dope episode
liked the flip.
I have NO IDEA how they gonna end this series.
liked the flip.
I have NO IDEA how they gonna end this series.
Official iZombie Discussion Thread (Tuesdays 9 pm EST)
- Thread starter playahaitian
- Start date
This week's episode was great...
the SLEEPING on this show cuz!
Enzo WTF!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?
2 episodes left.. Missing Aly and Rose already
They done a great job with the final season...
Tonight is the series finale.
@playahaitian
@fonzerrillii
I think this show has one or two seasons left...imo
@playahaitian
@fonzerrillii
I think this show has one or two seasons left...imo
it DID!!!!
sidbar..
Peyton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a feeling,ten or twenty years from now,the showrunner is going to regret cutting the series so short...
I have a feeling,ten or twenty years from now,the showrunner is going to regret cutting the series so short...
was it the showrunner or network?
I think both...
'iZombie' Showrunner Says They Didn't Plan To End at Season 5
iZombie‘s showrunner Rob Thomasis opening up about what’s ahead for the series after the fourth season finale we saw last night.
As of right now, there aren’t any plans to talk about. However, Rob did say that they didn’t plan on the fifth season being their last either.
“We could have gone longer, but we are pretty pleased to be coming back for a fifth [season],” he shared with TV Line. “We got by the skin of our teeth this year, and I would have been incredibly heartbroken if we had not gotten to do another one, because we would not have ended up leaving everything in a resolved place.”
While the writer’s room doesn’t get started on any season five stuff until later next month, Rob does know that in the final season, fans will get some resolve on a lot of things.
“The fate of Major and Liv will need to be answered by the end of [next] season,” he confirms. “That I can promise, that there will be a resolution. I don’t know what that resolution will be yet, but it will feel resolved.”
Rob adds that zombieism might be cured, too: “I think we’re going to give some sort of answer to the fate of zombie kind. And again, I do not know what that answer will be, but we won’t do the Sopranos ending. It won’t just be like you’re watching the show and then someone just hits stop in a random place. And I say that actually really liking the Sopranos ending, but I suspect that we’re going to get more resolution than that.”
http://www.justjaredjr.com/2018/05/29/izombie-showrunner-says-they-didnt-plan-to-end-at-season-5/
‘iZombie’ Boss Breaks Down Crafting the Final Season: ‘It’s a Lovely Bow at the End’
By ILANA KAPLAN
Ilana Kaplan
's Most Recent Stories
VIEW ALL
CREDIT: MICHAEL COURTNEY
After four years of watching the population of Seattle, Wash. gradually learn that there were zombies among them, as well as following a one key undead character as she worked with the police department to solve murders, “iZombie” is getting ready to sign off of the CW. The series, which premiered in 2015, has centered on Liv Moore (Rose McIver) adjusting to her life as a crime-solving, brain-eating zombie, and, in more recent seasons, get involved in trafficking people in and out of the quarantined city.
That latter storyline is one way in which the show has taken a serious real-world topic and put a unique twist on it for its heightened world. And, showrunner Rob Thomastells Variety, that theme will continue in the fifth and final season. “We played that last year, we’re playing it this year, but now I feel like we’re playing it dialed up,” he explains. “Seattle is now a city that can blow up at any moment. All it’s going to take is one spark, and humans and zombies are going to start killing each other in the streets.”
RELATED
'Veronica Mars' Boss on Season 4 Shocker: 'It Felt Like Cutting Off a Limb'
'Jane The Virgin' Boss Breaks Down Bringing the Series Finale 'Full Circle' (SPOILERS)
While Thomas says that many of the characters, such as Liv, Ravi (Rahul Kohli), Clive (Malcolm Goodwin), Peyton (Aly Michalka) and even Major, who is now commander of Fillmore-Graves, running the zombie army, have a “can’t we all get along” mentality, Blaine (David Anders) and Don E. (Bryce Hodgson) still “couldn’t give a s— about whether Seattle survives, or humans and zombies kill each other.”
Ahead of the final season premiere, Thomas talks with Variety about Liv’s role in trafficking this season, the fate of Seattle and what other “Veronica Mars” cameos to expect here, even with that show having an upcoming revival of its own.
Have you known all along how the story of iZombiewould end from the beginning?
Basically. I don’t know that we had all the details, but I’ve known the answers to the big picture questions. There are certain things I didn’t know at the beginning, like the notion of Ravi and Peyton being a couple, for example. We didn’t think about that going in — it was only watching those two on the screen together that that became interesting to us. Some of those details that have happened along the way are things we’ve picked up, but in terms of the big story of Liv, the zombie outbreak and how it was resolved in Seattle, that we’ve kind of known the whole time.
How does Liv’s job as the trafficker “Renegade” evolve this season?
She’s going to keep bringing people into Seattle [but] it’s a bit different in terms of the people they’re worried about now. Fillmore-Graves is no longer preventing people from coming into the city [so] now instead of going against Fillmore-Graves, they’re really going up against the U.S. Army. So, their opponent in that has changed, but her mission hasn’t. Unlike most of the people she’s brought in in the past, with the possible exception of Isabel, this year we’re going to get to know a few of the people she brings in from the outside, and they will become recurring characters this season. Also, now that she is so public, her business model has changed. Instead of operating out of that motel room, they have a safe house that’s in a top-secret location because she knows she’s now a target, so the security protocol for Liv has become much more extensive.
How will Major’s role as the head of Fillmore-Graves transform his relationship with Liv?
Season 4 [ended] with Liv incredibly unhappy with Major because Major is now in charge of Fillmore-Graves, and he instituted policies that were much different than Chase Graves did before him. He’s trying to mend the city: have a military force with a smiley face. He’s ended curfew. Zombies no longer have their own justice system — they’re tried like anyone else. He’s trying to appease people, but in the process, he’s made his own soldiers unhappy. They now feel like, “Hey, you’re doing midnight basketball leagues for human-zombie relations, and they’re shooting at us from windows. This isn’t working.” So that brings him into quite a bit of conflict with the men and women working for him.
Blaine has very much played both sides of good and evil for four seasons. Will we see him finally stick to one side?
Yes, you do. I don’t want to tell anyone which, but he spends the season in an interesting place where, for the first time in his life, people like him. He starts the season being where he always wanted to be: being the cool, rich guy. People view him as the guy who’s saving the city because he’s the charming rogue bringing brains in from overseas that keeps the city functioning and he’s well-paid for it. He very much is enjoying the life he’s living at the beginning of the season.
You obviously brought a lot of the Veronica Mars cast members onto the show. Will we see more characters from that show appear for Season 5?
I don’t think they’re ones that haven’t appeared. Ken Marino will return as Blaine’s high-priced lawyer, and he’s brilliant. Johnny Frost [Daran Norris] is in a few episodes. There are a few more [too].
Will there be a concrete answer as to whether or not zombies take over Seattle?
There will be. You will know the fate of the city. If you’re wondering whether Liv will end the season alive, dead or zombie, that will be answered. A big question [we have] is: if Liv has the opportunity to be human or zombie, what would she choose? And, what would the 10,000+ zombies in Seattle choose now that they’ve spent years as a zombie? For many of the people who came to the city because they were dying of some disease, they don’t want to be turned back to being a human.
Can we expect everything to be tied neatly into a bow by the series finale?
Very neatly. There will be no cliffhangers. For the first time in my career, I know that this show is going to be over at the end of the season. It is in a lovely bow at the end of the season. We will answer all of the big, long-term arc questions. You’ll get answers to just about everything before the season ends.
The fifth and final season of “iZombie” premieres May 2 on the CW.
By ILANA KAPLAN
Ilana Kaplan
's Most Recent Stories
VIEW ALL
CREDIT: MICHAEL COURTNEY
After four years of watching the population of Seattle, Wash. gradually learn that there were zombies among them, as well as following a one key undead character as she worked with the police department to solve murders, “iZombie” is getting ready to sign off of the CW. The series, which premiered in 2015, has centered on Liv Moore (Rose McIver) adjusting to her life as a crime-solving, brain-eating zombie, and, in more recent seasons, get involved in trafficking people in and out of the quarantined city.
That latter storyline is one way in which the show has taken a serious real-world topic and put a unique twist on it for its heightened world. And, showrunner Rob Thomastells Variety, that theme will continue in the fifth and final season. “We played that last year, we’re playing it this year, but now I feel like we’re playing it dialed up,” he explains. “Seattle is now a city that can blow up at any moment. All it’s going to take is one spark, and humans and zombies are going to start killing each other in the streets.”
RELATED
'Veronica Mars' Boss on Season 4 Shocker: 'It Felt Like Cutting Off a Limb'
'Jane The Virgin' Boss Breaks Down Bringing the Series Finale 'Full Circle' (SPOILERS)
While Thomas says that many of the characters, such as Liv, Ravi (Rahul Kohli), Clive (Malcolm Goodwin), Peyton (Aly Michalka) and even Major, who is now commander of Fillmore-Graves, running the zombie army, have a “can’t we all get along” mentality, Blaine (David Anders) and Don E. (Bryce Hodgson) still “couldn’t give a s— about whether Seattle survives, or humans and zombies kill each other.”
Ahead of the final season premiere, Thomas talks with Variety about Liv’s role in trafficking this season, the fate of Seattle and what other “Veronica Mars” cameos to expect here, even with that show having an upcoming revival of its own.
Have you known all along how the story of iZombiewould end from the beginning?
Basically. I don’t know that we had all the details, but I’ve known the answers to the big picture questions. There are certain things I didn’t know at the beginning, like the notion of Ravi and Peyton being a couple, for example. We didn’t think about that going in — it was only watching those two on the screen together that that became interesting to us. Some of those details that have happened along the way are things we’ve picked up, but in terms of the big story of Liv, the zombie outbreak and how it was resolved in Seattle, that we’ve kind of known the whole time.
How does Liv’s job as the trafficker “Renegade” evolve this season?
She’s going to keep bringing people into Seattle [but] it’s a bit different in terms of the people they’re worried about now. Fillmore-Graves is no longer preventing people from coming into the city [so] now instead of going against Fillmore-Graves, they’re really going up against the U.S. Army. So, their opponent in that has changed, but her mission hasn’t. Unlike most of the people she’s brought in in the past, with the possible exception of Isabel, this year we’re going to get to know a few of the people she brings in from the outside, and they will become recurring characters this season. Also, now that she is so public, her business model has changed. Instead of operating out of that motel room, they have a safe house that’s in a top-secret location because she knows she’s now a target, so the security protocol for Liv has become much more extensive.
How will Major’s role as the head of Fillmore-Graves transform his relationship with Liv?
Season 4 [ended] with Liv incredibly unhappy with Major because Major is now in charge of Fillmore-Graves, and he instituted policies that were much different than Chase Graves did before him. He’s trying to mend the city: have a military force with a smiley face. He’s ended curfew. Zombies no longer have their own justice system — they’re tried like anyone else. He’s trying to appease people, but in the process, he’s made his own soldiers unhappy. They now feel like, “Hey, you’re doing midnight basketball leagues for human-zombie relations, and they’re shooting at us from windows. This isn’t working.” So that brings him into quite a bit of conflict with the men and women working for him.
Blaine has very much played both sides of good and evil for four seasons. Will we see him finally stick to one side?
Yes, you do. I don’t want to tell anyone which, but he spends the season in an interesting place where, for the first time in his life, people like him. He starts the season being where he always wanted to be: being the cool, rich guy. People view him as the guy who’s saving the city because he’s the charming rogue bringing brains in from overseas that keeps the city functioning and he’s well-paid for it. He very much is enjoying the life he’s living at the beginning of the season.
You obviously brought a lot of the Veronica Mars cast members onto the show. Will we see more characters from that show appear for Season 5?
I don’t think they’re ones that haven’t appeared. Ken Marino will return as Blaine’s high-priced lawyer, and he’s brilliant. Johnny Frost [Daran Norris] is in a few episodes. There are a few more [too].
Will there be a concrete answer as to whether or not zombies take over Seattle?
There will be. You will know the fate of the city. If you’re wondering whether Liv will end the season alive, dead or zombie, that will be answered. A big question [we have] is: if Liv has the opportunity to be human or zombie, what would she choose? And, what would the 10,000+ zombies in Seattle choose now that they’ve spent years as a zombie? For many of the people who came to the city because they were dying of some disease, they don’t want to be turned back to being a human.
Can we expect everything to be tied neatly into a bow by the series finale?
Very neatly. There will be no cliffhangers. For the first time in my career, I know that this show is going to be over at the end of the season. It is in a lovely bow at the end of the season. We will answer all of the big, long-term arc questions. You’ll get answers to just about everything before the season ends.
The fifth and final season of “iZombie” premieres May 2 on the CW.
'iZombie' Showrunner Says They Didn't Plan To End at Season 5
iZombie‘s showrunner Rob Thomasis opening up about what’s ahead for the series after the fourth season finale we saw last night.
As of right now, there aren’t any plans to talk about. However, Rob did say that they didn’t plan on the fifth season being their last either.
“We could have gone longer, but we are pretty pleased to be coming back for a fifth [season],” he shared with TV Line. “We got by the skin of our teeth this year, and I would have been incredibly heartbroken if we had not gotten to do another one, because we would not have ended up leaving everything in a resolved place.”
