Blargh

This was a somewhat unexpectedly heavy episode of our favorite chronicle of the undead. We've come a long way from Liv being a harmless kleptomaniac or waking up with mad kung fu skills.

Despite our (okay, my) best retcon efforts, it appears Lowell is really most sincerely dead. Sniff.  We open with Liv, very upset and somewhat blood-spattered, explaining to a detective (not Clive or Captain Secret Zombie) that Lowell was dead when she got there.  He's quite skeptical, but Captain Secret Zombie interrupts to say the case appears to be a suicide, so Liv is free to go.



Lowell's body is brought into the morgue.  Ravi's look of comprehension is heartbreaking, and he runs upstairs to check on Liv.  Detective Clive volunteers to cover Liv duty since he wants Ravi to check on Major, who spends the majority of the episode spiraling and questioning his sanity given Julian's lack of blood and ability to be benchpressing in the gym the day after supposedly being shot.  (Side note - we have seen Liv and Captain Secret Zombie bleed, though not much, after being shot, and Liv is currently covered in Lowell's blood - I find it difficult to believe that with three bullets to the chest Julian didn't leave behind any blood evidence at all.)

Liv is still on last week's PTSD brain.  Combined with her own actual post-traumatic stress, she's not doing well.  She heads into work to find a hopefully less distressing meal and to distract herself from her guilt over Lowell's death.  She gives Ravi the high level version of what happened (Lowell stabbed Zombie Uncle Snark Daddy, ZUSD shot Lowell, Liv saw the whole thing), but doesn't want to go into the details.  She does want to get to work to keep her mind distracted.

The victim of the week is Rebecca Hinton, the journalist Major was working with on the skate park story a few weeks ago.  She apparently interrupted a break-in at her apartment and was found with a broken neck.  She was also a raging alcoholic, which sounds like a welcome distraction to Liv at the moment.

Captain Secret Zombie has been pressuring Ravi to officially sign off on the suicide theory despite the lack of evidence, which they realize is because Captain Secret Zombie is covering for ZUSD.  Given that (most of) the Seattle Police Department is unaware that zombies exist, sending them after ZUSD would be putting them in danger, so Ravi is inclined to go along with the plan, though clearly not happy about it.  But he lets Liv make the final call.  And now it's Liv's turn to look heartbreaking.

Detective Clive sniffing Liv's brain lunch (LIV - I know you're distracted but we've talked about being more descreet with your meals.)  This sets up her first flashback, where she watches Rebecca's murder.  The killer uses her fingerprint to unlock her phone to get information, cluing Liv in that the break-in was a cover-up; Rebecca was actually murdered.

Given how much else is going on in this episode, I'm just going to go through the red herring case of the week now.  Rebecca was working on an article about a kid who snapped the previous year and killed a bunch of co-eds at a college library.  The thing is, two things led to this snap.  First, his "friends" wanted to have something to hold over him, so they got him drunk and convinced him he had killed a girl in a blackout rage.  Only he hadn't; it was all fake.  But they never told him, so he already thought he was a murderer before the rampage.  Charming "friends," but the show skips over any of the moral complexities this whole scenario raises to focus on the second factor - the kid was something of a Max Rager addict.  This brings us back to the possibility that can cause extreme psychotic reactions in some people who drink it (and seems to be somehow related to zombie-ism).  Rebecca had started putting the whole story (minus the zombies) together, including more incidents from around the country, and that's why she was killed.

As mentioned, Major spends the episode sprialling.  Detective Clive finds Julian alive and well at the gym.  Julian claims Major is stalking him.  Detective Clive gently suggests to Major that the may want to check into a mental hospital to get help.  Poor Major.  Major eventually agrees, which is too much for Ravi.  He knows Major is not actually crazy and tells Liv they need to tell him the truth.  She vehemently disagrees, claiming that in the mental hospital he'll actually be safe.  Yes, but he thinks he is losing his mind.  Not cool, Liv.

Between her ex-fiance being threatened by zombies and her boyfriend being killed by one, Liv is having a tough time.  So she heads to a bar and drinks everything in sight.  The bartender finally cuts her off and Major comes by to drive her home.  As he is putting her to bed, he apologizes for being so inconsiderate as to time his (non-existent) mental breakdown right when she needs him.  She comes close to telling him everything, but backs down at the last minute.

