Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat

"So, multiple victims, or victim in multiple pieces?"

- Olivia Moore

"Dead Rat Live Rat Brown Rat White Rat" is the twelfth episode of Season 1 of iZombie. It was written by Diane Ruggiero-Wright and directed by Mairzee Almas. It is the twelfth episode of the series overall, and premiered on June 2, 2015.

Synopsis
A group of drunken teenagers take a late night joyride with disasters consequences. As they cover up the accident, the man mysteriously comes back to life and attacks one of the girls. After Liv consumes the girl's brain, she is taken back to high school as she and Clive investigate the case. A surprise death of one of the victim's friends raises some serious questions about the case. Major believes Blaine's deli is not all it seems to be. Ravi Chakrabarti also stars.

Recap
The guy Liv tried to kill woke up on the beach as a zombie. He staggers out of the water and is promptly run down by a car. They stop and go back to check on him. It’s four teens. They roll him over and one kid goes to check his pulse. The kids freak because they are stoned and are in a stolen car. They take his body off the road and lie it down then make a pact never to talk about it again.

The guy punches his hand up through the soil then one girl says they should go back and put something on his grave. They argue then are stunned when the guy is there and attacks their friend. He bashes her head in with a rock. Two weeks later, a guy and his dog jog in the woods. The dog runs off and then comes back with a sock with a foot still in it. Later, Ravi and Liv report to the crime scene with Clive.

The victim is Kimber Cooper, a cheerleader, who went missing a couple of weeks ago. Liv says her brother Evan is a student at the same school. There are pieces of her all over the place. They spotted a shallow grave and wonder if an animal dug her up. Ravi says they need to get her back to the morgue so they can tell more. Ravi says her skull was cracked open and brain gone. Liv freaks.

She says Major showed up with five coolers full of brains that he stole from a car out back of Meat Cute and he thinks it’s the zombie HQ. She says Major told her he was going to kill them all. She says she offered to help by testing the brains. She says she bought some time and has to figure out how to kill Blaine before anyone else gets hurt and Major is in more danger.

Blaine’s sidekick has been out looking for the astronaut brains. He tells him to find them. Major records a video on his laptop and says if you’re watching this, I’m already dead. Ravi says her shoulder was torn off while she was alive but he can’t tell on the other injuries. He says it makes him think about Alexa, the prettiest girl in his high school. He says he took four years of German to sit behind her and smell her hear.

Liv is slurping down liquefied cheerleader brain. Ravi says she could have been a very serious girl and is happy to see the zombie rat’s exercise wheel arrived. Liv says no rat Soul Cycle. He stares upset at the dead rat. He tells Liv he’s sorry – looks like the cure has failed. Ravi tells Liv it’s not over and says he has enough Utopian for another round.

Liv gets really excited and positive – cheer brain has kicked in. Clive says Kimber’s BFF Tate is there and asks Liv to come along for the interview. Ravi says to BE aggressive, B-E aggressive. Tate says Kimber was a big ball of awesome. Clive asks where Kimber was when she missed the lock in. Liv says she knows she knows and says she wants to get fro yo and talk about their exes.

Liv says she can’t protect Kimber since she’s dad but can help find her killer. Liv promises not to judge. Tate has a voice mail and says Liv can’t tell anyone. She says she won’t tell her dad and really peps Tate up. Tate says she so appreciates it then plays the message. It’s at a party and Kimber says OMG she bailed on youth ministry and is with Hotty McBody and may take that oral exam.

Clive asks who’s Hotty McBody. Tate says she doesn’t know his name. Clive says the music sounded live then asks if she snuck into a bar. Tate says she doesn’t think she had a fake ID. Outside, Liv tells Clive she feels really bad for Tate and has a contact sad. She says she was just trying to channel teenager and Clive says not to be method. Liv sits down and searches his computer.

She finds the band’s name – The Asshats. She asks Tate about it and she says they’re burn out losers from her high school and Tate tells them about them. They show up at a storage place where the band is practicing. One of the guys goes to run but his amp cable chokes him back. Clive says they must be the asshats and he has questions for them. They all say they were there all night rehearsing the night she went missing. They say it awfully quickly and Clive asks what date that was.

