iZombie episode 9: Patriot Brains

This week's episode picks up right where last week's left us hanging - in the elevator. There were a lot of feelz in this one, and I gotta say - I hate just being left hanging when I know something isn't as simple as it seems. There was a lot more work done on the relationship between Liv and Lowell, and I was just starting to feel like maybe it had a chance - and then BAM. Maybe not.

The whole vibe for the episode this week was depressing, but in a good way. That touched me. I mean, the usual energy between her and Clive was there. It was a little weird between Liv and Ravi, but it was downright sad between her and Lowell. Major makes a mistake that nearly costs him his life, and still might - but he's closer to the truth than he realizes. The problem is, I don't think he can handle the truth! Meanwhile, Ravi is so far not a zombie after being bitten by the zombie rat - yet.

There wasn't a whole lot of focus put on the actual crime this week - a dead soldier, and a murderous computer geek. There was a lot of focus on Liv's new sniper skills. Passengers on the good ship Livwell are probably wondering what now, especially since something rather permanent seems to have happened with a fan favorite. But I've learned that things aren't always what they seem with this show, so I'm holding out for the hero to come riding back in on his steed later on - perhaps in season two.

Is Lowell gone for good? Will he rise again from the dead? Hit the jump for the recap, and tell us what you think in the comments!

As Blaine enters the elevator, Liv exits with her hood pulled up. She walks quickly out of the building. Blaine looks over his shoulder at her through the elevator's glass wall, as if he recognizes her. She pauses and looks back as the elevator goes up, and realizes that Lowell is living on the brains of dead teenagers.

She walks quickly towards the parking lot and sees Julien and another man arguing over the spot that Julien has parked in - something about a no-loading zone, and getting towed. Julien notices and recognizes Liv, but continues arguing with the guy. As Liv hurries on past Julien's car she sees six yellow soft-sided coolers stacked neatly in the back seat.

In his office in the morgue, Ravi is documenting his state of health twelve hours after being bitten by the zombie rat. So far there's been no change. Liv walks in an hour early for her shift, in a state of agitation. "You ok, he asked rhetorically?" says Ravi. "Blaine murders teenagers and delivers their brains to zombies," she tells him. "Good lord!" "And my boyfriend is on his meal plan," she says.

Liv tells him that she ate some of Lowell's left over breakfast that morning. "It was Jerome, that kid who came in here a few weeks ago with Major! I watched Blaine murder him." Ravi reminds her that the police found his remains at the Sheppard's house. "I saw what I saw. And as I was leaving Lowell's place, Blaine was heading up with a new delivery. I should've done something!" she says.

"What could you have possibly done?" asks Ravi. "I'm a zombie!" exclaims Liv. "He's a zombie and a cold-blooded killer. We need a plan." "All those missing persons are part of his zombie 'Meals-on-Wheels' program," Liv adds. Ravi wonders, "if Jerome didn't die out at the Sheppard's cabin..." "Then how did the police find his remains out there?" Liv finishes the question. "Something's rotten in Denmark," says Ravi. "Denmark in this case being the Seattle police department."

Liv resolves to find Blaine. Ravi reminds her that she knows one person who can reach him, but she doesn't want to go through Lowell to find Blaine. "I wouldn't even be able to look at him. He has to know where those brains come from, she says. "Do you have another option?" Ravi asks.

As Ravi prepares to start an autopsy, Liv tells him that Major was right all along about the Candyman and those missing kids, and that she made him promise to back off. "I convinced him he was getting carried away." "Well, if it makes you feel better, I don't think he listened to you. He remains single-minded in his quest." Liv asks him to look in on Major for her. "I'm worried about him." He tells her that Major's hardly left his room lately. "Who knows what's going on in there."

In his room, Major is watching a gun safety video on YouTube, practicing loading a gun. Ravi calls from outside the door. Major quickly hides the gun and ammo in a drawer, and invites him in. Casting a concerned look as he enters, he holds up two game system controllers. "Oh, it has been too long, my friend," says Ravi. "There are souls that need reaping, dungeons that need looting, wenches that need to feel the weathered hands of a... what the hell?" he says as he notices a web page about the human brain on Major's laptop.

