Lost in the Movies

Veronica Mars - "Show Me the Monkey" (season 3, episode 10)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on January 23, 2007/written by John Enbom & Robert Hull, story by Robert Hull; directed by Nick Marck): Despite the big ending of "Spit & Eggs," this follow-up slows things down. Six weeks have passed, and the Dean's death has been ruled a suicide but Mindy has her doubts. She frankly acknowledges that at issue is her life insurance payout but also tells Keith that Cyrus wouldn't have gone out like that. When Veronica hears the circumstances - a very cliched note on his computer screen - she's suspicious too; not only does it seem too bland for so colorful a character, it's the exact scenario she described in her "How to Plot to Perfect Murder" paper for Professor Landry's class. What clinches it for Keith though is, sure enough, that bottle of scotch Cyrus was saving for years. It's unopened. Veronica is mostly preoccupied with literal monkey business as some animals have been stolen from a school lab. Pauline Elliot (Linara Washington) is convinced that the animal rights collective P.H.A.T. kidnapped "#24", as he's known (the scientists don't name their test subjects lest they get attached) but ultimately the culprit is her own partner Gil Thomas Pardy (Eric Jungmann) who grew attached and couldn't bear to kill the little creature. Veronica decides to cover for Gil, although she's troubled to hear that it only takes six days for "another one" to arrive. On a more upbeat note, Parker encourages Veronica and Mac to get out there and meet guys with her. Mac lands Bronson Pope (Michael Mitchell), the leader of P.H.A.T. (a group she and Veronica prove themselves to by tricking a right-winger country singer - originally to be played by Ted Nugent!! - into wearing a "Meat is Murder" t-shirt). As for Veronica, after a pep talk from Piz in which they agree about pursuing what you want, she ends up with...Logan.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "Spit & Eggs" (season 3, episode 9)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 28, 2006/written & directed by Rob Thomas): Where to begin? "Spit & Eggs" reveals the result of Veronica's serial rape investigation, sets up an entirely new mystery arc, dives into the fraught tension between the Greek system and its opponents on campus, centers the simultaneous collapse of Dean O'Dell's personal and professional lives, and resolves - if that's the right word - Logan's and Veronica's relationship crisis. Let's take the last first; after a few days of tension, Logan tells Veronica he's been doing a lot of thinking. Things aren't going well between them because they have such different needs and neither one is going to change. Veronica always needs to be the star of her own show (literal or otherwise) and Logan doesn't want to be on the sidelines. Logan is distressed to be delivering this recognition but understands that sharp, immediate pain is better than something far more devastating if they cling to each other for longer. Veronica is stunned but seems, initially, unflustered. It takes hours for the full weight of the break-up to make her break down. From here on, for now, she'll be going it alone. Sort of.


Veronica Mars - "Lord of the Pi's" (season 3, episode 8)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 21, 2006/written by Diane Ruggiero; directed by Steve Gomer): Generally a lighter episode than the previous one, "Lord of the Pi's" ends with a bombshell...maybe two. Until then the focus is on two mysteries and a relationship crisis. The lately divergent Mars squad teams up for a cheeky caper involving a trustee who's about to vote on banning Greek life from the school. One of Hearst College's primary benefactors, descendant of the powerful family whose bequeathed the institution their name, she is a wealthy heiress who achieved political notoriety in the seventies...no, no, of course it's not Patty Hearst! This is a fictional character named Selma Hearst Rose. And she is played by...um, Patty Hearst (just in case you thought Paris Hilton was the most infamous real-life heiress this show could summon forth as a guest star). In an unapologetic homage to The Big Lebowski, including at least one directly quoted and re-staged scene, Selma's wheelchair-confined husband Budd Rose (Charles Shaughnessy) - serviced by an overly devoted sycophantic assistant named Brant (Brian Kimmet) - plots her fake kidnapping. Keith and Veronica, discovering that she's being blackmailed for having an affair with her dog-walker Hallie Piatt (Keri Lynn Pratt), whom we met in the sorority episode, help her turn the tables in clever fashion. Budd will not be able to financially exploit her in their divorce nor put through a corporate deal she opposes.

