There are upsides and downsides to being one of the walking, talking dead. On the plus, you have super strength and agility, can survive any non-head wound, and can temporarily acquire new skills and (for better or worse) memories from the former owners of your dinner. But if you aren’t careful, or you need to, say, eat someone’s brain for mystery-solving purposes, adopting their cognition can get pretty ugly. That’s why the paramilitary group, Fillmore-Graves, invented Brain Mush – a Go-Gurt packet filled with a grey matter blend that manages to keep side effects to a minimum. Olivia Moore certainly knows a thing or two about side effects. Though her Rachel Ray-esque recipes are usually invaluable tools in aiding the Seattle PD, they’ve frequently wreaked havoc on Liv’s personal life. On numerous occasions, she’s hurt loved ones, and put lives in danger because she let the brains get the better of her.
This list discusses the plot points of 16 episodes spanning iZombie’s first three seasons, so consider this your SPOILER WARNING. And with that, here are Olivia Moore’s 15 Worst Brain Food Personalities.
15. Klepto Brains - Pilot
To be fair, in the pilot, Liv is still getting a handle on her new afterlife and under the understanding that she’s the only one of her kind. She works extra hard to keep her secret from everyone around her, especially her roommate Peyton and her ex-fiancé Major. She can’t explain to anyone why she transferred her residency from the hospital to the morgue, and suddenly adopted an Arctic Goth look. She’s been living a lie for 5 months when Ravi walks in on her Cup-O-Brain Noodles lunch. To her relief, he is supportive from minute one. But even with a close confidante, she can never be sure how her meals will manifest, and she’s had zero practice suppressing it at this point.
So when she chows down on Romanian kleptomaniac sex worker brains, she falls prey to the victim’s thieving vice. She confesses having stolen all of Peyton’s pens, but she’s already pretty fed up with Liv’s unusual behavior. This is just another straw for Peyton, who already has one foot out the door.
14. Pretentious Artist Brains - Brother Can You Spare a Brain?
Liv is still a baby zombie when she lets the brain of Javier, a semi-famous, but lecherous painter, get the better of her. Ravi is a fan Javier’s work and encourages Liv to succumb to her newly acquired artistic instincts. This allows her to draw a decent sketch of Blaine, who has been haunting her dreams but is, at this point, still a stranger to her. But at home, Liv gets a bit carried away, buying an easel and paints (not cheap, BTW) and turning the living room she shares with Peyton into an art studio. Liv also channels Javier’s flirtatious side with Major. This angers and confuses him, as she’s the one who broke off their engagement.
Major is further puzzled by her sudden enthusiasm for a jazz CD he’d made her, which she hated at the time. Liv also criticizes a discount home accessories store painting that Liv and Peyton had chosen together in favor of the abstract messes that she’s been concocting. Liv never paints again, so hopefully, she recouped some of that money on Craigslist.
13. Sociopath Brains - The Exterminator
Thinking she’s eating the brain of an “average family man”, both Liv and Ravi are unpleasantly surprised to learn that Marvin Webster was actually a remorseless hit man who murdered a tech company exec. Fortunately, Liv is at least aware of how wrong it is that Marvin’s brains eliminates her emotion and empathy.
Peyton is shocked at Liv’s indifference when watching a video of Major kissing another woman. It also doesn’t look good for Ravi when he falls into a pit with a Full Romero while Liv just looks on expressionless. She is able to snap out of it at the last second to save Ravi’s life, but it’s a close call.
Liv has been on such an emotional rollercoaster (though this is just the tip of the iceberg) that she considers eating more Marvin brain as a sort of antidepressant. Wisely, she changes her mind when she recognizes how dangerous feeling nothing can be for those around her.
12. Hallucination Brains - Astroburger
Liv eats the brain of Scott E., a mental patient that Major knows from his time in the institution. She takes on Scott E.’s hallucinations, having recurring conversations with the Devil mascot from her Hellfire Cheezy Puffs. He mostly just taunts her, but this has Liv acting weirder than usual in front of Clive, Peyton, and Major, who are all still clueless about her zombie status.
Worse yet, at the end of the episode, she realizes that she’d also been imagining her meaningful interactions with Major. Throughout the episode, it seems like she and Major are, if not rekindling their romance, at least establishing a trusting and stable friendship. She believed they’d had a heart-to-heart wherein she confessed the truth and he accepted her. Major does learn about zombies in this episode, but not from her. Instead, he uncovers Blaine’s operation at Meat Cute and discovers they’ve been poaching homeless kids for sashimi. Major vows to, “kill them all”, and Liv concludes that she can never tell him the truth. Had she been in her right mind, maybe she could have made a real connection with Major.
11. Liar Brains - The Whopper
Liv makes a burger out of the brain of a compulsive liar who might know the whereabouts of the tainted Utopium that Ravi needs to recreate the zombie cure. But it mostly results in Liv telling pointless falsehoods that only serve to make Clive and her friends mistrustful of her.
