The Exterminator

"Marvin Webster here, family man, two kids, suburbs, owner operator of Sea-Tac Bug Whack until someone ran him over in the Whole Lotta Lotta car park. Should be a pretty safe brain to eat."

- Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti

"The Exterminator" is the third episode of Season 1 of iZombie. It was written by Rob Thomas and the teleplay by Graham Norris & Lee Arcuriand and directed by Michael Fields. It is the third episode of the series overall, and premiered on March 31, 2015.

Synopsis
As Liv and Detective Babineaux investigate a hit and run case, they discover the victim was a sociopathic hit man responsible for the murder of a tech entrepreneur, a case that Peyton is prosecuting. Liv and Ravi dig deeper into a supposed zombie sighting that was posted on line which leads Liv to make a surprising discovery about someone from her past. Major moves on with his life and Peyton is shocked by Liv's reaction.

Recap
A guy is filming from a creepy building. Someone startles him and calls him a wuss. He was filming b-roll for their little indie film. They throw rocks at a barrel then hear a grunting noise. They look inside and are startled. One says it’s a hobo but the other thinks it’s terrifying. One of the kid snaps a photo of the growling “hobo.” Liv is working on a corpse and asks Ravi if he’s hungry. He says he set up a Google alert for Seattle zombie and says he got a couple of hits.

He says Dawn of the Dead is showing and a teenager posted a pic he claims is a zombie on his Facebook. Ravi says they need to go take a look since it’s near the lake where she turned. Liv says Blaine is enough. She says two’s a crowd, three’s a horde. She says fine they can go zombie hunting then asks why he never suggests anything whimsical. Liv is working on a hit and run then hears a text. Ravi asks what’s going on. She tells him she hit on her ex-fiance.

She says she broke up with him when she turned Z then tried to jump his bones after eating the brain of the passionate painter. She says she texted an apology. He mocks her for texting a mea culpa and Ravi reads off the description of the guy. He says it should be a safe brain to eat since he seems like a regular guy who was accidentally hit. Blaine shows up and says Liv looks hot eating brains. She says he shouldn’t be there and she says he shouldn’t be there.

He says she missed their brain date and she says she had to cancel and has to get out of work. He asks about her bone saw and asks what she would do to get into a skull without her tools. He says the rock is the best thing he’s found. Liv says he made her this and she doesn’t trust him. She says she thinks he’s the same drug dealing knob who groped her on the boat. Liv comes home and finds Peyton with chilled champagne. She says she got the Wally Walker murder case.

She shows Liv a news conference and says Freddy Brown collected the reward. Then she points out where she is on the screen. She asks Liv to help her prepare for her cross. Peyton shows a photo of the victim and Liv gets a flash of the person who’s brain she ate and it looks like he shot Wally Walker. She tells Peyton she killed him and Peyton laughs off what she thinks is a joke. Liv goes to see Clive about the Wally Walker murder. She says the drifter didn’t kill Wally.

She says the hit and run guy Clive is investigating killed Wally. She says she had a vision and he asks if she was smoking an apple bong at the time. She says it has something to do with debts and Clive says he can’t ask them to stop a high profile murder trial. She says it was an execution not a mugging by Gus the drifter. She says the shooter used a silencer and she saw it. Clive says they have to find out who killed their hit and run. She tells him he’s sending an innocent man to jail.

Liv says she’ll man up enough for both of them and leaves. She says Marvin Webster was a hit man and that means she at the brain of a sociopath. She says this brain will suck. Liv comes home and Peyton shows her a video of Major at a party kissing a girl. She says the girl tagged Major so it popped up on her. Liv starts spouting random facts from the killer’s brain. Peyton is disturbed by how chill Liv seems to be with this occurrence. Liv says it’s been six months since they split.

Yet she feels nothing. She looks at the Wally Walker file Peyton left on the table. She and Ravi go check out the zombie photo location. She tells Ravi that the brain is making her numb and is giving her random information. She says the brain is cold and without empathy and could kill. Ravi hears a noise. They creep closer to the shore. He says they need to open up a covered area. He tells her many hit men have an anti social personality disorder. He tells Liv there’s something in there.

