10 Essential ‘iZombie’ Episodes to Watch Before Season 4 Premieres

In less than a week, iZombie will be taking fans into a brave new world, as the fan-favorite show’s fourth season will debut on The CW.

While plenty of fans are excited for more hijinks from Team Z — and to see the fallout from last season’s “D-Day” revelation — some might need a little bit of a refresher when it comes to all things iZombie. And with nearly a year since Season Three wrapped up, there’s certainly a lot that be covered.

So, if you want to fire up Netflix and revisit a little bit of iZombie before Season Four begins next week, we’re here to help. If this is your first time watching the show, we definitely recommend watching the entire past three seasons, as you’ll get way more character beats and smaller storylines along the way.

But for those just wanting to take a trip down memory lane, here are 10 episodes that we’d recommend.

“Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1)

Pilots are arguably a weird beast when it comes to genre television, and iZombie‘s is no exception.

The pilot does a pretty great job of drawing viewers into iZombie‘s unique world, all while establishing the major differences from the comic series. There’s plenty of charm, Liv becoming a zombie on a high-speed chase, and the very first inklings of the season-long mystery.

But in a way, almost more than most shows, iZombie‘s pilot feels like a unique time capsule for the series, considering how many evolutions the show has undergone in the years since. Rewatching the very first installment, and meeting the early versions of characters like Major, Peyton, and Ravi, will help you appreciate how far they’ve come.

“Patriot Brains” (Season 1, Episode 9)

By this point, iZombie had started to develop a sort of early status quo, with Liv’s relationship with Lowell helping her come to terms with being a zombie.

But “Patriot Brains” turns Liv’s newfound comfort completely upside down in a final scene that still tugs on fans’ heartstrings. In the process, it gave Liv — and the show — the drive to propel through the rest of the season and take on Blaine.

“Patriot Brains” was also a strong indicator of just how many challenges this zombie-filled world will have, something that’s sure to only be addressed more in Season Four.

“Blaine’s World” (Season 1, Episode 13)

Speaking of, Liv’s conflict with Blaine comes to a unique head in the Season One finale — and a hell of a lot else happens along the way.

iZombie‘s first go at a season finale took plenty of fans by surprise, perfectly combining humor, high stakes, and heart. While some of The CW’s other shows seem to be fairly telegraphed from season to season, “Blaine’s World” did leave fans wondering where the heck the show would go next.

“Cape Town” (Season 2, Episode 9)

Season Two’s midseason finale was a pretty unique one, in quite a few different ways.

The episode followed Liv turning to a life of vigilantism, after eating the brains of a superhero named The Fog. While elements of that plot ultimately turned a little trope-y, it served as a nice sort of parody to The CW’s then-budding Arrowverse of shows.

“Cape Town” also sets up one of the most dynamic plot points in iZombie thus far — the relationship between Major and Natalie. That new dynamic (and what Major learns from it) becomes introduced in this episode, but doesn’t fully come to fruition until the Season Three finale. It’s a unique storytelling choice for sure, but it’s definitely one worth revisiting again.

“Dead Beat” (Season 2, Episode 18)

As the first half of Season Two’s finale, “Dead Beat” had a lot to address, and it did so in a pretty stellar way.

There was suspense, high-octane action, and characters put into situations that definitely wouldn’t have been predicted back in season one. Perhaps the biggest crux of that was the pivotal scene between Liv and Clive, where she reveals the truth about zombies in a pretty surprising way.

From there, Liv and Clive’s relationship — the sort of buddy cop constant of this out-of-the-box world — took a completely different direction, and arguably for the better.

“Salivation Army” (Season 2, Episode 19)

All right, we’re going to be honest here — every iZombie season finale is worth revisiting again. And again.

You know what we said about the Season One finale? Increase that by about ten-fold and you get the delightfully crazy installment that is “Salivation Army”.

Almost all of Season Two’s ensemble gets under one roof in this episode, with results that completely change the DNA of the show to come. Plus, hey, few shows can transition between zombie carnage, heartbreaking sacrifices, and a (perfectly meta) Rob Thomas concert so easily. 

“Zombie Knows Best” (Season 3, Episode 2)

Honestly, a large segment of iZombie‘s third season stands out, and feels like it will have some sort of relevance going into Season Four. But one that definitely feels like revisiting is none other than “Zombie Knows Best”.

After 30-or-so episodes of Liv getting on different brains, “Zombie Knows Best” introduced a new development by having Major also eat specific brains to help solve one of the Seattle PD’s crimes.

What resulted was an hour of absolute hilarity, with McIver playing Liv’s middle-aged father personality pretty perfectly. But the star of the episode is arguably Robert Buckley, whose “Major on teenage girl brain” performance is one of the biggest delights iZombie has offered yet.

“Twenty-Sided, Die” (Season 3, Episode 9)

Another one of Season Three’s standout episodes — both in concept and in execution — is easily “Twenty-Sided, Die”.

The episode introduces the already nerdy world of iZombie to Dungeons and Dragons, and a profound amount of hilarity ensues. Liv getting onto “dungeon master brain” proved to be a wealth of comedy, culminating in the standout scene of Team Z being roped into playing a game of D&D, and surprisingly enjoying it.

In the process, the episode provided a standalone mystery that proved to be pretty unpredictable and interesting. And after being briefly introduced in the episode before, “Twenty-Sided, Die” served as a proper introduction to Chase Graves — and what exactly he’s capable of.

“Looking for Mr. Goodbrain” Parts 1 & 2 (Season 3, Episode 12 & 13)

Again, every season finale of iZombie has completely leveled the playing field, and it’s clear that season three’s is going to have the most impact.

As we previously mentioned, the two-part finale saw Chase Graves enacting “D-Day”, officially revealing the truth about zombies to the general public. In one fell swoop, Chase went public about zombies, all while agreeing to close the city off as a sort of “zombie haven.”

Where will things go from here? We thankfully won’t have to wait too long to find out. But until then, these two episodes feel like required viewing. 

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iZombie premieres Monday, February 26th at 9/8c on The CW.

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