Veronica Mars
We are heading towards the first season finale and with that we are getting a renewed focus on the Lilly Kane murder conversation. Let's get into it.
"Kane's and Abel's"
Keith Mars: "Guess who stopped by today?"
Veronica Mars: "If you say Josh Hartnett, I'm going to be so bummed."
Keith Mars: "Clarence Wiedman. He's the head of security for Kane Software. And for an hour after he left I sat here wondering, what did I stumble on that has them so rattled that they'd send over their top guy. I wasn't sure what it was, but I was proud. Clearly I was making them nervous. Then it occurred to me, I didn't stumble on anything. I haven't touched the case in months. Nope, I'm not scaring the Kane's, my seventeen-year-old daughter is."
Veronica brings Abel Koontz's daughter, Amelia Delongpre, to Neptune to try to get her to send her the settlement papers from Kane Software. Veronica leaves out some details about Abel, including that he is dying. She's also trying to stay one step ahed of Clarence Wiedman. In the meantime, Veronica is trying to figure out who is harassing Sabrina Fuller and study for midterms.
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| A polite B & E. |
This episode introduces us to a classic "Veronica Mars" character, fellow Neptune private investigator, Vincent "Vinnie" Van Lowe, played by Ken Marino. Vinnie is like the mirror universe version of Keith Mars. He has zero scruples. A woman comes to Mars Investigations to try to get Kieth to set her husband up for cheating and Keith, of course, won't do it, but Vinnie definitely will. Ken Marino is great playing these kinds of smarmy characters. One of my favorite moments in the entirety of "Veronica Mars" is when Vinnie is singing "Private Eyes" by Hall and Oates into the bugged pen Veronica meant for him to find out the window and adding in her name. Throw in the hip thrusts and the smacking of his own ass and i twill never not make me laugh. And whenever I think of the show I definitely sing Vinnie's version of "Private Eyes" in my head.
We are about six episodes from the season finale so it makes sense that the majority of this episode would put a renewed focus on Lilly's murder. We meet Abel Koontz's daughter in this episode. We learn a bit more about Abel through Amelia and how being shut out of the streaming video patent affected him and their family. He would hole up in his room and try to figure out a new idea. When his wife spilled coffee on them, he backhanded her and that was the end of their relationship. I think they really try to make Amelia a fully fleshed out character but its tough because she is definitely a means to an end here. It's difficult to feel bad for her when Veronica is keeping her terminal illness from her. And, with so many episodes still left, you know that Clarence is going to catch up to her in the end and from the moment she says she's only going to take calls on her phone from her boyfriend, you know he's going to be the reason why.
This plotline really is successful in bringing the Mars's together in the Lilly Kane investigation. The whole time I'm watching Veronica trying to help Amelia, I just kept thinking, why aren't you telling Keith about this? So, after Clarence's "break-in" at the Mars house, I was glad to see them finally working together, even if it was too late. Veronica also learns from Keith that on the night of Lilly's murder, the Kane's were doing laundry and Keith found Duncan's soccer uniform in the dryer.
Veronica takes a deep dive in to the Kane's when she's invited to their home for a scholastic achievement dinner. We get the return of Lilly's ghost. I love Amanda Seyfried and she's great as Lilly but like, I don't think I really need these ghostly visions of her complete with giant head wound. As Veronica stands at the place where her best friend was found dead, Veronica imagines scenarios in which each of the Kane's murdered Lilly. Another thing I didn't really need was watching Lilly get killed multiple times by her family. It just seemed unnecessary.
Logan finds Veronica's laptop open with her virtual murder board on display. Veronica is ready for Logan to freak out but he's surprisingly chill and he ends up giving her some information. The week Veronica and Duncan broke up, Logan walked in on Duncan choking Jake out. Duncan went limp in middle of all this and seemingly woke up with no knowledge of what happened. They never talked about it. They are definitely pushing the Duncan killed Lilly theory hard, so we all know that it is most likely a red herring. I don't love this mental illness as motive for murder thing. But I am enjoying the softening of Logan which is continuing in this episode.
The case of the week feels a little unnecessary. I think it would have been totally fine for this episode to just focus on the investigation into Lilly's murder and they could have found a way to introduce Vinnie within that context. I'm not sure this B-plot really adds much to the episode. The reveal that the second place senior's dad hired Vinnie to harass Sabrina to give his son a hand up is kind of sweet, but its sad because it ends up screwing his son. It's just another example of how the rich suck, which this show has already shown us time and time again.
