one too many. Chase recognises that Major was a youth
councillor and has a job for him. There are a number of other kids who have
been kicked out for being zombies - they’re forming groups and Chase worries about
zombie gangs. Time for Major to make this not happen
He gathers a group
and talks to them and we quickly learn that a lot of them face abuse, a lot of
them are starving and forced to extreme measures (including prostitution) to
get enough brains, that the brain supply is heavily adulterated (probably due
to the soldier’s corruption selling brains). Which contrasts heavily with the
well fed life of a Fillmore Graves soldier. As they all exchange stories of the
first time they went “Beast Mode” they’re all very bubbly and happy - and one,
jordan, notes this is how the soldiers feel when well fed.
Major also covers for
them when they’ve acquired a but more brain than they should have
But then we see
Chase’s ulterior motive: he wants to recruit more zombies into his army to
boost numbers. Chaos picks Jordan and “Captain Seattle” (since he stands up for
others). Needless to say, despite his co-operation, this isn’t exactly what
Major envisaged
Ok this is such a
very very very different setting. I’m intrigued how openly zombies are fitting
into society - no, I’m more intrigued by how openly brain eating is being
integrated into society. We’re not talking zombies quietly playing down their
differences - we have restaurants openly serving brains and selling. We have
people assuming different personalities in bars and no-one finding it that
surprising. Dale jokes about eating a brain to solve crime in front of several
of her colleagues. Even a guy worried about offending zombies speaks openly
about brain eating. It’s odd and different that this brain waiting is front and
centre along side the more expected and usual tropes of prejudice and hatred
I am still not sure
where to stand with Ravi -because I don’t know if two characters having their
random character moments like Liv. Even if I do approve of naked Ravi: we now
have Liv, Ravi and Major in the main characters who have the potential for
random character moments. While interesting in society, can get annoying with
too many major characters going all visiony and character changing
I think more
intriguing than the hey-let’s-present-a-monster-as-a-marginalised-group trope
AGAIN is the kids: desperate, homeless and hungry, facing violence are then
being drawn into the military. A combination of security and Major’s caring
combining to draw them in to fight for the Chase Graves. This can definitely be
an interesting take on how the military can be a draft on the poor and
vulnerable.
Oh and I have
absolutely zero patience for LGBTQ/zombie metaphors here. Absolutely zero. This
show has zero LGBTQ characters (unlike the comics it adapted) and that just
exacerbates pushing this idea of “closeted” zombies used in the same speech as
talking about intolerant parents kicking out their different kids
