Liv and Let Clive

"I know it's not a different sun that came up this morning. But somehow, it looks sunnier. Ravi is hitting it off with Major, who seems willing to give me another shot at this friends thing. The "pretending to be something I'm not" isn't over, but at least Sammy's brain is out of my system, finally. I'm so ready to start looking forward instead of constantly watching my back. What's that old zombie saying? Today is the first day of the rest of your half-dead life."

- Olivia Moore

"Liv and Let Clive" is the fourth episode of Season 1 of iZombie. It was written by Kit Boss and directed by John Kretchmer. It is the fourth episode of the series overall, and premiered on April 7, 2015.

Synopsis
When Clive identifies a John Doe in the morgue as one of his former criminal contacts from his days on the vice squad, Liv is surprised that Clive is so quick to refuse her help in solving the murder. Liv and Ravi investigate on their own which puts them in a precarious situation. Liv’s problems continue to mount when Major begins searching for a roommate and she believes he’s considering a cute co-ed.

Recap
The episode opens with Blaine in bed next to Jackie, the cougar he recently turned zombie. Answering his booty call doesn't make the brains he provides her any cheaper, and she's also spending a ton of time trying to avoid the pale, sunken-eyed look of the other zombies with some salon pampering. She has her people provide the same for Blaine, making him look a bit more alive.

Liv, meanwhile, brings coffee to Major's house, to apologize for "all the weirdness lately." His roommate is moving out -- a kid who isn't particularly well-suited to living with others. Liv is apologetic that he even needs a roommate, and he tells her that neither of the two kids from last week have returned to the shelter. His girlfriend comes down and they have an awkward meeting.

Back at the morgue, Liv shares the story with Ravi, who is sympathetic but tells her she might need to take a "working lunch" to identify an Asian gang member who was slain and then had his fingers and molars removed to make identification more difficult.

It doesn't help much -- Clive identifies him as Sammy Wong. When he tells Ravi and Liv to stay out of this one, she gets a vision of Clive beating an informant named Ray and then threatening Sammy with the same "stay out of it."

Liv thinks that Clive might be dirty, but Ravi tells her that it's probably that she got paranoia from Sammy's brain. She tells him he should move in with Major, but he shoots it down.

Blaine heads to a restaurant, where he has a couple of big muscleheads working for him. He gives them a list of deliveries and sends them away while he's being served a tray of brain food.

At the police department, Liv goes looking for information on Clive. His ex-partner tells him that Clive was always looking out for himself and a little too close to his confidential informers.

That and the revelation that Clive had been suspended lead her to continue thinking the worst of him and try to seek out the Ray from her vision. They go to an adult bookstore where they think he works, but while waiting for him, she has a flash and realizes that he's very dangerous. As they get ready to leave the bookstore, a group of his fellow gang members come out to meet them and eventually they get away, but not before she realizes that the porn shop is the gang headquarters. As they're leaving, Clive arrives at the store.

Back at home, Liv is paranoid that she's being followed. Her little brother, who is staying with her and has a crush on Peyton, notices that it's odd but doesn't know what to make of it.

While waiting to make a delivery, Blaine's meatheads are upset that their lives have been upset by becoming zombies. They want to go into business for themselves, taking away Blaine's monopoly in providing brains to other zombies. They plan to steal Blaine's delivery list for a list of clients.

Back at her apartment, Clive comes to tell Liv that Sammy had been in witness protection and had only been found because he came back to visit his dying mother. He warns her again to stay away from the case.

At the morgue, Major comes to see Ravi, and it seems like he believes Ravi and Liv are an item. Apparently, Liv told Major to talk to him about the room he has for rent. They seem like a poor fit, though.

At Jackie's, the meatheads pitch her on their business plan. She seems skeptical but says she admires their chutzpa.

Back at the morgue, Major and Ravi have become fast friends, and moving in is going to happen. Liv comes to tell Ravi that Clive had come and been menacing. Clive has figured out that AJ, head of the Blue Cobras gang, is the son of the previous head -- who apparently was the one Sammy testified against.

Liv tells Ravi that she has a tracker she wants to stick on Clive's car so that they can keep an eye on him. He hesitates, but she decides to try and go ahead. When she gets paranoid about an Asian man she believes is watching her near Clive's car, she runs and takes a spill on the pavement after bumping into a homeless person with a shopping cart. While on the ground, she has a vision of Sammy's death -- and his last words were that Ray is an undercover cop.

She goes and tells Clive, who reveals that Ray was his real partner and they were both undercover. Clive panics and calls around looking for Ray. He takes backup from the gang unit to a private airstrip and tells Liv to go home.

Back at the restaurant, Blaine welcomes the two meatheads back and then shoots them in the head after revealing he knows their secret. He goes into a freezer and pulls out another pair of frozen zombies, saying that he buys in bulk.

At Liv's apartment, she calls Clive, who says the cops arrived in time to save Ray. They arrested nearly the entire gang on a variety of charges, but AJ wasn't there. After she hangs up, AJ jumps Liv, having figured out that she's with the cops. When her brother comes home and Ray is about to attack him, Liv goes full-on zombie and her brother comes into the room to discover her beating the crap out of him.

Later, Clive comes to see her and tells her that his suspension was to get him in good with the Cobras, and that when he came back, he'd spent so much time in deep cover that people didn't want to work with him anymore.

She tells him that if she ever sees him acting off in a vision again, she'll ask him first. He tells her to call him if she sees anyone suspicious, since she won't always land the "lucky punch" she gave him as an explanation.

The episode ends with Major and Ravi moving in together, Liv helping -- and breaking her old favorite mug, which she had complained to Ravi about Major's new girlfriend using. Ravi sees it, but promises to say nothing, and tells Liv that Major didn't make him sign a lease; he thinks that Major was just eager to get him to move in since Liv's eagerness to get them to move in together seemed like an indication she hadn't moved on yet.

At the restaurant, Blaine calls Jackie, telling her that he's sending her "something special on the house" that will "make her feel like a teenager again." He and his new muscle are prepping the body of Jerome, the kid from Major's shelter.

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

 * Nick Purcha as Evan Moore
 * Aleks Paunovic as Julien Dupont
 * Elise Gatien as Corinne
 * Sarah Jane Tedmond as Jackie
 * Tim Chiou as AJ

Co-Starring

 * Darren E Scott as Ray
 * Tanja Dixon-Warren as Cissie
 * Sean Millington as Dante
 * Marci T. House as Detective Devore
 * Frank Ferrucci as Marty
 * Manny Jacinto as Sammy Wong
 * Andy Yu as Humorless Clerk
 * Daniel Lim as Whimpering Asian Skell
 * Keenan Sawatsky as Jesse

Soundtrack

 * They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh! - Sufjan Stevens
 * 10,000 Emerald Pools - BØRNS

Cultural References

 * Live and Let Die (1973) - Title reference

Episode Connections

 * Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) (TV Series) - Holodeck mentioned
 * Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) - Blaine says, "Brains are for closers."
 * Jerry Maguire (1996) - "He had me at 4K Ultra HDTV"
 * Memento (2000) - Ravi: "Her life is like the whore-y version of that movie, Memento."
 * The Real Housewives of Orange County (2006) (TV Series) - "Real Homemakers of Whoretown"
 * Chuck (2007) (TV Series) - Liv: "I know Kung Fu"
 * Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) - Liv: "Love in the time of zombie-ism ..."
 * Diablo III (2012) (Video Game) - Mentioned in dialogue