While the writer’s room doesn’t get started on any season five stuff until later next month, Rob does know that in the final season, fans will get some resolve on a lot of things.
“The fate of Major and Liv will need to be answered by the end of [next] season,” he confirms. “That I can promise, that there will be a resolution. I don’t know what that resolution will be yet, but it will feel resolved.”
Rob adds that zombieism might be cured, too: “I think we’re going to give some sort of answer to the fate of zombie kind. And again, I do not know what that answer will be, but we won’t do the Sopranos ending. It won’t just be like you’re watching the show and then someone just hits stop in a random place. And I say that actually really liking the Sopranos ending, but I suspect that we’re going to get more resolution than that.”
http://www.justjaredjr.com/2018/05/29/izombie-showrunner-says-they-didnt-plan-to-end-at-season-5/
I stand corrected....I think it's stupid of CW to get rid of it....
dumb as hell
Rob Thomas breaks down iZombie's happy ending — and why it's so different from Veronica Mars
'I’ve always known that, hey, I’m not doing a noir show for once! Let’s give them the happy ending!' the showrunner says
By Sydney Bucksbaum
August 01, 2019 at 09:00 PM EDT
FBTwitter
BETTINA STRAUSS/THE CW
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the iZombie series finale, “All’s Well That Ends Well.”
Turns out that the zombie apocalypse actually ends happily ever after. Who would have thought?
After five seasons of building toward an all-out war between humans and zombies, iZombie signed off with a series finale that saw every main character not only survive, but also get the perfect future they deserved. Major (Robert Buckley) took what he thought was the zombie cure on live TV, intending to die for the cause, but after an intense showdown it was revealed to actually be a fake dose, as Ravi (Rahul Kohli) swapped it out to inject the head zombie of the antihuman movement instead, proving the zombie cure’s effectiveness to the world. A flash-forward epilogue set 10 years in the future then explained how that act ended the human-zombie war, as well as where everyone ended up.
In a “virtualcast” (think podcast but with futuristic virtual reality), America the Virtual host Byron Deceasey (played by Chris Lowell in a surprise cameo) brought together Ravi, Peyton (Aly Michalka), and Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) for an episode on the 10th anniversary of the Battle for Seattle, which ended the war. Ten years in the future, Clive and Dale (Jessica Harmon) were still happily married, and co-captains of the San Francisco PD. Peyton and Ravi were still together, with Peyton working as a DA in Atlanta and Ravi serving as the head of the CDC (despite making a good chunk of change from book deals and speaking appearances after becoming famous for discovering the cure for zombies). But Liv (Rose McIver) and Major were conspicuously absent from the episode.
ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads
As Byron recapped the aftermath of Major taking the “cure” on live television (with the public still unaware he was given a fake dose), we learned that his big heroic act had the desired effect. Zombies were no longer considered an apocalyptic threat with the cure being mass-produced, and that meant brain donations resumed. The sick and dying flocked to Seattle to be turned into zombies, and the city was rebuilt and rebranded as a peaceful place where zombies and humans lived side by side.
But here’s where the virtualcast took a turn for the extremely heartbreaking: Byron revealed that Liv was allegedly killed by an anti-zombie suicide bomber… unless you believed the rumor she survived (being Renegade earned her legendary outlaw status even in death). Clive, Ravi and Peyton all confirmed that they believed she died in the explosion, but Major didn’t. According to the trio, he had continued to dig in the wreckage of the morgue along with the group of orphans he took in. But since some anti-zombie human Dead Enders still existed along with their leader, Dolly Durkins (Jennifer Irwin), they were still hunting him down as one of the most well-known faces of Fillmore Graves. He was forced to go into hiding, and hadn’t been seen in a decade.
iZombie could have ended on that ambiguous note, with fans left to wonder forever whether Liv really died and what happened to Major. But thankfully, creator and showrunner Rob Thomas did us a solid and gave a definitive answer in the final minutes. A flashback scene showed that not only did Liv survive, she also reunited (physically and romantically!) with Major. They were living happily together (and married, based on that ring on Liv’s finger) as zombies with their little family of adopted orphans on Zombie Island (the dream became a reality!). And after Byron signed off the virtualcast, Liv and Major signed on to reunite with the whole gang, revealing that the friend group does this every so often to catch up — with Major telling the same dad jokes every single time (because, of course). But since they’re all living in separate places, they all miss each other, which prompts Liv and Major to extend an offer to the gang to come live with them forever on Zombie Island… and they all actually seem to consider it. Fade to black!
Riding that high of pure pop culture happiness, EW spoke with Thomas to break down the ending, why this was the plan from the very beginning of the series, why iZombie’s finale is oh so incredibly opposite from Thomas’ controversial Veronica Mars shocker, and more.
RODIN ECKENROTH/GETTY IMAGES
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Last time we talked, you were more hands-on with Hulu’s Veronica Mars revival than with iZombie’s final season, so when did you come back to iZombie?
ROB THOMAS: I was in the room breaking the first seven episodes [of the final season], and I was in there for the writing and shooting of the first five. And then Diane [Ruggiero-Wright] and I came back on the last two, episodes 12 and 13.
Did you always know you were going to end on this flash-forward epilogue?
That only occurred to me when we started breaking that episode. Even though what played out was all stuff that we had on the board for a long time, the idea of a flash-forward virtualcast, that didn’t come to me until really the week I started breaking the episode.
How has the series ending changed over the course of the five seasons? Is it still the same idea from when you first created the show?
The broad strokes remain the same. I think you could have asked me five years ago how will the show end and I would have said that our crew will be victorious in some way, and Major and Liv will find their way back to each other. I’ve always known that, hey, I’m not doing a noir show for once! Let’s give them the happy ending! That much has always been in my head. I had no idea that Ravi and Peyton would end up together. That is just a product of those two are fun on screen together, they work well together, people like them together. That was a new idea. I probably would have told you that Blaine [David Anders] would have died in the finale, but I was happier with where we ended up. I like him living forever at the bottom of a well with Don E. [Bryce Hodgson], who hates him, down there with him. That only occurred to us about midway through the final season, how we would end with those two.
That definitely felt like poetic justice.
Yeah. [Laughs] It was a way for both Liv and Don E. to give Blaine his comeuppance. Both of them got a piece of it. Don E. shoves him down the well and then Liv shoves Don E. down the well with him. That felt good to us.
Confession: I was shocked by how badly I felt for Don E. getting stuck down there with him forever, because he’s just as evil as Blaine, if not worse, and definitely deserved it. But his story in the final season finding the love of his life, I weirdly felt bad for him to end up here!
[Laughs] I get it too! He’s got a lot of charm to him. He does seem like a more decent guy than Blaine. Certainly Don E. has done some things worthy of eternity in a well, so don’t lose much sleep for him.
The end of the flash-forward feels a little ambiguous, with Liv and Major offering Ravi, Peyton, and Clive a literal forever home Zombie Island. In your mind, are the three humans actually considering reuniting for good by moving there?
I have my own idea in my head about whether the friends said, “You know what? We’ll live on a deserted island with your zombie family!” I have a definite view, but I don’t know that I want to give my answer to it. I kind of like the audience getting to put them wherever they want in their own minds. And that’s the end of that.
What was your ultimate goal with ending the series on such a happy note for all the characters? I’m still shocked none of them died.
I felt like if all of America was watching iZombie, our nation would be healed by now. [Laughs] Unfortunately, doing our share, that didn’t happen. But that was really what I was going for: the lessening of eternal strife in America. I don’t think we accomplished it, sadly.
Maybe you did on a smaller scale?
The whole theme of iZombie was, can the middle hold? In Seattle, in zombie-controlled Seattle, the middle held. It did not give in to the extremes on either side. The middle held. That’s what I wanted to demonstrate.
I’m so happy that Liv and Major end up together, because we’ve been waiting for this, maybe not so patiently, for so many seasons. And is this just me trying to will something into existence, or was that a wedding ring on Liv and Major’s fingers?
It was! It was. They’re married. [Laughs] You’re welcome!
JACK ROWAND/THE CW
The human-vs.-zombie war may have ended, but there are still so many lingering story lines even 10 years later, like the Dead Enders still hunting down well-known zombies, Seattle become a rebranded zombie city, the creation and sustainment of Zombie Island, and more. Would you ever consider doing a spin-off or revisiting this story at some point in the future?
I don’t think it’s going to happen for iZombie. Though if in the future there is a call for more iZombie, I love this group of actors so much, I would be game to work with them any time, anywhere. Obviously if we never do another iZombie I predict that you will see these actors in future projects of mine. I just adore them all.
This is a big few weeks for you, since you also just debuted another high-profile finale with Veronica Mars season 4, which decidedly did not end on a happy note. Obviously that one saw an extremely passionate response from fans, so has that made you worry about how this one will be received?
I’m probably happy that I provided a happier ending in iZombie. I think this one is more apt to make fans excited than Veronica Mars. But with Veronica Mars, because I imagined that show was going to go on and we were going to continue to do more mysteries, I wasn’t building that as the grand ending of the series, whereas I was on iZombie. The closest I had ever thought I was writing the end of the entire Veronica Mars universe was when I wrote the movie. In the end of the movie, I did give the audience a reasonably happy ending with Veronica [Kristen Bell] back working as a private detective and she and Logan [Jason Dohring] back together. It’s only now that I’m starting to believe I’m going to get the opportunity to do a bunch more [seasons of Veronica Mars] that that happy ending didn’t work for me moving forward.
If Veronica Mars is the shot, then iZombie is definitely the chaser.
[Laughs] I may steal that… I really can’t go online these days. I will find out the reaction secondhand through Google alerts the next day. Hopefully it’s more positive.
Was there anything you wanted to include in the final season or series as a whole that didn’t end up fitting?
We finally did get some stuff about her family into this final season. I would have liked to have put more meat on those bones. It’s just we had so many characters to give their own story lines that it just became unwieldy. We had a hard time fitting in all that story we had for the series regulars that adding story lines for family members — they were written several times and in a few places shot, and they just kept getting pushed further down the road. I do regret that.
At least we finally got it in the final season. That was great payoff.
We had intended to have them in the finale as well, but we ran out of room. There just wasn’t room for them. At least we know that they’re well and Liv has, to some degree, patched up that relationship. That felt good.
What would we have seen with them in the finale?
You would have gotten a bigger dose of the rapprochement. It had to go so quickly in episode 12 that I just think you would have gotten to play a couple more pages on screen of them working through their history. But episode 12 was such a roller coaster ride, it was so quick-moving that there wasn’t a lot of time for heartfelt scenes. I know that the plan would have been for them to be on that plane back to Portland with them, but we just couldn’t make it happen.
What are you most proud of from this series now that it’s over?
It was a fun place to go to work for five years. It was really the happiest place on Earth. As a television writer, there are so many things that can make your life miserable — a bad relationship with a studio, a bad relationship with a network, a cast that doesn’t like each other or makes your life difficult, a crew that isn’t good, all sorts of things that can make doing television a grind — and we had none of that. It was five years of people going to work happy. In terms of storytelling, I’m fine with where we got on iZombie. I’m not even sure if they told me, “You could have a sixth and seventh season,” I’m not sure what I would have even done with them. I didn’t mind ending the story here. The thing that I will get misty over is not coming to work with this team, from top to bottom. It was a really great ride.
This interview has been edited and
'I’ve always known that, hey, I’m not doing a noir show for once! Let’s give them the happy ending!' the showrunner says
By Sydney Bucksbaum
August 01, 2019 at 09:00 PM EDT
FBTwitter
BETTINA STRAUSS/THE CW
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the iZombie series finale, “All’s Well That Ends Well.”
Turns out that the zombie apocalypse actually ends happily ever after. Who would have thought?
After five seasons of building toward an all-out war between humans and zombies, iZombie signed off with a series finale that saw every main character not only survive, but also get the perfect future they deserved. Major (Robert Buckley) took what he thought was the zombie cure on live TV, intending to die for the cause, but after an intense showdown it was revealed to actually be a fake dose, as Ravi (Rahul Kohli) swapped it out to inject the head zombie of the antihuman movement instead, proving the zombie cure’s effectiveness to the world. A flash-forward epilogue set 10 years in the future then explained how that act ended the human-zombie war, as well as where everyone ended up.
In a “virtualcast” (think podcast but with futuristic virtual reality), America the Virtual host Byron Deceasey (played by Chris Lowell in a surprise cameo) brought together Ravi, Peyton (Aly Michalka), and Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) for an episode on the 10th anniversary of the Battle for Seattle, which ended the war. Ten years in the future, Clive and Dale (Jessica Harmon) were still happily married, and co-captains of the San Francisco PD. Peyton and Ravi were still together, with Peyton working as a DA in Atlanta and Ravi serving as the head of the CDC (despite making a good chunk of change from book deals and speaking appearances after becoming famous for discovering the cure for zombies). But Liv (Rose McIver) and Major were conspicuously absent from the episode.
