In “Blaine’s World,” we ended the season with every kind of villain possible. There were human villains and zombie villains. All joined together by one motive: selfishness.
Spoilers...
On the human side of things, we had Max Rager (and its CEO, Vaughn Du Clark), Cameron, and Major. On the zombie side, we have the Meat Cute Crew (especially Blaine) and Liv. Du Clark, Blaine, and Cameron all make morally awful choices for personal gain. In theory, Major and Liv make their choices for the protection of others. But they may just be kidding themselves.
Last night we resolved the mystery of Teresa’s death from the end of last week. It wasn’t Sebastian, since he was getting killed by Liv at the time. But the text she got about bringing “his stuff” was about Sebastian — it was his wallet, where he tucked the flash drive with the incriminating evidence against Max Rager. But it wasn’t even Max Rager who killed her. It was Cameron, who killed his friends in order to keep the $300,000 that Max Rager offered. And because his two friends wanted to go to the police.
Cameron is our first villain of the finale — someone whose self-interest drove him to murder. And drove him to turn over a copy of the flash drive to the police — since Max Rager’s tried to kill him a bunch of times already.
It’s good that the police have their hands on the memo about Max Rager, because there is some even shadier than usual shit going down at the company. First of all, sometime between being run over by a boat and being killed by Liv, Sebastian stopped by Max Rager to tell them about being a zombie and Liv’s secret zombie identity. He also killed the lead scientist, leading Du Clark to bring in an ethically-deficient, Liv-obsessed scientist to make sure all the rage zombie molecules are excised from their newest drink — Super Max. Du Clark is also committed to killing all zombies as a way to sweep the evidence of his drink’s dangerous effects under the rug.
Yeah, I trust a guy who does the lizard neck while talking about accidentally making zombies.
Meanwhile, Blaine’s got Major stored in his walk-in freezer, trying to get him to reveal where he left the astronaut brains. He helpfully tells Major that he’s researched how long Major can stay in the freezer using some helpful information from the Nazis (“Yes, those Nazis,” Blaine helpfully shares) and serves Major some soup full of brains. It seems less designed to get him to talk as for evil fun. Major doesn’t talk, but Liv texts him that the brains he left with her are monkey brains. Blaine tricks Liv into giving him the brains without giving her Major. But while he’s away, Major does one of the only smart things he’s done all season: he scrounges up a lighter, sets a fire in the freezer, springs a trap on his only guard and escapes.
Does he make a run for it? Go get help? No, because he’s Major, he goes on a roaring rampage of revenge. Killing everyone in Meat Cute. In increasingly gruesome ways. He’s such a good social worker. And, again, an idiot. Because Blaine stabs him right in the gut and leaves him to die. Liv shoots Blaine, but Blaine reveals Liv’s zombieness to the dying Major. Blaine points out that she can’t kill him, he’s the only one who knows where all the zombies are. And left unfed by him, they’ll bring about the Walking Dead-style apocalypse.
The face of justice.
Liv does a real hero’s job in the finale: she leaks the information about Max Rager to the press, bringing a microscope on that company’s dealings. And Ravi’s finally got something that might be viable cure — but they only have two doses. And he may not be able to recreate it if they use it all. Liv prepares to give herself a dose, but ends up using it on Blaine, instead. Which is actually perfect, since Blaine loved being a zombie and was actually right that he had information she needed. I’m not sure what’s going to stop him from blackmailing one of his zombie friends into re-turning him (maybe they all secretly hate him and it would be too dangerous to be that vulnerable in front of them?).
But Liv isn’t immune to selfishness — she turns Major to save him. Major is the biggest ever dick about it. He’s furious at Liv for not revealing her zombiness — which is ridiculous since anyone would hide that. He’s furious at Liv for breaking off their engagement for “his own good.” Which, is slightly more understandable, but also was her choice to make. He’s furious that she’s found a purpose in eating the brains of murder victims to find their killers, when he can’t do good like that. He’s furious at her for changing him against his will, saying she did it for herself. Which is a good point, but the problem with Major is that even when good points come out of his mouth, they’re hard to take seriously. So Liv gives him the second dose of the cure.
Here’s something that does not happen at any point: Liv does not say, “I’m sorry. But there might be a cure and if you wait until we make more, none of this will matter.” She just throws away Ravi’s research on ungrateful Major.
And finally: the lieutenant on Blaine’s payroll goes to the body-ridden Meat Cute. He writes Blaine’s name on the wall in his own blood, makes it look like he stumbled onto hooligans in the place, and that the carnage was all his doing. Then he blows the building up with himself inside. This has two effects: One, Babineaux doubts the set up when he sees the body of the guy Major has been stalking and asks for Major to be brought in and the explosion catches Liv’s brother as he shows up for work. He needs a transfusion of a rare bloodtype. But Liv can’t give it, since she’ll end up turning him. And she just “saved” Major that way, and he did not appreciate it. So, on her “No,” we end the season.
Save Babinaux and Ravi, everyone makes selfish choices this week. Du Clark wants to kill all the zombies to save his company. He’s definitely a villain. Major wants to kill all the zombies because, well, they’re zombies. And the only ones he’s met are the evil ones. He’s definitely a vigilante, but is he a villain?
Blaine makes people zombies against their will so he can profit off of them. He’s definitely a villain. Liv does it so she can save the love of her life. It’s selfish, but is she a villain?
If there’s anything this show has made clear all season, it’s that the lines of good and evil are not aligned along living and undead lines. Liv and Lowell were good zombies, Blaine and his posse were bad ones. Babineaux and Ravi were good living people, Max Rager were bad ones. And the vast majority — as represented by the victims, murderers, and zombies being fed by Blaine — were somewhere in between. To modify the cliche, it’s not being a zombie that matters. It’s how you use it.
Contact the author at katharine@io9.com.