If Liv is channeling Rebecca's reporting techniques, Rebecca wasn't very good at her job.  Liv gets day drunk, barges into the office of the Max Rager CEO, lays out all of the unproven accusations, then gets kicked out.  Detective Clive is pissed and sends her home, which she interprets to mean a bar.  A guy, Sebastian, comes up to her at the bar and tells her he was Rebecca's secret source inside Max Rager, which she immediately believes.  He also tells her Rebecca had a second source as well, and he doesn't know who it was.

Liv tracks down the actual source, a secretary named Adele who she blew by on her way to confront the CEO.  She has a copy of the infamous memo that demonstrates Max Rager knew about the potential freak outs.  Adele is worried, but Liv promises to protect her (that won't end well).  The girl pretends to agree to go with Liv to the cops, but seems to agree more with my assessment, as she then sneaks out the back to get away from Liv.  But Liv has already fulfilled her purpose, which was to lead Sebastian to the true source.  He kidnaps them both.

Liv comes to on a boat.  Adele is already dead, and Liv isn't looking so hot herself.  Sebastian has evolved into full-on evil henchman mode, narrating to Liv that he's keeping the flash drive with the damaging report as leverage.  He then tosses a weighted-down Adele over the edge of the boat.  The next time Liv comes to, Sebastian is creepily lying on the deck next to her and LICKS THE BLOOD FROM HER FOREHEAD.  Ew.

Even as beat up as Liv is, this is enough to kick off her full-on zombie mode.  She uses the cinder block attached to her leg as a lasso and knocks Sebastian off the boat.  She then rides away, seeming to catch his body with a propeller on her way out given his screams and the amount of blood she churns up in the water.

In the end, Liv realizes she needs to stop running from her problems.  She gives her secret stash of purse booze to Ravi and agrees to him signing off on Lowell's death as a suicide.  She then opens up to him with the full story of what happened that night, including the fact that she blames her inability to shoot ZUSD for Lowell's ultimate death.  She allows herself to truly mourn and cry, and Ravi sweetly comforts her.

They seriously let Major check himself into the mental hospital.  Very disappointing.  I have obviously complained about some of the stupid stuff he has gotten into over the course of the season, but I can't accept that Liv and Ravi really believe letting him think he is crazy is the best course of action.  I may be wrong, though.  In group therapy, Major is starting to tell his story about attacking Julian, but cuts himself off just before describing the red eyes.  He wants to focus on what he believes is real, not what he thinks are his delusions.  But after the session, a (possibly actually crazy, definitely creepy) kid comes up and says that he's seen them as well.  He gives accurate details that Major hadn't mentioned.  The kid explains to Major what the real problem is - zombies.  Do we think Major will believe him?

Back at the water, creepy Sebastian washes ashore.  It's dark and he's not looking great, but still in mostly one piece.  Then his eyes glow red.  We have a new zombie on our hands.

I'm not entirely clear how he was turned, though I'm guessing the creepily licking Liv's blood was some part of the equation.  Which now seems to include some unknown combination(s) of scratching, Max Rager, Utopium, and creepily licking someone's blood.

Three episodes left!



Quotes:

Ravi:  Where did you get the gun?
Major:  I bought it on the street.
Ravi:  Of course, as one does.

Ravi:  This is Rebecca Hinton, 31 years old, journalist, and raging alcoholic.  Her cerebrospinal fluid practically came out on the rocks with a lemon twist.

Julian:  Major.  Blonde, pretty boy, looks like he fell out of a Nicholas Sparks movie?

Liv:  We could just go door to door asking where the sketchy d-bag is.
Detective Clive:  Half of them are law students; we'd be here all day.

Liv:  How would that go?  Hey Major, wacky news - zombies exist and they're trying to kill you.  Not me, though, I'm a nice zombie.

Ravi:  He's being chased by homicidal zombies and when he's asked for our help we've told him he's nuts.  Of course he thinks he's mental.

Detective Clive:  This is a billion dollar company, and we need to be smart.  We have no evidence.  We need to build a case.
Ravi:  Preferably before they murder us.

Liv:  If I were drunk, could I do this.  [Twirls] Probably, but not as well.

Liv:  Why can't I figure this out?
Ravi:  You'd think with all the drinking you'd be incredibly sharp.

Liv:  I haven't been an alchoholic that long, but I can tell you the only time I was up before ten was when Peyton needed to use the toilet I was passed out on.
Ravi:  Thank you for that mental image.