ADVERTISING
inRead invented by Teads
As Byron recapped the aftermath of Major taking the “cure” on live television (with the public still unaware he was given a fake dose), we learned that his big heroic act had the desired effect. Zombies were no longer considered an apocalyptic threat with the cure being mass-produced, and that meant brain donations resumed. The sick and dying flocked to Seattle to be turned into zombies, and the city was rebuilt and rebranded as a peaceful place where zombies and humans lived side by side.
But here’s where the virtualcast took a turn for the extremely heartbreaking: Byron revealed that Liv was allegedly killed by an anti-zombie suicide bomber… unless you believed the rumor she survived (being Renegade earned her legendary outlaw status even in death). Clive, Ravi and Peyton all confirmed that they believed she died in the explosion, but Major didn’t. According to the trio, he had continued to dig in the wreckage of the morgue along with the group of orphans he took in. But since some anti-zombie human Dead Enders still existed along with their leader, Dolly Durkins (Jennifer Irwin), they were still hunting him down as one of the most well-known faces of Fillmore Graves. He was forced to go into hiding, and hadn’t been seen in a decade.
iZombie could have ended on that ambiguous note, with fans left to wonder forever whether Liv really died and what happened to Major. But thankfully, creator and showrunner Rob Thomas did us a solid and gave a definitive answer in the final minutes. A flashback scene showed that not only did Liv survive, she also reunited (physically and romantically!) with Major. They were living happily together (and married, based on that ring on Liv’s finger) as zombies with their little family of adopted orphans on Zombie Island (the dream became a reality!). And after Byron signed off the virtualcast, Liv and Major signed on to reunite with the whole gang, revealing that the friend group does this every so often to catch up — with Major telling the same dad jokes every single time (because, of course). But since they’re all living in separate places, they all miss each other, which prompts Liv and Major to extend an offer to the gang to come live with them forever on Zombie Island… and they all actually seem to consider it. Fade to black!
Riding that high of pure pop culture happiness, EW spoke with Thomas to break down the ending, why this was the plan from the very beginning of the series, why iZombie’s finale is oh so incredibly opposite from Thomas’ controversial Veronica Mars shocker, and more.
RODIN ECKENROTH/GETTY IMAGES
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Last time we talked, you were more hands-on with Hulu’s Veronica Mars revival than with iZombie’s final season, so when did you come back to iZombie?
ROB THOMAS: I was in the room breaking the first seven episodes [of the final season], and I was in there for the writing and shooting of the first five. And then Diane [Ruggiero-Wright] and I came back on the last two, episodes 12 and 13.
Did you always know you were going to end on this flash-forward epilogue?
That only occurred to me when we started breaking that episode. Even though what played out was all stuff that we had on the board for a long time, the idea of a flash-forward virtualcast, that didn’t come to me until really the week I started breaking the episode.
How has the series ending changed over the course of the five seasons? Is it still the same idea from when you first created the show?
The broad strokes remain the same. I think you could have asked me five years ago how will the show end and I would have said that our crew will be victorious in some way, and Major and Liv will find their way back to each other. I’ve always known that, hey, I’m not doing a noir show for once! Let’s give them the happy ending! That much has always been in my head. I had no idea that Ravi and Peyton would end up together. That is just a product of those two are fun on screen together, they work well together, people like them together. That was a new idea. I probably would have told you that Blaine [David Anders] would have died in the finale, but I was happier with where we ended up. I like him living forever at the bottom of a well with Don E. [Bryce Hodgson], who hates him, down there with him. That only occurred to us about midway through the final season, how we would end with those two.
That definitely felt like poetic justice.
Yeah. [Laughs] It was a way for both Liv and Don E. to give Blaine his comeuppance. Both of them got a piece of it. Don E. shoves him down the well and then Liv shoves Don E. down the well with him. That felt good to us.
Confession: I was shocked by how badly I felt for Don E. getting stuck down there with him forever, because he’s just as evil as Blaine, if not worse, and definitely deserved it. But his story in the final season finding the love of his life, I weirdly felt bad for him to end up here!
[Laughs] I get it too! He’s got a lot of charm to him. He does seem like a more decent guy than Blaine. Certainly Don E. has done some things worthy of eternity in a well, so don’t lose much sleep for him.
The end of the flash-forward feels a little ambiguous, with Liv and Major offering Ravi, Peyton, and Clive a literal forever home Zombie Island. In your mind, are the three humans actually considering reuniting for good by moving there?
I have my own idea in my head about whether the friends said, “You know what? We’ll live on a deserted island with your zombie family!” I have a definite view, but I don’t know that I want to give my answer to it. I kind of like the audience getting to put them wherever they want in their own minds. And that’s the end of that.
What was your ultimate goal with ending the series on such a happy note for all the characters? I’m still shocked none of them died.
I felt like if all of America was watching iZombie, our nation would be healed by now. [Laughs] Unfortunately, doing our share, that didn’t happen. But that was really what I was going for: the lessening of eternal strife in America. I don’t think we accomplished it, sadly.
Maybe you did on a smaller scale?
The whole theme of iZombie was, can the middle hold? In Seattle, in zombie-controlled Seattle, the middle held. It did not give in to the extremes on either side. The middle held. That’s what I wanted to demonstrate.
I’m so happy that Liv and Major end up together, because we’ve been waiting for this, maybe not so patiently, for so many seasons. And is this just me trying to will something into existence, or was that a wedding ring on Liv and Major’s fingers?
It was! It was. They’re married. [Laughs] You’re welcome!
JACK ROWAND/THE CW
The human-vs.-zombie war may have ended, but there are still so many lingering story lines even 10 years later, like the Dead Enders still hunting down well-known zombies, Seattle become a rebranded zombie city, the creation and sustainment of Zombie Island, and more. Would you ever consider doing a spin-off or revisiting this story at some point in the future?
I don’t think it’s going to happen for iZombie. Though if in the future there is a call for more iZombie, I love this group of actors so much, I would be game to work with them any time, anywhere. Obviously if we never do another iZombie I predict that you will see these actors in future projects of mine. I just adore them all.
This is a big few weeks for you, since you also just debuted another high-profile finale with Veronica Mars season 4, which decidedly did not end on a happy note. Obviously that one saw an extremely passionate response from fans, so has that made you worry about how this one will be received?
I’m probably happy that I provided a happier ending in iZombie. I think this one is more apt to make fans excited than Veronica Mars. But with Veronica Mars, because I imagined that show was going to go on and we were going to continue to do more mysteries, I wasn’t building that as the grand ending of the series, whereas I was on iZombie. The closest I had ever thought I was writing the end of the entire Veronica Mars universe was when I wrote the movie. In the end of the movie, I did give the audience a reasonably happy ending with Veronica [Kristen Bell] back working as a private detective and she and Logan [Jason Dohring] back together. It’s only now that I’m starting to believe I’m going to get the opportunity to do a bunch more [seasons of Veronica Mars] that that happy ending didn’t work for me moving forward.
If Veronica Mars is the shot, then iZombie is definitely the chaser.
[Laughs] I may steal that… I really can’t go online these days. I will find out the reaction secondhand through Google alerts the next day. Hopefully it’s more positive.
Was there anything you wanted to include in the final season or series as a whole that didn’t end up fitting?
We finally did get some stuff about her family into this final season. I would have liked to have put more meat on those bones. It’s just we had so many characters to give their own story lines that it just became unwieldy. We had a hard time fitting in all that story we had for the series regulars that adding story lines for family members — they were written several times and in a few places shot, and they just kept getting pushed further down the road. I do regret that.
At least we finally got it in the final season. That was great payoff.
We had intended to have them in the finale as well, but we ran out of room. There just wasn’t room for them. At least we know that they’re well and Liv has, to some degree, patched up that relationship. That felt good.
What would we have seen with them in the finale?
You would have gotten a bigger dose of the rapprochement. It had to go so quickly in episode 12 that I just think you would have gotten to play a couple more pages on screen of them working through their history. But episode 12 was such a roller coaster ride, it was so quick-moving that there wasn’t a lot of time for heartfelt scenes. I know that the plan would have been for them to be on that plane back to Portland with them, but we just couldn’t make it happen.
What are you most proud of from this series now that it’s over?
It was a fun place to go to work for five years. It was really the happiest place on Earth. As a television writer, there are so many things that can make your life miserable — a bad relationship with a studio, a bad relationship with a network, a cast that doesn’t like each other or makes your life difficult, a crew that isn’t good, all sorts of things that can make doing television a grind — and we had none of that. It was five years of people going to work happy. In terms of storytelling, I’m fine with where we got on iZombie. I’m not even sure if they told me, “You could have a sixth and seventh season,” I’m not sure what I would have even done with them. I didn’t mind ending the story here. The thing that I will get misty over is not coming to work with this team, from top to bottom. It was a really great ride.
This interview has been edited and
iZombie EP Talks Series Finale Time Jump, Blaine's
and More
By Vlada Gelman / August 1 2019, 6:00 PM PDT
Courtesy of The CW
RELATED STORIES
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Thursday’s iZombie series finale!
The undead got a surprisingly happy ending during iZombie‘s series finale on Thursday. Initially, it looked like Liv had been taken out by a Dead Ender bomber, while Major had sacrificed himself to prove the cure was real. Then a 10-year time jump revealed the truth. Now a co-captain with Dale at the SFPD, Clive joined happily marrieds Ravi and Peyton — he now heads the CDC, while she is a D.A. in Atlanta — for a virtual talk show hosted by guest star Chris Lowell.
When questioned about their friends’ whereabouts, the trio maintained that Liv and Major were dead. But after the broadcast, the reunited couple joined their pals, virtually, from their safe abode on Zombie Island. Unfortunately, life had taken them all in different directions, and the Dead Enders were still a threat to the undead leaders — but they could all be together. It would just take one scratch, Liv suggested with a smile as the episode came to a close.
SPY Guide: 4 Platinum 20th Anniversary Gifts for Her
TVLINE | Speaking of happy, over the seasons, we’ve seen Liv and Major sacrifice themselves and/or their relationship many times. It really seemed like things could go either way for them in the end, but they got a happy ending! Why did you decide to go that route with them?
It was always the plan. We haven’t wavered on that. They’ve gone through some dark times and some times where they have not seen eye-to-eye, but the big five-year romance of the show was Major and Liv. We wanted to see them get their happy ending.
TVLINE | Even though there’s a cure out there now, Major and Liv both chose to remain zombies. Why was it important for them to stay zombies?
Well, they have a zombie family. They have children who will never grow up. It keeps them alive forever. It means they can stay eternally a family.
TVLINE | Blaine finally got his comeuppance, but unexpectedly, it came at the hands of Don E. How did you land on Don E being the one who actually defeats Blaine? And did you ever toy with Liv or one of the other characters being the one to defeat him?
That was the subject of great debate. I’m pretty thrilled with how that goes down, because Liv does get to actually put almost the worst stake in Blaine’s heart. She has just forced him to spend eternity with Don E. The two of them hate each other. They’re going to be down in this well forever, hating each other. In my mind, it allowed us to have both Don E and Liv get their payback on Blaine for everything he’s done to them.
TVLINE | They are still undead down there. It’s not quite a final death. That makes me worried that Blaine could one day find his way out of that well somehow and come back to torment them all.
[Laughs] It is true. I think he’s going to be down there for quite a while, but I suppose that is possible.
TVLINE | We didn’t get an update about what happened to Liv’s family after they left Seattle. Was that something you wanted to include in the finale, but didn’t have time for?
Yes, that was just stuff we ran out of time to be able to shoot. In our minds, that story ended well. They got out of the facility, and all is well with her brother and her mother. There was so much ground to cover that we didn’t get to tie that one up as much.
TVLINE | The virtualcast scene was so unusual. It was very atypical for the show. Where did the idea for that come from?
I kept wanting to do something that gave more perspective, which required a jump forward in time. And then how could we let them go their separate ways, and yet get them all together in a room talking about it? I think that’s how we got there was needing to tell an epilogue in an interesting way. And I liked the idea of going 10 years later. I liked seeing that our human characters have all aged a little bit, and our zombies are still the same age. That was one of the cool ideas. When you’re just seeing them week to week, you can’t see that, but fast forwarding 10 years allowed us to play with that a little bit.
TVLINE | And how long have you been trying to get Chris Lowell on the show?
His name has come up many times. If we could have gotten Chris to play one of Liv’s boyfriends over the years, that was one of the things we wanted to do. Chris and Rose [McIver] are friends and even starred in a little indie movie together. [Executive producers] Diane Ruggiero and Dan Etheridge and I are all big Chris Lowell fans, and then Rose is as well, so it’s just been a matter of time. It took us all the way until the final episode. … Here’s a fun piece of trivia: We called [Liv’s Season 1 boyfriend] Lowell because, initially, we wanted Chris Lowell for that part.
iZombie fans, what did you think of the series ender? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments!
Courtesy of The CW
RELATED STORIES
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Warning: The following contains spoilers for Thursday’s iZombie series finale!
The undead got a surprisingly happy ending during iZombie‘s series finale on Thursday. Initially, it looked like Liv had been taken out by a Dead Ender bomber, while Major had sacrificed himself to prove the cure was real. Then a 10-year time jump revealed the truth. Now a co-captain with Dale at the SFPD, Clive joined happily marrieds Ravi and Peyton — he now heads the CDC, while she is a D.A. in Atlanta — for a virtual talk show hosted by guest star Chris Lowell.
