iZombie: Real Dead Housewife of Seattle

Synopsis: The case-of-the-week covers the death of a wealthy housewife in Seattle, so Liv’s brains are more focused on fashion than on the murder. Partly because it’s her birthday, and none of her friends are available to hang out with her. In other news, Major still works for Max Rager and Peyton returns!!

Rating: ★★★★☆

I feel like this episode was pretty sparse in terms of overarching season development. Aside from Peyton’s return (!!), there isn’t a lot of action that advances solving the zomblem.

The cold open shows a Seattle housewife chatting on the phone on her balcony. The view is stunning, which is apparently also what the real estate agent who comes to the door also notices. Wife initially dismisses the agent, but after he offers her a cool $10 million for her property, she lets him inside. Unfortunately for her, the ‘agent’ tackles her, throwing both of them off her balcony to her death and into his coma.

Cue Liv.

After a few pathetic attempts to get Ravi and Detective Babineau to hang out on Friday, we learn that Friday is Liv’s birthday. She eats the housewife’s brains and then sees that the wife was having an affair with none other than Max Rager CEO Vaughn duClark.

The gang go to question Vaughn, he denies the affair, and Major stumbles into Liv in the lobby.

Turns out that Major is still killing zombies on the list. He was prompted earlier by Liv’s roommate/traitor/Max Rager assistant to continue the murder spree because it ‘saves lives.’ How, exactly? Well. The list Major has includes potential zombies. Which means that he’s already crossed out a few people who were human. If he doesn’t keep killing, Vaughn’s backup plan is to invite the entire list to a wine cruise and scuttle the ship, leaving both zoms and non-zoms to die.

So Major keeps killing. And using Utopium. And generally spiraling. Oh, and he also has sex with the assistant in the Max Rager workout facilities.

We also learn that the assistant (still don’t know her name) is Vaughn’s daughter, the product of another illicit affair.

Meanwhile, back on the case, Liv and the good detective interview the victim’s friends, the victim’s husband, and the victim’s husband’s personal shopper. They learn that the husband had multiple affairs through an online escort service. Apparently this lead dries up for a few minutes, because then Liv then befriends the personal shopper and the two go to a sale together.

Too bad Liv cannot catch a break. Turns out that the personal shopper (Bethany) was one of the husband’s call girls, and she convinced the fake real estate agent to kill housewife-Taylor so Bethany could marry Taylor’s husband. After a brief zombie-rage altercation in the store, Liv catches Bethany and the team puts her behind bars.

Peyton’s back this episode!! She’s the lawyer on the utopium bust case, and she extends an olive branch to Liv by dropping a birthday cake off at the apartment. Turns out Liv’s sad solo birthday wasn’t as sad after all!

The episode closes with Taylor’s enraged husband (coincidentally on the Board of Max Rager) threatening Vaughn with a hostile takeover. Vaughn convinces the husband to follow him to the sub-basement, where the husband is mauled to death by a zombie. Which is, I guess, one way to deal with your problems.