Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW
After narrowly escaping death in iZOMBIE’s fourth season finale for smuggling people inside the city, Liv helped execute Fillmore Graves head, Chase Graves, during a scuffle to save her own life. Now Major is heading up Fillmore Graves, Liv offered the last zombie cure to Dale after refusing to take it herself, Clive and Dale got married, Liv will continue to act as Renegade, and Blaine and Don-E will continue smuggling brains into New Seattle (but this time with Major’s permission). As we head into our fifth and final season if iZOMBIE, we spoke to Rose McIver (Olivia “Liv” Moore), Malcolm Goodwin (Det. Clive Babineaux), Rahul Kohli (Dr. Ravi ChakrabarK), Robert Buckley (Major Lilywhite), Bryce Hodgson (Don E.) and Aly Michalka (Peyton Charles) about what’s to come for their characters.
Adjusting to a New Reality. New Seattle remains chaotic, which is unsurprising as the city is still cut off from the rest of the world and tensions continue to simmer between the human and zombie populations. But Clive’s attitude towards everything continues to mellow out. Goodwin said “There’s still bodies turning up and popping up. Things aren’t quieter, but I think Clive…his temperament is just more adjusted to what the current state of New Seattle is. I think everyone is a little bit more adjusted to what it is and just trying to coexist with one another. Until, obviously, there are some conflicts that happen which they have to deal with head on.”
Major as the Man in Charge. Major may have had to take over Fillmore Graves in light of the death of Chase, but he’s clearly not comfortable with his new role. Buckley explains that “ had an interesting experience the first day of this season, where I was sitting at Chase Graves’ desk. Me personally, Rob, I was uncomfortable in the chair. I couldn’t figure out, ‘How am I supposed to sit for the scene?’ And I was like, ‘That’s perfect. That’s exactly how Major should feel.’ This isn’t his desk. This isn’t his position. This isn’t the job he wanted. So, I felt like that defines Major. It’s uncomfortable. We see that he has begin to institute some of his own policies so it’s not quite as rigid as Chase Graves was. But, a big part of Major’s story is trying to find the middle ground of how to balance what he wants with everyone else’s needs. So, it’s a very uncomfortable transitional time.”
Liv in Season 5. While Liv had a bit of practice serving as Renegade last season, this final season will see her continuing to grow in the role. But it also puts her in direct opposition to Major. McIver says that “I feel like Liv is a zombie with a big, bleeding heart. She wants so much for the people around her. She sometimes doesn’t see the complications that arise, and the consequences from her actions. She’s very idealistic and I think you need those people. But, there’s certainly room for Liv and Major to share their ideas, and for some logic going forward about how exactly this is supposed to sustain itself. It’s a growing problem. The brain supply is struggling. Loving everybody isn’t actually going to fix it. It’s an interesting journey for her.” McIver also confirmed that we see the return of Liv’s mother and brother, who haven’t really been seen for many years on the show.
Peyton and Ravi. While Dale and Clive are going strong, what’s the status of one of the show’s other main couples? According to Aly Michalka, “I mean honestly if they pulled out the rug from underneath [Peyton and Ravi] in season 5, I think [Rahul and I] would just boycott the show. Because the back and forth that we’ve had is insane so it’s good that at least…we’re still going strong. So I think that will ride it out to the end, which is good. And I think it should be that way.”
A New Role for Peyton. Michalka teases that “switching from Assistant District Attorney to Acting Mayor is definitely a big change for Peyton. And obviously she was not expecting to hold that position. She deals with a lot of political backfire this season. The constant fighting between humans versus zombies, like in court, the legal issues that they’re getting into. They almost kind of have their own separate unions now. She’s always trying to put forth the idea that they can live in harmony, they can live in peace together. But it doesn’t mean that everybody is always on the same page as that. But that’s probably affected Peyton the greatest, as well as Major because of his new role now being in charge of Fillmore Graves. We have some scenes together this season and we butt heads a little bit, but ultimately at the end of the day, we are both trying to fight for peace among Seattlites. So I think that’s where they’re able to connect, is that ‘OK, maybe you might believe in these things, and maybe you do certain missions in a way that I find hard to deal with morally, but at the end of the day we both have a common sense of agreement in terms of zombies and humans should co-exist and they are equals’.”
Dale and Clive. According to Goodwin, the question of whether or not the pair are trying to expand their family is dealt with quickly. “I think in the first episode, we get right to it. But he’s happy. He’s happy. There are some bumps in the road. There are some things that come up to make things a little complicated and challenging. I’m telling you, I was pretty shocked with some of the things. I’m like, ‘Oh, really. we’re going there with it? Oh, OK. That’s going to be fun.’ But you’ll see.” In addition, Liv’s gifting of the cure is really strengthening Clive and Liv’s relationship. “However close they were before this, they became even that much more closer, which is why I also think that also him working with her, his reaction to the brain’s changes [also changes]. [He’s] like,’I’m OK with that. I’m OK. You can’t annoy me anymore. You can’t. You’ve given me an opportunity to have a family’.”
The Criminal Element. Hodgson teases that “Don E. is definitely trying to like separate himself and go into his own thing, finally kind of like be his own boss and not be in Blaine’s shadow. Blaine and Don E. always kind of do this thing where it’s like uber love, and then suddenly one of them does something to the other one and then suddenly they’re at odds, but then they find the uber love again. I mean, that relationship is always like this.” Hodgson also explained that “Blaine and Liv’s storylines intersect a bit. Don E., not really. Don E. is at the bar a lot this season. Don E. is really trying to get his own thing going this season.” Also, expect to see more about Mr. Boss in the final season.
The Cure. Despite the fact that Ravi and Liv gave the last of the cure to Dale in the last season finale, the cure will continue to play a part in the show. Kohli hinted that Ravi will continue mentioning ‘tainted utopium”, while Hodgson said that the cure “comes back, and it becomes kind of a tool in….things go real sh*t for Blaine and Don E. for a little while there, and the cure really helps recover them.”
This Week’s Brain. It’s Ravi who actually gets to act out on a brain in this week’s season premiere of iZOMBIE. Kohli hinted that “I play a Vinnie Jones/Guy Ritchie brain. I got to be the guys we used to imitate when we were younger to try and act hard. I got to get my Tom Hardy on and that was one of my favorite moments in five years. So that was cool. Thumbbreaker Barnes was his name.”
How Will it All End? When several cast members were asked how they envision the show ending, they all had a few different ideas. For example, Goodwin said “I think in terms of the thesis of the show, [the ending would be to] to find a cure, so I will want the characters to succeed in that and find the cure, and everyone’s back to human again. That’s going to be my answer. I’m going to stick with that.” Meanwhile, Michalka said that “I just want to see some form of a happy ending without it being too much of a bow tied on everything. I obviously would like Peyton and Ravi to remain a couple. We were saying it would be nice if you saw them as a married couple or they had a kid or something.” She and Kohli also hinted that it would be great if Blaine got some revenge for all that he’s gotten away with over the years. “It would be nice if there was some kind of revenge that Liv is able to actually get,” Michalka said.
iZOMBIE returns for its fifth and final season on May 2 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.