‘iZombie’ recap: Liv gets personal in ‘Dead Air’

There were so many compelling developments in this week’s episode of “iZombie,” I feel like blurting them all out at once, in no particular order. Everybody game?

Dr. Ravi got bitten by a zombie rat, meaning he’ll have to seriously step up his lab experiments. Will he have enough time? Is a cure even possible? Before that, he mustered his courage and asked a gorgeous girl on a date, so good on him.

Major the former youth counselor is about to go all “Death Wish,” arming himself for his inevitable fight against the evil mass-murdering zombies. He has no idea what he’s getting himself into.

Lowell is a liar – I warned you, buddy – who actually buys his brains from the Candy Man himself, Blaine DeBeers. Funeral home supplier, indeed.

The police, too, are lying, but we already knew that, didn’t we, fans? Those bodies buried on the Shepherds’ property had been moved there to frame the couple for many of the unsolved disappearances in town.

Lt. Dead(ish) gets reminded that it’s his job to protect and serve -- not Seattle but Blaine DeBeers and his growing body count. Or else, no more fresh brains for you, copper.

And, oh yeah, Liv has sex. Liv has sex!!! Unfortunately, this won’t end well.

The case of the week in this hour, dubbed “Dead Air,” revolves around a radio talk-show host, provocateur and sexpert named Sasha with a penchant for having affairs with married men. She was also a control freak, a hypocrite and a soul crusher. Think that might earn her some enemies?

It made someone want to fry her, literally, as she chatted with callers to her drive-time show, Great Morning Sex. Det. Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin) and Liv Moore (Rose McIver) investigate her on-the-job electrocution.

This central mystery, replete with the now-customary red herrings, isn’t all that intriguing, even with a Howard Stern-like character tossed in for color. It gives Liv a chance to psychoanalyze her friends and colleagues in a know-it-all but know-nothing way. But even that doesn’t end up bearing too much fruit.

The real action takes place with our main characters, especially Major (Robert Buckley), who recognizes a conspiracy when it bashes him repeatedly in the face. He’s determined to get to the bottom of his friend Jerome’s death and he’s not for a moment buying the police story about the cult-crazed Shepherds being the guilty parties.

Liv realizes just how far he is into his personal mission and tries to throw him off the trail. If he suspects that there’s human brain trafficking going on, how long before he puts more pieces together? When will he uncover her secret? Or, maybe more to the point, when will she have to tell him? Plus, he’s playing with fire and she’s playing momma bear.

Meantime, Liv gets much closer to Lowell Tracy (Bradley James), who apparently gives great foot massages but, as established above, is a lying ratfink liar. Of course her first post-zombie bedding would turn out to be with an undead jackass. Poor Liv! And her first post-coital brain omelet with the aforementioned liar? It’s someone she knows. Poor Liv!

Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) has fed his lab rats a mixture of the designer drug Utopian and energy drink Max Rager, wondering if that bath-salts-like cocktail would hip him to the zombie origin story. He succeeded only in creating a zombie rat that performed a brainpendectory on all the other test subjects and bit him on the hand. That can’t be good. And just when he’s made a move on Liv’s beautiful roommate, Peyton (Aly Michalka), who agrees to go out with him.

There’s a brief but ominous glimpse of Blaine (David Anders) this week. (Again, showrunners: More Blaine!) He plays brain messenger to Lowell, providing the food source that Lowell hid from Liv. And that’s after he warns the Seattle zombie cop to keep his head down and do as he’s told. His Meals on Wheels operation seems to just be getting started, and he has no intention of letting go of his cop cover.

Here’s what Liv now knows: Lowell is another cog in Blaine’s murderous entrepreneurial enterprise – unless he plays some larger as-yet-undiscovered role – and Blaine killed Jerome. As Liv knows better than anyone, knowledge is power. But in this case, it’s also terrifying.