Her transparent white lies include claiming that she missed a $60 million lottery win by one number and that she took a long time at lunch because she had to give CPR to the guy in line with her. This especially uncharacteristic behavior prompts Clive to note that Liv takes on the personalities of the victims they’re investigating. Fortunately, he “rationalizes” it by concluding that it’s part of using her “psychic power”. When Liv tells Drake the truth about Blaine’s plans to take on his employer, Mr. Boss, Drake doesn’t heed her warning, because he knows she’s on liar brain.
10. D&D Brains - Twenty-Sided Die
When Liv scarfs down some Dungeon Master Dan, a murdered über nerd, she decides that the best way to trigger memories of the killer is to make everyone play a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. It isn’t.
If you’ve ever played D&D, you know it takes FOREVER. Though Liv is having the time of her afterlife as Dungeon Master, the gang wastes precious investigation hours around a dining room table. Ravi and Major are into it, and Clive (as Earl the Dwarf fighter) eventually comes around, but Peyton looks like she wants to roll a critical hit on suicide. The Fellowship of the Dorks is hilarious; particularly Ravi’s awful accent as Mosco Bandywax of the Mirkwood Bandywaxes. But the game never triggers any helpful visions. The murder is still unsolved by the time their flagons of ale are empty.
In the end, their quest is for naught, as the FBI ganks the investigation after they find Dan’s secret room full of high security computers. What’s more, to the annoyance of Clive, Liv can’t seem to restrict her DM narration to the game table.
9. Old Man Brains - Grumpy Old Liv
Liv becomes extremely unpleasant when she consumes the brain of Wendell Gale, a 77-year-old curmudgeon. She calls kids “punks”, suspects people on “general principal”, and makes casually racist remarks to her friends of color. Ravi can perhaps forgive Liv for complaining about Asian drivers, as he knows it’s the brains talking. But when she tells a clueless Clive that he’s “one of the good ones” for defending her from the inappropriate comments of an African American suspect at the police station, you can practically see the steam coming out of his ears.
Clive says he’s going to “forget [she] ever said that”, but he has to leave to collect himself and they never speak of it again. Hopefully, once he learns the truth about her, he can go back and reconcile Liv’s worst behavior. But in the meantime, he probably thinks he works with a secret bigot. The white hair doesn’t help her case in that matter.
8. Guilt Brains - Return of the Dead Guy
The James Weckler plotline carries through much of season 3, but it’s not until this moment that Liv finally samples the brains of the man accused of killing a dominatrix. Weckler appears to have committed suicide in his cell, but Peyton is convinced he was murdered. So Liv agrees to do her bestie a solid and intentionally take on the proclivities of an insane man for the flashbacks. What’s worse, Weckler’s brain is Blue Juice enhanced, making the personality shift all the more intense.
There’s probably no convenient time to start hallucinating your dead boyfriend, but one of the worst has got to be during a makeout session with your current beau. Just as Weckler felt guilty for killing the dominatrix, Liv Is filled with remorse over pulling the trigger on a Romero’d Drake. Justin is also a zombie, so he’s more understanding about the strange behavior than most. But he’s still not thrilled to be an unwitting participant in a ghostly 3-way.
7. Social Media Brains - Physician, Heal Thy Selfie
When Liv consumes the brain of Madison Braddock, a social media obsessed woman who was hit by a bus while texting, she becomes a #nightmare. Ravi warns her that she might want to fast this week, because Madison was a fervent Yelper and tweeted 27 times on the day she was killed. But their murder case of the moment involves 3 headless corpses, and brain-eaters can’t be choosers.
Liv immediately dives head first into smartphone life, spending valuable work time uploading videos of her doing morgue supply inventory. (To her credit, there are 153 views and counting!) She also risks outing herself when she Instagrams her brain sushi (#brainfood). Peyton’s exasperated face when Liv ropes her into a selfie (#friendshipgoals, #bootyhadmelikewhat?) is priceless. Eventually, Ravi convinces Liv to rein it in and get back to work. Madison’s brain isn’t the least bit helpful in solving the case, and pretty much just serves to keep Liv fed and docile.
6. Daredevil Brains - Eat a Knievel
Finn Vincible is the main jackass on a slapstick prank web series who dies when someone swaps his flame-retardant fiery hoop-jumping suit with one that’s highly combustible. After Liv fries up a spicy brain steak, she embraces the prank life, bonding with Finn’s colleagues over tongue staples and smashing beer cans on her forehead. Though Ravi seems safe from her tomfoolery, and shares her appreciation for nut punches, straight man Clive isn’t so lucky.
When a murder suspect declines Liv’s offer for coffee, Clive picks it up and is irked to find the handle coated in super glue. Later, Liv offers Clive money to let her tase him and dumps a box of junk on his head when he declines. Clive wonders aloud how Finn wasn’t murdered sooner, so it’s good that he knows Liv’s obnoxious personality is temporary. On the upside, Liv convinces her zombie boyfriend, Justin, to join her on a Super Max fueled idiot-stunt picnic. This is a romantic gesture for zombies, as Liv has often found herself rocking incompatible, date-ruining brains with past boyfriends.
