Thursday, July 27, 2006

Life On Mars

Veronica Mars, Living TV, 8.00pm

Hooray! Another week with an A-plot that can be fairly easily summarised. We love it when that happens. Here's what you missed last week, if you missed it.

Previously on Veronica Mars: Keith lost the sheriff's election, and the anonymous caller who witnessed Logan's ill-fated battle with Felix and the PCHers on the bridge came forward at Lamb's victory party. The bus went boom and left Meg in a coma - leaving her little sister Lizzie in something of a tizzy with regard to Meg's super-secret laptop with all her private emails on it - thankfully Mac got the data downloaded onto a Jump drive and left Meg in the clear. Veronica tailed Kendall Casablancas under suspicion of her cheating on Large Penis, only to discover that Large Penis was running shady business deals - and when Beaver called the authorities, Big Penis blew town (snigger). Also, Keith investigated the wreck of the bus and found a dead rat taped underneath one of the seats.

Dying to find out the significance of the rat? Hard cheese, because it isn't even mentioned in this episode. Day-um. We love this show, but sometimes it really is fucking frustrating that way. Anyway, Veronica and Duncan are watching The Big Lebowski and indulging in a few smoochies at the Neptune Grand. That's the plan anyway, until Logan "Fifth Wheel, even though there are only three of them" Echolls turns up. He snarks a bit about thinking that Duncan asked him to move in so they could spend more time together and generally brings the HoYay!, but Veronica and Duncan's resentful feeling that he's going to encroach on their evening is short-lived - Kendall Casablancas turns up at the suite to do Logan. Kendall, no fool she, recognises Veronica as the iPod girl with the waxy-eared boyfriend, but mercifully doesn't yet know that Veronica is indirectly responsible for Kendall's current near prison-widow status. Once Kendall's out of earshot, Veronica quizzes Duncan as to whether he's bothered that Logan's doing their friend's stepmom. Duncan, predictably, is not, because Kendall is hot. He has a point. Veronica is slightly disappointed in this reaction, and probably a little bit disgusted.

Back in FBLA (and this episode brings up so many dangling plot threads from ep 2x03, it's such a relief), Mr Pope reveals that Veronica has lost her top spot in the stock market game to Cassidy Casablancas (aka Beaver). Dick's stock has crashed because he invested it all in Casablancas Inc., Logan's has taken a tumble and so has Duncan's. Duncan, by the way, is not present. Meanwhile, at the golf course, Keith has another meeting with Woody Goodman. Woody tells Keith that he's planning to incorporate Neptune, which is some kind of sociopolitical concept that we don't fully understand, but what we do understand of it amounts to the fact that Woody basically wants to turn Neptune into a city - amounting basically to the 09er zipcode, and basically leaving the slum areas to fend for themselves. Keith, slum-dweller that he is, isn't too impressed. Woody offers to make him Chief of Police and promises it will be worth his while. Keith looks conflicted. Back in school, Logan grabs Veronica for a meeting in the girls' bathroom (and we suspect Logan spends a lot of time in there, for one reason or another) - he wants her to help clear his name by investigating the mystery bridge witness. Veronica reluctantly agrees to help him out, her sense of vigilante justice overriding the fact that she really wants Logan out of her hair permanently. As Logan and Veronica leave, Duncan grabs Veronica and drags her back into the bathroom to deliver his own zinger - he's been reading Meg's e-mails and she was in contact with someone at Child Protection Services, informing them that one of the boys she babysits for is being abused. Not physically or sexually, but mentally, and she has books to prove it. A surprisingly animated Duncan insists that they have to find out who this kid is and rescue him.

So, this part of the plot can be summed up thusly, and (hopefully) briefly - Veronica takes over Meg's babysitting duties for the Fullers and Ms. Hauser (who was initially reluctant, but Veronica tempted her to take an evening off from single parentdom and attend the sheriff's office fundraising bachelor auction, where Ms. Hauser eventually wins a date with Deputy Sacks. Score!). She also spies on the Goodmans, and comes to the conclusion that every single parent in Neptune is a freak. The Fullers' son Edwin is a perfectly-groomed, perfectly-behaved child who reads, enjoys quiet time and does as he's told. Then Veronica gets wigged when Mr Fuller invites her down to his boat on Saturdays "to smoke a J and fool around", and hands her a picture that Edwin drew for her - of Veronica being decapitated. Ms. Hauser is a neurotic parent who regiments every last area of Albert's behaviour, including his diet and his complete banishment from TV. Of course, Albert screams bloody murder when Veronica's left alone with him, so she uses ice cream and TV to drive him into submission. And Rodney Goodman? He wigs whenever he spills water on the carpet in case his obsessive-compulsive mother turns him into a lawn ornament, but more on that later.

Veronica and Duncan plot to break into Meg's parents house on Sunday while the Mannings are at church, to find the books that Meg has as proof. Duncan elaborates that the books are full of admonishments like "I was bad. I am right to be punished" and so on. Meanwhile, Large Penis's lawyer is paying the extended Casablancas family a visit, and informs them that LP's assets are frozen. Dick and Beaver have trust funds, but they can only be accessed when they turn 21. Kendall has no separate accounts, so she is penniless. Kendall dons her best "a hustler's life for me, then" face.