"This body building blog says that there's this amino acid that skyrockets the release of human growth hormones," Major explains. "Now, you can get it from the extract of the roots of this African plant I seriously can't even pronounce, but the pure source is human pituitary glands." "Aren't you big enough?" Ravi asks sardonically.

Major tells him that he was just looking for a reason that Julien had a brain in his ice chest. "This makes about as much sense as anything else." "I suppose it does," Ravi replies with a scrunched up face. "Now - who wants to slay some dark creatures of the night and make the world a safer place for all of mankind?" Reaching for a controller, Major says "it is my quest, and I will not shrink before it."

Lowell is heading home from the music studio. He gets in the elevator, and Liv rushes in after him. "Hey!" he says cheerfully. "We need to talk," she tells him urgently.

Out on a paintball course, a group of guys under fire are getting tactical directives from their team leader for an assault on the opposition. As they take their positions, two of the guys come up on someone leaning up against a blockade. One guy tags him with a hit to the leg, but the man down doesn't move. "Yo - you gotta clear the field, man!" yells the guy who tagged him. As the two shooters approach, they find that the man down is dead - bleeding from the neck. They freak out and run off screaming.

In Lowell's apartment, Liv confronts Lowell. "Where can I find Blaine?" she demands. "Wait - I don't understand what you're saying. The brains I eat, they come from funeral homes," he tells her. "I saw Blaine deliver that cooler to you this morning," she says, emphatically pointing at the yellow cooler. "That's where he says he gets his brains," Lowell insists.

"Well, he's a liar! And you told me you got your own brains, so you're both liars!" accuses Liv. She demands again to know where she can find Blaine. Lowell urges her to calm down. "What makes you think he's killing people?" he asks her calmly. Liv tells him that she had a bite of his brains and eggs, and she had a vision. "I saw Blaine slaughter the boy whose brain we ate," Liv says angrily. "I met him! He seemed like a good kid!"

She asks how he can claim not to know that Blaine is killing people. "You're a zombie! You have visions! You ever stopped to wonder why all the people you eat are so young? Why they all came to such tragic and violent ends?" Lowell says that they weren't all young. "I don't go looking for triggers, I don't investigate murders. It's not like I saw Blaine kill anyone!" he says defensively.

"When you need another delivery, how do you get in touch with Blaine?" Liv demands yet again. "When Blaine made me a zombie, he told me he'd get me the brains I needed to live. I was starving!" Lowell argues. "I didn't have a choice!" "There's always a choice!' says Liv vehemently. "And right now, you could choose to tell me how to locate Blaine," responds Liv.

"So that's the only reason you're here... to get that information. You can't slow down for a moment and talk about us," he says. "Us?! There is no us!" exclaims Liv. "There's me, and this guy I don't recognize, who eats the brains of murdered homeless kids. You're damn right I only came for that number!"

"Say you caught him - then what?" asks Lowell. "I'll figure it out," she says. "No. No, not good enough," he says. "What does it matter to you now anyway?" she asks. "Well... for a start, I'm in love with you," he tells her. Liv looks like someone kicked her puppy for a moment. She gets a texts from Ravi. "Well, that's gonna be a problem," she says to Lowell as she leaves. Lowell looks like someone just kicked his puppy.

Blaine walks into the back room of the Meat Cute. Julien and Blaine's new flunkie are preparing coolers for delivery. Seeing Blaine, Julien whistles. "Hot date, boss?" "Better... Sex, I can get any time that I want. This, though... Ticket to the EMP to hear Kurt Cobain's unreleased demos before anyone else in the world? Priceless. Nirvana was the soundtrack of my youth. My childhood ended April 5th, 1994..." He tells them where he was when he heard that Kurt Cobain had killed himself.

"Lawrence Kaiser called a little while ago," says Julien. "Dibs!" shouts the other flunkie. "No, Julien will handle the delivery." The flunkie is disappointed. "You do not purge your bowels in the powder room of a man with a helicopter landing pad in his back yard."

