Episode #01.07: The Girl Next Door
Original Air Date: November 09, 2004
Written by: Jed Seidel & Dianne Ruggiero (Story by Seidel)
Directed by: Nick Marck
Report Card (Capsule Episode Review)
Yearbook (Recurring & Guest Stars/Character Statistics)
Drama Club (Performances: Highlights and Lowlights)
Chemistry (The Analysis of LoVe Scenes) (None)
Journalism (The Mystery of the Week)
Study Hall (Miscellaneous Plot Details)
Extra Credit (Clues to the Season Mystery Arcs)
History (Flashbacks)
Band Class (The Music of Veronica Mars)
Literature (LoVe Lines/Quotable Quotes)
Social Science (In Reference To ... Pop Culture & The World)
Homeroom (On Second Viewing, Get a Clue)
Pep Squad Practice (Ambiguously (Or Not) Gay Logan Moments)
Detention (While the Censors Were Out to Lunch) (None)
Philosophy (Unanswered Questions)
Principles of Democracy (Hindsight is 20/20)
Staff Grade: B
Membership Grade: C (42.1% / 57 votes)
Thank goodness for the B-story that centered around Logan and Weevil and added additional threads to the main mystery arc. If it were not for the excellence in tone, acting and writing of that subplot, this episode would be a big fat D for dull, dull, dull. The mystery of the week is quite possibly the most boring that the show has ever introduced with characters that (despite being neighbors of the Mars) we have no desire to see again.
Credited Cast Non-Appearance
Percy Daggs III - Wallace Fennell
Recurring Guest Stars (Previous Episode Appearances)
Credited Cast Non-Appearance
Percy Daggs III - Wallace Fennel
Brad Bufanda Felix Toombs
- Pilot
- Credit Where Credit's Due
- The Wrath of Con
- Return of the Kane
Duane Daniels - Van Clemmons
- Pilot
- Return of the Kane
Ryan Hansen - Dick Casablancas
- Credit Where Credit's Due
- Meet John Smith
- Return of the Kane
Brandon Hillock - Deputy Sacks
- Pilot
- Credit Where Credit's Due
- Return of the Kane
Amanda Seyfried - Lilly Kane
- Pilot
- Credit Where Credit's Due
- Meet John Smith
- The Wrath of Con
- Return of the Kane
Patrick Wolff - Hector Corez
- Pilot
Guest Stars
Cameron Bender - Nathan
Jessica Chastain - Sarah Williams
Bonita Friedericy - Evelyn Bugby
Eve Gordon - Emily Williams
Adam Kaufman - Andr
Lefty - Backup
Steven Williams - Mr. Tom Daniels
John J. York - Randall
Deborah Zoe - Joanna
Who's Who in Neptune
Nathan - Manager of a hoity-toity boutique in Neptune.
Sarah Williams - Veronica's heavily-pregnant, upstairs neighbor.
Evelyn Bugby - Former Neptune High student and gossipy busybody who remembers every detail of every scandal (big or small) from her high school years.
Emily Williams - Sarah's mother, visiting from Ohio. (Go Ohio!)
Andre - Sarah's temperamental, angsty artist boyfriend.
Backup - The new Backup, replacing the Pilot Backup, who just couldn't cut it.
Mr. Daniels - High school English teacher with a short temper, a crappy car and two students (respectively named Logan Echolls and Eli Navarro) who need to learn some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Randall - Sarah's stepfather; she doesn't like him very much.
Joanna - A nude model for Andre's latest masterpiece.
Hey! It's That Guy/Girl
Steven Williams (Mr. Daniels) - If you're an X-Phile, Williams is absolutely familiar as Mr. X, the second of Agent Mulder's shadowy sources. Williams has done plenty of other work showing up on film and television alike, most notably 21 Jump Street as Captain Adam Fuller.
John J. York (Randall) - York is known for his work as the Aussie Mac Scorpio on the daytime soap opera, General Hospital, a role that he has played off and on (through lead and recurring status) since 1991.
Highlights
Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls) & Francis Capra (Eli 'Weevil' Navarro) - Male buddy movies are a cinematic staple that has enjoyed a great deal of success. The Girl Next Door features a bland mystery with weak, forgettable guest stars but the episode is redeemed by the superlative Logan and Weevil show. As they attempt to show who does indeed have the largest cojones, Dohring and Capra snark and banter in a fierce game of oneupmanship. Ho-yay? Oh yea. Chemistry? You can practically see the sparks fly. But then Jason Dohring seems to bring out the best in everyone he performs opposite.
For many, this episode's Mystery of the Week (MoTW) just served as a series of annoying interruptions between the marvelous Logan/Weevil scenes. Still, for completeness ... We open at Veronica's apartment complex (Sunset Cliffs). She watches as paramedics take a man, looking none too well for wear, away on a stretcher. Voiceover wonders if things could have turned out differently. If this tragedy is all her fault.
Action resumes one week earlier poolside at Sunset Cliffs. Growing up in Illinois, my friends and I thought living by a pool was a clear symbol of wealth. In Neptune, having to share a pool is apparently a sign of the depths to which the Mars family has sunk. Veronica discusses the Snow Patrol CD she's loaned to her visibly pregnant neighbor, Sarah, establishing that, through the ceiling, she can hear not only the CD but Sarah and her boyfriend (Andre) fighting. Seems Andre is suspicious that Sarah is sleeping with her boss and that he may have stolen her journal to check up on her. Killer, Sarah's ironically named, high-strung, beady-eyed little dog, takes in the discussion from Sarah's laundry basket. Sarah asks Veronica if she can take her to her doctor's appointment for some hand-holding. So we've established that Andre is a jealous boyfriend who won't accompany his girlfriend to her pre-natal checkups. Suspicious.
Veronica returns home from school to more fighting. Apparently Andre had the gall to tell Sarah's mother about her pregnancy. Andre storms off; Sarah screams at him to go spend the night with Joanna; Andre screams at Sarah that she's just hormonal, which from my experience is a sure way to make her love you. Veronica is caught staring.
That night, while sleeping, Veronica hears a scream, followed by a thump. In the morning she asks Keith if he also heard this "body falling" sound. He's somewhat more flippant than I might be with a daughter who recently saw her best friend's dead body, but his response, "would you describe the noise as Hitchcockian?" is funny. Veronica goes to Sarah's apartment; she's not there, and through the window we see Killer barking and an apartment in serious disarray. Domestic violence warning bells are ringing.
After failing to reach Sarah by phone from school, Veronica heads to the clothing store where she works. Her boss -- whose level of, ahem, masculinity, makes Sarah's claim that Andre is jealous of him possible only if Andre has never met him -- says Sarah didn't show up for work. He points a finger at Andre, saying he knows they always fight based on conversations he heard when Sarah "spent the night at his place." Guess that would give Andre some basis for jealousy ... again, unless he's met the guy.
On the boss' lead, Veronica goes to Andre's dark, mysterious looking art studio. He certainly looks like the skeevy, drug-addicted boyfriends I remember from Beverly Hills 90210. He says Sarah has just run off, because that's what she does, including running off from her parents in Ohio. She'll turn up. Veronica threatens him with Keith's Sheriff/PI background, until she's interrupted by a disrobing woman. Presumably Joanna, whom Andre is preparing to draw.
While sleeping that night, Veronica hears Killer barking, and voiceover-argues that because dogs are "nature's psychic detectives" she now has sufficient cause to break into Sarah's apartment. I wonder how that argument would hold up in court. Maybe the fact that it came from the voice inside her head would set up a different defense. In any case, she finds Sarah's phone with calls from Veronica and the doctor, and then finds a gun. Andre comes home. Veronica hides in the shower, but Killer gives her up. She tells Andre she came up to quiet Killer, and the door was open. It's possible that Sarah left it open, right? He is not tricked by this, and says that it is possible. Veronica leaves looking freaked out.
Returning home the next day, Veronica sees Andre with Sarah's parents on the steps at Sunset Cliffs. He tells them he has no idea where she is. After Andre goes inside, Veronica approaches and suggests Keith can find her. Taking Veronica's suggestion, Sarah's mother, Emily, goes to Keith, telling him that Sarah changed her senior year because she was angry about her Mom's re-marriage. And that she has a thing for angry young men (as, I think, do more than a few viewers of this show. At least for one angry young man, not named Andre).
Sarah's mother says that Sarah took off a year ago without saying goodbye. At home, Keith tells Veronica that he wants her off the case. Cases where girls run away, take up with angry young men, then go missing, rarely end well. Nor do TV shows where a girl's behavior changes after a stepfather enters the picture.
Picking up the next day, Voiceover tells us Veronica can stay on the case if she stays clear of Andre. She calls the doctor pretending to be Sarah and learns the baby is not Andre's. Uh oh. Goes back to Sarah's work, where a very defensive boss says it's not his, and that maybe she got pregnant when she was raped. He doesn't know who did it. Double Uh Oh. Veronica is puzzled that the boss knows she was raped, then realizes he took the journal when Sarah stayed over. He won't produce the journal, so Veronica calls in her trusty motorcycle gang for a little store vandalism, which apparently convinces him.
Late that night: Keith is tailing Andre. Sees him with Joanna, loading suitcases in a trunk. He follows them to the train station, and tells Andre that skipping town doesn't look good. Andre says he's not leaving, just dropping off Joanna, who has to run to catch her train. Even if it's a little odd to take a woman who is not your girlfriend to the train station late at night, it's now quite clear (if it wasn't already) that Andre was a red herring in all this.
Back at the Mars home, Veronica gives one of her trusty arguments for breaking someone's privacy, while reading the diary. In this case, she's probably justified, as the diary has a picture of a place labeled "paradise," which turns out to be a nearby spot on the ocean where Veronica finds Sarah, living out of her car.
Back in their apartment, Andre is telling Sarah she'll have to talk to her parents eventually. Downstairs, Keith is telling Veronica that he trusts Andre and that "a man's gotta be pretty committed to a woman to agree to raise another man's child." In great Veronica Mars fashion, the major implications of that line have Veronica and us so floored that we almost miss the crucial question that follows: "Do you know who the father is?"
Upstairs, Sarah is coming out of her room to confront her parents. Downstairs, Keith is yelling at Veronica for not telling him that Sarah was raped. Upstairs, we hear Sarah yelling at her Mom "YOUR HUSBAND RAPED ME." Keith heads up. The stepfather (Randall) tells Sarah to keep quiet; she pulls a gun; a struggle ensues, and Randall gets the gun. He's just about to hit Sarah when Keith shoots him in the right shoulder. The paramedics arrive, and we've come full circle.
- The Sunset Cliffs Apartments has two stories. The laundry room is on the ground floor. The Mars live in apartment 110 on the first floor. They can hear the occupants of the apartment above them through the ceiling.
- The pool cleaner at the Sunset Cliff Apartments is named Rocky.
- Weevil promised his grandmother that he would stay in school.
- Keith wants Veronica to be a highly paid, Ivy-League educated executive of some sort who never thinks about private investigation again in her perfect life.
- Keith is a sound sleeper.
- Liannes maiden name is Reynolds.
- Logans locker is still on the bottom.
- The teachers at Neptune High have assigned spots.
- Lisa Murphy gives Tom Daniels a ride to school when he needs one.
- Weevil is still helping out Veronica when she asks nicely.
- Keith is a pretty good shot and uses a semiautomatic.
- Aaron Echolls filmed a movie titled Hair Trigger. In it he wore some godawful black cowboy boots with red stars that he has agreed to donate to Neptune High for their fundraising auction. Clemmons hopes to pay for their new scoreboard with the profit from their sale.
- Logan and Weevil have Mr. Daniels' English class together. During a test, Logan thinks that Weevil is copying off him. He calls him on it and the teacher gives them both a zero. Logan mouths off to the teacher, Weevil laughs and the teacher gives them both detention. Instead of studying, Logan is playing solitaire and Weevil is commenting on the injustice of getting into trouble for Logans actions. After some serious snark they end up playing poker and getting caught by the teacher who extends their detention to a full week.
The next day Daniels tells them to wash his car. Logan insists that chores are not a legitimate part of detention, but Daniels threatens them with worse punishment because of the gambling and they reluctantly begin washing. The next day they are told to alphabetize Daniels' bookshelves by author and title. Instead, they start throwing the books around. Weevil tells Logan that he has a plan and then cuts to Mr. Daniels finding that his car is missing.
The next morning Mr. Daniels gets a ride to school and finds his car impaled on the flagpole. Mr. Clemmons blames Weevil and has him brought to his office. They claim that they have a witness but start to lean on Weevil to give up his accomplice. Weevil refuses and is expelled. Duncan, who heard the Clemmons interview and saw Weevil being escorted off the school premises, tells Logan. Logan seems upset that Weevil was kicked out of school.
The next day Logan shows up at Clemmons' office and tells him that he is upset Weevil is getting all the credit for the car and the flagpole incident. He confesses to helping and just as Clemmons is about to lower the boom, Logan puts his feet on the desk, with the boots Clemmons wanted so badly on them.
Later, Clemmons, who obviously made a deal with Logan, tells Weevil (who is no longer expelled) and Logan that they are going to paint over some graffiti as punishment for their actions. They will get a note in their permanent records, but neither will be suspended or expelled. As they are painting, Logan notices that Weevil has a heart shaped, red tattoo that says Lilly on his left shoulder. Weevil claims that it is his sisters name and Logan seems to believe him.
- Jake Kane and Lianne Mars were high school sweethearts (the theme at their prom was Love is Thicker than Water).
Also in their graduating class were ...
- Evelyn Bugby sat next to Jake Kane in Typing class. At the time, he was a slow typer.
- Lianne Reynolds' yearbook entry shows:
- Weevil was sleeping with Lilly before her death. Felix knew about the relationship.
- Before Lilly died, Duncan dumped Veronica. After a very weird morning at school where everyone seemed to know what was going on in her relationship except her, Veronica asked Lilly to find out why. Lilly tried to blow her off assuring Veronica that it was a phase and that she and Duncan were made for each other, but Veronica insists that she talk to Duncan. Lilly finally agrees to ask him saying, I don't know what you people would do without me. (Oh Lilly, they will miss you greatly. Too bad you were so screwed up.)
