#izombie speculation

[mysilverylining]

The Case for Vivian Stoll Being the Big Bad...

*Disclaimer:  I’m a forever Jason Dohring stan, who’s afraid if he goes back up in those fruit trees we’ll never coax him back down again.  So when it comes to Chase Graves?  There’s a bit of confirmation bias here.  I’m pulling for him to survive the next episode, preferably outside of a cell or a freezer.  I can’t believe I spent almost 3 days rewatching and writing this up.  I like to tell myself I’m being Veronica Mars, but I’m probably closer to Bo John.  

Personally, I LOVE Vivian Stoll.  There aren’t enough ruthless female villains in fiction, by far.  I was really looking forward to what lying liar, RT was planning to do with her this season, and was really disappointed when she was “killed” off.  

Her motive?:  Zombie Island won’t be ready for another 1.5 years, and she is  beyond ready for D-Day.  For somebody who could rattle-off the time span between the July 4th retreat and Wally’s murder (21 months and 21 days), I can’t see her sitting around waiting for disaster.  She peddles worst-case scenarios, and would want to take the fight to the humans before they had the opportunity to gather in numbers or call in the National Guard.   As a secondary motive, I think she was staging a coup with Fillmore Graves, a company she married into.  

Point-by-point analysis under the cut.

Helicopter Crash:  

We never see Vivian get on the helicopter.  Was her body recovered?  Burned beyond recognition?  Scattered in tiny pieces over the countryside?  We’ll never know, because Liv conveniently mutes the television during the news report.  

Harrison Graves

Vivian’s beloved “deceased” husband.  First scratched and extorted (by Blaine?).  He wanted to selflessly leave her so that she wouldn’t have to be celibate, but while he slept, she scratched herself and became a zombie.  He found his own source of brains, and a week later, he never returned home again -- implication, killed by Blaine.  Vivian vows revenge.

Some Possibilities: 

Harrison died at the hands of Blaine or another party.  Vivian died in helicopter crash.

Unsatisfying story-telling.  You shouldn’t tease a vendetta and then kill off the injured party before they can get answers or revenge.

Harrison died at the hands of Vivian.

Infinitely more interesting.  Did Harrison learn of Vivian’s plans to escalate a zombie/human war?  Did he have to be silenced?  Did he inform his thoroughly-ripped, but absent brother of his suspicions?

Who would make a better scapegoat than a formerly criminally-opportunistic amnesiac?  He can’t even defend himself.

Harrison is alive and being held prisoner somewhere.  

Vivian’s prisoner?

On Zombie Island?  

Harrison is alive and pulling the strings from behind the scenes

My #2 theory, if Vivian turns out to be dead after all.  The lack of closure on his death really stands out for me.

Additionally, why does she volunteer the information that Harrison was going to leave her.  “He didn’t want her to lead a sexless life” is valid reasoning, but a bit TMI for complete strangers.  Had Harrison drawn up divorce papers at some point?  Was she trying to get out in front of it  in case those papers surfaced?

Contracting Zombie-ism:

We only have Vivian’s word for how it went down.  A General in Equitorial Kundu (ha!) turned biological weapons on his own people and a dozen Fillmore Graves employees.  Two weeks later, later at the annual 4th of July retreat, every single Fillmore Graves employee contracts the virus.  Vivian, motherly saint that she is, cures them all with a scratch.  

Where else do we hear about biological weapons?  Oh yeah, Ravi tells us in ‘Looking for Mr. Goodbrain’ that ‘Aleutian Flu’ is code for biological weapon. And Katty Cake is doing the investigation.  

Did things go down at the retreat like Vivian said?  Or did she turn a biological weapon on her own employees as an experiment in creating super soldiers?  A pre-Max Rager Super-Max?  She owns the formula for that, by the way.   

Another theory - does she hope to infect Seattle’s humans with the bio-weapon to force a join-us-or-die situation?  

Vivian and Chase 

Vivian volunteers plenty about her husband and her employees.  Just one great, big, happy family, she says.  But she never mentions Chase even once.  

Right after the news report of the helicopter crash, Major tells us that Chase is taking the reins, and is flying back from Tripoli (via Paris, perhaps?).  

