Veronica Mars
Lots of stuff continues to happen in season two of "Veronica Mars" and I wouldn't be surprised if at some point. you needed one of those white boards with the yarn connecting everything. And we are adding more so let's get to it.
"Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang"
Wallace Fennel: "What're you lookin' at?"
Veronica Mars: "Just... tawdriness."
Wallace Fennel: "... What are you lookin' at now?"
Veronica Mars: "The opposite of tawdriness. Wallace and his pudding cup."
Veronica is approached by Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas to investigate his stepmother who he (correctly) believes is cheating on Dick Sr. While investigating, Veronica learns something that will hurt the Casablancas family a lot more than a trophy wife's infidelity with a senior in high school. Jackie and Veronica continue to be at odds over Wallace. And Veronica learns of a chilling connection between Curly Moran and Aaron Echolls.
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| He can't get enough Ronnie. |
There's a lot going on in this episode, so let's break it down into the three major segments of the episode. Let's start with the one that most directly affects the big case of the season. Lamb calls Veronica to the sheriff's station to ask her why her name was written on the dead guy's hand. It's wild to me that Don Lamb is so focused on tormenting a high school girl. Like, this is exactly the type of guy that you don't want in a position of power or to legally have a gun. And I think the show does a great job of illustrating that. I can't imagine anyone who watches this show loves Don Lamb.
Lamb does a lot of trying to intimidate Veronica but it of course doesn't work. Veronica finally gets why she's there out of him, It turns out the dead man on the beach was David "Curly" Moran and though she may not remember him at first, she eventually does. She saw him at the bus crash memorial. This leads her on a journey of Veronica doing Lamb's job better than him. She visits his place of work and finds a framed photo of him and Aaron Echolls. When Veronica is at Logan's place post coitus with Kendall, she realizes that Moran was the stunt coordinator for Aaron's first movie, "The Long Haul." This leads Veronica to the conclusion that the bus crash was meant for her.
Veronica's case of the week in this episode is Cassidy hiring her to investigate Kendall after he found the empty condom wrapper at the end of the last episode. One thing that is interesting about this season is Veronica sort of re-integrating back in to the '09'ers. Now that she is back with Duncan she is kind of living two lives. There is the Veronica that is still doing PI cases for the students, but then there is the Veronica that has joined future business leaders of America and is listening to Dick Casablancas speak while she's getting harassed by his son. You can tell she doesn't really know what to do and it feels like she almost sees herself as a traitor to the people that she was helping last season.
As Veronica investigates Kendall, she learns a secret that is a little deeper than Kendall cheating. It looks like Dick Sr is committing real estate fraud. You know something like this is happening from the beginning of the episode. As soon as Mr. Pope starts talking about how he has all these stocks in Casablancas Industries and he was going to use the money he made to retire early and sail away you knew this poor guy was fucked. And he definitely was. Cassidy discovers the photos of Logan and Kendall on Veronica's laptop left unattended which is kind of a rookie mistake for Veronica. He reveals the affair, but Dick Sr has bigger fish to fry frantically destroying files and fleeing in a helicopter.
Jackie and Wallace are seemingly going strong despite both Veronica and Jackie barely able to conceal their mutual dislike for one another. Veronica is struggling to keep her opinions to herself about Jackie when she, Duncan, Wallace and Jackie meet to watch "Pride and Prejudice." Things don't improve for the girls' relationship when Jackie shows up with another guy during Veronica's shift at Java the Hut. But Veronica bites her tongue when she sees Jackie and Wallace still lovey dovey in the hallways.
Keith and Alicia aren't immune to relationship drama. While on a romantic getaway to Chicago, Alicia is confronted by a man played by Black Lightning himself, Cress Williams. He calls Alicia Cher and she lies to Keith's face when he asks if she knows him. The man is clearly from Alicia's past and is not going to stop looking for her until he finds her.
Logan is going through it and he has confrontations with two of the most important people in is life. He gets into a fist fight with Duncan that Duncan erroneously thinks is because he's dating Veronica. In reality, it's because Logan felt abandoned by Duncan during the summer when he was on trial. Logan has another confrontation at the end of the episode, this time with Veronica. The two have a fiery argument about their past and Logan's current predicament with Kendall.
It's only episode three and I honestly feel like we've got enough things going to last two full seasons.
Grade: B+
"Green-Eyed Monster"
Veronica Mars: "Julie! Stand down. He's not cheating on you - he's with a rabbi."