Julien tells Blaine that Kaiser wasn't looking for product. "He wants to have lunch Thursday... at his club." Blaine looks interested in the news. "He wants to talk about a business opportunity. Says he'll send a car for you." "Well, alright then! Everything's coming up Blaine," he says to himself. "Guy's got his own club?" the flunkie asks, sulking. Blaine looks at him as if he's a brick.

Liv meets Ravi at the crime scene. "Bad, huh?" he asks her, seeing the look on her face. "He wouldn't tell me anything," she says. "I really don't want to talk about it." She asks how Major is. He tells her that Major is still convinced that the Candyman's harvesting brains - which, I guess is technically true," he says. He tells her Major's theory is that it's a cutting-edge body building supplement. "So - slight silver lining is, he's not thinking zombie," he says with a thumbs-up.

Clive is looking at the crime scene. He tells Liv and Ravi that the vic's name is Everett Adams, aged 28. A former sniper with the Army Rangers, he worked at the paintball facility as an instructor. He tells them that CSI says there's no gunshot residue on him, so the shot that killed him must have been taken from a distance, as he points to the hill behind them.

Clive notices that Liv is preoccupied. Concerned, he asks if she's ok. "Fine," she answers. He shrugs and continues. "The paintballers were part of a Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. No one heard the gunshot. Unis haven't turned up anything that shoots real bullets," he tells them. "No shell casings turned up in the killer's perch either," says a Crime Scene Tech. "Excuse me - did you say 'perch?'" asks Ravi. The investigator says that the bullet passed through the victim's neck and lodged in a log. They used a laser pointer to establish the trajectory. Clive looks up. "So the killer was up in that tree."

There's a kid sitting over on one of the blocks. Clive tells them that he's the victim's assigned Little Brother, Harris Jenkins. "I'll get to work here, you two go do your thing," Ravi says to Liv and Clive. They walk over to the boy, who's idly pulling shots off with the paintball gun.

Clive introduces Liv and himself to the boy. "We'd like to ask you a few questions." The boy doesn't look at them. He just keeps firing. "Were you aware of anyone who would want to do this to Everett?" asks Clive. "His wife," says the boy calmly. "Ex-wife, I mean," he adds sadly. "She dumped him while he was getting shot at in Afghanistan, then she and her new husband tried to take away his kid," he explains. "Everett wouldn't let them."

Clive tells Liv he's going to bring in the ex-wife and her new husband. "You wanna come along?" She says she's going to meet the body back at the morgue and grab a bite to eat. "Give me a couple of hours?" He agrees, and they leave the crime scene.

She tells us what she's thinking in a voice-over. I could kid myself and say that I planned to eat Everett's brain as a way of supporting the truth - but the truth is, I can't handle another vision of Jerome.

At the precinct, Liv is waiting in the interrogation room for Clive. He comes in with Everett's ex-wife Penny, and introduces Liv. She gets up quickly, and stands at attention. "Sorry for your loss, ma'am.. please have a seat." Clive gives her a confused look, and proceeds. "Mrs. Taylor, we understand that you and Everett were engaged in a serious custody battle." She tells them that she and Everett were fighting over their daughter Anna. Her new husband Shawn was offered a promotion that came with a transfer to Silicon Valley.

When they interviewed Shawn, he told them that the job came with a massive pay raise. "We would be able to enroll Anna in a world-class private school. But I had to turn it down." Clive asks when he met Penny. He seems uncomfortable with the question.

Penny confirms that she left Everett for Shawn while Everett was deployed in Afghanistan. "War changed him," she says. "He was suffering from PTSD, but resisted treatment." "But he left the service," Liv points out. "He couldn't take seeing another man raise his daughter," Penny replies. "Suddenly, Anna was the center of his life." Clive asks how Shawn dealt with Everett preventing him from accepting this promotion.

"I can't lie," says Shawn. "It stung. But I understood the man. I wouldn't let anyone take Anna away from me either. Might've been nice if he had shown the same enthusiasm for parenting when he and Penny were together," he says caustically. Clive asks him where he was during the time of the murder. Shawn says he was stuck in a meeting all afternoon. "A dozen colleagues can vouch for me."