Veronica discovers that Logan's mystery 911 caller is Dr. Tom Griffith, a noted plastic surgeon. When she hands over his files, Logan spots that something isn't right because this isn't the same guy from the bridge. Veronica, sharp as a tack, points out that Logan claimed not to be able to remember anything from that night. Logan admits that he lied, because he didn't want the guy to be found. Veronica's faith in Logan slips just that little bit further, down to the levels of "I can't believe I was ever going to let you near my minky, you thorough waste of space". Wallace is still MIA, by the way, and is only present in this episode in the form of an e-mail that Veronica sends him. Come back soon, Wallace! Veronica, nonetheless, trails Dr Griffith to a cigar shop downtown on Logan's behalf.

Back at Casa Casablancas, Mama Casablancas interrupts Kendall's early morning slumber to fawn over her boys. Beaver begs to be allowed to come and live with her, but that's a no-go because Mama C is in Europe most of the year. She umms and ahhs about how to ensure that the boys are okay for money, but eventually the thought of living with Dick full-time again (presumably - this bit happened off-camera) appalls her so much that she signs over their trust funds there and then. Dick celebrates by buying Kendall a French maid's uniform to wear when she dusts his armoire. Classy, Dick.

Having established in Health class (where Gia learnt that chlamydia is an STD, not a flower) that Gia doesn't have many girlfriends in Neptune, Veronica heads over for a slumber party (and ostensibly to do a little spyin' on Rodney and his parents). It soon turns into a living hell when Gia takes Veronica's shoes and puts them into one of her mother's perfectly OCD-labelled hampers, and reveals that they're having a girls' night with a bunch of 09ers. Yay!

Kendall heads over to do Logan again and lays it on thick. Logan, smarter than she, sees this as the transparent plot that it is, and informs Kendall that there will be no dice here. Kendall snits that if he wants the Kendall-lovin' to keep on comin' (pun intended), she's going to need "some stuff". Logan basically tells her where to stick it, or rather that he will find somewhere else to stick it. Mid-flounce, Kendall finds herself in Duncan's bathroom and decides to lay on the full flirt for him, and they may or may not do the dirty sexing right there, it's not entirely clear. But we do see Kendall emerging from Duncan's bathroom some time later, looking a lot happier. Draw your own conclusions.

Back at the Bimbo sleepover from hell, Gia freaks when she thinks her mother is back early. Veronica offers to go and check, and spies on Woody (who saw Rodney spill the water and who said, somewhat creepily, "you know the rules - I'm going to have to tell your mother about this") and Mrs Goodman having a silent (from our perspective) conversation with Rodney, who is led off looking downtrodden. Veronica's whirring mind is interrupted by the arrival of Dick and Beaver, drunken and crashing the party. Having endured her fair share of hell, Veronica bails and heads home. Keith smells the cigar smoke on Veronica's coat and a brief conversation brings the revelation that the cigar shop that Veronica followed Dr Griffith to is also a notorious drug dealership.

Sunday night comes, and Veronica and Duncan (who is hilariously decked out in black trousers and a black polo neck, like he's going to be doing Mission: Impossible or something) break into the Manning household. Following Lilly's old trick, Duncan finds the books in Meg's air vent - and also some letters, which he doesn't show Veronica and steals when her back is turned). Veronica consults the various handwriting samples that she stole from the children she was babysitting, and realises that none of them match the freakily-neat script. She then reasons that the script is actually a little girl's handwriting, not a little boy's, and wonders if Meg was covering. Heading to Meg's youngest sister Grace's room, Veronica finds stacks of similar books in the closet, where she also hears a knocking sound. Why? Because the closet has a fake wall, and inside that there's another tiny room where poor Grace has been locked up.

Grace wigs at being discovered and insists that she "[doesn't] want to be tested! Daddy said I'm not ready!" Veronica is on the brink of making a phonecall when the early-returning Mannings discover them, and Mr Manning threatens Veronica and Duncan with a baseball bat while his wife calls the sheriff. Lamb arrives, and arrests Veronica and Duncan despite their protests. During the arrest, Veronica whispers to Lamb about the hidden room, but ever the jackass he does nothing. Or so you'd think. What actually happens is that Lamb takes Veronica and Duncan into his car and drives around the corner before letting them go, and returning to the Manning house to look for the hidden room. Mr Manning is outraged ("I'm the victim here! You have no right to be here poking around!"), which leads Lamb to comment: "Funny, I heard my dad give that exact same speech once", and leading us to suspect that the jackass might have three dimensions after all. And we end on a creepy shot of the Mannings' kitchen, with Lamb outside in his police car, hoping that somebody rescues poor Grace, goddammit.

Tonight: Veronica finds out a little more about the victims of the bus crash when one victim's family starts being, er, victimised. And maybe, just maybe, we might figure out what the dang rat was there for.

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1 Comments:

FUCKING HELL!

By  Anonymous, at 11:21 pm  

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