Veronica's solo investigation explores why Chip Diller (David Tom) was found lying nearly naked on the quad, his head shaved, sodomized by an egg with mysterious Roman numerals. When Veronica realizes the numbers form a date, she looks up the campus newspaper and discovers that three years earlier, freshman pledge Patrice Pitrelli "fell" off the roof of the sorority. In fact, she walked off, deep in despair because of how the sorority sisters and fraternity brothers tormented her, drawing on her body in permanent marker and mocking her for weeks afterwards. It all comes together for Veronica when she discovers Claire was a pledge that year: her "Lilith House" crew has been staging up the "rapes" (which have not provided any forensic evidence) - or at least they don't deny it when Veronica confronts them. They wanted revenge on the Sigma Pi for what they did to Patrice, who now resides in a mental health facility, and this is their elaborate plan to get them booted from campus. That's bombshell #1 although it remains officially unconfirmed. Bombshell #2, although it's more of a ticking time bomb right now, involves Logan and Veronica. Worried sick about her safety, he demands that she step away from the rape cases (she of course refuses) and then he hires a hulking bodyguard to keep an eye on her. Infuriated, she demands that he stop acting like this but he claims they are who they are and can't change each other. They both profess their love for each other, embrace, and assert that they're okay now, but when Logan calls Veronica at the end of the episode she decides not to answer...not knowing that he's standing close by, watching her, his heart sinking as the truth sinks in: this thing that means so much to both of them is probably not going to make it.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "Of Vice and Men" (season 3, episode 7)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 14, 2006/written by Phil Klemmer; directed by Harry Winer): Veronica is feeling betrayed by the men in her life. Her boyfriend refuses to provide his and Mercer's alibi for the night of one of the rapes, and then finally admits that they burned down a hotel in Mexico and ran away without waiting to see if everyone was okay (Veronica, as it turns out, doesn't need this explanation; Mercer is cleared by the logs of his radio show.) She's seen her would-be-mentor heading to the Dean's wife's hotel room with a bottle of champagne, and now he's apparently trying to buy her off by hooking her up with a summer internship at the FBI. And her father is carrying on an affair with a married client, and when she confronts him he offers every lame rationalization that they've heard a million times from the other side. Actually, Keith gets to hear it from both sides in this episode because Vinnie shows up with an envelope of photos; he's been hired by Harmony's husband to prove she's having an affair. He offers to destroy the evidence for $4000, double what Mr. Chase would pay him for it and Keith resigns himself to the cost and breaks up with Harmony as much due to Veronica's admonition as Vinnie's blackmail. Actually, Vinnie shows up with two requests - the first is that Keith tell him where Kendall is hiding, so that they can split the Fitzpatricks' money (although the clan also wants to know where Keith is keeping what she paid him). Keith denies any knowledge, but Vinnie and the Fitzpatricks intersect with the Mars clan elsewhere in "Of Vice and Men" when Veronica, quite against her will, ends up back in the River Stix bar. Liam torments Veronica, lifting and swinging her around from behind, until Vinnie pretends to drunkenly take and text a photo to Keith, forcing Liam to back off.