Clive asks Penny the same thing. Penny answers hesitantly, as if she has to think about it. She says that she took Anna to the park. He asks if anyone can back her up. "Penny knows where we were. She's at home with my sister."

They go to talk to Anna. "You're freaky looking," the girl says to Liv. "Why are you so white?" Penny admonishes her. "It's ok," says Liv. "I work in a basement, Anna - so I don't see much sun. All I need to know is what you did after school today." Anna begins to look uncomfortable. "I was with mommy." "What did you do with Mommy?" asks Liv. Anna gets upset. "I don't wanna do this," she says. "Tell the nice lady where we were," Penny says. "Stop! Please!" Anna yells. That triggers a vision for Liv.

Through Everett's eyes, she sees him assaulting Shawn while Anna screams "Stop, Daddy! Stop!" Looking towards Penny in the kitchen, she is holding a knife screaming at him to get out of the house.

Clive and Liv exchange a glance, and Anna says she doesn't want to do this any more. Penny tells her, "It's ok baby... you did great." To Liv and Clive, she says "I think we're through here."

As they leave the house, Liv tells Clive about her vision. Clive wonders why they wouldn't have reported that to the police. "Something like that - Everett being violent would have made their custody case." He says that Anna didn't provide her mother with the most solid alibi. "I'll see if anyone can place Penny near the crime scene."

That night, Liv has trouble sleeping. She has a nightmare of a memory from Everett. A woman screams while being held upside down, then dropped from a building over a walkway. What's more relaxing than a trip down traumatic memory lane?

She goes for a midnight run. Exercise is an effective treatment for PTSD. But what it really beats is laying around, wallowing over the end of my posthumous love life. But now, I'm overwhelmed with desire - called to the battlefield, and powerless to stop it.

The next morning, she's at the paintball facility, just in time for the free-for-all game. She gets her weapon and gears up. On the course, she takes out three targets easily. Then she finds a shell casing from a real bullet near the crime scene. The yellow tape is still on the field, but it looks like it's been played through. As she's looking up at the tree that the investigator had pointed out, another gamer tries to get the drop on her but she turns and takes him out with a "HOOO-AAH!" before running on.


Back at the morgue, Liv draws a rough sketch map of the crime scene while Ravi processes Everett's body. She tells him that Everett's body was found fifty yards from the tree. She found the casing twenty feet closer to the body than where the CST said Everett was shot from. "From this distance, the shooter would have had to be fifteen feet tall." she points out. "Well, then he should be easy to find," Ravi says. "Or she," says Liv.

"Side note - that trophy you won from your 'Last Man Standing' competition is ill-gotten gains," Ravi comments. I'm guessing you were the only participant digesting the brains of a highly decorated soldier." "If I'm stuck with this PTSD, I should at least get a trophy out of it."

"You're remembering traumas... Do you remember any of your own?" Ravi asks. "After the boat party, when you woke up in a body bag - how did you know you were a zombie?" "The craving brains didn't immediately speak to werewolf," she says. "So you were immediately craving brains?" Ravi asks for confirmation. "Yeah," she says. "Immediately. I identified myself as a doctor, and refused medical treatment. As I was leaving, I found a corpse on the shore. The skull was already cracked open. Some other zombie had likely gotten the frontal lobe but there was some temporal lobe just hanging there, like fruit on a tree. My first zombie meal."

Liv gets a call from Lowell. She rejects the call petulantly. Ravi asks her what she would have done to feed herself if she didn't have a job that gave her access to brains. "I wouldn't have brains of dead homeless teens delivered to my house like pizza," she answers. "Lowell didn't know," he points out. "He didn't want to know," she retorts. "You believe in his position you would have? What a luxury to not have to know for sure," he says with a note of reproach.


Clive walks in. "Dr. C - mind if I take your assistant on a field trip?" "I'd sign a permission slip, but my hands are covered in viscera," Ravi jokes. "Sgt. Adams was under the care of a shrink at the VA hospital. She advised the patients to keep a journal. Let's go find that journal," Clive says.