She looks down there and they see a zombie. It’s Marcy. Liv knows her. She says she looks like a melted candle. Marcy is the resident that invited her to the party and says she went to her funeral. She says she’s wearing her grandmother’s pearls and recognizes her. Liv throws a rock at her and Ravi tells her to stop this. She says if she went too long without eating brains, that might be her. Ravi says maybe they can fix her.

He happens to have some brains along and tosses some down to her and says they’ll come back later and see if her damage reversed. Liv goes back to see Clive and says Wally has serious gambling debts. She says whoever ran down Marvin probably hired him to kill Wally. She says Frank Smith is the bookie and Clive says he owns Smitty’s Bar and Grill and is a former cop. There’s a trivia contest going on and Liv wants to play. She asks if they can call it Piggy and the Brain.

Her crazy brain knows all the answers. Clive sees a threatening message on the bathroom wall. He asks Smitty about Wally who says he did owe him money. He says he came in the night he died to ask for more time. He says he was giving him more time since he knew he was going public. Smitty says he heard the guy who did it went to trial. Smitty threatens to call Suzuki, Clive’s boss. Liv shows him a photo of Martin Webster who won the trivia contest. They think he killed him that night.

Clive and Liv come to see Mrs Webster who welcomes them in and let them look at Marvin’s office. There’s a ton of trivia stuff. Clive says the wife doesn’t think her husband is suspicious. Liv looks around and points out a three way bulb lamp. She has a flash of Marvin being run down and gets a license plate. She scribbles it in some dust. She says it was intentional because it hit him twice. She says it was orange. Clive found the gun with the silence. He’s ready to tell his boss.

Liv talks to Clive while she tries to ID the car. She’s looking at photos of cars to narrow it. He asks her to do a sketch of the tail light he can show someone. She says she wishes they thought of that earlier. Peyton comes in upset and says Gus Williams was released and Liv’s detective buddy blew up her murder trial. Liv says someone else had the murder weapon and Peyton asks if she read her file. Liv says she can’t feel bad since she would have sent an innocent man to jail.

Peyton blows up and says she just wanted to prove her wrong but Liv says it wasn’t about her. Peyton rants that she derailed her career. Later, Liv tells Ravi she was a bitch and didn’t even care. Liv says it feels like the world is behind 50 feet of glass. He tells her to eat another brain. She checks out an old woman and he says if she eats her she won’t get any more Wally visions. She says this is scaring her. Ravi says they need to go to the tank tomorrow and check on Marcy.

Major shows up then and says he needs a cop but they’re ignoring him. He’s got a kid with him who says his roommate at the halfway house, Eddie Cisco, has been missing for four days. They go see Clive and he asks if Eddie didn’t just take off. He says Eddie is a skater but said there was some scary guy around the skate park handing out Utopian. Clive says he’ll walk this over to the missing persons. Liv freaks Major out with some trivia. Jerome tells Major he didn’t know he was engaged to Siri.

Clive tells her she’s good at drawing cars and says he narrowed it to one car and it was sold the day before Marvin died. They brought in the seller. Patrick Edwards guy says he wore glasses and a hat but recognized him from the newspaper. He points to Don Watts on the cover – Wally Walker’s angel investor. They wonder where the car is. Patrick says there’s a Lo-jack on it. They bring Wally in and Clive says he wants to talk cars. He denies owning a Landau.

He says they found a teenager joyriding in it and says it had Marvin Webster’s DNA in it. He says they think Marvin killed Wally. They also found his DNA in it. Clive says they think Don got rid of Wally because of his gambling problems. Don says maybe he hit what he thought was a deer and says he walked away from the car. Don says he works tirelessly on behalf of the people of Seattle then asks Clive how many days he thinks he’ll spend in jail.

Clive tells Liv they have to get a connection between he and Marvin Webster. They go see Mrs Webster and impound the car. They crank it and look at his GPS. They found the address where he was dead then go check the ones prior to that. Liv munches some leftover brains to try and get a vision. They stop at a dog park but Clive is having no luck. Then she sees an ice cream truck. She has a flash of Don and Marvin talking then being asked to pull away for the ice cream truck.