Veronica is there to help Meryl (Amanda Walsh), an out-of-towner checking up on her absentee boyfriend Sully (Michael Grant Terry). All the evidence suggests that he is cheating and purposefully avoiding her to facilitate a break-up, but in fact he was just taking advantage of the Fitzpatricks when he stumbled drunkenly into the wrong bar the other night and wound up sleeping it off in jail. Meryl never doubts him - even preferring to believe he was on the run with a top-secret space laser rather than the more obvious answer. When Veronica apologizes for assuming the worst, Meryl forgives her by noting "If I'd never been in love, I wouldn't have believed it either" which is certainly chastening. Before she can reconcile with Logan, however, Veronica takes a routine trip to the cafeteria and discovers a hair in her food. When she exchanges the dish, the camera lingers ominously on her soda, and when she returns to takes prominent sips, well...we know what's coming. She begins to hallucinate, recognizes the feeling from the first time she was given GHB, and stumbles into a parking garage before collapsing when she sees a black-clad figure approaching. With barely enough time to activate her car alarm, and with the extreme good fortune for Logan to be randomly passing by, she is saved before the would-be rapist can do more than clip a few locks of hair. She ends the episode back at the Mars homestead (she'd been staying in Wallace's room for a few days), with Keith and Logan taking care of her.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "Hi, Infidelity" (season 3, episode 6)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on November 7, 2006/written by John Enbom; directed by Michael Fields): The lingering question at the end of the previous episode is dealt with right away: Claire lied to create a rape hoax, Veronica has proof, Claire is expelled. And Nish - who is removed as editor of the school newspaper for declining to publish Veronica's report - is none to happy about any of this. For that matter, neither is Veronica, even if she's convinced justice has been served. Her investigation of the Parker incident, however, continues; Parker recognizes the cologne of Mercer Hayes (Ryan Devlin), the guy who runs the student casino, and when Veronica infiltrates his room, she finds clippers. And for once, Lamb doesn't give her grief when she comes to him with information...he recalls that mixed in with the cash stolen from Mercer in the previous episode were samples of a date rape drug (the same that both Veronica and Duncan drank at the infamous Casablancas party). Only one person seems to disbelieve Mercer's guilt: Logan, who informs Veronica that he was with Mercer when the crime supposedly occurred...but he can't tell Veronica what they were doing together. Once again, an episode ends with a cliffhanger.

Veronica is mostly consumed with her own personal problem throughout "Hi, Infidelity": highlighted as the star pupil by Professor Landry, who wants to become her mentor, she's framed for plagiarism. Sleuthing through school and hotel alike she finally realizes the name used on the email belongs to the professor's alias. He stays in the hotel a few times a month as "Rory Finch" with various women - the latest being the Dean's wife - and it turns out that jealous and/or concerned T.A. Tim set up this little mystery to warn Veronica of what his own former mentor was really like before she replaces him as protegee. Should she be grateful? Wallace's storyline turns out to be less minor than it originally seemed: he chooses his desired career of mechanical engineering over basketball when increased study time cuts into his readiness for practice, taking the season off from sports so he can pursue his dream despite the professor's admonition that he's not cut out for this work (he and Veronica have an alternately heartfelt and amusing interaction around this dilemma). Keith meanwhile lends the episode its title by nervously socializing with Harmony, his client from a few episodes back, while her husband is out of town. They attend a noir festival and sip martinis in the hotel lobby but when she outright tells him that she got a room, he leaves. Then he gets into a (genuinely shocking) accident. He laughs with amazement at being alive, at the fact that had he said yes to Harmony he wouldn't have nearly died, at the randomness of the universe, or perhaps at all of the above. And he returns to Harmony's room, passionately kissing her the moment she opens the door.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "President Evil" (season 3, episode 5)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on October 31, 2006/written by Jonathan Moskin & David Mulei; directed by Nick Marck): The off-campus culture of Neptune bleeds into Veronica's Hearst case of the week, while a prominent character from the college becomes the focus of Keith's work in "President Evil." Having helped Weevil get a job at her school, Veronica also uses him as part of a class project to analyze how socioeconomic factors can draw someone into a life of crime. He mentions that the gang life still appeals to him, although he's trying to live straight; walking out together after the bell, he and Veronica discuss the dorm room "casino" she's accompanying Logan to on Halloween and he notices that Veronica is wearing Lilly's necklace. So when the casino is robbed and Veronica's necklace is stolen by two masked, gun-wielding men, one of whom shares Weevil's stature and has drywall dust on his shoulders (signifying that he's spent time in the area where Weevil is working)...who is she going to suspect? Lamb arrests Weevil based on his own evidence - he received a pizza delivery ordered on one of the stolen cards - and Weevil is stung by Veronica's distrust. Eventually she discovers the real culprits are campus police (Blake Shields and David J. Lee), who stole props and costumes from the film department and tried to frame the new employee with a criminal record. Veronica even discovers her necklace on the cop's smart-mouthed little daughter (Rachel Rogers), and she rips it off of her in a hilariously abrupt and wonderfully played gesture.

