Throughout its first eight episodes, I’ve praised iZombie for being an incredibly fun show. Whether it’s Liv using her newly acquired video game-playing abilities, or she and Lowell dancing together, the freshman series has never failed to put a smile on my face. But there’s also a fierce darkness to iZombie (Blaine is killing teenagers, after all) that seemed to exist separate from Liv’s life on the show, at least until last night’s episode.
“Patriot Brains” is iZombie‘s best episode yet for many reasons, including that shocking and tragic final scene. Even with Liv having fun and destroying the rest of the players she faces in paintball, this is the show’s darkest hour from the get-go, as it delves into issues such as PTSD (which Liv has to deal with after eating Everett’s brain) and puts the lives of multiple characters in serious danger.
However, only one of those characters appears to be dead by the end of “Patriot Brains,” as Blaine stops Lowell’s attempt to kill him and shoots him in the head, all as Liv watches from the roof of the building above, unable to stop it. With the sense of dread that permeates throughout the episode, you knew something had to go wrong in its final few minutes, but Lowell’s death (and I’m assuming he’s dead, because when Blaine wants to kill you, he kills you) is such an emotional gut punch. It shows Liv the incredible cost that she may have to endure to actually take down Blaine and lets the audience know that this series is not afraid of killing off beloved characters, which is exactly what Lowell became after only a few episodes.
And what makes this week’s iZombie all the more powerful is the build-up to Lowell’s death. He doesn’t die because of some random action, or because Blaine just wants to take him out for fun. Instead, it’s the result of who he and Liv truly are; it’s their real actions, not the ones motivated by the brains that they have eaten, that lead to this tragic moment.
While Liv initially wants to kill Blaine herself, the anger and instinct of Everett pushing her to do it, as she peers through the sniper scope and has him in her sights, she realizes that she can’t go through with it. Liv isn’t a killer and doesn’t want to be one, and despite the urge to take Blaine out (and despite knowing that it would protect more innocent people), she can’t become what she despises the most. Liv still sees herself as a doctor, a protector of life, and as she says, killing a person and killing a virus are not the same thing.
And ultimately, it’s also Lowell’s own heart that causes him to go after Blaine and try to kill him, after Liv can’t pull the trigger. As he tells her repeatedly throughout the episode, he loves her and would do anything for her; she deserves a guy that would stand up and fight for her, and even though that’s not typically how Lowell sees himself, it’s what he becomes because of her his love for Liv. His feelings for her are what drive his actions and give him the strength to face Blaine, and it’s in his final moments when he truly transforms into a man that he believes is deserving of Liv’s love, which is what makes his death all the more tragic.
If iZombie is a show about self-discovery (which in many ways, I think it is), then “Patriot Brains” is the episode in which its characters best come to grips with who they are and who they want to try to be. Lowell’s journey may be done but Liv’s will continue, and I can’t wait to see how she tries to rebuild herself after such a tremendous loss, and works harder than ever to thwart Blaine and his evil plans.
Other thoughts:
– Ravi is perfectly fine after being bitten by the zombie rat. Apparently, the condition cannot be passed on from different species. It has to be a human who infects a human.
– Major continues getting closer and closer to discovering the truth about zombies and ends up having to fight for his life against Julien after Blaine sends him to Major’s house to kill him.
– And how does Major stop Julien? By shooting him multiple times in the chest, which doesn’t end up killing him and makes Clive very worried about Major’s mental state when he arrives on the scene.
– Rose McIver continues to be sensational every episode, and she really showed some nice range last night, dealing with many different emotions as she grappled with how to deal with what she had learned about both Blaine and Lowell.
– Also, if this was indeed Bradley James’ last episode of iZombie, I will miss him dearly. He and McIver had fantastic chemistry, and Lowell turned out to be not only a great love interest for Liv but also a fantastic character on his own. A lot of that is due to James’ performance.
What did everyone else think about last night’s iZombie? Are you upset about Lowell, and what do you think Liv will do next?
[Photo via The CW]
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