iZombie 2.10: "Method Head"

“My motivation was easy. Team back up with you.”
- Liv

When last we saw our favorite zombie and her zombie-killing ex-fiancé, they’d just broken up. Unfortunately, they are thrust back together when Ravi reveals that the cure is only temporary (thanks to finding out New Hope had reverted). Liv not only has to endure the fact that Major will become a zombie again but she has to drop this particular truth bomb on Blaine as well. So while he’s raking in the money over Christmas and New Year’s, Liv, Ravi and Major are out digging in a field trying to find the remaining tainted Utopium. Good luck with that gang!

It wouldn’t be the show without a case to solve and this one involves a guy dressed as Santa who was raising money maybe for charity, maybe for himself. It was a little hard to tell. Liv is still getting visions but Clive has sidelined her from actively investigating with him. She’s obviously bummed and is resigned to dropping off notes and sending witnesses his way. But hey, at least it helps solve the case (another guy who was at the same men’s shelter beat him up for the money). The real case begins when one of the lead actors on Liv’s favorite show, “Zombie High” dies on set. Oh boy!

As one might expect, Liv is super excited by the current case. To be honest, I’d be super excited too if my work somehow took me to my favorite show and I was able to meet the actors. I have a feeling Jen would as well. Alas there’s not much call for a Maryland budget analyst or a Massachusetts employment law investigator to go to Hollywood. But hey, we can dream! Anyway, after Liv sufficiently geeks out over specific spots on set, she manages to convince Clive to let her help out more on the case—given her extensive knowledge of the show. They watch footage from when the actor (Jordan) was shot and they even talk to the prop master who insists he gave the other actor a prop gun, not a real one. But when they talk to Wyatt, he insists he used the gun he was handed and he didn’t put it down. Clive thinks there might be motive though since he started out as the show’s lead and has since been replaced as lead by Jordan.

Major seems to be working his hardest to find a way to take Vaughn down. This somehow involves giving him a fitness band. I don’t really get it but I’m sure it will all make sense eventually. It turns out that Vaughn is kind of a moron when it comes to people stroking his ego and he’s just blind to people using him. But Major isn’t alone in his hope to take down Max Rager. The head scientist goes to Major in secret and gives him all of his research. He needs Major to share the truth about zombies with the world if the scientist fails and suddenly disappears. It’s sad that it could be a real possibility. But Vaughn is ruthless and kind of an asshole when it comes to protecting what’s his. In a move I wasn’t expecting, Major gives the information to Vaughn and outs the scientist. I’m not sure why he’d do that or how he would benefit to be honest. It turns out it was all a ploy to test Major’s loyalty. If only Vaughn knew that the wrist band has a mini microphone in it and Major is listening to everything he says!

More importantly, back on the case (after Liv and Ravi share the news that Jordon rocketed to fame after a sex tape) Liv and Clive chat up some of the zombies who don’t have particularly nice things to say about Jordan. He didn’t talk to them or act like they existed. Liv says that he was just being method since his character didn’t like zombies. I don’t really buy it. Interestingly, they have a deaf actor on the show who I’m pretty sure is played by the guy who plays Travis on Switched at Birth. His hair is a little different but the way he signs and expresses himself vocally is exactly the same. Liv and Clive ask about the tattoo he has that says “never forget” (Jordan had one he was having removed). Kel explains that a production assistant died the prior year because she fell asleep at the wheel driving home from set (Jordan insisted on keeping production late and doing lots of takes to get things right). Liv gets a taste of being an actor when Wyatt asks her to run lines with him and she gets really into it. I guess we’re seeing only a little of Jordan’s personality here. To be honest I’m kind of surprised we haven’t seen a vision yet. But there’s still time. And Ravi (now binge watching the show—something we here at More TV, Please wholly support) discovers on the dailies from one of the season 2 episodes that Jordan was going to install security cameras after he was repeatedly pranked.

Liv and Clive head to Jordan’s trailer to investigate whether Jordan had security cameras but the find the female lead snooping around on his laptop. She says she was worried he’d made another sex tape and she didn’t want it to get out. This triggers Liv’s first vision of the sex tape and that it was Jordan who leaked it, not a burglar as he’d told the press). Before we can get to the bottom of the mystery about why the sex tape held so much power over the female lead, the head of production’s assistant confesses that Wyatt was the character being cut from the show. I have to laugh really hard that the reason he was considering leaving the show (before he knew he was being cut) was because he was auditioning for the new Power Rangers movie. For those that don’t know, I’m a bit of a Power Rangers fanatic. So you can bet I’ll be seeing that movie. Anyway, nerdgasm aside, we find out the real reason the sex tape held so much sway over the female lead was because she made horrible comments about Kel (the deaf actor).

In fairly short order they learn that it was in fact the prop master who gave Wyatt the loaded gun. He’d been sleeping with the production assistant and he just snapped. I have to admit though, Liv and Clive gave quite the performance to get him to confess. And Liv is back on the team! I knew it wouldn’t last long. Unfortunately, the FBI agent that Clive is sleeping with just paid Blaine a visit and when she sees sketches of him in relation to the Meat Cute murders, she thinks they’ve got their guy. Little to do they know the GPS tracker on Minor is going to lead them to the real killer!