iZombie S01E01 Recap: Pilot

It's been a long wait, from the time that iZombie was announced last year until now. The pilot is finally here, and I'll be honest I have some high expectations. Not only did it come from a pretty good line of comics, but star Rose McIver's Tinkerbell has been missed in Once Upon A Time. Did anyone else pick up the chemistry between Tink and Hook? Maybe I was the only one that wanted to see that, either way that ship has sailed, and Rose is on the path of the undead.

We're introduced to Liv, alive an well, saving a patient. She's an intern, and an over achieving pain in the ass. Fellow intern Marcie should hate her, but she actually likes her. Liv's fiance, Major, is utterly in love, and looking forward to making her his wife. Liv tells him that Marcie actually invited her to a party, and he suggests she goes. She does, and the worse thing happens. A random zombie outbreak. Liv tries to get out, but doesn't quite make it. She wakes up in a body bag with a giant platinum blonde streak in her hair, water in her lungs, a nasty scratch on her arm and a sudden desire to eat brains. She should have trusted her gut and avoided the party.

Five months later. Liv buys bronzer by the bottleful, and night of the living dead flicks. She looks all gothed out, and gets little more than a passing glance from the grocery store clerk. Cue the into credits, which show that the fiance is now an ex, and she's got a new job in the morgue.

Her roommate reminds her that it's pot luck Tuesday. Her family is concerned about her, she's turned pale and weird. But she's also walked away from her residency, works at the morgue, and broke off her engagement. Well that's one way to gloss over the small facts shown in the opening to get the narrative going. Her former fiance, Major is there too, and he points out that people would literally kill to be with him. Way to sell yourself buddy. The roommate points out that Liv's fire has kinda been kaput since that disastrous lake party. She use to be a spitfire, now she spends her days on the couch. Liv didn't realize it was intervention day, her brother, Evan, tells his mother that he knew she would take it that way. They think that she has PTSD, the fire alone had to be horrific. Liv thanks them for their concern, offers to volunteer for the haunted house, and runs off to work.

She doesn't have PTSD, but a case of the dead. At the morgue, the coroner, Ravi, gloats over a new case. He wants to know the weirdest thing that she's seen. Ravi drinking cereal milk over a dead corpse. The body is a Jane Doe he tells her, and he runs off on another case, leaving her with the body. Every time Liv sees a dead body she wonders what she's doing with her life. She removes the brain, weighs it, cooks some noodles. She use to have ambition, now she has just hunger. She cuts the brain up and eats it over noodles. As she enjoys her little meal, Ravi asks her if the hotsauce is a zombie thing. Oooh, busted.

Ravi checks her out. He was on duty that night of the massacre. He saw that many of the bodies were missing brain mass, and he had a theory. Liv wonders if she's being fired, or getting an exam. Ravi had a case that he had to reopen, and noticed that some of the brain was missing. He knew she was there the night of the massacre, and he'd started checking her work and found that many were missing chunks of their brain. She'd been hiding her life status this entire time, and he'd been treating her normally. He's utterly fascinated by her. Ravi tells her that he use to work for the CDC but they got boring and tired of his talking, so he left to find something better. He asks if she took some of the designer drugs at the party. Liv admits that she never attended parties, and certainly not for drugs. Everyone at the party was doing drugs. She was offered Utopia at the party, and when the guy pressed, she threw a drink in his face. The outbreak happened then. There was a fire, and people attacking. Liv made a run for it and the guy grabbed her, throwing her back, where she fell into the water. The EMT was freaked about having accidentally bagged a living girl, that he never questioned that she was actually dead. Ravi has a hard time drawing her blood. Liv tells him that she eats as little brains as possible, but finds if she waits too long, that she gets dumber. The hot sauce is to help her taste anything. Before she can reveal more about her new zombiness, Detective Clive Babineaux comes inquiring about his Jane Doe. Ravi tells him that they've ran everything, but have found nothing so far. Liv's brain synapses start firing, and she gets a memory. The girl was caught shop lifting in Canada. Liv tells them, but she has nothing to substantiate what she's saying, and tells Clive, it was nothing more than a hunch. While Clive grills Liv about her hunch, Ravi looks in the Canadian system, and finds the girl by her prints. Her hunch was right on point. Clive asks how she knew that, and Ravi blurts that Liv is psychic. Clive thinks that they're just messing with him because he's new. Liv tells Ravi that when she eats brains she gets memory flashes which feel like a bad acid trip. Ravi is fascinated and asks if he can run a few tests on her after work.