5. Hot Mess Brains - Some Like It Hot Mess
Yvonne was an irresponsible and obnoxious employee at Entire Foods (get it?) who was electrocuted in the bath. Liv sautés Yvonne’s brains into a pile of leftovers and quickly falls prey to the foibles of one of the gang’s most annoying murder victims. But this incarnation of Liv isn’t just aggravating. She also drops the ball on some crucial tasks, and offers zero help in solving the case. When she loses her cell phone, she has Ravi call it only to find it sewn inside a corpse’s chest cavity. While Liv and Clive are questioning a suspect at a nightclub, Liv disappears to find booze and hop on the turntables.
Her biggest transgression occurs when she fails to bring Ravi the much-needed ingredients for the serum to help Major retain his memories. Then she misses her shift for Major Watch, allowing him to hop on a bus out of town.
4. Stalker Brains - The Hurt Stalker
Liv is powerless to resist her snooping proclivities when she eats the brain of Regina, a stalker who has a history with Clive. Liv snipes at Major for having a shampoo she doesn’t recognize, only to learn it belongs to Ravi. Then she gets bent about Major texting in bed, and, after he falls asleep, she hacks his phone to read the messages. Major tries to be understanding, since he knows she can’t help it, but he’s especially on edge because he really is hiding something - his job as the Chaos Killer.
During the investigation, Liv hides in the back of a detective’s car and ends up getting arrested, risking a zombie outbreak if she can’t post bail before the hunger sets in. Liv also hardly has any helpful visions, but she does find out that Major is still getting texts from a past hookup (though she doesn’t know it’s her roommate and Max Rager spy, Gilda/Rita) and becomes obsessed with finding out what’s inside Major’s safe.
3. Frat Brains - Zombie Bro
When Chad, a frat boy pledge captain, is murdered, the case seems like a no brainer (sorry). There are plenty of people out there who would have a reason to be angry at him. Trouble is, Chad was a fool, yes - but an honest fool. The intended target was a man of the same name who killed the murderer’s father in a drunk driving accident. Liv is likewise harmless in a non-murder sense, but her frat-induced transgressions are numerous.
She starts calling everyone “Bro”, gives a napping Ravi an unwanted makeover (though he looks amazing in glam makeup), arranges the medical skeletons into a compromising position, watches Entourage, and tries to tap a keg during an investigation interview. As her boss, Ravi must impart a rare lecture. “What if somebody came in to identify their loved one and the medical examiner had “fart” written on his forehead?” On the upside, she has a brief bonding moment with Major when she nurses him through a Utopium come-down. Sadly, their bromance can’t last.
2. Sniper Brains - Patriot Brains
Liv gets the urges of a trained killer when she grubs on Everett, a former army sniper who dies in a mysterious paintball accident. Liv is already emotional because she’s just learned that her boyfriend, Lowell, is knowingly buying homeless kid brains from Blaine. So Everett’s PTSD does nothing to stabilize her. Liv makes Lowell see the error of his ways, but she goes one step further by channeling her killer instinct and talking Lowell into helping her kill Blaine.
While Lowell chats Blaine up over BBQ on his roof deck, Liv sets her sites on her would-be victim. But whether it’s Everett’s personality wearing off or Liv’s conscience poking through, she chickens out at the last second. Tragically, Lowell chooses that moment to find his resolve and attacks the always-prepared Blaine, who pulls out his gun and kills Lowell. Liv isn’t wrong when she reminds herself, “If I kill this person I know who I’ll be. I’ll be a killer. I’ll be him.” But Lowell wouldn’t have been on that roof with Blaine if she hadn’t confidently talked him into it.
1. Nympho Brains - Looking for Mr. Goodbrain Parts 1 & 2
To discover the origins of the Aleutian Flu, Liv dines on Katty Kupps, Ravi’s former boss (and occasional hookup) at the CDC who was murdered while investigating the outbreak. It’s bad enough that Liv has to see Ravi’s O Face in a flashback, but Katty also had an irresistible urge to pick up strange men nightly. Liv starts visiting Katty’s favorite watering hole, under the pretense of investigation, but work is the farthest thing from her mind.
She always manages to stop herself before it goes too far - that is until Chase Graves walks in. He’s taken with Liv’s “alive” look and charms the pants off of her. They end up in his hotel room and, while he’s showering, she finds a cocktail napkin depicting Katty’s info. After breaking Justin’s heart with the truth of her infidelity, Liv and Clive confront Chase, allowing the real villain, Carey Gold, to carry out her evil plan of turning thousands of Seattleites into zombies using a bogus flu vaccine. Liv’s false conclusion is understandable, but she never would have reached it if she hadn’t succumbed to the power of the brain.
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What are some of Liv’s other terrible brain food moments? Let us know in the comments! In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak at what’s to come in season 4 of iZombie!