Keith is preoccupied with the Hearst Dean's request for help; he even converts his investigative office into a faux-casting studio to lure Steven Batando (Richard Grieco), a voice actor, into a meeting with Dean O'Dell and his wife Mindy (Jaime Ray Newman), whose son (Sean Rose) needs bone marrow that only his deadbeat birth father can provide. Steven refuses and so the O'Dells kidnap him, leading Keith on a wild goose chase to Mexico and back, buying time for the operation to proceed. Steven is paid off handsomely for enduring their violation and Keith is convinced to keep quiet so the boy can live ("What would you do if it was Veronica?" the Dean pleads). Wallace gets his own fairly minor side story, in which he struggles in his mechanical engineering class. His new buddy Mason (Robert Ri'chard) convinces him to cheat by buying a copy of the test, only to get "Busted" as the Isley Brothers croon on the soundtrack (juxtaposing various comeuppances across the episode climax). As for Veronica's primary investigation, it stalls as she waits to identify the Asian man standing behind Claire in the ATM photo, even looking into the summer camp logo on his shirt. Claire says she doesn't recognize him, but when Veronica tracks down his house at the end of the episode she's told that he's Claire's boyfriend. The plot thickens but we won't know how or why until next time.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "Charlie Don't Surf" (season 3, episode 4)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on October 24, 2006/written by Diane Ruggiero & John Enbom; directed by Jason Bloom): Veronica reconciles with Parker, revealing her own past trauma, but the reconciliation doesn't last the episode. Soon after, Dick hilariously shows up at the Mars apartment in one of those delightful "oh yeah, we've never seen this character in this place"-type interactions that can only occur on a show we've been following for a few years. He's there to hand Veronica exactly what she's been looking for: an excuse to openly infiltrate the Pi Sigma fraternity, poking around to narrow down the who, where, and when of Claire's rape. Dick offers this opportunity in the belief that it will prove the brothers' innocence and Veronica is more skeptical (she justifies her role to Nish and Parker by claiming she's there to pin them down). Ultimately, she finds an ATM photo of Claire with a non-frat dude hours after the haunted house where the Pi Sigma brothers got their gropey hands caught in rat traps - so it looks like they weren't the culprits. Turning away from the cheerful guys, Veronica is confronted by "the Greek chorus of angry feminists," as she describes them, scowling beneath their shaved heads. She insists to Parker that finding the real rapist is the only path to true justice but most people feel like Veronica is taking sides in a culture war, not just asking questions.

