iZombie's Doctor Ravi Chakrabarti has found himself in quite a pickle. In the Season 3 finale, he concocted an experimental cure for zombism -- and then asked his friend Liv Moore to scratch him so that he could test it on himself. Heading into Season 4, fans will learn "almost immediately" what that means for the Seattle Police Department's medical examiner. During a set visit, Ravi actor Rahul Kohli teased a "complicated" resolution to his big cliffhanger, the search for the stolen zombism cure, how Ravi's relationships with the other characters have changed, his favorite Season 4 brains and more.

When asked to tease the ramifications of that life-altering cliffhanger, Kohli stayed mum. "It' just a no-go thing. It's more so just for the fans. It's something that reveals almost immediately," he explained. "It's not a big storyline. It's something that Rob [Thomas] revealed immediately, but it's something that you just wanted people to be surprised about, and enjoy and figure out what's going on. The only thing I can kind of tease is that it's not, kind of, straightforward answer anyway, it's way more complicated than 'Are you or aren't you?' So, that's as good as I can take you."

However, we won't learn what happened to the stolen cure for zombisim quite as fast. "It's not as quick as you think. It doesn't happen quickly. That is found out, and it is resolved, and I didn't see it coming," he teased. "I went back, as I kind of breezed over, and I was like 'Hm? No.' And I went back, and, yeah, that was a big shock."

Liv gets by with a little help from her friend Ravi.

As to whether or not the identity of the culprit made sense to him, he added, "Oh, absolutely. It's kind of stupid... It fits so well, I feel stupid that I was shocked, but I was shocked."

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Of course, when iZombie returns, the show will look quite different, since Discovery Day -- the moment where humans found out about zombies -- has come and gone. "We've now shot 50-something episodes, and... yeah, we added an extra five or six [zombies] here or there or whatever, but... it was really exciting to come back this season, now that we know we're dealing with thousands," he said. "Seattle's now walled off. The politics have changed. The way the city operates, the way that, even on a procedural level, that's now changed, because we have zombie crimes, we have human crimes. We have zombie detectives and human detectives... and also, the usual partnership, now, between... In the police force, is one zombie and one human, and that would be the partnership. So Liv and Clive kind of started that, and that's now become a thing, so even how we approach our procedural element is a bit different. So that's been quite exciting."

In New Seattle, crimes will fall into two jurisdictions: human crime and zombie crime. The Seattle Police Department will handle human crime, while Fillmore-Graves tackles zombie crime. "With the brain shortage, that's not a Seattle Police Department problem," Kohli explained. "The crime is still the crime and the brain that Liv eats, which pretty much isolates Liv. In terms of that, that's a Fillmore Graves issue, in terms of how they feed the zombie population, and the brain rations, and how that is shipped, and the... That hasn't really changed our thing. But in terms of starvation and the lack of brains, that's definitely had an impact on storylines and motivations, so you will see crimes or... We have had certain case-of- the-weeks where it was because there's a brain shortage, and certain zombies aren't waiting for the ethical way to conceive. So, that does affect it, in that respect."

Liv and Ravi: Best Friends Forever

Kohli agreed that the creation of New Seattle opens the show to tackle politics and immigration issues, which he believes has "kept things fresh for us. And on a personal level, I appreciate the commentary, and I appreciate the ecosystem that they've created. The gray is really interesting... It's illegal in our new Seattle for zombies to scratch humans, and that's a capitol offense, and so if you take a child, or you take a poor person, and the only bit of time where they were weak to it, you scratch them, that's it, obviously, you have to go because you are saving someone's life, at the same time, you've just created another to mouth to feed on the flip side, and that's a valid point in itself, so it's such a delicate thing that they've created, and that's the gray in which we all operate in terms of politics now."

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"There are some validity to some arguments, and others that's not like that. Obviously, there are extremes on both sides, but there is a gray area where that is what we need to debate, and iZombie -- without being too heavy -- never loses it's DNA. Never. It's not trying to change the world," he continued. "It's a comedy show on CW, and… no one's up their own ass about anything, but it's just nice that that is addressed, and it is sprinkled throughout the show, and it's there if you want it. If you don't want it, you don't have to consume it. There's other stuff that you can have if you like."

