We open on four teenagers sitting around a campfire drinking and joking about playing Spin the Bottle. They are interrupted by a very pregnant girl in a white nightgown who collapses at their campsite and begs the kids to "help us." As the kids freak out, a few of them recognize her as "Emily Sparrow."
Cut to Captain Secret Zombie announcing to some press in his office that, while Emily died from exposure and shock, the doctors were able to save her baby, who is in the NICU at a local hospital. He also explains that a four person task force (including himself and Detective Clive) is dedicated to the case. Emily has apparently been missing for 8 months and seems to have been a fairly high profile missing persons case.
A reporter notes that the boyfriend (Dylan) has always been the prime suspect, with the theory being that he killed Emily when he found out she was pregnant. Finding her alive eight months later seems to negate that possibility, but Captain Secret Zombie says they're not ruling anything out.
The next reporter calls the Captain out on the fact that the "upper middle class white girl who’s already dead” gets a full task force, yet no one is looking into the missing kids from the skate park (apparently called Nine Trolls?). Captain Secret Zombie gets prickly, glares at Detective Clive, and explains that Missing Persons is looking into the kids, while this briefing is about dead Emily.
Cut to the morgue, where Ravi, Liv, and Detective Clive are escorting the Sparrow parents to identify Emily's body. The father is still certain his daughter's boyfriend was responsible. After they leave, Detective Clive admits that most people think Dylan is involved, but that there is no evidence pointing to him. Or to anyone else. You know what that means - lunch for Liv!
Cut to the scene that I know was written and filmed months ago, but that I am still taking as a shoutout and proof that The Powers That Be read my blog. Liv is eating Emily's brain. While she is on the phone complaining that the morgue's id reader has been broken for months and anyone can get into their "restricted area." Love it!
Ravi reminds Liv that they are more worried about Zombie Uncle Snark Daddy visiting unannounced again than any bodies walking out (though knowing that zombies exist, maybe they should worry about both?). Liv thinks they still have an advantage because ZUSD still needs them to be looking for a cure. Liv, I get that you don't want to be a zombie forever if it's avoidable, but I'm not sure ZUSD shares that point of view. Hell, if you cure zombies, he'll lose clients.
Ravi and Liv do the autopsy on Emily (whose arms are sticking up oddly - doesn't rigor mortis only last for a certain amount of time?). Ravi notes her injuries - severely sprained ankle that wouldn't have allowed her to travel far and other injuries consistent with trying to hike through a forest in the dark in a nightgown. Liv, on the other hand, starts worrying about Emily's baby, and eventually does that "lick your fingers to push down a cowlick or whatever" move that no one has ever actually thought appropriate. After getting over being squicked, Ravi realizes that Emily's maternal instincts are kicking in in Liv. They decide she should take the day off, though they are split on whether she should do so before or after Mama Liv makes Ravi lunch.
Maternal Liv drops by the NICU to check on Emily's baby. Coincidentally, Liv's mom works as an administrator not only at this hospital, but right next to the NICU. She's excited that Liv came for a surprise lunch. And then disappointed to realize Liv came to see the baby, not her. Their conversation devolves into another discussion about how Mom thinks Liv is wasting her life.
Liv's mom giving her a hard time does spark her first Emily flashback - seems her parents caught her and Dylan in flagrante delicto. Mom is threatening to lock Emily in the house for the foreseeable future while Dad is punching Dylan, who is bragging about his conquest instead of showing any sort of remorse.
Liv visits the station to tell Detective Clive about the possibility that the Sparrows locked Emily up once they found out she was pregnant. Clive doesn't completely dismiss her, but has to go interrogate boyfriend Dylan. Liv wants to join, but Detective Clive explains that he's not lead, Captain Secret Zombie is, so Liv has to just observe. She is not happy.
It seems the reason Captain Secret Zombie is leading the interview is that he also interviewed boyfriend Dylan eight months ago, after the original disappearance. Dylan is not overly eager to help the police, since they, the Sparrows, and the press has previously pretty much assumed he was guilty until proven otherwise. Detective Clive works the kid pretty well, telling him that if he helps the cops now, the new "narrative" will be "wrongly accused boyfriend helps solve case."
