This week’s episode of iZombie gave us something we’ve never really seen before on this series: Liv and Major’s relationship genuinely being on track. It opens when them having a makeout session. Major is completely ready for a romantic relationship. Liv thinks that until they’re sure how zombie-ism is spread, they should stay friends. But, either way, they’re getting along and being there for each other. It’s very rewarding to watch.
The highlight of the episode was seeing Liv connect Major to a basketball team that just lost their coach. In the season one finale, we saw Liv being selfish and thinking about what would serve her own relationship with Major. In this one, her focus is the fact that he needs her help. She wants to help Major return to doing what he loves, which is helping people.
The case-of-the-week was about the basketball coach who Major is replacing. The mystery itself was pretty standard, but the set piece with Liv giving Major a classic coach pep talk was perfect. They used the show’s gimmick very well to give the relationship development what it needed. With a coach’s personality, Liv is in a perfect position to give Major a mix of friendship, support and tough love.
Meanwhile, the scientists at Max Rager need zombie DNA to move forward with their experiments. Gilda uses her cover of being Liv’s roommate to gets them a sample of Liv’s blood. Speaking of Max Rager, Major is still working for them. He really gets into the nitty gritty, talking about how last time one of the zombie’s tranquilizers wore off and he started begging for his life and asking Major to take care of his dog after he’s gone. This is extremely heavy and I hope that Major deals with the weight of what he’s doing sooner rather than later– and that this includes letting Liv know about it.