The situation inside New Seattle -- and Fillmore-Graves' role in it -- will cause some tension between Ravi and his good friend Major. "There's definitely a divide," Kohli shared. "I mean, take from that what you will, that the affiliations of Fillmore-Graves, and then you have Liv, Rack and Clive on the other side, and Peyton. It's definitely created a split with Major and that group. He's very much invested in that side. And as that was teased in Season 3 anyway, we can ask why I've traced the scratching, so that is that, and they’re seldom in a scene, even. There's rarely been a scene where we just hang out at our home. We just don't have time for that right now. The world has become so much bigger and dangerous... There's more pressing issues, so... we haven't really had too many bro out moments this season."

Page 2: Ravi's Relationships, Favorite Brains & More



Ravi won't interact as much with the show's on-again, off-again villain Blaine. "Oh, yeah. I've had, at this point, I've had one thirty second scene with David [Anders]," he revealed. "Yeah, there’s fractures, and that's intentional. I've heard this analogy, I’ve heard Rob tease this before, and I thought it was happening last year, but it seems to be happening this year: it's X-Men. You know? There are sides, it's Professor Xavier and Magneto, in the sense that they have a lot of common ground and... there is a kinsmanship there. At the same time, there's a conflict of interest in how they approach those things, and that's what's happening with Major and Liv, and Fillmore-Graves and the rest of Seattle, like, they're in this together. Everyone wants to coexist, but people are going about in completely different ways. It's fracturing those groups, and causing us to take sides, and that's what kind of obstacle we need to beat."

On the other hand, it looks like Ravi has smoothed things out with Peyton. As to his relationship with her, Kohli said, "It's one of friendship. There is a mutual appreciation for one another... I'll be honest with you, I think Peyton needs a little bit of a break from all this boy stuff. She's a great character, and an important one... It's great to have such a strong female character, and romance -- it's not really the focal point of this season. It then goes a lot more to her character. I think now and the opportunity to develop that now. Love triangles, all that stuff."

"Her relationship with Ravi will always be... I think they will always have feelings for one another, and I think I'll be the undercurrent of that," he added. "They've been like that since Season 1. Obviously, there was a blame storyline in the middle of that, but -- if you remove that out of it -- there's still always a constant affection for the two characters, and Ravi is... I don't think he's willing to just remove that and not address it, but it's not the focal point of her character this season. She's awesome. It's great to see her get her hands dirty into some of the good stuff."

Ravi will be on better terms with Peyton this season.

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Kohli also teased some of the brains Liv will eat in this season, including one that will turn her into a rapper. "It's awesome because we are big, big fans of hip-hop on set. We all rap a lot, and rap our favorite songs, and then when Rose [McIver, who plays Liv] got told she was playing a rapper, it gave us an excuse to watch 8 Mile as a group. We've got karaoke tomorrow. And she's fantastic. Her approach to it, as well, is great. It's very delicate, it's not appropriation or anything like that. It's not making, mocking that subculture, it's more a celebration of hip-hop, but it's also a send-up of people who do appropriate other people's culture rather than us appropriate it, so it toes the line pretty well, and it's fun."

As to which brain personality has amused him the most, Kohli picked another one from Season 4: rom-com brain. "Rom com brain is great because Rose -- when you see Rose do a character, it's one thing. It's like, obviously, my character 9 times out of 10, almost always has to interact with the personality in the plot. It's another thing when it directly impacts your character and how your character is responding to that person. And with the rom com brain, it isn't just someone in love with the idea of romance. It impacts a lot of us, and our storylines. It also impacts the look of the show, the music that Rob's chosen, so it's way more potent, and it lasts two episodes... That's one of the ones I really wanna see."


Returning Monday, February 26, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, iZombie stars Rose McIver, Rahul Koli, Malcolm Goodwin, Robert Buckley, David Anders, Aly Michalka, and Robert Knepper.