Episode #03.09: Spit & Eggs
Original Air Date: November 28, 2006
Written by: Rob Thomas
Directed by: Rob Thomas
Report Card (Capsule Episode Review)
Yearbook (Recurring & Guest Stars/Character Statistics)
Drama Club (Performances: Highlights and Lowlights)
Chemistry (The Analysis of LoVe Scenes)
Journalism (The Mystery of the Week) (None)
Study Hall (Miscellaneous Plot Details)
Extra Credit (Clues to the Season Mystery Arcs)
History (Flashbacks) (None)
Band Class (The Music of Veronica Mars)
Literature (LoVe Lines/In Memory/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)
Extra Curricular Activities (Beyond the Broadcast)
Principles of Democracy (Hindsight is 20/20)
Role Call (Written/Compiled By ...)
Staff Grade: A
Membership Median Grade: A
While there have been some definite bumps along the way (feminazi's anyone?), the conclusion of the first of this season's mysteries is a fine one indeed. While clues are clearly seen in retrospect better than motivation, the climax is still a heart-pounding show stopper. There is not one sour performance in the bunch and everything ties into a more neat than not bow, while Rob Thomas (offering a much better dual writing/directing gig this time around than his his last attempt) nicely slips in the upcoming mystery arc ... to the dismay of Dean O'Dell fans everywhere. Overall, Spit & Eggs is arguably the cleanest, best-laid out conclusion to a Veronica Mars seasonal arc thus far. Bring on the next!
Credited Cast Non-Appearance
Michael Muhney - Sheriff Don Lamb
Recurring Guest Stars (Previous Episode Appearances)
Carlee Avers - Bonnie Capistrano
- Lord of the Pi's
Ed Begley Jr. - Cyrus O'Dell
- Wichita Linebacker
- President Evil
- Hi, Infidelity
- Lord of the Pi's
Ryan Devlin - Mercer Hayes
- President Evil
- Hi, Infidelity
- Of Vice and Men
Chastity Dotson - Nish
- My Big Fat Greek Rush Week
- Wichita Linebacker
- Charlie Don't Surf
- Hi, Infidelity
- Lord of the Pi's
Patrick Fabian - Professor Hank Landry
- Welcome Wagon
- Hi, Infidelity
- Of Vice and Men
Cher Ferreyra - Fern
- Welcome Wagon
- My Big Fat Greek Rush Week
- Wichita Linebacker
- Lord of the Pi's
James Jordan - Tim Foyle
- Welcome Wagon
- President Evil
- Hi, Infidelity
Krista Kalmus - Claire Nordhouse
- Wichita Linebacker
- Charlie Don't Surf
- President Evil
- Hi, Infidelity
- Lord of the Pi's
Charlie Koznick - Andrew "Drew" Barndale
- Season Two Appearances
Andrew McClain - Moe Slater
- Welcome Wagon
- My Big Fat Greek Rush Week
- Of Vice and Men
Jaime Ray Newman - Mindy O'Dell
- President Evil
- Hi, Infidelity
David Tom - Chip Diller
- Season Two Appearances
- My Big Fat Greek Rush Week
- Charlie Don't Surf
- Lord of the Pi's
Guest Stars
Samantha Brown - Cora
Paul Gagliano - Rico Suave Nerd
Jeremy Roberts - Mel Stoltz
Who's Who in Neptune
Cora - Dean O'Dell's assistant.
Rico Suave Nerd - Nerdy guy who tries to hit on Mac at the Pi Sig party.
Mel - Wealthy Hearst alum and former fraternity brother. Now a prominent donor to the university.
Highlights
Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls) - And the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama goes to .... Dohring moved beyond tortured angst in this episode and delivered a commanding, mesmerizing, heart-breaking performance. He owned every minute he was on the screen. As I stated last week -- there really is nothing more to say. So I'll let his eyes and that amazing face say it all:
Ed Begley Jr. (Dean O'Dell) - I am not an Ed Begley, Jr. fan. I am, however, an Ed Begley, Jr. on Veronica Mars fan. Begley has created a multi-layered, enjoyable, believable character in Dean O'Dell. Taking center stage in the B-plot of Spit & Eggs, Begley leaves an indelible impression on the viewer as he suffers through a very, very bad day. Farewell Dean O'Dell. You will be missed.
Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) - Heartbroken, vulnerable, terrified, dazed, flippant, determined, stoic, brave, drugged -- Bell delivers a textbook of acting emotions as she too endures a very bad day. From her silent, barely holding it together reaction to Logan's break-up to her unable to hold it together anymore sobbing in the shower to the smoldering "can't hear, can't speak, can't see" anyone else but you moment with Logan at the Pi Sig party, Bell was spot on. She has always excelled at "damsel in distress" moments and her moments with Mercer were climatic and terrifying. Altogether this was a great performance; it was sympathetic, emotionally resonant and suspenseful. Well done.
The Supporting Cast of Veronica Mars - When an episode clicks on every level, it is a culmination of good writing, good directing and good acting from everybody (even the extra in the far corner of the crowd scene). The cast of Veronica Mars was a smooth, well-oiled machine in this episode and it was terrific to see almost everyone playing a part. Of particular note was Tina Majorino who as Tom Cruise in his pre-crazy, Jerry McGuire days would say "completes" this show (never leave again Mac, do you hear me? We need your unglittered tube top, STD T-shirt wearing, snarky,deadpan delivery friendship on this show.) and Julie Gonzalo as Parker. Taking on the role of the first female to rescue Veronica, Gonzalo sold Parker's fear, determination and concern for Veronica in her final scenes.
The Guest stars of Veronica Mars - A few weeks ago the casting department of Veronica Mars earned a lowlight for some weak casting and below par guest star performances. Fortunately, other times they get it right. Kudos to Ryan Devlin who delivered a creepy, charismatic performance as Mercer and Andrew McClain as his submissive partner, Moe, who teamed up in a Leopold/Loeb, Scream 1 manner to confuzzle Veronica for so many weeks. Bravo boys, well done.
Scene One: Where Jumping to Conclusions Leads
Surely the dissolution of a relationship is one of the saddest moments for any couple -- including that of a fictional one. Yet, in the case of this break-up, sadness is not the overriding factor. Instead it is actually one of hope. Despite the events of Wichita Linebacker, there were obviously still problems in Logan and Veronica's relationship. Logan doesn't trust Veronica to trust him and Veronica simply does not trust Logan. I know I've gone back to a particular write-up from episode five (President Evil) quite a bit these last couple of episodes since, but everything that followed truly seemed to bear witness to my supposition. I wrote ...
I wrote in Of Vice and Men ...
Ah, but here's where we get to the hope. Veronica, judging from her reaction when she first saw him -- as I theorized regarding her actions in the last scene of episode eight -- just needed more time.
As much as we talk about Veronica not understanding Logan, not taking into account all that he's done for her -- let's give Veronica some credit here. Whether we agree with or understand why she took the attitude that she did last week, it doesn't take away from the fact that -- right or wrong -- Veronica felt justified. She wasn't being bitchy and evasive just to be bitchy and evasive. She truly was upset about Logan's actions in Mexico that summer, just as she was truly bothered by his high-handed attitude at her apartment and his hiring of the bodyguard without telling her. She was upset. And she needed time ... so she took the time and worked through her issues and look at where she wound up? Outside his class, waiting for Logan because she wanted to be with him, because she loves him. Instead of just taking her hurt and her disappointment, she worked through them. Have we EVER seen Veronica do that?
No. A big, fat stinking NO! But she did this time. She did exactly what she said she was going to do in Wichita Linebacker -- try and act unnaturally. It took a few days -- okay, a few weeks, again, she's acting unnaturally -- but she did it. She worked through it, she put her feelings of love first and she worked through that anger, that hurt, that disappointment.
Sigh. Still, we wind up back in the beginning -- lack of trust on both sides. A year and a half ago, Logan wouldn't have broken up with her; he would have confronted her about the phone call. He would have begged her for an explanation ... but a year and a half of being judged and found wanting, of being left with the short end of the stick, of feeling less than takes its toll. So, he did jump to the conclusion that she didn't love him. He did jump to the conclusion that she would never get over her disappointment. He didn't simply ask her why she didn't answer the phone. And he didn't take note of her actions and attitude right before he ended things that proved that she was making the effort and this time, had succeeded. Double sigh. I can't blame him, though. Who can? It's hard to not cheer for Logan standing up for himself ... FINALLY. And I am happy that we are seeing such a growth of maturity in him, I just wish that he'd waited a little longer and had fallen back on his old reliance of asking her what was up instead of breaking up. I think her answer would have saved both of them (and us) a lot of heartache. Sigh.
It is simply a cycle that has got to be broken by one of them. Right now, they aren't at the same place they need to be to figure it out ... to get together and stay together. But -- the hope, it's coming! -- she DOES love him. He DOES love her. They do both want this relationship to work; they are just both completely clueless at this point on how to achieve that goal right now. She's sorta ready -- as evidenced by her actually working through her issues this time, but it's taken so long, that he's no longer ready to just give her chance after chance to break his heart.
Give 'em time (at least eleven episodes more) and they'll get it right. They will get it right.
Scene Two: To Mac and Wallace ... 'I'm Fine.'
We've seen Veronica react to break-ups before, but they were either courtesy of Miss Mars herself or with an added twist beyond the norm. The twists occurred in conjunction with both of her break-ups with Duncan. The first involved not only pain over the end of their relationship, but it also held an element of life as she knew it coming to an end, along with the confusion engendered by the fact that he gave her no clue as to why he broke up with her. And of course, the second wasn't a break-up at all. However, I think we can actually take a very interesting cue from that one. Veronica was attempting to fool everyone into believing that her heart had been broken and that she was falling apart. So we got the emo music, we got lack of hygiene, moping about, all of the stereotypical behavior that a girl indulges in when she's dumped. Once the "twist" was revealed, viewers were given every indication that all of Veronica's heartbreak had been a deception to keep everyone off of Duncan's trail. Therefore, we never actually saw Veronica heartbroken over the end of her relationship with him. Now, I don't doubt that some of her pretending was real, but the fact that it was so very over-the-top and she got over it lickety-split lends credence to the theory that she just wasn't that bummed about it.
In this episode, we see a completely different Veronica. Unlike when she was pretending to be heartbroken, making all of the stereotypical moves, we are now seeing someone who is pretending to not be heartbroken. Unlike during Donut Run, instead of seeing a Veronica Mars wallowing in her pain, we are seeing the girl we are much more used to seeing, the one who holds it all in and because of that, this feels like the real deal. Seeing Veronica stare off into space, lost in thought, a patina of pain etched in every moment, every false smile, and every fake word of cheer was seeing that once and for all, yeah, indeed, Veronica does love Logan. And clearly this is something that Wallace and Mac don't question. Their interaction, shared glances of concern made that perfectly clear as they rallied as best they could for a girl suffering from a broken heart, even as she refused to admit to such, never mind that everything about her screamed that refrain. And that scream is due, in no small part, to Kristen Bell. While I've had issues with her performance on and off throughout the season, I must give credit where it's due. Bell completely sold every moment of Veronica absolutely reeling in devastation all the while walking and talking with a smile. And while it's obviously not fun to see our heroine in such pain, we can take comfort that her reaction is a rather good confirmation that she loves Logan. This is something that some were still questioning even after last week's affirmative response to that question.
What is not good? Hmm, let me think. Oh right, fuckin' Piz. What an idiot. Seriously. It wasn't even the fact that he was unable to take note of Veronica's pain -- further proof (as if it's needed) that he is so beyond NOT the guy for her -- it's his absolute inability to read a room. Someone shoot me now. Better yet, shoot him.
Scene Three: To Keith ... 'I'm Fine.'
And so it goes. All of the above (minus the idiocy of, pfft, Piz) applies here as well. We see a Veronica who is trying to convince those who know and care about her (see again, how this does not apply to Piz?) that no, really, she is fine. And again, Bell does a wonderful job showing just how very fine Veronica is not even while she doth protest too much.
What we have here that differentiates it from the previous scene are two specific things. The first being Keith's reaction to the news and how it was indicative of his changing attitude towards Logan. Last season we saw Keith physically attack him and throw Logan out of his home. This season, we saw a kinder, gentler Keith in regards to him and here he not only said that he was sorry that she and Logan had broken up, he genuinely appeared to mean the words. Furthermore, Veronica's explanation that it was "unexpected" made it perfectly clear that Logan did the breaking up, yet still there was no sign from Keith that he held the young man in any different esteem than he had before Veronica told him the news. Keith not hating Logan? Always a good thing.
The other notable change between this scene and the one before is that while Veronica smiled and all but blew off the break-up to her two friends, with Keith, she allowed that it was something that did throw her a bit. The casual cheer was no longer at play ... at least with Keith she was allowing some of the pain she was feeling to show. Of course, but she is so used to hiding any depth of emotion from anyone, including her father, that she can't allow even him to believe that she is anything but fine. A bit thrown? Yeah, but really, she's fine. And because everyone around her expects her to be always fine, always strong, no one pushed, everyone simply accepted that while she really may not be fine, she is ... okay.
Which, of course, she is not.
Scene Four: In the Shower ... So Not Fine
I talked above about the difference in how Veronica played heartbreak in Donut Run as opposed to how she played the opposite in this episode. Taking in all that we know about Veronica Mars, I think it's a safe bet that what we saw here is the girl suffering real heartbreak ... simply because she tried to not let it show. Veronica tells the world that she is fine; that everything is dandy and she holds in her pain until no one is around to see that there are cracks in the wall after all.
What we witnessed here was that there are cracks indeed. This is actually the first time we have seen Veronica break down over a romantic entanglement and in true Veronica Mars form, she did so in private. There may be cracks in the wall, but the wall is most definitely still there. My hope is that we are seeing this arc play out for a specific reason ... specifically a long-awaited, much-needed character arc for Veronica. The events that happened to her during the last two years of high school were terrible, not just for the actuality of the events themselves, but for the terrible price that Veronica continues to pay to this day.
As painful as this is for Veronica, Logan (and most importantly, us), hopefully there is a method to this madness and out of this heartbreak will arise the acceptance of the love that the two share and one that Veronica can embrace and accept with her whole heart and soul.
Scene Five: An Appetizer of Dick
While it would have been oh so lovely to see some subtext from Kristen Bell during this brief exchange (would a flash of pain in those expressive eyes have killed her?), there is definitely something that is of interesting note here. And that simply is why it's easier to understand Veronica's lack of faith in Logan. Look at the people he spends time with! Wallace knew how broken up Veronica was about the break-up (her claims of being fine to the contrary), yet there was not a sneer, a harsh look, anything resembling blame or negativity directed towards Logan from him at the party. Now, let's take a look-see at Dick here: He sees Veronica and his first response is to taunt her about the break-up.
And this is Logan's best friend? It's not the main course, but it's certainly an appetizer in her home-cooked meal worth of issues with regards to Logan Echolls. Damn, does this boy need a better friend radar? I mean, damn!
Scene Six: My Eyes Fucked You
Ah, so I guess the deal is when Logan and Veronica are together, his eyes adore her, when apart, he fucks her seven ways to Sunday and she gives it right back. Seriously, if her helpers hadn't come upon them with information about a hit, something tells me that given a few more minutes, Logan and Veronica would have reunited ... in the backseat of his car.
Many have complained about the lack of chemistry between Logan and Veronica this season. If you're a regular reader of my analysis, you know I don't feel that way. However, I can certainly understand why these precious moments jumpstarted the attention of quite a viewer ... possibly, heck, most indubitably, because it was only the second time all season that the show allowed the natural, combustive chemistry that Jason Dohring and Kristen Bell have to break through non-intimate direction and less-than-chemical dialogue and interaction. Oh, but my oh my, when it was allowed to break free -- yowza!
The way that her eyes stalled on him and his on hers once they became aware of one another was electrical. How that exchange of glances didn't dissipate once -- even through conversation, limited though it might have been, with another person -- was exquisite. Even their brief conversation bespoke of an intimacy in that words explaining the mindset of either one was not necessary. And all the while, through the stares, through the dialogue, the intensity of an unspoken yearning shivered in the air surrounding them.
What can I say? This section ain't called "Chemistry" for nothin'!
Scene Seven: Smash to the Window and Coming to a Theater Near You ... Smash to Mercer's Face
Oh, how many ways did this rock? Too many to recount. Too, too many. Aside from the sheer awesome Logan-ness of this whole bit -- casually walking up to the car and pausing to make sure the cops were in view, casually battering the rear window to hell and then oh so not casually walking into that jail cell, fists clenched and ready to go, his face alight with a fiery vengeance waiting to be unleashed -- what is also so very awesome about this is that we saw Logan exacting revenge on Veronica's behalf ... two days after he'd broken up with her. If there was a doubt in any viewer that -- dissolution of their relationship or not -- Logan definitely loved her, this action, that look in his eyes as he stared daggers of agonizing punishment to come at Mercer completely erased any such reservation.
Nice way to end the Logan/Veronica arc here by clearly showing us that Logan and Veronica are so completely and utterly NOT over. We witnessed this during their moments at the party and here. The passion and the intensity is so there ... alive and kicking. Logan may have broken up with her, but, in no way, does it mean that his heart doesn't still belong 100% to Veronica Mars.
- Veronica's sitting outside watching the one-car Lillith House parade of righteousness as they celebrate the dismantling of the Greek system at Hearst. She turns her attention to the building behind her and watches as Logan emerges with Dick in tow. As she watches the boys horse around, Veronica alludes to some recent Logan unhappiness in her voiceover with her comment that she hasnt seen his smile in a week. I can't help but think "uh, oh" as I am quickly reminded that the last time we saw Logan and Veronica, Veronica was ignoring Logan's call and Logan was wearing that all-too-familiar expression of devastated heartbreak.
Veronica stands and walks over to the boys, greeting her adorable boyfriend with a wholly-accurate "Hey, handsome" which Logan responds to almost not at all. He's looking mighty somber and is barely meeting Veronica's gaze and I'm getting a really unhappy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Dick and Veronica engage in some traditional snarkage, and then Dick moons the passing Lillith chicks (the disgust of Veronica and amusement of Logan) before taking his leave.
Once they are alone, it is clear that a major role reversal is in play. Veronica is being uncharacteristically overt in her affections -- she's invading Logan's personal space, doing that adorable thing where she clutches at the lapels of his shirt, as she comments that he wasn't outside her criminology class and she waited for him. Logan is being uncharacteristically withdrawn -- he's not touching or kissing Veronica, he's not smiling, and he's way more interested in looking at the ground than at the love of his life. The disparity between this greeting and a traditional Logan/Veronica greeting is rapidly turning the pit of unhappy feeling in my stomach into a cavernous hole of sadness.
Veronica recognizes that something is wrong and asks Logan what's going on. He stares hard at the ground some more and takes a deep breath before looking her in the eye and responding with the most heartbreaking words we never wanted to hear: "I can't do this anymore Veronica." Veronica is clearly as speechless as the rest of us by this turn of events, which works for Logan because he's been thinking and he's clearly got a lot to say. He points out that things between them aren't working out so well, which is kind of an understatement these last couple of weeks. Logan doesn't think he quite measures up to the person Veronica wants him to be and he's tired of feeling like a disappointment. (And how terrible is it that she's made him feel this way?) Veronica tries to interrupt with a comment that better have been "you aren't a disappointment in any way, shape or form so stop this crazy talk and kiss me sweet Logan, love of my life," but I suppose we'll never know because Logan implores her to not speak and just let him get this out.
He goes on to say that she told him she wasn't "built" to let people help her which she tries (futilely) to refute, but really -- who is she kidding? Logan tells her that he wasn't "built" to stand on the sidelines. (Which is pretty obvious to me but still seems to be somewhat of a surprise to Veronica. And ... I can't even go there right now. Gah!) As his voice begins to thicken with unshed tears, he tells her that in his mind, they have a choice: They can take a tough but survivable amount of pain now or stay together and deal with unbearable pain later. He votes for pain now. I vote that Veronica stop nodding like a zombie and speak up and tell him he's wrong, tell him she loves him, tell him she doesn't want either variety of pain, thank you very much -- she just wants him.
Logan pauses briefly again before reminding Veronica what she knows, what we all know: He's always there for her if she needs him for anything. And then, on the verge of tears, he sweetly cups her face, kisses her forehead and speaks the words that are so raw and honestly painful that that cavernous hole of unhappiness in my stomach becomes the Grand Canyon of despair: "But you never need anything." He pauses one last time but Veronica remains mute so he does the only thing he can do. He walks away. And I start bawling.
Watching this scene I can't help but wonder: Where's your passion, Veronica? Where is your love for this amazing man? Where is your voice to say "Wait, stop, don't do this -- I love you"? Where is your fight? Your will to save this relationship? Logan paused significantly so many times during his speech that I can't help but think that he was hoping against hope Veronica would try to change his mind. But what does she do? When it comes down to crunch time, all she can do is nod silently while he ends their relationship. (And what the fuck is THAT?!?!) It's so clear that he still loves her, so clear that his heart is breaking (and a million hearts around the world with it, by my estimation) and yet she does nothing -- NOTHING -- to prove her love, to fight for him, fight for them in the way he always has. When a break-up scene this emotional and heartfelt elicits no response from Veronica whatsoever, I can't help but wonder what we are supposed to believe she actually feels for Logan anymore.
And the Veronica emotion code doesn't get any easier to decipher as we see her standing in the lunch line with Mac and Wallace. I'm guessing she's broken the break-up news by the way the two of them are staring at her so intently with huge concern, but no one speaks right away so it is hard to tell. Veronica's calm veneer cracks a little as she stares unseeingly with shadowed eyes at the pasta on her tray, seemingly lost in thought. Mac tries to get her attention and Veronica immediately responds with a perky (one might say too perky) "I'm fine." Clearly Mac and Wallace have heard this one before and neither are buying it. Of course, they are both paying her lip service ("No one's saying you aren't" and "We know -- you're Veronica Mars") but Mac points out that it would really be okay if she wasn't fine. And dammit -- Logan just broke up with her, which should make her devastated, or brokenhearted, or sad, or angry, or something -- anything -- but she should not be FINE.
Veronica brushes off their concern and tells them that it's no big deal, she was just sharing some information with them that she thought they ought to know. She's not looking for a pity party. (Which is good, because if she were my friend, a pity party would be the farthest thing from my mind. I might consider throwing her a "kick you in the head until you realize what a moron you are for letting him go without a fight" party, but definitely not a pity party.) She tells her friends not to worry and to move on to the next subject.
And I might have bought her pretty little speech and shiny smile if it weren't for the expression on her face when spazzy Piz joins the lunch line. You know the face -- "Dear God, I cannot deal with him NOW." He yammers on about his precious radio show completely oblivious to both the strong emotional currents rushing all around him and the facial expressions of every one of his friends (and I use that term loosely), particularly Veronica who's sad mug is now all but screaming "I'd rather be staked to an anthill." In these last few moments, I feel a spark of hope that perhaps Veronica's not nearly as fine as she would like everyone (including herself) to believe.
Back at chez Mars, Veronica arrives home just as her father is getting ready to head out to San Diego for a client. As he gives her the quick rundown on his case, Keith notices Veronica's slightly spacey demeanor and wonders if she's okay. Bet you can guess her answer! (In case I can't clearly express that in writing, that last statement should be read with a mouth full of sarcasm.) She's FINE. Oh, well, there is the little thing where she and Logan broke up but no biggie. Tra la la. No worries. Keith expresses sincere sadness over this news and offers to put off his trip to stay home with Veronica -- you know, to help her through the grief she ought to be feeling here. But no, no, no, not our Veronica. She's fine, remember? Sure the break-up was unexpected, but she's really okay.
I don't think Keith believes her any more than Mac or Wallace did, but he knows what a tough nut his daughter is to crack. He heads for the door, but not before stopping to kiss Veronica on her forehead in a loving act that echoes Logan's earlier gesture of love. Maybe that's why she starts to lose that chipper edge again and goes all spacey, because that small gesture of love reminds her of another love -- the one she lost. Keith takes one last look at his daughter, clearly worried that she's not nearly okay as she says she is, but Veronica puts on her happy face and tells him with a bright smile to go. I guess the shiny lip gloss distracted him from the suspicious sheen of tears in her eyes because he does just that.
After seeing her father safely on his way, Veronica hops into the shower. Now completely alone with the water running down her face to mask her tears, Veronica finally breaks down and shows us the pain and devastation we've all been longing to see. Because now, for maybe the first time ever, her uncontrollable sobs show us clearly the depth of her love for Logan, along with the depth of her heartbreak. Watching her sob so helplessly, I start to cry again too. It must be an awful feeling to know that you lost the most important thing in your life because you refused to compromise, because you didn't try nearly hard enough to act "unnaturally." To realize that you took way more than you ever gave. One can only hope that perhaps this will finally enable Veronica to truly appreciate what she has found with Logan (and in Logan) in a meaningful way that will inspire her to make some much-needed changes. Let us all hope that Veronica might now be able to fully embrace her feelings for Logan and his feelings for her, no matter how hard or scary it may be to do so.
Veronica and Logan seemingly manage to avoid each other until the night of the Pi Sig party. While there tracking the rapist, Veronica spots her true love (And dammit, I'm just going to keep saying it and alluding to it until it's true. So there.) across the room. As their eyes lock, the world seems to melt away until it is only the two of them alone in this sea of people. The space between them crackles with the passion they will never be able to deny, even as they acknowledge one another with quiet sadness. Seriously -- the eye sex is INSANE in this scene. The chemistry is off the charts and they are barely speaking and not even touching. You can't buy, bottle or force chemistry like this people. It's a force of nature and you just gotta grab onto it with both hands and hope for the best. (Seriously Rob -- what the hell? Youve got the best frakkin' chemistry on television with these two and yet you can't seem to do anything but bollocks it up. What gives?!? )
The two "just say hi" with that sweet undercurrent of yearning that says "I wish we werent broken up, I wish we were alone, I wish I could still touch you" as Mercer exits stage left. Logan correctly guesses that his girl Veronica is there because of the rape case, and Veronica affirms somewhat apologetically "I am what I am." (And Veronica, I hear ya, but as a human being with free will, that doesn't mean it's what you always have to be. The power for change lies within you. Just think about it.) But maybe that thought has occurred to her too because when Logan demands that Veronica let him help her locate the missing drugged girl, she actually acquiesces without a fight. It's not much, I agree, but it's something. A baby step in the right direction at least. Here's to hoping that this gesture is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg of Veronica learning to act more "unnaturally."
Needless to say, the evening doesn't turn out quite like either of them planned, but Veronica does successfully solve the case. She gets drugged, duped, terrorized and beaten along the way, but she does manage to nab the bad guy and his submissive. The next day while recuperating at home with friends, Mac wonders if Logan's been by to check on her. Veronica quietly says that she hasn't seen him. I'm temporarily puzzled because this behavior is very out of character for Logan, but soon everything makes more sense.
When we do see Logan shortly thereafter, he's prancing in front of a bunch of cops sitting in a diner, beating the hell out of the windshield of the closest cop car with a baseball bat. It seems like a rather bizarre thing to do until we see Logan delivered to his prison cell at the Neptune Sheriff's office, and we get a glimpse of his two new bunkmates, Mercer and Moe. It seems Logan's little outburst was a clever means to an end. And that end? Was getting into the locked jail cell with Mercer and Moe so that he could deliver a little justice to his friend first hand for breaking Logan's #1 rule: Don't hurt Veronica. By the look of blood lust in Logan's eye and the tell-tale clenching of his right hand, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Mercer and his little lackey are in for a world of pain.
I certainly applaud Logan's gesture because Mercer and Moe deserve to have the holy hell beat out of them for what they've done. Not just to Veronica, but to all of their victims. However, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed that he didn't at least stop by to see Veronica on his way, to make sure that she was whole and safe and okay. But I suppose Logan is what he is in some ways too -- he's the guy that delivers the smack-down first and asks questions later. Much, much later.
So now the obvious question: Where do Logan and Veronica go from here? I don't think there is any way to know. All we can do now is hope and pray that this week's events will help Logan and Veronica be stronger, better people when they finally find their way back to one another.
- A large float of a Pi Sig Pig is being driven around campus with all the Lilith women on board. Nish, Fern and Claire are at the front of the float, cheerfully singing, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye." How do they really feel? So, I guess the Board of Trustees voted to do away with the Greek system, after all. Veronica watches the tasteful display with disapproval. The rapist has yet to be caught, so isn't their celebrating a little premature? Reactions to the float are pretty mixed. A certain freshman Pi Sig finds it necessary to drop trow and moon the float. Who else, really? Dick Casablancas. Veronica is appalled, and quips that they really got a perfect likeness of him with that pig.
Later on, Piz finds Veronica, Mac, and Wallace (A.K.A "the gang"...? Sorry Piz, but you're interrupting the BFF Pity Party.) getting lunch in the cafeteria. He's pumped (as he's wont to be) about his radio show that night, and he encourages them to tune in. His guests are discussing what should be done with the "Greek Row ghost town" next semester. One guy coming in wants it to be turned into an ROTC training battlefield.
That night at the radio station, Piz is hosting We Were Just Talking. A guest named Jennifer says that Dean O'Dell rejected her proposal to have one of the soon-to-be deserted Greek houses turned into a residence for Christian students. Piz gestures to an empty seat in the station and explains that the Dean has a standing invitation to come on the air and defend himself. Just then, as if a miracle, the Dean strides in and takes a seat. Without much preamble, he announces into the microphone that it was discovered that one of the Board of Trustees members who voted to dismantle the Greek system owned property that was being leased by several of the Greek houses. This was seen as a conflict of interest, so that member's vote has been nullified. According to the Hearst Charter, the Dean is allowed to cast the missing vote. And he's voted to retain the Greek system. Which kind of makes him, like ... the shadiest Dean ever. Outside the station, a girl overhears the news and is outraged, while two guys behind her high-five each other. Here we go again ...
The Pi Sigs not surprisingly decide to one-up the Lilith women the next day by driving a yellow Hummer around campus. Apparently, yellow is the official color of jackass on this show. (Sniff, sniff -- Oh, X-Terra of beateous jackass-yellow, you are missed ...)
Ahem, anyhoo, back to the frats who are blasting music and whooping and shouting. The Dean is pulling into the campus as the frats drive by his car, and as he peers up at their antics, he shakes his head. But Dean? You voted for them to stay on campus, remember? I know. Boys will be boys, right?
Veronica is walking down a campus pathway that day when Parker calls her over to the "Take Back the Night" table she's working. Parker shows her a section of the newspaper with an announcement that reads: I'll choose my next victim at the Pi Sig party tomorrow night. You've been warned. Parker says that the rapist is getting cocky. Yeah, maybe, but that's not really his M.O., is it? Warning girls that he's going to attack? Veronica wonders if Nish didn't place the ad herself in order to scare girls away from the party. Me? I wouldn't put it past good ol' Nish. But Parker hands Veronica a "special" coaster and says that at least a hundred girls have been by to pick them up. She says you pour a bit of your drink on one of the ten circles on the coaster and it turns red if there's any GHB or Rohypnol in it. Nifty ... and rotationally useful. Veronica asks Parker if she can have a bunch of them, as she's in need of a project. Yup. Whenever she loses a boyfriend, she throws herself into a project. Granted, she was already dangerously invested in the rape case before, so ... not really sure what she's talking about there. Parker also gives her a rape whistle, though Veronica's not sure anyone would come a-running to save her.
Veronica goes to see the Dean and shows him the coaster. She suggests that he require the Pi Sigs to provide them at the party, and he surprisingly agrees. He calls for his secretary, Cora, to track down Chip Diller. Sure, put Chip Diller in charge of protecting women. We'll see how that goes. Veronica tells the Dean that she's not sure how the rapist's ad made it into the paper, but she thinks it was added right before printing. He says that she's a credit to the college, and she remarks that he's awfully kind for being the most hated man on campus. The Dean explains that his job at the university isn't his life. Because that's always a good thing to tell your pupils. It's like saying, well, kids, your Deans and professors could care less about your welfare. The Dean says that his wife is coming back from Sacramento that day and he has something special planned.
