iZombie S01E04 Recap: Liv and Let Clive

Good Cop/Bad Cop/Undead Detective

Story by @ErikaAshley

Blaine and his undead girlfriend Jackie do their best to look alive by using her wealth to fake tan and dye their hair a lively shade. On the other side of town Liv drops by Major’s and he seems a little on edge checking the stairs every couple of seconds. When she asks about Eddie and Jerome he says now they’re both missing just as a half-naked Corinne, Major’s new girlfriend, comes down the stairs and causes an awkward meeting. Liv quickly excuses herself and heads over to the morgue where the newest John Doe is an Asian gang member with missing molars and sans-fingertips. Just as Liv is about to saw open her lunch her brother pops up to collect the keys to her place since he’ll be crashing there while Peyton is out of town.

When Detective Babineaux, also known as Clive, shows up to see the newest victim on the table he recognizes the John Doe as Sammy Wong, a previous acquaintance. Liv offers to help Clive right away but he cuts her short telling her he can handle the situation on his own. Suddenly Liv has a flashback from Sammy’s memory and witnesses Clive beating an Asian man while threatening to the do the same to Sammy if he gets involved. When Clive notices that Liv must have had vision he asks her what she saw. She tries to play it off as she didn’t see or know anything, but clearly she’s shaken. After Clive leaves Liv goes into a paranoid tizzy trying to rationalize why Clive doesn’t want their help on the case. She assumes it’s because he’s a dirty cop and Ravi tries to settle her nerves by suggesting since lunch she’s been acting extremely paranoid, since she does become what she eats. Liv retorts that she might be over reacting but not when it comes to Major and Corinne. She then has the bright idea that Ravi should move in with Major since he’s having roommate issues and to keep Corinne from moving in with him. Ravi quickly declines the offer and insists he needs his privacy.

Somewhere in the city Blaine visits a butcher shop where he heads to the back and meets up with his fresh zombie recruits that are now working for him. He’s setup a new business hustling brains to new zombies mostly that he’s turned. While Blaine makes his money, Liv visits Vice, Clive’s old stomping ground. She starts to question his previous partner and she gives Liv some insight into who Clive was in his past. Paranoia consumes her and she because persistent with the urge to solve this case on her own and prove Clive is a dirty cop. She drags Ravi to the video store she saw in her vision and asks to see Ray, the beaten man from her vision. Liv acts like a ditzy slut trying to meet up with a past hookup. She has another flashback to Clive meeting up in the video store but when she comes back to the present instead of Ray another Asian gang member appears.

AJ introduces himself and asks Liv what she wants with Ray. Just as Ravi tries to get more information from AJ Liv compliments his blue cobra tattoo and Ravi gets the hint that they’re gang members. They cut the conversation short and when they leave the video store they see Clive entering. Liv goes back home but is even more paranoid and asks her brother Evan to look at the window. He notices her unusual behavior and attributes it to drug use but she denies smoking weed. She instructs him to keep a watch out while she showers. Elsewhere, Blaine’s two zombie grunts work themselves up about having to do the dirty work while Blaine makes tons of money off of rich people he turns into zombies. One suggests they go into business for themselves and they have all the information they need to get started. Back at Liv’s she gets out of the shower and asks her brother for an update when she finds Clive in her living room next to her brother not looking pleased.

Clive tries to convince Liv again to leave the case alone. Major drops by the morgue to talk to Ravi about the room. Ravi plays along but tries to bomb his impromptu interview that Liv has set up for him unknowingly. Dante and the other zombie grunt deliver fresh brains to Jackie and propose a new business relationship pitching their idea to sell brains at half the cost. She’s surprised at their entrepreneurship as she only took them as a couple of meathead delivery boys. She entertains their offer but says she’ll need to think about it. Liv goes to the morgue and finds Major and Ravi hitting it off and agreeing on a move in date. Liv tells Ravi about Clive’s threat and they go over new clues.

Acting on her paranoia and against Ravi’s wishes she tries to put a tracking device on Clive’s cart when she sees a Blue Cobra gang member and takes off running. While running away she runs into a bum’s cart and falls to the ground and has another vision. This time she sees Sammy’s murder where AJ stomps his face in for telling him that the cops know what’s going on. Liv jumps up and has an epiphany that she now knows Kung Fu. She also sees Clive leaving in his car but jumps in front of his vehicle and tells him that she knows Ray is an undercover cop and so does the Blue Cobras and they have to save him. Clive tells her that Ray was his partner while they were undercover and she really should have stayed out of it because now she’s put herself at danger. He calls his old Vice partner and gets a team together to intercept Ray at the airport before the Blue Cobras get to him. He tells her to head home and he’ll handle the situation. Back at Blaine’s butcher shop he eliminates his new competition and takes a fresh set of zombie grunts from his deep freezer. Liv calls Clive to check in and she apologizes for not trusting him. When she hangs up she hears a creak in her empty apartment and goes to investigate and is attacked by AJ. He throws her across the room and insists that she’s a cop.

AJ begins to beat on Liv but her new found Kung Fu skills kick in and she fends off AJ as she breaks out her new crouching tiger hidden dragon. He gets the upper hand but Evan arrives and AJ goes to handle him when Liv goes full zombie and attacks AJ. Evan catches Liv beating him but she plays it off. Clive arrives and other cops take AJ away. Clive tries to explain himself to Liv about his past and she apologizes again. Ravi moves into Major’s place and he allows her another chance at friendship. Ravi tells Liv that Major knows what she’s up to by having him move in and she tries to act dumb. Over at Blaine’s butcher shop his newly thawed thug helps to harvest a brain from a familiar fellow.

This episode was by far the best because for once the voiceover was almost completely left out, aside from the beginning. Undead living looks good on Blaine, mostly because he’s used to the dark side of life and hustling is his forte. It’s an interesting storyline to have a previous drug pusher now a brain pusher and doing what he does best. The additional storyline brings another eliminate that is much needed and refreshing. I’m excited to see where this continues evolving and intertwining.