"We Used to Be Friends" Re-Watch: "Silence of the Lamb" & "Clash of the Tritons"

 Veronica Mars

We are at the midway point of this first season of "Veronica Mars" and things are heating up in the Lilly Kane investigation. Let's get to it.

"Silence of the Lamb"

Sheriff Don Lamb: "Is your daddy here, or is he busy peeking in people's windows?"

Veronica Mars: "You stop dressing up like Little Bo Peep, he'll stop peeking."

Veronica becomes extremely popular amongst her classmates when she begins performing background checks on her classmates' parents. This causes trouble for her friend, Mac, when she learns that she was switched at birth with rich annoying classmate, Madison Sinclair. Meanwhile, Keith is working with Sheriff Lamb when the E-String Strangler re-appears and Veronica uses her newfound access to the sheriff's office to investigate more into Lilly's murder.

Veronica making friends.

The last episode ended on a pretty major cliffhanger. Aaron Echolls being stabbed at his holiday party by a woman he'd been having an affair with. A pretty major cliffhanger that is not mentioned here at all. The reason for that is that this episode was originally scheduled to air prior to the last one, but they thought that the previous episode would make a better final episode prior to the winter break. And, they were right, but because of that, its still Christmas in Neptune and there is no mention of the stabbing.

The episode introduces Deputy Leo D'Amato played by Max Greenfield of "New Girl" fame. Leo is immediately smitten with Veronica and flirts with her. Veronica uses this to her advantage. Weevil helps distract Leo so Veronica can break in to the evidence room and steal the recording of the tip that put Abel Koontz away. Kristen Bell and Max Greenfield have an astounding amount of chemistry and you can see that Leo has punctured Veronica's shields. It's especially apparent when Keith finds Veronica watching Leo's band practice. This is another example of how Veronica's tendency to use people bite her in the butt. She realizes that she does really like him, but it seems like their potential romance ends before it has a chance to begin when he gets suspended for the evidence room debacle.

I can appreciate the show trying to give Keith his own storylines and cases that don't involve Veronica, but I think it works best when Keith's case somewhat parallels what Veronica is working on and I'm not sure the E-String Strangler case does that. The E-String Strangler was a serial killer that was thought to have been put away when Keith was sheriff even though he had his doubts. Those doubts seem to come true when two girls are killed in a similar fashion. The mayor brings Keith in to assist Sheriff Lamb.

This goes just about as well as you would think it would. Lamb is a buffoon and Keith spends most of the episode dressing him down and in the end is the one that uncovers the actual killer, the tool from the guitar store from the beginning of the episode. We do get another "before they were famous" guest role with "Breaking Bad"s Aaron Paul as a Joe Francis style scuzzball who videotapes drunk college girls flashing the camera for a "Girls Gone Wild" rip off called "Girls Gone Bad."

Tina Majorino returns as computer whiz, Mac, who initially wants to help Veronica really make the most out of her background check biz. When Veronica tables that, she asks Veronica to look into her. Mac's parents background check reveals a $1 million dollar settlement from Neptune General Hospital. Veronica learns that Mac was switched at birth with Neptune High queen bitch Madison Sinclair. This is some heavy stuff. I remember when I first watched this episode I couldn't believe that was the plot. I really enjoy how there is no tidy resolution here. Mac sees everything she could have had and there's nothing she can do. The moments between Mac and her biological mother are both touching and heart wrenching. The actress who plays Mrs. Sinclair is really great. You see the exact moment where she realizes who Mac is.

In Lilly Kane murder case news, with Mac's help, Veronica learns that it was Kane Software head of security, Clarence Wiedman, who called in the tip that led to Abel Koontz's arrest. Veronica gets him back with some surveillance photos of her own which I'm sure he'll take in stride.

Grade: B+

"Clash of the Tritons"

Veronica Mars: [surprised by her dad after being arrested] "Hi, Dad. Their case is fuzzy and circumstantial."

Keith Mars: [looking at Cliff with a laugh] "You know the odd thing? Those were also her very first words."

Veronica is accused of making and distributing fake IDs to the student populace. And when a student almost drinks himself to death because of the ID, it's more important than ever that Veronica clear her name. It seems like the culprits are a secret society on campus called the Tritons, but there could be more than meets the eye. Keith's ex and Veronica's guidance counselor, Rebecca James, is talking to all the kids who were impacted by Lilly's death with Veronica listening in to potentially glean some clues. And when Aaron Echolls hires Keith to find out who is selling stories to the tabloids but this investigation could lead to more tragedy for the Echolls family.

Perp walk.

One of the things I love about "Veronica Mars" is how the show zigs when you think its going to zag. It gives you what feels like a pretty standard episode and throws in a doozy of a twist at the end. That's what happens with "Clash of the Tritons." 

Aaron hiring Keith to track down whomever is leaking these stories to the tabloids feels like a C story that will end up meaning nothing. And it kind of is until the very end. I definitely thought that it was going to turn out to be Logan when I first watched this episode, but I was pretty shocked when it turned out to be Lynn. Lynn and Aaron have a fight right before their meeting to discuss Logan's behavior at school. And it just becomes clearer and clearer why Logan is the way he is. Lynn disengages and takes off but not before taking some pills. The episode ends with news footage of her abandoned sports car on the bridge and the intimation that she jumped. That's big and it's just more bad news for Logan. It's a shock and it is a great example to never count out even the most inconsequential plot on "Veronica Mars."

We've talked about it before but I love how the show doesn't shy away from Veronica doing things that are both unlikable and extremely messed up. Take her bugging and then listening in to her classmates and close friends grief counseling sessions with Rebecca James. These are so private and it is incredibly skeevy and disconcerting that Veronica is listening to them. Sure you can make the argument that Veronica is listening in for the greater good, but if none of these people killed Lilly, then she just really grossly invaded people she cares about's privacy for no reason and it's not a great look either way.

Since we are talking about Veronica blithely violating her classmates trust and privacy, we will do our Lilly Kane case check in now. Veronica does learn some things listening to these sessions. She learns that Weevil and Lilly were a thing and that Weevil thought that he could have potentially been in love with Lilly. This makes Veronica wonder if maybe Weevil was the big secret that Lilly was going to tell her. She learns that Duncan is on various medications for various conditions and he doesn't remember the day Lilly died or the three days after. And finally, she learns that Logan blames her for Lilly's death. It turns out Veronica ratted Logan out to Lilly when she saw him kissing another girl. Logan believes that if Veronica hadn't done that then maybe Lilly would have been with him the night she died and she could still be alive. The plot thickens with old Logan.

The Neptune High secret society plot line and the fake IDs is kind of a dud. It's pretty obvious from the jump that Rick is the culprit and the reveal he framed Veronica because of Keith taking down his dad for embezzlement doesn't hit as hard as they thought it was going to. This plot could have been saved if the episode had had anything revelatory to say about secret societies and their inherent sexism and classism but nope. And the Tritons were completely clean in the plot to frame Veronica so its hard to see the point of it all.

The only good thing about this plot is that because of it we are treated to Kristen Bell doing a delightful karaoke version of Blondie's "One Way or Another." It was only a matter of time before the show had Bell sing and this was a great way to make that happen.

Grade: B

Next up, Keith and Veronica search for a hip hop moguls missing daughter and the Mars' team finds themselves on opposite sides when Keith starts investigating Veronica's favorite teacher.

What did you all think? RIP Lynn? Are you softening to Logan? Did I miss something with the whole Tritons plot? Was there more there? Let me know in the comments.