iZombie Season 5 Episode 1 Review: Thug Life
Jasmine Blu
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It's time for one last hurrah with Liv and the gang.
One of the first things to take away from iZombie Season 5 Episode 1, is that some time has passed since, iZombie Season 4 Episode 13. The best indication of that is Dale is pregnant!
Her pregnancy was a highlight of a mundane premiere.
Last season's finale had an air of hopefulness and rebellion to it when Liv stepped into her role as Renegade. She and Major made peace with one another and their respective roles.
Related: iZombie Season 4 Episode 13 Review: And He Shall Be A Good Man
She, Major, and Peyton struck deals and made arrangements to work with one another to improve New Seattle. Hell, Blaine and Major reached an agreement to work alongside each other instead of being the antagonist for one another.
It felt like there was real change on the horizon for New Seattle as the crew figured how to navigate their new world and make things better for humans and zombies alike.
However, while time has passed, the human and zombie relationships remain fraught. The brain shortage has gotten worse, and with brain shortages, there are more attacks on innocent humans, which also means more anger and bigotry directed at zombies.
There is nothing new about New Seattle, and it's unfortunate. The city is stagnant -- there is still a quarantine which separates them from the rest of the country.
We have many of our favorite characters at the helm of their respective areas of expertise and positions, but from the looks of it, nothing has progressed since we last saw them. Major managed to overthrow Chase and has taken over as head of Fillmore Graves, but his approach may be too passive for the rest of the soldiers.
They're familiar with "busting a few heads" to get their point across and instill a sense of law and order, but Major is opposed to any of that type of behavior.
Unfortunately, it has the FG soldiers dancing on the line of being rendered obsolete when no one fears them or feels as though they can control the zombie faction of the city.
Chase Graves had no interest in being popular whereas being popular is what I live for.
Major
The guillotines were barbaric; executing or freezing zombies for minor fractions were also overdone and overkill, but some form of policing of zombies is necessary to keep everything under control. Major has to know he can crack down on the zombie-human issues without becoming a tyrant.
Of course, a lot of Major's leadership hinges on Blaine providing the necessary brains to the city's zombie faction to keep them well-fed and posing little threats to humans. As we know, Blaine is Blaine.
He doesn't look at anything as a threat or an issue unless it affects him directly. The latest, and documented as in caught on tape, mauling of a human by a zombie has everyone up in arms again, and understandably so.
The zombie who did it may have done so as a result of being hungry and not getting enough brains, and that falls on Blaine.
He's annoyed how this video and death has disrupted his business since the border patrol agents he paid off had reservations, but if he were doing his job and not being opportunistic and greedy, maybe there wouldn't be so many hungry zombies roaming the streets.
The political and social tone of the series continues with the divisive nature of New Seattle.
Blaine has always been the capitalist of the bunch, but it's never more apparent of how capitalism has no real place in what has now become a zombie apocalypse than Blaine in his fancy new digs with a fridge full of brains of his choosing living the high life while the rest of Seattle is starved and desperate.
Threaten me all you want Whitey. I don't work for zombies anymore.
Border Patrol Agent
Major striking a deal with Blaine was the equivalent of getting into bed with the devil. When Blaine screws up, everything for everyone falls apart. Blaine was able to scare and threaten the other border patrol agents into doing his bidding again, but not Fife.
Where the heck is Fife and what has Blaine done to him? I imagine it's nothing good.
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The attack and potential death of Lisa have sparked another wave of humans versus zombies, and new activist Dolly Durkins is no one to trifle with either. She's at the cusp of religious and political fanaticism. She sent a suicide bomber to the zombie ration distribution site, and soldiers and other zombies lost their lives.
Johnny Frost gave her the airtime to stir up the masses and likeminded folk, so nothing good can come from this either. The attack of a human and a bombing of zombies means the start of a full-blown war. New Seattle can never find peace, and it seems zombies and humans may never be able to coexist together.