The next day Lilly tells Veronica that the break up is for the best and that Veronica will find another boyfriend. Lilly assures Veronica that it wasnt her fault but that Duncan just needs some time alone.
- The whole episode after the teaser. (Read detailed breakdown.)
- Veronica asks Lilly to help her.
- Lilly tells Veronica that Duncan had his reasons.
"The Trial of the Century" (The French Kicks)
Scene: Veronica indulges in a little domestic goddess bliss, i.e. she's doing the laundry. I hope it's just HER laundry, cuz doing Keith's -- I mean, your dad's underwear? -- that's just ewww!
"Yellow Butta Sunshine" (Pop)
Scene: Weevil and the PCH gang do some pre-Labor-Day browsing on Neptune's version of Rodeo Drive at Veronica's behest.
"La Femme d'Argent" (Air)
Scene(s): (1) Logan and Weevil bond while painting over lewd graffiti. And then unbond When Logan discovers graffiti on Weevil's body.
(2) Veronica invades someone else's privacy -- but, but, but it's for a good reason. If she hadn't read Sarah's most private, inner-most thoughts she never would have found her before she was ready to be found.
In Memory
Veronica: Why is Duncan pretending I no longer exist?
Lilly: Umm ... because he's a freak. I don't know. I'm his sister, not his shrink.
Lilly: You know, I don't know what you people would do without me.
Lilly: I can think of a half dozen guys off the top of my head that would be a better match for you than Duncan.
Quotable Quotes
Veronica: You are so lucky he's your dog. I would immediately put him in a little sailor's outfit.
Clemmons: Mr. Echolls. I was wondering if I could have a word.
Logan: Anthropomorphic. All yours, big guy.
Clemmons: Oh. (He chuckles, a tad anxiously.) Your father has generously offered to donate a pair of boots for a school fundraising auction.
Logan: Not the ones made for walking. God, I love those boots.
Clemmons: Ah, the pair he wore in Hair Trigger.
Logan: Hmmm.
Clemmons: They're a big ticket item. We're hoping we'll be able to pay for our new scoreboard with what we'll make off of them.
Logan: (Crossing his fingers.) Hope so.
Clemmons: Unfortunately, I haven't been able to reach your father. I was hoping you could remind him.
Logan: I'll have my assistant call his assistant.
Ms. Dent: Class of '79. Think of all the bad clothes you can mock. Velour shirts. Platform shoes.
Veronica Mars Voiceover: And somewhere amidst the "most likely to succeed" and "class sweetheart," my mom. Lianne Reynolds, "most likely to disappear off the face of the earth."
Logan: They teach you manners in ESL?
Weevil: If I was gonna cheat, don't you think I'd pick somebody smart?
Logan: If you was gonna?
Mr. Daniels: Ah, alas. You both get zeros. No talking during test.
Logan: I guess Mrs. Daniels ain't giving it up at home, huh?
Mr. Daniels: You know, the glow of your father's wealth and celebrity may be enough to sustain you through high school, Mr. Echolls, but do you know what it will get you in the real world?
Logan: (Holding his hands as if in prayer, looking heavenward.) Please say 'high school English teacher.' Please say 'high school English teacher.' (Weevil laughs.)
Mr. Daniels: Mr. Navarro. I wonder if you'll find Mr. Echolls so amusing ten years from now. When you're pumping his gas.
Weevil: You know what I love? I love that I get a zero for talking, when you were the one who was talking to me. You get detention for dissing the teacher in front of everybody. And I get detention for laughing. Let me ask you something, man.
Logan: Is this detention or hell?
Weevil: How do you people not make yourselves sick? I mean, it's like you walk on water in this school. For what? It's nothing that you do. I mean, all that matters is who your parents are and the zip code your mom shot you out in.
Logan: And if I donate to the United Latino Pain-in-the-Ass fund, will you shut the hell up?
Weevil: You're almost as bad an actor as your father.
Logan: You know that you don't need a diploma to steal hubcaps, right? I mean, why do you even show up here?
Weevil: I promised my grandmother.
Logan: Hmm.
Weevil: I don't break my promises.
Logan: (With mock sincerity.) And I mean this. Aaww.
Mr. Daniels: Is this Reno or detention?
Logan: Would you believe the best of both?
Mr. Daniels: This is punishment, gentlemen, not party time.
Logan: Well, that would explain the absence of balloon animals.
Veronica: Did you hear something last night?
Keith: What kind of something?
Veronica: Like a loud thump from upstairs.
Keith: Well, no, but you know me. I can sleep through an earthquake. Why?
Veronica: I don't know. It sounded like a falling body. It really freaked me out.
Keith: A falling body?
Veronica: Yes. A falling body.
Keith: Would you describe the sound as Hitchcockian? (Laughs.)
Veronica: I'm glad you're able to entertain yourself.
Keith: Oh, sweetie, don't sell yourself short. I find you completely entertaining.
Veronica Mars Voiceover: The people that say high school years are the best years of your life are usually on the yearbook staff. I just pray that bake sales and pep rallies aren't as good as it gets.
Logan: Is this a joke?
Mr. Daniels: No, Mr. Echolls, this is detention.
Logan: I meant the car. (Acts embarrassed.) Oh, my God! It's not yours, is it?
Veronica: I heard a noise come from your apartment last night. A loud thump.
Andre: Thump. Hmm. That must have been when I cracked her head open with a candlestick and she crumpled to the ground. No, wait. That was Professor Plum in the study.
Logan: You obviously have no appreciation of literature. (Drops a book and kicks it across the room.) Would that it were Mr. Daniels' head!
Weevil: I was thinking more like that scene in Casino. With the vice grip.
Logan: Ah, see I'm more of a purist, you know, less blood, more emotional distress. I'd rather see him locked in a room, padded, crapping himself in the corner. You know, he's an English teacher. He'd appreciate the poetic justice.
Weevil: I think I've got your poetic justice.
Logan: Meaning?
Weevil: Meaning I've got a plan.
Logan: Tick tick. Losing interest.
Weevil: Well, if I thought you had the cojones to pull it off, I'd tell you, but...
Logan: Never underestimate the size of my cojones.
Clemmons: Interesting artwork you left at the flagpole this morning.
Weevil: Artwork? Looks to me like Mr. Daniels has a little drinking and driving problem.
Logan: Man, I tell you Mr. Clemmons, I am pissed off!
Clemmons: I need for you to use appropriate language in here, Mr. Echolls. (Logan sits in the chair before Clemmons' desk, adopting an abashed demeanor.) Now, what's got under your skin?
Logan: It's, uh, it's that Weevil kid.
Clemmons: He is no longer a student here.
Logan: Yeah, I know. But the problem is, he's getting all the credit for sticking Mr. Daniels' car on the flagpole. And all of the sudden, he's like the biggest badass in (Pausing at the look on Clemmons' face.) ... rad dude here at Neptune. I mean, people are gonna be talking about that punking for years.
Clemmons: I don't think I understand.
Logan: I mean, I want my share of the credit.
Clemmons: You're confessing to helping Eli Navarro? You can't just get away with this, young man.
Logan: (Sighing in faux regret.) Yeah, I didn't think I could. (Pausing, Logan casually swings one foot onto the desktop, then the other, prominently displaying a familiar -- judging by Clemmons' expression -- pair of boots.) So, what kind of punishment are we talking about? (He winks.)
Nathan: You realize you're paranoid.
Veronica: I do. Everyone reminds me. But it doesn't mean I'm not right.
Clemmons: This will go on your permanent record, but you're extremely fortunate that you're not being suspended or expelled.
Weevil: Um, does it -- does it go on my, my permanent record that I was un-expelled?
Weevil: You put your hands on me like that again, you'll lose one of 'em.
Logan: Yeah, I think I just peed myself.
Keith: I know. Word's out in the complex. I'm very impressed.
Veronica: Think I've got a future in the biz?
Keith: I think you've got a future as a highly-paid, Ivy League educated executive of some sort who never thinks about private investigation again in her perfect life. Now. Let's do something normal fathers and daughters do.
Veronica: Buy me a pony?
Keith: I was thinking I'd watch TV and you'd rub my feet.
Veronica: Hmm. Yeah, that's normal.
Veronica: I still really don't trust Andre.
Keith: I don't know. He knows about the DNA test, that ... the baby's not his. And he said it didn't matter.
Veronica: Which in itself is all sorts of freakish.
Keith: Or it's a testament to how much he loves her. A man's gotta be pretty committed to a woman, who would agree to raise another man's child.
Veronica Mars Voiceover: But can I let myself slide? Sure, the real tragedy happened long before I came along. I just brought it to the surface. But are some things better left buried?
Snow Patrol ... (Referenced in the first scene between Veronica and Sarah regarding the Snow Patrol CD that Sarah borrowed.)
Snow Patrol is an alternative indie pop rock quartet from Northern Ireland. Founded by vocalist/ guitarist Gary Lightbody and bass/ keyboardist Mark McClelland while students at Scotlands Dundee University in 1994, the musical duo originally used the name Polar Bear. Former Janes Addiction bassist Eric Avery claimed rights to the moniker; Lightbody and McClelland became a trio with the addition of drummer Johnny Quinn and re-dubbed the group "Snow Patrol." Under the Scottish record label Jeepster, Snow Patrol released their debut album, Songs for Polar Bears in 1998.
Snow Patrol released a sophomore album in 2001, and parted ways with Jeepster, while picking up an extra guitarist, Nathan Connolly. Positive response to the demos for Snow Patrols next album Final Straw, with emotional songs about lost loves and Iraq War, facilitated the signing of the group to Polydor Records. Final Straw hit #3 on the U.K. charts, and released three singles from the album, including "Run" which debuted at #5. Final Straw was released in the U.S. in April 2004. In Spring 2005, Mark McClelland left the band due to creative differences, and the group added bassist Paul Wilson and touring keyboardist Tom Simpson as a full-fledged members.
These Boots Are made for Walkin' ... (Referenced by Logan when Clemmons asks him about Aarons' boots from Hair Trigger.)
First released in 1966 and recently covered by Jessica Simpson for the 2005 movie, Dukes of Hazzard, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" is the most well-known song by Nancy Sinatra. Sinatra was born in 1940 to singer Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy, the eldest of the couple's three children. Nancy followed in her famous father's footsteps, making her first television appearance with her father in the late 1950's, and landing roles in several movies in the early 1960's.
In the mid 1960's, Nancy burst onto the music scene with songs like "So Long Babe" and "How Does that Grab You Darlin,'" tunes that were a departure from the customary girl crying over boy mantra of the time. Instead, Nancy's songs were a glaring statement about women expecting more from their men and standing strong in the face of romantic disappointment. In 1966, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" stomped up the charts to #1 armed with its sassy, rocking beat, Nancy's high-heeled go-go boots, ultra-mod fashion spreads and rebellious persona. Sinatra went on to hit the music charts twenty-two times with her anthems of female independence and toughness, becoming the first female rebel rocker and paving the way for a whole new genre of musicians.
The lyrics:
Simply put (because there really is no other way to put it), the Miss California USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state California in the Miss USA pageant. The Miss USA pageant would be the beauty contest (held every year since 1952) that features its winners competing in the Miss Universe pageant.
ESL ... (Referenced by Logan to Weevil as he notices Weevil look at him during their English test.)
ESL is the common abbreviation for English as a Second Language and refers to the use or study of English by speakers of other languages. This term is most often used in relation to teaching and learning English, but it may also be used in relation to demographic information or as a jibe from an elitist rich boy talking down to a Latino gang member.
Reno ... (Referenced in the gambling scene with Logan and Weevil upon Mr. Daniels' entrance.)
Reno, Nevada is frequently referred to as "The Biggest Little City in the World," as its 85.2 square miles is dense with a diverse arts and entertainment scene, year-round outdoor recreation and exciting nightlife and gaming opportunities. Reno was settled in 1859 and was settled rapidly over the next 40 years with the addition of a Central Pacific Railroad station, the relocation of the University of Nevada to the city, as well as the legalization of gambling in 1879.
Reno is home to approximately 200,000 people and a booming tourism industry. Situated less than 30 miles from the California border in the western part of Nevada, Reno is approximately 45 minutes north of Lake Tahoe and 15 well-known winter sports resorts. Reno is nestled 4,400 feet above sea level and enjoys a mild climate with roughly 300 sunny days per year, which facilitates an extremely active recreational atmosphere.
Hitchcockian ... (Referenced when Veronica and Keith are discussing the mysterious bump in the night that Veronica heard from the apartment above theirs.)
Often referred to as the "Master of Suspense," Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (1899-1980) inspired the thriller film genre. Known for such works as Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Birds and Psycho. Hitchcock has become synonymous with a myriad of specific movie elements. His movies had many characteristics that distinguished his work from that of other filmmakers, plot devices that to this day represent a certain atmosphere and quality of movie. To say a film has Hitchcockian fundamentals or undertones is to note the use of these specific techniques of storytelling.
Hitchcock was a proponent of the element of suspense versus surprise in his work. Hitchcock chose to show the audience facts that the film characters are not privy to, and then build tension towards the revelation of truth, allowing the viewers to be voyeurs, even directing camera shots so that occasionally characters appear to be looking at the audience.
In efforts to build suspense, Hitchcock often used a preferred plot device that he termed the "MacGuffin;" a detail that peaks the characters' curiosity and drives the plot and motivates the actions of characters within the story, but whose specific identity and nature is unimportant to the spectator of the film. Other common Hitchcock film trademarks are the recurrent theme of mistaken or assumed identity, ordinary people chased by the police and the villains, and his patented cameo appearance.
Hitchcock also displayed his affection for the technical aspects of filmmaking, by utilizing memorable special effects and images well before the age of overthe-top cinematic effects. Surprisingly, despite many accolades for his abilities, Hitchcock never won an Oscar for his directing work. Hitchcock did receive the 1979 American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, before his death the following year. Hitchcock's influence on the world of thriller films is widely appreciated, and many critics consider his work to be the gold standard for the genre.
Sid and Nancy ... (Referenced in the first scene between Veronica and Sarah's boss in the boutique.)
