Veronica Mars
We are getting close to the end of the season and you can tell as threads start to come together and we are getting more information on Lilly's death and what happened to Veronica at Shelly Pomeroy's party. Let's get to it.
"Hot Dogs"
Keith Mars: "Honey, do I need to recap my concerned-dad lectures?"
[He sits down in the seat Weevil had just occupied before leaving.]
Keith Mars: "No running with scissors. No candy from strangers. No smartening up the local criminal element."
Veronica helps a classmate when her beloved dog and only friend goes missing. Weevil is caught breaking in to the Kane household, in Lilly's room specifically. Trina gets in deep with her loser boyfriend and needs Aaron to bail her out. All the while, Veronica and Logan can't stop making out with each other.
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| This was Backup's episode. |
I love "Veronica Mars" but sometimes it goes a little off the rails. I think that a lot of time that it captures how teenagers act and talk and sometimes they get it wrong and this episode has an instance of where I feel they get it wrong. Take the character of Mandy. She feels like a straight up caricature. It was like writer Dayna Lynne North thought of every lonely, nerdy girl stereotype that she could and just used all of them for the character of Mandy. We meet her reading Judy Blume on a lonely night. Her only friend is her dog. She's barked at by the popular kids in school. That hairdo when she's at school the next day? The two small ponytails in front. Literally no one would ever do their hair that way on purpose. She's just a joke. To the point where I was definitely on Veronica's side when she laid in to Mandy for not sticking up for herself. Though, Mandy may have taken it a little too far when she tased the hell out of Hans.
This was another example of how the case of the week kind of took a backseat to everything else that was going on. It feels extremely superfluous. It got to the point where I would forget that this was even a plot point when it showed back up. It doesn't help that it isn't super original. Dogs are being stolen and only the ones with a large reward being offered are being returned. It is extremely obvious that the perpetrator is Hans and the other dude from Animal Control. I get that the shows conceit is Veronica Mars teen PI, but when the cases are this basic, maybe we can leave that part out sometimes.
Alyson Hannigan returns as Logan's fame hungry sister Trina and this time she's bringing an abusive boyfriend into the mix. It's revealed that Lynn left everything to Logan and when Trina finds this out she tries to get money from Logan, but he refuses. When she returns with a black eye and limping, Logan is ready to beat down the dude for his sister's honor. Things take a turn when Aaron gets involved. This episode really explores the cycle of violence in the Echolls household that started with Aaron being beaten as a child by his father who was also beating his mother. You would think that growing up this way would stop Aaron from perpetuating this cycle but he's continued it with his own son. Hearing Aaron talk about how his father put a cigarette out on his palm and knowing that he did the same to Logan is pretty disgusting. One of the scenes I remember the most from this episode is Aaron beating the absolute dog shit out of Dylan while "That's Amoré" plays. Aaron is psychotic and when Logan and Veronica stumble on the scene, Logan seems proud of his dad for doing what he had planned on doing. The violent solution is imprinted on Logan.
Veronica and Logan are keeping up with their awkward make out sessions. They aren't really talking about it, which seems to suit them both fine. This new coupling sadly means that Veronica has to break up with the charming and handsome Deputy Leo. I am not a huge fan of pushing characters together on shows, particularly when the options are dude like Duncan and Logan. But Leo is such a good dude that I hate seeing Veronica break his heart. I do appreciate that she is up front with him and does admit that she is a train wreck because she really is.
Duncan is still MIA. Celeste shows up at Mars Investigations to accost Veronica. And to say that she doesn't hate Veronica just hates looking at her because Veronica reminds Celeste of her husbands infidelity. I mean, suck it up Celeste. Celeste Kane may be the character I hate the most on this show. This altercation does lead Keith to do the same DNA test that Veronica did earlier in the season. On the Lilly front, Weevil breaks into Lilly's room. He tells Veronica he wants to get his mother's ring back, but in actuality he's looking for a spy pen that had messages from him inside that are now gone.
Grade: B+
"M.A.D."
Veronica Mars: "Do you think this thing... will ever get more normal?"
Logan Echolls: "What, like, will we ever hang out at the mall, or hold hands and buy each other teddy bears with little hearts that say 'I wuv you beary much'?"
Veronica Mars: "Yes. Exactly that. Except I want my bear won through some sort of demonstration of ring tossing ability."
