Warning: This post contains spoilers, undead and otherwise, for the iZombie episode “Spanking the Zombie.” Go find some brains to eat if you haven’t watched yet.

It’s time to embrace your assertive side and display some control! This week, Liv got tapped to help solve the murder of a dominatrix and the experience left her in a take charge, no nonsense position.

But we need to cover some important notes before we explore the effects of Liv’s most recent meal. She worked with Fillmore Graves to investigate Harley, the guy from the zombie message board who could be connected to the deaths of Wally’s family. They brought him in under the guise of giving him a payout for his brother’s death, and used the opportunity to find out how much he knows about zombies. As it turns out, Harley isn’t bluffing. He has photo evidence of zombies and information on symptoms thanks to his brother’s time at Max Rager. It’s concerning, to say the least.

Elsewhere at Fillmore Graves, Major experienced a setback severe enough to push Ravi and Liv into giving him the cure—the cure known to cause memory loss. There’s a small chance the mixture will have a different effect on Major than it did on Blaine, and I’m just holding onto hope, even if it’s unlikely—iZombie hasn’t made me feel this sad on since Lowell took a bullet to the head.

Major’s probably the character who’s changed the most over the course of the show. He’s gone from all-around golden boy, to zombie killer, to zombie, to kind of human, to zombie again. I am sorry for all the experiences he’s losing and for Liv and Ravi (and presumably Major’s family? Speaking of, whatever happened to Liv’s family?), but if he gets an easier future with less near-death moments, then I could be okay with it. And hey, we didn’t see Ravi administer the cure, so maybe something will happen to stop him.

The Meal

I said the recipe in last Tuesday’s iZombie was one of the least appetizing ones I’ve seen in the series. I take it all back because the meal in “Spanking the Zombie” was disgusting. The gross factor was increased because the brain was preserved. The brains belonged to Roxanne, a dominatrix. She was cremated, but her lobes were kept in a blue fluid. Yuck.

When Clive asked Liv to eat them for the sake of visions, Liv tried to cover up the texture and taste by frying them. Everything is better when you fry it, right? Not always. She sliced the brain into a blue, gelatinous slab, breaded the brain cutlet, fried it, and topped it with a sauce—that part looked tasty. When she cut into her brains, though, they still had a blue hue. No. Thank. You.

Liv

The brains might have been off-putting, but they had a positive side effect. Since they were well-preserved, they gave Liv stronger, longer lasting visions without necessarily having to be triggered first… which sort of sounds like an advertisement for an erectile dysfunction medication. Moving on.

Those visions I mentioned brought a few familiar faces back into the interrogation room, like Johnny Frost and Brant Stone. When Liv helped Clive question suspects she channeled Roxanne’s confidence. If you’re going to put yourself in control of a situation, you have to be confident enough to handle it. For example, Liv’s wardrobe changed to match her brains, and when Clive more or less told her to tone it down, Liv wouldn’t have it. She’s confident in her choices.

Going along with the confidence, Liv seemed to know how to make people obey. She played the Fillmore Graves and Harley situation in the right way, pushed all the right buttons to get results from the sketch artist, and did and said what was necessary to get Roxanne’s killer to confess. This quality ties into another important dominatrix characteristic: communication. You have to be able to communicate boundaries and rules.

Some of Liv’s actions went a touch too far—like telling the zombie running for mayor to lick off the sauce he spilled on her boots. She acted dominant towards everyone, but that’s par for the course: a couple of aspects about each brain are usually exaggerated, but it makes sense given how Liv gets the personality traits. She gets bold strokes of the brain owner’s qualities; there’s not much nuance involved.

Liv displayed traits from Roxanne’s brain right up until the emergency with Major. While she comforted him and slept with him, she seemed to be all Liv. And thank goodness. She was saying goodbye to the version of Major she’s known for years; it wouldn’t have been the ideal time to act like someone she isn’t. The dominatrix brain could have been wearing off, but is it also possible a zombie’s strong emotions can drown out the ambient noise of another brain?

Who else is still experiencing emotions from the end of the episode? Head to the comments and tell me your thoughts about what happened to Major.

Images: The CW