Grade: B
"Weapons of Class Destruction"
Wallace Fennell: "Uh, he's not... groping her or anything, is he?"
Veronica Mars: "No, but earlier I saw him cutting a hole in the bottom of his popcorn bucket."
A rash of bomb threats is shaking Neptune High. After breaking the story for the school paper, Veronica starts investigating who could be behind the threats and quickly zeroes in on two suspects. She's also dealing with Duncan learning about her investigation and his mental illnesses. At the same time, she and Wallace are trying to come to grips with the fact that their parents have started dating.
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| A certified hottie. Like JTT. |
I'm just going to go ahead and star with the biggest thing that happens in this episode. Veronica and Logan kiss for the first time. After Logan shows up to rescue her from Ben, the ATF agent in disguise, she gives him a chaste kiss on the lips. That evolves into a passionate make out session that lasts for quite a while and is pretty hot. They break the embrace and Veronica immediately flees the scene, which is understandable. I'd do the same if I were you, gal.
It's crazy to see how far the character of Logan has come in such a short amount of time. It wasn't that long ago that Logan was basically a psychopath who was routinely threatening violence against our plucky main character. It's a testament to the show and to the writers that they have evolved Logan into a character that you sympathize with and you actually are rooting for these crazy kids to work it out. Not me, to be clear. I've never been a huge fan of the Veronica/Logan romance, but I get that a lot of people like it. I have always rooted for her and Deputy Leo. And how could I not? Look how adorable they are in the cold open of this episode?
"Veronica Mars" keeps being the place to catch the grown-up teen stars of "Home Improvement." We've had Zachary Ty Bryan show up twice as douche-y athlete, Caz Truman and now we get Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I would have loved for them to cross paths in this episode. Just once. Alas, it was not to be. I remember watching this and thinking that this character was just a thinly veiled caricature of a troubled high school student on the verge of committing violence. It was kind of refreshing to learn that he is actually an ATF agent using his youthful appearance to do undercover work. It's a commentary on actors in their twenties routinely playing high school students and I'm here for it.
For me, this teenage bomb threat storyline falls a little bit flat. It feels like the writers wanted to tell a potential school shooter storyline but settled for bomb threat instead. I get not wanting to take it that far but the threat is definitely coded as school shooter from the killemall.net website to the main suspect obsessed with weapons. "Veronica Mars" loves a red herring don't they? I think we all know by now that the most obvious suspect is never going to be the actual villain. So, even though all signs are pointing to Norris, who Ben is defending, it's pretty clear that he is not actually the culprit.
There are a couple of things that really bug me when it comes to the denouement of this episode. The first is Ben's framing of Norris to keep his stellar arrest record intact. It seems silly and stupid to frame Norris with the same fertilizer and gun that Veronica saw him with and took pictures of. Come on, dude. I thought you were supposed to be this super competent ATF agent. This is not reflecting that. Then, there is the reveal that Pete is the one making the threats and framing Norris because of bullying that happened consistently in his younger years. This may be an unpopular opinion, but like, yeah, this kid was treated poorly but its not an excuse for what he's doing. And its definitely played that way. And I just don't think we needed a sympathetic back story for this kid.
We also get a journalistic integrity subplot in this episode. Joey Lauren Adams of "Chasing Amy" fan shows up as Ms Stoddard the replacement newspaper advisor. She's taken over for the pregnant, Ms. Dent, and was apparently the former pep squad advisor. It's clear she's been given a directive from VP Clemmons to take the paper in a more frothy direction. But, when Veronica comes to her with the bomb threat and a credible source, she publishes the story. And despite the condescending dressing down she gets from Clemmons. And she publishes the story about the ATF agent framing Norris to exonerate even though it gets her fired. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love stories about the power of the press, but it does feel a little shoe horned in.
Finally, in our Lilly Kane case update, Duncan finds out from Logan about Veronica's investigation. And when she admits that she knows about his blackouts, he freaks out on her and it doesn't look great. At the end of the episode, Meg comes to Veronica because Duncan has withdrawn $10,000 from the bank and disappeared.
Grade: B
Next up, Veronica goes looking for missing pets and learns something terrible about the night she was assaulted.
What did you all think? If you haven't watched, do you have any theories about who killed Lilly Kane? Does the show have two many red herrings? Are you a Vinnie Van Lowe fan? Let me know in the comments.
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