Sleep remains allusive. Liv hasn't slept since she became undead. She worries at night over the little things, like her roommate Peyton finding out that she's a zombie, or her brother Evan being caught up in a zombie attack. She wishes she could talk it out with her loved one, to see where she fits in now. She heads over to the haunted house to help out, and steal a handful of plastic eyeballs. Peyton asks what station she wants to man, and Liv doesn't really care. It's kind of her motto nowadays. Liv's mother suggests that she work on the mad scientist lab, but Liv sees that's where Major is working, and passes. She suggests she go work on tombstones. Her mother doesn't understand her anymore. Liv and Major make eye contact. She still loves him, but she won't risk giving him a case of the dead. Right then a girl screams, which triggers a memory of the Jane Doe being murdered by Seattle Weatherman Johnny Frost.

Ravi thinks that she should go to Clive with her information, but Liv is hesitant. She's having a hard enough time pretending to be alive, without throwing in a psychic performance. Ravi thinks its the least Liv can do, and she goes.

Liv goes to Clive's desk at the precinct, and spots his red stapler. She's unable to help herself, and she steals it. What's with her thing about red, first the plastic eyeballs, now the stapler? Many of the officers are busy paling around in the break room, Clive is getting chewed out by his boss, telling him to take the case more seriously. Liv spots a red picture frame on a nearby desk, and stuff it in her purse. Clive sees Liv, and asks if she forsees his day getting worse. She tells him that she “saw” something else, and he's not sure that he wants to know. The guys around the office are singing Lady Gaga. The name she gave him is the real name of Lady Gaga. Liv thinks that it must have been the alias that she used when she was picked up, but its the girl none the less. She tells Clive that she saw Johnny Frost kill the girl. He's reluctant to put his reputation on the line, and he's dragging Liv along to question the weatherman.

Liv and Clive head to the TV set. She positively Ids Johnny, but Clive wants more. He's putting her and him to the test, as he hands Johnnie a mug shot of the victim. He takes one look at the photo and asks for the lawyer card. He then changes his tune slightly, asking if she recorded their sessions. He's a prominent figure and wants the bad PR to go away. He can't believe Tatiana is dead.

In the station ooffice, he shows Clive and Liv that Tatiana was an escort, that role play was one of her specialties, and the house wife and intruder was one of their go to games. He asks how they even know about all this, if they talked to her friend Tess. Clive takes down the information, and Liv grabs a paperweight.

Back at the morgue, Liv and Ravi chat about her zombie crime solving skills needing work. He wonders if there are others like her. Liv thought about it too, a lot. There were other survivors, but she thinks if there was a zombie uprising they would have heard about it. Clive overhears zombie, and thinks that he would be a bad ass walking dead-esque survivor, blasting everyone on the slightest pretense. Clive asks if she's had anymore visions, but she hasn't. Clive is looking to jar one, so he's set up an appointment with Tess. Ravi thinks its a good idea. Helping with investigations are part of the job.

Two girls with clean records, are on the front page of Seattle's call girl website doesn't make sense to Clive. Liv thinks they should obviously be using google more often then. Tess takes one look at Liv, and tells Clive that it'll cost double for two. He flashes her his badge and she slips into Romanian, claiming that she doesn't speak English, and its a shame that the school systems are so poor, since he doesn't speak Romanian. Liv speaks it with some bite, which surprises even herself. She must have gotten a little brain boost. Tess's neighbor Roman comes out to check on her, but she sends him away. Clive goes right into the questions. He wants to know about Tatiana, and Tess asks what she's done this time. Clive breaks the news to her that Tatiana was murdered. Tess breaks down, and slams the door in his face. Clive pleads to her for help through the closed door, and she gives him Tatiana's real name.

Clive and Liv head to Tatiana's place, remarking that she must have had to sleep with a lot of people to afford that neighborhood. The super lets them in, he knew what she was, but she always paid and on time. Her place has been completely ransacked, but none of the big ticket items seem to be missing. They find her phone, which has a voice mail from Tess on it, the day Tatiana was murdered. Tess calls Tatiana a thief and tells her to get back to the suite or they'll never work with her again. So there was another girl. With all the stuff in her place, kleptomania makes sense. It also makes sense why Liv has been grabbing stuff lately as well. You are what you eat, has never been so true. Clive heads out to he balcony, which stirs another memory. Tatiana was thrown over the side rail, the man asking where his ring was. Tatiana cried that she didn't have it before she was dropped. Liv wants this man caught.