Logan Echolls: "Well, secrets are kinda hot, too."
Veronica helps a classmate who is being blackmailed by her boyfriend with a video of her doing something salacious with a popsicle in a hot tub. This investigation leads Veronica to some startling information in regards to her own date rape at Shelly Pomeroy's party. Veronica and Logan toy with taking their clandestine relationship public. Keith works to find Duncan to get the $50,000 reward that the Kane family offered. A stunt Wallace and Veronica pulled threatens Alicia and Keith's burgeoning relationship.
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| The girls, the boys, they all like Carmen. |
Sometimes it can be easy to forget that "Veronica Mars" premiered in 2004. Then, there are episodes like this one that remind you. The whole plot of altering pictures and audio and creating a website to make it seem like some student is gay to ruin his potential naval career is so extremely dated and problematic. I hate this idea that the worst thing, the thing that could ruin your life forever is that you could be gay. And not even be gay. Just the rumor that you could possibly be gay is enough to just torpedo your future. I think I had maybe blocked this out because when I remembered what was going to happen when Veronica was taking pictures of Tad and Seth on the boardwalk, I audibly groaned. I get that Seth is in on it and maybe they think that makes it better, but it really doesn't. It's a terrible trope and I'm kind of glad that television has sort of aged out of it. This plot line wouldn't work today because we, as audiences, are over this. And, "don't ask, don't tell" doesn't exist anymore so a website like the one Veronica has Mac cook up wouldn't stop Tad's naval prospects today. "Veronica Mars" hasn't had any gay characters so far and to introduce one just for this was extremely disappointing.
All that being said, I definitely want only bad things for Tad. Even before he reveals he has this video of Carmen he took without her knowing, you know he's just a giant douchebag. He's wearing that cream colored cable knit sweater. And if you are a longtime watcher of "Vanderpump Rules" you know that no one who wears a cable knit is a good dude. Not only that but he gives Carmen a CD that seemingly only has a song on it that he wrote for her? Gross. Add in the casual homophobia and fatphobia and it's a wonder that Carmen stayed with him so long especially since she genuinely seems so sweet. She doesn't even get revenge on him after he releases the video. There is a moment where Carmen tries to tell Veronica that Tad wasn't always like this and Veronica makes a great point that none of that really matters now.
This is the way to do a case of the week on this show. It does a great job tying in to and furthering a plot point that hasn't been mentioned in a while: the rape of Veronica at Shelly Pomeroy's party. When she is examining the video, she recognizes that Carmen is at Shelly's party as well. When Tad is tied naked to the pole Wallace Fennell-style, she finds out that it was a roofie that was used on her and Carmen, it was GHB that was provided by one Logan Echolls.
You knew that something was going to happen that was going to throw a wrench in Veronica and Logan's budding romance. It was going too well. They were being too cute. Logan was ready to go public with her, even skipping out on a trip to scam on cheerleaders with Dick and Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas. He convinced her to skip school to go on his dad's boat. Aaron liked Veronica. So, it wasn't a huge surprise to find out that Logan was involved, even indirectly, with her assault. This leaves Veronica to stand Logan up on their yachting date.
The Keith/Alicia romance continues unabated much to their children's disgust and chagrin. Veronica is still determined to stop them being together because she's convinced that Lianne will return and their family will reunite. She learns that Keith has put an ad in the paper looking for Lianne which would serve as the beginning to potentially divorcing her. Veronica is initially pretty upset about this and you think she is going to do one of those Veronica things that you wish she wouldn't, but after seeing her dad happy with Alicia she backs off. And then the father/daughter have a functional conversation about what Keith's ad means for his marriage. It seems like all good things until Clarence Wiedman reveals that his office was bugged using a plant delivered by Wallace.
Keith starts the search for Logan, but it is proving more difficult than he anticipated because Veronica inadvertently taught Duncan some really good ways to disappear. I had forgotten that they had really stretched out this Duncan skipping town storyline for so long. I'm definitely ready for there to be some progress here.
Grade: A-
Next up, we wrap up season one with more details coming to light about the night of Veronica's assault and the murderer of Lilly Kane is revealed.
What did you all think? Was the second episode case of the week better than the first? Did you know anyone like Mandy? Are you team Leo, Duncan of Logan? Let me know in the comments.
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