Our first glimpse of Chase is at Vivian’s wake, where he has a bit of a temper tantrum, shutting off the music and berating everybody for their revelry.  

Is Chase the enemy of fun?  Does he have a stick up his existent and totally adorable ass?  Only Liv knows the answer to that, but a few episodes later, we see him at Finnegan’s and Coons’ wake, laughing and smiling in the background while Major sings with his crew.  What makes this wake different?  #NotVivian.  

When first introduced to Liv, he sharply cuts her off when she’s attempting to express her condolences for Vivian.  But relaxes enough to give her the Dohring-smolder, once she lets the Vivian subject drop.   While Vivian seems to have a “Bring it on/Come at me” attitude towards D-Day/Chase seems much more cautious and disciplined about about discovery, doing everything possible to maintain zombie secrecy.  He worries exposure will lead to extinction (is he lacking confidence in his army?)

He immediately quizzes Liv on the Tuttle-Reed murders.  His language is specific.  He wants hard evidence to have the culprits “put away”.   

In a later scene, he  worries about the safety of the Chaos Killer victims, but he never says a peep about catching Vivian’s killer.  Which, I suppose, could be an argument that he’s her killer (revenge for killing his brother?)

Some possibilities

Before his death, did Harrison Graves confide in Chase about concerns with Vivian?

Does Chase suspect Vivian of less-than-pure motives for zombifying the Fillmore Graves employees?

Assuming Vivian is the Big Bad, is Chase the fall guy?  Once he’s killed/arrested/neutralized, will she come out of hiding with a sob story about how she tried to stop him from starting a zombie/human war, but he overpowered and imprisoned her?  

Tuttle-Reed Murders

We start the season immediately after the Max Rager massacre.  Vivian learns that Clive Babineaux, a human with connections, knows about zombies.  She has three choices.

Do nothing - Pray that Clive keeps his mouth shut, and doesn’t ruin everything.  Walk on eggshells, hoping not to make him suspicious.   

Kill him.  Make it look like an accident - Too risky when she doesn’t have anybody inside the ME’s office.  If caught, she could make some powerful enemies. 

Turn him into an ally 

We know that Vivian went with option number three.  First, she gave Clive/Liv/Major a tour of the campus.  Humanized the experience with warm stories of her love for her husband, her employees, her family. She’s caring, nurturing, and has all the PowerPoint slides to put a mind at ease.   However, Clive isn’t so easily convinced.  After the tour, while still on campus property, he expressed his uneasiness with the secrecy of a private army, “armed to the gills”.  He needed an incentive.  How sweet was it, the way he peeked through the classroom window to make sure little Wally was getting a proper education.

Of all the zombie families in all the gin joints, it just happens to be the family Clive shares an emotional connection with that wound up dead.  

A visibly sad Vivian hears the news about the Tuttle-Reed murders, but was she sad about the murders themselves, or in the necessity of sacrificing Wally and his fam?  Liv visits, and in dialogue-less montage, allies Team Z to Fillmore Graves.

Vivian fans the flames in the aftermath, selling the “humans want us dead” tale to her employees.  

Zombie Truthers 

Where are they getting all of their information?  

Assuming Vivian wants this war to begin sooner rather than later, are the Truthers her unwitting ace in the hole?

Did she post the Tuttle-Reed address on the zombie message board?  

Did she anonymously give Harley a heads-up about the tracker in his vehicle?  

Baracas 

Is utterly crucial to Fillmore Graves in a post D-Day world.  In 3x1, we learn that the Chaos Killer victims were whisked away from Max Rager to Fillmore Graves, where they’re debriefed and sold a cover story.  

Vivian hand-picks Baracas as her mayoral pawn, and will do anything to get him elected. 

While Chase Graves is understandably invested in helping Baracas win the mayoral race, the writers go to the trouble to show us they have no past association.  

Chase:  “Carey, I should probably meet this candidate we’re bankrolling”. 

Baracas: (when told Chase wants to meet him:  “Who?”  Carey Gold:  “Only the most important zombie on this planet.  Endeavor to impress.”  