Major walks into a gym. Finding the trainer, he says "A buddy of mine works out here, and the dude is just... That's where I want to get." The trainer tells him, "It's your lucky day - I have some time." Major tells him "I'm looking for cutting edge, out of the box... I'll do whatever it takes, 'no-matter-how-crazy-it-sounds' type stuff." "I think I'm just the trainer for you," the guy says with a smile.


He gets Major started working with ropes, and tells him that supplements are only part of the puzzle. "I need to know you're ready to do the work. Without the work, the creotine and nitric oxide aren't gonna do it." Major tells him he was thinking something more hard core. "What? Arnold's? Trends?"

"I saw this blog that said if you eat brains, the amino acid in the pituitary glands make your growth hormones go off the chart!" Major tells the guy.


"You mean... brains... from people?" asks the trainer with a look of distaste. "That's what I read," says Major. "And you're up for that?" "Like I said, I'll do anything," says Major. "You'll eat... human brains to get bigger muscles?!" the trainer asks incredulously. "I'm open to that as an option," Major confirms. "Good to know," says the trainer, confused - and maybe a little grossed out.


At Everett's place, Clive finds the journal. All that's written in it is One is less than many. "I think I got that in a fortune cookie once," Clive says. Liv explains that it's a sniper mantra. "That's how he kept a clear conscience. By killing one person, he could save a lot more lives." "Do you know many snipers?" asks Clive, wondering how she knows this. "Just one," Liv answers as she reaches under the bed. She pulls out Everett's sniper rifle kit, and that triggers a vision.


She sees Harris handling the rifle, and hears Everett ask him what he's doing, in an angry tone. "Is that a good thousand-yard stare, or a bad thousand-yard stare?" asks Clive. "It's not good," says Liv with a worried look.


At the precinct, Clive is interviewing Harris. Clive shows them drawings that the guidance counselor at the school gave him - drawings that the boy did of dead soldiers. "Your school records indicate that you've had a rough year," Liv says. The kid buries his face in his arms on the table. "At the time Everett was shot, your paintball team had just split up. Is there anyone who can account for you just before the body was discovered?" asks Clive. The kid doesn't respond. "Make no mistake, Harris - we're gonna catch whoever did this." Harris looks up. "Not if I do first," he says menacingly.


In the hall, Liv and Clive are discussing the interview. "He's a messd up kid. But losing your mom, brother, and male role model in the span of a year will do that to you," rationalizes Liv. "Think he pulled the trigger?" asks Clive. "All those drawings - he did those before Everett ever asked to be his Big Brother. His grades and attendance were actually on the upswing," Liv points out. An officer comes over with a file for Clive, saying that he got a hit on the search Clive had him run. Clive looks at the file, then asks if Liv has time to pay Penny and Shawn's neighbor a visit.


From the neighbor's front porch across the street, Liv looks at the Taylor's house. "Penny took a big step up the social ladder when she married Shawn," she remarks. The neighbor answers the door. "You folks miss the sign?" he asks, pointing to a 'No Soliciting' placard. Clive introduces himself and Liv. "Did you file a noise complaint on your neighbors?" "It's about time someone followed up on that!" says the neighbor.

He tells them that the noise was only the half of it. "Ever since I filed that complaint, it's like my place is possessed!" He describes lights going on in the middle of the night, sprinklers going off on the wrong days and him having to pay the fines. "I guess that's what I get for taking them to small claims court over my broken mailbox and ruined lawn... you know, him working with all that high-tech wizard dweeb stuff..." Then he tells them that one day he saw Everett fishtail the car across his lawn, and Penny chasing him out of the house with a butcher knife. "He backed outta there, and hit the gas like a bat outta hell while Penny was screaming that she's gonna kill him!"


At home, Liv is cleaning her boots when there's a knock on the door. She answers it, and finds Lowell looking utterly despondent. She tells him he needs to go. She says she knows that he's upset, but she wants him to leave. He hands her a brown paper bag. "For you." She opens the bag, and pulls out a fresh brain in a Zip-lock bag.


"That's Michael Kenny. He was interred yesterday at Everclear Memorial," he tells her softly. "You dug up a grave?" she asks. "I'm sorry - I'm sure that was awful." "It was ok, compared to watching the funeral." She steps back, silently inviting him in.