Later that day in Criminology class, Veronica receives her "Plan a Perfect Murder" back with an A written on the cover. And a little something extra, too, from her favorite TA, Tim Foyle. "See Me, Tim," it reads. Aw, I think he likes her. Or he's looking to accuse her of plagiarizing again. Veronica knocks on his office door after class, but he isn't there, so she walks in anyway. If he's going to make her wait, she'll just check out his rape investigation board for any clues she might have missed. She sees a picture of all the 2006-2007 Pi Sig members. A few of them have been circled in red, including Dick, Chip, and some other guy. Tim then enters the office and implies that she shouldn't be in there, poking around. The only thing criminal here, Tim, is your badly-made wig. She asks him why those three Pi Sigs are circled, but he doesn't reveal. It's not like they're working together, like Starsky and ... Butch. Nice one, Tim. Can I take it that you really don't care about women's rights, but just want the credit of having solved the mystery? Tim changes the subject. Regarding her paper, he wants her to fix her syntax and book marking errors before Dr. Landry posts it online. Approaching steps can be heard behind Veronica and Tim's face lights up. He asks her if she's met his girlfriend. Tim has a girlfriend? ... Really? And then Bonnie Capistrano -- yes, that Bonnie Capistrano -- walks in. Well, her composure's certainly better than the last time we saw her, walking out of the Pi Sig house after a quickie. She seems to recognize Veronica, but Veronica saves them all from what would be a very awkward situation. Nope! She doesn't think they've met.
Later that night as Veronica's having dinner, she wonders if it means anything that Bonnie is sleeping with Dick and possibly other various Pi Sigs. You mean other than that's she's slutty? But does Tim know? Is that why he's circled the three Pi Sigs on his board?
The next day, Veronica stops in to see Wallace and Piz. Moe is there as part of his resident advisor duties. She asks the boys if they'd be interested in attending a Pi Sig blow-out. Beer, ladies, fast cars ... electronic gadgetry!? Wallace and Piz are bemused but say nothing. She's about to give up when Piz says that they were already planning on going. Excellent, then. They can assist her with her investigating. She turns to Moe and asks him if he'll also be at the party, and he says that he's got the early shift for the Take-Back-the-Night cart. She takes his cell phone and programs her number into it. She instructs him to call her if he picks up any wasted girls or sees any shady fellows lurking around. Veronica turns back to Wallace and Piz and tells them to meet her outside the house at nine sharp. And with that, she makes a hasty departure, leaving Piz confused by her whirlwind demands. Get with it, Piz! You want to be Veronica's friend? You'd better get used to the head tilting and favor requesting. Just ask Wallace.
Veronica next heads to Mac's dorm and pleads with her to go to the party, or as Mac calls it, a "hump the furniture, party back to the Stone Age, fifty-keg bacchanalia." Yeah, that sounds about right. Veronica says she could really use the help, but Mac isn't convinced. So, Veronica sinks to her knees, brings her hands together in prayer, and does the Veronica Mars Stare. Poor Mac never stood a chance. She gives right in -- "resistance is futile."
That night, Veronica and her, uh, willful group of volunteers -- i.e. Wallace, Piz, and Mac -- are standing outside the frat house, about to go in. Veronica is briefing them on the plan. She tells them not to stand out, but if they see a girl that looks like she's been drugged, they're to dip the coaster in her drink to see if it's been dosed. As a reward for their help, she's had fake IDs made for all three of them. Never mind the fact that she hands the IDs to them with Hearst police officers standing just a few feet away. They head over to the entrance table, which our buddy Drew from last season is working. He recognizes Veronica right away as the "crazy bitch" that tossed a beer on him ... well, two beers. Technically. And then there was the part with the Tasing. Good times -- well, not for him. He tells Veronica and co. to get their IDs out and show them to the officer at the door. Beer cups are $10, soda cups are $5. He hands them wrist bands and a marker to write their names on their cups. Mac says she'll take a soda cup, and Piz looks at her as if she's crazy. I guess he's already forgotten why they're at the party ... you know, to make sure girls don't get dosed. Veronica notices a stack of date rape-testing coasters and compares them to her own. Hers are double-sided, their's have a plain white back. Now that's just lazy, boys. If you're going to cheat, then at least do it well. Veronica demands from Drew to know where Chip is. He points to inside the house.
Veronica finds Chip inside and rips into him. Her guess is that the coasters the Pi Sigs are passing out test for whether or not a drink is wet. Veronica tosses a coaster into his female companion's cup. She warns her; if it turns red, he's trying to rape her. If not, he still might be trying to rape her. She stalks off, disgusted.
Outside, guys are filling up their cups with beer from the kegs, and a rock band is playing on stage. Wallace and Piz are standing off to the side, not exactly blending, really. Wallace points to a couple dancing in the crowd; the girl is slumped in her partner's arms and she has a cup in her hand. They head on over and Piz appears in the guy's line of view and starts ..."dancing." More like contorting his body as if in a fit, but it does the trick. The guy is sufficiently distracted for Wallace to test the girl's drink. It's negative, and Wallace motions for Piz to stop doing ... whatever it is he's doing.
Back inside, Veronica finds Bonnie sitting in Dick's lap. She quickly dips a piece of a coaster in her drink before either of them notices. She asks Dick's lap-buddy where her boyfriend is, but Bonnie's unruffled by the question. It's not like she and Tim are married. Dick asks Veronica tauntingly where her boyfriend is, and then corrects himself. Right, she doesn't have one anymore. Veronica isn't about to let Dick get to her, so she advises the two of them to use lots and lots of protection and walks away.
Meanwhile, Mac is approached by a guy outside and he begins hitting on her. And lamely, I might add. Mac is unimpressed with this guy's idea of flirting and just stares blankly at him. He pulls out his flask offers to pour some whiskey in her drink. Finally, giving the girl something she can work with. Mac accepts, and as soon as he finishing pours the whiskey, she dips a piece of coaster in and inspects it closely for a change in color. It's negative, but she pours out the cup somewhere and insincerely thanks him. Hee. That's Mac at her finest.
Still outside, Wallace and Piz and making their way around the party when they see an Asian girl passed out on the grass, cup in hand. Wallace taps her friend's shoulder and asks her if the girl is okay. Her friend is seemingly unconcerned about her welfare, but she says that she's already called the Safe Ride Home people to come pick her up. She points behind them to Moe and Fern pushing their way through the crowd. Fern goes straight for the unconscious girl and slings her over her shoulder. That's some strength. I take it she's done this before. Moe asks for Wallace and Piz's help with the girl, but Fern sneers at them and says they should have been taking better care of their friend. Even though they'd never seen the girl before. So typical of Fern to jump to conclusions. She walks off and Moe rolls his eyes dramatically. He says Fern is always like that.
Back inside, Veronica is still looking for possible victims. She's coming down the staircase when she sees Tim Foyle walking into the frat house. Rut-roh. He sees Bonnie and Dick and loses it. Dick is completely nonchalant during Tim's tirade, calmly sipping from his beer. Tim shouts that he's know about every frat boy she's been with, and that for every time she cheated on him, he was with someone new, too. Veronica watches, apprehensive. What if all these new women are victims of rape? Tim stops yelling and notices that all eyes in the room are on him, so he walks off somewhere.
Veronica goes to follow him but she stops cold when she sees Logan and Mercer across the room, talking with two girls. She catches Logan's gaze and they stare intensely at each other. Veronica heads over with an awkward bounce to her step. Mercer says 'Hey,' but she looks directly at Logan when she responds with a 'Hey' of her own. Logan says 'Hi' and wow this is awkward and heart-breaking and could they just make up already? The feelings, the intensity -- it's all still there. Mercer senses his third wheel status and tells them to have fun. Veronica says that he doesn't have to go, but Mercer explains that his show is coming on after the band. He leaves them and Logan says that she must be here because of her investigation. Veronica goes on the defensive; she is who she is. Their conversation (which was likely to end soon anyway) is interrupted by Wallace and Piz. Piz says that they've got a positive, and Wallace continues that it was Kim Kaiser's cup that was dosed. They don't know where she is but they asked around and someone said that she lives in the Harbor View Apartments. Veronica declares that they have to find her, and asked them who has the closest car that they can take. Logan cuts in and says that he does, but he wasn't really included in that question. Frustrated, he tells her to just him do this for her. See? He can't help but still want to protect her. Veronica reluctantly agrees -- she's still not at that point where she can ask him for help. She tells him to be careful and Wallace says that he'll go with him. They leave and Piz follows her outside.
The band is saying their goodbyes and Veronica walks right up on stage and grabs the microphone. She announces that they're looking for Kim Kaiser; she was given a date-rape drug, so if anyone knows where she is, then let her know. She waits around for a while and finally a friend of Kim's comes up to her. She says that Kim wasn't at the party; she gave her younger sister Carrie her ID so she could come. She says that Carrie wasn't feeling well and walked back to her room in Bennis Hall. Which means that Logan and Wallace are heading for the wrong residence. Veronica hops down from the stage just as Mercer's voice can be heard from the speakers. Mercer is asking his caller what he wants to hear, but the end of his sentence is stretched out, like there was an error in the playback of a recording. Veronica freezes and turns around. Mercer's show is supposed to be live. Realization dawns on her that Mercer could be the rapist and she turns back around and rushes out of the party.
As Veronica's heading to Bennis Hall, Mac and Piz reunite outside the frat house, wondering where everyone else has gone. Piz says that it's been a while since he last saw Veronica.
Elsewhere on campus, the door to Carrie's room opens and someone enters. Mercer turns on a lamp and various unicorn paraphernalia can be seen around the room. We're talking unicorn plushes, unicorn glass figurines, unicorn book ends, unicorn posters ... Looks like Carrie's bought out Neptune's Unicornucopia. Hey, girls love unicorns. But Mercer is a little freaked, so he turns on the radio to a song with a good dance beat, because techno is so "undeserved." Maybe it's undeserved if you're a rapist with no taste. Mercer begins bobbing his head in time with the music and slips off his jacket. He walks over to the bed and sits down next to the covered form. He promises aloud that it's gonna be good; it's just a shame that the only thing she'll remember in the morning is that all her hair is gone. He explains that he simply has no patience or interest to wine and dine a woman, but he's confident that all his victims would have willingly slept with him, anyway. That's a new one. You have your rapists that claim the women only regretted it the morning after, and then you have Mercer Hayes: "She would have consented had I given her the chance to!" Cocky, much? Mercer's pitiful self-talk is interrupted when he hears a thump from the closet. He opens the door and sees Carrie, unconscious on the floor of the closet. So then who's ...?
He turns around only to meet Veronica's taser. He grabs her arm but she still manages to zap him pretty good. Mercer pulls her with him as he collapses to the floor in shock and the taser goes sliding under the bed. She tries to get away but he yanks her back down, causing her to smack her head on the floor. He drags her along the floor and she screams for help, so he turns up the volume of the radio. He tells her that she shouldn't be here, and pulls her up by her bangs so that she's standing in front of him. Veronica reaches up with her hand and scratches his face. He screams and momentarily lets go of her, only to grab her again and punch her. As Kristen Bell would say, "don't hit girls!" Mercer checks out his bleeding cheek in a mirror, and I'm reminded of a younger and narcissistic Aaron Echolls. Speaking of which, that makes three culprits now that are connected to Logan either through blood or friendship. What gives? As if Logan didn't already have enough to feel guilty about.
Mercer walks over to the bed, which Veronica's half under, trying to reach for her taser. He begins pulling her out by her legs, so she grabs the nearest object, which happens to be a toy unicorn. With a long, pointy horn. She jams the thing in his leg (it's almost as if it were destiny, given her love of ponies and unicorns) and watches in horror as he reels back in pain and stumbles into the desk, the toy still in his leg. Ah, you gotta love poetic justice. Veronica weakly gets on her feet and throws open the door. She begins running (Alias-style in slow-mo) through the corridors, occasionally looking behind her to see if Mercer's gone after her yet. She races up a flight of stairs and heads for Wallace and Piz's room, even though it really doesn't make much sense that they'd be there so soon. She pounds on the door, panting and calling out their names. Realizing it's hopeless, she turns around and slumps to the floor.
A pair of legs appears at her side. It's Moe, and she looks up at him with her bloody nose and bruised eye. He asks her what's wrong, and she tells him that Mercer is the rapist. Moe looks shocked and they end up in his room. Veronica is drinking from a mug of tea and Moe is on the phone with the police. But something feels off here. He made her tea? Is he really talking to the police? What does it for me is the audible sound of the door locking as he leaves to go "rescue" Carrie. Veronica doesn't notice that, but a photo on Moe's bulletin board does catch her eye. It's of Mercer and Moe, all chummy and wearing the same t-shirts that Logan and Wallace had to wear during Dr. Kinny's Abu Ghraib experiment. As Veronica gets up to get a closer look at the photo, she starts to feel the now oh-so-familiar effects of GHB. It's all starting to fall in place now, but talk about poor timing. The GHB is really getting to her and she stumbles back, the mug slipping from her hand and smashing on the floor. She goes for the door, but as expected, it's locked. She sways over to the window and pushes it open. Much too far to jump. She grabs Moe's cell phone, which he left on his desk, and hides in the closet. She dials Keith's number, but she gets the answering machine. She reaches around the closet and finds a hammer, but when she starts settling down again, all this loose hair that she dislodged while searching for the hammer starts falling down. Disgusted, she brushes it away.
Mercer and Moe come in and Mercer assumes that she somehow escaped through the window. Mercer takes on a domineering tone with Moe, much in the way that Rafe did with Horshack, and punches him. Moe's cell phone rings loudly from inside the closet -- it's Keith calling her back -- and she gasps into the phone for him to help her before Mercer opens the closet door. Moe tries to grab the cell phone but Veronica brings the hammer down hard on his foot. Moe starts fussing about his foot and how they're going to caught, so Mercer tries to slap some sense into him, calling him his "prisoner." I should be surprised, but this is Neptune, which has more than its fair share of emotionally stunted boys. Veronica just watches numbly as Mercer directs Moe to go find all the GHB he can so that he can drug her into oblivion. Veronica reaches into her pocket and pulls out the rape whistle that Parker gave her. Veronica blows on it for as long as she can until Mercer snatches it away.
Parker, on a different floor, emerges from her room with a worried expression. Wow, that's some specialized hearing, because none of the other people on the floor so much as blink. Mercer is just limping back to Moe's room after having gone to his to get more GHB, but his path is blocked by a suspicious Parker. Mercer, I would have changed your pants because the big blood stain isn't helping you any. Parker demands to know where Veronica is and starts screaming Rape! over and over again. Pretty much everyone on the floor comes out of their rooms, including Moe, though he's carefully guarding his door. The residents start asking questions and Moe begins to panic, asking Mercer what they're supposed to do. Mercer tries to act cool and tells Moe to shut up and get back in his room. Oh, that's smart. Direct attention to Moe's room. The resident standing next to Moe asks him if he has someone in his room, and Moe just turns helplessly to Mercer for an order. Mercer tells them all that Parker's just crazy and they're falling for it, so he's out of there. Moe runs after him pathetically. Parker rushes into Moe's room and gasps when she sees Veronica laying unconscious on the floor.
Keith is later scolding Sacks in the Sheriff's department for not following procedure with the bomb threat that Veronica called in earlier so that Bennis Hall could be evacuated. Sacks apologizes and says that the Sheriff is on his way (oh, now you bother to wake up Lamb from his, uh, beauty sleep) and he wants to talk to Veronica. Keith mumbles "yeah, right" and helps Veronica up from where she's leaning against the coffee pot. Veronica informs Keith that she called him from Moe's phone, so he's now got his number saved on his. She doubts Moe's smart enough to turn his phone off, so they can track him.
Moe and Mercer are off somewhere in a motel room. Moe has a pair of pliers and Mercer's pulled down his pants to reveal his still-bleeding leg. Moe brings the pliers to the wound and begins pulling out the unicorn horn, which is buried deep in his thigh. Hurts, doesn't it, to be impaled with a foreign object? Mercer wails in pain and Keith busts in the door, gun in hand pointed straight at them. Keith tells them that their ride back to Neptune is here. A holding cell awaits them. I'm sure the bed is probably still warm from the last time Mercer was there.
It's daytime at the Mars apartment and Veronica is explaining everything to Mac, Wallace and Piz. Eh, let's just say that Piz is there because he's Wallace roommate, okay? Okay. Veronica says that Moe was the "setup man." He'd drug the victims, provide Mercer with their room numbers and then give him his Resident Assistant master set of master keys. Moe must have been the one that shaved her head, not because he planned to rape her, but because he wanted Mercer to have his being locked up as his alibi. And the Pi Sigs never had anything to do with the rapes, after all. Mercer simply chose nights on which there'd be a lot of available drunk girls. The frat was his scapegoat, and apparently an effective one, after all the crap they took during this arc. Not that it wasn't mostly deserved. Mac asks Veronica if Logan's stopped by, but Veronica frowns and replies that he hasn't. Mm, let's just say that Logan has some things to take care of.
- So, one mystery down, but they keep on coming. Cyrus O'Dell, the reviled campus Dean, has quite a bit on his plate this week. The fate of the Greeks, the Lilith women on his case, a pretty young wife to keep tabs on, and a broken television, it seems. Weevil's in his office tweaking the reception; he gets rid of the jerky picture but he tells the Dean that he'll be by later with a high definition receiver. The Dean is grateful and tells Weevil that he wouldn't know what to do if he left him. Weevil heads out and Mindy floats in to snark about how hard-working he is, sitting there in front of the television. The Dean says that his job is easy. Well, it would be if you're ignoring the fact that your campus' security is deplorable and there's a serial rapist on the loose, but whatever. Mindy hands her husband the keys to their minivan and says that she needs the Volvo for a business trip up in Sacramento. The Dean asks if Wally can go for her, but she says that he's going, too. Cyrus comments that he's going to be bored with her gone; he may even be forced to speak to their children. Mindy smiles and leans in for a kiss and tries to pacify him by telling him that she'll be home tomorrow. The Dean's secretary walks in then and Mindy leaves. Cora informs him that there's a gentlemen waiting for him, but he doesn't have an appointment and he refuses to provide a name.
The Dean enters his office and nervously recognizes the man as Mel. Mel says that they need to talk. The thing he enjoyed most about his days at Hearst was sitting on the front porch of his frat, drinking a beer and watching the ladies go by. I see where this is going. Mel tells the Dean somewhat threateningly that he thinks he's been rather generous over the years. Generous as in he's been donating a lot of money to the college, or is he referring to something else -- something a little less legal? Mercer may be a liar and a rapist, but he did say that the Dean owes him big for placing bets on boxing matches. Mel here looks more like a bookie than a generous alumni. Whatever the case, the Dean is certainly intimidated enough that he votes to keep the fraternities and sororities on campus.
The Dean later meets with Keith at Mars Investigations and reveals that he just can't shake the feeling that his wife is being unfaithful. He's suspicious of her friendship with her associate, Wally Wernkey. Hmm, not exactly the most comfortable case for Keith to be taking after his brief affair with Harmony, but he reluctantly agrees to help out the Dean. He heads home and packs his bag. Veronica asks him where he's going and he explains that he's off to Sacramento because one of his clients thinks that his wife is cheating on him.
The next morning, after the Dean drives by the celebrating Pi Sigs in their hummer, he sees two groups of women loitering around the parking lot. Fern appears from behind a parked van and walks in front of the Dean's car, forcing him to stop. A flurry of eggs hits his windshield and the women begin rocking the car back and forth.
More angry than concerned, the Dean walks into his office afterwards and tells his secretary to get him a roster with the names of all the Lilith women. Cora says that he has a guest without an appointment, and he turns around to see Keith. He invites Keith into his office and asks him what's found out about his wife. Keith replies that he only has good news. Wally is apparently gay. Mindy spent the night alone, while he, on the other hand, had quite a night on the town. Gay clubs galore. The Dean is embarrassed and asks Keith if they can just forget that he ever doubted his wife. Cora walks in then, carrying a copy of the school newspaper. He hands it to the Dean and says that he should see one of the classified ads. He reads aloud: "I'll choose my next victim at the Pi Sig party tomorrow night. You've been warned."
Later that night, Keith enters the apartment as Veronica is having dinner. Something's on her mind and she asks him about that case he had in Sacramento. He explains that it was just a false alarm. She breaks the bad news to him that Mindy really is cheating on the Dean with her Criminology professor, Dr. Landry. Keith is stunned as to how she knows this -- though, really, he should just give up and stop underestimating his daughter. Veronica explains that she simply put two and two together. She was talking with the Dean earlier that day and he mentioned how his wife from coming home from Sacramento. She says she saw Mindy and Dr. Landry together at the Neptune Grand. He checks in under Rory Finch. Keith is bummed because he realizes that he can't keep this information from the Dean.
Keith meets with the Dean again the next day to give him the news. He's done a little more research and now has the dates that Rory Finch stayed at the Grand. The Dean is collected but numb. He replies that those were the same nights as Mindy's supposed junior league meetings.
It gets to be night and I guess Keith has been hanging out with the Dean in his office all day. Cyrus is clearly drunk as he pours the last bit of his bottle into his glass. He asks Keith how someone could sleep with another man's wife. Yes, Keith, how does someone do it? The Dean tries to get up but falls back down on the couch. Keith is concerned but the Dean assures him that he isn't planning on driving home; he just wants to drink away his sorrows and pass out on the couch.
Later on, Keith is getting ready to leave. The Dean is lying on the couch and Keith asks him if he needs a ride home. The Dean sees no point in going home, considering his wife is probably shackin' up with Landry tonight. He looks like he's about to fall asleep, so Keith leaves, but as soon as he's gone, the Dean is up and alert. He goes to his desk and gets his keys; then he opens a lower drawer and pulls out a revolver. Well, this can't be good.
Mindy and Landry are indeed at the Grand. He's still comfortably in bed, but she's already dressed. He tells her languidly not to go; he's ordered dessert. She quips that maybe one day when they have sex, he won't be stoned. They both laugh and she walks over to bed to kiss him. There's a knock at the door and Mindy goes over to open it, revealing her husband. This is certainly awkward. Landry realizes who it is and sit straight up, and Mindy watches nervously as Cyrus comes right in and begins approaching her not-so-secret-anymore lover.
Much later, the Dean is back in his office, asleep on the couch. But what happened at the hotel? Was he just dreaming? If not, why wouldn't he just go home after confronting Mindy? The Dean is woken by the sound of several eggs smashing against his window outside. Looks like the feminazis are at it again. He stands up to watch as the yolk runs down the glass. He is startled when the door to his office opens, and he asks the unexpected visitor what he or she is doing there. Ah, another 'Who's At The Door?' mystery we're left to mull over during the break.
Weevil enters the Dean's office the next morning with the high-def equipment, only to see Dean O'Dell slumped forward in his desk chair, a bullet hole wound in his forehead. Well, shucks. I'm going to miss the Dean. He was ... incompetent yet loveable. As for the suspects, here's my preliminary list:
"Right Here, Right Now" (Fat Boy Slim)
Scene(s): Veronica's running down the empty hallways; later Mercer's about to get his get his groove on with a swaddled up Veronica and she's about to introduce him to Mr. Taser.
"Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" (Originally performed by Steam)
Scene: It's an anthem sung by a man for women breaking free from the wrong kind of man being sung by women who don't appear to like any men, right or wrong.
"Have You Never Been Mellow?" (Olivia Newton-John)
Scene: We've certainly seen Dean O'Dell all mellowed out, but for now, he's all yellow. Hee!
"Sweet Caroline" (Diamond Smugglers)
Scene - It's the 70's all over again as Neil Diamond's classic pumps up the party crowd. Oh, yeah and, uhm, Piz, "dances" -- clearly having taken lessons at the Elaine Benes (of Seinfeld fame) school of dance.
"Thank the Lord for the Night Time" (Diamond Smugglers)
Scene: And the band plays on, the drunken college kids carouse and Mac is asked about her STD.
"Can't Get Over You" (The Digbees)
Scene: Ah, it's a lovely day to take a nice leisurely stroll with a baseball bat ... and bash a cop's car window to smithereens. Or so thinks Logan Echolls when revenge is on his mind.
LoVe Lines
Veronica: Something wrong?
Logan: I can't do this any more, Veronica. Y'know, I've been thinking and uh ... (Voice cracking) this isn't working. Y'know, I don't think I quite measure up to the person you want me to be; I just can't take feeling like a disappointment any more.
Veronica: (Shocked.) Logan, I don't --
Logan: Let me ... get this out, okay? The other thing ... you told me you weren't built to let people help you.
Veronica: That's not exactly what I said --
Logan: It's close. And you know what? I'm not built to stand on the sidelines. (Veronica blinks and presses her lips together, eyes watering.) I think we have a choice: Either we can take a tough but survivable amount of pain now, (Taking a long pause while he stares at her) or stay together and deal with unbearable pain later. So I vote for the pain now. (Veronica nods once, and Logan breathes deeply looking like he's really struggling.) But I'm always here, (Shrugging) if you need anything. (He cups her face and kisses her forehead softly.) But you never need anything ... (He looks at her brokenly and then turns and walks away, while she gazes after him struggling to hold it all in.)
Mercer: Hey, Veronica.
Veronica: (to Logan.)Hey
Logan: Hey
Mercer: Oo-kay, you two have fun.
Veronica: (Without breaking eye contact with 'Logan.) You dont have to go Mercer, I'm just saying hi.
Logan: Let me guess. You're here because of the investigation.
Veronica: I am what I am.
Veronica: Who's got the closest car?
Logan: I do. And you're staying here. I'll go.
Veronica: If you think I-
Logan: Veronica, please! Let me do this part.
Veronica: Okay, go. Be careful.
Wallace: I'll go with you.
Quotable Quotes
Veronica Mars Voiceover: (As she watches the giant pink pig float go past.) If the Lilith House mission was trying to protect women on campus, I'm not sure this display is doing the trick. Sure, the board of trustees voted to dismantle the Greek system but there's still a rapist at large. That hasn't changed. (She hears Dick call out and Logan laugh behind her. Stands up when she sees them.) Ah ... so the boy can still smile, it seems like a week since I've seen his teeth.
Veronica: (To Logan.) Hey, handsome.
Dick: Shh, not in front of the old man; he's the jealous type.
Logan: (To Veronica.) Hey.
Veronica: Hello, Dick. (Looking at the pig float.) I can't believe they got such a perfect likeness .. did you actually model for them?
Dick: Yeah. And, you know, that reminds me they left out one important detail. Excuse moi. (He stands up on something off camera, and moons the passing float.) Take a picture, ladies! (Slapping his bare ass as Veronica grimaces and looks away in disgust.) It'll last longer!
Veronica: Great job, Dick. I'm sure you won that debate.
Logan: (Giving Dick a fond look.) Oh, he's a master debater.
Dick: You two kiss, hold hands, head to the soda shop for some malts -- I'm outta here! (Veronica stares at him silently when he doesn't leave immediately.) Okay. Don't try and stop me. (He waits, silence, silence and finally throws up his hands and leaves.)
Dean O'Dell: Hot damn! I'm back in business. What would I do if you ever left me?
Weevil: Call human resources and have them send a replacement? (The Dean shrugs.) Just a guess.
Mindy O'Dell: You can order pizza, can't you?
Dean O'Dell: I'm sure somebody will show me.
Mel: You know what I liked best about my days here at Hearst, Cyrus?
Dean O'Dell: Quality education?
Mel: (Laughing sardonically and then flatly.) No.
(Wallace and Mac stare at Veronica staring at her spaghetti for a long time in the lunch line. They look at each other then --)
Mac: Veronica --
Veronica: I'm fine.
(They respond over the top of each other.)
Mac: I know --
Wallace: We never said you weren't --
Mac: We know --
Wallace: You're Veronica Mars --
Mac: But it's okay if you're not.
Veronica: I'm fine, seriously, I just told the two of you because I figured you should know. I'm not looking for a pity party.
Wallace: That's good, 'cause I always get stuck blowing up the pity balloons.
Mac: Is there anything we can do for you?
Veronica: Nope. We're done with this topic, I just shared some info -- moving on! (Smiling.)
Piz: Hey gang! (He slaps Wallace's shoulder, Veronica stiffens up uncomfortably.) What's the word? Is it avuncular? (Mac and Wallace stare at him meaningfully.) No? Shot in the dark.
Veronica: Going somewhere?
Keith: (Using a Charlie Chan accent.) Oh, very good number one daughter, you might make a detective yet. (Veronica doesn't even crack a smile.)
Keith: You alright, honey?
Veronica: (Smiling wanly.) Logan and I broke up.
Keith: I'm sorry to hear that. Are you okay? (She nods.) I can put off this assignment ...
Veronica: No. You go, I'm fine. (He stares at her, unconvinced.) Just kind of unexpected.
Keith: Are you sure?
Veronica: Go. (He kisses her forehead. Frowning, he walks around her then notices she's still staring into space as he goes for the door.)
Keith: Honey ..?
Veronica: (Turning around with a forced bright grin.) Go! (He reluctantly leaves her to cry in the shower a few minutes later.)
Dean: So, whatcha got?
Keith: Only good news. You have nothing to worry about except perhaps your apparent lack of gaydar.
Dean: (Seriously.) I dont know what that is.
Keith: Wally Wernkey's gay. Your wife spent the night in her room alone. And Wally, on the other hand, visited in succession The Boathouse, Oil Can Harry's and Taboo.
Dean: Let's both just forget I ever doubted my wife.
Keith: Consider it forgotten.
Parker: The rapist is getting cocky.
Veronica: Yeah, or Nish just wants to scare girls away from the frat blowout.
Parker: If that was the plan I don't think it's working. We've probably had one hundred girls stop by and pick up these.
Veronica:(Incredulously.) Coasters?
Parker: Special coasters. You pour a drop of your drink on them and they'll turn red if there's any GHB or Rohypnol in it.
Veronica: You mind if I take a bunch of these?
Parker: Planning on tying one on? You can test ten drinks on one card.
Veronica: I suddenly find myself with free time and in need of a project.
Veronica: (To the Dean.) Well aren't you warm and cuddly for being the most reviled man on campus.
Veronica Voiceover: (While alone in Tim's office.) Okay, but you should know -- if you're gonna make me wait I'm gonna pour over your creepy rape investigation board. (Looking at the faces circled on the Pi Sig directory.) What's this? Dick, Chip Diller, and what's-his-face?
Tim: Can I help you find something?
Veronica: What's with the circled Pi Sigs? Are you on to something?
Tim: Did I miss something? Are we working together now? Are we Starsky and Butch?
Veronica: Cagney and Pastey!
Veronica: Dean O'Dell's wife is cheating on him with Dr. Landry, my criminology professor.
Keith: (Apparently flummoxed.) And how'd you ...
Veronica: (Cutting Keith off.) I dropped by his office, he told me his wife just got in from Sacramento. Two and two.
Keith: (Still flummoxed.)And how'd you ...
Veronica: (Cutting Keith off again.) I saw the two of them together at The Neptune Grand. He checks in under the pseudonym 'Rory Finch.' You should double check, but I'm certain it's true. Are you gonna tell him?
Keith: (Sadly.) You know the rules honey -- I have to.
Moe: Someone has been leaving a surprise in the third stall everyday for the last two weeks. This person apparently never learned how to flush, and it's my amateur medical opinion that he's also suffering from what must be a terminal medical disease. So?
Wallace: Not guilty, man
Piz: Third stall, stage right or stage left?
Moe: Stage ... (uses his hands and twists to get the visual.) right?
Mac: Are you freaking kidding me? The Pi Sig Mega Apocalypse? Hump the furniture, party back to the Stone Age, fifty-keg bacchanalia?
