Brother, Can You Spare a Brain? gets right into the action in good murder mystery style. A couple comes home to find Javier, the resident artist, dead, a paintbrush pushed through his eye socket.
Flip To The Last Page
As soon as Clive shows up on scene his first question it to ask Liv if she’s got anything yet. I love her response. “Wow, your a flip to the last page of the book type guy, huh?” When Liv asks him what he’s detected so far Clive has an equally flip response. He doesn’t have to detect anything. The wife did it, the wife always did it.
Once the body is back in the ME’s office, Liv makes what appears to be a brains and hot sauce empanada. Yum.
The next morning Liv finds Major at her door, returning a box of things she left behind. Peyton returns just as Major is leaving. Peyton calls Liv out again for the fact that it’s clear that Liv still has feelings for the man. Liv is in pain, but she’s trying to save Major’s life. If a scratch turned her, what would f*cking do? I’m pretty sure he’d turn and so is Liv.
That night Liv wakes up from a nightmare. She sees the drug dealer from the boat in her dreams.
Visions
That day at work Liv gets her first vision from eating Javier’s brains, and its hot and steamy. She tells Clive what she was seeing but doesn’t have any real details. Just smuttiness. Clive thanks her for the “Fifty Shades of Psychic.”
Clive is still convinced it’s Lola, Javier’s wife, which leads us back to the loft.
Yes, Lola is played by Judy Reyes, aka Nurse Carla Espinosa, aka Turk’s better half. Hopefully Turk doesn’t find out she was banging Javier.
When they arrive at the studio, Tasha, the woman from the vision is there. We find out that Lola and Javier had an open relationship. Both parties knew who the others were sleeping with. Clive doesn’t care, he’s still got Lola pegged as the killer. At least until Ravi calls and tells him whoever did the murder was over six foot tall. Lola is not tall enough.
Drawings
Back at the ME’s office Ravi has enlisted the help of a police sketch artist under false pretenses. We also see the effect that Javier’s brain is having on Liv. She’s emotionally descriptive and she also discovers new artistic talents.
With Liv’s new drawing out, she doesn’t find her target, but he does find her. Both Liv and Blaine thought they were the only Zombies pretending to be human. They bond over their loss of humanity until Ravi shows up and takes some samples.
As Blaine is apologizing for the boat party, and for turning Liv, he knocks over an instrument tray. This brings about another vision of Javier, being screamed at by Tasha’s jealous boyfriend. When Liv goes to tell Clive, Clive is already on it. The jealous ex boyfriend is already there, ready to be questioned.
Blaine
While Liv and Clive are questioning suspects we see Blaine picking up an older woman at a bar. The next day he shows up at the ME’s office again. He tells Liv that he’s changed, that he’s cut out the toxic people in his life. The next morning Liv witnesses Blaine with some of his old friends, proving to her he’s not what he says he is.
We then get a view of exactly what Blaine is up to. He turned the woman at the bar so he could go back and black mail her for brains to eat.
Back on the crime fighting front Clive has discovered that Javier was boning his manager’s daughter. Also that the manager was also dead broke. The team plans on stopping by the art show to question the manager again. Clive and Liv are there to solve a crime. Ravi is more interested in the models and the free booze.
While at the show Ravi gets pulled into a domestic dispute with a model and her boyfriend. As Ravi is distracted, Liv explores the loft. This s when Tasha’s boyfriend shows up and tries to take advantage of Liv. At least until she reveals she’s a lot stronger than she looks.
Pregnant Daughters
When Liv goes back out onto the main floor Clive is confronting Javier’s manager. Liv piles on, asking him how he felt about Javier getting his daughter pregnant.
The noose is tightening around the manager when Ravi has a revelation because of where Liv is standing. If Javier was on the lower step, the killer wouldn’t have to be over six foot after all.
Clive was right all along, the wife did it. Javier was going to leave her for his pregnant eighteen year old girlfriend. That sounds like a reasonable reason to kill someone to me, but maybe I’m old fashioned.
Brother, Can You Spare a Brain? ends with Liv going to Majors house and telling him that she can’t take not being close to him. She kisses him which leads to Major unleashing the pent up anger and frustration that been building up for six months and kicking Liv out. As Liv walks away she regrets all the times she didn’t spend with Major when she had a chance. I think that’s a valuable lesson we can all learn from. Life is short, enjoy it.
Brother, Can You Spare a Brain? Scoring
Brother, Can You Spare a Brain? scored a 70/100, making it Worth Your Time. If you have someone in your life who doesn’t like classic Zombie Gore but does like a good murder mystery, this is a great, unusual show to enjoy together.
| Season | Episode | Episode Name | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 1 | Pilot | 90 |
| Season 1 | 2 | Brother, Can You Spare a Brain? | 70 |
| Season 1 | 3 | The Exterminator | 71 |
| Season 1 | 4 | Liv and Let Clive | 75 |
| Season 1 | 5 | Flight of the Living Dead | 71 |
| Season 1 | 6 | Virtual Reality Bites | 76 |
| Season 1 | 7 | Maternity Liv | 75 |
| Season 1 | 8 | Dead Air | 66 |
| Season 1 | 9 | Patriot Brains | 74 |
| Season 1 | 10 | Mr. Berserk | 77 |
| Season 1 | 11 | Astroburger | 72 |
| Season 1 | 12 | Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat | 73 |
| Season 1 | 13 | Blaine's World | 80 |
| Season 2 | 1 | Grumpy Old Liv | 80 |
| Season 2 | 2 | Zombie Bro | 80 |
| Season 2 | 3 | Real Dead Housewife of Seattle | 85 |
| Season 2 | 4 | Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues | 70 |
| Season 2 | 5 | Love & Backetball | 81 |
| Season 2 | 6 | Max Wager | 75 |
| Season 2 | 7 | Abra Cadaver | 85 |
| Season 2 | 8 | The Hurt Stalker | 90 |
| Season 2 | 9 | Cape Town | 88 |
| Season 2 | 10 | Method Head | 75 |
| Season 2 | 11 | Fifty Shades of Grey Matter | 85 |
| Season 2 | 12 | Physician, Heal Thy Selfie | 70 |
| Season 2 | 13 | The Whopper | 85 |
| Season 2 | 14 | Eternal Sunshine of the Caffeinated Mind | 69 |
| Season 2 | 15 | He Blinded Me With Science | 81 |
| Season 2 | 16 | Pour Some Sugar, Zombie | 82 |
| Season 2 | 17 | Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be | 83 |
