We open with our (living) heroine
She is rewarded for her heroics with an invitation to a boat party from her fellow intern, which she turns down to spend the evening with her fiance
Cue zombie outbreak.
Liv wakes up in a body bag on the beach, already with a white streak in her previously auburn hair. This understandably freaks out the poor EMT who zipped her in.
Lovely cartoon transition tells us it's five months later in a grocery store. Liv is now entirely blonde and very pale, with dark circles around her eyes. Her purchases seem to be lots of bronzer and a DVD of Night of the Living Dead.
Followed by cartoon credits, accompanied by the lovely "I'm Already Dead" theme song.
Next up, everyone from Liv's old life (mom, bro, roommate, and now-former fiance) having an intervention for her "PTSD", disguised as "Pot Luck Tuesday." They take turns telling her how she is wasting her life and so much different than before the party.
Liv's not amused, and reports to her new job as an assistant in the morgue, where she's apparently been working for the last five months. She explains that she does not have PTSD, she has PTS "ennui, defeatism, what's the point." Her boss is much more enthusiastic, as they examine a Jane Doe found in a garbage truck.
Her boss (Ravi) is called out to the field to examine another body, leaving Liv to finish autopsying garbage girl. This leaves Liv alone in the lab to remove the girl's brain, which she then chops up to add to her Ramen with (an extreme amount of) hot sauce. She is chilling on the couch, watching Night of the Living Dead and chowing down on Hot Brain Ramen when her boss returns and excitedly asks her if the hot sauce is a "zombie thing." Apparently zombies have similar taste buds to Fringe's Observers.
Turns out, Ravi is very open-minded about the whole zombie thing. He has suspected it since he had to re-autopsy a body that Liv finished for him and found it missing the brain. He then found out she was a survival of the boat party and put two and two together. Ravi was fired from the CDC for continually warning about man-made viruses mutating out of control, so zombies are totally in his wheelhouse.
Now that everything is out in the open, Ravi cannot contain his excitement, peppering a confused Liv with questions while doing a physical exam to learn more about her condition. Ravi has traced the infection back to a new designer drug on the boat during the party. In another party flashback, we see David "Uncle Sark Daddy" Anders (tm TWoP, RIP) offering Liv some "Utopium." She declines, he insists, she throws a drink in his face. Then zombie apocalypse begins, but he gives her one final gift of three scratches on the arm before they separate.
Back in the present, Liv tries to assure Ravi that she partakes of her "unique dietary needs" as infrequently as possible, but that if she goes too long without feeding, she gets dumber and meaner. She is afraid of ending up like a stereotypical movie zombie.
They are interrupted by a homicide detective looking to find out if they have made any progress with garbage girl. As he holds up novelty handcuffs that are somehow related to the case, Liv zones out, suddenly envisioning herself being arrested for shoplifting. When she comes out of it, she tells Ravi and Clive, the detective, that Jane Doe/garbage girl was arrested for shoplifting in Canada in 2008. Turns out Liv was paying more attention in her flashback than I was and noticed some brands and headlines that helped her narrow down where and when she was. It also turns out that one of the side effects of eating brains is temporarily gaining access to some of the deceased's memories.
Detective Clive is totally confused by this random outburst and thinks they are playing a prank on him since he's new. But then Ravi does a quick internet search and finds Jane Doe's mug shot from her 2008 arrest for shoplifting in Canada. Ravi "explains" that Liv is psychic. Detective Clive is still (maybe more) confused, but they also have a name - Stefani Germanotta.
Another side effect of zombie-ism is insomnia, so we are treated to an extended "what's my purpose" Liv monologue overnight.
The next day she dutifully shows up to volunteer at a haunted house, as she promised to her mother. She offhandedly pockets some red stress balls decorated like eyes, then studiously avoids her mother's attempts to get her to work with Major. Turns out she is afraid she might "give [him] zombie,"
A random scream transports Liv back to garbage girl's memories, where she sees a guy reenacting Jack Nicholson's "Here's Johnny" moment from The Shining. These are apparently "Stefani's" last memories, so "Johnny" is her killer. She recognizes him a local weatherman Johnny Frost (Cliff from Veronica Mars!). Ravi convinces Liv she needs to report this info to Detective Clive. Something about making up for eating Jane Does' temporal lobe.
At the police station, Liv pockets a red stapler and a red picture frame before finding Detective Clive. She is confused as to why all the cops are singing Lady Gaga until Clive explains that it probably has something to do with him "identifying" their vic with Lady Gaga's real name - Stefani Germanotta. Liv isn't too concerned about Jane Doe using an alias when under arrest, so she shares the Johnny Weatherman info, then tries to make a gracious exit.
Not so fast. If he's going to keep acting on these "psychic" visions, he's going to drag her along. So the two of them make their way down to the local news station.
Cut to Cliff finishing his broadcast, then trying to hit on Liv and sign an autograph for Detective Clive. Unfortunately, it's not a weatherman headshot Clive is offering up, but a copy of Garbage Girl's mug shot. Cliff reacts poorly, convincing Clive that he was involved in the crime. Cliff tries to run off, but Liv makes creepy use of his signature "Here's Johnny" line to successfully freak him out. Long story short (too late), Garbage Girl was an escort named Tatiana who specialized in role play. She sometimes worked with her friend Tess.
And Liv pockets a red snow globe.
Liv and Ravi watching zombie movies in the morgue. Liv comments how glad she is to be the only zombie, because from her extensive movie research, being part of a horde sucks. Ravi questions whether she's certain she's the only survivor. I only include this scene because there is a zero percent chance it is not foreshadowing.