The subject of Sid and Nancy, a 1986 semi-biographical film, starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, Sex Pistols bassist John Simon Ritchie "Sly" a.k.a. Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen were the poster couple for dysfunctional relationships. British Sid was 19 years old when he joined the Sex Pistols, a well-marketed group representing rebellion and disenfranchised youth; Sid was the embodiment of the notoriously destructive bad boy image that the Sex Pistols aimed to convey. Sid met Philadelphia born Nancy in 1977 while she was a groupie and sometime prostitute in London and the pair began a tumultuous 21-month union characterized by heroin and alcohol abuse, and violent break-up to make-up physical altercations.
The co-dependent pair's overbearing relationship rapidly took a toll on Sex Pistols, leading to a viable tension during the group's 1978 US tour. During a concert mid-tour, lead singer Johnny Rotten walked off stage after a dispute with Vicious; Sid responded by abruptly quitting the band and returning to London, where with Nancy's assistance, he embarked on an ill-fated solo stint. Sid and Nancy moved into New York City's well-known Chelsea Hotel, and entered a period of intense violence and increased drug abuse.
On October 12, 1978, police responded to a report of a domestic dispute and found Nancy dead from a single stab wound to her abdomen. The wound was traced to Sid's knife, and he was arrested for murder. Sid was released on bail and the following January in the company of his mother, Beverly, Sid injected heroin that she had purchased for him. Beverly discovered her son dead of an overdose the next morning, in what many refer to as a suicide. Against the wishes of the Spungen family, Beverly scattered her son's ashes on Nancy's grave.
Ohio ... (Referenced by Andre to Veronica as he tells her Sarah hasn't spoken to her parents since leaving there.)
Part of the Midwest, Ohio is a cultural and geographical crossroads, which was settled by people from New England, the Middle States, Appalachia, and the upper south. "This slice of the mid-west contains a bit of everything American -- part north-eastern and part southern, part urban and part rural, part hardscrabble poverty and part booming suburb," notes The Economist. The state was the first admitted to the Union under the Northwest Ordinance.
The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance) was an act of the Continental Congress of the United States passed on July 13, 1787 under the Articles of Confederation. The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region around the Great Lakes north and west of the Ohio River. On August 7, 1789, the U.S. Congress affirmed the Ordinance with slight modifications under the Constitution.
Arguably the single most important piece of legislation passed by the Continental Congress other than the Declaration of Independence, it established the precedents by which the United States would expand westward across North America by the admission of new states, rather than by the expansion of existing states.
Ohio is an Iroquois word meaning "good river." The name refers to the Ohio River that forms its southern border.
Professor Plum in the study/Clue ... (Referenced by Andre after Veronica shows up in his loft.)
Clue is a detective board game created by Anthony Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England, in 1944 where it is known as Cluedo. Manufactured by Parker Bros, now a part of Hasbro, in 1948, in the United States it is known as Clue. It was also made into a 1985 movie starring Martin Mull, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Leslie Ann Warren, Madeline Kahn, Tim Curry and Michael McKean. Clue is a classic whodunit mystery surrounding the murder of Mr. Boddy (Mr. Black in the the British Cluedo). There are six suspects (e.g. Professor Plum, Miss Scarlett), six possible murder weapons and nine rooms (such as the kitchen, conservatory or study) in which the shocking act may have taken place.
Players are dealt character, weapon and location cards after one card from each category is removed and placed in a confidential file. Players must then move through the rooms on the board and determine the who, what and where of the crime by making accusations, and asking other players to disprove the suppositions by showing any of the cards accused. Once a player knows what cards the other players are holding they will know what cards are in the secret file.
Professor Plum's character is forever changing in the interpretation of the game. Sometimes he's old, sometimes he's young. In British Cluedo, the Professor has always been the eldest of the male suspects, whereas in America, he has been the youngest male suspect for some years now! One thing is for sure, and that is he is an archaeologist. This usually leads to his motive for murder, that Dr. Black / Mr. Boddy won't fund his latest project. Plum is also commonly portrayed as a the stereotype "absent-minded" professor.
Picasso ... (Referenced by Joanna as a nickname to Andre while in the loft after Veronica shows up.)
Pablo Picasso was a painter, sculptor, collagist and ceramist, widely considered to the foremost figure in 20th-Century art. Born Pablo Ruiz y Picasso in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Picasso displayed extraordinary artistic abilities as a child, and was accepted into advanced classes at the Royal Academy of Art in Barcelona at the age of 15. In 1900, he moved to France and began depicting the world of the poor, including beggars and prostitutes, mostly in working in tones of blue -- what is often referred to as his well-known "Blue Period."
Picasso is most famous as the co-founder of Cubism. In 1907, inspired by Cezanne, Picasso created Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City), an expression of space in geometric terms; this work is often referred to as analytic cubism. In the next phase of synthetic cubism, Picasso began creating larger, more fragmented and representational forms in his pieces. Picasso's cubist work demonstrated that art could exist in and of itself, not necessarily with the intent to represent any sort of reality.
Picasso produced a wide range and body of work, some 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, and 300 sculptures and ceramics plus other miscellaneous pieces.
William Shakespeare (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the most famous bard who ever lived; he adapted stories from poetry, history and myth for the stage with such mastery that he has long been considered England's greatest ever poet (despite the fact he was a playwright by profession). This opinion is largely thanks to the Romantics of the early nineteenth century, especially the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge ("Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," etc.). Prior to Coleridge's praise of Shakespeare, many scholars like Ben Johnson and his Augustans considered Shakespeare a 'wild poet' who had 'touches of brilliance' but little concept of the 'poetic unities' they so liked to see in the literature they praised.
In his short lifetime, he (arguably) wrote thirty-seven plays in three genres: Histories (Macbeth, King Richard II, Antony and Cleopatra, King Henry VIII etc.) Tragedies (Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear etc.) and Comedies (The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night etc.). All of the plays mentioned are still adapted for stage and film today. In his day, the plays were performed by his theatre company, the Chamberlain's Men, at The Globe Theatre which was located in Bankside (now Southwark) beside the Thames. Bankside was outside of proper London and the jurisdiction of puritan law that would close theatres down at the slightest innuendo (and Shakespeare loved "corrupting" his plebeian audience with sexual innuendo, trust me on that). His plays were performed there until 1613 when a stage manager got too creative and shot a canon ball through the roof during a performance of King Henry VIII. The theatre burned down. The Chamberlain's Men moved their performances to The Black Friars an old monastery (which must have pissed those puritans off) until the Globe was rebuilt again. Shakespeare's company continued to perform at the new Globe until England's puritan administration finally got their way in 1642 and all the playhouses were closed for the better morality of society. It's kind of funny how history turned out thinking he was a genius. Hmm. Of course, considering how much we love him, The Globe was rebuilt (close to its original location) and you can visit it in London today. See the site for more information.
Aside from his plays, he also invented the English form of the sonnet (otherwise known as the Shakespearean sonnet) made up of three rhyming quatrains (abab, cdcd, efef) and a concluding couplet. He wrote a collection of 154 sonnets, the most famous of these is probably Sonnet XVIII and you all know the lines: Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate ... '
Most teenagers would know him as the man that haunted and tortured their school days ala Old Hamlet's ghost. But don't worry, if you ever experienced that pain just watch Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder and enjoy the pleasurable experience of Adder punching William Shakespeare in the face on your behalf.
Edgar Allan Poe ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
A famous writer known almost as much fo his state of depression as for his beautiful works of fiction, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809 and was one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. Poe was the son of actors David Poe, Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. As a babe of three weeks old, he was abandoned by his father and his mother died a year later from consumption. Poe was taken in by John Allan, a prosperous tobacco merchant in Richmond, Virginia and it was from his benefactor's surname that Poe got his middle name.
After serving an apprenticeship, Poe registered at the University of Virginia in 1826. However, he only matriculated for one year, shortly thereafter, he became estranged from his foster father due to Poe's gambling debts -- debts he had acquired while trying to get more spending money. Under the name of Edgar A. Perry, Poe then enlisted in the U.S. Army on May 26, 1827. That same year, he released his first book (anonymously as: 'By a Bostonian'), Tamerlane and Other Poems. This tome is now so rare that a surviving copy has been sold for $200,000. After serving for two years and attaining the rank of sergeant major, Poe was discharged.
In 1829, Poe's foster mother, Frances Allan, died, and he published his second book, Al Aaraaf. As his foster mother's dying wish, Poe reconciled with his foster father, who helped him gain an appointment at West Point. However, once there, he deliberately disobeyed orders and was dismissed. This was the final straw, and John Allan disowned Poe a final time -- and Poe returned the favor -- until the latter's death on March 6, 1831.
Poe next moved to Baltimore, Maryland with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm and her daughter, Poe's first cousin, Virginia Eliza Clemm. Poe wrote fiction to support himself, and in December of 1835, he began editing the Southern Literary Messenger for Thomas W. White. On May 16, 1836, he married Virginia, who was 13 at the time.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was published and widely reviewed in 1838. In the summer of 1839, Poe became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. He published a large number of articles, stories, and reviews, enhancing the reputation as a trenchant critic that he had established at the Southern Literary Messenger. Also in 1839, the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes. Though not a financial success, it was a milestone in the history of American literature, collecting such classic Poe tales as "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia."
While his professional life was showing success, his personal life was falling apart. His wife, Virginia, suffered from an ailment from what we now know is tubercolosis. In response to his wife's ailment, Poe began drinking heavily. It was during this time that a few major events occured in Poe's life. The first was a noisy public feud with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and then on January 29, 1845, his poem "The Raven" appeared in the Evening Mirror and became a popular sensation.
In 1846. Poe moved to a cottage in the Fordham section of The Bronx, New York. He loved the Jesuits at Fordham University and frequently strolled about its campus conversing with both students and faculty. Fordham University's bell tower even inspired him to write "The Bells." The Poe Cottage is on the southeast corner of the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road, and is open to the public. It was there that Virginia died a year later. Despondent over his wife's death, his drinking increased and his behavior became more erratic. He courted poet Sarah Helen Whitman, but his behavior and her mother's interference derailed that romance. Eventually, he returned to Richmond and took up with is child sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster.
How his life finished out his journey is unknown, but on October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious and "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance," according to the man who found him. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died early on the morning of October 7. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. Some sources say Poe's final words were "Lord help my poor soul."
Till this day, there is much confusion over the cause of Edgar Allan Poe's death. Some blamed alcoholism, but certain facts deny that diagnosis. Other theories include several forms of rare brain disease, diabetes, various types of enzyme deficiency, syphilis, the idea that Poe was shanghaied, drugged, and used as a pawn in a ballot-box-stuffing scam during the election that was held on the day he was found, and, more recently, rabies. The rabies death theory was proposed by Dr. R. Michael Benitez, and is based upon the fact that Poe's symptoms before death are similar to those displayed in a classic case of rabies. Cats play a prominent part in many of his stories, and it is conjectured that he was accidentally bitten by a rabid pet. In the absence of contemporary documentation (all surviving accounts are either incomplete or published years after the event; even Poe's death certificate, if one was ever made out, has been lost), it is likely that the cause of Poe's death will never be known.
Some famous works of Poe's include "Annabelle Lee," The Devil In The Belfry, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Pit And The Pendulum. Of course, his most famous piece is "The Raven," a long poem that has been oft-quoted, used in other mediums (a film was made in 1963 loosely based on the poem) and parodied countless times due to its vivid imagery and stark emotion.
William Wordsworth ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
Born on April 7, 1770, William Wordsworth was a great English poet of the Romantic Age -- in fact, Wordsworth and fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature in 1798 with their joint publication, Lyrical Ballads. Englands' Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death on April 23, 1850, some of Wordsworth most well-known poems include "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"
To see a complete collection of Wordsworth's poetical work go here.
Macbeth ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes ..."
Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's most well-known plays; it is also his shortest. The exact date he composed it is uncertain, however most date it around 1606-1610 (because of diary entries and a few performance dates). It is a story about greed and paranoia, highlighting the lengths that men (and women) will go to for power. The history of Macbeth -- a usurper of the Scottish throne - was inspired by King James I's family history. James I (or James VI in Scottish history) inherited the throne of England and took an eager interest in Shakespeare's company (they changed their name from The Chamberlain's Men to the King's Men because of him). James I is actually one of the Kings of Banquo's line that torments Macbeth when the witches show him the future (Act IV, Sc. I). Many commentators thought it a risky political move by Shakespeare to cast doubt on the legitimacy of James's claim to the throne but since Macbeth is also a usurper, I doubt it really bothered James I.
Along with Macbeth, the play features a most remarkable character, surprisingly for Shakespeare's era, a female -- Lady Macbeth -- a power-hungry woman who is slowly driven mad by her guilt and eventually takes her own life. The role is considered one of the more difficult female roles because of the intensity and the swing of emotions the character exhibits. The play's second most famous line is, in fact, spoken by Lady Macbeth -- Out, damned spot! -- referring to the blood she sees uncleansed upon her hand of the nobleman whose murder is tearing away at the Lady's soul. The most famous line of dialogue -- and one that is used today still in representing magic and prophecy -- comes from the opening scene featuring the three witches who foretell the future that sets Macbeth on his murderous, tragic path: Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.
An interesting note about Macbeth: Actors and other theatre people often consider the play to be 'unlucky,' and usually refer to it superstitiously as The Scottish Play rather than by name. In fact, to say the name of the play inside a theatre is believed to doom the production to failure, and perhaps cause physical injury to cast members. Despite this, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and has been made into six film adaptations.
The tale of starts with the titular character a loyal follower to the throne of King Duncan (*snort*), but three witches see in him an evil ambition that they tempt by revealing his future: Thane of Cawdor! King of Scotland! Highly disturbed by their praise, Macbeth thinks nothing of their predictions until Duncan makes him Thane of Cawdor. A wicked ambition awakens in him - if he has become Thane than he will become King. When he relates the story to his wife, Lady Macbeth, she persuades him and they conspire to murder Duncan in his sleep and steal his crown. But murder begets murder and Macbeth is disturbed by the memory that the witches had predicted Banquo, his friend, would have a future more powerful than his own. Banquo would father a line of Kings, but Macbeth would not. Convinced his reign will end in the same way Duncan's did, he goes on a murder spree and is driven mad by the ghosts of his deeds. His paranoid violence only brings about the end he fears and the play closes with his killer holding up his head for the audience to see.
