iZombie Season 3 Premiere “Heaven Just Got A Little Bit Smoother” Recap

iZombie is finally back after a year, and with higher stakes than ever. Here’s our recap of the season 3 premiere.

A quick refresher: Liv’s a zombie, Major’s a zombie, Babineaux now knows all this and about that whole zombie outbreak problem in Seattle (surprise!), but really what’s most on the brain is Peyton and Blaine. Please, someone go hug Ravi. Stat. Also, rest in peace, Rob Thomas. We’ll wave our lighters for you.

After the chaotic season 2 finale, Liv and company are faced with the reality of many more zombies in Seattle than they had initially thought — and the new head of Max Rager, Vivian Stoll, is running the zombie show. Zombie Boss Lady. Or is it Zombie Queen? General Zombie? Regardless, she’s running the #TeamZombie side of a war she’s just declared, and she wants to know if Liv is on their side or on the wrong side.

Guess there’s a new world order at hand.

Wind It Up

Meanwhile, Babineaux is still trying to process the whole undead truth bomb that’s been dropped on him. Zombies are real. He knows and trusts some of them. Some of them are murderous, they all feed on brains, and there may be war on the horizon — or some sort of zombie apocalypse, anyway. And all the while, he’s struggling with the crisis of whether or not to tell anyone else. How can he keep it to himself? As a human police officer, he’s feeling a little uneasy not warning anyone else.

Would they even believe him?

Back at Liv and Peyton’s apartment, post-Vaughn and zombie takedown, and post-Peyton rescue (thanks to Blaine and Ravi), Liv makes a pact for all of them — no more lies, just truth. It’s time for them all to be a true team, and with all the cards on the table, they have to keep it honest from there on out.

Plus, if you want to stop a zombie apocalyptic war, there should probably be some transparency on the team. It builds trust and all.

Ravi, for one, is not handling the whole Blaine and Peyton news well, even if it was only one time. Blaine got to her first in the rescue, and he’s more than a little heartbroken. Meanwhile, Liv is keeping herself on stoic soldier brain, because the alternative is letting it wear off and having to deal with the fact that she killed Drake. She’s not ready for that. Not yet.

And Major, though exonerated of the Chaos Killer crimes, is still a pariah in town. His house was vandalized, it’s impossible for him to get a job as a publicly accused serial killer, and he can’t even get a coffee in town without people staring and judging him. Poor guy really can’t catch a break.

Blaine, on the other hand, is just as confused as ever, still dealing with the memory loss and the fact that everyone and their fathers basically let him know that he wasn’t the nicest human or zombie — whether he can remember that or not. Don E. isn’t happy with him, for one, and doesn’t even buy the whole memory loss thing – but when he discovers the frozen body of Blaine’s father, he may have just gotten the upper hand.

Don E. wants the help of Blaine’s father to start their own brain business to take down Blaine. He scolds Don E. for thinking too small. And me? I’m officially intrigued.

I’m Not Crazy, I’m Just A Little Unwell

Vivian Stoll shows Major, Liv and Babineaux around at what she’s building — not just an army of zombies (though, that’s the main point of it all), but even a school for zombie children, jobs for other zombies — a whole natural society for zombies. As a private military contractor, she knows how humans have reacted before to a zombie outbreak – a story she tells them of some people that were infected by a biological weapon. The ones who weren’t infected were so frightened of those who were, they killed them. When Seattle finds out the truth, she said, they’ll do the same.

And she wants Liv and her team on her side of history.

When meeting the school children, Babineaux recognizes one of them, Wally, who wonders if Babineaux is one of them now, too. And now, I’m picturing zombie Babineaux and I can’t say I hate it.

Peyton stops by Shady Plots to talk with Blaine about Mr. Boss and tracking him down – security cameras have footage of him leaving the country, and while they can’t extradite him just yet, at least they know where he is. She’s jumpy and nervous (as someone who was just kidnapped, who can blame her). But amnesiac Blaine is a little sweeter than before, and says to call him anytime she wants. He’ll be there for her.

We’re sure he will be.

Later, when Ravi and Liv get a call to a triple murder scene of a family, they discover that Babineaux had already gotten there — and it was Wally and his parents. He vows from there — they’ll figure out who really took out this zombie family on their own time.

“Someone’s going to pay for this. That, I promise.”

Local radio DJ and thorn in their side, Chuck Burd, is at it again. This time, he interviews someone who claims to be a survivor from the Max Rager massacre. Apparently, it’s a security guard who had been outside and saw people eating brains. Maybe listeners will believe him, maybe they won’t.

But Babineaux and Liv were too late to the station to stop it from happening, and now, they deal with the realization that the truth might get out there with or without Babineaux’s help.

Real World

Turns out, Peyton may have a Twitter stalker who isn’t much of a fan of hers. When she can’t get a hold of Major, Liv (sad and passed out drunk), or Ravi (who is ignoring her), she calls the guy who said he’d be there for her — Blaine.

Time to pick a side, brainiacs: #TeamRavi or #TeamBlaine. I’ll get the tee shirts.

While it’s brief, another body is wheeled into the morgue with a CDC woman — Ravi’s old boss, it turns out — inspecting the body. When she discovers brains in the digestive tract, Ravi tries to brush it off casually, but something tells me this will be an issue down the line. Call it a hunch. (I’ve seen The Walking Dead, okay?)

Major, it turns out, finally found himself a job. And it’s one where they don’t care that he was accused of being a serial killer (even if he was exonerated). More importantly, it’s one where they don’t care if he’s a zombie.

He’s joined Vivian Stoll’s team, which Liv finds out when she sees him jogging and training at their headquarters. It seems Major Lilywhite has picked his side in all of this.

Will Liv do the same?

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iZombie airs every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on The CW. Stay tuned for all of our iZombie coverage right here on Culturess.