Thursday, July 13, 2006

Life On Mars

Veronica Mars, Living TV, 8.00pm

Gah. We got away easily last week where very little happened in relation to the main plot. This week? There's lots to get through. But: screengrabs! Yay! Strap yourselves in, and we'll get going.

Previously on Veronica Mars: the bus went off the cliff, Veronica thought she was the target of the bus crash, Alicia's ex-husband turned up and did the "I am your father" number on Wallace, Logan and Duncan fought, Keith decided to run for sheriff, Large Penis Casablancas blew town, battle line were drawn between Jackie and Veronica.

We began with the babyfather drama as Wallace confronts Alicia with what Nathan had just told him. The short form of Alicia's story: she married Nathan when she was 21, his involvement in the drug squad got a little bit too keen when he came home high and hid drugs 'n' guns under Alicia's bed. Alicia goes to get Wallace's birth certificate to prove her story, but found it to be missing (because Keith took it last week). Alicia, no fool she, knew what had happened to it. She tells Wallace that Hank Fennell adopted him when they got married and to all intents and purposes, he's Wallace's father.

This doesn't cheer Wallace, who goes to school with a serious case of the glums. Veronica, bless her, decides to cure this by nominating him for Homecoming King. In another homeroom, Corny nominates Veronica for Homecoming Queen, much to the scorn of the 09er crowd. Mandy (the sweet but highly dorky girl Veronica helped to find her dog last season) defends Veronica in a frankly alarming fashion and informs Jackie, sitting next to her, that Veronica can help with any problem. At lunch, Wallace ditches Jackie again to hang out with Veronica and discuss his daddy issues. Jackie, not one for a poker face, doesn't take this well. We then see Jackie visiting a psychic and her credit card being declined, forcing Jackie to ask Veronica for help - Jackie thinks her friend Cora has been stealing her card, and wants Veronica to prove Cora's innocence, because Cora's the only friend Jackie has. Cue titles!

Alicia stops by to see Keith - who has a 12 point lead in the run-up to the sheriff election, by the way, despite Lamb's feeble attempts at sabotage - and asks for her paperwork back. The conversation does not go well and Alicia ends up criticising Keith's parenting skills. Ouch. Meanwhile, Nathan stops by to see Wallace at the Sack 'n' Pack and informs Wallace that he tried to track him down, but Alicia kept blocking him. He told Wallace that given the chance, he would have been a real father to him. It was less mawkish than that sounds, honest.

Logan and Duncan finally resolve their differences, realising they have much to teach each other in their shared role as emancipated minors. The final five contestants for Homecoming King and Queen were announced: Duncan and Wallace made the shortlist, Veronica did not. Jackie and Logan bond over their mutual loathing of Veronica, while Veronica trails Cora. Upon establishing that they played badminton together in eighth grade, Veronica asks Cora about her jacket (one of the items allegedly bought on Jackie's card). Cora admits she bought it at an outlet mall, and Veronica invites herself shopping with Cora that afternoon. At Cora's house, Veronica fakes a spilled beverage crisis to get a look inside Cora's wardrobe, where she discovers not a shelf-full of purloined designer goods but a chicken costume from a fast food restaurant. After they buy their homecoming dresses at the mall (Veronica noting that Duncan hasn't technically asked her yet), Veronica calls Cora's manager to confirm that she was working when the purchases were made, and informs Jackie that Cora is clean.

Meanwhile, at the Neptune League of Women Voters, Keith and Lamb are having a debate. Lamb rather tragically basks in his nickname, The Exterminator (presumably due to his attempts at cutting crime) and then utterly sandbags Keith by revealing that back when Keith was a deputy, he found Ed Doyle (the bus driver) drunk in charge of a vehicle, but didn't charge him. Lamb notes to the crowd that a DUI on Doyle's record would have prevented him getting a job as a bus driver. Keith, who had forgotten this particular incident, is lost for words.

Duncan and Veronica have dinner at the Neptune Grand, and Duncan finally gets around to asking Veronica to the dance. As much as Veroniac is overjoyed, she grasps the opportunity to borrow some Kane Software Stationery. When Duncan asks why, Veronica responds "You're here for your looks. Why don't you leave the heavy thinking to me, sugarpants?" in the standout best line of the episode, not to mention a fairly precise metacomment on Duncan's role within the show. If you're wondering why Veronica needed the stationery, it's to send a bug (in the form of a beetle paperweight) to The Exterminator himself, Sheriff Lamb, under the guise of a vote of support from Jake Kane. Keith's popularity has dipped following the debate, and he and Lamb are now tied in the polls.