The central question of the play is whether or not Macbeth's actions were destiny running out its course ... or if he would have been happy to be Thane of Cawdor had they never mentioned that he could be King. Is ambition the root of all evil? Another question a Veronica Mars fan might want to ask is are all "Duncans" pure and noble in fiction? In our case, the answer is most definitely not. Just don't tell Rob Thomas that. It might hurt his heart.
Hamlet ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
The Shakespeare play Hamlet, tells the story of the young prince of Denmark, who, after seeing the ghost of his recently deceased father, becomes convinced that his uncle, Claudius, had a hand in killing the former king. Hamlet then sets out to reveal his uncle's guilt, particularly to his mother, who is now Claudius' wife. In going forth with his plans, Hamlet makes enemies, is pushed to murder, loses his mother, incites Claudius' suspicion, and eventually is killed himself. So ultimately, Hamlet did prove his uncle's guilt, but in the process Hamlet's life had become consumed with lies, distrust, and a need for vengeance.
Vice Grip ... (Referenced when Logan and Weevil are "alphabetizing" the books in Mr. Daniels' classroom.)
Casino is a 1995 Martin Scorsese film about the glamour, crime and corruption in 1970's Las Vegas, loosely based on the true story of mafia enforcer Anthony Spilotro and Frank Rosenthal, a manager for several mob owned casinos during the 1970's and 80's.
Casino tells the story of Ace Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) a casino owner of the fictional Tangiers Casino, and his childhood friend and mafia lackey Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) who is sent by Rothstein's Chicago mob connections to ensure Rothstein's compliance with their casino policies of profit skimming and criminal activity. Rounding out the trio of main characters is Ginger (Sharon Stone), an ex-prostitute with a strong proclivity for the good life, the status of marriage to Ace, and her boyfriend Lester (James Woods). Ace, Nicky and Ginger's goals quickly put them at odds with one another, and drugs, violence and betrayal creep in and wreak havoc on their lives.
Casino was widely praised, garnering several Oscar nominations, including one for Sharon Stone, but also criticized for some violent scenes, specifically one taken from a story about Spilotro's real-life interrogation techniques. The "head in a vice" scene was based on Spilotro's questioning of Billy McCarthy, in which he attempted to discover the identity of McCarthy's accomplice in an unsanctioned mob hit.
After several attempts at violent persuasion were unsuccessful, Spilotro shoved McCarthy's head in a vice and crushed it until Billy revealed his partner in crime. The scene in the movie depicts a similar event. Martin Scorsese submitted the film's final cut containing the scene with the expectation that the Motion Picture Association of America would call for its removal, and allow the other violent scenes to remain by default; ultimately the MPAA did not object.
Twelfth Night (aka What You Will) . . . (as referenced by Logan when he's forced to sort books with Weevil because of Mr. Daniels)
Twelfth Night - sometimes known as What You Will - is a comedy by William Shakespeare written (and performed) at the start of the 17th Century (the exact date is unknown). It was first printed in what's commonly referred to as the First Folio - the original collected works of William Shakespeare - in 1623 (thus, there are no conflicting scripts - unlike other plays such as Hamlet).
Twelfth Night tells the story of twins - Sebastian and Viola - who are involved in a shipwreck and wash up on the coast of Illyria. The main plot revolves around mistaken identity and all the amusing gender confusion that springs out of it.
Viola, goes into hiding and pretends to be a Eunuch named Cesario for Duke Orsino (who she happens to be in love with). Meanwhile her brother is missing - presumed dead. Duke Orsino is too in love with the beautiful Olivia to notice a male servant's eager affections and he enlists the eloquent Cesario for help in wooing Olivia. The problems starts when Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Of course, all of this is resolved in the usual comedic way: There's a sword fight, and lots of confusion but in the end Sebastian can easily replace Cesario and Olivia can rip off her moustache and get her man! That's right, love really is skin deep
The reference to the play we are concerned with is actually the subplot and the scene that Twelfth Night is most famous for. The main comedic characters: Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Sir Toby Belch and the Clown, are in constant clash with the play's straight man and puritan, Malvolio, Olivia's steward. They act below their station - drinking and partying and not doing much to take life (and their responsibilities) seriously - and Malvolio has the gall to act above his station - constantly censuring the rowdy Lords for their gawdy behaviour. They take exception to his arrogant, boring self righteousness and hatch a plan to humiliate him with the help of Olivia's maid, Maria.
Maria has very similar handwriting to her mistress and she writes out a letter in which 'Olivia' declares her love for Malvolio and requests he do several ridiculous things to 'please' her (including wearing bright yellow stockings and smiling obscenely). Malvolio's head swells - naturally - and he follows his Lady's requests to a T, looking forward to the moment when he can put Sir Toby and Sir Andrew 'in their place.' Of course, when he starts grinning and preening and hitting on Olivia she decides he's mental and orders him to be 'taken care of' for he is quite ill.
Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and the Clown take him away and lock him in a small dark room without light or food or water. They leave him there until in the famous - and disturbing - Act IV, Scene II when the clown taunts him both as himself and in the desguise of the priest Sir Topas. He tells, Malvolio that he has gone insane:
Logan, clearly thinks that Mr. Daniels is just like Malvolio: A stick in the mud, puritan that arrogantly spoils the fun of his students and social 'betters' (at least where Logan is concerned). When Weevil and Logan discuss what they'd like to do to Mr. Daniels in detention, Logan takes the Shakespeare books as inspiration and says:
Prada ... (Referenced when Weevil and his gang are tearing up the clothing boutique.)
Prada, SpA, is fashion house primarily based in Italy. Founded in 1913 by Mario Prada, the company was a leather goods business until 1978, when Miuccia Prada, Mario's granddaughter assumed the reigns. Miuccia was a reluctant heir to the Prada helm with a PhD in Political Science; Miuccia spent five years performing mime, was a card-carrying Communist party member and women's rights activist in Milan.
However, Miuccia readily accepted the challenge and led the company's expansion into haute couture with her 1985 line of sleek black handbags of finely woven and durable nylon. The line was a huge success, with celebrities and fashionistas alike spending upwards of $200 per bag. Demand for Prada accessories only increased when a ready crop of imitations (Prado, anyone?) began flooding the market.
Encouraged by the success, Miuccia designed Prada's first ready-to-wear line in 1989. The line was a stark, clean counterpart to other labels and spurred the company to introduce a modestly priced line, the Miu Miu collection, in 1992. Inspired by Miuccia's nickname, the new collection continued to use neutral tones and natural fabrics to evoke a simple, earthier look.
Motivated in 1999 by her business partner and husband, Patrizio Bertelli, Miuccia followed the fashion conglomeracy trend and purchased the struggling Fendi to add to Prada's portfolio. Although ultimately this venture was unsuccessful, Prada has added popular labels such as Helmut Lang, Jil Sander and Azzedine Alaia with significant profit.
No White after Labor Day ... (Referenced by Veronica as she walks in on the PCHers harassing Nathan in his store.)
A Labor Day is an annual holiday that resulted from efforts of the labor union movement to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers. It's origins can be found in the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight for recreation and eight for rest. On April 21, 1856, Stonemasons and building workers in Australia stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day. This protest proved successful and the are known as the first organized workers in the world to achieve an eight hour day with no loss of pay. This, in turn, subsequently inspired the celebration of Labor Day and May Day.
The name May Day refers to the fact that most countries celebrate Labor Day on May 1, thus May Day. On the other hand, the United States celebrates the holiday (known as Labor Day only) on the first Monday of September. The origins can be traced back to the Knights of Labor in the United States and a parade organized by them on September 5, 1882 in New York City. Other organizations favored a May date to celebrate the holiday (as most of the world did), but president Grover Cleveland feared that by establishing Labor Day on May 1st, it would become synomynous with the Chicago's Haymarket riots from early May of 1886 and thus celebrate those riots. Therefore, he went with the Knights preferred September date and that is how it stands still today.
Labor Day is generally regarded simply as a day of rest and, unlike on May Day, political demonstrations are rare. Forms of celebration include picnics, barbecues, fireworks displays, water activities, and public art events. Families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer. Some teenagers and young adults view it as the last weekend for parties before returning to school. The custom of not wearing white after Labor day has its roots in two explanations. Firstly, white clothes are worse protection against cold weather in the winter and the second is that the rule was intended as a status symbol for new members of the middle class in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Ivy league ... (Referenced by Keith as he tells Veronica he envisions her future as a highly-paid executive.)
Ivy League refers to an athletic conference of eight private colleges and universities located in the Northeast of the United States: Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Columbia University in New York City, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The conference was established in 1954, but the schools have been around as early as 1701. The academic excellence of these eight institutions is consistently recognized by the U.S. News & World Report's published yearly list of college and university rankings.
Admission to the Ivies is highly selective, with admission rates ranging from 8.6 percent for Yale to 24.7 percent for Cornell. Admitted students typically have SAT Math and Verbal composites well over 1400 and are in the top ten percent of their high school classes. Really, though, Ivy admissions give a whole new meaning to the term "crapshoot." Admissions committees also do not ignore non-academic factors like legacy status, race/ethnicity or state of residence.
The Ivy League sponsors 33 men's and women's sports, and each schools has, on average, more than 35 varsity teams. All eight institutions rank among the top twenty of NCAA Division I schools for the number of sports offered to men and women.
- Logans Shakespeare voice.
- We've had Babs and Brigadoon, now we add Nancy Sinatra's classic, "These Boots are Made (For Walking)." Not a biggie, but definitely raises the eyebrow.
- The entire tenor of the book alphabetizing scene fairly oozes with HoYay!, but there is one moment that especially sticks out. Logan actually references his "cojones" while looking straight into Weevil's eyes. And then he *twinkles* at him. Uh huh.
- Was it residual guilt over Lilly that made Veronica feel so guilty about what happened to Sarah?
- What was Sarah thinking with the laundry room outfit? Yuck!
- Why would the journalism teacher get saddled with an alumni representative? Were they just looking for something for Miss Poitier to do?
- Was Weevil copying off Logan? If not, what was Weevil looking at?
- Why has Veronica never seen the 1979 yearbook before? Didnt Lianne keep her senior yearbook?
- Why is the Vice Principal asking Logan about the boots? Shouldnt the Principal be handling the Echolls Situation?
- Why was Weevil laughing at Logans antics? Didnt he know he would get into trouble?
- Why werent Logan and Weevil being supervised in detention? And, who was winning at poker?
- Veronica and Keiths apartment is on the ground floor? Has it always been? I could swear it was on the second.
- If Veronica was so concerned about the thump she heard, why didnt she investigate or have her father do it that night?
- I thought men didnt talk to each other in the bathroom? Felix and Weevil seemed awfully chatty. Did they violate some macho rule?
- How does Veronica live in the same town her mother grew up in and not know that she dated Jake Kane in high school?
- When was the last time Daniels washed his car?
- So Weevil, what was it like with Lilly? Please, Im all ears.
- Did Duncan know about his father and Veronicas mother being sweethearts?
- Did Sarah know about the nude model? What kind of weird relationship did she and Andre have? He is willing to raise a child that is not his, but seems to have girlfriends on the side?
- Does the apartment complex only have street parking or is that the only place Andre could find a spot?
- Nobody cares what Daniels has the boys do during detention? I would think that Clemmons would want to make sure that Logan has nothing to complain about.
- Did Evelyn really not know that Veronica was Liannes daughter?
- What did Duncan tell Lilly to make her change her mind and tell Veronica that she should date someone else??
- Do Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Daniels have something going on? What was up with the ride?
- How did they get the car on the flagpole? Also, thats genius.
- Why was Duncan getting his schedule changed in the middle of a semester?
- Why did Clemmons have the door open so that Duncan could hear his interview with Weevil? Is that why he is only a Vice Principal?
- What did Weevils grandmother do to him when he got expelled?
- They gave Veronica Sarahs test results over the phone? Wouldnt there have been a security question?
- Also, with the rape and all, why do a DNA test at all? Wouldnt she know that the baby wasnt Andres? Or was she sleeping with Andre before the rape?
- How did Hector recognize Prada?
- Would suede make Weevil more accessible?
- How many people thought Nathan was gay when he first showed up?
- Was Logan suspicious of Weevil and Lilly? Or was it just the tattoo that made him suspect something was going on?
- Why did Logan help Weevil and get him unexpelled?
- Does Weevil have a sister named Lilly? Isnt that something that Logan could have checked if he was really curious?
- How is it that Weevil has Lillys name on his body, and Felix knows about the relationship, but Veronica never had the slightest idea?
- Was it during detention that Logan told Weevil about the high stakes poker game we see in An Echolls Family Christmas?
- Did Celeste tell Duncan about Jake and Liannes history when she informed him that he and Veronica were related? That must have been an interesting conversation. And what did they tell Lilly?
- Foreshadowing abounds in regards to the paternity issue. Especially when Keith says that a man's got to be pretty committed to a woman to agree to raise another man's child. The expression is usually 'Blood is Thicker than Water.' Was the 1979 Prom theme also foreshadowing?
- In this episode the Mars apartment is obviously on the ground floor, but I swear that Leo and Veronica were on the second floor in Hot Dogs.
Written/Compiled By:
JenniferH: Report Card; Band Class; Social Science; Pep Squad Practice
Mastermia (Maria): Yearbook; Social Science; Study Hall; Extra Credit; Philosophy; Homeroom; Principles of Democracy; History
Pixigal (Gerrie): Drama Club
Polartruckin (Belinda): Social Science
SeluciaV (Alli): Social Science
smlf (Mark): Journalism
Tar Frimmer: Study Hall; Literature
Original Air Date: November 09, 2004
Written by: Jed Seidel & Dianne Ruggiero (Story by Seidel)
Directed by: Nick Marck
Staff Grade: B
Membership Grade: C (42.1% / 57 votes)
Thank goodness for the B-story that centered around Logan and Weevil and added additional threads to the main mystery arc. If it were not for the excellence in tone, acting and writing of that subplot, this episode would be a big fat D for dull, dull, dull. The mystery of the week is quite possibly the most boring that the show has ever introduced with characters that (despite being neighbors of the Mars) we have no desire to see again.
