iZombie season 2 finale
HOLY CATS YOU GUYS. WHAT A FINALE.

You can tell they weren't sure they were going to get renewed so they wrapped up a ton of major (and Major!) storylines here, clearing the decks just in case, and then that final scene was apparently added once they knew they were getting a season 3. Seattle as Zombie Utopia, courtesy of private military contractor FILLMORE GRAVES. THE PUNS ARE STRONG WITH THIS ONE.

♥CLIVE♥ I'm so happy he's finally been looped into the zombie plot, but what a way to do it! And of course, he rolls with it, and even puts his career/future/relationship with Dale on the line. Ugh, he's so great!

Major actually getting caught as both the Chaos Killer and the Meat Cute murderer was great, because that was a shoe that had to drop, and having the gun dealer give him up was really smart. And then Liv trying to get him brains in the energy bar and failing because Vinnie Van Lowe's shiba inu ate it! Ugh. I find it really impressive what the show has done with Major, because he could so easily have been Duncan redux, and he's not.

♥RAVI♥ Taking out Janko! Immediately wanting to turn himself in, right up until Liv pointed out that they could use his brain to get ahead of Max Rager. Buying every kind of bagel for Liv instead of just not getting anything for her when she didn't respond. Ravi is The Best, y'all.

Wow, they killed off a ton of secondary/tertiary characters. AND ALSO ROB THOMAS. I laughed so hard at the military guys singing "Unwell" after eating his brain! I had to cue it up on iTunes afterwards.

Vinnie Van Lowe! Or whatever Ken Marino's character was called here! He always brings such great douchebag energy to whatever he does.

I'll miss you, Chief! And RITA. I was sad to see her go! I wanted her on Team Liv! But at least she got to eat her dad's brains first. um.

I liked Drake but I didn't get Liv's obsessiveness about him, so her having to kill him to save Clive didn't really land emotionally for me, but that's really my only quibble with these episodes. Well, and having Peyton and Ravi get back together just in time for her to be kidnapped and saved by Blaine, so Ravi could walk in on them hugging. Which, wtf? Please do not go to a love triangle place here, show. There is no way Ravi comes out second to anyone, let alone Blaine DeBeers.

So is Blaine faking or is he getting his memories back? Thankfully, we're getting a season 3 so we can find out!

I realize the commercials are terrible and the premise is questionable, but I absolutely recommend catching up with both seasons of iZombie if you have a chance. It's a lot of fun while also providing some emotional gutpunches. It takes all the stuff that was great about Veronica Mars and adds zombies and also weaves together a bunch of plot threads that come together brilliantly.

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Wednesday reading:

What I've just finished
I finished my reread of The Raven Cycle and I had a list of questions that I meant to write down to keep track of, to see if they get answered in The Raven King, but I don't remember most of them. Sigh.

I also continue to be amused at Darth Vader. I'm not sure I'm supposed to find some of it funny? But I totally do. Which might say more about me than the book. I mean, in the recap there's a line about Vader trying to gain control of a situation and I was like, "WHEN HAS THAT EVER WORKED?" His whole existence has basically been him leaning into everything around him spiraling out of his control and thereby making it worse.

On the one hand, he's legit terrifying and evil, and on the other, I'm just like, "WHY IS YOUR JUDGEMENT SO BAD?" I hate everything he chooses to be and yet I still feel affectionate towards him. I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS. Like, I am okay with loving Jason "dufflebag full of severed heads" Todd and Natasha "Master Assassin" Romanoff, because in Jason's case, he's mostly killing villains and he doesn't try to soften that with pretty rhetoric, and in Natasha's case so is she, but also she's trying to redeem a murderous past by actively choosing to be good etc. But Vader is an iconic villain of villainy (though he's convinced himself he's doing the right thing to enforce order and bring peace to the galaxy, because otherwise he'd just drown in self-loathing), and I still just want him to make better choices. #my problematic fave

What I'm reading now
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, which I just started this morning, and it's about kids who return from their portal fantasies and have to adjust to the 'real world' again, which is an intriguing premise and I look forward to reading more!

What I'm reading next
We'll see while I wait for The Raven King.

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Today's poem:

The Bad Angels
by Stephen Dunn

They are writing our names in the sky,
the bad angels with their calamitous wings.
They are spelling them wrong, exaggerating
the loops so that we'll see each other
askew, imperfect, like clouds broken off
from other clouds, separated by blue.

Worst part of me, old underminer
whom I've exiled unsuccessfully
into the far-away charged air,
I know it's your black-winged gang.
I wish I had some invisible means
of support, some magic against you.
I wish I could marshal all
that's ever gotten away from me:
Love and loss, what plutonium!
What oblivion I could send you to.

They are changing our names in the sky,
making their own insidious designs.
I am one man with just the normal equipment,
saying, No, offering little essays to the wind.
They are removing the vowels now.
They are erasing the beginning and the end.

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