He says that the deceased was an English teacher, and that all his kids were there. They read his favorite Shakespeare sonnet. "His poor wife was in total hell on earth..." He says that he thought about all the brains he'd eaten. Liv... we eat people... we eat people," he says, feeling remorseful. He tells her that he wanted her to know that he gets it. "I was a coward - I didn't want to know... I didn't - I should have tried to - " Liv reaches out to touch him, but he steps back. "Blaine killed those kids, and I ate those brains, and... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." "I know," whispers Liv as she kisses him tenderly.


At the gym, the trainer is telling one of the guys working out about Major coming in. "So I'm thinkin' he wants me to hook him up with some juice, right? But check it - the guy tells me tells me he wants to get some human brains!" From a nearby workout bench, Julien sits up and asks for Major's info.


At Liv's, she is cuddling in bed with Lowell. "I thought Blaine scratched me 'cause he was into my music. Kept asking when we were gonna jam." "You never know, says Liv. "He could be Zombie McCartney to your zombie Lennon." "All I know is another year on his meal plan and my trust fund would be zombie tapped." Liv asks how it works. "Well, in my case it involved a father with the good fortune to inherit a coal mine."


"Not your trust fund - Blaine's service," Liv says. He picks up his phone, and shows her an image of a menu. "It changes every few weeks," he tells her. Liv reads some of the dishes out loud. "Cerebellum sashimi?! For god's sake, cerebellum is people!" Lowell shrugs. "Doesn't matter what it's called, how it's prepared..." he says. "This menu is homeless teenagers who Blaine kills, in cold blood, for profit!" she exclaims. Sitting up in bed, she has a thought. "Blaine has to die," she announces. "I'm going to kill him."

Lowell calls Blaine, and arranges for him to come over the next night - "to jam." He asks Liv if she's sure she's up for it. "I'm running on elite soldier brains. You're the one who has to stand next to the guy," she replies. He remarks that he couldn't be more terrified but knowing that she'll be watching helps.

"I'm always better with an audience. I probably shouldn't say this to the woman I'm in love with - but I'm a weenie. I'm the kind of guitar player who avoids doing any activity that may hurt his fingers. I'm not the man who jumps in the line of fire," Lowell says. "But... that's the kind of man you deserve, so... I'll do my best." "You're not a weenie. You jump out of planes," she tells him. "Remember that when you're looking through the scope of that rifle at the puddle of urine forming at my feet."


At the Meat Cute, Blaine is telling Julien and the flunkie about his experience with the Nirvana demos. "It showed his musical progression from Fecal Matter to Nirvana!" They look at him in confusion. "Fecal Matter was his first band, you guys." The flunkie is mildly amused. "Fecal Matter... that's like... poo, right?" Blaine looks at him like he's a brick.

"What's with the get-up?" asks Julien. "My lunch with Kaiser's today. And it's not a 'get-up.' I am a sartorial chameleon. Indie rock scene, country club... I fit in everywhere." He gets a text on his phone. "There's the zombie power broker now!" He asks Julien to take care of the gym rat problem. "Lowell Tracey's invited me to preview the new Pockadile album." "Who?" asks Julien. "You need to listen to somethin' other than Bob Seeger, my man, Blaine tells him as he leaves.


Blaine gets into the limo, and Kaiser is waiting for him. Blaine is surprised. "Mr. Kaiser - I didn't think I'd be sharing the ride to lunch with you!" "You're not," Kaiser says. "Here's where things stand. I'm tired of your brains. These visions from runaways and junkies are worse than depressing - they're boring..." He says that he sees a business opportunity for both of them.

He proceeds to tell Blaine that he had a dream to be an astronaut. But he couldn't qualify for the space program because of Low Distance Vision Acuity. He didn't give up, though. He worked hard, made his fortune, and bought himself a ticket on the first commercial flight into space.

"You know what happened then?" he asks. "You. Two days after I passed my zero-gravity training, you and that disgusting fingernail of yours ruined my life! I can't exactly pass a physical as a zombie, now, can I' but I will know what it's like to be out there among the stars - and you're going to help me." "How am I going to do that?" asks Blaine. "You're gonna get me the brain of Alan York!"