Credited Cast Non-Appearance
Percy Daggs III - Wallace Fennell
Recurring Guest Stars (Previous Episode Appearances)
Credited Cast Non-Appearance
Percy Daggs III - Wallace Fennel
Brad Bufanda Felix Toombs
Duane Daniels - Van Clemmons
Ryan Hansen - Dick Casablancas
Brandon Hillock - Deputy Sacks
Amanda Seyfried - Lilly Kane
Patrick Wolff - Hector Corez
Guest Stars
Cameron Bender - Nathan
Jessica Chastain - Sarah Williams
Bonita Friedericy - Evelyn Bugby
Eve Gordon - Emily Williams
Adam Kaufman - Andr
Lefty - Backup
Steven Williams - Mr. Tom Daniels
John J. York - Randall
Deborah Zoe - Joanna
Who's Who in Neptune
Nathan - Manager of a hoity-toity boutique in Neptune.
Sarah Williams - Veronica's heavily-pregnant, upstairs neighbor.
Evelyn Bugby - Former Neptune High student and gossipy busybody who remembers every detail of every scandal (big or small) from her high school years.
Emily Williams - Sarah's mother, visiting from Ohio. (Go Ohio!)
Andre - Sarah's temperamental, angsty artist boyfriend.
Backup - The new Backup, replacing the Pilot Backup, who just couldn't cut it.
Mr. Daniels - High school English teacher with a short temper, a crappy car and two students (respectively named Logan Echolls and Eli Navarro) who need to learn some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Randall - Sarah's stepfather; she doesn't like him very much.
Joanna - A nude model for Andre's latest masterpiece.
Hey! It's That Guy/Girl
Steven Williams (Mr. Daniels) - If you're an X-Phile, Williams is absolutely familiar as Mr. X, the second of Agent Mulder's shadowy sources. Williams has done plenty of other work showing up on film and television alike, most notably 21 Jump Street as Captain Adam Fuller.
John J. York (Randall) - York is known for his work as the Aussie Mac Scorpio on the daytime soap opera, General Hospital, a role that he has played off and on (through lead and recurring status) since 1991.
Highlights
Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls) & Francis Capra (Eli 'Weevil' Navarro) - Male buddy movies are a cinematic staple that has enjoyed a great deal of success. The Girl Next Door features a bland mystery with weak, forgettable guest stars but the episode is redeemed by the superlative Logan and Weevil show. As they attempt to show who does indeed have the largest cojones, Dohring and Capra snark and banter in a fierce game of oneupmanship. Ho-yay? Oh yea. Chemistry? You can practically see the sparks fly. But then Jason Dohring seems to bring out the best in everyone he performs opposite.
For many, this episode's Mystery of the Week (MoTW) just served as a series of annoying interruptions between the marvelous Logan/Weevil scenes. Still, for completeness ... We open at Veronica's apartment complex (Sunset Cliffs). She watches as paramedics take a man, looking none too well for wear, away on a stretcher. Voiceover wonders if things could have turned out differently. If this tragedy is all her fault.
Action resumes one week earlier poolside at Sunset Cliffs. Growing up in Illinois, my friends and I thought living by a pool was a clear symbol of wealth. In Neptune, having to share a pool is apparently a sign of the depths to which the Mars family has sunk. Veronica discusses the Snow Patrol CD she's loaned to her visibly pregnant neighbor, Sarah, establishing that, through the ceiling, she can hear not only the CD but Sarah and her boyfriend (Andre) fighting. Seems Andre is suspicious that Sarah is sleeping with her boss and that he may have stolen her journal to check up on her. Killer, Sarah's ironically named, high-strung, beady-eyed little dog, takes in the discussion from Sarah's laundry basket. Sarah asks Veronica if she can take her to her doctor's appointment for some hand-holding. So we've established that Andre is a jealous boyfriend who won't accompany his girlfriend to her pre-natal checkups. Suspicious.
Veronica returns home from school to more fighting. Apparently Andre had the gall to tell Sarah's mother about her pregnancy. Andre storms off; Sarah screams at him to go spend the night with Joanna; Andre screams at Sarah that she's just hormonal, which from my experience is a sure way to make her love you. Veronica is caught staring.
That night, while sleeping, Veronica hears a scream, followed by a thump. In the morning she asks Keith if he also heard this "body falling" sound. He's somewhat more flippant than I might be with a daughter who recently saw her best friend's dead body, but his response, "would you describe the noise as Hitchcockian?" is funny. Veronica goes to Sarah's apartment; she's not there, and through the window we see Killer barking and an apartment in serious disarray. Domestic violence warning bells are ringing.
After failing to reach Sarah by phone from school, Veronica heads to the clothing store where she works. Her boss -- whose level of, ahem, masculinity, makes Sarah's claim that Andre is jealous of him possible only if Andre has never met him -- says Sarah didn't show up for work. He points a finger at Andre, saying he knows they always fight based on conversations he heard when Sarah "spent the night at his place." Guess that would give Andre some basis for jealousy ... again, unless he's met the guy.
On the boss' lead, Veronica goes to Andre's dark, mysterious looking art studio. He certainly looks like the skeevy, drug-addicted boyfriends I remember from Beverly Hills 90210. He says Sarah has just run off, because that's what she does, including running off from her parents in Ohio. She'll turn up. Veronica threatens him with Keith's Sheriff/PI background, until she's interrupted by a disrobing woman. Presumably Joanna, whom Andre is preparing to draw.
While sleeping that night, Veronica hears Killer barking, and voiceover-argues that because dogs are "nature's psychic detectives" she now has sufficient cause to break into Sarah's apartment. I wonder how that argument would hold up in court. Maybe the fact that it came from the voice inside her head would set up a different defense. In any case, she finds Sarah's phone with calls from Veronica and the doctor, and then finds a gun. Andre comes home. Veronica hides in the shower, but Killer gives her up. She tells Andre she came up to quiet Killer, and the door was open. It's possible that Sarah left it open, right? He is not tricked by this, and says that it is possible. Veronica leaves looking freaked out.
Returning home the next day, Veronica sees Andre with Sarah's parents on the steps at Sunset Cliffs. He tells them he has no idea where she is. After Andre goes inside, Veronica approaches and suggests Keith can find her. Taking Veronica's suggestion, Sarah's mother, Emily, goes to Keith, telling him that Sarah changed her senior year because she was angry about her Mom's re-marriage. And that she has a thing for angry young men (as, I think, do more than a few viewers of this show. At least for one angry young man, not named Andre).
Sarah's mother says that Sarah took off a year ago without saying goodbye. At home, Keith tells Veronica that he wants her off the case. Cases where girls run away, take up with angry young men, then go missing, rarely end well. Nor do TV shows where a girl's behavior changes after a stepfather enters the picture.
Picking up the next day, Voiceover tells us Veronica can stay on the case if she stays clear of Andre. She calls the doctor pretending to be Sarah and learns the baby is not Andre's. Uh oh. Goes back to Sarah's work, where a very defensive boss says it's not his, and that maybe she got pregnant when she was raped. He doesn't know who did it. Double Uh Oh. Veronica is puzzled that the boss knows she was raped, then realizes he took the journal when Sarah stayed over. He won't produce the journal, so Veronica calls in her trusty motorcycle gang for a little store vandalism, which apparently convinces him.
Late that night: Keith is tailing Andre. Sees him with Joanna, loading suitcases in a trunk. He follows them to the train station, and tells Andre that skipping town doesn't look good. Andre says he's not leaving, just dropping off Joanna, who has to run to catch her train. Even if it's a little odd to take a woman who is not your girlfriend to the train station late at night, it's now quite clear (if it wasn't already) that Andre was a red herring in all this.
Back at the Mars home, Veronica gives one of her trusty arguments for breaking someone's privacy, while reading the diary. In this case, she's probably justified, as the diary has a picture of a place labeled "paradise," which turns out to be a nearby spot on the ocean where Veronica finds Sarah, living out of her car.
Back in their apartment, Andre is telling Sarah she'll have to talk to her parents eventually. Downstairs, Keith is telling Veronica that he trusts Andre and that "a man's gotta be pretty committed to a woman to agree to raise another man's child." In great Veronica Mars fashion, the major implications of that line have Veronica and us so floored that we almost miss the crucial question that follows: "Do you know who the father is?"
Upstairs, Sarah is coming out of her room to confront her parents. Downstairs, Keith is yelling at Veronica for not telling him that Sarah was raped. Upstairs, we hear Sarah yelling at her Mom "YOUR HUSBAND RAPED ME." Keith heads up. The stepfather (Randall) tells Sarah to keep quiet; she pulls a gun; a struggle ensues, and Randall gets the gun. He's just about to hit Sarah when Keith shoots him in the right shoulder. The paramedics arrive, and we've come full circle.
- The Sunset Cliffs Apartments has two stories. The laundry room is on the ground floor. The Mars live in apartment 110 on the first floor. They can hear the occupants of the apartment above them through the ceiling.
- The pool cleaner at the Sunset Cliff Apartments is named Rocky.
- Weevil promised his grandmother that he would stay in school.
- Keith wants Veronica to be a highly paid, Ivy-League educated executive of some sort who never thinks about private investigation again in her perfect life.
- Keith is a sound sleeper.
- Liannes maiden name is Reynolds.
- Logans locker is still on the bottom.
- The teachers at Neptune High have assigned spots.
- Lisa Murphy gives Tom Daniels a ride to school when he needs one.
- Weevil is still helping out Veronica when she asks nicely.
- Keith is a pretty good shot and uses a semiautomatic.
- Aaron Echolls filmed a movie titled Hair Trigger. In it he wore some godawful black cowboy boots with red stars that he has agreed to donate to Neptune High for their fundraising auction. Clemmons hopes to pay for their new scoreboard with the profit from their sale.
- Logan and Weevil have Mr. Daniels' English class together. During a test, Logan thinks that Weevil is copying off him. He calls him on it and the teacher gives them both a zero. Logan mouths off to the teacher, Weevil laughs and the teacher gives them both detention. Instead of studying, Logan is playing solitaire and Weevil is commenting on the injustice of getting into trouble for Logans actions. After some serious snark they end up playing poker and getting caught by the teacher who extends their detention to a full week.
The next day Daniels tells them to wash his car. Logan insists that chores are not a legitimate part of detention, but Daniels threatens them with worse punishment because of the gambling and they reluctantly begin washing. The next day they are told to alphabetize Daniels' bookshelves by author and title. Instead, they start throwing the books around. Weevil tells Logan that he has a plan and then cuts to Mr. Daniels finding that his car is missing.
The next morning Mr. Daniels gets a ride to school and finds his car impaled on the flagpole. Mr. Clemmons blames Weevil and has him brought to his office. They claim that they have a witness but start to lean on Weevil to give up his accomplice. Weevil refuses and is expelled. Duncan, who heard the Clemmons interview and saw Weevil being escorted off the school premises, tells Logan. Logan seems upset that Weevil was kicked out of school.
The next day Logan shows up at Clemmons' office and tells him that he is upset Weevil is getting all the credit for the car and the flagpole incident. He confesses to helping and just as Clemmons is about to lower the boom, Logan puts his feet on the desk, with the boots Clemmons wanted so badly on them.
Later, Clemmons, who obviously made a deal with Logan, tells Weevil (who is no longer expelled) and Logan that they are going to paint over some graffiti as punishment for their actions. They will get a note in their permanent records, but neither will be suspended or expelled. As they are painting, Logan notices that Weevil has a heart shaped, red tattoo that says Lilly on his left shoulder. Weevil claims that it is his sisters name and Logan seems to believe him.
- Jake Kane and Lianne Mars were high school sweethearts (the theme at their prom was Love is Thicker than Water).
Also in their graduating class were ...
- - Carrie Ann Leski, who was Miss California and then gained forty pounds
- Ronald Toolan, who currently owns Toolan Motors and is separated from his wife
- Doris Landers, who was class sweetheart, in more ways than one, but otherwise was a very nice girl
- Aaron Stellman, who ended up going to jail
- Evelyn Bugby sat next to Jake Kane in Typing class. At the time, he was a slow typer.
- Lianne Reynolds' yearbook entry shows:
- Tennis 1, 2; Key Club 1, 2, 3, 4
Honor Roll 1, 2, 3, 4; Drama 3
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love." - Sophocles
- Weevil was sleeping with Lilly before her death. Felix knew about the relationship.
- Before Lilly died, Duncan dumped Veronica. After a very weird morning at school where everyone seemed to know what was going on in her relationship except her, Veronica asked Lilly to find out why. Lilly tried to blow her off assuring Veronica that it was a phase and that she and Duncan were made for each other, but Veronica insists that she talk to Duncan. Lilly finally agrees to ask him saying, I don't know what you people would do without me. (Oh Lilly, they will miss you greatly. Too bad you were so screwed up.)
The next day Lilly tells Veronica that the break up is for the best and that Veronica will find another boyfriend. Lilly assures Veronica that it wasnt her fault but that Duncan just needs some time alone.
- The whole episode after the teaser. (Read detailed breakdown.)
- Veronica asks Lilly to help her.
- Lilly tells Veronica that Duncan had his reasons.
"The Trial of the Century" (The French Kicks)
Scene: Veronica indulges in a little domestic goddess bliss, i.e. she's doing the laundry. I hope it's just HER laundry, cuz doing Keith's -- I mean, your dad's underwear? -- that's just ewww!
"Yellow Butta Sunshine" (Pop)
Scene: Weevil and the PCH gang do some pre-Labor-Day browsing on Neptune's version of Rodeo Drive at Veronica's behest.
"La Femme d'Argent" (Air)
Scene(s): (1) Logan and Weevil bond while painting over lewd graffiti. And then unbond When Logan discovers graffiti on Weevil's body.
(2) Veronica invades someone else's privacy -- but, but, but it's for a good reason. If she hadn't read Sarah's most private, inner-most thoughts she never would have found her before she was ready to be found.