When questioned about their friends’ whereabouts, the trio maintained that Liv and Major were dead. But after the broadcast, the reunited couple joined their pals, virtually, from their safe abode on Zombie Island. Unfortunately, life had taken them all in different directions, and the Dead Enders were still a threat to the undead leaders — but they could all be together. It would just take one scratch, Liv suggested with a smile as the episode came to a close.
SPY Guide: 4 Platinum 20th Anniversary Gifts for Her
TVLINE | Speaking of happy, over the seasons, we’ve seen Liv and Major sacrifice themselves and/or their relationship many times. It really seemed like things could go either way for them in the end, but they got a happy ending! Why did you decide to go that route with them?It was always the plan. We haven’t wavered on that. They’ve gone through some dark times and some times where they have not seen eye-to-eye, but the big five-year romance of the show was Major and Liv. We wanted to see them get their happy ending.
TVLINE | Even though there’s a cure out there now, Major and Liv both chose to remain zombies. Why was it important for them to stay zombies?
Well, they have a zombie family. They have children who will never grow up. It keeps them alive forever. It means they can stay eternally a family.
TVLINE | Blaine finally got his comeuppance, but unexpectedly, it came at the hands of Don E. How did you land on Don E being the one who actually defeats Blaine? And did you ever toy with Liv or one of the other characters being the one to defeat him?That was the subject of great debate. I’m pretty thrilled with how that goes down, because Liv does get to actually put almost the worst stake in Blaine’s heart. She has just forced him to spend eternity with Don E. The two of them hate each other. They’re going to be down in this well forever, hating each other. In my mind, it allowed us to have both Don E and Liv get their payback on Blaine for everything he’s done to them.
TVLINE | They are still undead down there. It’s not quite a final death. That makes me worried that Blaine could one day find his way out of that well somehow and come back to torment them all.
[Laughs] It is true. I think he’s going to be down there for quite a while, but I suppose that is possible.
TVLINE | We didn’t get an update about what happened to Liv’s family after they left Seattle. Was that something you wanted to include in the finale, but didn’t have time for?Yes, that was just stuff we ran out of time to be able to shoot. In our minds, that story ended well. They got out of the facility, and all is well with her brother and her mother. There was so much ground to cover that we didn’t get to tie that one up as much.
TVLINE | The virtualcast scene was so unusual. It was very atypical for the show. Where did the idea for that come from?
I kept wanting to do something that gave more perspective, which required a jump forward in time. And then how could we let them go their separate ways, and yet get them all together in a room talking about it? I think that’s how we got there was needing to tell an epilogue in an interesting way. And I liked the idea of going 10 years later. I liked seeing that our human characters have all aged a little bit, and our zombies are still the same age. That was one of the cool ideas. When you’re just seeing them week to week, you can’t see that, but fast forwarding 10 years allowed us to play with that a little bit.
TVLINE | And how long have you been trying to get Chris Lowell on the show?
His name has come up many times. If we could have gotten Chris to play one of Liv’s boyfriends over the years, that was one of the things we wanted to do. Chris and Rose [McIver] are friends and even starred in a little indie movie together. [Executive producers] Diane Ruggiero and Dan Etheridge and I are all big Chris Lowell fans, and then Rose is as well, so it’s just been a matter of time. It took us all the way until the final episode. … Here’s a fun piece of trivia: We called [Liv’s Season 1 boyfriend] Lowell because, initially, we wanted Chris Lowell for that part.
iZombie fans, what did you think of the series ender? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments!
iZombie Boss Rob Thomas on Blaine's Series Finale Fate
By RUSS BURLINGAME - August 1, 2019 11:27 pm EDT
By RUSS BURLINGAME - August 1, 2019 11:27 pm EDT
- iZombie, a five-year journey through a zombie outbreak that ended with a lot less bloodshed than most, based on the comics from writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred. In the series finale, fans finally got to learn was was to become of their favorite characters -- and one of their least favorite, longtime villain Blaine DeBeers (David Anders). As the big bad for most of the series' run, Blaine was a deliciously sinister villain who managed to weasel out of trouble at every turn and fail upwards for almost the entire run of the series.
Spoilers ahead for the series finale of iZombie, "All's Well That Ends Well," which aired tonight on The CW. In tonight's episode, Blaine finally went down -- literally. He was tackled down into a deep well from which there was little hope of him ever escaping, the natural consequences from the latest in his long line of crimes he thought he had gotten away with (in this case, the murder of Don E.'s fiancee, who he then pretended had died peacefully from Freylich Syndrome, a disorder that disproportionately affects teens and young adults. She was a known carrier, becuase Freylich brains contained a zombie cure, which meant Blaine was "collecting" Freylich kids to sell as cures to rich people. This speaks to something that fans and critics have cited as a problem in the past: Blaine is basically an irredeemable monster, and some argue he should have died much sooner.
"My problem is that I truly love watching David Anders on screen," Thomas admitted. "I just tend to find him so delicious. Like, if we had to go get another big bad who is consistently as fun as David Anders, it would be quite a challenge."
That doesn't mean Blaine got off easy, of course: as fans who watched tonight's finale know by now, his fate was to be tossed, along with his business partner Don E., into the well where he had left his father to rot between seasons three and four. There is no concrete evidence that the pair did not make it out, but certainly in Thomas's mind, that doesn't seem to be what happened.
@russburlingame on Twitter. If you missed the episode, iZombie will be on Netflix in about two weeks, or you can buy the finale on demand from various digital services starting tomorrow morning.
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Rob Thomas On Tonight's iZombie Finale, More Veronica Mars, and Happy Endings
By RUSS BURLINGAME - August 1, 2019 06:54 pm EDT
By RUSS BURLINGAME - August 1, 2019 06:54 pm EDT
- TV series for Hulu. Along the way, they created five well-received seasons of TV featuring a stellar cast that loosely adapted the Vertigo Comics title from Chris Roberson and Michael Allred. Thomas joined ComicBook.com to talk about tonight's series finale, "All's Well That Ends Well."
During this season, you were in and out working on Veronica Mars. Was it fun to do the noir episode of iZombie from a few weeks ago while writing the neo-noir of Veronica?
Yeah. On Veronica Mars, we do play with tropes of noir, but we never try to make it look like an old school gum shoe movie. We're not trying to create those hard shadows and Veronica, her voiceover is usually jaded, but it's not usually that steeped in 1940s references. They went the full Monty on iZombie for the noir episode.
In an era where a lot of shows will do clever "theme" episodes, iZombie rarely did them, although the nature of the brain-eating personalities basically got you halfway there every week. Was that a balancing act?
I just rewatched This Is Spinal Tap for the probably 99th time I've seen it last night, and with iZombie, every episode was we're dancing on that thin line between clever and stupid. The goal going into an iZombie was, "What is a brain that will be fun?" I mean, fun was really the motivating factor of most iZombie decisions. "What will give us the most fun scenes?" was often what dictated the brains we choose, or how hard we lean into particular brains. It was always a challenge to do that and milk all the fun we could out of any given brain, and still stay in a world in which it matters who lives and dies -- where we weren't being so on the comedy side of the line that people no longer cared about our characters. That's what we wanted to avoid, getting that far on the other side of the line, which for the most part we did. I can't say we were always successful with that, but that was always the goal going in.
Was the idea of bringing in Liv's father always going to happen in the fifth season?
Over the five years, it was the card that we knew we had that we could play. Not that we had to play it, but it was always there, and probably each year we had a discussion that, "Okay, this is the year where we find out who her dad is." So her dad playing the role that he di,d being sort of the creator of all Seattle zombies, that did not occur to us until season five...but we very much kept toying with stories for Liv's dad, who we had never met, until we found one that we liked.
On that note, was it a priority to finally give some closure to the story of Liv's mom and Evan?
Yeah, it was. I felt good about that. Honestly, I would have even liked a couple more scenes really finish them off. The episodes just got so tight there at the end.
This is a show that feels ultimately pretty optimistic. Is it tough to write a series finale when the audience basically expects nothing truly awful will happen?
Well, here's the thing -- I would bet that when people watch tonight's episode, there are going to be moments in it when they are going to be legitimately worried that some of their favorites aren't going to make it to the end. And not everyone does survive the finale of iZombie. So, I do think we still manage to keep folks guessing. I'm not sure that the entire audience thinks that all of their favorite characters are safe. I could be wrong, but I think they're going to be concerned tonight watching this episode.
PAID CONTENT BY TLC
They Found International Love!
Before the wedding. Before the proposal. 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, Sun 8|7c
Is there anything that you didn't get to do in season five that you wish you'd had time for? Any dangling things that you didn't get a chance to address?
I'm sure there were. I know that I would've liked to have had probably three or four more scenes with Liv's mom and brother. They got short shrifted through much of iZombie. And then, it's a little hard for me because I was around for about the first half of the season for iZombie and then I kind of had to start focusing on Veronica Mars until I came back in and wrote the finale. So, it's been a long time since I've been in the iZombie writers' room is what I'm trying to say. So, I'm a little fuzzy on things that I might've liked to have gotten to, but certainly more Liv's mother and brother.
So once the world is safe for spring break again, what's the chance that we get to see Rose McIver or Rahul Kohli hosting a boat party on Veronica Mars?
0COMMENTS
I think there's a reasonable shot. I would not bet against that.
I think we're going to get to do more Veronica Mars, and I hope that people who I pissed off will give it another shot. But I knew when I did what I did that there was a shot I would lose them. So, we'll see. We'll see what happens.
They got to get Rose and Rahul on there..then again she'd make a good tv version of Harley Quinn if DC ever decides to bring Batman into the Arrowverse..Rob Thomas On Tonight's iZombie Finale, More Veronica Mars, and Happy Endings
By RUSS BURLINGAME - August 1, 2019 06:54 pm EDT
- TV series for Hulu. Along the way, they created five well-received seasons of TV featuring a stellar cast that loosely adapted the Vertigo Comics title from Chris Roberson and Michael Allred. Thomas joined ComicBook.com to talk about tonight's series finale, "All's Well That Ends Well."
During this season, you were in and out working on Veronica Mars. Was it fun to do the noir episode of iZombie from a few weeks ago while writing the neo-noir of Veronica?
Yeah. On Veronica Mars, we do play with tropes of noir, but we never try to make it look like an old school gum shoe movie. We're not trying to create those hard shadows and Veronica, her voiceover is usually jaded, but it's not usually that steeped in 1940s references. They went the full Monty on iZombie for the noir episode.
In an era where a lot of shows will do clever "theme" episodes, iZombie rarely did them, although the nature of the brain-eating personalities basically got you halfway there every week. Was that a balancing act?
I just rewatched This Is Spinal Tap for the probably 99th time I've seen it last night, and with iZombie, every episode was we're dancing on that thin line between clever and stupid. The goal going into an iZombie was, "What is a brain that will be fun?" I mean, fun was really the motivating factor of most iZombie decisions. "What will give us the most fun scenes?" was often what dictated the brains we choose, or how hard we lean into particular brains. It was always a challenge to do that and milk all the fun we could out of any given brain, and still stay in a world in which it matters who lives and dies -- where we weren't being so on the comedy side of the line that people no longer cared about our characters. That's what we wanted to avoid, getting that far on the other side of the line, which for the most part we did. I can't say we were always successful with that, but that was always the goal going in.
Was the idea of bringing in Liv's father always going to happen in the fifth season?
Over the five years, it was the card that we knew we had that we could play. Not that we had to play it, but it was always there, and probably each year we had a discussion that, "Okay, this is the year where we find out who her dad is." So her dad playing the role that he di,d being sort of the creator of all Seattle zombies, that did not occur to us until season five...but we very much kept toying with stories for Liv's dad, who we had never met, until we found one that we liked.
On that note, was it a priority to finally give some closure to the story of Liv's mom and Evan?
Yeah, it was. I felt good about that. Honestly, I would have even liked a couple more scenes really finish them off. The episodes just got so tight there at the end.
This is a show that feels ultimately pretty optimistic. Is it tough to write a series finale when the audience basically expects nothing truly awful will happen?
Well, here's the thing -- I would bet that when people watch tonight's episode, there are going to be moments in it when they are going to be legitimately worried that some of their favorites aren't going to make it to the end. And not everyone does survive the finale of iZombie. So, I do think we still manage to keep folks guessing. I'm not sure that the entire audience thinks that all of their favorite characters are safe. I could be wrong, but I think they're going to be concerned tonight watching this episode.
PAID CONTENT BY TLC
They Found International Love!
Before the wedding. Before the proposal. 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days, Sun 8|7c
Is there anything that you didn't get to do in season five that you wish you'd had time for? Any dangling things that you didn't get a chance to address?
I'm sure there were. I know that I would've liked to have had probably three or four more scenes with Liv's mom and brother. They got short shrifted through much of iZombie. And then, it's a little hard for me because I was around for about the first half of the season for iZombie and then I kind of had to start focusing on Veronica Mars until I came back in and wrote the finale. So, it's been a long time since I've been in the iZombie writers' room is what I'm trying to say. So, I'm a little fuzzy on things that I might've liked to have gotten to, but certainly more Liv's mother and brother.
