iZombie Season 4 Episode 8 Review: “Chivalry Is Dead”

iZombie Season 4 Episode 8

During iZombie‘s three-plus seasons, the nerdy brains that Liv has eaten have often ended up being some of the most entertaining. Throughout the years, we’ve seen her consume magician brain, superhero brain, and (Who could forget?) Dungeons and Dragons brain, and while not every single one of those episodes have been the series’ greatest, they’ve still been filled with plenty of enjoyable comedic moments. Of those hours, including tonight’s installment, “Chivalry Is Dead,” Season 3’s “Twenty-Sided Die” remains the best, and while this week’s LARPer-brain episode doesn’t quite live up to those heights, it’s still another strong hour of iZombie, another highlight in what has easily been the show’s most creatively ambitious season yet.

But as we’ve seen in past seasons, iZombie‘s ambition can sometimes get the better of the stories it’s telling. The series is known to bite off a little more than it can chew when it comes to sheer number of plots and characters, and as of right now, bringing Stacey Boss back to Seattle to look for money that Peyton has just stolen feels like it might be one story too many for Season 4, which is already juggling so many different new characters, rules, and storylines. Eddie Jemison is terrific as this character and pairing Boss with Blaine and Don E. works perfectly well for both plot and character reasons (The three of them trying to decide if one particular human is dead or still alive during the zombie attack on the prison bus is one of the funniest things iZombie has done all season long). However, with Blaine already butting heads with his father and Chase Graves, do we need another familiar foe of his to complicate matters even more? Plus, putting Peyton on Boss’s radar could feel like a rehash of stories we’ve already seen in the show’s second and third seasons, unless the writers really shake things up. If iZombie is going to swing for the fences this season and give us more twists and turns than ever before, I’d rather see the show do it with new characters and fresh storylines instead of turning back to areas it’s already covered before.

All of that being said, though, I am still excited to see Peyton join Liv and Mama Leone’s team in “Chivalry Is Dead,” and I am quite curious what her role will continue to be now that she’s supplied the group with the money they so needed. Does Peyton try to work from the inside and persuade Baracus to institute city-wide change? Does she use her political and governmental knowledge to provide Liv and the rest of the coyotes with key intel? Does she just keep pressuring other criminals to give her money? I have no idea what Peyton’s future in this organization looks like, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m also so glad that Peyton chooses to side with Liv instead of rallying against her when she learns that her best friend is involved in human smuggling. Peyton has always been a character that has wanted to bring about positive change on the largest level possible; she understands that what Liv and the coyotes are doing is saving lives, and she wants to be a part of that, no matter how risky it is. That decision feels truer to her character than her being angry or upset with Liv.

Speaking of being true to character, Liv thankfully remains herself throughout “Chivalry Is Dead,” even though she speaks like a LARPer during the entire episode. Her voice, choice of words, and even her mannerisms act as fun idiosyncrasies (I particularly love that she never stops referring to Clive as “My Lord” or “Your Grace”), but her true personality, her determination, intelligence, and compassion, are never compromised in the ways they were earlier this season in episodes like “Blue Bloody.” Underneath the funny accent Liv dons and the goofy names she bestows on people and things (“The Spine-Ripper. A choice most excellent”), she’s still Liv, still focused on figuring out who murdered the victim-of-the-week, still motivated to help sick humans cross into Seattle and transform into zombies.

However, by the end of this week’s iZombie, we learn that Liv might not be able to help everyone like she thought she could. Isobel, the sick teenager Liv speaks to on the phone to early on in “Chivalry Is Dead,” finally arrives in Seattle with her coyote, Curtis, but when Liv scratches her on her right arm, Isobel doesn’t turn. When Liv tries Isobel’s left arm, it still doesn’t work. Somehow, some way, Isobel is immune to becoming a zombie.

“I’m gonna die, aren’t I?” Isobel says, closing out the episode. But even if Liv and Mama Leone’s team can’t find a way to cure her, I’m wondering if her apparent immunity might be the key to another cure, one that could bring all zombies back from the undead without any type of complications, one that could help make New Seattle back into plain old Seattle again. We’ll have to wait and see what type of role Isobel plays in this season’s final episodes, but I’d put money on it being a very important one. Once other people like Chase Graves and Blaine and Angus find out about her, she’s going to be the most wanted human in the city, and it will be up to Liv and the other coyotes to protect her.

Other thoughts:

Under Chase Graves’ orders, Major continues to buddy-up to Russ Roach in this week’s episode, but Russ questions Major’s loyalty when he sees him talking to Liv at the Zombie Thunderdome (We don’t actually get to hear Liv and Major’s conversation, by the way, which is interesting). Fortunately, Major is able to convince Russ that he doesn’t know Liv, and in return, he invites Major to help him and some of his buddies rough up (and nearly kill) other zombies over brain tubes.
Blaine finds a way of manipulating Angus and his congregation when Stacey Boss wants him to help him take down the prison bus Casper is in. Blaine uses the mission as an opportunity to not only make Boss happy and get some money but to also supply Angus and his followers with more brains so that, hopefully, their trips to Romero’s will become less frequent.
One major factor that stops this episode from being as fun as “Twenty-Sided Die” is that Clive doesn’t become as invested in LARPing as he does in D&D. For just a brief second, he thinks it sounds cool, but that notion quickly disappears once he and Liv meet the first group of LARPers.
Speaking of Clive, he seems to be dealing with his and Bozzio’s open-relationship even worse this week, once he learns that she’s begun sleeping with other zombies. He’s also confronted with just how ugly and complicated this type of situation can get when he and Liv discover that Kevin, a zombie, was the one who killed Garret, who was human, for sleeping with his human wife.
I really loved Izabela Vidovic’s work in last year’s Wonder, and I can’t wait to see what she brings to the rest of Season 4 as Isobel.
When Ravi suggests this week’s murder could involve time travel and even mentions the TARDIS from Dr. Who, Clive says he wants an answer based more in reality. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find one once the zombie medical examiner eats the victim’s brain,” Ravi replies.
Favorite comic-book title cards from this week: “Knight of the Living Dead” and “The Sword and the Stonewalled.”
“Not to be that guy, but it is a lunch hour.”
“Fear not, I have slain the rodent foul. No more will his pestilent droppings threaten the purity of our tools and provisions, and our boxes of cardboard will forevermore go un-gnawed .” “I think she killed the storage closet mouse.” “T’was a noble death. And quick.”
“Swallowing on-demand. That is a power that I should never be entrusted with.”
“They call me Liv, the Medical Examiner. I examined the body myself. No zombie was he.”
“You are Sir Clive Babineaux, Zombie Slayer, Survivor of the Pits of Max Rager, Cracker of Suspects, and Daydream Lover of the Women of Precinct Nine. Forget it not.”