Did Chase arrange the shooting of Baracas?  Possibly.  It definitely helped win the election, but I don’t get that impression.  The best response for the mastermind would be to let the shooter get away, but Chase fires WAY too many bullets up into that balcony.  He’s not trying to miss.  

I’m with Peyton when it comes to Roxanne’s murder.  Baracas doesn’t want his predilections getting out, but he doesn’t seem to be complicit.  

Weckler 

We know Vivian put security details on the Chaos Killer’s victims, including her pet politician Baracas.  Presumably, security reported back to her about Baracas’ visits to Roxanne the Dominatrix, and the peeping tom who witnessed everything.  

It’s two birds with one stone - turn Weckler’s daughter into a zombie, and then blackmail him with her safety.  “Keep your mouth shut about Baracas, and while you’re at it, we’re going to need you to steal the memory card evidence.”   Oops.  You weren’t supposed to murder her.

I’m guessing that the second lawyer’s whispered comment to Weckler had been for him to confess and halt the investigation in exchange for Tatum’s safety.  

The prison guard is almost incidental. Anybody could have paid him to kill Weckler, and anybody could have paid the second killer who killed the guard.  

Stolen Cure 

Why did Vivian learn that Major was human again?  She didn’t do anything with the information.  In fact, she was dead ten minutes later?  So why did the writers go to the trouble of showing us that scene?  

Major, right before the crash:  “She wants to talk to Ravi about how I was cured when she gets back.”  

***Sidenote.  Ravi doesn’t share a single scene with Vivian or Chase.  I’m predicting this is on purpose, and he’ll do something undercover in the finale.

Assuming Vivian wants to start a human/zombie war, a cure for zombie-ism is her worst nightmare.  She can’t have her fighters being captured and cured.  

Chase, on the other hand, doesn’t ask about a cure.  He seems to assume Major was human all along, and just really fucking lucky.  

Aleutian Flu

So Aleutian Flu is code for a bio-weapon, and this particular strain has been traced a specific Paris - Seattle flight.  At the time of Katty’s killing, all passengers have been interviewed, with the exception of four first-class passengers.  

Old racist woman, who knows nothing.

Sikh father with a baby, who heard a barking dog nearby

Miserable husband, whose wife ended up in coach due to a mixup.  To appease her, he traded seats with 17D, Patrice Gold.  

???  

Between the barking dog and the napkin with Katty’s name written on it, my boy Chase is looking awfully suspicious here.  

On the other hand, (1) Liv and Clive have a list of the four passengers, and would both recognize his name if he used it.  (2)  is he stupid enough to leave evidence connecting him to a murder on his nightstand?  (3) is he even more stupid to bring the woman investigating the murder back to his bed, knowing the napkin was there?  

Possibilities

If Chase was on the flight, did he also switch seats with another coach passenger?

Or had Katty already interviewed him and cleared him from suspicion.

Is that why he had the napkin with her name on it?

He clearly did not have sex with her.  His scene with Major earlier makes it clear that he knows Zombie/Human sex is off limits.

And Catty wasn’t a zombie at her time of death.

But SHE wouldn’t know the danger of sleeping with him, and there was nothing stopping her from shoving a napkin at him with her room number.

I mean, I WOULD!!!

Or is the napkin there for another reason?  He jotted the info down while listening to a voice mail?  He thinks their luggage got switched?  Vivian manipulated it somehow?  

Assuming Vivian is the Big Bad, she would know the date of her “death” in advance, and would have time to send Patrice to Paris to await further instructions.  

Like “Chase will be on flight xyz at this time.  Make sure you’re on the same flight, and release the toxin then.”  

Vivian Stoll vs. Chase Graves 

Most of this analysis rests on the assumption that Chase remained in Tripolli prior to Vivian’s death.  It’s completely possible that he came back to Seattle weeks or months earlier in order to wreck mayhem everywhere.  

Where Vivian edges Chase out, is that we’ve been shown her connection to the different entities:  the Tuttle-Reed family, Harley John and the tracker in his car, Baracas and the other Chaos Killer victims, the cure, and her admission of infecting all of the FG employees.  If Chase shares any of those connections, we haven’t been shown on screen.  

