‘iZombie’ recap: All bets are off in ‘Max Wager’

We know that he’s a Kurt Cobain superfan, can carry a tune to a Cure song and has raging daddy issues and bouts of extreme narcissism mixed with nagging self-doubt. But did anyone realize that Blaine DeBeers has ... feelings? Real, honest-to-goodness emotions such as love, attachment and sorrow?

If there are any lingering doubts about how three-dimensional and fantastically intriguing this character is, those should be dispelled by this week’s episode of “iZombie.”

Blaine (David Anders) has been, from Episode 1, the uber-villain we all want and deserve in this smart, sharply written story. But now he’s also someone we can relate to. Can we even root for him? Possibly, though that depends on exactly why he smothers his beloved hospice-bound grandpa with a pillow.

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He mourns the death afterward. Is that good enough?

Regrets, he has a few. But those may be more closely linked to losing his kingpin undead status than to the trail of destruction he’s left behind him during and since. What he’s sorriest about? The fact that he’s not a zombie anymore.

What a great character, and what a perfect piece of casting.

Blaine finds himself in the middle of a mess -- his sociopath father is blackmailing him and threatening to take over his business -- and that’s just one of the twisted threads that runs through this hour of the hit dram-rom-zom-com.

Another development? Major Lilywhite (Robert Buckley) hasn’t really been executing Seattle’s wealthy zombies and dumping their bodies into the river. He’s just been acting like it. Those undead victims aren’t swimming with the fishes -- they’re chilling in a deep freeze.

Who knows if they can be revived, or if Major will be redeemed after the thaw. But I’d hate to think that Angus DeBeers (Robert Knepper) is gone so quickly. He’s the latest living dead member of the 1% that Major snatches off the street. Can he be out of the picture for real? I shudder at the prospect.

There’s an abundance of relationship drama, plus the obligatory murder du jour, in this episode dubbed “Max Wager,” for the degenerate gambler’s brain that Liv Moore (Rose McIver) dices and eats with oysters on the half-shell.

There’s no beating around the bush on this score, so here it is. Liv-and-Major shippers: 1. This recapper: 0.

So it appears that the former lovers are back together and, sure, they’re ridiculously cute as a couple. They stroll around town and eat ice cream and tease each other and have Skype sex. But can this really work? Too soon, I say yet again. Too soon! And, let’s be candid, there are too many secrets between them still. That will further complicate matters down the road.

We meet Stacey Boss, the city’s ice-water-in-his-veins criminal overlord, for the first time, and peek into Det. Clive Babineaux’s off-duty activity. He’s out on a date with his colleague from the FBI, Dale Bozzio (Jessica Harmon), and though the two cops talk shop, they’ve already fallen in like. (I’m shipping them, fellow “iZombie” fans, to prove that my heart isn’t made entirely of stone. And I just like them as a pair).

Let’s get to the lowdown of “Max Wager,” with Liv spouting sports statistics, betting on the ponies and letting it ride.

We’ve already met this week’s murder victim, shady lawyer and gambling addict Harry Cole (Ray Galletti), because he was a murder suspect just a week ago. (He did, in fact, bash in the skull of his debt collector). He and his law firm’s even shadier fix-it man covered up the first killing, and the fixer committed another in the process (the wrong-place-wrong-time shooting of security guard and peewee coach Mike Hayden).

That’s two dead bodies so far, which means Cole leads a dangerous life that continually steeps him in metaphoric hot water.

He’s probably rubbing elbows with lots of lowlifes, which could lead to his untimely death. Or there’s his widow, who might stand to inherit a few bucks.

His college friend and former basketball star Calvin Owens (guest star Rick Fox) wouldn’t seem to fall into the criminal-associates category. But it turns out that he and Harry plotted together while in school to shave points from games and profit from the cheating.

When current-day Cole digs himself $75,000 in debt, he threatens to expose the old scam unless Owens pays his tab. Owens instead hires a couple of young Serbian hit men to take care of the problem as he sees it. And Harry thought those loan sharks were deadly.

Meantime, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) is frantically trying to figure out how the zombie virus is transmitted. He’s bought all the condoms within a several-mile radius of the Seattle morgue, and he’s testing them for effectiveness in keeping a human safe from an infected night walker.

His results aren’t encouraging, and in fact, they dictate abstinence for Liv and Major. That’s not the breakthrough news the newly reunited couple wants to hear, but they’re prepared to deal with it.

Liv’s best friend, Peyton Charles (Aly Michalka), has to deal with a threat of a completely different nature when Boss pays her an unwelcome visit. He’s trying to find out who snitched on him -- of course, it was Blaine -- and he fills Peyton in on former prosecutors who tried to take him down. They either retire early with a fat financial windfall or they have a decidedly less cushy landing. What will Peyton do with this unsubtle threat?

And speaking of threats, Angus DeBeers has learned that Blaine is now human. (That makeup-and-spray-tan expert spilled his secrets under duress). If he prizes his newfound status, his father says, he’ll turn over his budding drug, brains and funeral-home empire. If not, he’ll risk being turned back into a skull cracker with a simple scratch from dear old dad.

But in truth, Blaine misses being a zombie because it took him from “a nobody, an underachiever, a joke” to being “exceptional.” “Zombie Blaine was the man,” he tells Liv during a drunken bender.

She brings him back down to earth, reminding him of the horrific visions and constant anxiety. (Not to mention, no sex with humans and no food without Sriracha).

It may be those words that guide him as he kills his grandfather instead of murdering one of his father’s business rivals, as ordered. He wants Angus to eat that brain and know what it’s like to die at his son’s hands. That’s my guess anyway.

Self-preservation is always paramount with Blaine, but he’ll also be trying to protect his turf. Why not just off his dad’s enemy? Would that have been giving Angus too much power, position and leverage?

If we can believe Blaine’s story, he loved his granddad second only to his late mother. It’s heartbreaking when he realizes he may have killed him for no reason, because Angus’ face is now on the news (and a milk carton) for his disappearance.

Major staged the scene to make it look like an anti-corporate attack, playing into the FBI’s misguided suspicions about the criminals. How long will it take for the feds to get on the right track? And will Clive, so astute sometimes and so oblivious others, be instrumental?