Thursday, July 20, 2006
Life On Mars
Veronica Mars, Living TV, 8.00pm
Okay, so last week was another busy week in Neptune. To steel you all for tonight's brand-spanking new episode, here's what happened last week.
Previously on Veronica Mars: back in season one, Lilly Kane died and Veronica uncovered Aaron Echolls as the murderer, who promptly tried to off Veronica to cover his trail (but failed, obviously, since our homegirl is still alive and well). Also in season one, Abel Koontz took the fall for the Lilly Kane murder because he was dying and wanted to use the settlement to buy forgiveness from his daughter, Amelia Delongpre. A school bus went over a cliff and wiped out several lives and left Meg in a coma, Logan was accused of murdering Felix, Veronica discovered that the bus was sabotaged by a bomb, Curly Moran (who was the stuntman in an Aaron Echolls movie where a truck went off a cliff) died and his body washed up on the beach with Veronica's name written on his hand, Woody Goodman talked Keith into running for sheriff, and Wallace skipped town to be with his newly-discovered biological father.
The action starts with Veronica and Keith (and selected friends) watching the results of the sheriff's race, where the result is too close to call - at least until they announce that Lamb has won, and that Woody has won the State Governor's election. Veronica is annoyed that this result came about because Lamb turned Keith into a scapegoat for the bus crash (by pointing out that Keith failed to arrest Driver Ed for a previous DUI offence), but Keith maintains that not making their evidence about the explosion public was the best thing for the case, and tells Veronica to go off and party at the Neptune Grand with Duncan. Over at the Grand, Dick confronts Logan about Logan's kiss-kiss-boom-boom with Kendall, but is characteristically unflapped by the whole thing. He also reveals that Large Penis Casablancas is in severe trouble with the law and is looking at 10-15 years in pokey if he ever sets foot on US soil again, so Dick and Beaver are kind of raising themselves at the moment. Well, it makes a change from Dick lowering himself, doesn't it? Gia Goodman chats Dick up, and later asks Veronica for her opinion - Veronica remains diplomatically neutral. Deputy Sacks turns up to arrest Logan for the murder of Felix Tombs, after the anonymous caller from the bridge turned up to Lamb's victory party with "new" "information". Veronica heads down to Mars Investigations to quickly remove the "congratulations!" balloons she left for Keith in anticipation of his victory, only to find a sick and inebriated Abel Koontz on the doorstep. Abel begs her to track down Amelia, who's currently missing, because he wants to see her one last time before he dies.
So, the story since we last saw Amelia - she signed the settlement papers with Kane Software and netted $3m, despite Veronica's best efforts to keep Kane Software security chief Clarence Wiedman from finding her. Veronica books Abel into hospital and sets out looking for information, starting with Amelia's ex-boyfriend Mike, whom she took to Ibiza with the cash. He admits that she stole his phone cards and abandoned him at a foam party. Well, attending one of those things is a seriously dumpable offence, so we don't blame her. Veronica gets the phone card numbers from Mike and posts a missing friend notice on an Ibiza web forum, then consults Amelia's old roommate Dawn who points out that Amelia wasn't the party type, but that money changes people. Speaking of money, Logan's jackassy attitude leads him to declare that he wants a public defender on his case, which means another appearance from everybody's favourite deadpan PD - Cliff! Cliff explains that the new witness claims to have seen Logan with a bloody knife in his hand, yelling, and we quote, "the expletive racial expletive had it maternal expletive coming". Heeheehee. The new witness also claims that Logan threatened his own life, which is why he was absent for so long. Things for Logan, they look pretty bad.
Veronica calls Cliff, and they have a cute war of words over who owes who a favour this time. Veronica wins with the trump card of a colourblind stripper (and how we wish we'd seen THAT episode), and Cliff phones the telecom company pretending to be Amelia's concerned father, and gets the card usage details forwarded to Veronica's email (which is vmars@aol.com, for any cyber-stalkers out there). Veronica discovers a call was made by Amelia in Neptune last week, after she got back from Ibiza. Cliff points out to Logan that Lamb is an ass and will keep him locked up as long as possible - locked up, it turns out, in the same cell as his father. Aaron tries to convince Logan that he's innocent, and that Duncan is the real killer, though Logan casts scornful doubt on this theory by pointing out that Aaron still tried to kill Veronica last season by locking her in an old fridge and setting fire to it. Advantage: Logan. Aaron tells Logan he shouldn't sacrifice himself just to spite his old man, and Cliff agrees: he's pulled some strings to get Logan bailed out, but only on the condition he hires a proper lawyer.
Veronica tracks down the payphone to one across the street from Kane Software, and pays Clarence Wiedman a visit. Clarence denies all knowledge (or indeed interest) of seeing Amelia since the settlement was, er, settled and sends Veronica on her way. At Neptune High, Weevil and the PCHers square up to Duncan and Dick about Logan's arrest, but are crushed to learn that Logan's already on bail. One of the PCHers points out that their reputation is being seriously damaged in the light of Felix's death, so Weevil vows revenge on Logan. A conversation with Dick and Duncan brings up the subject of fake IDs, which Veronica realises Amelia would have needed in Ibiza, so she calls Dawn, who reveals that Amelia used one belonging to her cousin Margot Schnell, who a quick check reveals recently hired a car. Meanwhile, Lamb drives Logan home, except they arrive there to discover that the Echolls Manor is entirely ablaze. Three guesses as to who's responsible, anyone?