Keith meanwhile has a fairly routine "cheating spouse" case onhand; old acquaintance Harmony Chase (Laura San Giacomo) hires him to spy on her husband, explaining that their marriage is loveless but she needs a real reason for divorce and he's been acting strange lately. Keith does eventually spot him embracing a woman, but surveillance shows that he rejects her approach and does not want to have an affair. This is as hard a pill to swallow for Keith as for Harmony, because this investigation isn't so routine after all...it's clear that both are very attracted to one another and perhaps looking for any rationale to start their own affair. Instead, Harmony walks out of the Mars office with a look of embarrassment and Keith watches her go with a sense of regret. No one, however, feels more regret than Logan. Early on, we see a family dinner involving Keith and Logan, overseen by an amusingly high-strung Veronica who tries to mediate the conversation as it quickly turns toward Aaron as well as Logan's possible upcoming appearance on Larry King. When Logan hires Keith to find out why his trust fund is drying up, Veronica digs a little deeper to discover that the "Aaron's Kids" charity, to which some of the funds are diverted, is literal: the money goes to Logan's unknown half-brother Charlie Stone, a schoolteacher. Logan quickly bonds with the long-lost "Charlie" (Matt Czhuchry) until Veronica reveals that this man is actually Norman Phipps, a Vanity Fair reporter looking for access to Logan. Blaming his real brother (Ryan Eggold) for throwing him under the bus, Logan blows his cover only to find out that this isn't true; Norman had Charlie's phone tapped. One last time, Logan leaves an apologetic voicemail for the missing Echolls with little expectation that it will be returned.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "Wichita Linebacker" (season 3, episode 3)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on October 17, 2006/written by Phil Klemmer & John Enbom; directed by Harry Winer): Veronica's is forced to put the Parker case on hold in "Wichita Linebacker" (neither Mac nor Parker appear) but its impact is still felt throughout. The episode is bookended by a school newspaper's coverage of a provocative feminist campaign ("Rape Me" the nude activists proclaim via handwritten signs) and another assault reported by one of their members (whom frat boy comedians jokingly threatened in the campus Lampoon). Veronica will probably be following up with Claire Nordhouse (Krista Kalmus) now that she's overheard the revelation on Piz's new radio show ("It's like Jon Stewart meets Crossfire," he declares, "if Jon Stewart didn't hate Crossfire"). Until then, however, she's preoccupied with four separate, ingeniously intersecting matters. Fallen football star Kurt Fenstermacher (Armie Hammer) lost his team's playbook and needs to make sure he doesn't lose his scholarship; Dean O'Dell (Ed Begley, Jr.) wants to expel Veronica if she doesn't turn in her sources on the pot story; Logan's partying, gambling, and traveling habits - but, mostly, female students' interest in him - encourage Veronica to break out her spy skills; and Weevil, who plea-bargained down from murder to assault, can stay out on parole as long as he holds a job...except, unfortunately, he can't hold a job.

Veronica's answer to that last issue is brilliant if risky. She convinces Keith to hire him as an assistant and Weevil proves a natural detective. Unfortunately he's also quick to intervene with fists when stealthy surveillance is preferred, so Keith has to let him go. In the end, though, Veronica gets Weevil to fix the dean's car (fake-vandalized by his son to cover up an accident and make it look like angry feminists did it), leading him to hire Weevil to a maintenance position and let Veronica off the hook. Her discovery of Logan at a makeshift blackjack table leads her to a gambler who (helped) steal Kurt's playbook although his too-zealous girlfriend Trish Vaughn (Lindsey McKeon) is the prime culprit. And Trish's sad epiphany - her obsession with helping Kurt get out of the team he hated led her too far - triggers Veronica's own circumspection as she decides not to bug Logan's car before he heads to Mexico and the two get all kissy in the library where Veronica now works at the information desk. With trouble on the horizon, these two at least have learned to settle down.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "My Big Fat Greek Rush Week" (season 3, episode 2)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on October 10, 2006/written by Diane Ruggiero; directed by John Kretchmer): Athough I noted last time that it doesn't quite fit the out-of-nowhere murder mystery mold of previous full-season storylines, so far Veronica's hunt for Parker's rapist (or rapists) is being treated as if it will be the ongoing case for season three. Certainly Veronica's episodic investigation stems from this: she goes undercover as a wannabe sorority girl for the school newspaper. Theta Beta has all the markings of precisely the sort of scene Veronica despises, but as she gets to know some of the girls, she sees beyond their prim-and-proper facade and beyond the party-hard image just below that surface. In fact, she learns one crucial detail - about the benevolent den mother Karen's (Mary Chris Wall's) cancer treatment - too late, after she's already photographed a room full of marijuana plants and handed these snapshots over to her editor Nish Sweeney (Chastity Dotson). Although she's able to warn the sorority quickly enough to destroy the evidence, she is deeply troubled by what she's done and thus ends her journalism career, over - she narrates for us - before it began. As for Parker, she's almost pressured into abandoned her college career before it began, but Mac sympathetically advises her to stick it out. After Parker's superficial buddy-buddy chatter in the premiere, the two begin to genuinely bond.