So once the world is safe for spring break again, what's the chance that we get to see Rose McIver or Rahul Kohli hosting a boat party on Veronica Mars?
0COMMENTS
I think there's a reasonable shot. I would not bet against that.
I think we're going to get to do more Veronica Mars, and I hope that people who I pissed off will give it another shot. But I knew when I did what I did that there was a shot I would lose them. So, we'll see. We'll see what happens.
Malcolm would make a good John Stewart as well IMO
Been meaning to check this series out. Hard to keep up with all the good TV content of the past decade plus.
Its worth it.
He said in a the last interview that now he cool with the 5 seasons.
Should I check out Fear the Walking Dead and Z Nation in the years ahead too? All caught up with Black Summer and The Walking Dead.
We're currently watching Stranger Things, Yellowstone, and City on a Hill series rotation-wise.
I never watched z nation like that.
I watch fear...thats gonna take awhile though and its inconsistent but good.
Izombie is a fun watch and now that its done easy binge.
I'm impressed you can keep up with all that!
Thanks. I saw a little bit of Z Nation some seasons back. The Couch Potatoes guys (podcast) were saying Fear has really improved the past season or two. They, like many, were losing interest in the regular TWD over the years. As for the rotation ... yeah ... we usually get together once a week and tackle a few shows, or a movie + 1 show. Just stream 'em from the flash drive without commercials. It's funny too 'cuz everyone's DVRs are full of stuff otherwise. Just the stuff we watch off the flash drive is what we keep up with. The other shows in the rotation over the years = TWD, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Survivor, Chernobyl, Eastbound and Down, etc.
I really enjoyed the last episode...
Normally,I dont watch a series again after it's done but Im rewatching this series again..
Normally,I dont watch a series again after it's done but Im rewatching this series again..
I really enjoyed the last episode...
Normally,I dont watch a series again after it's done but Im rewatching this series again..
damn it I got something in my eye watching that..
damn blaine.
TV REVIEWSIZOMBIESEASON 5
For iZombie, “All’s Well That Ends Well,” except for its final season
LaToya Ferguson
Today 3:10am
Filed to: RECAP
69Save
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“All’s Well That Ends Well” (and this entire final season of iZombie) is an excellent example of how showrunner multitasking can cause a lot more harm than good. In this case, iZombie suffered as a result of Rob Thomas pulling double duty on this and his baby, Veronica Mars. As the season progressed, I had this idea in the back of my mind, but the combination of watching and reviewing the new season of Veronica Mars and then seeing this series finale confirmed it. Because “All’s Well That Ends Well” is the bootleg version of Veronica Mars’ fourth season finale, only with a refusal to let anything stick—due to iZombie’s different tone and genre—and an inability to follow through on the main story it told all season. If you thought Rob Thomas had trouble writing a story without it all ending in misery, “All’s Well That Ends Well” proves it’s even harder for him to write a story that doesn’t.
Without majorly spoiling for those who haven’t seen Veronica Mars’ finale or, impressively, haven’t been spoiled, these points are what I’m looking at:
At the very least, “All’s Well That Ends Well” defends what Rob Thomas has said about his approach to storytelling in Veronica Mars post-mortems. It’s one thing to desire something out of an artist, but it’s another to accept that they simply cannot deliver it. (As the same writers tend to work on these Spondoolieverse shows, that means understanding Rob’s strengths and weaknesses themselves.) Rob Thomas went on the record in saying he doesn’t know how to write a happy couple without making them boring, which explains so much of the Liv/Major relationship, as well why they can have their happy ending here when all is said and done: He doesn’t have to worry about writing them on Zombie Island. (With Peyton/Ravi and Clive/Dale, his habits are also apparent, and the conclusion also prevents him from throwing other wrenches at these pairings.)
The one thing that was guaranteed by the end of the series was a happy ending for Liv/Major, despite this season doing none of the work to even attempt to sell it. At this point, it’s not even clear why they should be together or why they were apart, other than the fact the scripts made it so. In fact, storylines that didn’t even factor into this finale got more screentime this season than Liv/Major. Because up until last week, their scenes didn’t go further than “I love taking care of zombie orphans.” (Liv and Major), “I really hate my job.” (Major), and “Hi, Zombie is the escape we need.” (Liv, Major, me, now realizing the alternative).
But of course iZombie had a happy ending. As depressing as this season has been, iZombie has always been a series based on optimism, the opposite of Veronica Mars. (See: the “One Day More” conclusion scene in “The Whopper”) It’s supposed to be a light-hearted show—as much as it can be—which is why there was never any doubt that, in all the darkness, iZombie would end with the light. But that inherent optimism has also been warped to hurt the show, as the concept that also drives the “Liv is Renegade” plot and Major’s time in Fillmore Graves as a leader who thinks he can change things from within. As we learn by the end of this episode, the history books look back very kindly on Liv and Major as a result of these actions, which apparently matters more than the negative impact those plots both had on the series.
It seems odd to talk about the series’ “happy ending” when the episode has such a high body count, but just imagine the impact if we had cared about any of the characters who died in the crossfire. (The body count is honestly the closest thing iZombie can get to creating high stakes on this level because, for as much time spent on building it up, the war has never been as compelling as it should be.) At times, the only thing that made this season’s major arcs bearable was the realization that there was no way the series would end on a negative note. The closest this episode gets to killing someone who the audience cares about—other than Blaine and Don E—is Michelle, and it takes a moment in the future epilogue to even put together that she died in the Dead Ender suicide bombing. Clive and Dale adopting her son only works because of the friendship they developed with her this season, but that still wasn’t a good story in the first place. Neither is killing off Michelle, as she dies the way she was born: more of a plot device than a character.
Even more so than the Liz/Major reunion, Blaine’s demise is the most expected series finale beat. After an entire season of making clear that redemption for Blaine shouldn’t even be a whisper in anyone’s ear, these last two episodes have had him go full classic fairytale villain. Only, without the Disney resolution where his abuse and monstrous behavior was simply because he didn’t understand love until blah blah blah. (The worst part about this season clearly being rushed is David Anders not getting to play the “Beast” version of Blaine up even more than just this episode.) Blaine’s death is simple and anticlimactic in a way the rest of the episode (with its barrage of bullets from guns that never need reloading) refuses to be, which is instantly more compelling and entertaining. The particular moment before he dies also boils Blaine down to his simplest form (as Al—remember Al?—did), as a spoiled rich kid with daddy issues, who thinks not being boring makes him special. The entire well scene itself is about five seconds away from becoming “Dear Sister,” which is also part of the weirdness that makes it work, even though it’s not as heightened and realistic as all the other death (which doesn’t work) in this episode.
As great as it would be cathartic to see Ravi or Major kill Blaine like they’ve wanted to for years, there’s something poetic in him finally being taken down by one of his own men, especially the most sycophantic of them all. Plus, the doom of him spending the rest of eternity with his rotting father and Don E is arguably a fate worse than death. The true cathartic moment, however, is when Liv knocks Don E in the well. Sure, the moment itself is unbelievable—but in that weird, quirky way iZombie should be, like the whole scene itself—but the moment in time when Liv realizes that Blaine is finally gone and can let her emotions go and process Peyton’s “death” is the best, most honest piece of acting in this entire episode. (Ravi’s reaction to the Peyton news comes close.) One of the worst things about this season is how much of a disservice it has been to Rose McIver as its lead, but McIver has made chicken salad out of so much of this season, not just the typical brain personalities.
In iZombie and Rob Thomas’ defense, circumstances beyond their control apparently affected the predominant storyline in season four, and in The CW renewing the series for a fifth and final season, it was clear the series’ endgame would be rushed. At the same time, in its third season, a series that always had amazingly low ratings took a hard left in terms of the story it had been telling, so even if it had gotten the time to breathe or tell the full story it had wanted, it arguably still would have been disappointing. We’d still be getting all of these storylines, only with more screentime dedicated to them. These storylines being rushed doesn’t change the fact the series decided that the found family story between Liv, Ravi, Clive, Major, and Peyton (and even Dale) wasn’t good enough—despite actually being developed—and decided to plop in the orphan kids as a result. Even though, other than the original introductions of these characters, we know nothing about them or their relationship with Liv. Yes, she’s their adopted mother (figuratively, then literally), but that doesn’t count for a blanket statement on their relationship. Isobel’s relationship with Liv and the rest of the characters was clearly defined, to the point where her death still meaning as much as it does to Ravi makes absolute sense. This season hasn’t done anything to suggest that any of these kids’ deaths would matter past the idea that Liv would blame herself for not being the best Renegade she could be. (That’s even teased when she returns to Renegade House and they’re nowhere to be found.) This season hasn’t done anything to suggest that anyone’s death (outside of our series regulars) matters at all.
Here’s the thing: As time went on, iZombie needed Renegade and all these kids (as well as other Renegade “customers” with incurable illnesses) as a way to provide an actual reason to want to be or remain a zombie, other than insanity, greed, etc. The problem is, the series was arguably at its best when its characters were looking to cure themselves as well, to right the wrongs of this thing that was done to them instead of standing up for zombie rights. Honestly, a reset where everyone took the cure would have actually been a better end, perhaps true to the show’s original mission statement. Because for a “happy” ending, this episode reveals that not everything ended well with human-zombie relations, even though it pretends that it’s not as big of a deal. Then again, this finale ignores a huge chunk of what was in place for this war, which speaks to the fact that so much of this season was a waste of time.
That’s really the thing about this season finale and season five altogether: While the characters and actors may have been able to do some interesting stuff, the things they’re working in service of weren’t on that same level. That’s why the Blaine stuff is such a compelling break from the war and why it’s not even frustrating that Liv, Clive, and Ravi spend a considerable amount of time on a road trip instead of on the streets while all of this is going down. Because anything is better than watching these characters be brought into this poorly-written story. For starters, after episodes of setting up the new and improved Romeros and even having Enzo plan to turn Major into one of them, they don’t factor into the literal firefights between zombies and humans. All of the battles are humans vs. Fillmore Graves soldiers, who—because they’re played by human actors without a ton of typical zombie make-up—look like humans. I can’t even blame this fully on the series budget, because it’s just poor storytelling.
The zombie brothel Martin put Riley in charge of to mass-produce zombies? All the sleeper agents in D.C.? Any of Martin’s plan that Enzo was all-in on enough to kill him and take over? None of this is mentioned in the epilogue either, and based on Rob Thomas’ post-mortem interviews, it doesn’t seem like that’s supposed to be a lingering issue. In season four, despite the Robert Knepper controversy, his storyline was so extremely prominent; given the way the Martin storyline ended, you’d think Bill Wise was the actor accused of sexual misconduct and then fired instead. Martin’s plan was for global domination, and Enzo supposedly killed him to maintain that plan. But in his short time as Fillmore Graves Commander, Enzo had absolutely no vision past Seattle and local zombie dominance. Of course that could’ve easily translated to much larger things once the world saw how he got this city in line, but considering all of the moving pieces for this storyline in the first place, that there’s no discussion of them is a waste of time.
The epilogue and final scenes are a good send-off for iZombie and a reminder of why we love these characters, who are without a doubt the best part of “All’s Well That Ends Well” and this season. But even if you consider this a good series finale for the series as a whole, this is simply not a good finale for the story told within this one season dedicated to reaching this conclusion. After wondering if the introduction of all these new characters would end up working in iZombie’s favor, the answer is a resounding no. Enzo is killed by the tutor who was blackmailed into working for him and Martin, over a boyfriend we only ever saw in one scene. (One scene where the tutor was running his mouth about working for Renegade in the first place.) And then Enzo kills him.After a season of defiance, Tater (a character with zero redeemable qualities from start to finish) and Ames are killed as blips in Major’s plan to get Max Rager. Dolly Durkins’ zombie son exists again just for her to kill him and the series to ignore any emotional fallout because these characters are all just black and white pieces to move. Riley, an integral part of Martin’s original zombie outbreak plan, is out in the world, presumably continuing on her boss’ plan? Mr. Boss is essentially written out of the brain smuggling equation as a result of zombie utopia, and who knows how he took that.
The thing about this final war is that its weaknesses truly do all fall on the zombie side, which you wouldn’t expect from a show called iZombie. It would have been one thing had there been another zombie contingent (on equal footing with the Dead Enders) outside of Martin’s zealot base, but they were supposedly one and the same. And as the series ends with Liv and Major giving their friends the hard sell on becoming zombies—which apparently wasn’t just a winking joke, according to Rob Thomas—while it’s supposed to be a sweet moment, it’s an endpoint that maintains iZombie’s refusal (or inability) to acknowledge how becoming a zombie in this world never actually came across as cool or something worth rooting for (outside of just a minor fanservice bit, like Peyton as a zombie). It’s the major reason why there’s such a disparity between how the Renegade storyline has been treated on the show versus how it’s actually perceived as a viewer. Ultimately, it falls on iZombie’s abilities as a genre show, as its zombie mythology has always been a mix of murky and not-that-special.
