'iZombie' Review: "Heaven Just Got a Little Bit Smoother"

Ivy Sears’19 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
New bosses, rising suspicions, and love triangles, oh my. iZombie is back baby! iZombie returned to the CW on April 4th, bringing with it the promise of one killer new season. “Heaven Just Got A Little Bit Smoother” picks up where season two ended, but the world could not feel more different. iZombie at the beginning was a story about one girl who had a tragic thing happen to her. She alone stood with the burden of zombie-hood. Obviously as the seasons went on the world got bigger and bigger. Now there is no reigning the zombie parade in. Zombies have set up shop in Seattle and they are here to stay. This means that while Liv (Rose McIver) is still our protagonist, the world is far less centered around her, and that may not be a bad thing.

The end of season two set up a great many new things that are going to need to be addressed here in season three. This includes the budding new love triangle between Peyton (Aly Michalka), Blaine (David Anders), and Ravi (Rahul Kohli). Major’s (Robert Buckley) new life was dubbed the “Chaos Killer”, and Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) discovers not only that zombies exist, but that his partner is in fact a brain-loving gal herself! These things bring new intrigue into the show and move the show from being Liv-centric to being the ensemble show the rest of the cast deserves.
“Heaven Just Got A Little Bit Smoother” focuses mostly on the discovery of the new antagonist Vivian Stoll (Andrea Savage) of Fillmore Graves, a company whose main goal is to prepare for the day when the world discovers zombies, or “D-Day” as they call it. Fillmore Graves is building on an island right outside Seattle that will soon become “Zombie Island”. The plan being that when Seattle learns of Liv and the rest of the infected’s condition, the zombies can self-segregate. Along with this plan, Fillmore Graves is raising zombie children to help in their fight against the un-infected humans.

Meanwhile, Blaine still struggles with dementia, or possibly continues to hide the fact that the cure actually worked. He and Peyton are continuing to get close, despite Ravi clearly being uncomfortable with this friendship. It turns out having a mob boss hold you captive really bonds people together. Especially for Peyton, who now owes her life to the newly friendly Blaine. Ravi on the other hand has made his displeasure clear that Peyton is talking to Blaine, while simultaneously blocking Peyton’s calls. This triangle is certainly unexpected, but none the less interesting. We will just have to wait and see how this unfolds as the season continues on.

As for poor, poor Major, despite being cleared by the police, people still believe that he is the Chaos Killer. He is, but you still have to feel bad for the fellow; he was being blackmailed into doing it. Being marked a killer has left him with very few places to turn. His house has been spray-painted and garbage has been thrown on his lawn. He can’t even go into a coffee shop without being attacked for being the  killer of the 1%. This leads him to seek out a job in the one place he knows won’t care that he has a checkered past: Fillmore Graves. It seems that our sweet Major will now be fighting against the humans in the zombie war, or at the very least he will go undercover to get Liv info.
Overall iZombie’s season three premiere was a success. It gave us answers we have waited months for, while also raising new and taunting questions. The characters are back and just as interesting as ever and this season is already shaping up to be one of the most interesting yet.
Episode Grade: A-