In Memory
Veronica: Why is Duncan pretending I no longer exist?
Lilly: Umm ... because he's a freak. I don't know. I'm his sister, not his shrink.
Lilly: You know, I don't know what you people would do without me.
Lilly: I can think of a half dozen guys off the top of my head that would be a better match for you than Duncan.
Quotable Quotes
Veronica: You are so lucky he's your dog. I would immediately put him in a little sailor's outfit.
Clemmons: Mr. Echolls. I was wondering if I could have a word.
Logan: Anthropomorphic. All yours, big guy.
Clemmons: Oh. (He chuckles, a tad anxiously.) Your father has generously offered to donate a pair of boots for a school fundraising auction.
Logan: Not the ones made for walking. God, I love those boots.
Clemmons: Ah, the pair he wore in Hair Trigger.
Logan: Hmmm.
Clemmons: They're a big ticket item. We're hoping we'll be able to pay for our new scoreboard with what we'll make off of them.
Logan: (Crossing his fingers.) Hope so.
Clemmons: Unfortunately, I haven't been able to reach your father. I was hoping you could remind him.
Logan: I'll have my assistant call his assistant.
Ms. Dent: Class of '79. Think of all the bad clothes you can mock. Velour shirts. Platform shoes.
Veronica Mars Voiceover: And somewhere amidst the "most likely to succeed" and "class sweetheart," my mom. Lianne Reynolds, "most likely to disappear off the face of the earth."
Logan: They teach you manners in ESL?
Weevil: If I was gonna cheat, don't you think I'd pick somebody smart?
Logan: If you was gonna?
Mr. Daniels: Ah, alas. You both get zeros. No talking during test.
Logan: I guess Mrs. Daniels ain't giving it up at home, huh?
Mr. Daniels: You know, the glow of your father's wealth and celebrity may be enough to sustain you through high school, Mr. Echolls, but do you know what it will get you in the real world?
Logan: (Holding his hands as if in prayer, looking heavenward.) Please say 'high school English teacher.' Please say 'high school English teacher.' (Weevil laughs.)
Mr. Daniels: Mr. Navarro. I wonder if you'll find Mr. Echolls so amusing ten years from now. When you're pumping his gas.
Weevil: You know what I love? I love that I get a zero for talking, when you were the one who was talking to me. You get detention for dissing the teacher in front of everybody. And I get detention for laughing. Let me ask you something, man.
Logan: Is this detention or hell?
Weevil: How do you people not make yourselves sick? I mean, it's like you walk on water in this school. For what? It's nothing that you do. I mean, all that matters is who your parents are and the zip code your mom shot you out in.
Logan: And if I donate to the United Latino Pain-in-the-Ass fund, will you shut the hell up?
Weevil: You're almost as bad an actor as your father.
Logan: You know that you don't need a diploma to steal hubcaps, right? I mean, why do you even show up here?
Weevil: I promised my grandmother.
Logan: Hmm.
Weevil: I don't break my promises.
Logan: (With mock sincerity.) And I mean this. Aaww.
Mr. Daniels: Is this Reno or detention?
Logan: Would you believe the best of both?
Mr. Daniels: This is punishment, gentlemen, not party time.
Logan: Well, that would explain the absence of balloon animals.
Veronica: Did you hear something last night?
Keith: What kind of something?
Veronica: Like a loud thump from upstairs.
Keith: Well, no, but you know me. I can sleep through an earthquake. Why?
Veronica: I don't know. It sounded like a falling body. It really freaked me out.
Keith: A falling body?
Veronica: Yes. A falling body.
Keith: Would you describe the sound as Hitchcockian? (Laughs.)
Veronica: I'm glad you're able to entertain yourself.
Keith: Oh, sweetie, don't sell yourself short. I find you completely entertaining.
Veronica Mars Voiceover: The people that say high school years are the best years of your life are usually on the yearbook staff. I just pray that bake sales and pep rallies aren't as good as it gets.
Logan: Is this a joke?
Mr. Daniels: No, Mr. Echolls, this is detention.
Logan: I meant the car. (Acts embarrassed.) Oh, my God! It's not yours, is it?
Veronica: I heard a noise come from your apartment last night. A loud thump.
Andre: Thump. Hmm. That must have been when I cracked her head open with a candlestick and she crumpled to the ground. No, wait. That was Professor Plum in the study.
Logan: You obviously have no appreciation of literature. (Drops a book and kicks it across the room.) Would that it were Mr. Daniels' head!
Weevil: I was thinking more like that scene in Casino. With the vice grip.
Logan: Ah, see I'm more of a purist, you know, less blood, more emotional distress. I'd rather see him locked in a room, padded, crapping himself in the corner. You know, he's an English teacher. He'd appreciate the poetic justice.
Weevil: I think I've got your poetic justice.
Logan: Meaning?
Weevil: Meaning I've got a plan.
Logan: Tick tick. Losing interest.
Weevil: Well, if I thought you had the cojones to pull it off, I'd tell you, but...
Logan: Never underestimate the size of my cojones.
Clemmons: Interesting artwork you left at the flagpole this morning.
Weevil: Artwork? Looks to me like Mr. Daniels has a little drinking and driving problem.
Logan: Man, I tell you Mr. Clemmons, I am pissed off!
Clemmons: I need for you to use appropriate language in here, Mr. Echolls. (Logan sits in the chair before Clemmons' desk, adopting an abashed demeanor.) Now, what's got under your skin?
Logan: It's, uh, it's that Weevil kid.
Clemmons: He is no longer a student here.
Logan: Yeah, I know. But the problem is, he's getting all the credit for sticking Mr. Daniels' car on the flagpole. And all of the sudden, he's like the biggest badass in (Pausing at the look on Clemmons' face.) ... rad dude here at Neptune. I mean, people are gonna be talking about that punking for years.
Clemmons: I don't think I understand.
Logan: I mean, I want my share of the credit.
Clemmons: You're confessing to helping Eli Navarro? You can't just get away with this, young man.
Logan: (Sighing in faux regret.) Yeah, I didn't think I could. (Pausing, Logan casually swings one foot onto the desktop, then the other, prominently displaying a familiar -- judging by Clemmons' expression -- pair of boots.) So, what kind of punishment are we talking about? (He winks.)
Nathan: You realize you're paranoid.
Veronica: I do. Everyone reminds me. But it doesn't mean I'm not right.
Clemmons: This will go on your permanent record, but you're extremely fortunate that you're not being suspended or expelled.
Weevil: Um, does it -- does it go on my, my permanent record that I was un-expelled?
Weevil: You put your hands on me like that again, you'll lose one of 'em.
Logan: Yeah, I think I just peed myself.
Keith: I know. Word's out in the complex. I'm very impressed.
Veronica: Think I've got a future in the biz?
Keith: I think you've got a future as a highly-paid, Ivy League educated executive of some sort who never thinks about private investigation again in her perfect life. Now. Let's do something normal fathers and daughters do.
Veronica: Buy me a pony?
Keith: I was thinking I'd watch TV and you'd rub my feet.
Veronica: Hmm. Yeah, that's normal.
Veronica: I still really don't trust Andre.
Keith: I don't know. He knows about the DNA test, that ... the baby's not his. And he said it didn't matter.
Veronica: Which in itself is all sorts of freakish.
Keith: Or it's a testament to how much he loves her. A man's gotta be pretty committed to a woman, who would agree to raise another man's child.
Veronica Mars Voiceover: But can I let myself slide? Sure, the real tragedy happened long before I came along. I just brought it to the surface. But are some things better left buried?
Snow Patrol ... (Referenced in the first scene between Veronica and Sarah regarding the Snow Patrol CD that Sarah borrowed.)
Snow Patrol is an alternative indie pop rock quartet from Northern Ireland. Founded by vocalist/ guitarist Gary Lightbody and bass/ keyboardist Mark McClelland while students at Scotlands Dundee University in 1994, the musical duo originally used the name Polar Bear. Former Janes Addiction bassist Eric Avery claimed rights to the moniker; Lightbody and McClelland became a trio with the addition of drummer Johnny Quinn and re-dubbed the group "Snow Patrol." Under the Scottish record label Jeepster, Snow Patrol released their debut album, Songs for Polar Bears in 1998.
Snow Patrol released a sophomore album in 2001, and parted ways with Jeepster, while picking up an extra guitarist, Nathan Connolly. Positive response to the demos for Snow Patrols next album Final Straw, with emotional songs about lost loves and Iraq War, facilitated the signing of the group to Polydor Records. Final Straw hit #3 on the U.K. charts, and released three singles from the album, including "Run" which debuted at #5. Final Straw was released in the U.S. in April 2004. In Spring 2005, Mark McClelland left the band due to creative differences, and the group added bassist Paul Wilson and touring keyboardist Tom Simpson as a full-fledged members.
These Boots Are made for Walkin' ... (Referenced by Logan when Clemmons asks him about Aarons' boots from Hair Trigger.)
First released in 1966 and recently covered by Jessica Simpson for the 2005 movie, Dukes of Hazzard, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" is the most well-known song by Nancy Sinatra. Sinatra was born in 1940 to singer Frank Sinatra and his first wife, Nancy, the eldest of the couple's three children. Nancy followed in her famous father's footsteps, making her first television appearance with her father in the late 1950's, and landing roles in several movies in the early 1960's.
In the mid 1960's, Nancy burst onto the music scene with songs like "So Long Babe" and "How Does that Grab You Darlin,'" tunes that were a departure from the customary girl crying over boy mantra of the time. Instead, Nancy's songs were a glaring statement about women expecting more from their men and standing strong in the face of romantic disappointment. In 1966, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" stomped up the charts to #1 armed with its sassy, rocking beat, Nancy's high-heeled go-go boots, ultra-mod fashion spreads and rebellious persona. Sinatra went on to hit the music charts twenty-two times with her anthems of female independence and toughness, becoming the first female rebel rocker and paving the way for a whole new genre of musicians.
The lyrics:
- You keep saying you've got something for me.
Something you call love, but confess.
You've been messin' where you shouldn't have been a messin'
and now someone else is gettin' all your best.
These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.
You keep lying, when you oughta be truthin'
and you keep losin' when you oughta not bet.
You keep samin' when you oughta be changin'.
Now what's right is right, but you ain't been right yet.
These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.
You keep playin' where you shouldn't be playin
and you keep thinkin' that youll never get burnt.
Ha! I just found me a brand new box of matches yeah
and what he know you ain't HAD time to learn.
Are you ready boots? Start walkin'!
Simply put (because there really is no other way to put it), the Miss California USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state California in the Miss USA pageant. The Miss USA pageant would be the beauty contest (held every year since 1952) that features its winners competing in the Miss Universe pageant.
ESL ... (Referenced by Logan to Weevil as he notices Weevil look at him during their English test.)
ESL is the common abbreviation for English as a Second Language and refers to the use or study of English by speakers of other languages. This term is most often used in relation to teaching and learning English, but it may also be used in relation to demographic information or as a jibe from an elitist rich boy talking down to a Latino gang member.
Reno ... (Referenced in the gambling scene with Logan and Weevil upon Mr. Daniels' entrance.)
Reno, Nevada is frequently referred to as "The Biggest Little City in the World," as its 85.2 square miles is dense with a diverse arts and entertainment scene, year-round outdoor recreation and exciting nightlife and gaming opportunities. Reno was settled in 1859 and was settled rapidly over the next 40 years with the addition of a Central Pacific Railroad station, the relocation of the University of Nevada to the city, as well as the legalization of gambling in 1879.
Reno is home to approximately 200,000 people and a booming tourism industry. Situated less than 30 miles from the California border in the western part of Nevada, Reno is approximately 45 minutes north of Lake Tahoe and 15 well-known winter sports resorts. Reno is nestled 4,400 feet above sea level and enjoys a mild climate with roughly 300 sunny days per year, which facilitates an extremely active recreational atmosphere.
Hitchcockian ... (Referenced when Veronica and Keith are discussing the mysterious bump in the night that Veronica heard from the apartment above theirs.)
Often referred to as the "Master of Suspense," Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (1899-1980) inspired the thriller film genre. Known for such works as Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Birds and Psycho. Hitchcock has become synonymous with a myriad of specific movie elements. His movies had many characteristics that distinguished his work from that of other filmmakers, plot devices that to this day represent a certain atmosphere and quality of movie. To say a film has Hitchcockian fundamentals or undertones is to note the use of these specific techniques of storytelling.
Hitchcock was a proponent of the element of suspense versus surprise in his work. Hitchcock chose to show the audience facts that the film characters are not privy to, and then build tension towards the revelation of truth, allowing the viewers to be voyeurs, even directing camera shots so that occasionally characters appear to be looking at the audience.
In efforts to build suspense, Hitchcock often used a preferred plot device that he termed the "MacGuffin;" a detail that peaks the characters' curiosity and drives the plot and motivates the actions of characters within the story, but whose specific identity and nature is unimportant to the spectator of the film. Other common Hitchcock film trademarks are the recurrent theme of mistaken or assumed identity, ordinary people chased by the police and the villains, and his patented cameo appearance.
Hitchcock also displayed his affection for the technical aspects of filmmaking, by utilizing memorable special effects and images well before the age of overthe-top cinematic effects. Surprisingly, despite many accolades for his abilities, Hitchcock never won an Oscar for his directing work. Hitchcock did receive the 1979 American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, before his death the following year. Hitchcock's influence on the world of thriller films is widely appreciated, and many critics consider his work to be the gold standard for the genre.
Sid and Nancy ... (Referenced in the first scene between Veronica and Sarah's boss in the boutique.)
The subject of Sid and Nancy, a 1986 semi-biographical film, starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, Sex Pistols bassist John Simon Ritchie "Sly" a.k.a. Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen were the poster couple for dysfunctional relationships. British Sid was 19 years old when he joined the Sex Pistols, a well-marketed group representing rebellion and disenfranchised youth; Sid was the embodiment of the notoriously destructive bad boy image that the Sex Pistols aimed to convey. Sid met Philadelphia born Nancy in 1977 while she was a groupie and sometime prostitute in London and the pair began a tumultuous 21-month union characterized by heroin and alcohol abuse, and violent break-up to make-up physical altercations.
