iZombie: Abra Cadaver Recap

Synopsis: Liv eats magician brains – er – goth, death-transfixed magician brains! Blaine asks Liv for her help in figuring out what the FBI agent knows about the deaths of several prominent zoms on his customer list.

Rating: ★★★★★

This episode was magical.

And not just because Liv ate magician brains and performed a few card tricks.

No, it was magical because Liv’s latest murder was at a Presto Expo for magicians with larger-than-life personalities. And she became one of them.

Magician brains officially replace frat boy brains as my official brain flavor. Liv as the brooding, self-important magician Sid was hilarious.

Sid had a troubled relationship with most of the other convention-goers in his craft. From Houdina, his ex-fiance, to Smoak & Meers, the up-and-coming tv duo, he made enemies by revealing the methods behind his competitors’ signature tricks.

Sid is found dead in his hotel room by a maid (Irina) – he was stabbed in the throat with a metal-edged playing card. The trick: no one went into the hotel room other than Sid and the maid on the surveillance camera footage.

After the usual two false leads (Houdina and some magician author/mentor), Ravi stumbles on a series of tweets Sid made threatening to reveal Smoak & Meers’ finale trick. Liv reveals (with some magical flair) that the duo are the culprits – Meers dressed as Irina and killed Sid, while his partner hired a woman to distract the author/mentor suspect so he wouldn’t have a verifiable alibi.

In the personal lives of the characters this week, Major and Liv have some pillow talk about how Liv has multiple personalities from week to week and whether Major could handle that whiplash. Major assures her that he’s all in, but after Liv starts talking about death and chanting with ouija boards, he bails on her for the evening.

Meanwhile, Ravi’s girlfriend Stef is getting a little too enthusiastic about their relationship. She throws him an elaborate Guy Fawke’s Day celebration (weeks too late) and then starts talking vacation getaway spots. Ravi breaks up with her, hits on Peyton, gets rejected by Peyton, and then ends up alone & sad.

Why did Peyton reject Ravi? Well, because she’s GROSS FLIRTING with the unscrupulous ringleader of the undead crime syndicate, Blaine.

Speaking of Blaine, he recruits Liv to help him find who’s killing zombies on his client list. The two break into the FBI investigator’s house and intercept a lab report which showed the brains in Suzuki’s freezer originated from a human. Liv doctors the document to show they were from a cow and tells Major she may be in danger from this mysterious zombie killer.

From the other side of the street, a woman watches Liv and Blaine break in, and she places an envelope on the FBI agent’s doorstep. Oh, and Clive and the agent are sleeping together.