Liv calls Clive and says a trash guy was there and witnessed them together. She and Ravi go check on Marcy. Liv says she feels chilly and worries she may have to kill Marcy. Ravi tries to talk to Marcy but she doesn’t respond. Liv says they have to kill her because she’s a time bomb. He says they can transport her and she asks where. Ravi asks what if it was her and she says she would want someone to put her out of her misery. Ravi says that’s the psycho in her head talking.

He wants to do a biopsy but she gets a pipe. Ravi tries to get a biopsy then falls in. Ravi begs her for help. Marcy is trying to eat him and he says to throw the pipe. She stands there coldly watching. He begs for her help and she springs into action. Marcy tries to choke Liv and Liv goes full zombie then bashes Marcy’s head open. Ravi is terrified but tells Liv to pull back from it. She does. She says he can get his sample now. Ravi collapses in relief.

Liv says she almost let Ravi die but he reminds her she didn’t. He says they have to burn Marcy’s corpse. He says even with all that sociopath swimming through her system she still found her way through. Clive texts and says he needs them both. They bring Don back in who says he’s going to sue for harassment. Clive says he hired Marvin who then wanted more money then killed him. Don says it’s a disposable phone they don’t have.

They rattle off a bunch of details from the meeting with the hit man. Clive says they have a witness. He says the guy picked he and Marvin out of a photo line up. Peyton steps in and Don tells his lawyer to do something. They tell Don it was garbage day. He looks around and sees the guy in an orange suit. Peyton says she can offer a one time only plea deal. 30 years but says if he walks out now, he will never draw another free breath. Clive slides a confession over for him to sign.

Don hangs his head but signs it. Peyton gives Liv a relieved look. He’s led away in cuffs and Liv looks over at Clive getting handshakes from his boss. Liv tells Ravi he was convincing as a trash man and says he’s glad the sanitation worker couldn’t remember anything because he looks smashing in orange. Liv says she never felt like a monster until she tasted Marvin. She says at least it was a relief from feelings. She considers eating more of him to stay numb but puts him down the disposal.

She drives by Marcy’s house. She sent a letter saying she was a friend of Marcy’s and didn’t realize she had this and it’s the family pearls. Later, Liv watches the video of Major and she cries. Peyton holds her. Jerome is out looking for his friend Eddie and Blaine is there. He says he just saw him. He says he’s at a house party and offers to walk him over. Blaine asks if anyone is waiting on him and he says no then walks off with the zombie drug dealer.

Starring

 * Rose McIver as Olivia Moore
 * Malcolm Goodwin as Clive Babineaux
 * Rahul Kohli as Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti
 * Robert Buckley as Major Lilywhite
 * David Anders as Blaine DeBeers

Guest Starring

 * Aly Michalka as Peyton Charles
 * Devon Gummersall as Don Watts
 * Elise Gatien as Corinne
 * Christopher Meyer as Jerome

Co-Starring

 * Serge Houde as High Priced Lawyer
 * Fred Keating as Smitty
 * Jared Ager-Foster as Brian
 * Connor Beardmore as Karl
 * Robert Hanson as Marvin Webster
 * Rebecca Husain as Widow Walker
 * Aliza Vellani as Marcy
 * Timothy Lyle as Bartender
 * Carrie Anne Fleming as Trivia Genie
 * Marilyn Norry as Mrs. Webster
 * Artin John as Car Seller/Patrick Edward
 * Matthew Kevin Anderson as Wally Walker
 * Veena Sood as Marcy's Mother
 * Jeffrey CR Wallace as Freddy Brown

Body Count

 * Marvin Webster (dead) - a hitman sociopath.
 * Marcy (zombie) - skull smashed by Liv.

Soundtrack

 * Bad Weather - Superhumanoids

Cultural References

 * The title is a shout-out to the movie The Terminator.

Continuity

 * Liv and Ravi discovers that a zombie who don't eat brains for a long period becomes completely feral and rotted away like a classic Romero's zombie.
 * Marks the 2nd time Liv enters in Full-Zombie Mode.