Dylan is way more interested in looking good in the press than helping the cops, but is willing to do the latter if it leads to the former. He explains that he and Emily did fight at the party where she told him about the pregnancy. She said she was leaving to hitchhike home. He eventually went after her, but by then she was getting picked up in a black pickup with a camper on the back, and he heard barking. He never mentioned this earlier because it didn't seem helpful, especially when everyone had already pretty much convicted him in their minds.
He is excited about the idea of a new press narrative, and thinks it'll play even more sympathetic when he picks up his child for life as a single dad. Mama Liv is NOT happy that Dylan may get custody.
Major calls Detective Clive on speakerphone. He mentions that he wants to talk about the missing foster kids, but before he can finish, Detective Clive interrupts with a comment about how no one in the city wants to admit all those kids may be dead. Suddenly, sassy reporter from the press conference interrupts to confirm that Detective Clive is saying the cops care more about their how they look than about the missing kids. Detective Clive realizes he's trapped and screwed up, while Sassy Reporter gloats about her scoop.
In the morgue, Ravi is missing a rat. Which he finds in Liv's arms. Maternal Liv is close to adopting it. Ravi gets the rats sorted out as Lowell arrives for his "zombie tests."
I don't think I've mentioned before, but Ravi and Lowell are both British. They proceed to have a British-off which I don't understand at all until the end, when they both agree it's good the other doesn't support Chelsea. So, that was a soccer/football discussion? Well, they seem bonded now, so that's good.
As Ravi is running Lowell's tests, Lowell starts asking some increasingly technical scientific questions before realizing he has no idea what he's talking about. Liv is the first of the three to realize Lowell's lunch must have been a scientist. But we learn that Ravi's hypothesis is that some combination of (a bad batch of) Utopium and (an unlisted ingredient in) Max Rager is the root of zombie-ism. So he's testing combinations of the two on his five rats.
Lowell starts to head out, completely forgetting that he and Liv have a date later. She tries to kiss him, which doesn't work nearly as well as last time, and then he gives her a buddy punch. Liv freaks out and tries to get talk to Ravi about it, but he admits he's much more comfortably talking about her undead life than her love life.
The newspaper came out, complete with Detective Clive's inflammatory quote. He is yet again a pariah on the homicide squad, now demoted to going through tons of pointless paperwork. He's also not entirely happy with Liv, who introduced him and Major which led to all of this.
Liv consoles herself by visiting the NICU again. Emily's parents are visiting the baby, assuming that once Dylan claims custody he will never allow them access. Liv decides to assuage her brain-induced maternal guilt by visiting her own mother. She doesn't knock (Liv, I don't care how slack security at your morgue is, this is still a hospital), and finds Creepy Brother Evan with mom in her office. I've let it known that I think Creepy Brother Evan is creepy and unnecessary. And I don't really see the reason for Liv's mom. So this whole subplot did nothing for me.
Mom wants Creepy Brother Evan to get a job. He tries to plead that Liv never had one when she was his age. But she did have a 4.0 GPA. So maternal Liv and mom gang up to pressure Creepy Brother Evan to get a job. He’s weirded out that Liv is siding with their mother, but eventually gives in. Mom can't leave well enough alone, so has already gathered a bunch of applications for Creepy Brother Evan, including the one from Meat Cute from last week on top.
Detective Clive is doing his penance in the form of going through tons of paperwork. A dick coworker brings another pile of property ownership papers and tells Detective Clive to expand the search radius from 5 miles to 10, despite Emily's inability to walk that far. Dick Cop drops the paperwork off the side of the desk, but luckily when Detective Clive goes to pick it up, the most relevant paper is right on top. It’s a deed for a house owned by Emily’s family and near where she was found. The house was purchased through a corporate tax shelter which is why police never knew about it until now.
Liv and Detective Clive go to check out the house. Detective Clive practices saying “no comment” in response to Liv’s questions and jokes that Captain Secret Zombie is making him write it a hundred times on a chalk board, “like Bart Simpson.” Two weeks in a row with Simpsons’ references. Looks like The Powers That Be also want GK to start watching their show.