"Alan York - one of the first men to walk on the moon!?" Blaine asks in disbelief. "I wanna eat his brain," says Kaiser. "I think he's still using it," replies Blaine. "Like that's ever stopped you before," snarks Kaiser. "Somehow I suspect it'll be slower than the average teenage junkie." "How the hell am I getting to Alan York?" Blaine demands to know. "I think all I'm tasked with here is pointing out what I want, and then writing you a check. So - why don't you just tell me... what amount am I writing on it?" Kaiser asks, opening his checkbook.


In the morgue, Ravi is sniffing a container with a brain in it. Gagging, he starts to put it back into the fridge. "What are you doing?" asks Liv from behind him. "When did you get in?" he says, quickly shutting the fridge. "Everett's brain came with stealth mode," Liv comments. Ravi tells her that he has some happy news. "Zombie-ism doesn't appear to be able to jump across species," he says. "When was that even a question?!" Liv asks. "When the zombie rat bit me," Ravi says offhandedly.

She gives him a horrified look. "You had enough on your plate, I didn't want to worry you," says. "Next time, worry me!" she scolds. "I got your six, Ravi!" "Roger that, soldier," he says with a cheesy grin. Clive comes in, asking if they have time to look at a couple of YouTube videos. "Of failed twerking tutorials, yes!" says Ravi. "But no more lip-syncing to 'Frozen'," adds Liv.


Clive tells them that after the Taylor's neighbor accused Shawn of messing with the systems in his house, he did some digging on Shawn's company Remote-o-con. Among their clients - UFreightEze. Watch this," he says as he pulls up a video. It's an advertisement for same-day delivery service using drones. Liv asks how this relates to the case. "Remote-o-con is supplying the drone guidance systems, are you pickin' up what I'm layin' down?" he says, frustrated that she didn't catch on right away.


Ravi says, "Surely you can't be suggesting -" "Oh yeah, I am," cuts in Clive angrily. "Check this video out - you can find 'em all over the internet." He shows them a video of a drone armed with a hand gun, firing on a bottle of liquid. The bottle explodes violently. "I'm officially never going outside again," quips Ravi. Clive explains that this is why Liv found the shell casing where she did. "The drone was fifteen feet off the ground, halfway along what the CSI guys told us was the trajectory." "That yuppie sack of crap sat in his corporate meeting, and murdered Everett from his tablet!" Liv exclaims.


Shawn is on a phone conversation in his car, talking about when he will be starting his new job - the promotion that he turned down. "We're so pleased your circumstances have changed," says the voice on the other end of the line. As Shawn pulls up to the house, he sees a police vehicle in his driveway. I'm gonna have to call you back."


In the house, Clive and a team of investigators are going over Shawn's laptop. He tells Shawn that the computer forensic experts have a question about a 3-D printer schematic for a .38 caliber handgun mounted on a UFrightEze drone they found on his laptop. "We have a search warrant, by the way."


Penny is stoically watching them. "Penny gave us your passwords - said you had nothing to hide," says Clive. "What the hell did you do, Shawn? He was Anna's father!" she says to Shawn. He shakes his head, then turns and runs. Liv catches him in the hall, and puts him up against the family pictures on the wall. "Nerd... this'll be easier on you if you don't move!" Liv says, rolling her eyes. Clive arrests him for the murder of Sgt. Everett Adams.

Liv breaks into Everett's room, and steals his sniper rifle. She takes a vantage point on a building that looks across to Lowell's apartment. As she puts the rifle together like a pro, she narrates her choice...


There are monsters in this world. People who do unspeakable things. When I graduated med school, I took an oath to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. To respect and value the lives of all persons. Now that I'm half dead, I can see that some life is like a virus - one that can't be allowed to spread.

Looking through the scope, she focuses on a window - one that she can see Lowell and Blaine through.


Major comes home to a darkened house. He goes to turn on the lights, but nothing happens. He walks through the living room to the dining room, and finds a sledgehammer on the table. As he turns away from it, Julien nails him with a punch to the gut. He lays Major's hand on the table, holding it down. "You are gonna tell me who you told about brains... and this will all be over," he says as he threatens Major with the hammer.


