'Blaine's World' 

“Blaine’s World” was most excellent as far as season finales go, but not quite a total

humor there.) (Sorry.) It was 45 minutes of slow burn stage setting for 15 minutes of explosive WTH?s and OMG!s. It was very good as the second-half of the two-parter that began last week—so much so, I wish The CW had run both parts back to back and presented the combo as the finale. Still, it was a suspenseful hour that kept me guessing for how the episode—and season—would resolve. The resolutions themselves were provocative.

allegory for renewed heroism and re-humanization concluded with ironic, queasy riffs on its themes. (Or rather, more ironic and queasy than usual.) No one walked away unscathed, everyone is left questioning their meaning, ambiguity reigned. We are left with a feeling that much has changed for the characters, though the show’s premise, relationships, and conflicts remain intact for season 2. Now that’s clever.

The title was a bit misleading. “Blaine’s World” offered a big picture view of the zombieverse in which its chief villain lives large if not quite totally in charge, and it certainly concluded with a gamechanger for the wannabe brain-food mogul. But for most of the story, he played a minor role. The hour toggled between Liv and Babinaux finishing off The Mystery of the Murdered Asshats and Major trying to escape Blaine’s cold clutches—the a frigid meat-locker—without spilling the beans on the location of the astronaut noggin he swiped from the big bad and his Meat Cute crew. A pair of subplots delivered significant developments. We learned that Max Rager—the energy drink fueling the zombie outbreak—is trying to make a next level product, Super Max, which would eliminate the need for sleep. (Not exactly the fix our overworked, exhausted nation needs. First in line for Super Max: Sweatshop workers and TV recap editors.) We also learned that Ravi had licked the formula for a zombie cure. He only had two doses, he thought it needed more testing, and he didn’t think he could make more, but he gave the vial to Liv, anyway, and left it to her to decide how to use it. And use it, she did, and in surprising ways.

Let’s make quick work of The Mystery of the Murdered Asshats, shall we? Turned out it was Cameron who was killing his bandmates, not Sebastian, the former Max Rager bagman and Liv-scratched zombie. The Asshats had come into possession of that thumb drive containing Max Rager secrets, including the intel on the drink’s psychoactive, psycho-making properties. The trio had decided to sell the documents back to Max Rager, but greed got the best of Cameron: He killed the other two so he could keep the cash for himself. He wanted to be the Asshat with

Liv ate the brain of “snarky little bitch” Teresa, but the storytelling didn’t do much with the whole “You Are Who You Eat” thing besides little flashes of “snark” and “bitch.” The episode had too many things to accomplish, it couldn’t fully express Teresa’s influence on Liv, and in the end, Teresa’s memories didn’t do much to solve the mystery beyond fingering Cameron. (Moving forward, I hope

tries to be more consistent and rigorous with this conceit.) Cameron* got nabbed at the border, then tried to cut a deal by giving them Max Rager. Yep, he had made copies of those digital files. In one of several moments in the episode in which she went rogue in hopes of taming the zombie underworld, Liv leaked the documents to the press. The Max Rager honcho played by Steven Weber was arrested, the toxic threat represented by his company stymied. For now. I hope we see more of Weber next season. He gives good corporate slimeball.

*In general, way too much Cameron in this episode. Wasn’t sure why the season finale was giving so much time to a character that audience hardly knows or cares about. Or does iZombie plan on doing more with this guy next season?

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