Wallace and Logan participate in a variation of the classic "prison guard" sociology experiment, which has - in reality - been decried as both abusive and poor science. Although on opposite sides, they are united both by their use of clever mind-tricks and their discomfort with the Lord of the Flies-esque sadistic relationship between Rafe and Samuel Horshack. Those two, by the way, are played by notable guest stars Rider Strong, of Boy Meets World, and Samm Levine, of Freaks and Geeks - switching roles from his domineering frat overlord in the also Judd Apatow-produced Undeclared a few years earlier. Meanwhile, Keith is able to escape through the desert as much by wit as perseverance, baiting Cormac with the bugged pen-cap and then slicing his leg with a hidden trap. Turns out Cormac was definitely not working with Liam, who shows up to gleefully execute his sibling now that Keith has helpfully set him up. Back in Neptune, Keith breaks down in Veronica's arms, realizing that he has screwed up. And we learn that what Kendall offered him in the season two finale was actually a highly valuable painting, not cold hard cash. He donates the proceeds of its sale to the South Neptune food bank rather than take it for himself. If anything can be salvaged from this bloody mess, it's that gift.

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "Welcome Wagon" (season 3, episode 1)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on October 3, 2006/written by Rob Thomas; directed by John Kretchmer): Veronica's college career kicks off satisfactorily: by resolving a mystery game in a record six minutes, she impresses her criminology Professor Hank Landry (Patrick Fabian) and stumps his pompous TA Tim Foyle (James Jordan, who - bizarrely - also played Lucky); she fools around with Logan, now her serious boyfriend once again; and she helps Wallace's roommate Piz (Chris Lowell), who clearly has a crush on the young sleuth, recover lost gear. His worldly possessions were stolen by a "Welcoming Committee" scam involving another criminology major - appropriately dubbed Donald Fagan (Josh Harto) - and the band of young ne'er-do-wells he was supposed to be mentoring. Some of the other incoming students don't fare quite as well. Mac is exhausted by the libidnal escapades of her roommate Parker Lee (Julie Gonzalo), Dick is a disaster veering between hitting on and getting beaten up by everyone in sight, and a women's movement on campus is protesting a rapist who shaves the heads of his victims, as well as the administration that isn't doing enough to stem the attacks or discover the perpetrator. The episode ends with Mac and Veronica being shocked by screams emanating from Mac's room: Parker, head shaven, appears to be the latest target. Does this particular incident have anything to do with Dick, whom we saw knocking on Parker's door a few nights ago and collapsing, weeping, in best friend/bitter enemy Logan's arms just last night?

Keith finds himself on the other side of the law as he assists a bail-jumper: Cormac is out of prison and reuniting with Kendall. The two lovers are planning a future on some tropical island with Kendall's millions and Keith has been happy to help them along the way thanks to the former Casablancas' generous payments. Before Keith left Neptune, Vinnie dropped by to annoy his erstwhile rival and occasional collaborator and only in the middle of the night, checking his car outside the lonely desert hideaway, does Keith realize he fell for the oldest trick in the book: Vinnie planted a pen-bug in his bag. Does this mean Vinnie is working for Liam and they are about to be attacked? In a whiplash-causing instant reversal, though, Keith races back inside to warn the runaway duo only to witness Cormac ruthlessly shooting down Kendall and turning the gun on Keith. Hiding behind a rock in the freezing cold night, it looks like Keith may have made as fatal a miscalculation as Kendall. Whether for his own greedy purposes, or on behalf of the Fitzpatrick family, Keith's passenger is determined to become his dispatcher. Will Vinnie come to the rescue in time?