However, it could be the reason the attack happened in the first place. Lisa is the presumed victim of the attack, but no one has found her body.
Clive and Liv are investigating her case, and her boyfriend Cahill led them to a location where he found her phone and an article of clothing but not Lisa.
We saw how far Dolly is willing to go to start this zombie genocide of which she's angling. Could she or someone else have arranged for this attack to get everyone up in arms and at each other's throats?
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On the science side of things, Ravi is still getting those hilarious zombie monthlies. He was on the brain of a thuggish brute named Thumbreaker Barnes for most of the hour, but Liv didn't share any of the same traits despite having some of it too.
Blaine: Dr. Debeardo, where's your better half?
Ravi: Not now, Blaine. I had a bit of a late one --feeling a bit ropey.
Crybaby: The man asked you a question.
Ravi: And I ignored it. Blaine, you might want to call off your lady friend. I'm not going to buy you a new one if this one gets broken.
It was the last of their brains, but with the latest attack and impending ones, the shortage in the morgue probably won't be an issue for either of them. While Liv is lovable when it's all her, in addition to lacking overall presence during this hour in general, she also wasn't on a fun brain, and I missed it.
Ravi's brain personality of the hour was forgettable once the hour ended, but the new alliance he has forged with Collier has potential. She's highly intelligent, but she's dealing with a supervisor who doesn't take her seriously and also makes a lot of cringeworthy snap judgments about her.
Collier has figured out they could make a mass zombie cure thanks to the glycoprotein in the brains of children and teens with Freylich's Syndrome. She seems like a nice woman who is thinking about the big picture of helping everyone.
Fortunately, Ravi was able to make her think about the small picture. Collier doesn't know about Ravi's relationship with Isobel and how hard he took it when the teen died. She's a scientist who knows "white girl's brain" was an anomaly which could lead to a cure.
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She's a bit too hopeful and optimistic about personhood. Only 300 teens and children in the US have the syndrome, and if the truth about the connection between those people's brains and the cure ends up in the wrong hands, humans and zombies alike will hunt those poor souls down and do unspeakable things.
Not only is a cure at stake, but they are kids with million dollar brains. Money makes the world go around. The scariest thing about this development is it's not a matter of if the truth about these kids will get out, but when it'll get out.
It's one of the things to look forward to most about this season -- as is the partnership between Ravi and Collier as they try to beat the masses to finding a cure before everything goes to hell for good.
Related: 15 Reasons Why You Should Be Watching iZombie!
Francis Capra was back as Barron, and I could not be more delighted, but man he was in a sucky position. Liv's underground railroad for zombie smuggling is going strong, but just like Major has to be strategic in how he chooses people to leave the city, Liv has to be when deciding who she can help.
Her sympathy got the best of her with the sick teenager -- and maybe it was a callback to Isobel, but he pulled a fast one on them by bringing his foster siblings with him to the meetup with Barron.
In his defense, Liv probably wouldn't have been able to take on the case if it was the three of them instead of him by himself, but pulling a fast one didn't help matters.
Barron tried to do what he could, and it could've worked out, but the man on the bus was a total snitch and tipped the border patrol agent off about the two kids hiding in the bathroom.
Minding your business is free! Honestly, what was it to him?! Ugh.
God only knows what will happen to those kids, and we don't know what will happen to Barron either. Chase would have executed Barron, but Major is in charge now. How will this play out?
Liv and Major are in a truce, and Peyton is the acting mayor of New Seattle now. It shouldn't be a dire situation, but somehow, it feels scarier now than ever.
Will Barron be our first casualty of the season?
Everything else has the potential to be bleak, but Dale and Clive expecting a baby is the sweetest and cutest thing to come from this premiere.
They are beyond happy and in love; without the cure, they would never have had their happy ending. For the love of God, it better stay that way, too!
Over to you, iZombie fanatics. How did you feel about this premiere? What's going to happen with New Seattle now that they're on the brink of war again? Hit the comments below!
You can watch iZombie online here via TV Fanatic!
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