“All’s Well That Ends Well” creates the illusion of a competent finale from scene-to-scene, but as expected, its inability to actually follow through on the story it told all season—and on tying up the loose ends that would suggest zombieism should’ve been eradicated altogether—is its downfall. Its saving grace is moments from its main characters (Liv/Peyton’s reunion, Ravi giving Major Max Rager as the “cure,” Clive yelling “Bozzio-Babineaux” in a hospital) and every scene technically makes sense as is. But this is a weak execution of the story iZombie force-fed its audience in this final season’s first 12 episodes. And that’s not all well and good.
Stray observations
For iZombie, “All’s Well That Ends Well,” except for its final season
LaToya Ferguson
Today 3:10am
Filed to: RECAP
69Save
TV ReviewsAll of our TV reviews in one convenient place.
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“All’s Well That Ends Well” (and this entire final season of iZombie) is an excellent example of how showrunner multitasking can cause a lot more harm than good. In this case, iZombie suffered as a result of Rob Thomas pulling double duty on this and his baby, Veronica Mars. As the season progressed, I had this idea in the back of my mind, but the combination of watching and reviewing the new season of Veronica Mars and then seeing this series finale confirmed it. Because “All’s Well That Ends Well” is the bootleg version of Veronica Mars’ fourth season finale, only with a refusal to let anything stick—due to iZombie’s different tone and genre—and an inability to follow through on the main story it told all season. If you thought Rob Thomas had trouble writing a story without it all ending in misery, “All’s Well That Ends Well” proves it’s even harder for him to write a story that doesn’t.
Without majorly spoiling for those who haven’t seen Veronica Mars’ finale or, impressively, haven’t been spoiled, these points are what I’m looking at:
- Peyton’s “death,” before the zombie reveal.
- The voicemail from Major, right down to the general context (love and admiration, “What Would Liv Moore Do?).
- An underwhelming villain leading into… an underwhelming villain. Though I’ll give Veronica Mars the edge on this front, as Veronica Mars has never had characters as bad as Martin or Enzo.
- An explosion...
- ...and a time jump epilogue.
At the very least, “All’s Well That Ends Well” defends what Rob Thomas has said about his approach to storytelling in Veronica Mars post-mortems. It’s one thing to desire something out of an artist, but it’s another to accept that they simply cannot deliver it. (As the same writers tend to work on these Spondoolieverse shows, that means understanding Rob’s strengths and weaknesses themselves.) Rob Thomas went on the record in saying he doesn’t know how to write a happy couple without making them boring, which explains so much of the Liv/Major relationship, as well why they can have their happy ending here when all is said and done: He doesn’t have to worry about writing them on Zombie Island. (With Peyton/Ravi and Clive/Dale, his habits are also apparent, and the conclusion also prevents him from throwing other wrenches at these pairings.)
The one thing that was guaranteed by the end of the series was a happy ending for Liv/Major, despite this season doing none of the work to even attempt to sell it. At this point, it’s not even clear why they should be together or why they were apart, other than the fact the scripts made it so. In fact, storylines that didn’t even factor into this finale got more screentime this season than Liv/Major. Because up until last week, their scenes didn’t go further than “I love taking care of zombie orphans.” (Liv and Major), “I really hate my job.” (Major), and “Hi, Zombie is the escape we need.” (Liv, Major, me, now realizing the alternative).
But of course iZombie had a happy ending. As depressing as this season has been, iZombie has always been a series based on optimism, the opposite of Veronica Mars. (See: the “One Day More” conclusion scene in “The Whopper”) It’s supposed to be a light-hearted show—as much as it can be—which is why there was never any doubt that, in all the darkness, iZombie would end with the light. But that inherent optimism has also been warped to hurt the show, as the concept that also drives the “Liv is Renegade” plot and Major’s time in Fillmore Graves as a leader who thinks he can change things from within. As we learn by the end of this episode, the history books look back very kindly on Liv and Major as a result of these actions, which apparently matters more than the negative impact those plots both had on the series.
It seems odd to talk about the series’ “happy ending” when the episode has such a high body count, but just imagine the impact if we had cared about any of the characters who died in the crossfire. (The body count is honestly the closest thing iZombie can get to creating high stakes on this level because, for as much time spent on building it up, the war has never been as compelling as it should be.) At times, the only thing that made this season’s major arcs bearable was the realization that there was no way the series would end on a negative note. The closest this episode gets to killing someone who the audience cares about—other than Blaine and Don E—is Michelle, and it takes a moment in the future epilogue to even put together that she died in the Dead Ender suicide bombing. Clive and Dale adopting her son only works because of the friendship they developed with her this season, but that still wasn’t a good story in the first place. Neither is killing off Michelle, as she dies the way she was born: more of a plot device than a character.
Even more so than the Liz/Major reunion, Blaine’s demise is the most expected series finale beat. After an entire season of making clear that redemption for Blaine shouldn’t even be a whisper in anyone’s ear, these last two episodes have had him go full classic fairytale villain. Only, without the Disney resolution where his abuse and monstrous behavior was simply because he didn’t understand love until blah blah blah. (The worst part about this season clearly being rushed is David Anders not getting to play the “Beast” version of Blaine up even more than just this episode.) Blaine’s death is simple and anticlimactic in a way the rest of the episode (with its barrage of bullets from guns that never need reloading) refuses to be, which is instantly more compelling and entertaining. The particular moment before he dies also boils Blaine down to his simplest form (as Al—remember Al?—did), as a spoiled rich kid with daddy issues, who thinks not being boring makes him special. The entire well scene itself is about five seconds away from becoming “Dear Sister,” which is also part of the weirdness that makes it work, even though it’s not as heightened and realistic as all the other death (which doesn’t work) in this episode.
As great as it would be cathartic to see Ravi or Major kill Blaine like they’ve wanted to for years, there’s something poetic in him finally being taken down by one of his own men, especially the most sycophantic of them all. Plus, the doom of him spending the rest of eternity with his rotting father and Don E is arguably a fate worse than death. The true cathartic moment, however, is when Liv knocks Don E in the well. Sure, the moment itself is unbelievable—but in that weird, quirky way iZombie should be, like the whole scene itself—but the moment in time when Liv realizes that Blaine is finally gone and can let her emotions go and process Peyton’s “death” is the best, most honest piece of acting in this entire episode. (Ravi’s reaction to the Peyton news comes close.) One of the worst things about this season is how much of a disservice it has been to Rose McIver as its lead, but McIver has made chicken salad out of so much of this season, not just the typical brain personalities.
In iZombie and Rob Thomas’ defense, circumstances beyond their control apparently affected the predominant storyline in season four, and in The CW renewing the series for a fifth and final season, it was clear the series’ endgame would be rushed. At the same time, in its third season, a series that always had amazingly low ratings took a hard left in terms of the story it had been telling, so even if it had gotten the time to breathe or tell the full story it had wanted, it arguably still would have been disappointing. We’d still be getting all of these storylines, only with more screentime dedicated to them. These storylines being rushed doesn’t change the fact the series decided that the found family story between Liv, Ravi, Clive, Major, and Peyton (and even Dale) wasn’t good enough—despite actually being developed—and decided to plop in the orphan kids as a result. Even though, other than the original introductions of these characters, we know nothing about them or their relationship with Liv. Yes, she’s their adopted mother (figuratively, then literally), but that doesn’t count for a blanket statement on their relationship. Isobel’s relationship with Liv and the rest of the characters was clearly defined, to the point where her death still meaning as much as it does to Ravi makes absolute sense. This season hasn’t done anything to suggest that any of these kids’ deaths would matter past the idea that Liv would blame herself for not being the best Renegade she could be. (That’s even teased when she returns to Renegade House and they’re nowhere to be found.) This season hasn’t done anything to suggest that anyone’s death (outside of our series regulars) matters at all.
Here’s the thing: As time went on, iZombie needed Renegade and all these kids (as well as other Renegade “customers” with incurable illnesses) as a way to provide an actual reason to want to be or remain a zombie, other than insanity, greed, etc. The problem is, the series was arguably at its best when its characters were looking to cure themselves as well, to right the wrongs of this thing that was done to them instead of standing up for zombie rights. Honestly, a reset where everyone took the cure would have actually been a better end, perhaps true to the show’s original mission statement. Because for a “happy” ending, this episode reveals that not everything ended well with human-zombie relations, even though it pretends that it’s not as big of a deal. Then again, this finale ignores a huge chunk of what was in place for this war, which speaks to the fact that so much of this season was a waste of time.
That’s really the thing about this season finale and season five altogether: While the characters and actors may have been able to do some interesting stuff, the things they’re working in service of weren’t on that same level. That’s why the Blaine stuff is such a compelling break from the war and why it’s not even frustrating that Liv, Clive, and Ravi spend a considerable amount of time on a road trip instead of on the streets while all of this is going down. Because anything is better than watching these characters be brought into this poorly-written story. For starters, after episodes of setting up the new and improved Romeros and even having Enzo plan to turn Major into one of them, they don’t factor into the literal firefights between zombies and humans. All of the battles are humans vs. Fillmore Graves soldiers, who—because they’re played by human actors without a ton of typical zombie make-up—look like humans. I can’t even blame this fully on the series budget, because it’s just poor storytelling.
The zombie brothel Martin put Riley in charge of to mass-produce zombies? All the sleeper agents in D.C.? Any of Martin’s plan that Enzo was all-in on enough to kill him and take over? None of this is mentioned in the epilogue either, and based on Rob Thomas’ post-mortem interviews, it doesn’t seem like that’s supposed to be a lingering issue. In season four, despite the Robert Knepper controversy, his storyline was so extremely prominent; given the way the Martin storyline ended, you’d think Bill Wise was the actor accused of sexual misconduct and then fired instead. Martin’s plan was for global domination, and Enzo supposedly killed him to maintain that plan. But in his short time as Fillmore Graves Commander, Enzo had absolutely no vision past Seattle and local zombie dominance. Of course that could’ve easily translated to much larger things once the world saw how he got this city in line, but considering all of the moving pieces for this storyline in the first place, that there’s no discussion of them is a waste of time.
The epilogue and final scenes are a good send-off for iZombie and a reminder of why we love these characters, who are without a doubt the best part of “All’s Well That Ends Well” and this season. But even if you consider this a good series finale for the series as a whole, this is simply not a good finale for the story told within this one season dedicated to reaching this conclusion. After wondering if the introduction of all these new characters would end up working in iZombie’s favor, the answer is a resounding no. Enzo is killed by the tutor who was blackmailed into working for him and Martin, over a boyfriend we only ever saw in one scene. (One scene where the tutor was running his mouth about working for Renegade in the first place.) And then Enzo kills him.After a season of defiance, Tater (a character with zero redeemable qualities from start to finish) and Ames are killed as blips in Major’s plan to get Max Rager. Dolly Durkins’ zombie son exists again just for her to kill him and the series to ignore any emotional fallout because these characters are all just black and white pieces to move. Riley, an integral part of Martin’s original zombie outbreak plan, is out in the world, presumably continuing on her boss’ plan? Mr. Boss is essentially written out of the brain smuggling equation as a result of zombie utopia, and who knows how he took that.
The thing about this final war is that its weaknesses truly do all fall on the zombie side, which you wouldn’t expect from a show called iZombie. It would have been one thing had there been another zombie contingent (on equal footing with the Dead Enders) outside of Martin’s zealot base, but they were supposedly one and the same. And as the series ends with Liv and Major giving their friends the hard sell on becoming zombies—which apparently wasn’t just a winking joke, according to Rob Thomas—while it’s supposed to be a sweet moment, it’s an endpoint that maintains iZombie’s refusal (or inability) to acknowledge how becoming a zombie in this world never actually came across as cool or something worth rooting for (outside of just a minor fanservice bit, like Peyton as a zombie). It’s the major reason why there’s such a disparity between how the Renegade storyline has been treated on the show versus how it’s actually perceived as a viewer. Ultimately, it falls on iZombie’s abilities as a genre show, as its zombie mythology has always been a mix of murky and not-that-special.
“All’s Well That Ends Well” creates the illusion of a competent finale from scene-to-scene, but as expected, its inability to actually follow through on the story it told all season—and on tying up the loose ends that would suggest zombieism should’ve been eradicated altogether—is its downfall. Its saving grace is moments from its main characters (Liv/Peyton’s reunion, Ravi giving Major Max Rager as the “cure,” Clive yelling “Bozzio-Babineaux” in a hospital) and every scene technically makes sense as is. But this is a weak execution of the story iZombie force-fed its audience in this final season’s first 12 episodes. And that’s not all well and good.
Stray observations
- Just to be clear: I don’t regret getting this assignment (that I pitched for and was really excited to get), and this is far from the worst show I’ve ever reviewed for The A.V. Club. As disappointing as this season was, I’d say iZombie was never a bad show overall, it really just didn’t have the ability to achieve its potential, on multiple levels. Still going to miss these characters and this cast though.
- If you’ve read my last Veronica Mars review, you might remember a bit where I mentioned a Veronica reenactment actress looking like Liv Moore. The joke apparently goes both ways, thanks to Liv’s talkative seatmate on the plane, even though it doesn’t really work with brunette Liv. (What does work, however, is Ravi enjoying the amenities of first class.) Also, my last comparison between the two finales is pointing out their perfect final song selections. Veronica Mars had Sara Lov’s cover of “The World We Knew (Over And Over),” while iZombie has Skeeter Davis’ “The End Of The World.” Both are completely appropriate for their finale’s intentions.
