‘iZombie’: Could Blaine’s “Cure” Be Worse Than Death?

With iZombie‘s Blaine (David Anders) quickly deteriorating, thanks to his recent return to a zombie state of being, he was forced to take Ravi’s (Rahul Kohli) wild card version of a new cure in the previous episode.

Unfortunately for Blaine, the side effects are “significant,” executive producer Rob Thomas tells TV Insider. “Our show would be over if you took the cure and suddenly you’re no longer a zombie. It has to be a pretty significant downside to the zombie cure.”

“The side effects of this are pretty substantial and impacts Blaine’s entire being and who he is as a person,” Anders adds.

Of course, Ravi never wanted things to go down this way; in an ideal world, he could have done a substantial amount of testing before putting any human through what Blaine is now undergoing.  “Blaine is now New New New New Hope,” Kohli says. “It was never something [Ravi] wanted. A few episodes ago he said he didn’t want to test it even on people he doesn’t like. But we had to: Blaine was going to die. Now [Ravi’s] going to be scrutinizing him, making sure he’s safe. He cares about Liv and Major so much, he wants them to be cured. So Blaine and Ravi have a common goal.”

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As Blaine is suffering through the side effects, the other zombies in Ravi’s life are tied up with their own drama and not able to acknowledge how dire the situation is. “I think there’s very little self-preservation,” Robert Buckley (Major) says of his character’s mindset. “I think things have gotten so far beyond his control that it’s more a matter of really just trying to minimize the collateral damage and protecting Liv and his loved ones. It started off so above his head, which I think  is why we saw him doing Utopium. I never thought of him as a drug addict; his life was just so out of his control, his existence was so painful, that anything for an hour reprieve, a little break from that. I think for him, it’s just trying to stay one step ahead of people like Clive who are trying to arrest him, like Vaughn who will potentially murder him, Liv to maybe find out.”

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Liv (Rose McIver) is undergoing her own drama: she’s dealing with the fallout from Drake’s (Greg Finley) betrayal. “She actually makes a choice. In this emotional fallout, she very intentionally throws herself into work,” Thomas says. “She even eats brains to try and take her mind off it, and try not to stay moping about Drake. She’s wandering around in the desert for a couple of episodes, trying to figure it out.”

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Adding to Liv’s problems? Her former roommate Gilda (Leanne Lapp)—who is Vaughn du Clark’s daughter/Major’s former fling, Rita—is now a zombie. “I think that Liv’s problems with Rita—or Gilda—weren’t anything to do with her being a zombie or not being a zombie; it was a real betrayal. She’s not going to trust her,” McIver says. “Ultimately, [Rita’s] walked over everybody in her life, and apples don’t fall far from trees. Liv and Rita/Gilda aren’t destined for friendship. But I’m sure there is a degree of understanding and empathy since she’s a zombie now.”

A newly zombified Rita will face a tough road ahead. “That could be the sweetest win-win ever, because if she’s a zombie, she’s gotta go, and since Major is the exterminator…it’s not like he’s her biggest fan,” Buckley notes. “Maybe he gets a freebie!”

But Rita shouldn’t expect any sympathy from her father. “I think Vaughn handles it in a very Vaughn way,”  executive producer Diane Ruggerio-Wright says. “He doesn’t become a marshmallow about it. He sticks to his character.”

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However, everyone might have an even bigger problem on their hands: Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) is starting to get clued in to what’s going on in Seattle. “In the last episode, he got confirmation that the brain he was given wasn’t actually bovine, it was a human brain,” Goodwin says. “I always tell people [when they ask me], ‘When are you going to find out about the zombie thing?’ the biggest deterrent is he’s being lied to by Liv, who he trusts! And obviously his success is all because of her; he’s solved 20-plus cases because of her visions. The proof is in the pudding.”

“But he does get closer to figuring all that stuff out,” Goodwin continues. “I think there’s only so much, as he gets closer, that Liv can keep it together, and the truth will remain hidden. But the way it happens is a way I’d never guess. Things do hit the fan in a way, but I had no idea it was going to hit in this particular way. These last two episodes blew my mind. And obviously it involves Dale and her case as well. He’s getting closer and closer. How he reacts to it, I don’t think anyone is going to be unsatisfied.”

iZombie airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.