That moment I’m referring to is Vivian Stoll’s untimely demise aboard a Fillmore Graves helicopter which was bound for Zombie Island. After making a huge impact so far this season it’s strange that she’s been killed off just as the FG story is starting to pick up steam. She hasn’t been seen all that much so far, but I like to think that she presented a rather intriguing and potentially dangerous dynamic with Liv’s inner circle. Perhaps it’s all a ruse, and she’s still alive. I can believe that, but if she is alive she might not be making herself known for a while.
Her brother, Chase Graves (played by Jason Dohring; hopefully this role isn’t as thankless as the one he had on The Originals), lacks his sister’s subtlety but makes up for it with his straight up ruthlessness. He shot poor Justin for stealing a few cans of Max Rager with little thought, so I can only imagine what he’ll be like when he finds out about Major being human, or if he comes face to face with an actual enemy like Harley Johns. Vivan had a more calculated approach to the anti-zombie nuts but I don’t think Chase will tackle the issue in the same way. Things won’t be ending well for anyone involved.
It doesn’t look like Johns and his fellow zombie-truthers will be backing down, though. They seem to have rallied quite a lot of interest now that the video of a zombie going all red-eyed has surfaced on YouTube. It’ll take all of Ravi’s smarts to safely navigate the anti-zombie function he and Liv attempted to crash at the close of the episode. They may not know his face, but Liv was almost caught on the way in. I don’t think Johns is an antagonist that should be easily dismissed, either. He’s checked in to what’s going on around him.
Elsewhere Blaine is finally starting to prove why he’s best when he’s out for blood. I appreciated his memory-loss plot at first, and I do think Peyton has gotten to him, but it grew tiresome over the last few episodes. I was ready for him to get back to work, and he did that and more this week. You just knew Angus wasn’t getting away with trying to put his son down, especially when he’s as bad-ass as Blaine is. Trapping his Dad in the well on their family property is a horrific punishment, but Angus had it coming. It was even more satisfying to see him do it as a zombie; I missed having him at full power. And what will Blaine do now that he has a potentially massive zombie business at his fingertips? It’s good to have the man we love to hate back to his old ways.
The levity of the case here echoes the same frat boy humour we saw in season two’s ‘Zombie Bro’, though it ended up becoming a little less wrong-place-wrong-time and a lot more personal by the time the truth came out. It was a lot more fun to watch than the investigations of the last couple of weeks too, not just because it was pretty hilarious but because the people involved were a lot more engaging than they have been in most other murders. That’s mostly down to fun guest star Robert Ri’chard, who had a lot of presence as Finn Vincible despite not getting as much screen time as the friends he’s survived by.
Plus
The video of Justin was viewed 1000 times. It doesn’t exactly scream viral to me, but FG seemed pretty concerned anyway.
Vivian “dying” just when she found out that Major was hum was mightily convenient.
No Peyton.
Liv’s coffee mug prank was only second in hilarity to the skeleton one she pulled in ‘Zombie Bro’.
I’m glad Blaine let Don E live. I’ve grown to like him recently.
He Said, She Said
Ravi: “I posted at tonne on the zombie-truthers message board under the username “Indian Cowboy””.
Liv: “I’ve been on zombie dates before where the gentleman zombie and I weren’t rocking the same brain. I was a pathological liar, he was a hypochondriac. He was gay, I was a nympho. So, how about we hop on the same brain train?”
I have some reservations about Vivian’s death, but on the whole I’m mostly satisfied with this episode. Both the stand-alone story and the longer running ones were all engaging here, with the character arriving at some very interesting places. It’s all got me excited again.
8/10
Also posted at Doux Reviews.
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