Major doesn't answer. Julien threatens him again. "I don't know anything," Major says as he clutches his key between his fingers. "I guess it's all aboard the pain train," Julien says gleefully. "First stop - Hand Francisco!" Before Julien can do anything, Major jams his key deep into Julien's leg, throwing him off balance. Major runs upstairs and clumsily starts loading his gun, managing to get three bullets in. Julien breaks through the door and throws the hammer. Major ducks, and the hammer smashes the mirror. He fires a shot at Julien, hitting him twice in the chest. Julien goes down, eyes closed.


Slowly, Major approaches him, then turns to puke. Julien is now in zombie mode. He reaches out and grabs Major by the ankle, and Major fires again. He keeps firing, even though the clip is empty. When Julien doesn't move, Major runs.


Blaine and Lowell are walking out onto the deck. "Cheers again for the prime cuts," Lowell says. "I figured an occasion like this called for something special." Raising a glass, Blaine offers a toast. "To old clients, and new friends." On the roof of the next building, Liv is trying to get a bead on Blaine but a pole space heater blocks the shot. Lowell sucks down his drink. "Boy, you sure can put it away, can't you?" Blaine comments.


Looking around, Lowell realizes the problem. "Everything ok, amigo?" asks Blaine. "Just getting a bit toasty is all... I'm just gonna move this," he says as he moves the space heater, giving Liv a clear shot at Blaine's head. "Do it... Do it!" she wills herself.

Blaine is telling Lowell that he really should check out the Cobain exhibit. "I'd be up for going again, if you want." As he puts the Corpus Collosum that Blaine brought on the grill, Lowell says "you know, I purchased the Kurt Cobain Jaguar from a collector with my first advance money. Fancy a go?" Blaine says he would literally never forgive himself if he said no. Lowell goes to get it. On the sly, he texts Liv. "What's going on?"

At Major's house, he lets Clive in. The house is still dark. "Where is he?" Clive asks. Major starts to apologize. "I didn't know who else to call," he says. Clive tells Major to pull it together. "You shot an armed intruder. It's gonna get hairy, but you didn't do anything wrong." "I killed a man," Major says. "Show me." Major gets a camp lantern, and they go upstairs to his bedroom.


Julien is gone. Major starts losing it. "He was right here - I shot him! He collapsed right here!" he says, pointing to the floor. Clive looks around. There's no blood. "When people get shot multiple times in the chest, they tend to bleed." "He threw a frickin' sledgehammer at me! Look!" Major points to the busted mirror. Clive says he has no way of knowing if that mark on the wall was or wasn't there before tonight. Major insists that it wasn't. He tells Clive, "that guy was dead! I got him three times! Maybe he got out the window... " Picking up a shell casing from the floor, Clive says "Major, I gotta ask. Have you been taking any medications?" "No." "Have you stopped taking any?"


Back at Lowell's, Blaine is on the phone when Lowell comes out. He cuts the call short. "Behold!" says Lowell, bringing out a guitar. Blaine excitedly takes the guitar and Lowell checks his texts. Liv has texted him - "I can't do it." Blaine's phone rings. Lowell sees Julien on the caller ID, and that triggers a vision for him - the same one that Liv had of Blaine killing Jerome. He gasps and shivers.


"I've seen that look before," Blaine says. "Where'd that trip take you?" "Looked like Bonaroo," Lowell answers, chuckling. Blaine laughs as he takes the call from Julien, who's calling in to report what happened at Major's place. Lowell turns, and faces where Liv is. He puts his hand to his heart, mouths the words "I love you," and Liv knows what he's going to do. "No..." she whispers.

Blaine gets off the phone. "Hey man, sorry - I gotta go. Work emergency. If you wanna go to the exhibit, just - "Lowell grabs the grill fork, and stabs at Blaine's head. Blaine turns and blocks, and the fork tines go through his arm. "You're a lousy host," he says as he raises a gun and aims it at Lowell. He fires, and Liv screams. She ducks quickly below the wall as Blaine looks around.