Julie Bloch: "A rabbi? He's not Jewish, I'm Jewish!"
Veronica Mars: "... Are you there yet?"
Julie Bloch shows up at Mars Investigations looking to have her potential fiancé investigated. Julie has been hiding her wealth from him and wants to make sure he's marrying her for the right reasons. After Keith turns it down, Veronica takes it up behind his back. Veronica learns that Duncan has been visiting Meg at the hospital every day without telling her. Keith learns who Alicia's stalker really is. And Veronica is concerned that Weevil may have been involved in the bus crash.
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| Why Ms. Mars, are you trying to seduce me? |
One of the things I enjoy about "Veronica Mars" is that it doesn't typically ram the themes of its episode down your throat. There's a subtlety that you don't always find in shows that feature a teenage detective. For the most part, the show trusts its audience. But there are a few instances where it doesn't do that and this episode is one of the most glaring.
If you didn't pick up on it by the title, this episode is all about jealousy. And nothing about the episode from the title to the storylines to the music will let you forget it. There are three songs prominently featured in this episode and each one features the word "jealousy." We get it Dayna Lynne North, who wrote the episode. Though, I will give a pass to the song "So Jealous" because it's one of my favorite Tegan & Sara songs.
Veronica's case of the week features a woman who is so mistrustful that she literally drives away a really good dude. It's great to see Laura Bell Bundy always. This would have been one of her first big TV roles and it was a few years before she played Elle Woods on Broadway in "Legally Blonde: The Musical." Why haven't they made a "Legally Blonde: The Musical" movie? Honestly. It would kill and the songs are great. But I digress. Bundy is great in roles like this. She gets more and more unhinged as the episode progresses. Throwing more money at Veronica each time it's shown that Colin, her beau, isn't being unfaithful or lying to her. You just want to shake her.
There is a lot more slapstick-y comedy in this episode than we usually get in a "Veronica Mars" episode whether it's Veronica tackling Julie who is ready to storm into a rabbi's house with her hair in curlers and mid eyebrow and mustache bleaching or Veronica's whole honey pot scheme with Wallace. It is kind of funny and I do love seeing Wallace improvising and actually working with Veronica rather than just playing her errand boy. Ultimately the joke is on Julie when Veronica reveals that Colin is the heir to a whiskey empire and is probably richer than she is.
You might be asking "what does this have to do with jealousy" and the answer is it all goes back to Wallace helping Veronica. Jackie is none too pleased when Wallace drops her during a hot makeout session to go help his bestie. You can see Jackie physically turning green and it's clear that she is not a part of the camp that thinks that men and women can just be friends.
The guy who confronted Alicia last episode is back and Keith, of course, gets involved because he has a Superman complex. Keith initially believes that the man is Carl Morgan, a real dirtbag, lowlife criminal. He gives his information to Lamb, but it turns out that Morgan is actually Nathan Woods, an undercover Chicago cop and Wallace's dad. Now, I think we all knew as soon as we saw Nathan that he'd end up being Wallace's father. But I'm very surprised that Keith wasn't able to find out this guy was a cop, undercover or no. It kind of makes Keith look like a bad PI. And I have a feeling that Alicia is going to be none too happy when she finds out Keith is breaking into her house and rifling through her private files.
Veronica finds out that Duncan has been visiting Meg's comatose body at the hospital ever since the bus crash and not telling her. And guess what? She's jealous, y'all. After the Mannings curse Duncan out, Meg's sister, Lizzie, shows up with Meg's laptop. Apparently there is info on there that the elder Mannings would lose their shit over if they found it out. She brings it to Duncan, who is pretty worthless in this situation. Luckily, Veronica is there and calls in Mac to get the data. Veronica is tempted to copy the flash drive so she can see it but decides against it. Which, I'm glad about. That's a line you probably don't want to cross.
Our bus crash case update involves Veronica learning that the earring the cops found on Curly belongs to Weevil. It turns out that Weevil got an anonymous call from someone claiming Curly was responsible for the crash. Veronica traces the call back to the Echolls home, but it turns out Logan was having a party so the list of suspects is pretty long. Weevil name drops the Fighting Fitzpatricks, a rival Irish gang, who will be important later on in the season. So, remember them.
Grade: B
Next up, Veronica is the guest on a psychic's cable access show and Abel Koontz enlists her help in finding his daughter.
What are you all thinking of this season? Is there too much going on? Are you team Logan or team Duncan? Are they trying too hard to shoehorn Weevil in to things? Let me know in the comments.
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