Veronica: Sounds fun, right?
Mac: Will they let me in? I think all the glitter had come off my porn star tube-top.
Wallace: And if you see a really cute girl and you wanna dance with her ...?
Veronica: Dance. Just know that your libido caused some girl to get raped.
Veronica: Hey, it's your life.
Wallace: Since when?
Veronica: (to Chip, holding up the coaster from the Take Back the Night booth.) One tests for date rape drugs. My guess? (Holds up the coasters handed out at the door.) The other tests to see whether drinks are wet!
Party Guy: (to Mac.) Hey there. (Reading her shirt.) You have an STD! Classic! You are one major minor, you know that? You want me to put a little whiskey in that cola of yours?
Mac: (Perky.) Sure! (Tests her drink with the coaster, its clean. She dumps out the rest of her drink.) Thanks! (Returns her attention to the stage. Party guy stands by her for a few more seconds, then tips his flask to her and leaves.)
Dean ODell: What makes a man do it, Keith? Sleep with another mans wife? Is there no honor left?
Keith: Less than there should be, I'm afraid.
Fern: (With the passed out girl over her shoulder.) Nice way to take care of your friend.
Moe: Don't mind her. She's always like that.
Dick: Hey Veronica. Where's your boyfriend tonight? (With false sympathy) Oh, wait, I'm so sorry. You don't have one anymore. Bummer.
Mindy: You know, maybe someday we'll have sex and you won't be stoned. I swear I'm having an affair with Annie Hall.
Deputy: Maybe I should ask the sheriff.
Sacks: You want to call and wake him up?
Mercer: (Turns the radio on, Fat Boy Slim's "Right Here, Right Now" is playing) You know, techno has a bad reputation but I think it's undeserved. Groan, if you disagree? (Looks to the bed, gets silence in return.) Good. We're on the same page.
Mercer: (Talking to the silent figure on the bed.) And it's a me thing, I'm sorry to say. I ... have no patience. I mean if I'd met you in a bar, or uh, at a party, I would have had you back here and on your back in an hour. (Pauses, then continues with disdain.) But that's an hour of my life I would have never had back, an hour of listening to you talk. About ... unicorns (Standing, he crosses the room.) and ... your high school boyfriend, and how you hate the taste of beer. (Retrieving and holding up the clippers.) I'm just taking what you would have happily given me. I mean, that's hardly a crime -- (Cuts off upon hearing a noise from the closet)
Mercer: Hey, there. Parker, is it?
Parker: (Forceful but shaky) Going somewhere?
Mercer: Uh, yeah, as a matter of fact- (starts to walk around her)
Parker: (stops him with her hand on his chest) Where is she?
Mercer: Uh, excuse me-
Parker: RAPE! RAPE! RAPE!
Dormitory Guy: What happened to your leg, man?
Mercer: (snidely) Pet cougar.
Dean O'Dell: (to Mysterious Killer.) What are you doing here?
Keith: (Kicks in the door of Mercer and Moe's hotel room, gun raised.) Your ride back to Neptune is here, boys. I suggest you don't give me anymore reason to shoot you.
Mac: Has Logan been by?
Veronica: I haven't seen him. (Cut to the Diner Scene: Logan "The Man" stepping up to the plate, with an actual baseball bat no less. Take that, Kristen Bell.)
(Muhammad) Ali (Referenced by Weevil while he's discussing boxing with the Dean.)
Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay (1942), is a retired American boxer. Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam and converting to Sunni Islam in 1975.
Ali is known for using his fast footwork in the ring to avoid a punch. He won his first professional fight in 1960 in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The boxer built up an impressive track record of 19-0 wins, and became the top contender for Heavyweight titlist Sonny Liston. During the pre-fight weigh-in, Ali taunted Liston by saying he would "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. You can't hit what your eyes can't see."
True to his word, Ali was dominating Liston by the third round, and the events of the fourth round remain a highly controversial topic in boxing today. Ali was temporarily blinded by a substance found on Liston's gloves, and while Liston claimed it was medicinal ointment for the cuts on his knuckles, many have speculated that the substance was actually intentionally applied to Liston's gloves to weaken Ali's offense. All the same, Ali's eyesight recovered enough for him to come back on top by the end of the sixth round, and Liston shocked the world by not returning to the ring for the seventh round.
Successes continued to mark Ali's career until his boxing had to be put on hold at the start of the Vietnam war. Ali, then a follower of the Islamic faith, refused to respond to the draft and was subsequently stripped of his title by the professional boxing commission. He regained his license to box in 1970 with the help of a state senator, just in time to meet up with the similarly undefeated "Smokin' Joe" Frazier in the ring.
Ali and Frazier's first match, dubbed The Fight of the Century by the media, was held in early 1971 and predicted to be one of the most significant fights in boxing history. Both boxers were undefeated and both had unique style in the ring. Frazier won the match with a knock-out punch, though Ali's fans are quick to point out that Ali had the unfair disadvantage of being out of the ring for the last three years. The two had a rematch in 1974 which Ali won (by points). Ali continued to make headlines, and by retirement, he claimed a total of fifty-six wins out of sixty-one fights, thirty-seven of which were knock-outs.
(Joe) Frazier (Referenced by Weevil while he's discussing boxing with the Dean)
"Smokin' Joe" Frazier is a former heavyweight boxer, most known for his fights with Muhammad Ali, and his impressive success record during the 1960's and 1970's. Frazier was born in South Carolina in 1944 and won a Gold medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics Heavyweight category.
Frazier trained specifically for his first title fight with Ali, even going so far as to bring in a coach that studied Ali's style and developed a strategy to outsmart him. Frazier had a particular vendetta against Ali, who showed Frazier the same courtesy he did Liston -- trash talk. Ali dubbed Frazier 'a gorilla' and criticized him as not being truly black. Frazier won the match with a knock-out victory in the fifteenth round. Guess he just wanted it more. By retirement, Frazier claimed thirty-two wins out of thirty-seven fights, twenty-seven of which were knock-out wins.
Sacramento (Referenced by Mindy when she tells Cyrus she's going on a trip there.)
Sac, Sacto, River City, Capital City -- these are all names given to the capital of California, the city of Sacramento.
Originally inhabited by Maidu, Valley Miwok and Snonommey Indians, Sacramento was named by the Spanish explorer who discovered the Sacramento Valley and River in the early nineteenth century, Gabriel Moraga. The name is based around the word 'sacrament.' The city of Sacramento was founded in 1848 by John Sutter, growing out of the trading colony and stockade he established, Sutter's Fort. During the gold rush, the town was a major distribution point. Incorporated in 1850, Sacramento is the second oldest in the state (after San Francisco). In 1854, the California State Legislature officially declared Sacramento the state's capital.
Located in California's Central Valley at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, the city has a population of 457,514 (2006), making it the seventh largest in the state. It is the fourth largest metropolitan area in California and is made up of five counties: El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter and Yolo. The city has a total area of 99.2 square miles and a mild climate. California State University, Sacramento ("Sac State") is the local university. The largest employer is the State of California.
The State Capital building in Sacramento and the landmark Tower Bridge,
which crosses the Sacramento River.
Professional sports teams include the Sacramento Kings (NBA basketball), the Sacramento Monarchs (WNBA basketball) and the River Cats (minor league baseball).
Once used just for transportation and commerce, the American and Sacramento Rivers are now also popular recreational waterways. Other popular attractions include the California State Fair, the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee (every Memorial Day), the Sacramento Ballet, the Crocker Art Museum, and the California State Railroad Museum. The area where the original city was located is referred to as Old Sac and has become a bit of a tourist attraction with its cobbled streets, historical buildings, paddle steamers and steam-hauled trains.
The last California State Governor to make Sacramento his permanent residence was Ronald Reagan in 1967.
Volvo (Referenced by Mindy as she asks Cyrus for the keys.)
Did you know that volvo is Latin for "I roll" or "I turn?" Well it is, not that the origin of the word has anything to do with the vehicle, instead it has to do with the original product of SKF (for Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB), which had registered as their trademark of a special series of ball bearing. That was the original plan, but they instead decided to go with SKF, but then decided it was a nifty name for their automotive company. The Volvo, or Aktiebolaget Volvo, is a leading Swedish Manufacturer of vehicles, drive systems for marin and industrial applications, as well as aerospace components and financial services. Volvo is basically a spin-off of the SKF and was founded on August 10, 1926 in Gothenburg. In 1999, Ford Motor Company bought Volvo cars.
The first series produced Volvo automobile, called 'V4' (ppen vagn (Open wagon)-4 cylinders) left the factory on April 14, 1927. Just nine hundred and ninety-six cars were produced between 1927-1929. 'V4' was replaced by model PV651 in April 1929. Volvo's first success in the automobile production came with the PV444 that was introduced in september 1944. The Volvo Group today has more than 81,000 employees, with manufacturing in twenty-five countries and sales in more than one hundred and eighty-five markets. The group provides complete solutions for financing and service.
ROTC (Referenced by Piz when he tells the gang that a student wants to turn Greek Row into a battlefield.)
The ROTC is the Reserve Officer Training Corps program of the United States Army in colleges where they recruit and educate commissioned officers. ROTC is an elective part of the college curriculum and interested students can enroll the same way they would for other classes. After graduation, ROTC participants are later absorbed into the United States Army.
ROTC classes are now available at over six hundred US Colleges and universities -- apparently including Hearst University. Courses range from aviation, nursing, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chemistry, engineering, public relations, finance, law, intelligence, psychology, transportation and many more. The focuses are on developing the leadership qualities, problem-solving abilities, planning strategies and instill the professional ethics so that the students are able to meet the challenges of the world. They can also later have a say in shaping the Army's future as an officer in the US Army.
Interestingly enough, the Army ROTC is the single largest source of scholarship money in the United States. The ROTC offers tuition and fees up to $68,000, annual living expenses up to $4,000 plus an annual allowance for books to thousands of needy students. The two, three or four year scholarship is strictly on merit and the family financial status is not a point for consideration. High school seniors could get a three or four year advanced designee scholarship while college freshmen could get a three year scholarship. Such cadets need to enter into a contract to serve the United States Army for a certain decided period.
"Very good, number one daughter." / Charlie Chan (Referenced by Keith's impression to Veronica.)
Charlie Chan, a famous Chinese detective, was a creation of Earl Derr Biggers, who modeled him after Chang Apana (a real life Chinese detective living with his large family in Honolulu). Biggers featured Chan in a number of books, and produced an impressive succession of films with this most prolific crime-solver, starting with The House Without a Key in 1925 and making it into a 1tej-part serial in 1926, followed by forty-six films through 1949. The best known of those are the ones based on Biggers' six published novels (1925-1932). During the span of the series, six different actors played Charlie: George Kuwa (1925), Kamiyama Sojin (1927), E.L. Park (1929), Warner Oland (1931-1938), Sidney Toler (1938-1947), and Roland Winters (1947-1949).
The critics and the audiences have been arguing for ages the merits and the stereotypes of the films. The prejudices of the time aside, Charlie Chan was a moral hero who, despite his somewhat idiosyncratic mannerisms and behaviors, was seen as intelligent and often more effective than his white counterparts.
The size of the Chan clan changes throughout the series. We get the first glimpse of its scope in Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), where the detective sends his friend in Scotland Yard a family photo of himself, his wife, and their eleven -- you heard me! -- children. By the end of the series there are as many as fourteen little darlings Charlie referred to as "multitudinous blessing." Hmm, I wonder if he was being sarcastic. I don't , however, wonder at him having to number them.
"Multitudinous blessings." Number One daughter: fourth from left (Florence Ung).
Selected "blessings" play parts of varying importance in the series. Sons Number One and Two join their dad on the cases. The daughters don't fair so well. Portrayed by Ivy Ling (?) in The Black Camel (1931), and Florence Ung in Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936) and Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938), Ling was Mr. and Mrs. Chan's second child and their first daughter. In Biggers' book The Black Camel, she is referred to as "Rose." (And we blame RT for dropping the ball with continuity?). This daughter appeared briefly and anonymously in several films, but she is mentioned by name only once, in Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938). Ling makes an appearance in the end of the film, after just having given birth to the Number One grandson Leung.
Ling was (possibly) named after her Aunt Ling who, as mentioned by Lee in Chan in Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936), lived "at the other end of the island" (of Oahu). The Chan's Number One daughter was married to a shopkeeper named Wing Foo and was the mother of the only mentioned grandchild, thus (one presumes) serving her purpose.
Very good, Number One daughter.
All things considered, Veronica should count her blessings: Number One and Only daughter and with a much loftier role in her father's life!
Interesting and pertinent quote from Charlie himself: "Man without relatives is man without troubles." I am thinking Keith, sometimes and secretly, would agree. And I know Logan would!
Gaydar (Referenced by Keith when he tells Cyrus that his isn't working because Mindy's travel companion is gay.)
Gaydar, a combination of "gay" and "radar," is the term describing that illusive intuitive ability to determine whether another person is gay or bisexual. Whether anyone can actually posses such ability is highly debatable, but that never stops people from claiming it. The earliest known citation (allegedly) appeared in March 15, 1992 issue of The Independent (London), in "Out of the Undergrowth" by Nick Cohen: "Men meandered with studied slowness along the paths, waiting for eye contact from passers-by. When their 'gaydar' told them that an assignation was on, they went up short, well-trodden tracks, strewn with foil condom wrappers, which led straight into the undergrowth."
The idea is more about the intangible sense rather than actual knowledge of anyones life. In other words, having a gaydar means analyzing someone's quirks, mannerisms, tastes and habits as opposed to directly asking them about their sexuality. Good luck with that! In today's culture of metrosexuals and butch homosexuals, one would imagine one's gaydar would have to be especially finely tuned, if it were based solely on one's powers of observation. However, there are studies (scientific or not) that claim other senses besides visual might be involved in this kind of detection.
Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia (which, apparently ran out of things to do) published a study in the Journal of Psychological Science declaring that "gay men were found to be particularly good at detecting the scent of other gay men." (I think I know that scent: It's "Ten" cologne.) Another research by Rudolph Gaudio in 1994 showed that men's sexual orientation can be reliably identified from their voices, a so-called gay lisp, which is actually not a lisp at all but rather a set of stereotypical speech attributes assumed to belong to gay males. This finding was elaborated on by Ron Smyth and his colleagues in 2003. Whether this "lisp" stems from subculture affectation or simply a result of marginalization is unclear. Also unclear is whether Rudolph Gaudio and Ron Smyth shouldn't have had their grant research money taken away from them. Moving along, the October 2004 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (yep, theres a society for everything) published an article by J.B. Pierrehumbert, T. Bent, B. Munson, A.R. Bradlow and J.M. Bailey, entitled "The Influence of Sexual Orientation on Vowel Production." (Yes, guys, it took five people to write this puppy, and, I am betting, this is about how many read it.)
Whether gaydar is a fact or fiction, some people seem to make quite an interesting career of debating just that. William Lee Adams, a recent Harvard graduate (the school that clearly will take anybody these days) started his "gaydar" research in 2004 that focused on the face as the focal point of most social interactions. This was in continuation of the original study, published in 1999, by his advisor, Dr. Nalini Ambady, who is now at Tufts University (one assumes because Harvard kicked him out). His study claims that homosexuals are better at correctly identifying sexual orientation than heterosexuals -- a conclusion hes drawn by having gay people look at silent videos and photographs. (Seriously, folks, someone paid for that.)
Never to be outdone by scientists and theorists, Hollywood has gotten its fair value out of the notion. There is an episode of Futurama entitled "Love's Labours Lost in Space" that has a character with a functional gaydar antenna. The Daily Show segment on gay marriage in Massachusetts featured a fictional device called Homometer that provided feedback by emitting loud gay mannerisms. And the American version of The Office had an episode "Gay Witch Hunt" where Jim told Dwight that The Sharper Image store was selling gaydars, and later send him a modified metal detector. The detector was set off by Dwight's belt buckle, making him worry that he was gay.
So, folks, after hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of dollars in research, trips to The Sharper Image, hours spent trying to sniff that administrative assistant in Human Resources, and studying vowel production of that cute guy on the train, what have we learned? Personally, I think we are all much better off just asking.
Oil Can Harry's (Referenced by Keith when he tells Cyrus the places Mindy's gay companion visited on their trip.)
Oil Can Harry's Dance Club is a popular Southern California gay bar located on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. The club, which opened in 1968, features two bars, pool tables and a dance floor where country-western dancing is featured nightly. Although the country-western theme is the normal atmosphere, on Saturdays it's all about the retro as the DJ's spin disco from the 70's and 80's.
While there doesn't appear to be an Oil Can Harry's club in the Sacramento area, there used to be one in San Francisco, back when disco was at the height of its popularity. Also, in Austin, Texas, there can still be found an upscale gay men's nightclub called Oilcan Harry's. This club has been in business for more than fifteen years and was voted by CitySearch the Best Gay Bar in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
It would appear that the club's name was taken from the cartoon villain of the same name. Oil Can Harry first appeared in 1933 in The Banker's Daughter and a following series of cartoons about the adventures of Fanny Zilch. In 1945, the character -- originally a man -- was recreated as a cat for Mighty Mouse & the Pirates. Harry's final appearance was in 1953's When Mousehood Was in Flower.
GHB (Referenced by Parker as she tells Veronica the coasters will test for the drug.)
Acronym for Gamma hydroxy butyrate or Gamma hydroxybutyric acid, Sodium Oxybate. Trace amounts are found naturally in the human body. However, the main ingredients in synthetic GHB are basically degreasing solvent or floor stripper mixed with drain cleaner. The common nicknames are Gamma-OH, Liquid Ecstasy, Fantasy, Easy Lay and Cherry Meth. It is usually found in a clear liquid, which looks just like water and is packaged in a 30ml clear plastic bottle. It is also found infrequently as a white powder.
The common effects from use are intoxication, increased energy, happiness, desire to socialize, feeling affectionate and playful, mild disinhibition, enhanced sexual experience and loss of gag reflex. Many people have bad reactions including nausea, headaches, drowsiness and amnesia. The effects of large doses include sedation, desire to sleep, rambling incoherent speech, difficulty thinking, passing out and, in extreme cases, death.
Rohypnol (Referenced by Parker as she tells Veronica the coasters will test for the drug.)
Flunitrazepam -- marketed under the trade name Rohypnol -- is manufactured worldwide, particularly in Europe and Latin America. Its most common street name is roofie and it generally sells for below $5.00 per small white tablet. It is ten times more potent than valium and can be habit forming, one of the reasons that it is illegal to own in the US. Rohypnol is one of the drugs most commonly implicated in drug-facilitated rape and due to its high usage blue dye was added to it in 1999 so that it would no longer be clear in liquid. Common effects from usage are memory impairment, drowsiness, visual disturbances, dizziness, confusion, excitability or aggressive behavior and it can mentally and physically paralyze an individual. Effects of the drug are of particular concern in combination with alcohol and can lead to amnesia, where events that occurred during the time the drug was in effect are forgotten.
In response to Rohypnol abuse and use of the drug to facilitate sexual assaults, the U.S. Congress passed the Drug Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act, effective October 13, 1996. The law provides for harsher penalties regarding the distribution of a controlled substance to an individual without the individual's consent and with the intent to commit a crime of violence, including rape. The law imposes a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine for the importation and distribution of 1 gram or more of Rohypnol. Simple possession is punishable by 3 years in prison and a fine.
Bell Curve (Referenced by Landry while talking to his class about their "perfect murder" papers.)
A controversial, best-selling book by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve (1994) explores the role of intelligence in American life. The book was named for the bell-shaped normal distribution of IQ scores, and claims there has been the rise of a cognitive elite who have an higher than average chance of leading successful lives. Due to its discussion of race and intelligence the book became widely read and debated by the public, with large numbers of those in both the mainstream media and scientific community rallying to support and criticize it; a few critics denounced the book as well as its authors for supporting scientific racism.
The Bell Curve is divided into four sections as follows:
Starsky and Hutch was a television series that aired ninety episodes on ABC from 1975 - 1979. The show was about two California police detectives, fighting crime as partners and friends with different sensibilities. David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) was the streetwise, laid-back half of the duo, while Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson (David Soul) was the reserved, serious partner. Driving around in Starsky's red Ford Gran Torino, sporting two large white stripes and known as the 'Striped Tomato,' the detectives fought crime as co-workers and close friends. The cast of characters included their street informant, Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas) and their boss, Captain Dobey (Bernie Hamilton).
David Soul (as Hutch) and Paul
Michael Glaser (as Starsky)
In 2004, the series was turned into a feature film action-comedy, spoofing the series and its 1970's style. The movie switched up the title characters' personalities, possibly due to the casting of the roles. Now, Starsky (Ben Stiller) was the serious one, while Hutch (Owen Wilson) was more laid-back. The plot involves Starsky and Hutch's first team-up, as they go after drug lord Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn), with some help from series favorite Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg). Both David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser make cameo appearances in the film.
2004's Starsky (Ben Stiller) and Hutch (Owen Wilson); Stiller, Soul, Glaser and Wilson pose on the set.
Cagney and Lacey (Pasty) (Referenced by Veronica snarking to Tim about them teaming up on the investigation.)
Cagney & Lacey was a television series that aired in the U.S. on CBS for six seasons from 1982 to 1988. The series starred Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly as New York City police detectives. The premise of the show teamed up the two women as members of the police force who led very different lives. Christine Cagney (played by Gless) was a single career-minded woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (played by Daly) was a married working mother.
The show covered story lines both simple (the birth of Lacey's third child), and dramatic (Cagney's experience as a victim of date rape -- which makes this reference rather apropos in an episode wherein a serial rapist is brought to justice). Cagney & Lacey was also no stranger to controversy. In 1985, there was an episode about the bombing of an abortion clinic which several CBS affiliates refused to air. Perhaps the most shocking and controversial was 1987's explosive episode, "The City is Burning," based on the December 1986 racial incident in Queens, New York's Howard Beach neighborhood.
In 1983, the series was actually canceled by CBS, but was subsequently brought back to the network's schedule after fans of the show organized a major letter-writing campaign. (Veronica Mars fans take note of that detail!) TV Guide celebrated the show's return with the cover reading "Welcome Back." The show went on to earn an impressive thirty-six Emmy nominations and fourteen wins during its run, including six nominations for stars Daly (four wins) and Gless (two wins). CW execs, take note of that detail. Having faith in a show this great will pay off in the end -- you've just got to be patient!
Take Back the Night (Referenced by Moe when he tells Veronica he's scheduled to drive the cart during the Pi Sig party.)
'Take Back the Night' rallies and marches are organized events intended to bring community awareness to rape and other violent crimes committed against women. These events originated in Europe in the 1970's. The first march was organized in Belgium by the women attending the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women. The first march in the United States was held in San Francisco in 1977 by Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM). Thousands of women marched through San Francisco's red-light district protesting the subordinate portrayal of women in pornography.
Today, 'Take Back the Night' rallies take place anywhere from small college campuses to major metropolitan areas; some events are even organized internationally. An event usually begins with a rally, then a candlelit march at night to show that women should not have to fear walking through the streets alone at night. 'Take Back the Night' can refer to violence against men and children, as well, but the term generally holds a connotation of being a feminist movement. In fact, men are often symbolically excluded from participating in events.
Apocalypse (Referenced by Mac describing the impending Pi Sig party to Veronica.)
The word Apocalypse (Greek. Apokalypsis, literally: the lifting of the veil) applied to the term meaning disclosure of something hidden from the masses to the chosen prophets. It referred to prophetic writings by Jews and early Christians from around 200 B.C. which spoke of divine revelations. In those early Jewish writings the term was used in parabolic way to depict the end of the future state of the world. Literally, however, the term refers to the unveiling of God as Messiah and not necessarily to the destruction of all world that will be the result of Gods Revelation of Himself to Humanity.
So far so good. But the Apocalypse that gets all the credit is the last book of the New Testament called the Revelation of St. John the Divine or the Book of Revelation (from the direct translation from the original Greek title (AokaluyiV Iwannou ) -- Apocalypse of John). The term is obtained from the opening words of the book of Revelation that refer to an apocalypse, spoken by Jesus Christ to John. Thats where it gets dark. The wild imagery of the Revelations of serpents and many-headed dragons is rooted in six hundred years of Jewish history of conflicts and defeat by foreign invaders: Babylonians, Persians, Greek and Romans. Along with the influences of the foreign invaders, the climate of despair contributed to the doomsday outlook of the Jewish culture that was fundamentally reshaped by it. A prolific new literature -- the apocalypse -- was born, dealing with the eternal battle between good and evil, resurrection of the dead, judgment day, the Four Horsemen announcing the approaching doom, the Antichrist, heaven and hell, etc.
The Book of Revelations sets the standard for the modern interpretation of the word Apocalypse. The current Western meaning is derived from the phrase apokalupsis eschaton (apocalyptic eschatology), that means "revelation of the knowledge of the end of time." The signs of the apocalypse differ according to specific religions, but you might want to watch out for the following:
The Rapture? Well, whatever this is, it's definitely
some kind of a sign of the impending Apocalypse
In other words, if you see a few hundred drunken teenagers humping the furniture, run like the wind to the nearest church!
And if you are not yet suitably afraid, here's a bizarre coincidence for you: The first verse of the King James Version of the Bible, Revelation chapter six reads: "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see." Frightening, isn't it? Any day now our good Sheriff just may serve a purpose. And the purpose will be to announce the end!
Stone Age (Referenced by Mac describing the impending Pi Sig party to Veronica.)
The Stone Age refers to an immense period of time that boasts the first widespread use of technology and the spread of humanity from East Africa to the rest of the world. The Mesolithic Period, or the Middle Stone Age, dates back about 6,000 - 10,000 years ago, and the Neolithic Period, or the New Stone Age, began in about 8,000 BCE. This time span marks the development of agriculture and the domestication of certain animals. It is part of the prehistoric time, or the time before written word.
The slang use of the phrase is typically used to describe a relatively primitive condition, a misnomer likely fostered by the classic cartoon, The Flintstones. The cartoon depicted a family in the Stone Ages whose primitive technology included television sets made of hollowed out stones, cars with stone wheels powered by the occupants' feet, and a wooly mammoth's trunk serving as a water hose.
Bacchanalia (Referenced by Mac describing the impending Pi Sig party to Veronica.)
The Bacchanalia were pagan mystic festivals dedicated to the Roman god Bacchus. Also known to Greeks as Dionysius, Bacchus, the god of wine, represents not only intoxicating power, but its social and beneficial influences (as any semi-educated Pi Sig will tell you as he pours beer out of the keg). He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a provider of law, and lover of peace -- as well as the patron of agriculture and the theater. He was also known as the Liberator.
Kids, never ever get this drunk!
The tradition of festivals dedicated to this fine deity was brought to Ancient Rome from lower Italy c. 200 BC. Originally, the bacchanalia were held secretly on March 16 and 17 in the grove of Simila near Avenitne Hilland, and the only participants were women. Later men were admitted, and the festivals took place five times a month. (Yep, folks, that's how addictions normally progress). The tradition grew into the full-blown cult that had spread rapidly, gathered power and made the local authorities uneasy (as cults tend to do, perhaps for a reason).
All of that led to a decree of the Senate in 186 BC prohibiting Bacchanalia throughout Italy except in special cases specifically approved by the Senate (kind of like the drunken Washington, D.C., political gatherings of today, for which people anywhere else would be arrested). The decree, called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus (sounds official), was inscribed in bronze tabled discovered in Apulia in Southern Italy in 1640 and currently displayed at the Kunsthistorishes Museum in Vienna.
The reasons for the decree were political rather than moral. Women occupied leadership positions in the cult, which went against the traditional Roman family values (wow, will the parallels to the current political climate never cease?). Slaves and the poor were the cult's members and, it was assumed, planned to overthrow the government (drinking excessively helps with such planning, I'm told). And the decree itself was an impressive show of the Senate's supreme power at the time when the Senate could use such a display, because certain victorious generals gained popularity and threatened the collective authority in the political arena.
However, all that is ancient history (literally). The modern term bacchanalia has ceased all of its political meaning (unless you are Nish and politicize drunken college traditions), and now refers to basically any kind of a drunken party. In fact, many schools in the United States and abroad hold Bacchanalias on an annual basis. Rice University holds its revelry at Brown College where people dressed in togas engage in various forms of debauchery. Our flagship of higher education -- Harvard University -- holds theirs at the Lowell House. The gathering serves as the Spring Formal, and by "formal" they mean that the drunk-off-his-ass frat boy dressed as Bacchus arrives wearing his toga tied in a fancy, classy way. Not to be outdone, the traditionally liberal and progressive Sarah Lawrence College celebrates the end of conference work and school year with a Bacchanalia of its own. Ironically, the authority that throws the shindig is called Sarah Lawrence College Student Senate (as the ancient Romans roll in their graves). Live music is played outdoors and free booze is served. (Gotta love progressive schools!).
Not paying any heed to history (and why would a fraternity be interested in history, really?), the Epsilon Xi chapter of Sigma Nu at the University of Mississippi throws its Bacchanalia as an annual spring male-only party (and they will punch you if you call this gay). The massive festivities include live music, assigned costumes (no, not gay at all), and various sexual rituals (okay, that is totally gay!).
Old School and New School (and check your gay jokes at the door!)
"Resistance is futile." / The Borg / Star Trek: The Next Generation (Referenced by Mac's reaction to Veronica begging for her help.)
The Borg are a fictional race of cyborgs (cybernetic organisms) introduced on the science fiction television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Borgs are in relentless pursuit of colonies for assimilation and are rapidly adaptable to almost any defense. They are not destroyers, but they wish to "improve the quality of life for all species" by integrating organis and synthetic devices to perfect organisms. If I'm understanding this correctly (please don't shoot me, Trekkies *), during the assimilation process, they will both collect any useful knowledge from the species or organism, and then use their collected knowledge to perfect the being, either by implanting chips directly into the brain, or attaching other devices such as tool-enhanced limbs, armor, and other prosthetics. In Star Trek: First Contact, the method for assimilation was adapted to the injection of nanoprobes directly into the bloodstream.
The Borg were given much more screentime in the fourth installment of the Star Trek universe, Voyager, when in the fourth season a regular cast member was introduced: A former Borg drone (as the millions of cyborgs were called) was erm, de-assimilated, into humanity and the three remaining seasons of the series dealt heavily with the Borg presence.
Captain Picard being injected with nanoprobes in ST:FC.
The calling card or catchphrase of the Borg is "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." Another variation, taken from Star Trek: First Contact is as follows:
* From a semi-Trekkie (although the preferred nomenclature is now "Trekker" -- to which I say, "Whatever! I like Trekkie!"), yeah, pretty much, you got it. The goal of the Borg is ultimate perfection and assimilating other species and taking the good, discarding the bad helps that goal.
Petri Dishes (Referenced by Veronica's description of Dick and Bonnie at the party.)
A flat, shallow, cylindrical dish made of plastic or glass used mostly to grow bacteria is called "Petri" after its inventor, the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri (1852-1921).
They serve as agar plates, sterile Petri dishes that contain agar plus nutrients (media), used to culture microorganisms. Other uses include growing cells that are animal, plant, or fungus, observing seed germination, or even small animal behavior, or multitude of other day-to-day laboratory practices such as drying fluids and carrying and storing samples. Petri dishes fit under a dissection scope (stereomicroscope) and are used as viewing platforms. Modern Petri dishes often have rings on the lids and bases, which stop them from sliding when stacked. Multiple dishes can be incorporated into "multi-well plate" plastic containers.
Small animal behavior?
Yep, I am with Veronica. I look at those two and see a multi-well plate full of bacteria. Use protection, guys, lots and lots of protection!
STD (Referenced by the party guy commenting on Mac's t-shirt.)
Sexually transmitted diseases or their more commonly known acronym, STDs are diseases or infections that are transmitted between humans by means of sexual contact. The name venereal disease was a derivation of the name Venus, the Roman goddess of love, but more recently, public health officials introduced the term sexually transmitted disease in efforts to improve the clarity of their warnings to the public.
