Veronica Mars
We've drifted away from the Lilly Kane murder investigation the past couple of episodes but it's fully steam ahead. Let's get to it.
"You Think You Know Somebody"
Weevil: "Baby, I'll buy you a piñata."
Veronica: "Will you buy me a piñata full of steroids?"
After a wild night in Tijuana, Troy, Logan and their friend, Luke, stop at a diner. When they go to leave they find that Troy's dad's BMW was stolen. Troy is concerned his father will ship him to Catholic school when he finds out so Veronica agrees to help look for it. Things get even trickier when Luke reveals there was a piñata full of steroids in the backseat. Veronica learns that Keith is dating her guidance counselor, Rebecca James, and even though she says she's fine with, she definitely isn't.
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| The Three Stooges |
You had to know that Troy Vandegraff was too good to be true. I honestly thought he'd last a few more episodes, but he shows Veronica his true colors in this episode. The show sort of has always taught you to be weary of Troy. Sure he's a handsome, rich, charming boy who seemingly really cares about Veronica, but look at all the rich boys we've met so far. Also, he hangs out with Logan. Why would you want to hang around a dude who was being a psychopath to the girl that you were trying to date? And go to Tijuana with him. I mean, I guess teenage boys are the worst, but even so. This just seems odd.
Sometimes the mystery that Veronica investigates throughout the course of the episode can be one note or very predictable, but this one is just twisty enough, with just enough red herrings thrown in to keep the viewer guessing. The show is really firing on all cylinders. From the beginning of the case there are twists. There is the piñata. The fact it isn't full of drugs when Veronica finds it. The dog with the cars locator on its collar. It zigs when you think it's going to zag and that is always fun.
It shows us a Veronica that is fallible. We are used to seeing Veronica get the job down on her own without really relying on her dad. When she visits Beacon Security, it looks she is going to be able to use her feminine wiles to get what she wants but that all goes down the drain when the guys female supervisor catches wind of what she's trying to do. It's Keith that comes to the rescue and basically bullies the woman into giving him the information that she wants.
We see tension between Keith and Veronica, which we aren't used to. Veronica finds out that Keith is dating her guidance counselor, Rebecca James. Veronica initially says that she is fine with Keith dating Rebecca, but it becomes very clear that she is not and even though they both do everything they can to make Veronica feel comfortable she continues to act like a brat. She runs a background check and tries to reveal things that Keith already knows. A lot of this, I'm sure, has to do with the fact that Veronica learns that part of the reason her mom left is because she got pictures of Veronica with a target on her face. But she doesn't tell Keith any of this. Keith returns the favor by running the background check on Troy and breaking up with Rebecca. It's not a great look for Veronica and it makes her a little unlikeable which is a bold move.
The end of the episode has all the pieces falling together. Veronica finds out that Troy knew about the steroids all along and hid them in the diner bathroom ceiling and was going to use them and his dad's stolen car to start a new life in Mexico with his old girlfriend, Shauna. Veronica foils this by replacing the drug package with candy and gets the drug supplier stopped and arrested at the border. It's not a shock that Troy turned out to be a douchebag because "Veronica Mars" has taught us that rich kids are the devil, but it's still a bummer to see yet another person Veronica trusted turn out to be a shit person.
At the end of the episode, we see that one of the prepaid phones that Veronica sent out has reached Lianne and she calls Veronica to let her know that she loves and misses her and that there is a good reason why she left she will eventually reveal to Veronica.
Grade: A-
"Return of the Kane"
Veronica Mars: "Why are you here?"
Lilly Kane: "Don't you watch any horror movies? My soul is doomed to walk the earth until justice is served."
Veronica Mars: "Really?"
Lilly Kane: "Yeah, that and, as kind of a side project, I dispense fashion advice."
Veronica gets involved in school politics when she believes that the school president election was rigged in favor of Duncan when he wins over the far more popular, non wealthy candidate, Wanda Varner. During the investigation, Veronica learns that Wanda might not be the person she's portraying herself to be. We learn more about Logan's relationship with his movie star dad, Aaron Echolls, and... it's not great. Veronica and Keith uncover a major clue in the Lilly Kane murder investigation.