Detective Clive continues his streak of interrupting morgue zombie conversations to explain how he would kill all the zombies dead, even if one was his grandmother. He then tells Liv that she is coming with him to talk to Tess since her "psychic" abilities are set off by things the victim "saw, heard, or smelled." She tries to beg off, but Ravi explains that helping the police is actually a job requirement.
As they approach the apartment, Clive mentions how odd it is that two high profile call girls have no police records. They then knock on Tess's door. She is originally eager, figuring that two clients = two fees, but forgets how to speak English when Clive flashes his badge. Liv surprises herself by responding in Romanian. Apparently the memories she absorbs include language. Tess reluctantly lets them in, though her neighbor across the hall worries that they are bothering her. Upon learning Tatiana is dead, Tess becomes visually distraught and shuts the door against Clive and Liv. She does at least provide Tatiana's last name.
Next they go to Tatiana's luxurious apartment. Which has been ransacked. But her purse and expensive belongings are still there. Including her phone, where they find a message from Tess from the night Tatiana died, calling her a "little klepto." Liv realizes that in addition to memories and a shiny new language, she got the gift of kleptomania from Tatiana's brain.
Clive heads out to the balcony, causing Liv to flash back to Tatiana's actual death. Someone is asking where their ring is, and after Tatiana swears she doesn't have it, she is dropped into the garbage container far below.
Detective Clive and Liv head back to Tess's apartment with more questions, but nosy neighbor guy says that she is gone. He starts off defensive, but becomes much less so after hearing about the dead friend. He then worries that the friend is "Monica," who Liv finds on the escort website.
At the morgue, Liv unnecessarily asks Ravi if it's okay that she help Clive with the investigation instead of being at work. This scene basically only exists so that Liv can see Ravi experimenting on her blood samples from earlier. He is trying to find a cure, which he warns may be years away, but which Liv had never even contemplated.
With her renewed lease on "life," Liv blows off Detective Clive to seek out Major and reconcile. At the last minute, despite adorably pinching her cheeks in an unsuccessful attempt to reintroduce color to her face, she decides that asking him to commit to a future that may not exist is selfish. Then she hears giggling and sees Major inside with a random chick playing (of course) a "shoot the zombies" game.
Another late night "Liv has no purpose" monologue . . .
The next day, the police lieutenant explains to Detective Clive that another officer has a CI with a lead on the garbage girl/Tatiana case, so it is being transferred to him. Clive is understandably perturbed and explains the leads he is currently working, but to no avail.
Now poor dead Liv is also depressed. Roomie interrupts her "stare depressedly at the tv" mode to ask about missing (red) pens. Liv returns the missing pens with absolutely no emotion. Roomie makes an impassioned plea about missing the old Liv, which apparently somehow sparks our girl to action.
In the process of returning all the items of her klepto binge, Liv ends up back at the police station. Detective Clive is out, but she overhears new detective (Pratt) getting an address based off Clive's leads. She then heads back to the morgue, where she finds both of her partners in crime-fighting.
Clive was visiting because Weatherman Johnny remembered a Romanian phrase - Tatiana had what Liv translates as a "bearded pig." Clive eventually realizes that Tatiana picked up on some American slang in her time here and actually knew a bearded cop - who is likely responsible for the fact that none of the girls have arrest records. Bearded pig? Why that would be Pratt. There was no CI, and Pratt now has the girls' location from Clive's investigation. Clive does the "rub a pencil on the second sheet of paper" thing, and Liv is overly impressed that it actually results in an address.
Pratt is at said address, with Tess and Monica. He has them tied up and is still trying to track down his ring. Ends up that it's his wedding ring. If his wife gets back from her current vacation and he has lost it, he is convinced it will be enough for her to negotiate a sweet alimony settlement that results in him living in a tiny apartment. Having seen Tatiana die, he believes that she truly didn't know where the ring was, so one of the other two girls must.
Detective Clive and Liv pull up. He takes a page from Major at the top of the hour and tells her to stay in the car, thus guaranteeing that she will do anything but that.
Monica eventually admits that she stole the ring and pawned it, knowing that Tatiana's klepto ways would mean she got blamed. Right around that time, Detective Clive shows up outside the door. A few shots are fired before Pratt heads upstairs. He tries to trick Detective Clive by jumping out a window, not realizing that "stay in the car" Liv can totally see him.
Pratt shoots Liv to get her out of the car. Liv, being a zombie, grabs on to the top of the car and attacks Pratt. They crash. Liv? Still undead. And still lying her way out - "oh, I played dead then chased the car." She also tries to explain the bullet hole in the car roof with "maybe he was celebrating drunk cowboy style" while pantomiming shooting guns over her head. Oh, Liv.
The crime-fighting duo realizes they may have a valuable partnership in the works. Luckily for those of us who hope this show continues.
What I didn't mention was that right around the car crash, Liv had a bit of a zombie breakdown. As she later describes to Ravi, "I got mad and suddenly I was like 99% zombie, like 28 Days Later style with a side of rage bomb." She seems more excited than upset by this.
Which she shares with Ravi while he does open heart surgery on her. To get the bullet out. While she's awake. At the end, he promises her as many fresh brains as she can possibly want, and an adorable partnership is cemented.
Liv embraces her new fate by dressing as a zombie for the haunted house.
Final scene - Liv having brain flashbacks. To Uncle Sark Daddy killing someone . . .
So, I liked it. The voiceovers were very VM. The dialogue was a little over the top, but that's a pilot for you. Thanks for reading
spocko is on the job, nice recap!!!
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