The term STD refers only to infections that are causing symptoms or problems while the term STI is more appropriate for the general infections, as some people are unaware of infection until they start showing symptoms of the disease. In general, an STI is an infection that has a negligible probability of transmission by means other than sexual contact, though they can also be transmitted through more sophisticated means like blood transfusions or sharing of hypodermic needles.
Crme Brle (Referenced by Landry when he tells Mindy he's ordered some from room service.)
So delicious! Crme brle is a popular dessert with a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel which is usually created by burning sugar with a kitchen blow torch. The origins of crme brle are much debated, with the English, French and Spanish all taking claim for its invention. Since the eighteenth century the Spanish have taken credit for the custard as :crema catalana," while the English claim it originated in seventeenth century Britain where it was known as "burnt cream." It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that the French translation came into common usage, putting the dessert on the map from Paris to New York, and its wide recognition today seems to give the French the credit for the invention of crme brle.
Below is a recipe for this most amazing of desserts. Straightforward and unpretentious, if you've never tried crme brle do yourself a favor and try making it at home. You won't be disappointed.
Classic Crme Brle
This is what she is alluding to:
It's difficult to say whether professor Landry is frigid unless he takes drugs before sex, but Annie Hall clearly was, and Landry's need to indulge is what opens him up to such as suspicion on Mindy O'Dell's part. And it figures this would be the one lesson she carried from the movie being refenced, Annie Hall, Woody Allen's 1977 Academy Award-winning film and arguably his finest work. Co-written by Allen and Marshall Brickman, the film is a non-linear narrative of the one-year romance between the titular character and the protagonist played by Woody Allen himself. Alvy and Annie Hall, an aspiring singer with unconventional fashion sense (which inspired a trend after the movie came out), start a relationship that is doomed to failure due to their fundamental lack of understanding of each other. She is slightly ditzy, but sparkly, presenting an exuberant love of life. He is elitist, disillusioned and fatalistic.
The script bears some striking similarities to Allen's life at the time (similarities, which he vehemently denied). His previous relationship with the movie's star Diane Keaton (whose real name is Diane Hall) is but one of them. The fact that Allen plays the character named Alvy Singer, who is a neurotic, Jewish, Brooklyn-born New York City comedian obsessed with death and utterly incapable of sustaining a functional relationship is another indication. For all his denial, it's hard not to see the parallels. The character hates teachers, his former schoolmates, California, television, successful men, and pseudo intellectuals. Grammy Hall, Annie's grandmother in the film, is based on the real Grammy Hall, Diane Keaton's grandmother whom Woody met at a Thanksgiving dinner much like the one featured in the movie. Alvy's attempt to "educate" Annie and even put her into psychoanalysis mirrors the same attempt by Woody Allen to "improve" Diane Keaton when they first met. There's so much of Allen in his character, the situation, the movie, and the dialogue, that it's futile for him to deny the film isn't at least partially autobiographical.
The film included many of Allen's usual trademarks: exploring the subjects of anti-Semitism, neurosis, sexual hang-ups, mocking of his own appearance an personality, drugs, death, romantic woes, distorted memories of childhood and his introspective pessimism. The tone of the film, despite its irreverence, slapstick humor and a stream of one-liners, is surprisingly tender and sensitive. When all is said and done, it's a tour de force of an urban romantic comedy, and one of the most loved of Allen's works. Annie Hall is a technically brilliant meshing of styles, spit screen shots, characters addressing the audience directly by talking to the camera, fantasy-like flashbacks and dream sequences. All of which reinforce the major theme of the film: that there are insurmountable limitations to life, such as death and loss, but that art forms have the power to reshape reality and compensate for those limitations by giving the artist some control.
Fun fact: While trying to come up with the title for the film, Allen's co-author Marshall Brickman offered up such gems as It Had to Be Jew and Me and My Goy. Woody Allen's suggestion was Anhedonia, which apparently means inability to enjoy pleasure, the opposite of hedonism. As appropriate as this title would have been, I can imagine it would have gotten quite a few blank stares. In the end Annie Hall -- a far less imaginative, but much more reasonable -- title was settled upon.
The movie ends with Alvy telling a joke about a man who complains to a psychiatrist that his brother thinks he's a chicken. "Well, why don't you turn him in?" says the doctor. The man replies, "I would, but I need the eggs." This sums up Alvy's take on relationships: We suffer them because we all "need the eggs." And somewhere Logan is nodding his head in agreement.
Chicks on Speed (Referenced by the Club Flush caller request at the party.)
Formed in Munich, Germany in 1997, Chicks on Speed (CoS) are a female electropop group whose core members include Alex Murray-Leslie, Melissa Logan, and Kiki Moorse. The women were all students at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich when they met at one of the Academy's bars and formed the group. Though they are usually considered part of the musical genre of electroclash, CoS began as a multidisciplinary art group creating exhibitions, applying a punk inspired do-it-yourself ethic to performance art, collage graphics and home-made fashion; they've been creating their own stage costumes with cheap and recycled material such as plastic bags and gaffer's tape since they formed.
CoS are surrounded by a large and ever-changing collective of musicians, producers, designers, film and video makers and graphic artists. CoS got their name while earning some extra money at an art gallery hanging paintings on the walls, and someone quipped that they worked like "chicks on speed." With their own club nights at Munich's Seppi Bar, CoS created an installation piece entitled "I Wanna Be a DJ, Baby," in which they stood behind DJ decks and smashed records while a sound collage tape played. It was at this point that CoS was considered a "fake band"with mock T-shirts, records and cassettes. During this time, CoS met Upstart from the Disko B record label who helped Chicks on Speed get their start in the music industry.
Unicorns (Referenced by Veronicas choice in rape-deterring weapon chosen from the cornucopia of unicorn memorabilia in Mercers victims room.)
The unicorn is a legendary creature usually depicted with the body of a horse, but with a single -- usually spiral -- horn growing out of its forehead. In fact, the name "unicorn" is derived from the Latin word for horn, cornus. The unicorn is a mystical creature who's blood and horn supposedly have magical healing properties.
Unicorns: pretty but deadly. Or at least painful.
Though the modern popular image of the unicorn is sometimes that of a horse differing only in the horn, the traditional unicorn is actually way, way less pretty. It has a billy-goat beard, a lion's tail and cloven hooves, which distinguish him from a horse. Less My Pretty Pony, more hell-beasty. Despite their unconventional appearance, unicorns have been described as "the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful." Almost like Logan! Except I would never call him solitary. Fierce yet good? Check. Selfless? Check. Mysteriously beautiful? DOUBLE check.
Logan: Also pretty but even deadlier. Or at least way, way, WAY more painful.
Particularly where Mercer's concerned.
In medieval lore, the alicorn, the spiraled horn of the unicorn, is said to be able to heal and neutralize poisons. The unicorn is also generally a symbol of innocence. It is said that the unicorn can only be tamed or ridden by a virgin woman. So using the protruding horn of a creature of innocence to stab an evildoer who rejoices in stealing innocence by the use of his, um, horny protrusion, is rather poetic. Dont you think?
Cougar (Referenced by Mercer's obnoxious reply to how his leg was injured.)
Also called the puma, a cougar or mountain lion is a large cat found in the Americas. They primarily feed on deer, but will eat anything from insects, mice, rabbits, domestic cats and dogs, alpaca (!!), sheep and elk. Adult cougars can weigh anywhere from one hundred and eighty to two hundred pounds and can run as quickly as 43.5 miles per hour. They have a lifespan of about ten years in the wild and twenty-five years in captivity.
Cougars were hunted nearly to extinction with an estimated thirty thousand hunted for sport between 1996 and 2006. Hunting of the animal is still allowed in most states, but is illegal in California, where the cougar population is estimated to be around four to six thousand. Cougars are territorial, private animals, and they will generally avoid fighting, but there are some records of attacks on people and domestic pets in urban areas. These attacks are for the most part limited to areas where the traditional pray of the cougar, the mule deer, habituates in urban areas. There were about one hundred attacks with sixteen fatalities between 1890 and 2004 (in the US and Canada) and California, with the highest cougar population, has had fourteen attacks, six of which were fatal.
Go, get 'em, Cougar.
Some puma safety tips, which could have been useful to Mercer had his story not been a complete crock:
- While Veronica is banging on Wallace and Piz's door screaming for help, we can read one of Piz's messages on the white board: "Pizzer, I've got a great interview for you!!" Hahaha. Like they needed to encourage us to make a mockery of his name.
- Logan and Dick slapping at and laughing with each other like the old days. Good to see they do still talk to each other because they haven't had a scene together since Welcome Wagon.
- Dick and Mercer being blown off in similar ways because Logan and Veronica are distracted by each other. Hee.
- The music used during the break-up scene is the same music used in Hot Dogs during their hook-up in the "Movin' on" scene, and also when Veronica broke up with Logan in Normal is the Watchword. (On a non-LoVe note, it was also used during the reveal of Veronica's true paternity in Leave it to Beaver.)
- Veronica tugging on Logan's lapels like she did in M.A.D. Ah. Good times.
- It's official. Logan is way better at break up speeches even though he's had no practice, and Veronica has way more dignity in accepting it even though she's had no practice. They should never trade places again, the other way leads to badness.
- Logan's face when he said he was there if she needed anything, tenderly kissed her forehead, and then cracked over the line 'but you never need anything.' Ooouuuucch. *sniffle* And a nice reminder of Leave it to Beaver when he kissed her forehead so intensely and let her go do her thing ...
- Tune in this week when Veronica Mars gets her very own Smoking Man. And this guy's got a cigar. He'd so bad.
- Veronica staring into her spaghetti as Mac and Wallace stare at her with "that's not normal" frowns on their faces. Aww, poor heartbroken and distracted Veronica.
- After Veronica says she's fine, Mac and Wallace trip over each other agreeing. Wallace's exact words are: "No one said you weren't. You're Veronica Mars."
- Veronica's exasperated head tilt when Piz appeared in the food line. It was very: "I don't have the patience for this today." Hee.
- Dean O'Dell sipping coffee from a "Life Ain't Fair," mug while visiting Mars Investigations. Considering his violent and untimely demise at the end of the episode, that quote deserves a big, fat WORD.
- Keith saying, "I'm sorry to hear that" when Veronica says she broke up with Logan. That's a long way from booting him out the door and ordering him not to come back. And after he kissed her forehead (same thing Logan does, hee), he was really frowning about it. Looks like that one took Keith by surprise too, Veronica.
- Veronica's shower breakdown. Way to sell it, KB, and for some reason the odd way her hair was shaped because of the bobby pins only made me like the scene more; it just made her look more messed up.
- The amusingly shocked expression on Veronica's face when she learns that Tim Foyle has a girlfriend.
- Veronica's girly hair cut after getting dumped by Logan. Her "girl" moments are so random but strangely fulfilling.
- Parker and Veronica had the same nail polish on when Parker gave Veronica a whistle. Is that meant to highlight their damaged perspective in a really superficial way?
- Piz's confused, not-sure-what-just-happened look and Wallace's all-too-knowing head shake after they've just been roped into helping Veronica at the party. Hee. I just love how Wallace reacts to these situations.
- Cyrus O'Dell's face as Keith details his wife's betrayal. He looked like such a lost puppy -- I really felt sorry for him. His hands shaking as he picked up the paper? Finally an actor who knows how to make you hurt in an adultery case! If Keith's own affair hadn't made him feel guilty before, I bet he feels like a real tool now. Especially since O'Dell said to him: "Is there no honor left in the world?" Ouch.
- Dean O'Dell's visibly shaky hands when he picks up the paper upon which the dates of his wife's trysts with Landry were displayed. Such a powerful, yet understated way of showing how considerably affected the Dean was by his wife's infidelity.
- Moe's practically giddy expression of "wow, a girl actually gave me her number," after Veronica programs her phone number into his cell. Oh, Moe. Say it ain't so!
- Veronica and Wallace's exchange: "It's your life!" / "Since when?" Nice callback to when Wallace told her that this is her world and he just lives in it (Blast from the Past).
- Okay. Veronica making fake I.D.s for everyone? She can no longer be indignant about that time she was framed in Clash of the Tritons. Although, in fairness, she was mostly upset because the shoddy craftsmanship insulted her skills.
- It was a bit late to bring back the guy Veronica threw a glass of beer at in The Rapes of Graff, but nice continuity anyway.
- The look Piz threw Mac when she purchased a soda cup rather than a beer cup. Hee. I'm still on the Piz/Mac bandwagon I've been riding since Welcome Wagon and that look was perfect.
- While Veronica gives 'Bambi,' the girl Chip was flirting with, a 'tip' that he could be planning to rape her, there's a sign on the wall reading: "Your Tips Could Take You Far." Hee.
- The look on the face of the girl Chip was flirting with after Veronica left. I don't think Chip was in like Flynn in this instance. Hee.
- The Pi Sigma Sigma letters on the stage are made out of beer cans I wonder how many people went to hospital with alcohol toxicity making that thing.
- Mac's shirt: "Ask me about my STD." Not sure Cassidy would find that funny.
- Tina rocked that eyebrow raise when that guy was hitting on Mac. I loved her in this episode. And pouring out the drink he gave her? Haha.
- Piz and Wallace being blamed by Fern for letting "their friend" pass out on the floor. Is it wrong that I was amused by this feminist assumption? Girlfriends are more likely the culprit unfortunately, sad but true.
- Moe asking for help to lift the girl while Fern easily throws her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Hee.
- The way the party sounds fade away to soft, pained piano notes and then nothing at all as Veronica meets Logan's eyes. Then it's all about the eyesex. Beautiful and oh so surprisingly from Rob Thomas.
- Piz doesn't even look at Logan when they rush over to Veronica at the party, not even when Logan asks a question in response to his comment about finding a positive. Nicely played by Chris Lowell, dammit.
- When Veronica notices that Mercer's radio show isn't recorded live at the Pi Sig party, he's introducing the same song that started playing as Veronica exited Parker's room while she was being raped. Deja vu.
- Mercer was listening to his own radio show when he raped Parker and was playing it again when he was getting ready to rape Carrie. That's just disturbing on far too many levels.
- The look on Veronica's face when she scratched Mercer. "I learned this in Pep Squad, Bitch." And Mercer's reponse ("That's my face, bitch!") was pretty girly too, though the punch -- not so much.
- After Veronica scratches Mercer's face and he's looking in the mirror, in the reflection you can see both Veronica crawling under the bed and Carrie still slumped in the closet. Nice shot, Rob.
- As Mercer goes to grab Veronica from under the bed, the reflection of the mirror shows the dosed girl lying unconscious and oblivious in the closet. It's another great shot.
-Wow. Mercer really screamed like a girl. Looks like the unicorn won.
- Now we know why Veronica likes unicorns -- they're good for impaling slimy perverts. Really nice imagery actually considering unicorns are associated with virginity.
- As Veronica's running towards the stairs to put some distance between herself and Mercer, she passes by a "Self Defense" sign on the wall. The sign's been seen there before, but seeing it while she's actually in the midst of defending herself was eye-catching.
- After Moe pretends to call the police for Veronica, you can see him setting his cell phone on his desk. Quite convenient and fortunate for Veronica who's without hers.
- When Moe leaves Veronica in his room, you can hear the click of him locking the door. Great attention to detail there.
- The musical score when Veronica sees the photo of Mercer and Moe and the moments following is pretty unlike any other piece of score that we've heard on this show. It's actually really, really cool and effective.
- So Patty Hearst's guest-star presence in Of Vice and Men not just stunt casting, but perhaps a subtle clue about Moe (i.e. Stockholm syndrome)?
- The look on Veronica's face as Parker's hair starts to fall on her. Eek.
- Parker screaming 'RAPE!' in Mercer's face. Love her.
- Both Parker's faith and Veronica's lack of faith in people were "proven" right in this episode. People did come running when Parker yelled "rape," yet the Sheriff's department just twiddled their thumbs when Veronica called in the bomb threat.
- Mercer calling Veronica a 'pet cougar.' I'm sure Logan would find that description appropriate and might even chuckle over it while he's kicking Mercer's ass through the jail bars.
- Tragically, the Dean never got to drink that bottle of Glen Cracken. (Or did he?)
- Mac's fixation on Veronica's love life at the end of the episode, all she wanted to know was if Logan had been by. Awww.
- The hilarious shot of Logan looking at the cops in the diner and then turning ever-so-gracefully to start smashing their cruiser's windshield. Hee. See, Veronica? Whenever he bashes a car it's because he loves you.
- The look on Logan's FACE when they let him in Mercer's cell, he was just fixated on Mercer and I don't think I've ever seen him want someone in pain so badly. Gah, the FAAAAAACE.
- When Dick drops his drawers, Veronica looks away in disgust. Logan? Keeps on a'looking ... with a grin on his face no less. Uh huh.
- Why would Veronica knock on Piz and Wallace's door considering she knows that Wallace accompanied Logan to Kim Kaiser's apartment and that Piz was keeping watch at the Pi Sig party with Mac?
- A bunch of crazy feminists singing "Na Na hey hey (Goodbye)" right before Logan breaks up with Veronica. Is this a subliminal na-na from Rob Thomas to certain fans?
- Why was Claire on the parade float? Wasn't she expelled?
- Was the Smoking Man just a member of the alumni, or were his inferences about "generosity" concerning more than just college donations? Does he have something to do with O'Dell's gambling problem for instance?
- Why does Piz take his headphones off after saying he's going to the phones and accepting one of the blinking calls?
- Are the feminists crazy (surely a rhetorical question by now)? How could they think they would get away with egging the Dean's car without getting expelled? Do they care about their educations? Or is this meant to make us think they had a hand in his death?
- I know that Veronica told Parker she all of a sudden had a lot of free time and needed a project because she was trying to distract herself but ... since when has Logan occupied a lot of her time? He was never her top priority so it was an odd thing to say since she's been avoiding him the last two episodes.
- Will the perfect murder papers have any role in the next mystery arc and the way O'Dell was killed?
- Why is Tim suddenly nice enough to let Veronica fix a couple of errors in her paper before he posted it online? Or was that all staged so he could introduce Veronica to Bonnie? Or was that completely contrived so the writers could find out Bonnie was his girlfriend?
- Since Piz had to think about whether or not he was the one who'd been leaving a surprise in the third stall every morning, is it too much to hope that he has a terminal disease?
- Was Piz told that Veronica broke up with Logan? After all that smug smiling during Of Men And Vice it seems odd that he showed no indication of knowing that Logan had cleared the way for him to make a move on Veronica. Or maybe Rob knows better than his writers that that sort of behavior won't endear him to us.
- Does the fact that Piz has to ask "stage left or stage right" mean that he, in fact, doesn't flush? Great. Another "endearing" quirk. Way to sell us on the character, Rob!
- I know she doesn't consider him good "muscle," but why didn't Veronica ask Piz to go with her after Mercer? Did she think she could overpower Mercer alone? I know he's a metrosexual but ... come on. Or did she not want to leave Mac by herself? Or did Piz just wander off after he escorted her to the stage? Even though that last one seems to defeat the purpose of rushing toward the stage with her. I wish they'd mentioned why Piz had abandoned her, not that I wanted him to be her white knight or anything ...
- Seriously, what's with the black nail polish? First Parker and Veronica then the Dean's wife?? The last one is especially strange since I don't really think of it as a society color.
- Did Professor Landry want to get caught by the Dean? He didn't start or seem shocked when his mistress opened the door to reveal her husband, only stiffening up slightly as he walked in. Odd.
- Why didn't Veronica run to Parker's room rather than Wallace's? Parker would have been much closer considering that's the girls floor and she didn't think Parker was at the party.
- How on earth did Parker hear that whistle? Does she have dog ears? She was at least one floor away, through all those doors and Veronica only blew the whistle once so it's not like she could listen really hard and follow it ... does Parker see dead people too?
- Moe has a dream catcher on his wall. Is that to keep the bad memories away while he sleeps?
- Where the hell was the police? Why on Earth did no one take the newspaper to the Sheriff's office? No one though of that? Really? Not Keith, as he listened to the Dean read the ad to him, not Veronica, not any of the previous victims? Huh.
- The coasters? That's it? That's the magic protection? That's all the Dean would do in this situation to safeguard the students? And even that had to be brought to him by a freshman girl?
- What was up with the shaving of the heads? At first I thought it was Moe doing it, not Mercer, as a sick souvenir gathering thing. Veronica found some hair in Moe's closet. But no, it was Mercer wielding the clippers. Why? His (lame) monologue revealed that the rapes weren't about his social ineptitude or inability to get laid in a conventional way, but rather about his distaste for small talk (classy!). So, how does the head shaving fit in?
- Is dismantling the Greek system all the feminazis care about? Don't they want to graduate? How come none of them are concerned that attacking the Dean in his car and his office may (and probably would have) result in expulsion?
- On second thought ... were the eggs being thrown at the Dean's window from the feminists? Or someone trying to set them up for his murder?
- What was Veronica's plan? Catch the rapist in the act? Wouldn't it have been smarter to call in an actual rape?
- On that note, why did Veronica go with an elaborate set up that put her at a disadvantage, when help is so close by and so easily attained?
- How come Chip is so chipper so soon after being victimized? And is all forgotten between him and his "brothers?" Were "Peter Cottontail" and the cafeteria fight all part of the tough, brotherly love to be filed away and forgiven within a week?
- Who put that ad in the paper? Was it Mercer bragging? Was it Moe, secretly trying to end the vicious cycle? Or was it, indeed, Nish, trying to dissuade the girls from going?
- Are cops really allowed to ignore a bomb threat? Even if they are almost certain it's a hoax? Can they really afford to take a chance of being wrong on something like that?
- Are that many of the Hearst female students stupid, naive, or oblivious? There's an ad in the student paper threatening rape. There is a rash of rapes on campus. Are they that desperate for a party and a drink that they are willing to risk it?
- If Mercer intentionally raped girls on the nights when he was supposed to be working at the radio station, why didn't he come forward with that as an alibi when he was arrested in Of Vice and Men? He no longer has the excuse of simply forgetting what he was doing those nights -- he was raping the girls and he already had a false alibi at the ready. Why did choose to wait in jail until Veronica figured it out, not knowing if she even would figure it out?
- Who chose to attack Veronica ... Mercer or Moe? Moe knew about her investigating, but I can't see him suggesting the personal attack. If Mercer, why would he even think to go after Veronica? How did he even know she was looking for the rapist? Did Mercer know her from last season (The Rapes of Graff) and that's why he became friends with Logan -- to get information?
- How did Mercer manage to hide the physical evidence from every other rape since he didn't seem to be very careful or particularly prepared when he was about to attack "Carrie Kaiser?"
- Shouldn't Professor Landry, being a Criminology professor, be a little bit more interested in investigating such a major case as the Hearst rapes instead of getting high and boinking the Dean's wife?
- Since Moe and Mercer's criminal partnership was partially a product of the Prison Experiment, will Hearst continue to run the study?
- So, are we supposed to assume that the Dean visiting his wife and Professor Landry was simply an alcohol-soaked dream or did it actually occur?
- Was Moe becoming an RA in any way related to his involvement in the rapes, given the access to dorm rooms and trustworthy guise that being a RA provides?
- Did Moe use his gig at the Safe Ride cart to scope out potential victims for Mercer?
- Why in the world would any law enforcement official place two alleged rape conspirators together in a jail cell, giving them ample opportunity to get their stories straight?
- So, who exactly did Logan bribe to get placed in a cell with both Mercer and Moe?
- Did the fire that Mercer started in the Mexican motel room really go down the way he explained it to Logan or could he have attacked the women and used the fire to cover his tracks?
- Was there a point to Tim Foyle's over-the-top outburst at Bonnie during the Pi Sig party besides producing a last minute red herring in the rape mystery?
- Didn't Veronica think it was slightly suspicious when Moe locked her inside his dorm room when he went to "help" Carrie Kaiser?
- Considering Mercer is being accused of rape while bleeding profusely from his leg with visible scratch marks
on his face, the guys in the hallway didn't think it was perhaps prudent to attempt to detain him?
- Will Veronica find out about Logan's little visit with Moe and Mercer? And if so, how will she react?
- Will Lamb ever get to read Veronica's perfect murder paper? Oh, pretty please, can he?
- Did Mercer give Lamb 'attitude' during his incarceration in Of Vice and Men so that he and Moe could stage the attack on Veronica in order to confirm his innocence in the rapes? Or was that something he and Moe came up with after Lamb decided to keep him another night? At that point, they knew Veronica was investigating the rapes, so did they just see Mercer's arrest as the perfect opportunity to steer her in a different direction?
- Since there was never any forensic evidence and the girls' hair was kept in Moe's closet, does that mean that Moe was the clean-up guy? Did he go into the room after the fact so that he could collect the hair and remove any evidence that would lead back to Mercer (e.g. fingerprints, condom, etc.)? He did wear gloves during the attack on Veronica in the parking garage, while Mercer didn't wear any in Carrie's room, so he at least seemed worried about leaving any evidence behind. Was that part of his "job?"
- Does the college offer a self-help class on how to pick the right friends? If so, can Logan please sign up next semester? He really needs one who won't harass, drug, rape, punch, shoot at or otherwise try to harm Veronica.
- With the way the Dean was positioned, sitting at his desk, bullet wound in his head, is it possible that the murder was staged to look like a suicide? Where is the Dean's gun?
- Does the final scene mean Weevil is going to get more air time during the second arc? Thank God.
- Michael Cera was originally going to be cast in the "Moe" role for the rape duo. Casting conflicts negating that from happening. Although I would have thought it awesomely creepy that it would basically have meant that George Michael set up Maeby's rape, it was probably good in terms of predictability of the bad guy. Everyone would have pointed fingers at the guy (Dean) they remembered from The Rapes of Graff.
- Dean Cyrus O'Dell was married to his former grad student, Mindy, for six years. Cyrus's fifteen year-old son, Graham, is the product of a previous marriage -- mother unknown.
Mindy's son, Jason, was dying of cancer and in need of a bone marrow transplant. Jason's father, struggling voiceover actor Steve Batando, has not been a part of his son's life and blames both Cyrus and Mindy for this. Steve's compatibility as a bone marrow donor was determined by a previously done paternity test. Batando refused to take part in the transplant, so the Dean and Mindy kidnapped him and the procedure was performed without his permission. Steve later signed an agreement to not press charges against the O'Dells. The terms of the agreement prevent Mindy from ever seeking child support or alimony from Batando. He also got her Porsche as part of the deal. It's unclear if there were other stipulations to Batando's silence.
- Tim Foyle was aware of Professor Landry's affair with Mindy O'Dell and seemed to disapprove of Landry's penchant for married women. When Veronica discovered the affair, thanks to Tim, Landry did not appear to be at all concerned that she would tell anyone.
- Dean O'Dell has not endeared himself to the women of Lilith House. Nish, Fern and Claire were displeased with the Dean's refusal to punish the Hearst Lampoon editors for what they considered "hate speech." O'Dell later expelled Claire for faking her rape and removed Nish as editor of the Hearst Free Press for her lack of objectivity. Nish promised the Dean that he'd regret it.
- Pi Sig President Chip Diller claimed to sleep with the Dean's wife last year, although it's never been confirmed that this was true or that the wife in question is Mindy. According to Mercer Hayes, both Chip and the Dean were heavily in debt to him for gambling losses. The Dean was reported to have placed boxing bets at the casino, through an unnamed student aide.
- In the episode Look Who's Stalking, Logan begins to interrupt Veronicas speech the morning after the Alterna-Prom, and she cuts him off saying, "Let me just get this out." Logan repeats her line when she tries to interrupt his break-up speech. Veronica has to prepare a speech beforehand to let Logan in, and Logan has to prepare a speech beforehand to let Veronica go, and the same phrase is used to mark the beginning and the end of Logan and Veronica, Round 2.
duchessjms (Jayne): Social Science
genova (Cara): Extra Credit; Literature
holly96 (Holly): Yearbook; Literature; Homeroom
Iloveyoubearymuch (Kathryn): Homeroom; Philosophy
JaneDtwo: Social Science; Philosophy
JenniferH: Report Card; Drama Club; Chemistry; Band Class; Pep Squad Practice; Homeroom
Pixigal (Gerrie): Drama Club
Polartruckin (Belinda): Literature; Homeroom; Philosophy; Extra Curricular Activities
SeluciaV (Alli): Study Hall; Literature; Social Science
sawmg (Shannon): Literature; Social Science; Principles of Democracy
Tar Frimmer (Joanne): Social Science; Homeroom; Philosophy; Principles of Democracy
Original Air Date: November 28, 2006
Written by: Rob Thomas
Directed by: Rob Thomas
Staff Grade: A
Membership Median Grade: A
While there have been some definite bumps along the way (feminazi's anyone?), the conclusion of the first of this season's mysteries is a fine one indeed. While clues are clearly seen in retrospect better than motivation, the climax is still a heart-pounding show stopper. There is not one sour performance in the bunch and everything ties into a more neat than not bow, while Rob Thomas (offering a much better dual writing/directing gig this time around than his his last attempt) nicely slips in the upcoming mystery arc ... to the dismay of Dean O'Dell fans everywhere. Overall, Spit & Eggs is arguably the cleanest, best-laid out conclusion to a Veronica Mars seasonal arc thus far. Bring on the next!
Credited Cast Non-Appearance
Michael Muhney - Sheriff Don Lamb
Recurring Guest Stars (Previous Episode Appearances)
Carlee Avers - Bonnie Capistrano
Ed Begley Jr. - Cyrus O'Dell
Ryan Devlin - Mercer Hayes
Chastity Dotson - Nish
Patrick Fabian - Professor Hank Landry
Cher Ferreyra - Fern
James Jordan - Tim Foyle
Krista Kalmus - Claire Nordhouse
Charlie Koznick - Andrew "Drew" Barndale
Andrew McClain - Moe Slater
Jaime Ray Newman - Mindy O'Dell
David Tom - Chip Diller
Guest Stars
Samantha Brown - Cora
Paul Gagliano - Rico Suave Nerd
Jeremy Roberts - Mel Stoltz
Who's Who in Neptune
Cora - Dean O'Dell's assistant.
Rico Suave Nerd - Nerdy guy who tries to hit on Mac at the Pi Sig party.
Mel - Wealthy Hearst alum and former fraternity brother. Now a prominent donor to the university.
Highlights
Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls) - And the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama goes to .... Dohring moved beyond tortured angst in this episode and delivered a commanding, mesmerizing, heart-breaking performance. He owned every minute he was on the screen. As I stated last week -- there really is nothing more to say. So I'll let his eyes and that amazing face say it all:
Ed Begley Jr. (Dean O'Dell) - I am not an Ed Begley, Jr. fan. I am, however, an Ed Begley, Jr. on Veronica Mars fan. Begley has created a multi-layered, enjoyable, believable character in Dean O'Dell. Taking center stage in the B-plot of Spit & Eggs, Begley leaves an indelible impression on the viewer as he suffers through a very, very bad day. Farewell Dean O'Dell. You will be missed.
Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) - Heartbroken, vulnerable, terrified, dazed, flippant, determined, stoic, brave, drugged -- Bell delivers a textbook of acting emotions as she too endures a very bad day. From her silent, barely holding it together reaction to Logan's break-up to her unable to hold it together anymore sobbing in the shower to the smoldering "can't hear, can't speak, can't see" anyone else but you moment with Logan at the Pi Sig party, Bell was spot on. She has always excelled at "damsel in distress" moments and her moments with Mercer were climatic and terrifying. Altogether this was a great performance; it was sympathetic, emotionally resonant and suspenseful. Well done.
