'Real Dead Housewife of Seattle' 

’s tone can best be emoji-fied as the comedy and tragedy masks, its greatest theme is the big red question mark — a crimson blur between good and evil. Zombies equal bad, so says

, bad can be good, good can bad, and Liv is…conflicted. The closer she tries to get to people, the more alienated she feels: Major won’t return her calls, Ravi’s busy with his new paramour, her family has abandoned her, and Clive — who knows what he does when he isn’t asking questions to move the story along?  (While we’re at it, can we toss him a B-plot? Or even a C-plot. Poor guy is less compelling than the corpses in the morgue.)

And just when you think it can’t get more depressing for Liv, it does. Nobody remembers her birthday. Well, no one except for Peyton, who leaves a very pastel, flowery un-Peyton-like cake in her fridge. Yes! Peyton’s back. And just in the knick of time. The heart-tugging moment Liv looked forlornly at a dress and said, “That belongs to someone. A long time ago, we used to be friends,” dredged up such

memories I had to hit pause and rewind. Twice. To be honest, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed Liv’s BFF until she shared her acknowledgement of Liv’s affliction with Ravi and sealed it by giving him a big hug. That and the look on Liv’s face were enough of a Welcome Back, Peyton banner for me.

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We do get some zombie rage this episode, which is a nice juxtaposition to Peyton’s return and a reminder of why she left in the first place. Still, it’s nice to see a case that has Liv forming a connection with someone, even if that someone is a mistress/stylist that took out a hit on her SugarDaddio.com boyfriend Terrence’s L.A. society wife Taylor. Prissy Liv is rad, but besides the fun of bodycon dresses, gel nails, and super sass, this week’s brain was mostly pointless. Terrence, the Max Rager board member, however, did bring us one step closer to the sadistic mysteries of that evil corporation, the biggest bad of all. Yes, Team Rager is an even bigger bad than Blaine — who incidentally didn’t appear at all in this week’s episode…though I imagine him sitting at home with his feet up, sipping bourbon while watching Mr. Zombie DA announce on TV that Peyton will be heading up the new Utopium task force.

So, where does Major fall in all of this? The cocktail of self-loathing and a newly-acquired Utopium addiction are turning out to be a suicidal Sex on the Beach for Liv’s ex-fiancé. He spends hours improving his body, because he has no control over anything else. He hooks up with Gilda just to feel something because he’s numb. (No complaints from me if that’s what it takes to get a peek of those abs.) Much like Utopium — Is it an upper? A downer? A psychedelic? — Major can’t seem to make up his mind about the side effects of his human-zombie-human flip. And he’s only spiraling deeper as Max Rager blackmails him into plowing through his Murder Must List.

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