iZombie Season 4 Episode 4: Brainless in Seattle Part 2 Review

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: Liv and Clive discover the murder they are investigating was the work of a serial killer. Meanwhile, Major enters dangerous territory. (TVGuide)

Writer: Heather V. Regnier

Director: Michael Fields

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 42mins

One of the best things about iZombie is its ability to tackle serious topics in a light-hearted, original manner. This week continues with the case of New Seattle’s serial killer while Fillmore-Grave soldiers deal with the emergence of a new ‘zombies only anti-human’ church led by Angus.

With humans and zombies pitted against one another, the Scratching Post continues to have events that promote humans and zombies to come together to relate and connect. This message resonates with viewers given the current state of the world and helps us embrace the idea of loving one another, despite who we are and where we come from.

Liv is still on romantic brain and spends the episode trying to reconnect with “the love of her life”, Tim. Her and Clive are still trying to solve the case of the serial killer and stake out his last known location. Meanwhile, Major is confronted by Chase to find the video of Jordan turning the protestor into a zombie. We see Tucker enter a bar where we see him watch a video of himself getting turned into a zombie. In a package given to him by his friend, he pulls out a gun and attempts to take his life, but doesn’t.

Back at the lab, Ravi is examining the skull of the victims and shares what he has learned with Clive and Liv. He creates an alias to reach out to the man he believes is the serial killer. After seeing Dale kiss another man at the Scratching Post, Liv is dead-set on finding Clive someone else to be with. Her target? Michelle, a new police officer in the precinct.

After learning about Renegade’s business, Blaine is on a hunt to find and confront her. Thanks to the current brain he is on, he has a vision when he sees Chase Graves with Renegade in a laundromat. Angus continues to recruit more members to his church while he preaches against humankind and riles up the members to hate on humans. Tucker happens to walk in and feel motivated by the message Angus is preaching and joins the church.

Liv goes to Renegade to get help in finding Bruce. During her meeting, Liv learns how Renegade became a zombie and how she learned that her brain dealer was killing children. After her husband died, Renegade wanted to find her place in all of this and began smuggling.

Eventually, Ravi succeeds in convincing Bruce to meetup which brings Clive and Liv closer to arresting him. However, Clive is irked by Liv’s attitude about Dale and expresses to Liv that she needs to stay out of it. At this point in time, Liv has not shared with Clive that she saw Dale kissing another man. When she does finally come clean, she learns that much to his displeasure, Clive and Dale have an open relationship.

Major and the other soldiers find Tucker outside of the church and ask him to give up the phone that contains the footage. The entire congregation gangs up against the soldiers but are interrupted when Angus begins to preach. Ravi, Clive, and Liv have better luck when they arrest Bruce during the sting, finally apprehending the killer behind the madness.

After having another vision, Blaine tracks down Renegade’s whereabouts and takes her to Chase Graves. That won’t end, will it? The episode ends on a positive note when the gang goes out to the Scratching Post for Human Zombie night where Liv learns Tim is a member of Angus’ church. Turned off by his disgust for humans, Liv spends the rest of the night with Major, Peyton, and Ravi dancing the night away–and realizing they are her true soulmates.

While this week’s episode was just a tad bit slower and mundane, I did appreciate them focusing on topics that are very much part of our daily headlines. Watching Angus brainwash members of the church or seeing the divide between humans and zombies are situations that we can rearrange and relate to in our own lives, just sans zombies. iZombie handles these situations with a light-hearted attitude while still getting the message across clearly and effortlessly. This has been an enjoyable season so far and this week’s episode, while slow, really hit home with some of its underlying messages. Until next week!

Score: 7/10

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Ariba Bhuvad