The Supporting Cast of Veronica Mars - When an episode clicks on every level, it is a culmination of good writing, good directing and good acting from everybody (even the extra in the far corner of the crowd scene). The cast of Veronica Mars was a smooth, well-oiled machine in this episode and it was terrific to see almost everyone playing a part. Of particular note was Tina Majorino who as Tom Cruise in his pre-crazy, Jerry McGuire days would say "completes" this show (never leave again Mac, do you hear me? We need your unglittered tube top, STD T-shirt wearing, snarky,deadpan delivery friendship on this show.) and Julie Gonzalo as Parker. Taking on the role of the first female to rescue Veronica, Gonzalo sold Parker's fear, determination and concern for Veronica in her final scenes.
The Guest stars of Veronica Mars - A few weeks ago the casting department of Veronica Mars earned a lowlight for some weak casting and below par guest star performances. Fortunately, other times they get it right. Kudos to Ryan Devlin who delivered a creepy, charismatic performance as Mercer and Andrew McClain as his submissive partner, Moe, who teamed up in a Leopold/Loeb, Scream 1 manner to confuzzle Veronica for so many weeks. Bravo boys, well done.
Scene One: Where Jumping to Conclusions Leads
Surely the dissolution of a relationship is one of the saddest moments for any couple -- including that of a fictional one. Yet, in the case of this break-up, sadness is not the overriding factor. Instead it is actually one of hope. Despite the events of Wichita Linebacker, there were obviously still problems in Logan and Veronica's relationship. Logan doesn't trust Veronica to trust him and Veronica simply does not trust Logan. I know I've gone back to a particular write-up from episode five (President Evil) quite a bit these last couple of episodes since, but everything that followed truly seemed to bear witness to my supposition. I wrote ...
Quote:This is why Logan has been holding back all season -- to protect his heart from being broken beyond repair. Seeing Veronica as he did last week was yet another lesson for Logan. As long as he's with her, his heart will always be there ready to be broken over and over again as long as he doesn't walk on eggshells the rest of his life. And essentially, that is the reason that he gave Veronica for why he was breaking up with her.
There is no doubt that he loves Veronica, yet, he's not spinning, he's not giddy, he's not wearing his heart on his sleeve for her -- let alone the whole world -- to see. And this is definitely not how we've been led to expect Logan to act when in a relationship with Veronica. So what gives? I honestly think it's very simple and obvious.
Logan doesn't trust Veronica. As much as she doesn't trust him -- and we know she doesn't, he doesn't trust her ... with his heart. For Veronica, it's about the things he could/would do to himself, to others around him, stupid mistakes he could make that would lead to him hurting her. With Logan, it's about how Veronica can hurt him and it's much more direct and immediate. She could just break his heart all over again ... so easily by not trusting him, not loving him. [In the past] he's completely laid himself out there for her, put his heart on the line for her to do with what she will. Sometimes the band-aid was ripped off quickly and other times slowly, but still, she ripped it off and left him with a gaping wound: His heart in tatters. I think that we are finally seeing the consequences of that now.
Many were frustrated with the Hannah arc last season, but many also understood (including myself) that the story it presented had a purpose. That purpose was to show Logan that there are consequences to every action and when those actions are harmful, people get hurt. They get hurt even when those committing the action don't truly mean to hurt someone, or even when the "ends justifies the means." People get hurt, sometimes innocent people, and there are always consequences. We saw a Logan in the first half of last season not acknowledging -- let alone dealing -- with any of the consequences of Lilly's actions, his father's, Veronica's and his own. He just bottled it up and went along his blithe, snarky way ... and people got hurt. Not all his fault, no, but consequences happened and some of the fallout was his fault. Yet, he'd never owned up to it, never had dealt with it. So seeing what he had done, out of a selfish (and certainly self-justifiable) need, to someone who truly was innocent, was perhaps the first real step in opening Logan's eyes. And then there was the night on the roof. Seeing what happened with Beaver, all of the wrong done to him that he just bottled up and then unleashed on innocents, including Veronica, seems to have finally (FINALLY!) firmly woke him up to the consequences of actions and how very much they hurt, not just others, but himself as well.
And so here we are, he and Veronica are together once more and truly making a go at it, but he knows that she doesn't trust him and he doesn't trust her with his heart. He doesn't trust that if he messes up again, she won't walk away, breaking his heart yet one more time. And because he doesn't trust her, he's walking on eggshells, doing his damndest to not only NOT screw up so badly that he sends her running, but also walking on the eggshells of his heart. He's holding himself back because he knows now, he gets it. If he screws up, the consequences are that he'll get hurt ... again. Those are the consequences. And he feels, perhaps thinks that he knows, that if he puts his heart all out on the line again for her, knowing her, she'll leave him again no matter what he does. And the consequences of that are that this time he may be broken beyond repair. Those are the potential consequences and Logan Echolls finally understands their power.
I wrote in Of Vice and Men ...
Quote:But because she blackmailed him, he had to tell her. And what was her response? She continued to avoid him, she didn't talk to him, she didn't give him the chance, an opportunity to make it right. Even after he saved her life (again), she was still blowing him off. From the time this whole mess started, the only time we saw Veronica go to Logan was to yell at him. And so it is understandable that Logan couldn't take it anymore. Note what we heard, saw in Logan's behavior before he saw Veronica -- she certainly did judging from her voiceover. He was laughing, joking, smiling. He was happy because he was just being ... himself. He wasn't on defense; he wasn't trying to be someone he wasn't. He wasn't spending each moment in a perpetual state of 'When is the ball gonna drop this time?' That's how we've seen him with Veronica for two weeks consistently now, not to mention the lack of free-spirited giddiness on a regular basis from the first episode of this season on. Now, recall what happened as soon as he saw Veronica ... the laughter stopped, the smile died. Obviously, a part of that -- a huge part, no doubt -- had to do with the fact that he was planning on breaking up with her, but the fact of the matter is that seeing Veronica no longer brings a smile to his face. And in this instance, it killed it. Why is that? Flat-out because of what he said to her. He can't live with knowing he's always going to be a disappointment. He lived his whole life feeling that way with Aaron, with Lilly -- why would he continue to keep himself in a relationship where that same feeling of failure shadows his every movement?
He put himself out there again and she stomped all over his heart ... hurting him. Veronica doesn't trust him and he doesn't trust her to be there for him. And she proved him right unequivocally. She avoided him, was bitter towards him and then actually blackmailed him instead of just accepting that this wasn't something he wants to or is ready to share.
Logan wants her to trust him, believe him and have faith in him, but he knows that it isn't the case. He knows that if he screws up (big or small -- and, yes, this was big), he has to start all over again, back at square one because she judges him on a standard that she holds to absolutely no one else. Of course, he doesn't want to tell her. He loves her and doesn't want to lose her.
Ah, but here's where we get to the hope. Veronica, judging from her reaction when she first saw him -- as I theorized regarding her actions in the last scene of episode eight -- just needed more time.
Quote:So indeed, Veronica just needed time. And once she had that time, in her mind, things were back to normal. They admitted their love and agreed to be nicer to each other. Clearly, she was unaware of the witnessed phone avoidance; she had the time she needed and it was back to waiting outside classes for him and coupl-y greetings. The way that Veronica acted with him was an at ease Veronica, one who didn't think there was anything wrong and just wanted to be with her boyfriend. So in that there is some hope, because it showed that even though she was extremely angry and disappointed with him, she did get over it. It took her a bit of time -- but she felt that Logan's actions (both last summer and last week) needed time to get over. She does love him; she does want to be with him. If she didn't, she would have continued avoiding him or been somewhat distant (as she had been when they spoke last week) or simply broken up with him. I love Logan dearly, but he DID jump to conclusions last week. So she didn't answer his phone call; she simply wasn't ready. Instead of breaking up with her, he should have confronted her about it. But he didn't ... like, oh, hmm, Veronica. He jumped to conclusions. He jumped to the conclusion that Veronica didn't love him, things would never be okay and he broke up with her because of this conclusion.
I fully believe that Veronica was lying when she agreed that they were okay. She said "yeah," because she didn't want to fight anymore; she wasn't ready to just let go of her resentment and anger. Simply put, she needed more time. And that is why she didn't answer the phone. It wasn't because she doesn't love Logan, didn't mean that "yeah," but because she wasn't ready to be "okay" yet.
As much as we talk about Veronica not understanding Logan, not taking into account all that he's done for her -- let's give Veronica some credit here. Whether we agree with or understand why she took the attitude that she did last week, it doesn't take away from the fact that -- right or wrong -- Veronica felt justified. She wasn't being bitchy and evasive just to be bitchy and evasive. She truly was upset about Logan's actions in Mexico that summer, just as she was truly bothered by his high-handed attitude at her apartment and his hiring of the bodyguard without telling her. She was upset. And she needed time ... so she took the time and worked through her issues and look at where she wound up? Outside his class, waiting for Logan because she wanted to be with him, because she loves him. Instead of just taking her hurt and her disappointment, she worked through them. Have we EVER seen Veronica do that?
No. A big, fat stinking NO! But she did this time. She did exactly what she said she was going to do in Wichita Linebacker -- try and act unnaturally. It took a few days -- okay, a few weeks, again, she's acting unnaturally -- but she did it. She worked through it, she put her feelings of love first and she worked through that anger, that hurt, that disappointment.
Sigh. Still, we wind up back in the beginning -- lack of trust on both sides. A year and a half ago, Logan wouldn't have broken up with her; he would have confronted her about the phone call. He would have begged her for an explanation ... but a year and a half of being judged and found wanting, of being left with the short end of the stick, of feeling less than takes its toll. So, he did jump to the conclusion that she didn't love him. He did jump to the conclusion that she would never get over her disappointment. He didn't simply ask her why she didn't answer the phone. And he didn't take note of her actions and attitude right before he ended things that proved that she was making the effort and this time, had succeeded. Double sigh. I can't blame him, though. Who can? It's hard to not cheer for Logan standing up for himself ... FINALLY. And I am happy that we are seeing such a growth of maturity in him, I just wish that he'd waited a little longer and had fallen back on his old reliance of asking her what was up instead of breaking up. I think her answer would have saved both of them (and us) a lot of heartache. Sigh.
It is simply a cycle that has got to be broken by one of them. Right now, they aren't at the same place they need to be to figure it out ... to get together and stay together. But -- the hope, it's coming! -- she DOES love him. He DOES love her. They do both want this relationship to work; they are just both completely clueless at this point on how to achieve that goal right now. She's sorta ready -- as evidenced by her actually working through her issues this time, but it's taken so long, that he's no longer ready to just give her chance after chance to break his heart.
Give 'em time (at least eleven episodes more) and they'll get it right. They will get it right.
Scene Two: To Mac and Wallace ... 'I'm Fine.'
We've seen Veronica react to break-ups before, but they were either courtesy of Miss Mars herself or with an added twist beyond the norm. The twists occurred in conjunction with both of her break-ups with Duncan. The first involved not only pain over the end of their relationship, but it also held an element of life as she knew it coming to an end, along with the confusion engendered by the fact that he gave her no clue as to why he broke up with her. And of course, the second wasn't a break-up at all. However, I think we can actually take a very interesting cue from that one. Veronica was attempting to fool everyone into believing that her heart had been broken and that she was falling apart. So we got the emo music, we got lack of hygiene, moping about, all of the stereotypical behavior that a girl indulges in when she's dumped. Once the "twist" was revealed, viewers were given every indication that all of Veronica's heartbreak had been a deception to keep everyone off of Duncan's trail. Therefore, we never actually saw Veronica heartbroken over the end of her relationship with him. Now, I don't doubt that some of her pretending was real, but the fact that it was so very over-the-top and she got over it lickety-split lends credence to the theory that she just wasn't that bummed about it.
In this episode, we see a completely different Veronica. Unlike when she was pretending to be heartbroken, making all of the stereotypical moves, we are now seeing someone who is pretending to not be heartbroken. Unlike during Donut Run, instead of seeing a Veronica Mars wallowing in her pain, we are seeing the girl we are much more used to seeing, the one who holds it all in and because of that, this feels like the real deal. Seeing Veronica stare off into space, lost in thought, a patina of pain etched in every moment, every false smile, and every fake word of cheer was seeing that once and for all, yeah, indeed, Veronica does love Logan. And clearly this is something that Wallace and Mac don't question. Their interaction, shared glances of concern made that perfectly clear as they rallied as best they could for a girl suffering from a broken heart, even as she refused to admit to such, never mind that everything about her screamed that refrain. And that scream is due, in no small part, to Kristen Bell. While I've had issues with her performance on and off throughout the season, I must give credit where it's due. Bell completely sold every moment of Veronica absolutely reeling in devastation all the while walking and talking with a smile. And while it's obviously not fun to see our heroine in such pain, we can take comfort that her reaction is a rather good confirmation that she loves Logan. This is something that some were still questioning even after last week's affirmative response to that question.
What is not good? Hmm, let me think. Oh right, fuckin' Piz. What an idiot. Seriously. It wasn't even the fact that he was unable to take note of Veronica's pain -- further proof (as if it's needed) that he is so beyond NOT the guy for her -- it's his absolute inability to read a room. Someone shoot me now. Better yet, shoot him.
Scene Three: To Keith ... 'I'm Fine.'
And so it goes. All of the above (minus the idiocy of, pfft, Piz) applies here as well. We see a Veronica who is trying to convince those who know and care about her (see again, how this does not apply to Piz?) that no, really, she is fine. And again, Bell does a wonderful job showing just how very fine Veronica is not even while she doth protest too much.
What we have here that differentiates it from the previous scene are two specific things. The first being Keith's reaction to the news and how it was indicative of his changing attitude towards Logan. Last season we saw Keith physically attack him and throw Logan out of his home. This season, we saw a kinder, gentler Keith in regards to him and here he not only said that he was sorry that she and Logan had broken up, he genuinely appeared to mean the words. Furthermore, Veronica's explanation that it was "unexpected" made it perfectly clear that Logan did the breaking up, yet still there was no sign from Keith that he held the young man in any different esteem than he had before Veronica told him the news. Keith not hating Logan? Always a good thing.
The other notable change between this scene and the one before is that while Veronica smiled and all but blew off the break-up to her two friends, with Keith, she allowed that it was something that did throw her a bit. The casual cheer was no longer at play ... at least with Keith she was allowing some of the pain she was feeling to show. Of course, but she is so used to hiding any depth of emotion from anyone, including her father, that she can't allow even him to believe that she is anything but fine. A bit thrown? Yeah, but really, she's fine. And because everyone around her expects her to be always fine, always strong, no one pushed, everyone simply accepted that while she really may not be fine, she is ... okay.
Which, of course, she is not.
Scene Four: In the Shower ... So Not Fine
I talked above about the difference in how Veronica played heartbreak in Donut Run as opposed to how she played the opposite in this episode. Taking in all that we know about Veronica Mars, I think it's a safe bet that what we saw here is the girl suffering real heartbreak ... simply because she tried to not let it show. Veronica tells the world that she is fine; that everything is dandy and she holds in her pain until no one is around to see that there are cracks in the wall after all.
What we witnessed here was that there are cracks indeed. This is actually the first time we have seen Veronica break down over a romantic entanglement and in true Veronica Mars form, she did so in private. There may be cracks in the wall, but the wall is most definitely still there. My hope is that we are seeing this arc play out for a specific reason ... specifically a long-awaited, much-needed character arc for Veronica. The events that happened to her during the last two years of high school were terrible, not just for the actuality of the events themselves, but for the terrible price that Veronica continues to pay to this day.
As painful as this is for Veronica, Logan (and most importantly, us), hopefully there is a method to this madness and out of this heartbreak will arise the acceptance of the love that the two share and one that Veronica can embrace and accept with her whole heart and soul.
Scene Five: An Appetizer of Dick
While it would have been oh so lovely to see some subtext from Kristen Bell during this brief exchange (would a flash of pain in those expressive eyes have killed her?), there is definitely something that is of interesting note here. And that simply is why it's easier to understand Veronica's lack of faith in Logan. Look at the people he spends time with! Wallace knew how broken up Veronica was about the break-up (her claims of being fine to the contrary), yet there was not a sneer, a harsh look, anything resembling blame or negativity directed towards Logan from him at the party. Now, let's take a look-see at Dick here: He sees Veronica and his first response is to taunt her about the break-up.
And this is Logan's best friend? It's not the main course, but it's certainly an appetizer in her home-cooked meal worth of issues with regards to Logan Echolls. Damn, does this boy need a better friend radar? I mean, damn!
Scene Six: My Eyes Fucked You
Ah, so I guess the deal is when Logan and Veronica are together, his eyes adore her, when apart, he fucks her seven ways to Sunday and she gives it right back. Seriously, if her helpers hadn't come upon them with information about a hit, something tells me that given a few more minutes, Logan and Veronica would have reunited ... in the backseat of his car.
Many have complained about the lack of chemistry between Logan and Veronica this season. If you're a regular reader of my analysis, you know I don't feel that way. However, I can certainly understand why these precious moments jumpstarted the attention of quite a viewer ... possibly, heck, most indubitably, because it was only the second time all season that the show allowed the natural, combustive chemistry that Jason Dohring and Kristen Bell have to break through non-intimate direction and less-than-chemical dialogue and interaction. Oh, but my oh my, when it was allowed to break free -- yowza!
The way that her eyes stalled on him and his on hers once they became aware of one another was electrical. How that exchange of glances didn't dissipate once -- even through conversation, limited though it might have been, with another person -- was exquisite. Even their brief conversation bespoke of an intimacy in that words explaining the mindset of either one was not necessary. And all the while, through the stares, through the dialogue, the intensity of an unspoken yearning shivered in the air surrounding them.
What can I say? This section ain't called "Chemistry" for nothin'!
Scene Seven: Smash to the Window and Coming to a Theater Near You ... Smash to Mercer's Face
Oh, how many ways did this rock? Too many to recount. Too, too many. Aside from the sheer awesome Logan-ness of this whole bit -- casually walking up to the car and pausing to make sure the cops were in view, casually battering the rear window to hell and then oh so not casually walking into that jail cell, fists clenched and ready to go, his face alight with a fiery vengeance waiting to be unleashed -- what is also so very awesome about this is that we saw Logan exacting revenge on Veronica's behalf ... two days after he'd broken up with her. If there was a doubt in any viewer that -- dissolution of their relationship or not -- Logan definitely loved her, this action, that look in his eyes as he stared daggers of agonizing punishment to come at Mercer completely erased any such reservation.
Nice way to end the Logan/Veronica arc here by clearly showing us that Logan and Veronica are so completely and utterly NOT over. We witnessed this during their moments at the party and here. The passion and the intensity is so there ... alive and kicking. Logan may have broken up with her, but, in no way, does it mean that his heart doesn't still belong 100% to Veronica Mars.
- Veronica's sitting outside watching the one-car Lillith House parade of righteousness as they celebrate the dismantling of the Greek system at Hearst. She turns her attention to the building behind her and watches as Logan emerges with Dick in tow. As she watches the boys horse around, Veronica alludes to some recent Logan unhappiness in her voiceover with her comment that she hasnt seen his smile in a week. I can't help but think "uh, oh" as I am quickly reminded that the last time we saw Logan and Veronica, Veronica was ignoring Logan's call and Logan was wearing that all-too-familiar expression of devastated heartbreak.
Veronica stands and walks over to the boys, greeting her adorable boyfriend with a wholly-accurate "Hey, handsome" which Logan responds to almost not at all. He's looking mighty somber and is barely meeting Veronica's gaze and I'm getting a really unhappy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Dick and Veronica engage in some traditional snarkage, and then Dick moons the passing Lillith chicks (the disgust of Veronica and amusement of Logan) before taking his leave.
Once they are alone, it is clear that a major role reversal is in play. Veronica is being uncharacteristically overt in her affections -- she's invading Logan's personal space, doing that adorable thing where she clutches at the lapels of his shirt, as she comments that he wasn't outside her criminology class and she waited for him. Logan is being uncharacteristically withdrawn -- he's not touching or kissing Veronica, he's not smiling, and he's way more interested in looking at the ground than at the love of his life. The disparity between this greeting and a traditional Logan/Veronica greeting is rapidly turning the pit of unhappy feeling in my stomach into a cavernous hole of sadness.
Veronica recognizes that something is wrong and asks Logan what's going on. He stares hard at the ground some more and takes a deep breath before looking her in the eye and responding with the most heartbreaking words we never wanted to hear: "I can't do this anymore Veronica." Veronica is clearly as speechless as the rest of us by this turn of events, which works for Logan because he's been thinking and he's clearly got a lot to say. He points out that things between them aren't working out so well, which is kind of an understatement these last couple of weeks. Logan doesn't think he quite measures up to the person Veronica wants him to be and he's tired of feeling like a disappointment. (And how terrible is it that she's made him feel this way?) Veronica tries to interrupt with a comment that better have been "you aren't a disappointment in any way, shape or form so stop this crazy talk and kiss me sweet Logan, love of my life," but I suppose we'll never know because Logan implores her to not speak and just let him get this out.
He goes on to say that she told him she wasn't "built" to let people help her which she tries (futilely) to refute, but really -- who is she kidding? Logan tells her that he wasn't "built" to stand on the sidelines. (Which is pretty obvious to me but still seems to be somewhat of a surprise to Veronica. And ... I can't even go there right now. Gah!) As his voice begins to thicken with unshed tears, he tells her that in his mind, they have a choice: They can take a tough but survivable amount of pain now or stay together and deal with unbearable pain later. He votes for pain now. I vote that Veronica stop nodding like a zombie and speak up and tell him he's wrong, tell him she loves him, tell him she doesn't want either variety of pain, thank you very much -- she just wants him.
Logan pauses briefly again before reminding Veronica what she knows, what we all know: He's always there for her if she needs him for anything. And then, on the verge of tears, he sweetly cups her face, kisses her forehead and speaks the words that are so raw and honestly painful that that cavernous hole of unhappiness in my stomach becomes the Grand Canyon of despair: "But you never need anything." He pauses one last time but Veronica remains mute so he does the only thing he can do. He walks away. And I start bawling.
Watching this scene I can't help but wonder: Where's your passion, Veronica? Where is your love for this amazing man? Where is your voice to say "Wait, stop, don't do this -- I love you"? Where is your fight? Your will to save this relationship? Logan paused significantly so many times during his speech that I can't help but think that he was hoping against hope Veronica would try to change his mind. But what does she do? When it comes down to crunch time, all she can do is nod silently while he ends their relationship. (And what the fuck is THAT?!?!) It's so clear that he still loves her, so clear that his heart is breaking (and a million hearts around the world with it, by my estimation) and yet she does nothing -- NOTHING -- to prove her love, to fight for him, fight for them in the way he always has. When a break-up scene this emotional and heartfelt elicits no response from Veronica whatsoever, I can't help but wonder what we are supposed to believe she actually feels for Logan anymore.
And the Veronica emotion code doesn't get any easier to decipher as we see her standing in the lunch line with Mac and Wallace. I'm guessing she's broken the break-up news by the way the two of them are staring at her so intently with huge concern, but no one speaks right away so it is hard to tell. Veronica's calm veneer cracks a little as she stares unseeingly with shadowed eyes at the pasta on her tray, seemingly lost in thought. Mac tries to get her attention and Veronica immediately responds with a perky (one might say too perky) "I'm fine." Clearly Mac and Wallace have heard this one before and neither are buying it. Of course, they are both paying her lip service ("No one's saying you aren't" and "We know -- you're Veronica Mars") but Mac points out that it would really be okay if she wasn't fine. And dammit -- Logan just broke up with her, which should make her devastated, or brokenhearted, or sad, or angry, or something -- anything -- but she should not be FINE.
Veronica brushes off their concern and tells them that it's no big deal, she was just sharing some information with them that she thought they ought to know. She's not looking for a pity party. (Which is good, because if she were my friend, a pity party would be the farthest thing from my mind. I might consider throwing her a "kick you in the head until you realize what a moron you are for letting him go without a fight" party, but definitely not a pity party.) She tells her friends not to worry and to move on to the next subject.
And I might have bought her pretty little speech and shiny smile if it weren't for the expression on her face when spazzy Piz joins the lunch line. You know the face -- "Dear God, I cannot deal with him NOW." He yammers on about his precious radio show completely oblivious to both the strong emotional currents rushing all around him and the facial expressions of every one of his friends (and I use that term loosely), particularly Veronica who's sad mug is now all but screaming "I'd rather be staked to an anthill." In these last few moments, I feel a spark of hope that perhaps Veronica's not nearly as fine as she would like everyone (including herself) to believe.
Back at chez Mars, Veronica arrives home just as her father is getting ready to head out to San Diego for a client. As he gives her the quick rundown on his case, Keith notices Veronica's slightly spacey demeanor and wonders if she's okay. Bet you can guess her answer! (In case I can't clearly express that in writing, that last statement should be read with a mouth full of sarcasm.) She's FINE. Oh, well, there is the little thing where she and Logan broke up but no biggie. Tra la la. No worries. Keith expresses sincere sadness over this news and offers to put off his trip to stay home with Veronica -- you know, to help her through the grief she ought to be feeling here. But no, no, no, not our Veronica. She's fine, remember? Sure the break-up was unexpected, but she's really okay.
I don't think Keith believes her any more than Mac or Wallace did, but he knows what a tough nut his daughter is to crack. He heads for the door, but not before stopping to kiss Veronica on her forehead in a loving act that echoes Logan's earlier gesture of love. Maybe that's why she starts to lose that chipper edge again and goes all spacey, because that small gesture of love reminds her of another love -- the one she lost. Keith takes one last look at his daughter, clearly worried that she's not nearly okay as she says she is, but Veronica puts on her happy face and tells him with a bright smile to go. I guess the shiny lip gloss distracted him from the suspicious sheen of tears in her eyes because he does just that.
After seeing her father safely on his way, Veronica hops into the shower. Now completely alone with the water running down her face to mask her tears, Veronica finally breaks down and shows us the pain and devastation we've all been longing to see. Because now, for maybe the first time ever, her uncontrollable sobs show us clearly the depth of her love for Logan, along with the depth of her heartbreak. Watching her sob so helplessly, I start to cry again too. It must be an awful feeling to know that you lost the most important thing in your life because you refused to compromise, because you didn't try nearly hard enough to act "unnaturally." To realize that you took way more than you ever gave. One can only hope that perhaps this will finally enable Veronica to truly appreciate what she has found with Logan (and in Logan) in a meaningful way that will inspire her to make some much-needed changes. Let us all hope that Veronica might now be able to fully embrace her feelings for Logan and his feelings for her, no matter how hard or scary it may be to do so.
Veronica and Logan seemingly manage to avoid each other until the night of the Pi Sig party. While there tracking the rapist, Veronica spots her true love (And dammit, I'm just going to keep saying it and alluding to it until it's true. So there.) across the room. As their eyes lock, the world seems to melt away until it is only the two of them alone in this sea of people. The space between them crackles with the passion they will never be able to deny, even as they acknowledge one another with quiet sadness. Seriously -- the eye sex is INSANE in this scene. The chemistry is off the charts and they are barely speaking and not even touching. You can't buy, bottle or force chemistry like this people. It's a force of nature and you just gotta grab onto it with both hands and hope for the best. (Seriously Rob -- what the hell? Youve got the best frakkin' chemistry on television with these two and yet you can't seem to do anything but bollocks it up. What gives?!? )
The two "just say hi" with that sweet undercurrent of yearning that says "I wish we werent broken up, I wish we were alone, I wish I could still touch you" as Mercer exits stage left. Logan correctly guesses that his girl Veronica is there because of the rape case, and Veronica affirms somewhat apologetically "I am what I am." (And Veronica, I hear ya, but as a human being with free will, that doesn't mean it's what you always have to be. The power for change lies within you. Just think about it.) But maybe that thought has occurred to her too because when Logan demands that Veronica let him help her locate the missing drugged girl, she actually acquiesces without a fight. It's not much, I agree, but it's something. A baby step in the right direction at least. Here's to hoping that this gesture is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg of Veronica learning to act more "unnaturally."
Needless to say, the evening doesn't turn out quite like either of them planned, but Veronica does successfully solve the case. She gets drugged, duped, terrorized and beaten along the way, but she does manage to nab the bad guy and his submissive. The next day while recuperating at home with friends, Mac wonders if Logan's been by to check on her. Veronica quietly says that she hasn't seen him. I'm temporarily puzzled because this behavior is very out of character for Logan, but soon everything makes more sense.
When we do see Logan shortly thereafter, he's prancing in front of a bunch of cops sitting in a diner, beating the hell out of the windshield of the closest cop car with a baseball bat. It seems like a rather bizarre thing to do until we see Logan delivered to his prison cell at the Neptune Sheriff's office, and we get a glimpse of his two new bunkmates, Mercer and Moe. It seems Logan's little outburst was a clever means to an end. And that end? Was getting into the locked jail cell with Mercer and Moe so that he could deliver a little justice to his friend first hand for breaking Logan's #1 rule: Don't hurt Veronica. By the look of blood lust in Logan's eye and the tell-tale clenching of his right hand, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Mercer and his little lackey are in for a world of pain.
I certainly applaud Logan's gesture because Mercer and Moe deserve to have the holy hell beat out of them for what they've done. Not just to Veronica, but to all of their victims. However, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed that he didn't at least stop by to see Veronica on his way, to make sure that she was whole and safe and okay. But I suppose Logan is what he is in some ways too -- he's the guy that delivers the smack-down first and asks questions later. Much, much later.
So now the obvious question: Where do Logan and Veronica go from here? I don't think there is any way to know. All we can do now is hope and pray that this week's events will help Logan and Veronica be stronger, better people when they finally find their way back to one another.
- A large float of a Pi Sig Pig is being driven around campus with all the Lilith women on board. Nish, Fern and Claire are at the front of the float, cheerfully singing, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye." How do they really feel? So, I guess the Board of Trustees voted to do away with the Greek system, after all. Veronica watches the tasteful display with disapproval. The rapist has yet to be caught, so isn't their celebrating a little premature? Reactions to the float are pretty mixed. A certain freshman Pi Sig finds it necessary to drop trow and moon the float. Who else, really? Dick Casablancas. Veronica is appalled, and quips that they really got a perfect likeness of him with that pig.
Later on, Piz finds Veronica, Mac, and Wallace (A.K.A "the gang"...? Sorry Piz, but you're interrupting the BFF Pity Party.) getting lunch in the cafeteria. He's pumped (as he's wont to be) about his radio show that night, and he encourages them to tune in. His guests are discussing what should be done with the "Greek Row ghost town" next semester. One guy coming in wants it to be turned into an ROTC training battlefield.
That night at the radio station, Piz is hosting We Were Just Talking. A guest named Jennifer says that Dean O'Dell rejected her proposal to have one of the soon-to-be deserted Greek houses turned into a residence for Christian students. Piz gestures to an empty seat in the station and explains that the Dean has a standing invitation to come on the air and defend himself. Just then, as if a miracle, the Dean strides in and takes a seat. Without much preamble, he announces into the microphone that it was discovered that one of the Board of Trustees members who voted to dismantle the Greek system owned property that was being leased by several of the Greek houses. This was seen as a conflict of interest, so that member's vote has been nullified. According to the Hearst Charter, the Dean is allowed to cast the missing vote. And he's voted to retain the Greek system. Which kind of makes him, like ... the shadiest Dean ever. Outside the station, a girl overhears the news and is outraged, while two guys behind her high-five each other. Here we go again ...
The Pi Sigs not surprisingly decide to one-up the Lilith women the next day by driving a yellow Hummer around campus. Apparently, yellow is the official color of jackass on this show. (Sniff, sniff -- Oh, X-Terra of beateous jackass-yellow, you are missed ...)
Ahem, anyhoo, back to the frats who are blasting music and whooping and shouting. The Dean is pulling into the campus as the frats drive by his car, and as he peers up at their antics, he shakes his head. But Dean? You voted for them to stay on campus, remember? I know. Boys will be boys, right?
Veronica is walking down a campus pathway that day when Parker calls her over to the "Take Back the Night" table she's working. Parker shows her a section of the newspaper with an announcement that reads: I'll choose my next victim at the Pi Sig party tomorrow night. You've been warned. Parker says that the rapist is getting cocky. Yeah, maybe, but that's not really his M.O., is it? Warning girls that he's going to attack? Veronica wonders if Nish didn't place the ad herself in order to scare girls away from the party. Me? I wouldn't put it past good ol' Nish. But Parker hands Veronica a "special" coaster and says that at least a hundred girls have been by to pick them up. She says you pour a bit of your drink on one of the ten circles on the coaster and it turns red if there's any GHB or Rohypnol in it. Nifty ... and rotationally useful. Veronica asks Parker if she can have a bunch of them, as she's in need of a project. Yup. Whenever she loses a boyfriend, she throws herself into a project. Granted, she was already dangerously invested in the rape case before, so ... not really sure what she's talking about there. Parker also gives her a rape whistle, though Veronica's not sure anyone would come a-running to save her.
Veronica goes to see the Dean and shows him the coaster. She suggests that he require the Pi Sigs to provide them at the party, and he surprisingly agrees. He calls for his secretary, Cora, to track down Chip Diller. Sure, put Chip Diller in charge of protecting women. We'll see how that goes. Veronica tells the Dean that she's not sure how the rapist's ad made it into the paper, but she thinks it was added right before printing. He says that she's a credit to the college, and she remarks that he's awfully kind for being the most hated man on campus. The Dean explains that his job at the university isn't his life. Because that's always a good thing to tell your pupils. It's like saying, well, kids, your Deans and professors could care less about your welfare. The Dean says that his wife is coming back from Sacramento that day and he has something special planned.
Later that day in Criminology class, Veronica receives her "Plan a Perfect Murder" back with an A written on the cover. And a little something extra, too, from her favorite TA, Tim Foyle. "See Me, Tim," it reads. Aw, I think he likes her. Or he's looking to accuse her of plagiarizing again. Veronica knocks on his office door after class, but he isn't there, so she walks in anyway. If he's going to make her wait, she'll just check out his rape investigation board for any clues she might have missed. She sees a picture of all the 2006-2007 Pi Sig members. A few of them have been circled in red, including Dick, Chip, and some other guy. Tim then enters the office and implies that she shouldn't be in there, poking around. The only thing criminal here, Tim, is your badly-made wig. She asks him why those three Pi Sigs are circled, but he doesn't reveal. It's not like they're working together, like Starsky and ... Butch. Nice one, Tim. Can I take it that you really don't care about women's rights, but just want the credit of having solved the mystery? Tim changes the subject. Regarding her paper, he wants her to fix her syntax and book marking errors before Dr. Landry posts it online. Approaching steps can be heard behind Veronica and Tim's face lights up. He asks her if she's met his girlfriend. Tim has a girlfriend? ... Really? And then Bonnie Capistrano -- yes, that Bonnie Capistrano -- walks in. Well, her composure's certainly better than the last time we saw her, walking out of the Pi Sig house after a quickie. She seems to recognize Veronica, but Veronica saves them all from what would be a very awkward situation. Nope! She doesn't think they've met.
Later that night as Veronica's having dinner, she wonders if it means anything that Bonnie is sleeping with Dick and possibly other various Pi Sigs. You mean other than that's she's slutty? But does Tim know? Is that why he's circled the three Pi Sigs on his board?
The next day, Veronica stops in to see Wallace and Piz. Moe is there as part of his resident advisor duties. She asks the boys if they'd be interested in attending a Pi Sig blow-out. Beer, ladies, fast cars ... electronic gadgetry!? Wallace and Piz are bemused but say nothing. She's about to give up when Piz says that they were already planning on going. Excellent, then. They can assist her with her investigating. She turns to Moe and asks him if he'll also be at the party, and he says that he's got the early shift for the Take-Back-the-Night cart. She takes his cell phone and programs her number into it. She instructs him to call her if he picks up any wasted girls or sees any shady fellows lurking around. Veronica turns back to Wallace and Piz and tells them to meet her outside the house at nine sharp. And with that, she makes a hasty departure, leaving Piz confused by her whirlwind demands. Get with it, Piz! You want to be Veronica's friend? You'd better get used to the head tilting and favor requesting. Just ask Wallace.
Veronica next heads to Mac's dorm and pleads with her to go to the party, or as Mac calls it, a "hump the furniture, party back to the Stone Age, fifty-keg bacchanalia." Yeah, that sounds about right. Veronica says she could really use the help, but Mac isn't convinced. So, Veronica sinks to her knees, brings her hands together in prayer, and does the Veronica Mars Stare. Poor Mac never stood a chance. She gives right in -- "resistance is futile."
That night, Veronica and her, uh, willful group of volunteers -- i.e. Wallace, Piz, and Mac -- are standing outside the frat house, about to go in. Veronica is briefing them on the plan. She tells them not to stand out, but if they see a girl that looks like she's been drugged, they're to dip the coaster in her drink to see if it's been dosed. As a reward for their help, she's had fake IDs made for all three of them. Never mind the fact that she hands the IDs to them with Hearst police officers standing just a few feet away. They head over to the entrance table, which our buddy Drew from last season is working. He recognizes Veronica right away as the "crazy bitch" that tossed a beer on him ... well, two beers. Technically. And then there was the part with the Tasing. Good times -- well, not for him. He tells Veronica and co. to get their IDs out and show them to the officer at the door. Beer cups are $10, soda cups are $5. He hands them wrist bands and a marker to write their names on their cups. Mac says she'll take a soda cup, and Piz looks at her as if she's crazy. I guess he's already forgotten why they're at the party ... you know, to make sure girls don't get dosed. Veronica notices a stack of date rape-testing coasters and compares them to her own. Hers are double-sided, their's have a plain white back. Now that's just lazy, boys. If you're going to cheat, then at least do it well. Veronica demands from Drew to know where Chip is. He points to inside the house.
Veronica finds Chip inside and rips into him. Her guess is that the coasters the Pi Sigs are passing out test for whether or not a drink is wet. Veronica tosses a coaster into his female companion's cup. She warns her; if it turns red, he's trying to rape her. If not, he still might be trying to rape her. She stalks off, disgusted.
Outside, guys are filling up their cups with beer from the kegs, and a rock band is playing on stage. Wallace and Piz are standing off to the side, not exactly blending, really. Wallace points to a couple dancing in the crowd; the girl is slumped in her partner's arms and she has a cup in her hand. They head on over and Piz appears in the guy's line of view and starts ..."dancing." More like contorting his body as if in a fit, but it does the trick. The guy is sufficiently distracted for Wallace to test the girl's drink. It's negative, and Wallace motions for Piz to stop doing ... whatever it is he's doing.
Back inside, Veronica finds Bonnie sitting in Dick's lap. She quickly dips a piece of a coaster in her drink before either of them notices. She asks Dick's lap-buddy where her boyfriend is, but Bonnie's unruffled by the question. It's not like she and Tim are married. Dick asks Veronica tauntingly where her boyfriend is, and then corrects himself. Right, she doesn't have one anymore. Veronica isn't about to let Dick get to her, so she advises the two of them to use lots and lots of protection and walks away.
Meanwhile, Mac is approached by a guy outside and he begins hitting on her. And lamely, I might add. Mac is unimpressed with this guy's idea of flirting and just stares blankly at him. He pulls out his flask offers to pour some whiskey in her drink. Finally, giving the girl something she can work with. Mac accepts, and as soon as he finishing pours the whiskey, she dips a piece of coaster in and inspects it closely for a change in color. It's negative, but she pours out the cup somewhere and insincerely thanks him. Hee. That's Mac at her finest.
Still outside, Wallace and Piz and making their way around the party when they see an Asian girl passed out on the grass, cup in hand. Wallace taps her friend's shoulder and asks her if the girl is okay. Her friend is seemingly unconcerned about her welfare, but she says that she's already called the Safe Ride Home people to come pick her up. She points behind them to Moe and Fern pushing their way through the crowd. Fern goes straight for the unconscious girl and slings her over her shoulder. That's some strength. I take it she's done this before. Moe asks for Wallace and Piz's help with the girl, but Fern sneers at them and says they should have been taking better care of their friend. Even though they'd never seen the girl before. So typical of Fern to jump to conclusions. She walks off and Moe rolls his eyes dramatically. He says Fern is always like that.
Back inside, Veronica is still looking for possible victims. She's coming down the staircase when she sees Tim Foyle walking into the frat house. Rut-roh. He sees Bonnie and Dick and loses it. Dick is completely nonchalant during Tim's tirade, calmly sipping from his beer. Tim shouts that he's know about every frat boy she's been with, and that for every time she cheated on him, he was with someone new, too. Veronica watches, apprehensive. What if all these new women are victims of rape? Tim stops yelling and notices that all eyes in the room are on him, so he walks off somewhere.
Veronica goes to follow him but she stops cold when she sees Logan and Mercer across the room, talking with two girls. She catches Logan's gaze and they stare intensely at each other. Veronica heads over with an awkward bounce to her step. Mercer says 'Hey,' but she looks directly at Logan when she responds with a 'Hey' of her own. Logan says 'Hi' and wow this is awkward and heart-breaking and could they just make up already? The feelings, the intensity -- it's all still there. Mercer senses his third wheel status and tells them to have fun. Veronica says that he doesn't have to go, but Mercer explains that his show is coming on after the band. He leaves them and Logan says that she must be here because of her investigation. Veronica goes on the defensive; she is who she is. Their conversation (which was likely to end soon anyway) is interrupted by Wallace and Piz. Piz says that they've got a positive, and Wallace continues that it was Kim Kaiser's cup that was dosed. They don't know where she is but they asked around and someone said that she lives in the Harbor View Apartments. Veronica declares that they have to find her, and asked them who has the closest car that they can take. Logan cuts in and says that he does, but he wasn't really included in that question. Frustrated, he tells her to just him do this for her. See? He can't help but still want to protect her. Veronica reluctantly agrees -- she's still not at that point where she can ask him for help. She tells him to be careful and Wallace says that he'll go with him. They leave and Piz follows her outside.
The band is saying their goodbyes and Veronica walks right up on stage and grabs the microphone. She announces that they're looking for Kim Kaiser; she was given a date-rape drug, so if anyone knows where she is, then let her know. She waits around for a while and finally a friend of Kim's comes up to her. She says that Kim wasn't at the party; she gave her younger sister Carrie her ID so she could come. She says that Carrie wasn't feeling well and walked back to her room in Bennis Hall. Which means that Logan and Wallace are heading for the wrong residence. Veronica hops down from the stage just as Mercer's voice can be heard from the speakers. Mercer is asking his caller what he wants to hear, but the end of his sentence is stretched out, like there was an error in the playback of a recording. Veronica freezes and turns around. Mercer's show is supposed to be live. Realization dawns on her that Mercer could be the rapist and she turns back around and rushes out of the party.
As Veronica's heading to Bennis Hall, Mac and Piz reunite outside the frat house, wondering where everyone else has gone. Piz says that it's been a while since he last saw Veronica.
Elsewhere on campus, the door to Carrie's room opens and someone enters. Mercer turns on a lamp and various unicorn paraphernalia can be seen around the room. We're talking unicorn plushes, unicorn glass figurines, unicorn book ends, unicorn posters ... Looks like Carrie's bought out Neptune's Unicornucopia. Hey, girls love unicorns. But Mercer is a little freaked, so he turns on the radio to a song with a good dance beat, because techno is so "undeserved." Maybe it's undeserved if you're a rapist with no taste. Mercer begins bobbing his head in time with the music and slips off his jacket. He walks over to the bed and sits down next to the covered form. He promises aloud that it's gonna be good; it's just a shame that the only thing she'll remember in the morning is that all her hair is gone. He explains that he simply has no patience or interest to wine and dine a woman, but he's confident that all his victims would have willingly slept with him, anyway. That's a new one. You have your rapists that claim the women only regretted it the morning after, and then you have Mercer Hayes: "She would have consented had I given her the chance to!" Cocky, much? Mercer's pitiful self-talk is interrupted when he hears a thump from the closet. He opens the door and sees Carrie, unconscious on the floor of the closet. So then who's ...?
He turns around only to meet Veronica's taser. He grabs her arm but she still manages to zap him pretty good. Mercer pulls her with him as he collapses to the floor in shock and the taser goes sliding under the bed. She tries to get away but he yanks her back down, causing her to smack her head on the floor. He drags her along the floor and she screams for help, so he turns up the volume of the radio. He tells her that she shouldn't be here, and pulls her up by her bangs so that she's standing in front of him. Veronica reaches up with her hand and scratches his face. He screams and momentarily lets go of her, only to grab her again and punch her. As Kristen Bell would say, "don't hit girls!" Mercer checks out his bleeding cheek in a mirror, and I'm reminded of a younger and narcissistic Aaron Echolls. Speaking of which, that makes three culprits now that are connected to Logan either through blood or friendship. What gives? As if Logan didn't already have enough to feel guilty about.
Mercer walks over to the bed, which Veronica's half under, trying to reach for her taser. He begins pulling her out by her legs, so she grabs the nearest object, which happens to be a toy unicorn. With a long, pointy horn. She jams the thing in his leg (it's almost as if it were destiny, given her love of ponies and unicorns) and watches in horror as he reels back in pain and stumbles into the desk, the toy still in his leg. Ah, you gotta love poetic justice. Veronica weakly gets on her feet and throws open the door. She begins running (Alias-style in slow-mo) through the corridors, occasionally looking behind her to see if Mercer's gone after her yet. She races up a flight of stairs and heads for Wallace and Piz's room, even though it really doesn't make much sense that they'd be there so soon. She pounds on the door, panting and calling out their names. Realizing it's hopeless, she turns around and slumps to the floor.
A pair of legs appears at her side. It's Moe, and she looks up at him with her bloody nose and bruised eye. He asks her what's wrong, and she tells him that Mercer is the rapist. Moe looks shocked and they end up in his room. Veronica is drinking from a mug of tea and Moe is on the phone with the police. But something feels off here. He made her tea? Is he really talking to the police? What does it for me is the audible sound of the door locking as he leaves to go "rescue" Carrie. Veronica doesn't notice that, but a photo on Moe's bulletin board does catch her eye. It's of Mercer and Moe, all chummy and wearing the same t-shirts that Logan and Wallace had to wear during Dr. Kinny's Abu Ghraib experiment. As Veronica gets up to get a closer look at the photo, she starts to feel the now oh-so-familiar effects of GHB. It's all starting to fall in place now, but talk about poor timing. The GHB is really getting to her and she stumbles back, the mug slipping from her hand and smashing on the floor. She goes for the door, but as expected, it's locked. She sways over to the window and pushes it open. Much too far to jump. She grabs Moe's cell phone, which he left on his desk, and hides in the closet. She dials Keith's number, but she gets the answering machine. She reaches around the closet and finds a hammer, but when she starts settling down again, all this loose hair that she dislodged while searching for the hammer starts falling down. Disgusted, she brushes it away.
Mercer and Moe come in and Mercer assumes that she somehow escaped through the window. Mercer takes on a domineering tone with Moe, much in the way that Rafe did with Horshack, and punches him. Moe's cell phone rings loudly from inside the closet -- it's Keith calling her back -- and she gasps into the phone for him to help her before Mercer opens the closet door. Moe tries to grab the cell phone but Veronica brings the hammer down hard on his foot. Moe starts fussing about his foot and how they're going to caught, so Mercer tries to slap some sense into him, calling him his "prisoner." I should be surprised, but this is Neptune, which has more than its fair share of emotionally stunted boys. Veronica just watches numbly as Mercer directs Moe to go find all the GHB he can so that he can drug her into oblivion. Veronica reaches into her pocket and pulls out the rape whistle that Parker gave her. Veronica blows on it for as long as she can until Mercer snatches it away.
Parker, on a different floor, emerges from her room with a worried expression. Wow, that's some specialized hearing, because none of the other people on the floor so much as blink. Mercer is just limping back to Moe's room after having gone to his to get more GHB, but his path is blocked by a suspicious Parker. Mercer, I would have changed your pants because the big blood stain isn't helping you any. Parker demands to know where Veronica is and starts screaming Rape! over and over again. Pretty much everyone on the floor comes out of their rooms, including Moe, though he's carefully guarding his door. The residents start asking questions and Moe begins to panic, asking Mercer what they're supposed to do. Mercer tries to act cool and tells Moe to shut up and get back in his room. Oh, that's smart. Direct attention to Moe's room. The resident standing next to Moe asks him if he has someone in his room, and Moe just turns helplessly to Mercer for an order. Mercer tells them all that Parker's just crazy and they're falling for it, so he's out of there. Moe runs after him pathetically. Parker rushes into Moe's room and gasps when she sees Veronica laying unconscious on the floor.
Keith is later scolding Sacks in the Sheriff's department for not following procedure with the bomb threat that Veronica called in earlier so that Bennis Hall could be evacuated. Sacks apologizes and says that the Sheriff is on his way (oh, now you bother to wake up Lamb from his, uh, beauty sleep) and he wants to talk to Veronica. Keith mumbles "yeah, right" and helps Veronica up from where she's leaning against the coffee pot. Veronica informs Keith that she called him from Moe's phone, so he's now got his number saved on his. She doubts Moe's smart enough to turn his phone off, so they can track him.
Moe and Mercer are off somewhere in a motel room. Moe has a pair of pliers and Mercer's pulled down his pants to reveal his still-bleeding leg. Moe brings the pliers to the wound and begins pulling out the unicorn horn, which is buried deep in his thigh. Hurts, doesn't it, to be impaled with a foreign object? Mercer wails in pain and Keith busts in the door, gun in hand pointed straight at them. Keith tells them that their ride back to Neptune is here. A holding cell awaits them. I'm sure the bed is probably still warm from the last time Mercer was there.
It's daytime at the Mars apartment and Veronica is explaining everything to Mac, Wallace and Piz. Eh, let's just say that Piz is there because he's Wallace roommate, okay? Okay. Veronica says that Moe was the "setup man." He'd drug the victims, provide Mercer with their room numbers and then give him his Resident Assistant master set of master keys. Moe must have been the one that shaved her head, not because he planned to rape her, but because he wanted Mercer to have his being locked up as his alibi. And the Pi Sigs never had anything to do with the rapes, after all. Mercer simply chose nights on which there'd be a lot of available drunk girls. The frat was his scapegoat, and apparently an effective one, after all the crap they took during this arc. Not that it wasn't mostly deserved. Mac asks Veronica if Logan's stopped by, but Veronica frowns and replies that he hasn't. Mm, let's just say that Logan has some things to take care of.
- So, one mystery down, but they keep on coming. Cyrus O'Dell, the reviled campus Dean, has quite a bit on his plate this week. The fate of the Greeks, the Lilith women on his case, a pretty young wife to keep tabs on, and a broken television, it seems. Weevil's in his office tweaking the reception; he gets rid of the jerky picture but he tells the Dean that he'll be by later with a high definition receiver. The Dean is grateful and tells Weevil that he wouldn't know what to do if he left him. Weevil heads out and Mindy floats in to snark about how hard-working he is, sitting there in front of the television. The Dean says that his job is easy. Well, it would be if you're ignoring the fact that your campus' security is deplorable and there's a serial rapist on the loose, but whatever. Mindy hands her husband the keys to their minivan and says that she needs the Volvo for a business trip up in Sacramento. The Dean asks if Wally can go for her, but she says that he's going, too. Cyrus comments that he's going to be bored with her gone; he may even be forced to speak to their children. Mindy smiles and leans in for a kiss and tries to pacify him by telling him that she'll be home tomorrow. The Dean's secretary walks in then and Mindy leaves. Cora informs him that there's a gentlemen waiting for him, but he doesn't have an appointment and he refuses to provide a name.
The Dean enters his office and nervously recognizes the man as Mel. Mel says that they need to talk. The thing he enjoyed most about his days at Hearst was sitting on the front porch of his frat, drinking a beer and watching the ladies go by. I see where this is going. Mel tells the Dean somewhat threateningly that he thinks he's been rather generous over the years. Generous as in he's been donating a lot of money to the college, or is he referring to something else -- something a little less legal? Mercer may be a liar and a rapist, but he did say that the Dean owes him big for placing bets on boxing matches. Mel here looks more like a bookie than a generous alumni. Whatever the case, the Dean is certainly intimidated enough that he votes to keep the fraternities and sororities on campus.
The Dean later meets with Keith at Mars Investigations and reveals that he just can't shake the feeling that his wife is being unfaithful. He's suspicious of her friendship with her associate, Wally Wernkey. Hmm, not exactly the most comfortable case for Keith to be taking after his brief affair with Harmony, but he reluctantly agrees to help out the Dean. He heads home and packs his bag. Veronica asks him where he's going and he explains that he's off to Sacramento because one of his clients thinks that his wife is cheating on him.
The next morning, after the Dean drives by the celebrating Pi Sigs in their hummer, he sees two groups of women loitering around the parking lot. Fern appears from behind a parked van and walks in front of the Dean's car, forcing him to stop. A flurry of eggs hits his windshield and the women begin rocking the car back and forth.
More angry than concerned, the Dean walks into his office afterwards and tells his secretary to get him a roster with the names of all the Lilith women. Cora says that he has a guest without an appointment, and he turns around to see Keith. He invites Keith into his office and asks him what's found out about his wife. Keith replies that he only has good news. Wally is apparently gay. Mindy spent the night alone, while he, on the other hand, had quite a night on the town. Gay clubs galore. The Dean is embarrassed and asks Keith if they can just forget that he ever doubted his wife. Cora walks in then, carrying a copy of the school newspaper. He hands it to the Dean and says that he should see one of the classified ads. He reads aloud: "I'll choose my next victim at the Pi Sig party tomorrow night. You've been warned."
Later that night, Keith enters the apartment as Veronica is having dinner. Something's on her mind and she asks him about that case he had in Sacramento. He explains that it was just a false alarm. She breaks the bad news to him that Mindy really is cheating on the Dean with her Criminology professor, Dr. Landry. Keith is stunned as to how she knows this -- though, really, he should just give up and stop underestimating his daughter. Veronica explains that she simply put two and two together. She was talking with the Dean earlier that day and he mentioned how his wife from coming home from Sacramento. She says she saw Mindy and Dr. Landry together at the Neptune Grand. He checks in under Rory Finch. Keith is bummed because he realizes that he can't keep this information from the Dean.
Keith meets with the Dean again the next day to give him the news. He's done a little more research and now has the dates that Rory Finch stayed at the Grand. The Dean is collected but numb. He replies that those were the same nights as Mindy's supposed junior league meetings.
It gets to be night and I guess Keith has been hanging out with the Dean in his office all day. Cyrus is clearly drunk as he pours the last bit of his bottle into his glass. He asks Keith how someone could sleep with another man's wife. Yes, Keith, how does someone do it? The Dean tries to get up but falls back down on the couch. Keith is concerned but the Dean assures him that he isn't planning on driving home; he just wants to drink away his sorrows and pass out on the couch.
Later on, Keith is getting ready to leave. The Dean is lying on the couch and Keith asks him if he needs a ride home. The Dean sees no point in going home, considering his wife is probably shackin' up with Landry tonight. He looks like he's about to fall asleep, so Keith leaves, but as soon as he's gone, the Dean is up and alert. He goes to his desk and gets his keys; then he opens a lower drawer and pulls out a revolver. Well, this can't be good.
Mindy and Landry are indeed at the Grand. He's still comfortably in bed, but she's already dressed. He tells her languidly not to go; he's ordered dessert. She quips that maybe one day when they have sex, he won't be stoned. They both laugh and she walks over to bed to kiss him. There's a knock at the door and Mindy goes over to open it, revealing her husband. This is certainly awkward. Landry realizes who it is and sit straight up, and Mindy watches nervously as Cyrus comes right in and begins approaching her not-so-secret-anymore lover.
Much later, the Dean is back in his office, asleep on the couch. But what happened at the hotel? Was he just dreaming? If not, why wouldn't he just go home after confronting Mindy? The Dean is woken by the sound of several eggs smashing against his window outside. Looks like the feminazis are at it again. He stands up to watch as the yolk runs down the glass. He is startled when the door to his office opens, and he asks the unexpected visitor what he or she is doing there. Ah, another 'Who's At The Door?' mystery we're left to mull over during the break.
Weevil enters the Dean's office the next morning with the high-def equipment, only to see Dean O'Dell slumped forward in his desk chair, a bullet hole wound in his forehead. Well, shucks. I'm going to miss the Dean. He was ... incompetent yet loveable. As for the suspects, here's my preliminary list:
- - Dr. Landry -- Perhaps he feared the Dean would fire him because of the affair.
- Mindy -- I doubt she would have killed her husband for Landry, but maybe she didn't want to lose everything to him in a divorce.
- Mel -- For some reason the Dean owed him big. Maybe keeping the Greeks on campus wasn't enough to placate him.
- Nish or one of the Lilith women -- I truly hope not, because the rape arc involved them far too much.
- Mindy's ex-husband, Steven Batando -- Maybe he was still bitter about the kidnapping.
"Right Here, Right Now" (Fat Boy Slim)
Scene(s): Veronica's running down the empty hallways; later Mercer's about to get his get his groove on with a swaddled up Veronica and she's about to introduce him to Mr. Taser.
"Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" (Originally performed by Steam)
Scene: It's an anthem sung by a man for women breaking free from the wrong kind of man being sung by women who don't appear to like any men, right or wrong.
"Have You Never Been Mellow?" (Olivia Newton-John)
Scene: We've certainly seen Dean O'Dell all mellowed out, but for now, he's all yellow. Hee!
"Sweet Caroline" (Diamond Smugglers)
Scene - It's the 70's all over again as Neil Diamond's classic pumps up the party crowd. Oh, yeah and, uhm, Piz, "dances" -- clearly having taken lessons at the Elaine Benes (of Seinfeld fame) school of dance.
"Thank the Lord for the Night Time" (Diamond Smugglers)
Scene: And the band plays on, the drunken college kids carouse and Mac is asked about her STD.
"Can't Get Over You" (The Digbees)
Scene: Ah, it's a lovely day to take a nice leisurely stroll with a baseball bat ... and bash a cop's car window to smithereens. Or so thinks Logan Echolls when revenge is on his mind.
LoVe Lines
Veronica: Something wrong?
Logan: I can't do this any more, Veronica. Y'know, I've been thinking and uh ... (Voice cracking) this isn't working. Y'know, I don't think I quite measure up to the person you want me to be; I just can't take feeling like a disappointment any more.
Veronica: (Shocked.) Logan, I don't --
Logan: Let me ... get this out, okay? The other thing ... you told me you weren't built to let people help you.
Veronica: That's not exactly what I said --
Logan: It's close. And you know what? I'm not built to stand on the sidelines. (Veronica blinks and presses her lips together, eyes watering.) I think we have a choice: Either we can take a tough but survivable amount of pain now, (Taking a long pause while he stares at her) or stay together and deal with unbearable pain later. So I vote for the pain now. (Veronica nods once, and Logan breathes deeply looking like he's really struggling.) But I'm always here, (Shrugging) if you need anything. (He cups her face and kisses her forehead softly.) But you never need anything ... (He looks at her brokenly and then turns and walks away, while she gazes after him struggling to hold it all in.)
Mercer: Hey, Veronica.
Veronica: (to Logan.)Hey
Logan: Hey
Mercer: Oo-kay, you two have fun.
Veronica: (Without breaking eye contact with 'Logan.) You dont have to go Mercer, I'm just saying hi.
Logan: Let me guess. You're here because of the investigation.
Veronica: I am what I am.
Veronica: Who's got the closest car?
Logan: I do. And you're staying here. I'll go.
Veronica: If you think I-
Logan: Veronica, please! Let me do this part.
Veronica: Okay, go. Be careful.
Wallace: I'll go with you.
Quotable Quotes
Veronica Mars Voiceover: (As she watches the giant pink pig float go past.) If the Lilith House mission was trying to protect women on campus, I'm not sure this display is doing the trick. Sure, the board of trustees voted to dismantle the Greek system but there's still a rapist at large. That hasn't changed. (She hears Dick call out and Logan laugh behind her. Stands up when she sees them.) Ah ... so the boy can still smile, it seems like a week since I've seen his teeth.
Veronica: (To Logan.) Hey, handsome.
Dick: Shh, not in front of the old man; he's the jealous type.
Logan: (To Veronica.) Hey.
Veronica: Hello, Dick. (Looking at the pig float.) I can't believe they got such a perfect likeness .. did you actually model for them?
Dick: Yeah. And, you know, that reminds me they left out one important detail. Excuse moi. (He stands up on something off camera, and moons the passing float.) Take a picture, ladies! (Slapping his bare ass as Veronica grimaces and looks away in disgust.) It'll last longer!
Veronica: Great job, Dick. I'm sure you won that debate.
Logan: (Giving Dick a fond look.) Oh, he's a master debater.
Dick: You two kiss, hold hands, head to the soda shop for some malts -- I'm outta here! (Veronica stares at him silently when he doesn't leave immediately.) Okay. Don't try and stop me. (He waits, silence, silence and finally throws up his hands and leaves.)
Dean O'Dell: Hot damn! I'm back in business. What would I do if you ever left me?
Weevil: Call human resources and have them send a replacement? (The Dean shrugs.) Just a guess.
Mindy O'Dell: You can order pizza, can't you?
Dean O'Dell: I'm sure somebody will show me.
Mel: You know what I liked best about my days here at Hearst, Cyrus?
Dean O'Dell: Quality education?
Mel: (Laughing sardonically and then flatly.) No.
(Wallace and Mac stare at Veronica staring at her spaghetti for a long time in the lunch line. They look at each other then --)
Mac: Veronica --
Veronica: I'm fine.
(They respond over the top of each other.)
Mac: I know --
Wallace: We never said you weren't --
Mac: We know --
Wallace: You're Veronica Mars --
Mac: But it's okay if you're not.
Veronica: I'm fine, seriously, I just told the two of you because I figured you should know. I'm not looking for a pity party.
Wallace: That's good, 'cause I always get stuck blowing up the pity balloons.
Mac: Is there anything we can do for you?
Veronica: Nope. We're done with this topic, I just shared some info -- moving on! (Smiling.)
Piz: Hey gang! (He slaps Wallace's shoulder, Veronica stiffens up uncomfortably.) What's the word? Is it avuncular? (Mac and Wallace stare at him meaningfully.) No? Shot in the dark.
Veronica: Going somewhere?
Keith: (Using a Charlie Chan accent.) Oh, very good number one daughter, you might make a detective yet. (Veronica doesn't even crack a smile.)
Keith: You alright, honey?
Veronica: (Smiling wanly.) Logan and I broke up.
Keith: I'm sorry to hear that. Are you okay? (She nods.) I can put off this assignment ...
Veronica: No. You go, I'm fine. (He stares at her, unconvinced.) Just kind of unexpected.
Keith: Are you sure?
Veronica: Go. (He kisses her forehead. Frowning, he walks around her then notices she's still staring into space as he goes for the door.)
Keith: Honey ..?
Veronica: (Turning around with a forced bright grin.) Go! (He reluctantly leaves her to cry in the shower a few minutes later.)
Dean: So, whatcha got?
Keith: Only good news. You have nothing to worry about except perhaps your apparent lack of gaydar.
Dean: (Seriously.) I dont know what that is.
Keith: Wally Wernkey's gay. Your wife spent the night in her room alone. And Wally, on the other hand, visited in succession The Boathouse, Oil Can Harry's and Taboo.
Dean: Let's both just forget I ever doubted my wife.
Keith: Consider it forgotten.
Parker: The rapist is getting cocky.
Veronica: Yeah, or Nish just wants to scare girls away from the frat blowout.
Parker: If that was the plan I don't think it's working. We've probably had one hundred girls stop by and pick up these.
Veronica:(Incredulously.) Coasters?
Parker: Special coasters. You pour a drop of your drink on them and they'll turn red if there's any GHB or Rohypnol in it.
Veronica: You mind if I take a bunch of these?
Parker: Planning on tying one on? You can test ten drinks on one card.
Veronica: I suddenly find myself with free time and in need of a project.
Veronica: (To the Dean.) Well aren't you warm and cuddly for being the most reviled man on campus.
Veronica Voiceover: (While alone in Tim's office.) Okay, but you should know -- if you're gonna make me wait I'm gonna pour over your creepy rape investigation board. (Looking at the faces circled on the Pi Sig directory.) What's this? Dick, Chip Diller, and what's-his-face?
Tim: Can I help you find something?
Veronica: What's with the circled Pi Sigs? Are you on to something?
Tim: Did I miss something? Are we working together now? Are we Starsky and Butch?
Veronica: Cagney and Pastey!
Veronica: Dean O'Dell's wife is cheating on him with Dr. Landry, my criminology professor.
Keith: (Apparently flummoxed.) And how'd you ...
Veronica: (Cutting Keith off.) I dropped by his office, he told me his wife just got in from Sacramento. Two and two.
Keith: (Still flummoxed.)And how'd you ...
Veronica: (Cutting Keith off again.) I saw the two of them together at The Neptune Grand. He checks in under the pseudonym 'Rory Finch.' You should double check, but I'm certain it's true. Are you gonna tell him?
Keith: (Sadly.) You know the rules honey -- I have to.
Moe: Someone has been leaving a surprise in the third stall everyday for the last two weeks. This person apparently never learned how to flush, and it's my amateur medical opinion that he's also suffering from what must be a terminal medical disease. So?
Wallace: Not guilty, man
Piz: Third stall, stage right or stage left?
Moe: Stage ... (uses his hands and twists to get the visual.) right?
Mac: Are you freaking kidding me? The Pi Sig Mega Apocalypse? Hump the furniture, party back to the Stone Age, fifty-keg bacchanalia?
Veronica: Sounds fun, right?
Mac: Will they let me in? I think all the glitter had come off my porn star tube-top.
Wallace: And if you see a really cute girl and you wanna dance with her ...?
Veronica: Dance. Just know that your libido caused some girl to get raped.
Veronica: Hey, it's your life.
Wallace: Since when?
Veronica: (to Chip, holding up the coaster from the Take Back the Night booth.) One tests for date rape drugs. My guess? (Holds up the coasters handed out at the door.) The other tests to see whether drinks are wet!
Party Guy: (to Mac.) Hey there. (Reading her shirt.) You have an STD! Classic! You are one major minor, you know that? You want me to put a little whiskey in that cola of yours?
Mac: (Perky.) Sure! (Tests her drink with the coaster, its clean. She dumps out the rest of her drink.) Thanks! (Returns her attention to the stage. Party guy stands by her for a few more seconds, then tips his flask to her and leaves.)
Dean ODell: What makes a man do it, Keith? Sleep with another mans wife? Is there no honor left?
Keith: Less than there should be, I'm afraid.
Fern: (With the passed out girl over her shoulder.) Nice way to take care of your friend.
Moe: Don't mind her. She's always like that.
Dick: Hey Veronica. Where's your boyfriend tonight? (With false sympathy) Oh, wait, I'm so sorry. You don't have one anymore. Bummer.
Mindy: You know, maybe someday we'll have sex and you won't be stoned. I swear I'm having an affair with Annie Hall.
Deputy: Maybe I should ask the sheriff.
Sacks: You want to call and wake him up?
Mercer: (Turns the radio on, Fat Boy Slim's "Right Here, Right Now" is playing) You know, techno has a bad reputation but I think it's undeserved. Groan, if you disagree? (Looks to the bed, gets silence in return.) Good. We're on the same page.
Mercer: (Talking to the silent figure on the bed.) And it's a me thing, I'm sorry to say. I ... have no patience. I mean if I'd met you in a bar, or uh, at a party, I would have had you back here and on your back in an hour. (Pauses, then continues with disdain.) But that's an hour of my life I would have never had back, an hour of listening to you talk. About ... unicorns (Standing, he crosses the room.) and ... your high school boyfriend, and how you hate the taste of beer. (Retrieving and holding up the clippers.) I'm just taking what you would have happily given me. I mean, that's hardly a crime -- (Cuts off upon hearing a noise from the closet)
Mercer: Hey, there. Parker, is it?
Parker: (Forceful but shaky) Going somewhere?
Mercer: Uh, yeah, as a matter of fact- (starts to walk around her)
Parker: (stops him with her hand on his chest) Where is she?
Mercer: Uh, excuse me-
Parker: RAPE! RAPE! RAPE!
Dormitory Guy: What happened to your leg, man?
Mercer: (snidely) Pet cougar.
Dean O'Dell: (to Mysterious Killer.) What are you doing here?
Keith: (Kicks in the door of Mercer and Moe's hotel room, gun raised.) Your ride back to Neptune is here, boys. I suggest you don't give me anymore reason to shoot you.
Mac: Has Logan been by?
Veronica: I haven't seen him. (Cut to the Diner Scene: Logan "The Man" stepping up to the plate, with an actual baseball bat no less. Take that, Kristen Bell.)
(Muhammad) Ali (Referenced by Weevil while he's discussing boxing with the Dean.)
Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay (1942), is a retired American boxer. Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam and converting to Sunni Islam in 1975.
Ali is known for using his fast footwork in the ring to avoid a punch. He won his first professional fight in 1960 in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The boxer built up an impressive track record of 19-0 wins, and became the top contender for Heavyweight titlist Sonny Liston. During the pre-fight weigh-in, Ali taunted Liston by saying he would "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. You can't hit what your eyes can't see."
True to his word, Ali was dominating Liston by the third round, and the events of the fourth round remain a highly controversial topic in boxing today. Ali was temporarily blinded by a substance found on Liston's gloves, and while Liston claimed it was medicinal ointment for the cuts on his knuckles, many have speculated that the substance was actually intentionally applied to Liston's gloves to weaken Ali's offense. All the same, Ali's eyesight recovered enough for him to come back on top by the end of the sixth round, and Liston shocked the world by not returning to the ring for the seventh round.
Successes continued to mark Ali's career until his boxing had to be put on hold at the start of the Vietnam war. Ali, then a follower of the Islamic faith, refused to respond to the draft and was subsequently stripped of his title by the professional boxing commission. He regained his license to box in 1970 with the help of a state senator, just in time to meet up with the similarly undefeated "Smokin' Joe" Frazier in the ring.
Ali and Frazier's first match, dubbed The Fight of the Century by the media, was held in early 1971 and predicted to be one of the most significant fights in boxing history. Both boxers were undefeated and both had unique style in the ring. Frazier won the match with a knock-out punch, though Ali's fans are quick to point out that Ali had the unfair disadvantage of being out of the ring for the last three years. The two had a rematch in 1974 which Ali won (by points). Ali continued to make headlines, and by retirement, he claimed a total of fifty-six wins out of sixty-one fights, thirty-seven of which were knock-outs.
(Joe) Frazier (Referenced by Weevil while he's discussing boxing with the Dean)
"Smokin' Joe" Frazier is a former heavyweight boxer, most known for his fights with Muhammad Ali, and his impressive success record during the 1960's and 1970's. Frazier was born in South Carolina in 1944 and won a Gold medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics Heavyweight category.
Frazier trained specifically for his first title fight with Ali, even going so far as to bring in a coach that studied Ali's style and developed a strategy to outsmart him. Frazier had a particular vendetta against Ali, who showed Frazier the same courtesy he did Liston -- trash talk. Ali dubbed Frazier 'a gorilla' and criticized him as not being truly black. Frazier won the match with a knock-out victory in the fifteenth round. Guess he just wanted it more. By retirement, Frazier claimed thirty-two wins out of thirty-seven fights, twenty-seven of which were knock-out wins.
Sacramento (Referenced by Mindy when she tells Cyrus she's going on a trip there.)
Sac, Sacto, River City, Capital City -- these are all names given to the capital of California, the city of Sacramento.
Originally inhabited by Maidu, Valley Miwok and Snonommey Indians, Sacramento was named by the Spanish explorer who discovered the Sacramento Valley and River in the early nineteenth century, Gabriel Moraga. The name is based around the word 'sacrament.' The city of Sacramento was founded in 1848 by John Sutter, growing out of the trading colony and stockade he established, Sutter's Fort. During the gold rush, the town was a major distribution point. Incorporated in 1850, Sacramento is the second oldest in the state (after San Francisco). In 1854, the California State Legislature officially declared Sacramento the state's capital.
Located in California's Central Valley at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, the city has a population of 457,514 (2006), making it the seventh largest in the state. It is the fourth largest metropolitan area in California and is made up of five counties: El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter and Yolo. The city has a total area of 99.2 square miles and a mild climate. California State University, Sacramento ("Sac State") is the local university. The largest employer is the State of California.
The State Capital building in Sacramento and the landmark Tower Bridge,
which crosses the Sacramento River.
Professional sports teams include the Sacramento Kings (NBA basketball), the Sacramento Monarchs (WNBA basketball) and the River Cats (minor league baseball).
Once used just for transportation and commerce, the American and Sacramento Rivers are now also popular recreational waterways. Other popular attractions include the California State Fair, the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee (every Memorial Day), the Sacramento Ballet, the Crocker Art Museum, and the California State Railroad Museum. The area where the original city was located is referred to as Old Sac and has become a bit of a tourist attraction with its cobbled streets, historical buildings, paddle steamers and steam-hauled trains.
The last California State Governor to make Sacramento his permanent residence was Ronald Reagan in 1967.
Volvo (Referenced by Mindy as she asks Cyrus for the keys.)
Did you know that volvo is Latin for "I roll" or "I turn?" Well it is, not that the origin of the word has anything to do with the vehicle, instead it has to do with the original product of SKF (for Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB), which had registered as their trademark of a special series of ball bearing. That was the original plan, but they instead decided to go with SKF, but then decided it was a nifty name for their automotive company. The Volvo, or Aktiebolaget Volvo, is a leading Swedish Manufacturer of vehicles, drive systems for marin and industrial applications, as well as aerospace components and financial services. Volvo is basically a spin-off of the SKF and was founded on August 10, 1926 in Gothenburg. In 1999, Ford Motor Company bought Volvo cars.
The first series produced Volvo automobile, called 'V4' (ppen vagn (Open wagon)-4 cylinders) left the factory on April 14, 1927. Just nine hundred and ninety-six cars were produced between 1927-1929. 'V4' was replaced by model PV651 in April 1929. Volvo's first success in the automobile production came with the PV444 that was introduced in september 1944. The Volvo Group today has more than 81,000 employees, with manufacturing in twenty-five countries and sales in more than one hundred and eighty-five markets. The group provides complete solutions for financing and service.
ROTC (Referenced by Piz when he tells the gang that a student wants to turn Greek Row into a battlefield.)
The ROTC is the Reserve Officer Training Corps program of the United States Army in colleges where they recruit and educate commissioned officers. ROTC is an elective part of the college curriculum and interested students can enroll the same way they would for other classes. After graduation, ROTC participants are later absorbed into the United States Army.
ROTC classes are now available at over six hundred US Colleges and universities -- apparently including Hearst University. Courses range from aviation, nursing, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chemistry, engineering, public relations, finance, law, intelligence, psychology, transportation and many more. The focuses are on developing the leadership qualities, problem-solving abilities, planning strategies and instill the professional ethics so that the students are able to meet the challenges of the world. They can also later have a say in shaping the Army's future as an officer in the US Army.
Interestingly enough, the Army ROTC is the single largest source of scholarship money in the United States. The ROTC offers tuition and fees up to $68,000, annual living expenses up to $4,000 plus an annual allowance for books to thousands of needy students. The two, three or four year scholarship is strictly on merit and the family financial status is not a point for consideration. High school seniors could get a three or four year advanced designee scholarship while college freshmen could get a three year scholarship. Such cadets need to enter into a contract to serve the United States Army for a certain decided period.
"Very good, number one daughter." / Charlie Chan (Referenced by Keith's impression to Veronica.)
Charlie Chan, a famous Chinese detective, was a creation of Earl Derr Biggers, who modeled him after Chang Apana (a real life Chinese detective living with his large family in Honolulu). Biggers featured Chan in a number of books, and produced an impressive succession of films with this most prolific crime-solver, starting with The House Without a Key in 1925 and making it into a 1tej-part serial in 1926, followed by forty-six films through 1949. The best known of those are the ones based on Biggers' six published novels (1925-1932). During the span of the series, six different actors played Charlie: George Kuwa (1925), Kamiyama Sojin (1927), E.L. Park (1929), Warner Oland (1931-1938), Sidney Toler (1938-1947), and Roland Winters (1947-1949).
The critics and the audiences have been arguing for ages the merits and the stereotypes of the films. The prejudices of the time aside, Charlie Chan was a moral hero who, despite his somewhat idiosyncratic mannerisms and behaviors, was seen as intelligent and often more effective than his white counterparts.
The size of the Chan clan changes throughout the series. We get the first glimpse of its scope in Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), where the detective sends his friend in Scotland Yard a family photo of himself, his wife, and their eleven -- you heard me! -- children. By the end of the series there are as many as fourteen little darlings Charlie referred to as "multitudinous blessing." Hmm, I wonder if he was being sarcastic. I don't , however, wonder at him having to number them.
"Multitudinous blessings." Number One daughter: fourth from left (Florence Ung).
Selected "blessings" play parts of varying importance in the series. Sons Number One and Two join their dad on the cases. The daughters don't fair so well. Portrayed by Ivy Ling (?) in The Black Camel (1931), and Florence Ung in Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936) and Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938), Ling was Mr. and Mrs. Chan's second child and their first daughter. In Biggers' book The Black Camel, she is referred to as "Rose." (And we blame RT for dropping the ball with continuity?). This daughter appeared briefly and anonymously in several films, but she is mentioned by name only once, in Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938). Ling makes an appearance in the end of the film, after just having given birth to the Number One grandson Leung.
Ling was (possibly) named after her Aunt Ling who, as mentioned by Lee in Chan in Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936), lived "at the other end of the island" (of Oahu). The Chan's Number One daughter was married to a shopkeeper named Wing Foo and was the mother of the only mentioned grandchild, thus (one presumes) serving her purpose.
Very good, Number One daughter.
All things considered, Veronica should count her blessings: Number One and Only daughter and with a much loftier role in her father's life!
Interesting and pertinent quote from Charlie himself: "Man without relatives is man without troubles." I am thinking Keith, sometimes and secretly, would agree. And I know Logan would!
Gaydar (Referenced by Keith when he tells Cyrus that his isn't working because Mindy's travel companion is gay.)
Gaydar, a combination of "gay" and "radar," is the term describing that illusive intuitive ability to determine whether another person is gay or bisexual. Whether anyone can actually posses such ability is highly debatable, but that never stops people from claiming it. The earliest known citation (allegedly) appeared in March 15, 1992 issue of The Independent (London), in "Out of the Undergrowth" by Nick Cohen: "Men meandered with studied slowness along the paths, waiting for eye contact from passers-by. When their 'gaydar' told them that an assignation was on, they went up short, well-trodden tracks, strewn with foil condom wrappers, which led straight into the undergrowth."
The idea is more about the intangible sense rather than actual knowledge of anyones life. In other words, having a gaydar means analyzing someone's quirks, mannerisms, tastes and habits as opposed to directly asking them about their sexuality. Good luck with that! In today's culture of metrosexuals and butch homosexuals, one would imagine one's gaydar would have to be especially finely tuned, if it were based solely on one's powers of observation. However, there are studies (scientific or not) that claim other senses besides visual might be involved in this kind of detection.
Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia (which, apparently ran out of things to do) published a study in the Journal of Psychological Science declaring that "gay men were found to be particularly good at detecting the scent of other gay men." (I think I know that scent: It's "Ten" cologne.) Another research by Rudolph Gaudio in 1994 showed that men's sexual orientation can be reliably identified from their voices, a so-called gay lisp, which is actually not a lisp at all but rather a set of stereotypical speech attributes assumed to belong to gay males. This finding was elaborated on by Ron Smyth and his colleagues in 2003. Whether this "lisp" stems from subculture affectation or simply a result of marginalization is unclear. Also unclear is whether Rudolph Gaudio and Ron Smyth shouldn't have had their grant research money taken away from them. Moving along, the October 2004 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (yep, theres a society for everything) published an article by J.B. Pierrehumbert, T. Bent, B. Munson, A.R. Bradlow and J.M. Bailey, entitled "The Influence of Sexual Orientation on Vowel Production." (Yes, guys, it took five people to write this puppy, and, I am betting, this is about how many read it.)
Whether gaydar is a fact or fiction, some people seem to make quite an interesting career of debating just that. William Lee Adams, a recent Harvard graduate (the school that clearly will take anybody these days) started his "gaydar" research in 2004 that focused on the face as the focal point of most social interactions. This was in continuation of the original study, published in 1999, by his advisor, Dr. Nalini Ambady, who is now at Tufts University (one assumes because Harvard kicked him out). His study claims that homosexuals are better at correctly identifying sexual orientation than heterosexuals -- a conclusion hes drawn by having gay people look at silent videos and photographs. (Seriously, folks, someone paid for that.)
Never to be outdone by scientists and theorists, Hollywood has gotten its fair value out of the notion. There is an episode of Futurama entitled "Love's Labours Lost in Space" that has a character with a functional gaydar antenna. The Daily Show segment on gay marriage in Massachusetts featured a fictional device called Homometer that provided feedback by emitting loud gay mannerisms. And the American version of The Office had an episode "Gay Witch Hunt" where Jim told Dwight that The Sharper Image store was selling gaydars, and later send him a modified metal detector. The detector was set off by Dwight's belt buckle, making him worry that he was gay.
So, folks, after hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of dollars in research, trips to The Sharper Image, hours spent trying to sniff that administrative assistant in Human Resources, and studying vowel production of that cute guy on the train, what have we learned? Personally, I think we are all much better off just asking.
Oil Can Harry's (Referenced by Keith when he tells Cyrus the places Mindy's gay companion visited on their trip.)
Oil Can Harry's Dance Club is a popular Southern California gay bar located on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. The club, which opened in 1968, features two bars, pool tables and a dance floor where country-western dancing is featured nightly. Although the country-western theme is the normal atmosphere, on Saturdays it's all about the retro as the DJ's spin disco from the 70's and 80's.
While there doesn't appear to be an Oil Can Harry's club in the Sacramento area, there used to be one in San Francisco, back when disco was at the height of its popularity. Also, in Austin, Texas, there can still be found an upscale gay men's nightclub called Oilcan Harry's. This club has been in business for more than fifteen years and was voted by CitySearch the Best Gay Bar in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
It would appear that the club's name was taken from the cartoon villain of the same name. Oil Can Harry first appeared in 1933 in The Banker's Daughter and a following series of cartoons about the adventures of Fanny Zilch. In 1945, the character -- originally a man -- was recreated as a cat for Mighty Mouse & the Pirates. Harry's final appearance was in 1953's When Mousehood Was in Flower.
GHB (Referenced by Parker as she tells Veronica the coasters will test for the drug.)
Acronym for Gamma hydroxy butyrate or Gamma hydroxybutyric acid, Sodium Oxybate. Trace amounts are found naturally in the human body. However, the main ingredients in synthetic GHB are basically degreasing solvent or floor stripper mixed with drain cleaner. The common nicknames are Gamma-OH, Liquid Ecstasy, Fantasy, Easy Lay and Cherry Meth. It is usually found in a clear liquid, which looks just like water and is packaged in a 30ml clear plastic bottle. It is also found infrequently as a white powder.
The common effects from use are intoxication, increased energy, happiness, desire to socialize, feeling affectionate and playful, mild disinhibition, enhanced sexual experience and loss of gag reflex. Many people have bad reactions including nausea, headaches, drowsiness and amnesia. The effects of large doses include sedation, desire to sleep, rambling incoherent speech, difficulty thinking, passing out and, in extreme cases, death.
Rohypnol (Referenced by Parker as she tells Veronica the coasters will test for the drug.)
Flunitrazepam -- marketed under the trade name Rohypnol -- is manufactured worldwide, particularly in Europe and Latin America. Its most common street name is roofie and it generally sells for below $5.00 per small white tablet. It is ten times more potent than valium and can be habit forming, one of the reasons that it is illegal to own in the US. Rohypnol is one of the drugs most commonly implicated in drug-facilitated rape and due to its high usage blue dye was added to it in 1999 so that it would no longer be clear in liquid. Common effects from usage are memory impairment, drowsiness, visual disturbances, dizziness, confusion, excitability or aggressive behavior and it can mentally and physically paralyze an individual. Effects of the drug are of particular concern in combination with alcohol and can lead to amnesia, where events that occurred during the time the drug was in effect are forgotten.
In response to Rohypnol abuse and use of the drug to facilitate sexual assaults, the U.S. Congress passed the Drug Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act, effective October 13, 1996. The law provides for harsher penalties regarding the distribution of a controlled substance to an individual without the individual's consent and with the intent to commit a crime of violence, including rape. The law imposes a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine for the importation and distribution of 1 gram or more of Rohypnol. Simple possession is punishable by 3 years in prison and a fine.
Bell Curve (Referenced by Landry while talking to his class about their "perfect murder" papers.)
A controversial, best-selling book by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve (1994) explores the role of intelligence in American life. The book was named for the bell-shaped normal distribution of IQ scores, and claims there has been the rise of a cognitive elite who have an higher than average chance of leading successful lives. Due to its discussion of race and intelligence the book became widely read and debated by the public, with large numbers of those in both the mainstream media and scientific community rallying to support and criticize it; a few critics denounced the book as well as its authors for supporting scientific racism.
The Bell Curve is divided into four sections as follows:
- Part I argues that since the beginning of the 20th Century, social stratification on the basis of intelligence has been on the rise.
- Part II includes original research that shows relationships between intelligence and numerous social and economic outcomes.
- Part III is by far the most controversial and it examines what role a persons IQ plays in contributing to social and economic differences between different ethnic groups.
- Part IV discusses the repercussions of the findings as far as education and social policy America.
Starsky and Hutch was a television series that aired ninety episodes on ABC from 1975 - 1979. The show was about two California police detectives, fighting crime as partners and friends with different sensibilities. David Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) was the streetwise, laid-back half of the duo, while Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson (David Soul) was the reserved, serious partner. Driving around in Starsky's red Ford Gran Torino, sporting two large white stripes and known as the 'Striped Tomato,' the detectives fought crime as co-workers and close friends. The cast of characters included their street informant, Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas) and their boss, Captain Dobey (Bernie Hamilton).
David Soul (as Hutch) and Paul
Michael Glaser (as Starsky)
In 2004, the series was turned into a feature film action-comedy, spoofing the series and its 1970's style. The movie switched up the title characters' personalities, possibly due to the casting of the roles. Now, Starsky (Ben Stiller) was the serious one, while Hutch (Owen Wilson) was more laid-back. The plot involves Starsky and Hutch's first team-up, as they go after drug lord Reese Feldman (Vince Vaughn), with some help from series favorite Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg). Both David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser make cameo appearances in the film.
2004's Starsky (Ben Stiller) and Hutch (Owen Wilson); Stiller, Soul, Glaser and Wilson pose on the set.
Cagney and Lacey (Pasty) (Referenced by Veronica snarking to Tim about them teaming up on the investigation.)
Cagney & Lacey was a television series that aired in the U.S. on CBS for six seasons from 1982 to 1988. The series starred Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly as New York City police detectives. The premise of the show teamed up the two women as members of the police force who led very different lives. Christine Cagney (played by Gless) was a single career-minded woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (played by Daly) was a married working mother.
The show covered story lines both simple (the birth of Lacey's third child), and dramatic (Cagney's experience as a victim of date rape -- which makes this reference rather apropos in an episode wherein a serial rapist is brought to justice). Cagney & Lacey was also no stranger to controversy. In 1985, there was an episode about the bombing of an abortion clinic which several CBS affiliates refused to air. Perhaps the most shocking and controversial was 1987's explosive episode, "The City is Burning," based on the December 1986 racial incident in Queens, New York's Howard Beach neighborhood.
In 1983, the series was actually canceled by CBS, but was subsequently brought back to the network's schedule after fans of the show organized a major letter-writing campaign. (Veronica Mars fans take note of that detail!) TV Guide celebrated the show's return with the cover reading "Welcome Back." The show went on to earn an impressive thirty-six Emmy nominations and fourteen wins during its run, including six nominations for stars Daly (four wins) and Gless (two wins). CW execs, take note of that detail. Having faith in a show this great will pay off in the end -- you've just got to be patient!
Take Back the Night (Referenced by Moe when he tells Veronica he's scheduled to drive the cart during the Pi Sig party.)
'Take Back the Night' rallies and marches are organized events intended to bring community awareness to rape and other violent crimes committed against women. These events originated in Europe in the 1970's. The first march was organized in Belgium by the women attending the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women. The first march in the United States was held in San Francisco in 1977 by Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM). Thousands of women marched through San Francisco's red-light district protesting the subordinate portrayal of women in pornography.
Today, 'Take Back the Night' rallies take place anywhere from small college campuses to major metropolitan areas; some events are even organized internationally. An event usually begins with a rally, then a candlelit march at night to show that women should not have to fear walking through the streets alone at night. 'Take Back the Night' can refer to violence against men and children, as well, but the term generally holds a connotation of being a feminist movement. In fact, men are often symbolically excluded from participating in events.
Apocalypse (Referenced by Mac describing the impending Pi Sig party to Veronica.)
- Mac: Are you freaking kidding me? The Pi Sig mega apocalypse?
The word Apocalypse (Greek. Apokalypsis, literally: the lifting of the veil) applied to the term meaning disclosure of something hidden from the masses to the chosen prophets. It referred to prophetic writings by Jews and early Christians from around 200 B.C. which spoke of divine revelations. In those early Jewish writings the term was used in parabolic way to depict the end of the future state of the world. Literally, however, the term refers to the unveiling of God as Messiah and not necessarily to the destruction of all world that will be the result of Gods Revelation of Himself to Humanity.
So far so good. But the Apocalypse that gets all the credit is the last book of the New Testament called the Revelation of St. John the Divine or the Book of Revelation (from the direct translation from the original Greek title (A
The Book of Revelations sets the standard for the modern interpretation of the word Apocalypse. The current Western meaning is derived from the phrase apokalupsis eschaton (apocalyptic eschatology), that means "revelation of the knowledge of the end of time." The signs of the apocalypse differ according to specific religions, but you might want to watch out for the following:
- Fire
- Floods
- Pestilence (i.e., plague)
- Wars
- Rumors of wars
- Strange lights in the skies
- The Second Coming (of whomever you are expecting)
- A virgin birth
- The birth of the Antichrist
- An advent of false Christs and/or Messiahs
- Cloning
- Identifying marks being placed on the population at large
- Famine
- Earthquakes
- The Rapture
And, apparently, - A 50-keg bacchanalia at the Pi Sig.
The Rapture? Well, whatever this is, it's definitely
some kind of a sign of the impending Apocalypse
In other words, if you see a few hundred drunken teenagers humping the furniture, run like the wind to the nearest church!
And if you are not yet suitably afraid, here's a bizarre coincidence for you: The first verse of the King James Version of the Bible, Revelation chapter six reads: "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see." Frightening, isn't it? Any day now our good Sheriff just may serve a purpose. And the purpose will be to announce the end!
Stone Age (Referenced by Mac describing the impending Pi Sig party to Veronica.)
The Stone Age refers to an immense period of time that boasts the first widespread use of technology and the spread of humanity from East Africa to the rest of the world. The Mesolithic Period, or the Middle Stone Age, dates back about 6,000 - 10,000 years ago, and the Neolithic Period, or the New Stone Age, began in about 8,000 BCE. This time span marks the development of agriculture and the domestication of certain animals. It is part of the prehistoric time, or the time before written word.
The slang use of the phrase is typically used to describe a relatively primitive condition, a misnomer likely fostered by the classic cartoon, The Flintstones. The cartoon depicted a family in the Stone Ages whose primitive technology included television sets made of hollowed out stones, cars with stone wheels powered by the occupants' feet, and a wooly mammoth's trunk serving as a water hose.
Bacchanalia (Referenced by Mac describing the impending Pi Sig party to Veronica.)
The Bacchanalia were pagan mystic festivals dedicated to the Roman god Bacchus. Also known to Greeks as Dionysius, Bacchus, the god of wine, represents not only intoxicating power, but its social and beneficial influences (as any semi-educated Pi Sig will tell you as he pours beer out of the keg). He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a provider of law, and lover of peace -- as well as the patron of agriculture and the theater. He was also known as the Liberator.
Kids, never ever get this drunk!
The tradition of festivals dedicated to this fine deity was brought to Ancient Rome from lower Italy c. 200 BC. Originally, the bacchanalia were held secretly on March 16 and 17 in the grove of Simila near Avenitne Hilland, and the only participants were women. Later men were admitted, and the festivals took place five times a month. (Yep, folks, that's how addictions normally progress). The tradition grew into the full-blown cult that had spread rapidly, gathered power and made the local authorities uneasy (as cults tend to do, perhaps for a reason).
All of that led to a decree of the Senate in 186 BC prohibiting Bacchanalia throughout Italy except in special cases specifically approved by the Senate (kind of like the drunken Washington, D.C., political gatherings of today, for which people anywhere else would be arrested). The decree, called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus (sounds official), was inscribed in bronze tabled discovered in Apulia in Southern Italy in 1640 and currently displayed at the Kunsthistorishes Museum in Vienna.
The reasons for the decree were political rather than moral. Women occupied leadership positions in the cult, which went against the traditional Roman family values (wow, will the parallels to the current political climate never cease?). Slaves and the poor were the cult's members and, it was assumed, planned to overthrow the government (drinking excessively helps with such planning, I'm told). And the decree itself was an impressive show of the Senate's supreme power at the time when the Senate could use such a display, because certain victorious generals gained popularity and threatened the collective authority in the political arena.
However, all that is ancient history (literally). The modern term bacchanalia has ceased all of its political meaning (unless you are Nish and politicize drunken college traditions), and now refers to basically any kind of a drunken party. In fact, many schools in the United States and abroad hold Bacchanalias on an annual basis. Rice University holds its revelry at Brown College where people dressed in togas engage in various forms of debauchery. Our flagship of higher education -- Harvard University -- holds theirs at the Lowell House. The gathering serves as the Spring Formal, and by "formal" they mean that the drunk-off-his-ass frat boy dressed as Bacchus arrives wearing his toga tied in a fancy, classy way. Not to be outdone, the traditionally liberal and progressive Sarah Lawrence College celebrates the end of conference work and school year with a Bacchanalia of its own. Ironically, the authority that throws the shindig is called Sarah Lawrence College Student Senate (as the ancient Romans roll in their graves). Live music is played outdoors and free booze is served. (Gotta love progressive schools!).
Not paying any heed to history (and why would a fraternity be interested in history, really?), the Epsilon Xi chapter of Sigma Nu at the University of Mississippi throws its Bacchanalia as an annual spring male-only party (and they will punch you if you call this gay). The massive festivities include live music, assigned costumes (no, not gay at all), and various sexual rituals (okay, that is totally gay!).
Old School and New School (and check your gay jokes at the door!)
"Resistance is futile." / The Borg / Star Trek: The Next Generation (Referenced by Mac's reaction to Veronica begging for her help.)
The Borg are a fictional race of cyborgs (cybernetic organisms) introduced on the science fiction television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Borgs are in relentless pursuit of colonies for assimilation and are rapidly adaptable to almost any defense. They are not destroyers, but they wish to "improve the quality of life for all species" by integrating organis and synthetic devices to perfect organisms. If I'm understanding this correctly (please don't shoot me, Trekkies *), during the assimilation process, they will both collect any useful knowledge from the species or organism, and then use their collected knowledge to perfect the being, either by implanting chips directly into the brain, or attaching other devices such as tool-enhanced limbs, armor, and other prosthetics. In Star Trek: First Contact, the method for assimilation was adapted to the injection of nanoprobes directly into the bloodstream.