My Response:

Veronica Mars - "Not Pictured" (season 2, episode 22)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on May 9, 2006/written by Rob Thomas, John Enbom from a story by Rob Thomas; directed by John Kretchmer): Veronica wakes up bright and early the morning of her graduation. She's headed for San Diego State, a reasonable, affordable, and relatively local option. Not too upsetting, not too exciting, just right...like everything else in her life, it seems. She has a pleasant breakfast with Mom and Dad (already in his sheriff's outfit for the day, chuckling about Deputy Lamb's degrading duties at the office). At school where she hangs out with her 09er crew - Duncan, Logan, and Dick, all smiles in their unworried lives - the only crisis she faces is a mix-up with her cap and gown. It seems the officials switched her outfit with another student's, so she meets up with this stranger Wallace Fennell to trade packages, their paths crossing ever so briefly before they carry on with their very different lives. And then Veronica sees one more friend, standing beside a fountain. It's Lilly, back from college! Laughing about her escapades, neither seems to have a care in the world. Well, maybe one or two. Why is this fountain called the "Lilly Kane Memorial Fountain"?! And why does it smell like bacon?

And with that, Veronica actually wakes up on the morning of graduation.

Veronica Mars - "Happy Go Lucky" (season 2, episode 21)


Welcome to my viewing diary for Veronica Mars. I will cover each TV episode (and eventually the film), several days a week; this will conclude just as the revival (which I will also cover) premieres on Hulu. I have never seen this series before so there will be NO spoilers.

Story (aired on May 2, 2006/written by Diane Ruggiero; directed by Steve Gomer): If it's truly darkest before dawn, then the next episode better open with a sunrise. This one opens with a school shooting and ends with a gut-punching acquital, and there's hardly a moment of relief or redemption in between, aside from the satisfaction in (probably) solving a big mystery (as long as an abstract answer and not, you know, actual justice is the primary concern). Even our most positive developments - Weevil acing his algebra exam so that his grandma can watch him graduate, and Lobo providing cover so that Terrence's charges will be dropped - are accompanied by offsetting factors, especially in the first case. It's unsurprising that Lobo is now impressing Terrence into indentured servitude to pay off his debt, and we expected Jackie to ditch Wallace as she jetted off to Paris (even if it looked like she was going to hang out in California a little longer than expected). But a couple kids coming out of nowhere to identify Weevil as a murderer? That's a harsh blow. Ultimately, perhaps the only, single, lonesome unqualified positive development of "Happy Go Lucky" is that it looks like Mac and Beaver (sorry, we're all supposed to call him Cassidy now, aren't we?) are back together. ...Yay?

As for the rest? Woody is a child molester who quite possibly bombed the bus to murder two of his former victims and is now on the lam. Lucky, Woody's third victim (and blackmailer) commits said school shooting, terrorizing the heroic Wallace who tackles him when he threatens Jackie, and is shot down by very real bullets; his own gun was loaded with blanks. Perhaps worst of all, though that's a tough call given the competition, the first season's ironclad resolution is miraculously undone. Aaron Echolls's jury registers a verdict of "not guilty" of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and - just to rub in the absurdity - even statutory rape. Guess Logan shouldn't have destroyed those tapes, huh? (If it wouldn't utterly undercut two full seasons of character development, one would have to wonder if Logan wasn't secretly working to vindicate his dad.) The snide defense attorney (John Prosky) doesn't just get his wealthy, flagrantly guilty client off, he does so by implicating Veronica as the grand conspirator, a jealous girl who blackmailed Aaron, manipulated ex-boyfriends into destroying evidence that would have exonerated him, and lied to everyone about Aaron's attempt to kill her. He even exposes her recent treatment for a symptomless STD, such a seemingly minor plot point in a previous episode that I forgot to mention it! Veronica says early on that she wants to be there in court (she even skips a scholarship-confirming final after receiving a text that the verdict is in) so she can see the jury wipe that smirk off Aaron's face once and for all. Instead, she gets to watch the man who murdered her best friend, and tried to murder her, walk out of court a free man. If her previous episode-ending expression (thanks to a younger Echolls), was pretty devastating, it was just practice for this one.

My Response:

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