They can’t tell him the night. Liv gets a flash of them in the car with the headlights off. Liv tells Clive that she had a vision and Kimber was in the car with them and was fooling around with Nate. Clive says he’s going to see if he can see the security footage at the place. Major shows up to Meat Cute dressed as a meat inspector. He takes pics of the exits and checks the meat temperature.

Blaine is there and says there’s only one health inspection per year and they had theirs two months ago. Major says it’s now twice a year and says if he doesn’t like it, he can call Tina at district. Blaine takes him to the back. Liv finds Peyton using her curling iron and says her hair looks cute and offers to do the back. Liv starts gossiping with her like a teenager.

Peyton reminds Liv of the guy named Barrett who wrote her a poem to try and convince her to lose her virginity with him. They do childhood trivia on each other. Peyton says Ravi is nice and then asks Liv why they’re being so girly now and says it’s been a long time. Liv says they should go to spin class. Peyton agrees. Liv goes to see Clive who checked the security footage.

He says Nate’s car was parked there all night and one car there was reported stolen. He thinks they may have been in a stolen car. Liv says he’s sooo awesome. Clive says he’s going to go lean on the kids and see who steps up. They head back to the storage facility and bang on the door. Inside, the place is a wreck. They see at least one dead kid. Liv says O-M-G.

She and Ravi have Nate on the slab. Ravi says his skull was caved in but no brains eaten. They wonder if it’s a zombie attack interrupted or a standard homicide. Ravi tells her to dig in. She has some brains on pizza. Liv hears a rat squeaking and asks if he made another zombie rat. He says now he just has to try and cure her. Clive shows up and spots the pizza. He grabs Liv’s slice and she says to wait.

He asks if there are mushrooms and says he’s not a big fan of the texture. Liv grabs the slice and eats it. Clive says he likes she’s not squeamish about sharing food. Clive shows her Nate’s cell phone – there’s a text from Kimber. The text came in a week after Kimber died. They wonder if Nate owed the killer money but Clive isn’t sure. He asks for time of death on Nate and he says 8:30 pm.

Clive says Cameron’s car left the place at 8:37 pm. Major is watching how to kill zombie videos when Ravi comes home. He says he’s taking Peyton away for the weekend and says he’s taking her to San Francisco to tour the places they filmed Vertigo. He says he was thinking of wearing a retro Jimmy Stewart-esque suit. Major says to do it. He goes upstairs and Major goes back to studying zombie killing.

Blaine reads a news story about the missing astronaut. His flunkie comes back and says he still can’t find the astro brains. Blaine says he doesn’t need this with the health inspector coming back. Julien is intrigued by the description of the inspector’s good looks but Blaine says to get back to work. Major goes to buy an illegal firearm with a lot of stopping power. He buys two guns and bullets.

The guy asks if he needs a grenade. Major thinks about it. Peyton comes to get Liv for spin class but finds her making an apple bong then asks if she’s high. Liv gets a flashback of Cameron yelling at Nate about not going to the cops about this. Peyton tries to get her to snap out of it and Liv asks her for some weed. All Peyton has is some lollipops. She asks if spin is off and Liv says something came up.

Liv eats the pot lollipop and tells Clive about her vision. He asks what she saw. She says Nate was stoned and Cameron was all – what’s your damage. She says Cameron told Nate to think about the money. Teresa, the chick band member, shows up, and Liv giggles. She tells Clive she thinks she’s going to be dead next now that Kimber and Nate are both dead.

Teresa tells Liv and Clive about the guy they ran over who then dug out of the grave and killed Kimber. She says they have to protect her. Clive says he’ll send an officer home with her and then a guy comes in and Liv says he knows him. It’s a snotty sketch artist who spots about his degree from the school of cartooning. Major listens to a self-motivation tape while he lurks outside Meat Cute.

The sketch guy is done with Teresa and she gets a text from Cameron saying they’re not safe and she can’t trust the cops. He tells her to meet him at his hotel and says bring “his” stuff so we can find him before he finds us. She texts back and agrees to meet him. She creeps out of the PD. Liv is watching a cartoon and eating junk food in the morgue.