- Liv/Major aren’t the only ones who get happy endings: Ravi is the head of the CDC and still with Peyton, who is the district attorney of Atlanta. Clive and Dale are co-captains at the San Francisco Police Department. Also, podcasts are virtual in 2029.
- It’s nothing new for guns in genre shows to feel out of place, but guns reach their peak here in this episode. In the culmination of iZombie’s commitment to making everything as much of a one-to-one comparison to the real world as possible, it makes the guns feel very much in place—which in turn sells out its own existence as a genre series. iZombie has always had issues on that front, considering its specific (vague) zombie mythology, but this season went out of its way to just make zombies “others” instead of genre character.
- The Dead Enders’ deck of zombie leadership cards—a la The Good Fight season two or real life—is a good idea and even a good image… that would’ve been even more impactful had it been introduced earlier. But it’s clear the cards have just been made—after being stocked with weapons by General Mills, which is also never discovered in the aftermath—as evidenced by “the new King of Spades,” Enzo.
- With the Martin storyline, I talked about how the show revealing to us early on how evil he was essentially ruined any chance of ever caring about his relationship with Liv. The season hurt Dolly in a way too, as it’s not until this episode that I realized Dolly leading both CHICS and the Dead Enders was even supposed to be a surprise to everyone else. Remember, they basically stopped saying “CHICS” after her introduction, when they went all-in on the domestic terrorism of it all.
- I know why, for story structure reasons—but logistically, why didn’t Blaine move into his father’s mansion until now? Yes, we know daddy issues, but with this as an option, he wouldn’t have had to stay at Mom E’s. That was supposed to be a safe house, but unlike Liv’s place of employment, I don’t think his father’s mansion is easy to find.
- This season has gone out of its way to show how terrible humans are to zombies, so as contrived as it is, the fake-out scene with the flight attendant and her brother—thankful for how Renegade helped their kid sister—is honestly refreshing. And a necessary scene, because this really has been a miserable season in this sense.
- We were robbed of seeing Dolly Durkins either: 1. Die in battle. Or at all. 2. Realize she killed her son after it had just been announced that there was a zombie cure. And then die. Her final scene features her being bloodthirsty in a way that suggests the Dead Enders didn’t just quit because of the cure. And then it’s confirmed, during all talk of utopia Zombie Island. Where is the win in that? The saving grace of both sides of the human-zombie zealot base (Dolly and Martin) was that this civil war would lead to both of their demises. Martin’s wasn’t satisfying, because it didn’t even make it to the big show—and there was no big show as a result of Enzo’s leadership—and Dolly gets to live on, most likely regrowing her numbers and planning an attack on the centralized home for zombies. This isn’t a win.
- I can’t remember if I said Don E would be the one to kill Blaine, but this whole season has led up to this. And with Blaine killing Darcy (confirmed here), it was only a matter of time before Don E snapped. You don’t murder a man’s child bride and get away with it. Sorry, but having the other Freylich kids along with the zombie orphans highlighted again how young they are. While they had funny moments, the relationship was only a choice made to get from point A to point B, not one with much thought put into it… unless it was to remind us that Don E is still a creep like Blaine. This episode definitely points out just how bad Don E is too (and he gets the well as well), but this season relied too much on his plight and then his heartbreak—and here, the catharsis of him pushing Blaine in the well—for that to be the case.
- Peyton: “How funny would it be if now I knocked you in?” This is the line of the episode.
- I get that the point is Dolly’s resorting to doxxing Liv to flush her out (we all get the real-life comparisons the show is making), but… As Renegade, Liv revealed who she is. We saw that article about her. People know she’s a medical examiner for the Seattle Police Department. The address of her place of employment is the exact definition of public information. Is it even doxxing at that point? They could’ve bombed the building without a tweet. In terms this character would understand, it’s like posting the address of the White House to “dox” Trump.
- The series has always kind of danced around this, but during the end comments about how Major and Lily haven’t aged, I was struck by the concept of the zombie orphans once again. (And it’s a point to realize when it shows them playing around.) They will always be children, never aging, perhaps mentally maturing, but we don’t know if that’s guaranteed. I just can’t see how that isn’t ultimately a nightmare.
- Speaking of the nightmare that is New New Seattle: It’s a good thing that, like humans, zombies are able to have a society where every single one of them is a good person and nothing bad will ever happen, right?
- In a fun bit of synergy and another Spondoolieverse guest appearance, Chris Lowell appears here (as Byron Deceasey), a week before GLOW (and my GLOWreviews) returns on Netflix. I consider this the trade-off for no more Piz.
Blaine DeBeers
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Alias
John Deaux
Blaine McDonough (Birth name)
Species
Zombie (Currently)
Human (Formerly)
Occupation
Brain Dealer (Currently)
Drug Dealer (Formerly)
Status
Undead
Cause of Death
Zombification (As a human, first death)
Throat Slit (as a human, second death)
Zombification (third death)
Killed By
Unknown (First death)
Mr. Boss (Second death)
Relatives
Unnamed Grandfather †
Angus McDonough † (Father)
Unnamed Mother †
Romances
Jackie † (booty call)
Peyton Charles (one-night stand prior to amnesia/briefly girlfriend following amnesia)
Candy Baker (one-night stand)
Portrayed By
David Anders
Season(s)
1 - 5
First Appearance
Pilot (Flashback)
Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?
Latest Appearance
And He Shall Be a Good Man
Blaine DeBeers (né McDonough) (born April 5, 1984) is a main character of iZombie. Blaine was a zombie in Season 1, but was temporarily cured in Season 2 of the series. Blaine is portrayed by David Anders. He is the zombie who turned Liv, and he ran the underground brain-delivery service in Seattle out of the butcher shop Meat Cute. Now that he's human again, Blaine runs Shady Plots funeral home that doubles as a cover for his continued brain harvesting and selling activity. Blaine briefly reverted back to zombie form before injecting himself with Ravi's second attempt at a zombie cure, which resulted in retrograde amnesia. Horrified by his past crimes, he has become a love interest to Peyton as well as an uneasy ally to her friends. It is eventually revealed Blaine's amnesia was only temporary, and that he feigned his memory loss in an attempt at achieving both a fresh start and happiness.
Contents
[show]
Early Life
Having grown up wealthy with his conniving and callous father, Blaine was abused and neglected child whose only source of affection was his grandfather. His mother committed suicide with his father's Beretta pistol, something Blaine's father did nothing to prevent despite the warning signs. Following his mother's death he was raised by his father's housekeeper, Frieda Bader. Bader frequently abused Blaine; beating, forcing him to clean the kitchen floor with his tongue after tracking in mud, locking him in a dog crate, and having his pet dog killed.
Growing up, Blaine was a fan of musician Kurt Cobain, following his career from his band Fecal Matter to Nirvana. Blaine was thirteen years old when his idol committed suicide, in the same manner of his mother. This is when Blaine considered his childhood to have ended.
When his father had his grandfather institutionalized to seize his company, he vowed revenge, a quest he continues to pursue.
After leaving Wharton, which he was only able to attend because of his father's influence, he pursued several get-rich-quick schemes. After a weeks of hiding his hatred for his father, he asked Angus to provide startup capital for a new widget he was developing. When the product flopped, Angus cut his son off financially; inadvertently leading Blaine down the path to start selling drugs for Mr. Boss. During his employment he pushed drugs in Seattle's Chinatown, and came up with a plan to have a pair of thugs get false Blue Cobra tattoos and assault a police officer. This led to the police cracking down upon the Blue Cobras, thereby eliminating Boss' competition and allowing Blaine to ascend through his ranks.
Blaine attended the same boat party as Olivia Moore, offering a new designer drug called "Utopium". He was the one who scratched Liv during the "zombie feeding frenzy", thereby turning her into a Zombie.
Season One
In Pilot, he appears in one of Liv's visions chasing the person whose memories she is seeing.
In Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?, Blaine notices that people are looking for him when he sees a sketch of himself. So he shows up at the morgue and confronts Liv about why she was looking for him. They both exchange information and experiences on being zombies and he lets Ravi run tests on him. He convinces her to bring him brains from the morgue to him but never gets them when he's spotted with dealers. Blaine later seduces a woman and turns her into a zombie after sleeping together, he shows up the next morning with a brain and an offer for 25 thousand dollars a month in exchange for him getting her the brains she needs.
In The Exterminator, Blaine shows up at the morgue and confronts Liv about why she didn't show up at the Brain Exchange. Liv tells him that she is done working with Blaine and she can't trust him again.
In Liv and Let Clive, Blaine is in bed with Jackie. They then get spray tans together. Blaine sets up a Brains Operation at a place called Meat Cute. He turned a Chef so she can make brain meals.
In Virtual Reality Bites, At Meat Cute, Blaine gets a call from Jackie telling him her delivery never came. Blaine offers to bring her something, but she declines. Later, Clive shows up at Meat Cute asking Blaine if he saw his dead Delivery boy. Blaine says he doesn't recognize him. Clive hears a loud bang and Blaine tries to lure him to the back but is interrupted by a phone call. Blaine goes to Jackie's and tells her about the dead delivery boy. Blaine then kills Jackie with a Drill. At Meat Cute, Liv's Mom, Eva, arrives to pick up an application for Evan.
In Dead Air, Suzuki meets with Blaine to tell him that he can't be a part of Blaine's operation anymore. They then speak briefly about Liv. Blaine goes to Lowell's to give him brains.
In Patriot Brains, Blaine passes Liv in the elevator to Lowell's. Later, Blaine goes to Lowell's. Blaine and Lowell talk and Blaine gets a call. Lowell stabs Blaine in the arm and Blaine shoots Lowell in the head.
In Astroburger, Blaine talks to Suzuki when he goes to pick up his food. Then they start talking about Liv and Lowell's relationship and about Lowell's death. Later, Blaine kidnapped the Astronaut Alan York. Blaine goes to the morgue to check on how the cure is going. Liv asks Blaine about Scott E. Blaine and Julien go to Scott's place to burn his place. Blaine and Julien then go back to Meat Cute not knowing that Major is in the trunk. Blaine has his men pack up Alan York's Brains for his wealthy clients. Luta runs in and tells him that the brains are missing. Blaine stabs Luta in the neck and tells him to get up because he has work to do.
In Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat, Evan goes to Meat Cute to give his application. When Blaine realizes that Evan is Liv's brother he hires him.
In Blaine's World, Julien tells Blaine that he couldn't find anything from Major's car. Blaine goes to the freezer to try to convince Major to give up the brains but he doesn't. Blaine threatens Major with torture until he reveals Liv's contact information. Blaine calls Liv to offer her a deal, Major for the astronaut brains. Blaine and Liv exchanged at the deal but Blaine substituted someone else instead of Major. Blaine returns to Meat Cute to find most of his staff dead and then he stabs Major in the stomach. Liv arrives at Meat Cute and threatens Blaine but she can't kill him because he is the only one keeping all of Seattle's zombies fed. She decides that she will cure him.
Season Two
In Grumpy Old Liv, Blaine is working as a funeral director at Shady Plots Funeral Home. When Liv visits the funeral home, Blaine sensed that she was there. Blaine tells Liv he didn't see Major's name on the list of dead at Meat Cute and believes that Liv turned Major into a Zombie. After Liv is gone, Blaine goes downstairs to where his men is unloading a crate of utopium. Blaine goes to Don E's House to find out how he cut the utopium at the boat party. Don E tells Blaine he knows who cut the utopium.
In Zombie Bro,
In Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues,
In Love & Basketball,
In Max Wager,
In Abra Cadaver,
In Cape Town,
In Method Head,
In Fifty Shades of Grey Matter, Dale found out how Blaine's name/alias came to, it was from 'Julien Deweed' whom he met when he sold beer and pot to. His name means "Blaine's got da beers".
In Physician, Heal Thy Selfie,
In The Whopper,
In Eternal Sunshine of the Caffeinated Mind, under Mr. Boss realization that Blaine is the one stealing Utopium customers, he had Blaine kidnapped and brought to an already dug grave, where he slit his throat and left Blaine to die. Later in the episode, Blaine emerges from the grave.
In He Blinded Me... With Science,
In Pour Some Sugar, Zombie,
In Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be,
In Dead Beat,
In Salivation Army,
Season 3
Personality
Blaine shows a complete lack of remorse for creating zombies. With a very astute mind for business, he sees them as only new customers and the rich ones as endless vats of money.
While initially Blaine asks Ravi to cure him (Season 1, Episode 2), he enjoys being a zombie, seeing as it has improved his stance in the world.
Initially, he was shown not to have any true feelings of companionship, even when with Jackie. He also treats those he works with at Meat Cute as inferiors. However, it was revealed that he kept in touch with Scott E after the boat party massacre, visiting his friend at the mental hospital and challenging him to games of chess. It is possible Blaine felt a kinship with Scott, as they were both boat party survivors, and both had abusive upbringings.
While Blaine initially meant to manipulate Peyton Charles to pursue a case against Mr. Boss, the two grew close and Blaine appeared to have gained genuine affection for her. When she announced her plan to leave the District Attorney's office, Blaine urged her not to quit; not for the sake of his plans nor jailing Boss, but because he wasn't worth throwing away what she worked so hard to earn. When Peyton ended their fling, Blaine actually appeared to be genuinely upset, but obeyed her wishes and left her be.