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| Simpler times. |
This is a jam packed episode that has a lot of moving parts and moves a lot of things forward. There are three major plots, so let's look at each one individually starting with our case of the week which is the potential election fraud happening at Neptune High. Man, if there is one thing this show likes to do, it's to show Veronica that she really can't trust anyone. Wanda Varner seems like just the type of person that Veronica would champion. She's one of the everyday kids and is running for president to abolish the elitist "pirates points" system that favors the rich kids. Veronica is quick to get involved when she realizes that something fishy is going on with the election results. She gets a run-off election going. She even makes new campaign signs with Wanda. She consoles her when "NARC" starts being written on her posters. But when Weevil tell Veronica that Felix got busted for stealing signs shortly after dating Wanda something pings inside her. She tells Wanda she knows how to get "E" and shortly after has her locker searched confirming that Wanda is indeed a narc. Wanda has a reason for doing what she's doing but it's little consolation to Veronica. And it's another punch to the gut trust wise, especially after the last episode.
We get a pre-"Glee" Jane Lynch guest starring in this episode as Mrs. Donaldson. She's a horrible teacher who clearly has a bias towards the '09'ers. I don't know if it's because she is playing a teacher but I am getting less intense Sue Sylvester vibes here. I know I've had little good to say about Ms Dent, but Mallory really earns her keep in this episode. When Mrs. Donaldson condescends to her, it just ups her resolve to help Veronica and you can kind of see Veronica's opinion of her teacher raise as she watches her talk with Mrs. Donaldson. We are introduced to Madison Sinclair, a rich awful girl who will be a thorn in Veronica's side periodically.
There is also some Duncan stuff that I couldn't care less about. Duncan is just so boring that it's hard to care about his family drama. I did like seeing Veronica call him on his bullshit. And it did seem to have an impact on him since he made his first act as president making pirate points more accessible to the majority of the student body. But it when comes to Duncan, it always is just a big shrug for me.
The show has sort of veered away from the Lilly Kane murder investigation the past couple of episodes, but things ramp up in this episode. After having a dream about Lilly, Veronica decides she has to do something. She opens her dad's safe and goes through her dad's files. Both Mars feel like the Kanes are the prime suspects, particularly after the red light camera revelation demolished their alibis. But it's a crime scene photo that really changes things up.
I am glad that Veronica and Keith drop the pretense and decide to work together on this. A crime scene photo reveals that the shoes that were supposedly found on Abel Koontz's houseboat, linking him to the murder, were actually in Lilly's room after her murder. Veronica is very familiar with them because she drew on them. The plot thickens.
Logan Echolls has just been a psychopathic jackass since this series began but this episode starts to humanize him a little bit and tries to get the audience to care about him. It starts off with a typical Logan scheme: organizing bum fights. Things take a turn when footage of this, featuring Logan heavily, makes its way on to The Smoking Gun website.
We meet Logan's parents, his action movie superstar dad, Aaron and his mother, Lynn played by real life married couple Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna. As a massive fan of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," I am even more obsessed with this casting than I was when the show originally aired. Harry Hamlin is perfect in this role. He oozes charm when Aaron is turned on but is able to switch over in an instant when Aaron menaces his son.
We see a flash of the violence that lives inside Aaron when Logan comes home after the bum fights become public. He sets up a photo op at a local homeless shelter but something shifts in Logan when he hears his dad take a phone call to make a shitty movie with a seven figure salary. While making his public apology, Logan goes off script announcing that his dad is going to make a $500,000 donation to the shelter. When Logan gets home, we see him picking out a belt and taking it to Aaron in his office. The door closes and we hear the sounds of the beating while Lynn sits outside the office, drink in hand.
This is really intense and I think the show really nails it. It definitely does what I think the show is trying to do. It humanizes Logan. You see him as a human being. You get a sense that, despite it all, Logan does have a moral compass and maybe there is a reason why he is the way he is. It's a good step in the right direction with his character development.
Grade: A-
Next up, Veronica gets involved when her pregnant neighbor goes missing and an online purity test wreaks havoc on Neptune High.
"Veronica Mars" is finding it's groove early in its first season which is great. What do you all think so far? Let me know in the comments.
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