iZombie: Chivalry is Dead

April 26, 2018 2:24 PM - Season 4, Episode 8

Liv is on medieval LARPer brain as she and Clive investigate the murder of a knight. Peyton makes a decision regarding Liv's secret. Major gets in deep with the black market brain crew. Blaine finds unlikely help when an old frenemy returns.

AV Club recap

I forgot that Mr. Boss is still alive! But this puts him on another collision course with Peyton, and I hope it's not a retread of the last few times.

So many great moments in this episode, and not even with Liv's constant medieval language. There's no logical reason why she kept that up, but I admire how great Rose McIver pulled it off.

I wish Clive and Dale had more screen time to talk about their relationship, but I'm sure that's coming to a head soon.

I disagree with AV Club about Major's storyline. Clearly he's embedding himself with some bad people and he's willing to go the distance, even if he's alienating his friends. Ironically, Liv is also getting in deep with her side gig, but her best friend is supporting her.

Blaine & company commentating on the bus assault was hilariously disturbing. "I think that's a nervous system thing".

And also the Zombie Thunderdom owner hitting on Liv because she's staying in character -- not too creepy, but pretty funny.

The girl, Isobel, not getting turned into a zombie possibly could lead to a cure with Ravi's help. I'm excited though that Izabela Vidovic is joining the show. She was in season 1 of The 100 (Charlotte), and she was recently in the movie Wonder, which I enjoyed.

posted by numaner (9 comments total)

So... is Boss a zombie now or not?
posted by thecaddy at 7:51 PM on April 26, 2018

I don't think he is. Also, in his previous appearance in season 3, Blaine revealed to Mr. Boss that he's a zombie and Mr. Boss better get with the brain-delivery program or he'll come after him and turn him into one. I think. But we've seen Blaine get his brains from other sources too, but again he's probably smart enough to have multiple suppliers.
posted by numaner at 11:37 PM on April 26, 2018

I don't think so either, as he had Blaine eat the guy's brain for the locker info. Given givens, I'm sure he would've preferred to do that himself if he were able.
posted by mordax at 12:02 AM on April 27, 2018

I don't know if being more and more affected by the brains she eats is intentional or just character drift after many seasons but this one was so charming that I didn't care.
posted by plastic_animals at 6:28 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

Ugh ugh ugh ugh I HATED that she wouldn't stop with the faux-medieval talk. It was well-established in the episode that the LARPers don't actually do this. Her keeping it up even when the Renegade stuff turned serious just seemed shitty. (The talk itself doesn't bother me, I actually do work at a Renaissance Festival.)

Also it seemed dumb for FG to smash the brain tanks instead of confiscating them and reselling.

P.S. More Major on specialty brains, please.
posted by desuetude at 8:18 AM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

It was well-established in the episode that the LARPers don't actually do this.

Right? I was a bit frustrated by that too.

(The handle 'mordax' comes from my first - and only - LARP character. I only attended a couple sessions as I found the whole deal too much prep work outside of events, but a lot of my gaming crowd was into this scene. We didn't even talk like that during play.)

My fanwanky assumption is that Liv is more open to mimicking her brain's behavior because she really wants visions in order to solve murders, but the show itself is still pretty unclear on that point.
posted by mordax at 8:26 AM on April 27, 2018

I thought that she just really enjoyed it and finally had a brain that lets her do it so naturally instead of struggling to think of the words every time.

Also it seemed dumb for FG to smash the brain tanks instead of confiscating them and reselling.

To be fair that wasn't FG, it was just Roche putting the squeeze on another blackmarket operation.
posted by numaner at 9:52 AM on April 27, 2018

> To be fair that wasn't FG, it was just Roche putting the squeeze on another blackmarket operation

Ah, right! But in that case, it makes even MORE sense to keep the product!
posted by desuetude at 2:01 PM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

I mean, maybe because he died LARPing, and was in that mindset, that's where his brain was stuck? I can't think of whether we've seen an analog for that with any other brains though.
posted by terilou at 3:05 PM on May 1, 2018