Wallace confronts Alicia about her hiding his father's letters, and there is emo woe on all accounts. The next day at school, Veronica takes Alicia's side, having had some experience with deadbeat parents herself, after her mother ran off twice and stole Veronica's college money last season. Little things like that stick in one's mind somehow. Wallace is none too pleased. Veronica follows new leads on Jackie's credit card, and discovers the fraud stems from Jackie's psychic, Madame Sophie. Jackie admits that seeing a psychic to contact the spirit of her dead grandmother is her secret shame, and in a girltalk-confidence-inviting type way, asks Veronica to share hers. Veronica coyly admits that she bought a product called Mammomax (no explanation needed, we feel) from an infomercial when she was an insecure freshman. Jackie reveals that Madame Sophie has a community access TV show, allegedly watched by everyone at Neptune High, and the two of them plot for Veronica to appear on the show (because Madame Sophie already knows Jackie) and expose the fraudster.

Terrence Cook arrives home, having been visiting Sheriff Lamb, which prompts Veronica to go home and check on her bug. She hears Cook and Lamb's conversation, where Lamb blackmails Cook into donating $10,000 to the sheriff's fundraiser and emceeing the bachelor auction, because Lamb happens to know that Cook has $1m in gambling debts, and he has someone willing to testify that Cook threw baseball games to appease some heavy betters. Veronica? Kinda shocked, but just imagine what this revelation will do to Keith in his role as Cook's number one fan.

Veronica talks to a girl called Michelle, who she saw on Jackie's TiVoed edition of Madame Sophie's show "talking to" her friend Rhonda who died in the bus crash. Michelle spills some backstage gossip, including the suspicion that the "psychic" gets her info from a big-haired lady in the audience who grills the members beforehand, but of more interest is a message from Rhonda on Michelle's voicemail, sent the day of the bus crash. Listening to the message, Veronica hears an explosion just before the bus hits the barrier and goes off the cliff. Dramatic chords!

Wait, we're still not done yet. Logan joins Duncan at the Neptune Grand for a spot of videogaming and an enormous amount of homoeroticism (seriously, Duncan plots to wax Logan's ass, and that's no euphemism that we're familiar with), while Veronica appears on Madame Sophie's show under the guise of wanting to speak to her "Uncle Roger". Mid-reading, just as Veronica's about to expose Madame Sophie, the psychic claims to be receiving another message - from Lilly. The message? "You should've stayed away from my boyfriend." We see Wallace, Jackie, Logan and Duncan all watching the show, all varying degrees of horrified. "Lilly"'s parting shot is to tell Veronica to be happy with her own body ("You don't need the Mammomax!"), leading Veronica to realise she's been punk'd but good by Jackie. Oh, it is ON.

Back home, Veronica burns a disc of Lamb's conversation with Cook and plans to ask Corny to play it at the Homecoming Dance to wreak her revenge on Jackie. Wallace stops by and attempts to defend Jackie, but an incensed Veronica is having none of it. She informs Wallace he needs to pick a side, and this is the final straw for Wallace, who accuses Veronica of not caring about his problems or about him, including the zinger "It's your world, I just live in it." On the phone, Jackie admits to setting up Veronica's humiliation (interesting, she only owns up to the Mammomax and claims Madame Sophie made up the rest of the stuff about Lilly), but Wallace informs her he won't be going to the dance with her.

On her way out of the door to the dance, Veronica plays Rhonda's voicemail (which she secretly forwarded to herself) to Keith, and points out that the explosion absolves Ed Doyle of responsibility, and Keith can use this to win the election. Keith, ever on the moral high ground, refuses to use 7 dead people (and Meg, the unknown quantity) as leverage, but realises that this amounts to murder, and the murderer must still be at large. He tells Veronica that if the tape is released to the wrong sources it will crush the investigation, while Veronica scoffs at the idea that Lamb is bothering to carry out an investigation and tells Keith that he needs to win the election to get the case solved. Following a change of heart after Wallace tore strips of her, Veronica leaves her CD of Cook's confession at home and heads to the dance, where The Faders are playing, implying that the music scene in Neptune is around 12 months behind that of Britain. Veronica and Duncan's fun is interrupted by Jackie dancing with Logan; Veronica storms over to break them up and informs Jackie that she can fight with Veronica all she wants, but if she breaks Wallace's heart there'll be hell to pay. Jackie just snorts and assumes this is Veronica wanting Logan, Duncan (and possibly also Wallace) to only want her. Needless to say, the party mood is somewhat ruined.

Keith drops the recording of the explosion-voicemail in to Lamb, who - surprise surprise - doesn't give a shit and assumes this is Keith looking to make up ground after his embarrassment at the debate. Keith spots Veronica's bug on the desk and steals it when Lamb's back is turned, presumably to spare Lamb any further embarrassment, although Keith, be realistic here - you're only one man. Later that night, Keith gets a message from Alicia - Wallace is missing and didn't come home after the dance. Veronica calls him in the morning to apologise, but gets only his voicemail. We end on Wallace in the car, leaving town with his father. And thus we end with daddy-issue drama, much as we began. Gotta love that symmetry.

This week: we find out who wins the sheriff elections, both Aaron Echolls and Abel Koontz make a reappearance, and Keith makes a shocking discovery about the bus crash. Oh yes!

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