The co-dependent pair's overbearing relationship rapidly took a toll on Sex Pistols, leading to a viable tension during the group's 1978 US tour. During a concert mid-tour, lead singer Johnny Rotten walked off stage after a dispute with Vicious; Sid responded by abruptly quitting the band and returning to London, where with Nancy's assistance, he embarked on an ill-fated solo stint. Sid and Nancy moved into New York City's well-known Chelsea Hotel, and entered a period of intense violence and increased drug abuse.
On October 12, 1978, police responded to a report of a domestic dispute and found Nancy dead from a single stab wound to her abdomen. The wound was traced to Sid's knife, and he was arrested for murder. Sid was released on bail and the following January in the company of his mother, Beverly, Sid injected heroin that she had purchased for him. Beverly discovered her son dead of an overdose the next morning, in what many refer to as a suicide. Against the wishes of the Spungen family, Beverly scattered her son's ashes on Nancy's grave.
Ohio ... (Referenced by Andre to Veronica as he tells her Sarah hasn't spoken to her parents since leaving there.)
Part of the Midwest, Ohio is a cultural and geographical crossroads, which was settled by people from New England, the Middle States, Appalachia, and the upper south. "This slice of the mid-west contains a bit of everything American -- part north-eastern and part southern, part urban and part rural, part hardscrabble poverty and part booming suburb," notes The Economist. The state was the first admitted to the Union under the Northwest Ordinance.
The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, and also known as the Freedom Ordinance) was an act of the Continental Congress of the United States passed on July 13, 1787 under the Articles of Confederation. The primary effect of the ordinance was the creation of the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States out of the region around the Great Lakes north and west of the Ohio River. On August 7, 1789, the U.S. Congress affirmed the Ordinance with slight modifications under the Constitution.
Arguably the single most important piece of legislation passed by the Continental Congress other than the Declaration of Independence, it established the precedents by which the United States would expand westward across North America by the admission of new states, rather than by the expansion of existing states.
Ohio is an Iroquois word meaning "good river." The name refers to the Ohio River that forms its southern border.
Professor Plum in the study/Clue ... (Referenced by Andre after Veronica shows up in his loft.)
Clue is a detective board game created by Anthony Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England, in 1944 where it is known as Cluedo. Manufactured by Parker Bros, now a part of Hasbro, in 1948, in the United States it is known as Clue. It was also made into a 1985 movie starring Martin Mull, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Leslie Ann Warren, Madeline Kahn, Tim Curry and Michael McKean. Clue is a classic whodunit mystery surrounding the murder of Mr. Boddy (Mr. Black in the the British Cluedo). There are six suspects (e.g. Professor Plum, Miss Scarlett), six possible murder weapons and nine rooms (such as the kitchen, conservatory or study) in which the shocking act may have taken place.
Players are dealt character, weapon and location cards after one card from each category is removed and placed in a confidential file. Players must then move through the rooms on the board and determine the who, what and where of the crime by making accusations, and asking other players to disprove the suppositions by showing any of the cards accused. Once a player knows what cards the other players are holding they will know what cards are in the secret file.
Professor Plum's character is forever changing in the interpretation of the game. Sometimes he's old, sometimes he's young. In British Cluedo, the Professor has always been the eldest of the male suspects, whereas in America, he has been the youngest male suspect for some years now! One thing is for sure, and that is he is an archaeologist. This usually leads to his motive for murder, that Dr. Black / Mr. Boddy won't fund his latest project. Plum is also commonly portrayed as a the stereotype "absent-minded" professor.
Picasso ... (Referenced by Joanna as a nickname to Andre while in the loft after Veronica shows up.)
Pablo Picasso was a painter, sculptor, collagist and ceramist, widely considered to the foremost figure in 20th-Century art. Born Pablo Ruiz y Picasso in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Picasso displayed extraordinary artistic abilities as a child, and was accepted into advanced classes at the Royal Academy of Art in Barcelona at the age of 15. In 1900, he moved to France and began depicting the world of the poor, including beggars and prostitutes, mostly in working in tones of blue -- what is often referred to as his well-known "Blue Period."
Picasso is most famous as the co-founder of Cubism. In 1907, inspired by Cezanne, Picasso created Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City), an expression of space in geometric terms; this work is often referred to as analytic cubism. In the next phase of synthetic cubism, Picasso began creating larger, more fragmented and representational forms in his pieces. Picasso's cubist work demonstrated that art could exist in and of itself, not necessarily with the intent to represent any sort of reality.
Picasso produced a wide range and body of work, some 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, and 300 sculptures and ceramics plus other miscellaneous pieces.
William Shakespeare (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the most famous bard who ever lived; he adapted stories from poetry, history and myth for the stage with such mastery that he has long been considered England's greatest ever poet (despite the fact he was a playwright by profession). This opinion is largely thanks to the Romantics of the early nineteenth century, especially the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge ("Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," etc.). Prior to Coleridge's praise of Shakespeare, many scholars like Ben Johnson and his Augustans considered Shakespeare a 'wild poet' who had 'touches of brilliance' but little concept of the 'poetic unities' they so liked to see in the literature they praised.
In his short lifetime, he (arguably) wrote thirty-seven plays in three genres: Histories (Macbeth, King Richard II, Antony and Cleopatra, King Henry VIII etc.) Tragedies (Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear etc.) and Comedies (The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night etc.). All of the plays mentioned are still adapted for stage and film today. In his day, the plays were performed by his theatre company, the Chamberlain's Men, at The Globe Theatre which was located in Bankside (now Southwark) beside the Thames. Bankside was outside of proper London and the jurisdiction of puritan law that would close theatres down at the slightest innuendo (and Shakespeare loved "corrupting" his plebeian audience with sexual innuendo, trust me on that). His plays were performed there until 1613 when a stage manager got too creative and shot a canon ball through the roof during a performance of King Henry VIII. The theatre burned down. The Chamberlain's Men moved their performances to The Black Friars an old monastery (which must have pissed those puritans off) until the Globe was rebuilt again. Shakespeare's company continued to perform at the new Globe until England's puritan administration finally got their way in 1642 and all the playhouses were closed for the better morality of society. It's kind of funny how history turned out thinking he was a genius. Hmm. Of course, considering how much we love him, The Globe was rebuilt (close to its original location) and you can visit it in London today. See the site for more information.
Aside from his plays, he also invented the English form of the sonnet (otherwise known as the Shakespearean sonnet) made up of three rhyming quatrains (abab, cdcd, efef) and a concluding couplet. He wrote a collection of 154 sonnets, the most famous of these is probably Sonnet XVIII and you all know the lines: Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate ... '
Most teenagers would know him as the man that haunted and tortured their school days ala Old Hamlet's ghost. But don't worry, if you ever experienced that pain just watch Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder and enjoy the pleasurable experience of Adder punching William Shakespeare in the face on your behalf.
Edgar Allan Poe ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
A famous writer known almost as much fo his state of depression as for his beautiful works of fiction, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809 and was one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. Poe was the son of actors David Poe, Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe. As a babe of three weeks old, he was abandoned by his father and his mother died a year later from consumption. Poe was taken in by John Allan, a prosperous tobacco merchant in Richmond, Virginia and it was from his benefactor's surname that Poe got his middle name.
After serving an apprenticeship, Poe registered at the University of Virginia in 1826. However, he only matriculated for one year, shortly thereafter, he became estranged from his foster father due to Poe's gambling debts -- debts he had acquired while trying to get more spending money. Under the name of Edgar A. Perry, Poe then enlisted in the U.S. Army on May 26, 1827. That same year, he released his first book (anonymously as: 'By a Bostonian'), Tamerlane and Other Poems. This tome is now so rare that a surviving copy has been sold for $200,000. After serving for two years and attaining the rank of sergeant major, Poe was discharged.
In 1829, Poe's foster mother, Frances Allan, died, and he published his second book, Al Aaraaf. As his foster mother's dying wish, Poe reconciled with his foster father, who helped him gain an appointment at West Point. However, once there, he deliberately disobeyed orders and was dismissed. This was the final straw, and John Allan disowned Poe a final time -- and Poe returned the favor -- until the latter's death on March 6, 1831.
Poe next moved to Baltimore, Maryland with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm and her daughter, Poe's first cousin, Virginia Eliza Clemm. Poe wrote fiction to support himself, and in December of 1835, he began editing the Southern Literary Messenger for Thomas W. White. On May 16, 1836, he married Virginia, who was 13 at the time.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was published and widely reviewed in 1838. In the summer of 1839, Poe became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. He published a large number of articles, stories, and reviews, enhancing the reputation as a trenchant critic that he had established at the Southern Literary Messenger. Also in 1839, the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes. Though not a financial success, it was a milestone in the history of American literature, collecting such classic Poe tales as "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "Ligeia."
While his professional life was showing success, his personal life was falling apart. His wife, Virginia, suffered from an ailment from what we now know is tubercolosis. In response to his wife's ailment, Poe began drinking heavily. It was during this time that a few major events occured in Poe's life. The first was a noisy public feud with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and then on January 29, 1845, his poem "The Raven" appeared in the Evening Mirror and became a popular sensation.
In 1846. Poe moved to a cottage in the Fordham section of The Bronx, New York. He loved the Jesuits at Fordham University and frequently strolled about its campus conversing with both students and faculty. Fordham University's bell tower even inspired him to write "The Bells." The Poe Cottage is on the southeast corner of the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road, and is open to the public. It was there that Virginia died a year later. Despondent over his wife's death, his drinking increased and his behavior became more erratic. He courted poet Sarah Helen Whitman, but his behavior and her mother's interference derailed that romance. Eventually, he returned to Richmond and took up with is child sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster.
How his life finished out his journey is unknown, but on October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious and "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance," according to the man who found him. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died early on the morning of October 7. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was wearing clothes that were not his own. Some sources say Poe's final words were "Lord help my poor soul."
Till this day, there is much confusion over the cause of Edgar Allan Poe's death. Some blamed alcoholism, but certain facts deny that diagnosis. Other theories include several forms of rare brain disease, diabetes, various types of enzyme deficiency, syphilis, the idea that Poe was shanghaied, drugged, and used as a pawn in a ballot-box-stuffing scam during the election that was held on the day he was found, and, more recently, rabies. The rabies death theory was proposed by Dr. R. Michael Benitez, and is based upon the fact that Poe's symptoms before death are similar to those displayed in a classic case of rabies. Cats play a prominent part in many of his stories, and it is conjectured that he was accidentally bitten by a rabid pet. In the absence of contemporary documentation (all surviving accounts are either incomplete or published years after the event; even Poe's death certificate, if one was ever made out, has been lost), it is likely that the cause of Poe's death will never be known.
Some famous works of Poe's include "Annabelle Lee," The Devil In The Belfry, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Pit And The Pendulum. Of course, his most famous piece is "The Raven," a long poem that has been oft-quoted, used in other mediums (a film was made in 1963 loosely based on the poem) and parodied countless times due to its vivid imagery and stark emotion.
- Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.' ...
William Wordsworth ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
Born on April 7, 1770, William Wordsworth was a great English poet of the Romantic Age -- in fact, Wordsworth and fellow poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped launch the Romantic Age in English literature in 1798 with their joint publication, Lyrical Ballads. Englands' Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death on April 23, 1850, some of Wordsworth most well-known poems include "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey"
- (Excerpt) Five years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.
- (Excerpt) I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
- (Excerpt)Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze,
A visitant that while it fans my cheek
Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings
From the green fields, and from yon azure sky
To see a complete collection of Wordsworth's poetical work go here.
Macbeth ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes ..."
Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's most well-known plays; it is also his shortest. The exact date he composed it is uncertain, however most date it around 1606-1610 (because of diary entries and a few performance dates). It is a story about greed and paranoia, highlighting the lengths that men (and women) will go to for power. The history of Macbeth -- a usurper of the Scottish throne - was inspired by King James I's family history. James I (or James VI in Scottish history) inherited the throne of England and took an eager interest in Shakespeare's company (they changed their name from The Chamberlain's Men to the King's Men because of him). James I is actually one of the Kings of Banquo's line that torments Macbeth when the witches show him the future (Act IV, Sc. I). Many commentators thought it a risky political move by Shakespeare to cast doubt on the legitimacy of James's claim to the throne but since Macbeth is also a usurper, I doubt it really bothered James I.
Along with Macbeth, the play features a most remarkable character, surprisingly for Shakespeare's era, a female -- Lady Macbeth -- a power-hungry woman who is slowly driven mad by her guilt and eventually takes her own life. The role is considered one of the more difficult female roles because of the intensity and the swing of emotions the character exhibits. The play's second most famous line is, in fact, spoken by Lady Macbeth -- Out, damned spot! -- referring to the blood she sees uncleansed upon her hand of the nobleman whose murder is tearing away at the Lady's soul. The most famous line of dialogue -- and one that is used today still in representing magic and prophecy -- comes from the opening scene featuring the three witches who foretell the future that sets Macbeth on his murderous, tragic path: Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.
An interesting note about Macbeth: Actors and other theatre people often consider the play to be 'unlucky,' and usually refer to it superstitiously as The Scottish Play rather than by name. In fact, to say the name of the play inside a theatre is believed to doom the production to failure, and perhaps cause physical injury to cast members. Despite this, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and has been made into six film adaptations.
The tale of starts with the titular character a loyal follower to the throne of King Duncan (*snort*), but three witches see in him an evil ambition that they tempt by revealing his future: Thane of Cawdor! King of Scotland! Highly disturbed by their praise, Macbeth thinks nothing of their predictions until Duncan makes him Thane of Cawdor. A wicked ambition awakens in him - if he has become Thane than he will become King. When he relates the story to his wife, Lady Macbeth, she persuades him and they conspire to murder Duncan in his sleep and steal his crown. But murder begets murder and Macbeth is disturbed by the memory that the witches had predicted Banquo, his friend, would have a future more powerful than his own. Banquo would father a line of Kings, but Macbeth would not. Convinced his reign will end in the same way Duncan's did, he goes on a murder spree and is driven mad by the ghosts of his deeds. His paranoid violence only brings about the end he fears and the play closes with his killer holding up his head for the audience to see.