Where Chase edges Vivian out, is we’ve been shown a connection to Katty and the Aleutian Flu through the napkin and White Fang.  If Vivian shares this connection, we haven’t been shown on screen.  And if Chase was in fact on this flight, that negates the idea of him being in Seattle all along.

Potential Accomplices:

Zack Stoll:  Share’s a last name with Vivian, but seems genuinely decent.  Also, caught in the blast, though it looks as if his upper half makes it out.

Carey Gold:  Maybe?  A little TOO convenient, especially with Clive learning she’s Patrice’s mother.  Has constant access to Chase.  Capable of slipping Katty’s napkin in his pockets while he’s naked tanning (thank you Rob Thomas!).  At least mildly involved, as Tatum is living in her home, and her daughter was on the flight from Paris.  Still, I don’t think she’s the main accomplice.  She seems surprised too often, and only owns one everyday dress.  Pay your employees better, Chase.  

Patrice Gold:  Probably capable of conspiring without her mother’s knowledge.  Her seat number was written down on Katty’s napkin, and she was obviously the passenger Katty was killed to keep from interviewing.  Also, Tatum seems more frightened of Patrice.  

Justin:  My choice for most likely suspect.  

Becomes Major’s Insta-BFF at a time when he needs one the most.

Convinces Major that he’s a great guy, then targets Liv for romance with Major’s blessing.  

The cans of Super Max.  Liv initiated that request, but from Chase’s reaction to the theft, I’m guessing they were under lock and key.  

Not saying Chase wasn’t an asshole to shoot him, just that I feel like there’s something more to the Super Max angle.  

Who found the guns in Harley John’s truck?  Oh yeah.  This guy.  

Who worked the Baracas party where a shooter fired the same guns?  You guessed it.  Justin.

In Conspiracy Weary, Justin lies and tells Liv that Harley John’s compound wasn’t worth checking out.  It hadn’t been used in months.

Liv questions this statement aloud once she gets a look at it. 

Harley’s been building his underground bunker for all this time.

And the machinery was so loud, even the neighbors could hear it.  

 Justin conveniently pulls Major out of the party mere moments before the explosion.  

Too. Good. To. Be. True.   Nobody’s that sweet and pleasant.  

[chicleeblair]

theory: if Major loses his memories he will fall for Natalie. Liv will know that he is a different person, and doesn’t interfere because she wants him to be happy. However she will be sad for herself and her grief will be what encourages her to open up to Justin since the rest of her circle will be dealing with their own grief, along with everything else. even if Ravi finds a way to reverse the amnesia, I think they may not give it to Major, because it would be like killing his current personality. I can also see him refusing treatment because he doesn’t want to leave Natalie alone again, but with his memories he knows that he would be drawn to Liv. she wouldnt do it against his will in season one.

more likely they will fall in love again like Major said, but I’d like to see a twist, or to have him try to fake it for a while but not really having the same spark, because they’ve been together since college, meaning they grew up with each other, and as adults meeting for the “first time” may not have the same attraction. The show kind of alluded to that when Major had such a hard time dealing with all of Liv’s different personalities. I know they’ve been set up as endgame, but it would be cool for them to use this as a way to show you don’t have to force a relationship into a should-have-been mold when there are just too many changes for people who love each other to fit together sometimes.

then again they have also set up the fact that people who meet Liv as a zombie come to love her in spite of her quirks and personality shifts. major had to adapt to new liv, but Major without his memories wouldn’t have an adjustment period. if he didnt fall for her, though it would confirm her anxiety about Major’s true feelings for her/or that deep down he was waiting for her to change back, even if he came to love her as a zombie. him dating someone like Natalie would help Liv see that Major is just different now, and he might not have loved College Liv either. (and think about the mixed emotions of the viewers who know that Major definitely had some sort of feelings for Natalie–is it because he changed, or is it residual infection, and in that case why not liv?)

they could even still be MFEO, even endgame, and I’m not saying I want a love triangle, I don’t. I don’t think Liv would be fighting for him, I think she would be learning to truly let go–which would be great character development.

I also think maybe seeing how different major might be will allow her to reframe her view of Blaine, although I still think he might be lying about not having his memories back, though not about losing them. please note this is not an argument for getting them together, I’m not really into Bliv, but I do think she should judge him by his actions post amnesia because based on what we saw of his relationship with his father, Blaine seems to be a very “well if you expect bad behavior, you’ll get it” type and as time goes on I think he will need more people than just Peyton raising their expectations.