Ravi calls her Cheech and says he has bad news. He shows her 91 year old Edna Timmons who was murdered and there’s no brains left in her skull. Liv says she has to get it together and says all she’s thinking about is bacon and needs to drink some more cheerleader to get some pep in her step. She drinks down some Kimber and Ravi chants chug, chug, chug.

Clive sends her a sketch of the guy that attacked them. Liv shows Ravi the text and says it’s Sebastian and she must have infected him. Liv says she made another zombie – she’s horrified. Peyton is at home getting ready to go out and it looks like Sebastian is lurking in their apartment. Liv comes home and finds Peyton’s luggage by the door. She then sees Peyton on the floor knocked out.

Sebastian is in the kitchen cooking. He laughs when she calls him a dead man. He mentions his Aunt Edna and says guess what he had for lunch. He says the woman practically raised him and thought he had potential. He says she cut her head and asked him to bandage it. He says he couldn’t resist the blood and he was so hungry. He says he couldn’t stop himself but Liv says she’s never eaten anyone on accident.

He screams at her that she did this to him and they get into an epic brawl. Liv goes full zombie, beats him down then puts a knife through his brain. Peyton sees her in red eye mode. Peyton asks what she is and why she’s not bleeding and isn’t dead. Liv says she would never hurt her. Peyton says she saw her kill him. Liv says she’s going to kill her and trust that she knows she’s still her. Liv tells her that she got scratched at the boat party.

She says that’s why she broke up with Major and took a job at the morgue so she could get brains. She says that’s what she has to eat to stay herself. She tells Peyton there are zombies in the world and she’s one of them. She goes to get her some first aid stuff for the cut on her head. Peyton starts to cry. Liv comes back out of the bathroom but Peyton and her luggage are gone. Liv calls the cops.

Clive says the guy matched the sketch, killed his aunt and tried to kill her. Clive says she did the right thing and shouldn’t feel any remorse. He says if she was the one in the body bag, it would have been a tragedy. Ravi is there and asks if she’s okay. She tells him that Peyton was there and she had to tell her everything. She says Peyton saw her go full zombie and kill Sebastian. She says she looked at her like she’s a monster then ran.

Ravi says they’re supposed to go out of town tonight and he’ll call when he finds her. He says it will all work out and says Peyton loves her. Teresa is at the hotel and texts for a room number. She goes upstairs. She knocks but the door is unlocked. She calls out for Cameron. The TV is on but she doesn’t see him. She goes inside and the door slams shut behind her.

Ravi waits in his sweet suit but Peyton isn’t there. Julien tells Blaine he has something to show him – he’s got Major strung up and says it’s the guy who’s been snooping around. Julien says he’s the guy who took their astronaut brains. The door bell chimes and Blaine goes to see who’s out front. It’s Liv’s brother there to ask about a job. He asks if he can just leave the application. Blaine asks about his emergency contact.

He asks if that’s the same Olivia that works at the morgue. Blaine says he has a great position for him and asks when he can start. Major hears it all and is very concerned. Teresa is bloody and battered. She grabs the phone and dials 911. She’s too battered to answer.

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
 * Bex Taylor-Klaus as Teresa
 * Rhys Ward as Cameron Henley
 * Aleks Paunovic as Julien Dupont
 * Nick Purcha as Evan Moore
 * Matthew MacCaull as Sebastian Meyer
 * Levi Meaden as Nate
 * Stephanie Bennett as Kimber Cooper
 * Darryl Quon as Luta
 * Lexi Ainsworth as Tate

Co-Starring

 * Tanja Dixon-Warren as Cissie
 * Ryan Alexander McDonald as Jogger
 * Rob Carpenter as Creepy Looking Man
 * Ryan Beil as Jimmy

Soundtrack

 * Prince Johnny by St. Vincent
 * Retrograde by James Blake

Episode Notes

 * Peyton finds out that Liv is a zombie in this episode.

Behind the Scenes

 * The band is named Asshats. This is one of Dean's favorite derogatory remarks on another CW show Supernatural.