Clive and Liv head back to Tess's apartment, but Roman tells them that she's gone, thinking that they're harassing her for being an escort. Liv jabs him in the chest with her finger as she tells him that its about a murder, and they're trying to protect her. Roman is worried for Tess, hoping that it wasn't Monica. Monica is another escort on the list. Liv races off, she's worried that she's going to find Monica in a drawer at work waiting for her. There's a new fire in Liv. She felt Tatiana's fear, her knowledge that death was coming and she wants her killer caught. Clive is sure another girl hasn't been found yet, he would have gotten a call. He plans to track down Monica, and hopes that Liv will be able to come along. She's sure Ravi will let her out of work to do so. Clive likes this Liv, when internal affairs asks him about chest poking, he saw nothing.

Ravi is more than okay with her helping the detective. He's been experimenting on her blood to look for a way to cure her. That gives her a hope that she never expected to have. Clive found an address for Monica, but Liv has something she needs to do. Clive was just getting use to the idea of a psychic partner.

Liv thought she was doing the noble thing when she let Major go, even though she was still crazy about him. But if there's a chance she could come back from being a zombie, she'd want to be with him. If there is hope even a tiny one, she needs it to survive. She walks up to his door, unsure she can ask him to hold out for that hope. She hears girlish laughter from inside, and sees him playing a zombie killing game, which shatters that little bit of hope.

She wakes the next morning, very depressed. Seeing her ex possibly moving on is beyond depressing, more depressing than having to give up the dream of being a heart surgeon.

Clive is given his walking papers. He's gotten so close on the case, and now he's told that he could maybe tag along on the case of the new lead detective. Clive is crushed. The detective urges him to follow his leads, to not let it go as he takes over the case. Clive agrees, but not happily.

Liv eats her emotions with spicy snacks. Her roommate comes to looking for her pens, as Liv stares at the TV. She wants to write her off, but she can't she needs Liv to step it up.

Liv can't refuse to be dead, or even tell the people that she loves what's going on. She returns all of the red objects she stole. She can be a decent person, she can get justice for a fellow dead girl. Liv goes to see Clive. He's out, but his lead comes in. Liv finds him at her office. She's very much back on the case. Clive tells her that one of his sources said that Tatiana had a bearded pig, which doesn't make sense until he realizes that he meant cop. Pat, the guy now on the case is the likeliest suspect, which is why he wanted him off the case, he's also the same guy who just got the lead on where the girls were.

They head back to the precinct to figure out what he wrote on the post it. Liv is surprised to see that the pencil trick actually works, and their off to save a pair of call girls. Clive calls for back up, but he's not getting it.

Pat has both Tess and Monica tied up in a plastic sheet covered room. He needs to know where his ring back before his wife gets home, and he's not afraid to kill the girls to get it.

Clive and Liv arrive, and he tells her to wait in the car while he scopes out the situation.

Monica breaks under pressure, admitting that she stole the ring and pawned it. She needed the money for school and Tatiana was constantly stealing stuff so she knew that she would get the blame. Tess spots Clive, and totally gives him away. Pat takes a few shots at Clive and takes off running. Clive breaks in, and Pat goes out of the upstairs window.

Liv sees him make his escape, and before she can do anything about it he's on her threatening her if she doesn't get out. Pat shoots her, and Clive races towards the downed Liv as Pat speeds off. Clive gets to the spot where Liv fell, but she's gone.

Pat drives away, but Liv isn't done. She's on the roof and determined to crash the car. She breaks the window and forces the car off the road, with Liv flying into the woods. She zombies out, and goes to get a bite of his brains when Clive catches up to them. Liv goes back to normal, telling Clive that Pat missed when he tried to shoot her. She claims that it was all adrenalin that allowed her to catch up to the car. She claims that she got there a few seconds before he did, and wonders how he even solved crimes before her. She offers to check on Pat, but he sends her to check on the girls.

Liv fills Ravi on all the nitty gritty as he patches up her gun shot. She got angry and went full on 28 Days Later Zombie. She was a dead alabaster bad ass. Ravi points out that he's performing open hear surgery on her without anesthesia, so bad ass doesn't even cover it. Ravi reminds her that she's undead, and a hero. Ravi give her a to go bag of fresh brains, and the pair get to work.

Liv's decided that she can either sulk, or embrace who she is. At the halloween haunted house she shambles in as a zombie. Her ex immediately wishes he were one too. Liv jokes that there is a lot of commitment to being a zombie. Even her roommate admits that she's a pretty awesome zombie. Liv is ready to go scare the pants off some kids.

Her mother laments over Liv's absence, thinking that she's still on her couch. Her brother spots her scaring kids, and seeing Liv out and about brings a smile to both their face. Liv has been mourning the life she had, never thinking that maybe she got something in return for its loss. Liv has a new hope for her unlife and future. At last she's able to sleep.

Sirens wake her, and Liv gets another vision. A dream of another zombie, the guy who offered her drugs and tossed her into the water at the party.