The central question of the play is whether or not Macbeth's actions were destiny running out its course ... or if he would have been happy to be Thane of Cawdor had they never mentioned that he could be King. Is ambition the root of all evil? Another question a Veronica Mars fan might want to ask is are all "Duncans" pure and noble in fiction? In our case, the answer is most definitely not. Just don't tell Rob Thomas that. It might hurt his heart.
Hamlet ... (Referenced by Mr. Daniels as he instructs Logan and Weevil on how to alphabetize his books.)
The Shakespeare play Hamlet, tells the story of the young prince of Denmark, who, after seeing the ghost of his recently deceased father, becomes convinced that his uncle, Claudius, had a hand in killing the former king. Hamlet then sets out to reveal his uncle's guilt, particularly to his mother, who is now Claudius' wife. In going forth with his plans, Hamlet makes enemies, is pushed to murder, loses his mother, incites Claudius' suspicion, and eventually is killed himself. So ultimately, Hamlet did prove his uncle's guilt, but in the process Hamlet's life had become consumed with lies, distrust, and a need for vengeance.
Vice Grip ... (Referenced when Logan and Weevil are "alphabetizing" the books in Mr. Daniels' classroom.)
Casino is a 1995 Martin Scorsese film about the glamour, crime and corruption in 1970's Las Vegas, loosely based on the true story of mafia enforcer Anthony Spilotro and Frank Rosenthal, a manager for several mob owned casinos during the 1970's and 80's.
Casino tells the story of Ace Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) a casino owner of the fictional Tangiers Casino, and his childhood friend and mafia lackey Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) who is sent by Rothstein's Chicago mob connections to ensure Rothstein's compliance with their casino policies of profit skimming and criminal activity. Rounding out the trio of main characters is Ginger (Sharon Stone), an ex-prostitute with a strong proclivity for the good life, the status of marriage to Ace, and her boyfriend Lester (James Woods). Ace, Nicky and Ginger's goals quickly put them at odds with one another, and drugs, violence and betrayal creep in and wreak havoc on their lives.
Casino was widely praised, garnering several Oscar nominations, including one for Sharon Stone, but also criticized for some violent scenes, specifically one taken from a story about Spilotro's real-life interrogation techniques. The "head in a vice" scene was based on Spilotro's questioning of Billy McCarthy, in which he attempted to discover the identity of McCarthy's accomplice in an unsanctioned mob hit.
After several attempts at violent persuasion were unsuccessful, Spilotro shoved McCarthy's head in a vice and crushed it until Billy revealed his partner in crime. The scene in the movie depicts a similar event. Martin Scorsese submitted the film's final cut containing the scene with the expectation that the Motion Picture Association of America would call for its removal, and allow the other violent scenes to remain by default; ultimately the MPAA did not object.
Twelfth Night (aka What You Will) . . . (as referenced by Logan when he's forced to sort books with Weevil because of Mr. Daniels)
Twelfth Night - sometimes known as What You Will - is a comedy by William Shakespeare written (and performed) at the start of the 17th Century (the exact date is unknown). It was first printed in what's commonly referred to as the First Folio - the original collected works of William Shakespeare - in 1623 (thus, there are no conflicting scripts - unlike other plays such as Hamlet).
Twelfth Night tells the story of twins - Sebastian and Viola - who are involved in a shipwreck and wash up on the coast of Illyria. The main plot revolves around mistaken identity and all the amusing gender confusion that springs out of it.
Viola, goes into hiding and pretends to be a Eunuch named Cesario for Duke Orsino (who she happens to be in love with). Meanwhile her brother is missing - presumed dead. Duke Orsino is too in love with the beautiful Olivia to notice a male servant's eager affections and he enlists the eloquent Cesario for help in wooing Olivia. The problems starts when Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Of course, all of this is resolved in the usual comedic way: There's a sword fight, and lots of confusion but in the end Sebastian can easily replace Cesario and Olivia can rip off her moustache and get her man! That's right, love really is skin deep
The reference to the play we are concerned with is actually the subplot and the scene that Twelfth Night is most famous for. The main comedic characters: Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Sir Toby Belch and the Clown, are in constant clash with the play's straight man and puritan, Malvolio, Olivia's steward. They act below their station - drinking and partying and not doing much to take life (and their responsibilities) seriously - and Malvolio has the gall to act above his station - constantly censuring the rowdy Lords for their gawdy behaviour. They take exception to his arrogant, boring self righteousness and hatch a plan to humiliate him with the help of Olivia's maid, Maria.
Maria has very similar handwriting to her mistress and she writes out a letter in which 'Olivia' declares her love for Malvolio and requests he do several ridiculous things to 'please' her (including wearing bright yellow stockings and smiling obscenely). Malvolio's head swells - naturally - and he follows his Lady's requests to a T, looking forward to the moment when he can put Sir Toby and Sir Andrew 'in their place.' Of course, when he starts grinning and preening and hitting on Olivia she decides he's mental and orders him to be 'taken care of' for he is quite ill.
Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and the Clown take him away and lock him in a small dark room without light or food or water. They leave him there until in the famous - and disturbing - Act IV, Scene II when the clown taunts him both as himself and in the desguise of the priest Sir Topas. He tells, Malvolio that he has gone insane:
- Malvolio: Fool, there was never a man so notoriously abused: I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art.
Clown: But as well? then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool.
Logan, clearly thinks that Mr. Daniels is just like Malvolio: A stick in the mud, puritan that arrogantly spoils the fun of his students and social 'betters' (at least where Logan is concerned). When Weevil and Logan discuss what they'd like to do to Mr. Daniels in detention, Logan takes the Shakespeare books as inspiration and says:
- Logan: See, I'm more of a purist: less blood more emotional distress. I'd rather see him locked in a room, padded and crapping himself in a corner. You know, he's an English teacher he'd appreciate the poetic justice.
Prada ... (Referenced when Weevil and his gang are tearing up the clothing boutique.)
Prada, SpA, is fashion house primarily based in Italy. Founded in 1913 by Mario Prada, the company was a leather goods business until 1978, when Miuccia Prada, Mario's granddaughter assumed the reigns. Miuccia was a reluctant heir to the Prada helm with a PhD in Political Science; Miuccia spent five years performing mime, was a card-carrying Communist party member and women's rights activist in Milan.
However, Miuccia readily accepted the challenge and led the company's expansion into haute couture with her 1985 line of sleek black handbags of finely woven and durable nylon. The line was a huge success, with celebrities and fashionistas alike spending upwards of $200 per bag. Demand for Prada accessories only increased when a ready crop of imitations (Prado, anyone?) began flooding the market.
Encouraged by the success, Miuccia designed Prada's first ready-to-wear line in 1989. The line was a stark, clean counterpart to other labels and spurred the company to introduce a modestly priced line, the Miu Miu collection, in 1992. Inspired by Miuccia's nickname, the new collection continued to use neutral tones and natural fabrics to evoke a simple, earthier look.
Motivated in 1999 by her business partner and husband, Patrizio Bertelli, Miuccia followed the fashion conglomeracy trend and purchased the struggling Fendi to add to Prada's portfolio. Although ultimately this venture was unsuccessful, Prada has added popular labels such as Helmut Lang, Jil Sander and Azzedine Alaia with significant profit.
No White after Labor Day ... (Referenced by Veronica as she walks in on the PCHers harassing Nathan in his store.)
A Labor Day is an annual holiday that resulted from efforts of the labor union movement to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers. It's origins can be found in the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight for recreation and eight for rest. On April 21, 1856, Stonemasons and building workers in Australia stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight hour day. This protest proved successful and the are known as the first organized workers in the world to achieve an eight hour day with no loss of pay. This, in turn, subsequently inspired the celebration of Labor Day and May Day.
The name May Day refers to the fact that most countries celebrate Labor Day on May 1, thus May Day. On the other hand, the United States celebrates the holiday (known as Labor Day only) on the first Monday of September. The origins can be traced back to the Knights of Labor in the United States and a parade organized by them on September 5, 1882 in New York City. Other organizations favored a May date to celebrate the holiday (as most of the world did), but president Grover Cleveland feared that by establishing Labor Day on May 1st, it would become synomynous with the Chicago's Haymarket riots from early May of 1886 and thus celebrate those riots. Therefore, he went with the Knights preferred September date and that is how it stands still today.
Labor Day is generally regarded simply as a day of rest and, unlike on May Day, political demonstrations are rare. Forms of celebration include picnics, barbecues, fireworks displays, water activities, and public art events. Families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer. Some teenagers and young adults view it as the last weekend for parties before returning to school. The custom of not wearing white after Labor day has its roots in two explanations. Firstly, white clothes are worse protection against cold weather in the winter and the second is that the rule was intended as a status symbol for new members of the middle class in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Ivy league ... (Referenced by Keith as he tells Veronica he envisions her future as a highly-paid executive.)
Ivy League refers to an athletic conference of eight private colleges and universities located in the Northeast of the United States: Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Columbia University in New York City, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The conference was established in 1954, but the schools have been around as early as 1701. The academic excellence of these eight institutions is consistently recognized by the U.S. News & World Report's published yearly list of college and university rankings.
Admission to the Ivies is highly selective, with admission rates ranging from 8.6 percent for Yale to 24.7 percent for Cornell. Admitted students typically have SAT Math and Verbal composites well over 1400 and are in the top ten percent of their high school classes. Really, though, Ivy admissions give a whole new meaning to the term "crapshoot." Admissions committees also do not ignore non-academic factors like legacy status, race/ethnicity or state of residence.
The Ivy League sponsors 33 men's and women's sports, and each schools has, on average, more than 35 varsity teams. All eight institutions rank among the top twenty of NCAA Division I schools for the number of sports offered to men and women.
- Logans Shakespeare voice.
- We've had Babs and Brigadoon, now we add Nancy Sinatra's classic, "These Boots are Made (For Walking)." Not a biggie, but definitely raises the eyebrow.
- The entire tenor of the book alphabetizing scene fairly oozes with HoYay!, but there is one moment that especially sticks out. Logan actually references his "cojones" while looking straight into Weevil's eyes. And then he *twinkles* at him. Uh huh.
- Was it residual guilt over Lilly that made Veronica feel so guilty about what happened to Sarah?
- What was Sarah thinking with the laundry room outfit? Yuck!
- Why would the journalism teacher get saddled with an alumni representative? Were they just looking for something for Miss Poitier to do?
- Was Weevil copying off Logan? If not, what was Weevil looking at?
- Why has Veronica never seen the 1979 yearbook before? Didnt Lianne keep her senior yearbook?
- Why is the Vice Principal asking Logan about the boots? Shouldnt the Principal be handling the Echolls Situation?
- Why was Weevil laughing at Logans antics? Didnt he know he would get into trouble?
- Why werent Logan and Weevil being supervised in detention? And, who was winning at poker?
- Veronica and Keiths apartment is on the ground floor? Has it always been? I could swear it was on the second.
- If Veronica was so concerned about the thump she heard, why didnt she investigate or have her father do it that night?
- I thought men didnt talk to each other in the bathroom? Felix and Weevil seemed awfully chatty. Did they violate some macho rule?
- How does Veronica live in the same town her mother grew up in and not know that she dated Jake Kane in high school?
- When was the last time Daniels washed his car?
- So Weevil, what was it like with Lilly? Please, Im all ears.
- Did Duncan know about his father and Veronicas mother being sweethearts?
- Did Sarah know about the nude model? What kind of weird relationship did she and Andre have? He is willing to raise a child that is not his, but seems to have girlfriends on the side?
- Does the apartment complex only have street parking or is that the only place Andre could find a spot?
- Nobody cares what Daniels has the boys do during detention? I would think that Clemmons would want to make sure that Logan has nothing to complain about.
- Did Evelyn really not know that Veronica was Liannes daughter?
- What did Duncan tell Lilly to make her change her mind and tell Veronica that she should date someone else??
- Do Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Daniels have something going on? What was up with the ride?
- How did they get the car on the flagpole? Also, thats genius.
- Why was Duncan getting his schedule changed in the middle of a semester?
- Why did Clemmons have the door open so that Duncan could hear his interview with Weevil? Is that why he is only a Vice Principal?
- What did Weevils grandmother do to him when he got expelled?
- They gave Veronica Sarahs test results over the phone? Wouldnt there have been a security question?
- Also, with the rape and all, why do a DNA test at all? Wouldnt she know that the baby wasnt Andres? Or was she sleeping with Andre before the rape?
- How did Hector recognize Prada?
- Would suede make Weevil more accessible?
- How many people thought Nathan was gay when he first showed up?
- Was Logan suspicious of Weevil and Lilly? Or was it just the tattoo that made him suspect something was going on?
- Why did Logan help Weevil and get him unexpelled?
- Does Weevil have a sister named Lilly? Isnt that something that Logan could have checked if he was really curious?
- How is it that Weevil has Lillys name on his body, and Felix knows about the relationship, but Veronica never had the slightest idea?
- Was it during detention that Logan told Weevil about the high stakes poker game we see in An Echolls Family Christmas?
- Did Celeste tell Duncan about Jake and Liannes history when she informed him that he and Veronica were related? That must have been an interesting conversation. And what did they tell Lilly?
- Foreshadowing abounds in regards to the paternity issue. Especially when Keith says that a man's got to be pretty committed to a woman to agree to raise another man's child. The expression is usually 'Blood is Thicker than Water.' Was the 1979 Prom theme also foreshadowing?
- In this episode the Mars apartment is obviously on the ground floor, but I swear that Leo and Veronica were on the second floor in Hot Dogs.
Written/Compiled By:
JenniferH: Report Card; Band Class; Social Science; Pep Squad Practice
Mastermia (Maria): Yearbook; Social Science; Study Hall; Extra Credit; Philosophy; Homeroom; Principles of Democracy; History
Pixigal (Gerrie): Drama Club
Polartruckin (Belinda): Social Science
SeluciaV (Alli): Social Science
smlf (Mark): Journalism
Tar Frimmer: Study Hall; Literature