The writers on the show are much savvier than they get credit for, and I think Major asking liv to give him a new name is either him being aware that he might be a different person–perhaps he was very different before college and Blaine’s 180 will manifest differently? i’ve always kind of hoped the amnesia would reveal that Major had issues that inspired him to be a social worker, rather than just doing it because he’s aware of his privilege. I think his issues with authority, willingness to resort to violence, and tendency to not ask for help are all signs of a backstory that’s not squeaky clean.

he’s got a dark side that we saw a bit of when he was doing the Lucky U and i think there were character flaws he had to consciously correct–possibly by becoming an athlete? A blank slate would reverse those changes because he doesn’t remember the lessons he learned? or it’s foreshadowing by the writers to say he won’t be the same Major Lilywhite.

tl;dr OR AND New!Major should fall for Ravi and solve any and all love triangle issues.

[ciceroisthefamilycat]

In the wake of that episode, I'm pretty sure that the memory recovery serum would actually work if Major took it. I'm thinking either Blaine lied (so obvious it would be disappointing) or that taking the memory serum before the cure (or in short succession after) might be enough to save the memories, which is why it's a shame they're seemingly not even least trying those options.

[hookslovelyswan]

So here’s the thing...the fact that the potential existence of zombies was being looked at and discussed by hundreds of people on a website, for what was implied to be quite a length of time, makes me even more suspicious that Fillmore Graves was behind the murder of Wally and his family. That just makes it all the easier to engineer their deaths while seeming to keep their hands clean and claiming ignorance. Think about it. They can post, pretending to be part of the concerned community, while subtly manipulating people into the murders.

[mysilverylining]

blaxicanbby

replied to your

post

:

ANY OPINIONS JUDGING LIV FOR BANGING THE BIG BAD...

Okay like, yay he has a dog, but Liv still took time to confirm Justin wasnt sleepiing with anyone else and wanted to be exclusive with her and then cheated on him. Thats a thing that happened nd no matter “how hawt” it was, its still wrong. No excuses. Liv could resist not sleeping with others, yet she somehow “has no will power” with Chase, cause brains?? Yeah, no.

*Rereads original post and scratches head*

Help me out here. Are you debating that Vivian Stoll is still alive?  That Chase Graves is a textbook example of a red herring?  Or that dogs typically symbolize goodness in fiction?  

Because (other than my clear disclaimer that I don’t justify cheating) that was the gist of my post.  

[mysilverylining]

Am I getting into chasing zebra territory here or could the title of eps 12/13 be a little hint of sorts to Vivian being alive? I know they ref. the movie "Looking For Mr. Goodbar". But watching iZombie makes me think about Veronica Mars, so Mr. Goodbrain makes me think of Woody Goodman/Mr. Goodwood - who was killed in a plane explosion. Are we "looking" for someone we thought was also killed in an aerial explosion but in fact wasn't? (Viv is nothing like him but they do share method of 'death')

Holy shit, anon!  You know?  CCS mentioned the plot of the original book and how it ended, but it would be just like RT to put layer upon layer of thought into something like a title (but not character ages, hahaha)

Great catch!  Also...gag.  Woody was so icky, and the Mr. Goodwood thing was repulsive.  Man, Rob Thomas is a troll.  

[mysilverylining]

carrycate replied to your post: ANY OPINIONS JUDGING LIV FOR BANGING THE BIG BAD...

My bet is on Cary Gold, btw. Just a feeling.

Yeah, I agree.  Carrie is probably Vivian’s person on the inside.  Although, it could be Justin.

Honestly, knowing Rob Thomas, I wouldn’t be surprised if Justin was a secondary big bad.  RT loves ripping away our sweet, cuddly characters, and he hates writing guilty characters.  Making Liv’s boyfriend an accomplice would conveniently give her a free pass for cheating and him a free pass from having to write character growth. 

[ciceroisthefamilycat]

Spec for this ep: the memory restoration serum does work and Liv is about to be especially affected by this brain.