The set-up in the previous episode pays off in ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Liv Away’ with many things coming to a head. The majority of the plot revolves around Liv's decision to give into Chase's demands and reveal herself as Renegade to save Curtis’ life. Obviously, nobody wants that to happen so Liv's friends do their upmost to stop Liv from getting to Fillmore Graves. Levon surrenders himself in her place; Major goes so far as to kidnap her and dose her with the most docile brain he can find to keep her away from harm; and Ravi fills in as Clive’s second chair in this week's case.
There have been a number of complaints this season about the consumed brains having a much more prominent effect on Liv and all the other zombies who have access to whole brains. It hasn't really bothered me all that much, though I did find a lot of the brains recently to be a little overzealous. Ravi's brain this week (“white girl” – a girl who seems to have taken a vaccine, this wasn’t very clear so readers please educate me) is no exception to that rule, and Rahul’s performance is so hilarious that the mechanics of his change in accent didn't spoil the fun for me. He plays off Malcolm Goodwin so well, especially when he’s acting so over the top. Since we only have one more season to go, it's imperative that we see more of the Ravi/Clive pairing before the show bows out.
While Ravi fills Liv's role as Clive's partner, Liv is forced to play housewife to Major after he and Lic eat the brains of an old married couple...while he holds her hostage. I have to admit, I was a bit repulsed with this little set-up initially. Were the writers trying to force them into a place where they could remember all their past happiness and reconcile? I don’t want it to be that easy for Major, considering everything he’s done. Thankfully, that wasn't what happened at all. Just like the housewife grew repulsed by her husband's annoying habits, Liv and Major started to remember why they were no longer together in the first place, culminating in Liv locking Major up before escaping.
It might be worth noting that it's Russ’ car Liv makes her getaway in. Russ, angry over Major exposing his role in Roach’s brain smuggling operation, randomly shows up and finds Major locked in the basement pantry. Liv manages to save Major before he gets hurt but she leaves him locked up, which is...fair? He's p****d off a lot of people lately. He's even on Chase Graves' bad side after one of the Fillmore Graves operatives (I’m losing track of all these C-level characters’ names) tricks Major into revealing what he truly thinks about Chase's leadership skills (i.e. not good things). I wonder where he'll end up by the end of the season. Major had an odd parting with Liv that makes me curious about his fate "this could be the last time we see each other". At this point I'd be happy to see him bow out. His characterisation has been sketchy at best this season. We might have reached a point where he can either turn himself around completely, or leave the show for good.
Angus' days look to be similarly numbered. He was a clear voice of discord since he started to form his church, but now it's clear that Blaine is the mastermind pulling the strings. It was a stroke of genius to use "brain snow" to trick Angus into leading his flock of zombies out of Seattle and into the greater world. How does Blaine know just the right buttons to press with whoever he's manipulating? If he gets his way it looks like Blaine will be able to take his real estate plans well outside the confides of the quarantine and make a killing in the after effects of the widespread zombie epidemic. If his plan gets that far, that is. Angus’ power may be a little harder to control than Blaine thinks it is. Even Enzo is now a devoted follower, and set Tucker free even though he confessed to killing White Girl at the Scratching Post to save the pastor.
There’s also a major discover this week that could put a further dent in Blaine’s future plans. After a lot of research Ravi has finally created a potential zombie cure, thanks to Isobel's brain conveniently providing him with the necessary ingredient. Since we're heading into the final season it's probably the right time for a viable cure to surface. It seems like the only real way to bring all of the chaos that's unfolded since the beginning of the series to a satisfying close. I imagine there’ll be a lot of characters that will fight against Ravi bringing it into the public domain, namely Blaine. It’ll be fun to see how he retaliates to Ravi’s discovery. Someone should get Ravi a more secure storage place for the cure this time, so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Plus
No Peyton this week, she’s obviously too busy in Washington preventing impending doom. I wonder how the nuke will factor in to the finale.
Clive found out that Bozzio lied and broke up with him to save him the heartache of never having kids. And now he’s back together with her. I like Bozzio but I feel pretty bad for Michelle. She was too nice for her own good.
Plus
Blaine: “Correct me if I'm wrong Doc, but usually when a man's shirt is that open, someone's coming at his chest with crash pads.”
Levon: “You two are alike, you're both doing what you think is right for zombies, don't kill her for that.”
There’ve been more than a few missteps over the past couple of episodes, but ‘You’ve got...’ felt like a step in the right direction. There are plenty of set pieces for the writers to play with, and subsequently a number of possible outcomes for the coming finale. No matter what happens, though, it doesn’t look like everyone will be making it out in one piece.
8/10
Also posted at Doux Reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment