iZombie S01E01 Recap: Pilot

She’s not dead, just undead and learning to live again.

Story by @ErikaAshley

The much anticipated and newest addition to the CW Tuesday night lineup, iZombie, has finally been unleashed on television viewers around the world. This show has some legs and could take off running during this Spring’s hiatus-period begins.

The pilot starts with a familiar comic-book entrance depicting an over achieving new resident doctor, Olivia “Liv” Moore, saving the life of an emergency trauma patient. After her heroic act and a long day’s work Liv is welcomed into her new practice by a fellow colleague extending an offer to attend a party that night. She graciously declines mentioning she doesn’t do parties and instead would rather spend time with her fiancé, Major. He insists she go to the party to let loose, I mean what’s the worst that can happen?

The worst then does happen. Of course it happens. While at the party that happens to be on a boat the white collar party-goers take a new designer drug, Utopium, which then causes a random zombie outbreak. Liv tries running away from the deadly celebration only to be attacked by a zombie and the next thing she knows, she’s “waking up” on the shore in a body bag. She emerges from her yellow plastic cocoon as a full-fledged zombie craving brains and all. As a result of the new metamorphoses she calls off her engagement to Major, quits her job at the hospital and takes up a new more suitable career in the morgue. Liv starts spending her waking hours outside of the morgue at home watching television. Her roommate, family and ex-fiancé become concerned and stage an intervention.

After the awkward encounter with her family and friends Liv returns to work at the morgue where she has taken to syphoning the brains from cadavers. Her newest colleague, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti, has to run an errand and leaves Liv alone with their most recent Jane Doe. Liv takes the opportunity to have a nice meal of fresh Jane Doe brains with extra hot sauce (because she only tastes food that is extremely unbearable spicy) when Ravi comes back to bust her in the act. Instead of being upset or freaking out Ravi is fascinated and explains how he started to suspect Liv was a zombie after all. He takes blood samples from her and checks her vitals astounded at her state of unliving and Liv is just relieved to have someone else to talk to about being a zombie. When newbie Detective Clive Babineaux arrives catching the two off guard. He asks if the two have found anything strange with Jane Doe’s body as she was a potential victim.

All of a sudden Liv has a flashback to Jane Doe’s memory and sees the girl getting arrested for shoplifting. Ravi suggests the Liv might not be feeling to well because of “something she ate” hinting at her to shut her mouth. He then does a quick internet search and comes across an arrest record for Jane Doe and suggests her name is Stefani Germanotta and before the Detective takes the bait he presses how Liv could possible know to which Ravi suggests she’s psychic. Detective Babineaux leaves laughing.

After being guilt tripped by her mother for “throwing her life away” Liv goes to assist her mother with the annual Haunted House they put on. Liv then has the irresistible urge to steal a handful for fake plastic eyeballs attributing her new kleptomania and visions to eating Jane Doe’s brain. Her mom doesn’t notice and instead tries to push Liv into assisting with her ex-fiance as a dire attempt to rekindle their romance. Liv takes notice and shrugs off the attempt but then has another vision from Jane Doe’s memory and sees a familiar face threatening to kill Jane. Liv returns to work and Ravi suggests she goes to the police with the information. She resists but then feels obligated and goes to see Detective Babineaux. When she gives him the suggestion that the local weatherman, Johnny Frost, is the potential killer he laughs in her face. The only way he would entertain the notion is if she rides along with him to see Johnny Frost in person. They then go straight to the news station to confront him.

Johnny Frost declines knowing the victim but after Liv quotes him from Jane Doe’s flashback he confesses he knows her as a call-girl and requests they sweep it under the rug. He admits to role-playing with Tatiana at their most recent fling but left her alive and well. Johnny gives the name of her friend, Tess, to which Liv and Detective Babineaux meet her apartment. Tess refuses to give any information at first claiming to only speak Romanian when Liv begins speaking back to her in Romanian calling her out. Tess divulges little information and once Detective Babineaux leaks the information that Tatiana is dead Tess gets scared and retreats to her apartment refusing to help further. The duo leave after Tess gives Tatiana’s last name and locate her apartment. Once inside they begin sorting through her things and find her cell phone fill with missed calls. Liv takes a listen and tells Babineaux that Tess called Tatiana threatening to give back whatever she stole from their last John. Immediately after Liv has a flashback to Tatiana’s death and becomes enraged and determined to find the killer. They return to Tess’s apartment to find her skipping town and instead talk with her neighbor who suggests she might be with the third call-girl, Monica.

Later she returns to work at the morgue to find Ravi working on a cure for her Zombie Disease and Liv feels a sense of hope that maybe things will get back to normal. Having the new found hope she drives to her ex-fiancé’s to find him playing a zombie killing video game with another girl. She feels guilty for even thinking of asking him to wait for her and leaves. She returns home and gives up on her undead life again. The next day while lying on the couch watching exercise videos Liv’s roommate and best friend, Peyton, tells her to do something with herself because she means so much to her. Back at the precinct, Babineaux is pulled off of Tatiana’s case as another Senior Detective Pratt is put on as the lead and he fights to stay on the case as he’s made so much progress and has information coming to locate Monica.

Liv musters the energy to decide to continue on the case and returns to Babineaux’s office to find him gone. Detective Pratt says he’ll leave Babineaux a message to follow up with her and gets the call giving him the location of Monica and he takes off to find her. Liv returns to the morgue and finds Babineaux waiting while talking to Ravi. He asks her what a specific Romanian word means and Liv doesn’t understand what a bearded pig has to do with anything. Then it all clicks. The murder must be a cop and Babineaux remembers how awkward Pratt acted in their boss’s office earlier. He must asked to be the lead. They return to Babineaux’s office to get the location of Monica and then speeds off to find Pratt holding Monica and Tess hostage in an abandoned house. Pratt escapes the house and shoots Liv in the chest trying to get away. Liv gets so angry by being shot she switches into full zombie mode and jumps on the top of the car. She punches through the windshield as Pratt speeds away from the house to escape. She grabs the steering-wheel and slams the car into a tree, rocketing herself into the woods ahead as the car crashes.

Liv gets up, returns to the car and is about to bite into Pratt’s skull when she hears Babineaux approaching. She quickly switches back to her non-brain starved zombie self and gives a lame excuse when he questions how she got there so quickly when he saw her get shot. She shrugs it off and so does Babineaux while he arrests Pratt. That night Liv sleeps for the first time since she was changed into a zombie and wakes to a new outlook on herself and her undead life. She makes the effort to dress up as a zombie to help out at her mom’s haunted house. During her second night of sleep she’s awakened by a new vision but this time the murderer is another zombie.