Blaine is power-hungry and greedy, as shown by his past career choice as a drug dealer and current job as leader of the zombie underworld.
He is portrayed as cunning and manipulative. He manages to start a business foundation while taming the zombie outbreak. He is even shown to be charming, when he wants to be, as he seduces both Jackie and Peyton while working his way around many others; even fooling Clive Babineaux and Dale Bozzio during their respective first meetings.
Physical Description
Blaine has short, white/platinum blonde hair and pale skin. Mid-Season 1, courtesy of Jackie, he dons a spray tan.
After he is injected with Ravi's cure, Blaine hires a makeup artist to powder his skin and keep up the illusion he is a zombie while meeting with clients.
Powers and Abilities
(As a zombie)
(As a zombie)
Trivia
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1044403/
VIEW SOURCE
COMMENTS (78) SHARE
Alias
John Deaux
Blaine McDonough (Birth name)
Species
Zombie (Currently)
Human (Formerly)
Occupation
Brain Dealer (Currently)
Drug Dealer (Formerly)
Status
Undead
Cause of Death
Zombification (As a human, first death)
Throat Slit (as a human, second death)
Zombification (third death)
Killed By
Unknown (First death)
Mr. Boss (Second death)
Relatives
Unnamed Grandfather †
Angus McDonough † (Father)
Unnamed Mother †
Romances
Jackie † (booty call)
Peyton Charles (one-night stand prior to amnesia/briefly girlfriend following amnesia)
Candy Baker (one-night stand)
Portrayed By
David Anders
Season(s)
1 - 5
First Appearance
Pilot (Flashback)
Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?
Latest Appearance
And He Shall Be a Good Man
Blaine DeBeers (né McDonough) (born April 5, 1984) is a main character of iZombie. Blaine was a zombie in Season 1, but was temporarily cured in Season 2 of the series. Blaine is portrayed by David Anders. He is the zombie who turned Liv, and he ran the underground brain-delivery service in Seattle out of the butcher shop Meat Cute. Now that he's human again, Blaine runs Shady Plots funeral home that doubles as a cover for his continued brain harvesting and selling activity. Blaine briefly reverted back to zombie form before injecting himself with Ravi's second attempt at a zombie cure, which resulted in retrograde amnesia. Horrified by his past crimes, he has become a love interest to Peyton as well as an uneasy ally to her friends. It is eventually revealed Blaine's amnesia was only temporary, and that he feigned his memory loss in an attempt at achieving both a fresh start and happiness.
Contents
[show]
Early Life
Having grown up wealthy with his conniving and callous father, Blaine was abused and neglected child whose only source of affection was his grandfather. His mother committed suicide with his father's Beretta pistol, something Blaine's father did nothing to prevent despite the warning signs. Following his mother's death he was raised by his father's housekeeper, Frieda Bader. Bader frequently abused Blaine; beating, forcing him to clean the kitchen floor with his tongue after tracking in mud, locking him in a dog crate, and having his pet dog killed.
Growing up, Blaine was a fan of musician Kurt Cobain, following his career from his band Fecal Matter to Nirvana. Blaine was thirteen years old when his idol committed suicide, in the same manner of his mother. This is when Blaine considered his childhood to have ended.
When his father had his grandfather institutionalized to seize his company, he vowed revenge, a quest he continues to pursue.
After leaving Wharton, which he was only able to attend because of his father's influence, he pursued several get-rich-quick schemes. After a weeks of hiding his hatred for his father, he asked Angus to provide startup capital for a new widget he was developing. When the product flopped, Angus cut his son off financially; inadvertently leading Blaine down the path to start selling drugs for Mr. Boss. During his employment he pushed drugs in Seattle's Chinatown, and came up with a plan to have a pair of thugs get false Blue Cobra tattoos and assault a police officer. This led to the police cracking down upon the Blue Cobras, thereby eliminating Boss' competition and allowing Blaine to ascend through his ranks.
Blaine attended the same boat party as Olivia Moore, offering a new designer drug called "Utopium". He was the one who scratched Liv during the "zombie feeding frenzy", thereby turning her into a Zombie.
Season One
In Pilot, he appears in one of Liv's visions chasing the person whose memories she is seeing.
In Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?, Blaine notices that people are looking for him when he sees a sketch of himself. So he shows up at the morgue and confronts Liv about why she was looking for him. They both exchange information and experiences on being zombies and he lets Ravi run tests on him. He convinces her to bring him brains from the morgue to him but never gets them when he's spotted with dealers. Blaine later seduces a woman and turns her into a zombie after sleeping together, he shows up the next morning with a brain and an offer for 25 thousand dollars a month in exchange for him getting her the brains she needs.
In The Exterminator, Blaine shows up at the morgue and confronts Liv about why she didn't show up at the Brain Exchange. Liv tells him that she is done working with Blaine and she can't trust him again.
In Liv and Let Clive, Blaine is in bed with Jackie. They then get spray tans together. Blaine sets up a Brains Operation at a place called Meat Cute. He turned a Chef so she can make brain meals.
In Virtual Reality Bites, At Meat Cute, Blaine gets a call from Jackie telling him her delivery never came. Blaine offers to bring her something, but she declines. Later, Clive shows up at Meat Cute asking Blaine if he saw his dead Delivery boy. Blaine says he doesn't recognize him. Clive hears a loud bang and Blaine tries to lure him to the back but is interrupted by a phone call. Blaine goes to Jackie's and tells her about the dead delivery boy. Blaine then kills Jackie with a Drill. At Meat Cute, Liv's Mom, Eva, arrives to pick up an application for Evan.
In Dead Air, Suzuki meets with Blaine to tell him that he can't be a part of Blaine's operation anymore. They then speak briefly about Liv. Blaine goes to Lowell's to give him brains.
In Patriot Brains, Blaine passes Liv in the elevator to Lowell's. Later, Blaine goes to Lowell's. Blaine and Lowell talk and Blaine gets a call. Lowell stabs Blaine in the arm and Blaine shoots Lowell in the head.
In Astroburger, Blaine talks to Suzuki when he goes to pick up his food. Then they start talking about Liv and Lowell's relationship and about Lowell's death. Later, Blaine kidnapped the Astronaut Alan York. Blaine goes to the morgue to check on how the cure is going. Liv asks Blaine about Scott E. Blaine and Julien go to Scott's place to burn his place. Blaine and Julien then go back to Meat Cute not knowing that Major is in the trunk. Blaine has his men pack up Alan York's Brains for his wealthy clients. Luta runs in and tells him that the brains are missing. Blaine stabs Luta in the neck and tells him to get up because he has work to do.
In Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat, Evan goes to Meat Cute to give his application. When Blaine realizes that Evan is Liv's brother he hires him.
In Blaine's World, Julien tells Blaine that he couldn't find anything from Major's car. Blaine goes to the freezer to try to convince Major to give up the brains but he doesn't. Blaine threatens Major with torture until he reveals Liv's contact information. Blaine calls Liv to offer her a deal, Major for the astronaut brains. Blaine and Liv exchanged at the deal but Blaine substituted someone else instead of Major. Blaine returns to Meat Cute to find most of his staff dead and then he stabs Major in the stomach. Liv arrives at Meat Cute and threatens Blaine but she can't kill him because he is the only one keeping all of Seattle's zombies fed. She decides that she will cure him.
Season Two
In Grumpy Old Liv, Blaine is working as a funeral director at Shady Plots Funeral Home. When Liv visits the funeral home, Blaine sensed that she was there. Blaine tells Liv he didn't see Major's name on the list of dead at Meat Cute and believes that Liv turned Major into a Zombie. After Liv is gone, Blaine goes downstairs to where his men is unloading a crate of utopium. Blaine goes to Don E's House to find out how he cut the utopium at the boat party. Don E tells Blaine he knows who cut the utopium.
In Zombie Bro,
In Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues,
In Love & Basketball,
In Max Wager,
In Abra Cadaver,
In Cape Town,
In Method Head,
In Fifty Shades of Grey Matter, Dale found out how Blaine's name/alias came to, it was from 'Julien Deweed' whom he met when he sold beer and pot to. His name means "Blaine's got da beers".
In Physician, Heal Thy Selfie,
In The Whopper,
In Eternal Sunshine of the Caffeinated Mind, under Mr. Boss realization that Blaine is the one stealing Utopium customers, he had Blaine kidnapped and brought to an already dug grave, where he slit his throat and left Blaine to die. Later in the episode, Blaine emerges from the grave.
In He Blinded Me... With Science,
In Pour Some Sugar, Zombie,
In Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be,
In Dead Beat,
In Salivation Army,
Season 3
Personality
Blaine shows a complete lack of remorse for creating zombies. With a very astute mind for business, he sees them as only new customers and the rich ones as endless vats of money.
While initially Blaine asks Ravi to cure him (Season 1, Episode 2), he enjoys being a zombie, seeing as it has improved his stance in the world.
Initially, he was shown not to have any true feelings of companionship, even when with Jackie. He also treats those he works with at Meat Cute as inferiors. However, it was revealed that he kept in touch with Scott E after the boat party massacre, visiting his friend at the mental hospital and challenging him to games of chess. It is possible Blaine felt a kinship with Scott, as they were both boat party survivors, and both had abusive upbringings.
While Blaine initially meant to manipulate Peyton Charles to pursue a case against Mr. Boss, the two grew close and Blaine appeared to have gained genuine affection for her. When she announced her plan to leave the District Attorney's office, Blaine urged her not to quit; not for the sake of his plans nor jailing Boss, but because he wasn't worth throwing away what she worked so hard to earn. When Peyton ended their fling, Blaine actually appeared to be genuinely upset, but obeyed her wishes and left her be.
Blaine is power-hungry and greedy, as shown by his past career choice as a drug dealer and current job as leader of the zombie underworld.
He is portrayed as cunning and manipulative. He manages to start a business foundation while taming the zombie outbreak. He is even shown to be charming, when he wants to be, as he seduces both Jackie and Peyton while working his way around many others; even fooling Clive Babineaux and Dale Bozzio during their respective first meetings.
Physical Description
Blaine has short, white/platinum blonde hair and pale skin. Mid-Season 1, courtesy of Jackie, he dons a spray tan.
After he is injected with Ravi's cure, Blaine hires a makeup artist to powder his skin and keep up the illusion he is a zombie while meeting with clients.
Powers and Abilities
(As a zombie)
- Pseudo-Immortality: Being trapped in a paradox between life and death, Blaine does not belong to both and thereby unfettered with the limitations of either (i.e. fatality).
- "Zombie Mode": When in danger or in the midst of a violent confrontation, Blaine's zombie characteristics fully surface, causing his eyes to turn into those of a zombie's and allowing him to perform incredible feats.
- Enhanced Strength/Agility: When in "full-on zombie mode", Blaine's physical strength and speed are enhanced.
- Zombie Sense: A side-effect of the cure that results in raised blood pressure and hair to stand on end whenever near an unfriendly zombie.
(As a zombie)
- Hunger for Brains: Since he is a zombie, he must feed on brains at least once a month to keep his humanity and survive, otherwise he becomes "dumber" and more like a traditional zombie.
- Adrenaline: A zombie's abilities are triggered by adrenaline, and once in such a state, it it difficult to control or to hide him.
- Amnesia (formerly): After injecting himself with Ravi's second attempted cure, Blaine starts suffering from progressive amnesia. Initially mistaking Don E. for his late twin brother, he has no memory of leaving four voicemails on Peyton's phone only hours after he did so. However, this loss of memory was discovered to be only temporary.
Trivia
- His birth name, Blaine McDonough, is a reference to the character of the same name from the film Pretty In Pink; albeit spelled differently.
- He is responsible for the existence of most of the zombies in Seattle, indirectly causing Fillmore-Graves' plans.
- His alias John Deaux is an obvious pun on the normal label for an unidentified body.
- Unlike most zombies who either don't care how they look or go to the trouble of masking their true looks, Blaine found a comfortable middle ground, ignoring his hair color and getting a spray tan.
- As of the end of Season 4, Blaine effectively has control of the city due to being the sole supplier of brains. Major managed to mitigate the situation by offering Blaine wealth and respectability by working with Fillmore-Graves.
- He is the one who transformed Liv into a zombie, only for Liv to be the one to eventually cure him.
- He is the first human zombie to be cured.
- He is also the first cured zombie to become a zombie again and then cured again, and turned back into a zombie again.
- He killed the fourth man to walk on the moon, Alan York, in order to sell his brain to a client.
- Suggested "raging out" as the term for what Liv calls "full-on zombie mode" in Episode 2.
- Told Liv he gets his brains by grave-robbing, which was a lie, as he really got his brains from abducting street kids and killing them. His operation was destroyed in the Season 1 finale by Major.
- Blaine has been compared to the Buffy: The Vampire slayer anti-hero Spike, as both were ruthless villains and killers when they first appeared in the show.[1][2][3][4] Coincidentally, Anders consulted Spike's portrayer, James Marsters, prior to bleaching his hair for the role
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1044403/