In the first stunt-casting event of the episode, Veronica goes to the car rental place, where the Employee of the Month is none other than Joss Whedon. Guess the cancellation of Firefly really hit him in the wallet, huh? "Douglas" reveals that "Margot Schnell" hired a white car, but that it's currently out on loan. Veronica goes back out, noting that this would normally be a two-person tag-team effort if she had Wallace, but without him it's a one-woman job. Fortunately, in the second stunt-casting event, "Douglas" has handed over the shift to "Stacy", aka Kim from Cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model. After some fierce acting from Veronica, "Stacy" turns on the car's GPS and Veronica tracks it to a dingy motel in Waverley, California.
Keith drops in to see Lamb to ask if there's any progress on the investigation into the bus crash. Lamb is an ass, again, some more, and tells Keith he should worry less about the bus and more about his daughter. Keith, y'see, doesn't know about the whole Veronica's-name-on-Curly's-hand incident - except he does now. At the motel, Veronica is forced to shell out $30 to hire Amelia's room to look for clues, and wonders why someone with Amelia's current wealth would stay in a place like this[/loyd grossman]. She's interrupted by a concerned phonecall from Keith, wanting to know her whereabouts. Veronica blags that she's in an art gallery, and Keith demands a picture as proof. Veronica cunningly rearranges the room's "artwork" and poses in front of it, and e-mails it back to Keith who wants to "chat" about the whole Curly Moran thing (and Veronica explains the link to Aaron Echolls, but we already know about that). While e-mailing, Veronica's Bluetooth picks up Amelia's palmpilot (seriously, how high-tech is this show?) in extremely close range. After spending another $60 renting the rooms either side and finding nothing, Veronica eventually finds Amelia - dead, in the ice dispenser. Running back inside to call for help, Clarence Wiedman follows her into her room. Gasp!
Except not, because he was trailing Amelia too and admits he wasn't entirely honest with Veronica - he has spoken to Amelia recently, when she called him to extort another $1/4m from Kane Software, which he paid her in marked bills, on the condition that she gets the hell out of Dodge (or Neptune, at least) until the Kanes' legal issues are settled. The call she made from the payphone was the second call, to arrange the pickup. Veronica and Clarence go to speak to the asshole on reception, who finally reveals that Amelia checked into the motel with her boyfriend. Veronica and Clarence head to pay Mike another visit - and Clarence, not one to waste time, dangles Mike out of the window by his ankles. A terrified Mike insists he knows nothing about Amelia, and Veronica and Clarence concede that no one's that good a liar, and let Mike off the hook (after pulling him back inside, natch).
Keith pays Aaron a visit in jail, and informs him that they suspect him of an involvement in the bus crash. Aaron denies all knowledge, again, some more, and Keith informs him that the meeting was really just to show Aaron how easy it is to get to him (by calling in favours from Keith's old friends in the sheriff's department, who will deny Keith was ever there) and that if anything happens to Veronica, Aaron will pay for it. At Neptune High, Weevil storms up to Logan and gets all up in his face - it turns out Logan bought Weevil's grandmother's house and is evicting them, since he's currently homeless, though he makes it clear he wouldn't lower himself to live in THAT neighbourhood. There's another scuffle, and the two are separated. The battle lines are drawn, but seriously: can they just have sex already? It would solve a lot of that tension.
Veronica sends Wallace an e-mail, despite the fact that he hasn't replied to any of her previous missives. While Veronica is online, a girl comes on the webcam and says that she saw Veronica's post on the Ibiza forum, and sends a picture of her and a group of friends which includes Amelia. Veronica is about to explain that Amelia is dead, when the girl mentions Amelia's boyfriend, who's bad news and an extremely convincing liar. Veronica forwards the picture to the assy night clerk at the motel, but it turns out that Amelia's boyfriend is not Mike, but a guy called Carlos standing on the other side of her. Carlos is a diplomat's son, and Veronica relays this info to Clarence Wiedman, who's already tracked him down to Caesar's Palace via the marked bills, and who implies strongly that he's taken out a hit on the kid. Seriously, do not fuck with Clarence Wiedman, folks.
Veronica goes to see Abel in the hospital, but knowing that he only has a few days to live, lies and tells him that Amelia is on her way, but that she might not make it before he dies since she's stuck in a snowdrift in the Himalayas. Worn out from the well-intentioned lying, Veronica heads to the Neptune Grand for a Donut Hug, but it turns out to be Logan wearing a cunning argyle disguise, as Logan is now staying with Duncan in the penthouse, and the scene is set for Logan, Duncan and Veronica to star in their own hilarious version of Three's Company. Meanwhile Keith breaks into the bus, which Lamb got dredged up from the sea bed, and discovers a rat duct-taped to the bottom of one of the seats. The plot, she thickens.
Tonight: Logan enlists Veronica's help to dismiss the mystery witness in his murder trial, and Duncan uncovers something unsavoury in Meg's e-mails - something potentially relating to child abuse. Lawks, as they say.
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