The Borg were given much more screentime in the fourth installment of the Star Trek universe, Voyager, when in the fourth season a regular cast member was introduced: A former Borg drone (as the millions of cyborgs were called) was erm, de-assimilated, into humanity and the three remaining seasons of the series dealt heavily with the Borg presence.
Captain Picard being injected with nanoprobes in ST:FC.
The calling card or catchphrase of the Borg is "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." Another variation, taken from Star Trek: First Contact is as follows:
- "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
* From a semi-Trekkie (although the preferred nomenclature is now "Trekker" -- to which I say, "Whatever! I like Trekkie!"), yeah, pretty much, you got it. The goal of the Borg is ultimate perfection and assimilating other species and taking the good, discarding the bad helps that goal.
Petri Dishes (Referenced by Veronica's description of Dick and Bonnie at the party.)
A flat, shallow, cylindrical dish made of plastic or glass used mostly to grow bacteria is called "Petri" after its inventor, the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri (1852-1921).
They serve as agar plates, sterile Petri dishes that contain agar plus nutrients (media), used to culture microorganisms. Other uses include growing cells that are animal, plant, or fungus, observing seed germination, or even small animal behavior, or multitude of other day-to-day laboratory practices such as drying fluids and carrying and storing samples. Petri dishes fit under a dissection scope (stereomicroscope) and are used as viewing platforms. Modern Petri dishes often have rings on the lids and bases, which stop them from sliding when stacked. Multiple dishes can be incorporated into "multi-well plate" plastic containers.
Small animal behavior?
Yep, I am with Veronica. I look at those two and see a multi-well plate full of bacteria. Use protection, guys, lots and lots of protection!
STD (Referenced by the party guy commenting on Mac's t-shirt.)
Sexually transmitted diseases or their more commonly known acronym, STDs are diseases or infections that are transmitted between humans by means of sexual contact. The name venereal disease was a derivation of the name Venus, the Roman goddess of love, but more recently, public health officials introduced the term sexually transmitted disease in efforts to improve the clarity of their warnings to the public.
The term STD refers only to infections that are causing symptoms or problems while the term STI is more appropriate for the general infections, as some people are unaware of infection until they start showing symptoms of the disease. In general, an STI is an infection that has a negligible probability of transmission by means other than sexual contact, though they can also be transmitted through more sophisticated means like blood transfusions or sharing of hypodermic needles.
Crme Brle (Referenced by Landry when he tells Mindy he's ordered some from room service.)
So delicious! Crme brle is a popular dessert with a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel which is usually created by burning sugar with a kitchen blow torch. The origins of crme brle are much debated, with the English, French and Spanish all taking claim for its invention. Since the eighteenth century the Spanish have taken credit for the custard as :crema catalana," while the English claim it originated in seventeenth century Britain where it was known as "burnt cream." It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that the French translation came into common usage, putting the dessert on the map from Paris to New York, and its wide recognition today seems to give the French the credit for the invention of crme brle.
Below is a recipe for this most amazing of desserts. Straightforward and unpretentious, if you've never tried crme brle do yourself a favor and try making it at home. You won't be disappointed.
Classic Crme Brle
- 8 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup granulated white sugar (for the caramelized tops)
Preheat oven to 300F. In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Add cream and vanilla, and continue to whisk until well blended. Strain into a large bowl, skimming off any foam or bubbles.
Divide mixture among 6 ramekins or custard cups. Place ramekins in a water bath (large pan filled with 1 or 2 inches of hot water) and bake until set around the edges, but still loose in the center, about 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from oven and leave in the water bath until cooled. Remove cups from water bath and chill for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days. When ready to serve, sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of sugar over each custard. For best results, use a small, hand-held torch to melt sugar. If you don't have a torch, place under the broiler until sugar melts. Re-chill custards for a few minutes before serving.
Serves 6
- Mindy: You know, maybe someday we'll have sex and you won't be stoned. I swear I'm having an affair with Annie Hall.
This is what she is alluding to:
- Alvy: I don't know why you have to get high every time we make love.
Annie: It relaxes me.
Alvy: You have to be artificially relaxed before we can go to bed?
Annie: Well, what's the difference anyway?
Alvy: Well, I'll give you a shot of sodium pentothal. You can sleep through it.
Annie: Oh come on. Look who's talking. You've been seeing a psychiatrist for 15 years. You should smoke some of this. You'd be off the couch in no time.
It's difficult to say whether professor Landry is frigid unless he takes drugs before sex, but Annie Hall clearly was, and Landry's need to indulge is what opens him up to such as suspicion on Mindy O'Dell's part. And it figures this would be the one lesson she carried from the movie being refenced, Annie Hall, Woody Allen's 1977 Academy Award-winning film and arguably his finest work. Co-written by Allen and Marshall Brickman, the film is a non-linear narrative of the one-year romance between the titular character and the protagonist played by Woody Allen himself. Alvy and Annie Hall, an aspiring singer with unconventional fashion sense (which inspired a trend after the movie came out), start a relationship that is doomed to failure due to their fundamental lack of understanding of each other. She is slightly ditzy, but sparkly, presenting an exuberant love of life. He is elitist, disillusioned and fatalistic.
The script bears some striking similarities to Allen's life at the time (similarities, which he vehemently denied). His previous relationship with the movie's star Diane Keaton (whose real name is Diane Hall) is but one of them. The fact that Allen plays the character named Alvy Singer, who is a neurotic, Jewish, Brooklyn-born New York City comedian obsessed with death and utterly incapable of sustaining a functional relationship is another indication. For all his denial, it's hard not to see the parallels. The character hates teachers, his former schoolmates, California, television, successful men, and pseudo intellectuals. Grammy Hall, Annie's grandmother in the film, is based on the real Grammy Hall, Diane Keaton's grandmother whom Woody met at a Thanksgiving dinner much like the one featured in the movie. Alvy's attempt to "educate" Annie and even put her into psychoanalysis mirrors the same attempt by Woody Allen to "improve" Diane Keaton when they first met. There's so much of Allen in his character, the situation, the movie, and the dialogue, that it's futile for him to deny the film isn't at least partially autobiographical.
The film included many of Allen's usual trademarks: exploring the subjects of anti-Semitism, neurosis, sexual hang-ups, mocking of his own appearance an personality, drugs, death, romantic woes, distorted memories of childhood and his introspective pessimism. The tone of the film, despite its irreverence, slapstick humor and a stream of one-liners, is surprisingly tender and sensitive. When all is said and done, it's a tour de force of an urban romantic comedy, and one of the most loved of Allen's works. Annie Hall is a technically brilliant meshing of styles, spit screen shots, characters addressing the audience directly by talking to the camera, fantasy-like flashbacks and dream sequences. All of which reinforce the major theme of the film: that there are insurmountable limitations to life, such as death and loss, but that art forms have the power to reshape reality and compensate for those limitations by giving the artist some control.
Fun fact: While trying to come up with the title for the film, Allen's co-author Marshall Brickman offered up such gems as It Had to Be Jew and Me and My Goy. Woody Allen's suggestion was Anhedonia, which apparently means inability to enjoy pleasure, the opposite of hedonism. As appropriate as this title would have been, I can imagine it would have gotten quite a few blank stares. In the end Annie Hall -- a far less imaginative, but much more reasonable -- title was settled upon.
The movie ends with Alvy telling a joke about a man who complains to a psychiatrist that his brother thinks he's a chicken. "Well, why don't you turn him in?" says the doctor. The man replies, "I would, but I need the eggs." This sums up Alvy's take on relationships: We suffer them because we all "need the eggs." And somewhere Logan is nodding his head in agreement.
Chicks on Speed (Referenced by the Club Flush caller request at the party.)
Formed in Munich, Germany in 1997, Chicks on Speed (CoS) are a female electropop group whose core members include Alex Murray-Leslie, Melissa Logan, and Kiki Moorse. The women were all students at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich when they met at one of the Academy's bars and formed the group. Though they are usually considered part of the musical genre of electroclash, CoS began as a multidisciplinary art group creating exhibitions, applying a punk inspired do-it-yourself ethic to performance art, collage graphics and home-made fashion; they've been creating their own stage costumes with cheap and recycled material such as plastic bags and gaffer's tape since they formed.
CoS are surrounded by a large and ever-changing collective of musicians, producers, designers, film and video makers and graphic artists. CoS got their name while earning some extra money at an art gallery hanging paintings on the walls, and someone quipped that they worked like "chicks on speed." With their own club nights at Munich's Seppi Bar, CoS created an installation piece entitled "I Wanna Be a DJ, Baby," in which they stood behind DJ decks and smashed records while a sound collage tape played. It was at this point that CoS was considered a "fake band"with mock T-shirts, records and cassettes. During this time, CoS met Upstart from the Disko B record label who helped Chicks on Speed get their start in the music industry.
Unicorns (Referenced by Veronicas choice in rape-deterring weapon chosen from the cornucopia of unicorn memorabilia in Mercers victims room.)
The unicorn is a legendary creature usually depicted with the body of a horse, but with a single -- usually spiral -- horn growing out of its forehead. In fact, the name "unicorn" is derived from the Latin word for horn, cornus. The unicorn is a mystical creature who's blood and horn supposedly have magical healing properties.
Unicorns: pretty but deadly. Or at least painful.
Though the modern popular image of the unicorn is sometimes that of a horse differing only in the horn, the traditional unicorn is actually way, way less pretty. It has a billy-goat beard, a lion's tail and cloven hooves, which distinguish him from a horse. Less My Pretty Pony, more hell-beasty. Despite their unconventional appearance, unicorns have been described as "the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful." Almost like Logan! Except I would never call him solitary. Fierce yet good? Check. Selfless? Check. Mysteriously beautiful? DOUBLE check.
Logan: Also pretty but even deadlier. Or at least way, way, WAY more painful.
Particularly where Mercer's concerned.
In medieval lore, the alicorn, the spiraled horn of the unicorn, is said to be able to heal and neutralize poisons. The unicorn is also generally a symbol of innocence. It is said that the unicorn can only be tamed or ridden by a virgin woman. So using the protruding horn of a creature of innocence to stab an evildoer who rejoices in stealing innocence by the use of his, um, horny protrusion, is rather poetic. Dont you think?
Cougar (Referenced by Mercer's obnoxious reply to how his leg was injured.)
Also called the puma, a cougar or mountain lion is a large cat found in the Americas. They primarily feed on deer, but will eat anything from insects, mice, rabbits, domestic cats and dogs, alpaca (!!), sheep and elk. Adult cougars can weigh anywhere from one hundred and eighty to two hundred pounds and can run as quickly as 43.5 miles per hour. They have a lifespan of about ten years in the wild and twenty-five years in captivity.
Cougars were hunted nearly to extinction with an estimated thirty thousand hunted for sport between 1996 and 2006. Hunting of the animal is still allowed in most states, but is illegal in California, where the cougar population is estimated to be around four to six thousand. Cougars are territorial, private animals, and they will generally avoid fighting, but there are some records of attacks on people and domestic pets in urban areas. These attacks are for the most part limited to areas where the traditional pray of the cougar, the mule deer, habituates in urban areas. There were about one hundred attacks with sixteen fatalities between 1890 and 2004 (in the US and Canada) and California, with the highest cougar population, has had fourteen attacks, six of which were fatal.
Go, get 'em, Cougar.
Some puma safety tips, which could have been useful to Mercer had his story not been a complete crock:
- Don't run, but stand and face the animal without making eye contact. They will chase you, and you probably can't run 43.5 mph.
- Don't play dead. They are finicky eaters who generally catch and kill their prey, but they're not above eating you if you're just going to lie there.
- Try to appear larger, intimidating, flail your arms, throw rocks, etc. Fight back if attacked.
- And safety rule number one? Don't keep cougars as pets!
- While Veronica is banging on Wallace and Piz's door screaming for help, we can read one of Piz's messages on the white board: "Pizzer, I've got a great interview for you!!" Hahaha. Like they needed to encourage us to make a mockery of his name.
- Logan and Dick slapping at and laughing with each other like the old days. Good to see they do still talk to each other because they haven't had a scene together since Welcome Wagon.
- Dick and Mercer being blown off in similar ways because Logan and Veronica are distracted by each other. Hee.
- The music used during the break-up scene is the same music used in Hot Dogs during their hook-up in the "Movin' on" scene, and also when Veronica broke up with Logan in Normal is the Watchword. (On a non-LoVe note, it was also used during the reveal of Veronica's true paternity in Leave it to Beaver.)
- Veronica tugging on Logan's lapels like she did in M.A.D. Ah. Good times.
- It's official. Logan is way better at break up speeches even though he's had no practice, and Veronica has way more dignity in accepting it even though she's had no practice. They should never trade places again, the other way leads to badness.
- Logan's face when he said he was there if she needed anything, tenderly kissed her forehead, and then cracked over the line 'but you never need anything.' Ooouuuucch. *sniffle* And a nice reminder of Leave it to Beaver when he kissed her forehead so intensely and let her go do her thing ...
- Tune in this week when Veronica Mars gets her very own Smoking Man. And this guy's got a cigar. He'd so bad.
- Veronica staring into her spaghetti as Mac and Wallace stare at her with "that's not normal" frowns on their faces. Aww, poor heartbroken and distracted Veronica.
- After Veronica says she's fine, Mac and Wallace trip over each other agreeing. Wallace's exact words are: "No one said you weren't. You're Veronica Mars."
- Veronica's exasperated head tilt when Piz appeared in the food line. It was very: "I don't have the patience for this today." Hee.
- Dean O'Dell sipping coffee from a "Life Ain't Fair," mug while visiting Mars Investigations. Considering his violent and untimely demise at the end of the episode, that quote deserves a big, fat WORD.
- Keith saying, "I'm sorry to hear that" when Veronica says she broke up with Logan. That's a long way from booting him out the door and ordering him not to come back. And after he kissed her forehead (same thing Logan does, hee), he was really frowning about it. Looks like that one took Keith by surprise too, Veronica.
- Veronica's shower breakdown. Way to sell it, KB, and for some reason the odd way her hair was shaped because of the bobby pins only made me like the scene more; it just made her look more messed up.
- The amusingly shocked expression on Veronica's face when she learns that Tim Foyle has a girlfriend.
- Veronica's girly hair cut after getting dumped by Logan. Her "girl" moments are so random but strangely fulfilling.
- Parker and Veronica had the same nail polish on when Parker gave Veronica a whistle. Is that meant to highlight their damaged perspective in a really superficial way?
- Piz's confused, not-sure-what-just-happened look and Wallace's all-too-knowing head shake after they've just been roped into helping Veronica at the party. Hee. I just love how Wallace reacts to these situations.
- Cyrus O'Dell's face as Keith details his wife's betrayal. He looked like such a lost puppy -- I really felt sorry for him. His hands shaking as he picked up the paper? Finally an actor who knows how to make you hurt in an adultery case! If Keith's own affair hadn't made him feel guilty before, I bet he feels like a real tool now. Especially since O'Dell said to him: "Is there no honor left in the world?" Ouch.
- Dean O'Dell's visibly shaky hands when he picks up the paper upon which the dates of his wife's trysts with Landry were displayed. Such a powerful, yet understated way of showing how considerably affected the Dean was by his wife's infidelity.
- Moe's practically giddy expression of "wow, a girl actually gave me her number," after Veronica programs her phone number into his cell. Oh, Moe. Say it ain't so!
- Veronica and Wallace's exchange: "It's your life!" / "Since when?" Nice callback to when Wallace told her that this is her world and he just lives in it (Blast from the Past).
- Okay. Veronica making fake I.D.s for everyone? She can no longer be indignant about that time she was framed in Clash of the Tritons. Although, in fairness, she was mostly upset because the shoddy craftsmanship insulted her skills.
- It was a bit late to bring back the guy Veronica threw a glass of beer at in The Rapes of Graff, but nice continuity anyway.
- The look Piz threw Mac when she purchased a soda cup rather than a beer cup. Hee. I'm still on the Piz/Mac bandwagon I've been riding since Welcome Wagon and that look was perfect.
- While Veronica gives 'Bambi,' the girl Chip was flirting with, a 'tip' that he could be planning to rape her, there's a sign on the wall reading: "Your Tips Could Take You Far." Hee.
- The look on the face of the girl Chip was flirting with after Veronica left. I don't think Chip was in like Flynn in this instance. Hee.
- The Pi Sigma Sigma letters on the stage are made out of beer cans
I wonder how many people went to hospital with alcohol toxicity making that thing.- Mac's shirt: "Ask me about my STD." Not sure Cassidy would find that funny.
- Tina rocked that eyebrow raise when that guy was hitting on Mac. I loved her in this episode. And pouring out the drink he gave her? Haha.
- Piz and Wallace being blamed by Fern for letting "their friend" pass out on the floor. Is it wrong that I was amused by this feminist assumption? Girlfriends are more likely the culprit unfortunately, sad but true.
- Moe asking for help to lift the girl while Fern easily throws her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Hee.
- The way the party sounds fade away to soft, pained piano notes and then nothing at all as Veronica meets Logan's eyes. Then it's all about the eyesex. Beautiful and oh so surprisingly from Rob Thomas.
- Piz doesn't even look at Logan when they rush over to Veronica at the party, not even when Logan asks a question in response to his comment about finding a positive. Nicely played by Chris Lowell, dammit.
- When Veronica notices that Mercer's radio show isn't recorded live at the Pi Sig party, he's introducing the same song that started playing as Veronica exited Parker's room while she was being raped. Deja vu.
- Mercer was listening to his own radio show when he raped Parker and was playing it again when he was getting ready to rape Carrie. That's just disturbing on far too many levels.
- The look on Veronica's face when she scratched Mercer. "I learned this in Pep Squad, Bitch." And Mercer's reponse ("That's my face, bitch!") was pretty girly too, though the punch -- not so much.
- After Veronica scratches Mercer's face and he's looking in the mirror, in the reflection you can see both Veronica crawling under the bed and Carrie still slumped in the closet. Nice shot, Rob.
- As Mercer goes to grab Veronica from under the bed, the reflection of the mirror shows the dosed girl lying unconscious and oblivious in the closet. It's another great shot.
-Wow. Mercer really screamed like a girl. Looks like the unicorn won.
- Now we know why Veronica likes unicorns -- they're good for impaling slimy perverts. Really nice imagery actually considering unicorns are associated with virginity.
- As Veronica's running towards the stairs to put some distance between herself and Mercer, she passes by a "Self Defense" sign on the wall. The sign's been seen there before, but seeing it while she's actually in the midst of defending herself was eye-catching.
- After Moe pretends to call the police for Veronica, you can see him setting his cell phone on his desk. Quite convenient and fortunate for Veronica who's without hers.
- When Moe leaves Veronica in his room, you can hear the click of him locking the door. Great attention to detail there.
- The musical score when Veronica sees the photo of Mercer and Moe and the moments following is pretty unlike any other piece of score that we've heard on this show. It's actually really, really cool and effective.
- So Patty Hearst's guest-star presence in Of Vice and Men not just stunt casting, but perhaps a subtle clue about Moe (i.e. Stockholm syndrome)?
- The look on Veronica's face as Parker's hair starts to fall on her. Eek.
- Parker screaming 'RAPE!' in Mercer's face. Love her.
- Both Parker's faith and Veronica's lack of faith in people were "proven" right in this episode. People did come running when Parker yelled "rape," yet the Sheriff's department just twiddled their thumbs when Veronica called in the bomb threat.
- Mercer calling Veronica a 'pet cougar.' I'm sure Logan would find that description appropriate and might even chuckle over it while he's kicking Mercer's ass through the jail bars.
- Tragically, the Dean never got to drink that bottle of Glen Cracken. (Or did he?)
- Mac's fixation on Veronica's love life at the end of the episode, all she wanted to know was if Logan had been by. Awww.
- The hilarious shot of Logan looking at the cops in the diner and then turning ever-so-gracefully to start smashing their cruiser's windshield. Hee. See, Veronica? Whenever he bashes a car it's because he loves you.
- The look on Logan's FACE when they let him in Mercer's cell, he was just fixated on Mercer and I don't think I've ever seen him want someone in pain so badly. Gah, the FAAAAAACE.
- When Dick drops his drawers, Veronica looks away in disgust. Logan? Keeps on a'looking ... with a grin on his face no less. Uh huh.
- Why would Veronica knock on Piz and Wallace's door considering she knows that Wallace accompanied Logan to Kim Kaiser's apartment and that Piz was keeping watch at the Pi Sig party with Mac?
- A bunch of crazy feminists singing "Na Na hey hey (Goodbye)" right before Logan breaks up with Veronica. Is this a subliminal na-na from Rob Thomas to certain fans?
- Why was Claire on the parade float? Wasn't she expelled?
- Was the Smoking Man just a member of the alumni, or were his inferences about "generosity" concerning more than just college donations? Does he have something to do with O'Dell's gambling problem for instance?
- Why does Piz take his headphones off after saying he's going to the phones and accepting one of the blinking calls?
- Are the feminists crazy (surely a rhetorical question by now)? How could they think they would get away with egging the Dean's car without getting expelled? Do they care about their educations? Or is this meant to make us think they had a hand in his death?
- I know that Veronica told Parker she all of a sudden had a lot of free time and needed a project because she was trying to distract herself but ... since when has Logan occupied a lot of her time? He was never her top priority so it was an odd thing to say since she's been avoiding him the last two episodes.
- Will the perfect murder papers have any role in the next mystery arc and the way O'Dell was killed?
- Why is Tim suddenly nice enough to let Veronica fix a couple of errors in her paper before he posted it online? Or was that all staged so he could introduce Veronica to Bonnie? Or was that completely contrived so the writers could find out Bonnie was his girlfriend?
- Since Piz had to think about whether or not he was the one who'd been leaving a surprise in the third stall every morning, is it too much to hope that he has a terminal disease?
- Was Piz told that Veronica broke up with Logan? After all that smug smiling during Of Men And Vice it seems odd that he showed no indication of knowing that Logan had cleared the way for him to make a move on Veronica. Or maybe Rob knows better than his writers that that sort of behavior won't endear him to us.
- Does the fact that Piz has to ask "stage left or stage right" mean that he, in fact, doesn't flush? Great. Another "endearing" quirk. Way to sell us on the character, Rob!
- I know she doesn't consider him good "muscle," but why didn't Veronica ask Piz to go with her after Mercer? Did she think she could overpower Mercer alone? I know he's a metrosexual but ... come on. Or did she not want to leave Mac by herself? Or did Piz just wander off after he escorted her to the stage? Even though that last one seems to defeat the purpose of rushing toward the stage with her. I wish they'd mentioned why Piz had abandoned her, not that I wanted him to be her white knight or anything ...
- Seriously, what's with the black nail polish? First Parker and Veronica then the Dean's wife?? The last one is especially strange since I don't really think of it as a society color.
- Did Professor Landry want to get caught by the Dean? He didn't start or seem shocked when his mistress opened the door to reveal her husband, only stiffening up slightly as he walked in. Odd.
- Why didn't Veronica run to Parker's room rather than Wallace's? Parker would have been much closer considering that's the girls floor and she didn't think Parker was at the party.
- How on earth did Parker hear that whistle? Does she have dog ears? She was at least one floor away, through all those doors and Veronica only blew the whistle once so it's not like she could listen really hard and follow it ... does Parker see dead people too?
- Moe has a dream catcher on his wall. Is that to keep the bad memories away while he sleeps?
- Where the hell was the police? Why on Earth did no one take the newspaper to the Sheriff's office? No one though of that? Really? Not Keith, as he listened to the Dean read the ad to him, not Veronica, not any of the previous victims? Huh.
- The coasters? That's it? That's the magic protection? That's all the Dean would do in this situation to safeguard the students? And even that had to be brought to him by a freshman girl?
- What was up with the shaving of the heads? At first I thought it was Moe doing it, not Mercer, as a sick souvenir gathering thing. Veronica found some hair in Moe's closet. But no, it was Mercer wielding the clippers. Why? His (lame) monologue revealed that the rapes weren't about his social ineptitude or inability to get laid in a conventional way, but rather about his distaste for small talk (classy!). So, how does the head shaving fit in?
- Is dismantling the Greek system all the feminazis care about? Don't they want to graduate? How come none of them are concerned that attacking the Dean in his car and his office may (and probably would have) result in expulsion?
- On second thought ... were the eggs being thrown at the Dean's window from the feminists? Or someone trying to set them up for his murder?
- What was Veronica's plan? Catch the rapist in the act? Wouldn't it have been smarter to call in an actual rape?
- On that note, why did Veronica go with an elaborate set up that put her at a disadvantage, when help is so close by and so easily attained?
- How come Chip is so chipper so soon after being victimized? And is all forgotten between him and his "brothers?" Were "Peter Cottontail" and the cafeteria fight all part of the tough, brotherly love to be filed away and forgiven within a week?
- Who put that ad in the paper? Was it Mercer bragging? Was it Moe, secretly trying to end the vicious cycle? Or was it, indeed, Nish, trying to dissuade the girls from going?
- Are cops really allowed to ignore a bomb threat? Even if they are almost certain it's a hoax? Can they really afford to take a chance of being wrong on something like that?
- Are that many of the Hearst female students stupid, naive, or oblivious? There's an ad in the student paper threatening rape. There is a rash of rapes on campus. Are they that desperate for a party and a drink that they are willing to risk it?
- If Mercer intentionally raped girls on the nights when he was supposed to be working at the radio station, why didn't he come forward with that as an alibi when he was arrested in Of Vice and Men? He no longer has the excuse of simply forgetting what he was doing those nights -- he was raping the girls and he already had a false alibi at the ready. Why did choose to wait in jail until Veronica figured it out, not knowing if she even would figure it out?
- Who chose to attack Veronica ... Mercer or Moe? Moe knew about her investigating, but I can't see him suggesting the personal attack. If Mercer, why would he even think to go after Veronica? How did he even know she was looking for the rapist? Did Mercer know her from last season (The Rapes of Graff) and that's why he became friends with Logan -- to get information?
- How did Mercer manage to hide the physical evidence from every other rape since he didn't seem to be very careful or particularly prepared when he was about to attack "Carrie Kaiser?"
- Shouldn't Professor Landry, being a Criminology professor, be a little bit more interested in investigating such a major case as the Hearst rapes instead of getting high and boinking the Dean's wife?
- Since Moe and Mercer's criminal partnership was partially a product of the Prison Experiment, will Hearst continue to run the study?
- So, are we supposed to assume that the Dean visiting his wife and Professor Landry was simply an alcohol-soaked dream or did it actually occur?
- Was Moe becoming an RA in any way related to his involvement in the rapes, given the access to dorm rooms and trustworthy guise that being a RA provides?
- Did Moe use his gig at the Safe Ride cart to scope out potential victims for Mercer?
- Why in the world would any law enforcement official place two alleged rape conspirators together in a jail cell, giving them ample opportunity to get their stories straight?
- So, who exactly did Logan bribe to get placed in a cell with both Mercer and Moe?
- Did the fire that Mercer started in the Mexican motel room really go down the way he explained it to Logan or could he have attacked the women and used the fire to cover his tracks?
- Was there a point to Tim Foyle's over-the-top outburst at Bonnie during the Pi Sig party besides producing a last minute red herring in the rape mystery?
- Didn't Veronica think it was slightly suspicious when Moe locked her inside his dorm room when he went to "help" Carrie Kaiser?
- Considering Mercer is being accused of rape while bleeding profusely from his leg with visible scratch marks
on his face, the guys in the hallway didn't think it was perhaps prudent to attempt to detain him?
- Will Veronica find out about Logan's little visit with Moe and Mercer? And if so, how will she react?
- Will Lamb ever get to read Veronica's perfect murder paper? Oh, pretty please, can he?
- Did Mercer give Lamb 'attitude' during his incarceration in Of Vice and Men so that he and Moe could stage the attack on Veronica in order to confirm his innocence in the rapes? Or was that something he and Moe came up with after Lamb decided to keep him another night? At that point, they knew Veronica was investigating the rapes, so did they just see Mercer's arrest as the perfect opportunity to steer her in a different direction?
- Since there was never any forensic evidence and the girls' hair was kept in Moe's closet, does that mean that Moe was the clean-up guy? Did he go into the room after the fact so that he could collect the hair and remove any evidence that would lead back to Mercer (e.g. fingerprints, condom, etc.)? He did wear gloves during the attack on Veronica in the parking garage, while Mercer didn't wear any in Carrie's room, so he at least seemed worried about leaving any evidence behind. Was that part of his "job?"
- Does the college offer a self-help class on how to pick the right friends? If so, can Logan please sign up next semester? He really needs one who won't harass, drug, rape, punch, shoot at or otherwise try to harm Veronica.
- With the way the Dean was positioned, sitting at his desk, bullet wound in his head, is it possible that the murder was staged to look like a suicide? Where is the Dean's gun?
- Does the final scene mean Weevil is going to get more air time during the second arc? Thank God.
- Michael Cera was originally going to be cast in the "Moe" role for the rape duo. Casting conflicts negating that from happening. Although I would have thought it awesomely creepy that it would basically have meant that George Michael set up Maeby's rape, it was probably good in terms of predictability of the bad guy. Everyone would have pointed fingers at the guy (Dean) they remembered from The Rapes of Graff.
- Dean Cyrus O'Dell was married to his former grad student, Mindy, for six years. Cyrus's fifteen year-old son, Graham, is the product of a previous marriage -- mother unknown.
Mindy's son, Jason, was dying of cancer and in need of a bone marrow transplant. Jason's father, struggling voiceover actor Steve Batando, has not been a part of his son's life and blames both Cyrus and Mindy for this. Steve's compatibility as a bone marrow donor was determined by a previously done paternity test. Batando refused to take part in the transplant, so the Dean and Mindy kidnapped him and the procedure was performed without his permission. Steve later signed an agreement to not press charges against the O'Dells. The terms of the agreement prevent Mindy from ever seeking child support or alimony from Batando. He also got her Porsche as part of the deal. It's unclear if there were other stipulations to Batando's silence.
- Tim Foyle was aware of Professor Landry's affair with Mindy O'Dell and seemed to disapprove of Landry's penchant for married women. When Veronica discovered the affair, thanks to Tim, Landry did not appear to be at all concerned that she would tell anyone.
- Dean O'Dell has not endeared himself to the women of Lilith House. Nish, Fern and Claire were displeased with the Dean's refusal to punish the Hearst Lampoon editors for what they considered "hate speech." O'Dell later expelled Claire for faking her rape and removed Nish as editor of the Hearst Free Press for her lack of objectivity. Nish promised the Dean that he'd regret it.
- Pi Sig President Chip Diller claimed to sleep with the Dean's wife last year, although it's never been confirmed that this was true or that the wife in question is Mindy. According to Mercer Hayes, both Chip and the Dean were heavily in debt to him for gambling losses. The Dean was reported to have placed boxing bets at the casino, through an unnamed student aide.
- In the episode Look Who's Stalking, Logan begins to interrupt Veronicas speech the morning after the Alterna-Prom, and she cuts him off saying, "Let me just get this out." Logan repeats her line when she tries to interrupt his break-up speech. Veronica has to prepare a speech beforehand to let Logan in, and Logan has to prepare a speech beforehand to let Veronica go, and the same phrase is used to mark the beginning and the end of Logan and Veronica, Round 2.
duchessjms (Jayne): Social Science
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JenniferH: Report Card; Drama Club; Chemistry; Band Class; Pep Squad Practice; Homeroom
Pixigal (Gerrie): Drama Club
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sawmg (Shannon): Literature; Social Science; Principles of Democracy
Tar Frimmer (Joanne): Social Science; Homeroom; Philosophy; Principles of Democracy