They can’t technically go inside without probably cause, but then they hear a water tank creak and decide it sounds enough like a woman screaming to fake it. The go down to the basement and find an ornately crafted, handmade crib that would have taken months to complete, which seems suspicious unless the parents knew they would see the baby eventually. Just then, they hear barking above them and are locked in the cellar. Then Detective Clive’s cell phone rings. It’s Mr. Sparrow, informing them that someone broke into his basement and he has them trapped there.
After Detective Clive sorts that out, he, Liv, and the Emily’s parents sit in the living room and discuss the case. There are pictures everywhere, it’s the house that was in Liv’s flashback (so the boyfriend knows about it), and there’s even a doorframe where they tracked Emily’s height as she grew up – how did no one ever find or mention this place?
As they leave, Detective Clive admits that he doesn’t think the parents were involved. Liv explains that she had a flashback when she heard the dogs barking. Emily was in a truck, looking out at a man smoking a cigarette, and dogs were barking. She thinks it may have been an Animal Control van. Detective Clive agrees to ask someone from Animal Control to bring by personnel files with pictures to see if Liv can identify the person. She saw him from behind in the dark, though, so she isn’t hopeful.
Why can’t they just email the files? Because Liv and Detective Clive need to meet Margo Littlefield, the overly happy overly curious Animal Control officer who brings the files. She confirms that officers do bring their vans home with them in case a call comes in while they are off duty that they need to respond to. Liv doesn’t think any of the personnel pictures are the person she saw, so Detective Clive asks if anyone has left in the last few months. Margo plays coy for half a second, then admits that they did have to let one officer go for being a peeping tom. Unfortunately, after she’s gone, they find out the man has been in prison for the last four months, so they are back to square one.
It’s time for Liv and Lowell’s date, and he’s busying himself making his special extra spicy bloody marys. He’s also babbling about zombie movies until Liv finally just goes in for a kiss. She is more than a little disappointed when Lowell’s reaction is to literally say “Ugh.” Finally he explains that the scientist brain he ate was actually a gay scientist’s brain. So his sexual attraction to Liv is on hold until his next meal. They make the most of it, getting drunk, comparing embarrassing pictures, and dancing goofily. They also eat Cheetos (see, GK!) out of a container shaped like a head, so it looks like the Cheetos are the brains. Clever, show.
Liv is back at the NICU, staring at Emily’s baby again. Liv, you’re being creepy. She hears a nurse gently shush one of the babies and flashes back to other girls in white nightgowns shushing Emily and telling her that “she’ll catch you” as Emily dangles out a window.
Liv heads over to the station to update Detective Clive. He had an inspirational moment of his own and realized that the search radius would change if Emily was carried part of the way by the river current. He looked into properties in the new area and found one owned by a guy with a rap sheet. Liv admits that it could be the guy from her vision, but she’s not sure. Detective Clive is pretty sure, though, since he also found out the guy is married to Margo the Animal Control officer.
And just as things start getting interesting, we cut over to Major Idiot. He followed the large man who beat the crap out of him two weeks ago from the skate park to a tanning salon. He calls his reporter friend, but she admits she can’t do anything without knowing his name. So Major heads over to the guy’s car with a tire iron and bashes in the window. Major, I get that you are concerned about these kids, but you are also being an idiot.
In the car, Major finds a bag with hair dye and hot sauce in it (flashback to episode 1 Liv!). He looks in the glove compartment, but can’t find anything with a name on it until he comes across a receipt signed by Julian Dupont. Lucky for Major that Julian has such neat handwriting – my signature is basically a scrawl with a loop or two.
Not satisfied with getting what he came for, Major notices a lunch cooler with something on it that looks like blood. Inside he finds a brain in a Tupperware container. He freaks out, just as the cops pull up to question what he’s doing in a car with the driver’s window bashed in. Major does nothing to demonstrate his intelligence when he gets out of the car with the tire iron still in his hand. He tells the officers about the chilled brain just as Julian exits the tanning salon. The officers search the car and find the brain. So it looks bad for both of them at this point.
But Julian has an explanation ready – he works at a fancy butcher shop, and that is actually a calf brain, which some people consider a delicacy. As the cops look at his business card, Julian shoots a knowing wink at Major. They accept Julian’s explanation and proceed to arrest Major.
Liv and Detective Clive are staking out the Littlefield house. Liv is concerned that the house doesn’t look like the place where the girls were hidden in her vision. She’s also impatient and wants to sneak up and take a look around. Detective Clive is trying to get her to slow her roll when the conversation is interrupted by gunshots coming at the car from the house. Detective Clive calls for backup and drives away.
The rest of the taskforce has gathered at a safe distance and is preparing to take the house. (Any guesses how Detective Clive explained Liv’s presence there?) Captain Secret Zombie takes charge, telling everyone else several times that he will go in alone and that they should not, under any circumstances, come in until he gives the signal. That doesn’t sound suspicious at all. He enters the house and is quickly shot in the side. Being a secret zombie, this just activates his full-on zombie mode. He rips the door off the refrigerator and uses it as a shield as he approaches Mr. Littlefield shooting. Um, are refrigerator doors really bulletproof? Seems highly unlikely. And apparently his “seriously don’t follow me unless I give the signal” includes “even if you hear gunfire.” Runs a tight ship, that one.
Detective Clive told Liv to stay in the car, which works about as well as it did the last time he told her to do that in the pilot. From her vantage point in the car, Liv notices a nearby treehouse that matches the place from her vision. She realizes that’s where the girls are. She climbs up the ladder, but the treehouse is locked. Just as Captain Secret Zombie goes full-on zombie on the possibly bulletproof fridge door, Liv gets hit in the calf by a stray bullet and goes full-on zombie on the treehouse lock. Inside, she finds the two remaining girls hiding under the bed. She explains that she’s from the police and leads them out.
After he disposed of Mr. Littlefield, Captain Secret Zombie heads upstairs to confront Margo. She tries to surrender, but he shoots her anyway.
Captain Secret Zombie then hilariously berates his team for not coming in, saying he gave the signal five minutes earlier. Liv wanders up to the scenes with the other girls. Captain Secret Zombie sees Liv’s wound and asks if she was hit. She lies that it must be a scratch from a tree branch, but Captain Secret Zombie seems suspicious. Meanwhile, he keeps his wound hidden under his bulletproof vest so that no one sees it.
We close on another press conference, where Detective Clive makes good on his promise and recognizes boyfriend Dylan for his assistance on the case. Captain Secret Zombie explains that the Littlefields had created their own religion involving sister-wives and human sacrifice. The police have dug up the remains of several of the missing skate park kids on the property, including Jerome and Eddie.
No idea how much of that is true. My guess is that the Littlefields were “only” kidnapping the girls, and Captain Secret Zombie took advantage of the opportunity by shooting both witnesses and planting the rest of the bodies. Which means he must be in league with ZUSD, which can’t be good for our heroes.
Anyway, Dylan thanks Detective Clive for his support, and then starts blabbering about the reality tv show he is going to star in – “grieving single father pieces his life back together after the cops, the press, and the grandparents tried to destroy it.” This activates the last of Liv’s maternal instinct and she lashes into Dylan about how unprepared he is for fatherhood.
In one last scene at the hospital, we see Dylan and the Sparrows seemingly getting along and presumably working out a custody arrangement that is favorable to them both. Then Liv joins her mom and brother for sushi.
Major is in a holding cell when cops come by and drop off a bunch of very large fellow inmates as a “thank you for the Seattle Observer article.”
And finally, rat carnage. Seems like Ravi’s little experiment worked and one of the rats is now a zombie. It’s hard to tell which one, because he went full-on zombie rat and chewed through both the cage bars and his fellow experimentees’ skulls. Dun dun dun.
Quotes:
Liv: We still haven't had anyone come to fix our ID card reader. It's been months! This is a restricted area. I've seen florists with better security.
Liv’s Mom: Pediatric medicine. Now that's a wonderful application for your talents.
Liv: Questioning my life choices – a familiar application of yours.
Dylan: The dingos ate my girlfriend alibi, that would have changed everything, right?
Lowell: Sorry. I didn't realize the bump-it, blow-it-up thing was over and we're back to just tapping rats.
Liv: Why do I have a sudden urge to dump tea into a harbor?
Lowell: What's she talking about?
Ravi: Colonist propaganda. Pay her no mind; we have zombie tests to conduct.
Ravi: Can we just talk about you being a zombie? Brain-eating, being undead, these are things you can discuss at length with me. But I can't give you the girlfriend experience.
Liv: I don't think that means what you think it means.
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