Date of airing: October 12, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 3.03 million viewers, 2.1/3 in Households, 1.3/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Phil Klemmer, John Enbom
directed by: John Kretchmer
I have no idea how Veronica figured that the bus crash was meant to kill her, but now that the bus crash was not an accident and instead an attempted murder (okay, five or six people were killed, so it was definitely murder), it is now part of Veronica’s life, and the story has officially been turned into a potential season-long investigation, to be solved by the season finale, and with villains and perpetrators still hiding behind the curtain and needing to be found out.
And maybe this time around, the season-long mystery arc is going to be more complicated and dangerous for Veronica, as she was not
only a suspected target of the folks who made the bus crash, but she also has to deal
with a few more issues throughout the season, especially now that she is also a suspect in a suspicious death. I am still expecting for
Felix’s murder to be solved at some point, and now there is the body of
former stunt coordinator turned regular prisoner David Moran, who washed up on the shore at the end of the previous
episode. Yes, that body is connected to the bus crash, but he also had
an earring that Sheriff Lamb believes to be Veronica’s, but looked
awfully like the piece of distracting jewelry Weevil was wearing in the season premiere.
That almost means Weevil is going to be involved in the whole mess as well, which
brings us back to the murder of Felix, let alone the potential
storyline of someone in the PCH gang trying to boot Weevil out of the club.
While I cannot see a connection between Felix’s death and the murder of
David Moran (maybe even the bus crash), the earring kind of connects both, making things intriguing
for the next few episodes. Or maybe I am just talking out of my bumhole, and the earring has no purpose at all.
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| Veronica Mars has Mrs. Casablancas in her sight. |
Meanwhile, if you want to take a lesson out of this episode, let it be the following: Never expect that it is only an affair that destroys your family when you hire a private investigator to follow your gold-digging stepmother. I liked that Beaver hired Veronica to find the money shot in Kendall’s life, so that his father will not get disappointed and loses money, but that the story turned out to be Kendall and Mr. Casablancas involved in real estate fraud was something not even I saw coming. And I was really hoping that Veronica would find out who Kendall’s boy toy is this way, getting into an emotional arc that would lead to more Veronica and Logan scenes – for the fans.
The thing is just, that story still happened, also unexpectedly, and it still screwed Veronica over. What the Casablancas real estate fraud story was supposed to do was letting Veronica find out that Kendall and Logan were having naughty fun, so that Logan and Beaver can have a conflict, and Veronica and Logan can have a conflict. It turns out the story was there to blow up the Casablancas family and have everything flush down a drain, which means Dick and Beaver might not like Veronica very much after this (she is in Neptune to destroy families after all), and Logan might get angry as well, because his ex-girlfriend took away his playmate of the summer. It seems like Veronica’s life is ruined no matter what, now that she ruined the Casablancas family, and Logan's happy time. And that is not even the only part of her life currently in shambles.
Leading into that story three episodes into the season is kind of a genius move by the writers. A season ago, life looked more friendly for Veronica, who was still going through episodic investigations at that point, maybe thinking about who killed Lilly Kane here and there, and dealing with the notion that she is not one of the more popular kids at Neptune High. A year later though, she is Duncan’s girlfriend, she is part of the 09ers once more, her father is running for Sheriff again, and she is generally happy, because things are working out for her, and what has haunted her for the previous year or two has been lifted from her shoulders (who killed Lilly Kane, who raped her at Shelly Pomroy’s party). Turns out that happiness was not part of her current life for long, and voila, she is now as ruined as everyone else is in Neptune. The next few episodes are going to be defined by the story developments in this episode, and I am already excited.
Same can be said about Alicia’s dirty little secret in Chicago.
Nothing is known about her backstory as of now, but this episode
certainly was the beginning of breaking up Alicia and Keith, because the
man is never allowed to be happy with another woman. Both cannot be in a
relationship forever, and because Alicia has never gotten a backstory
until now, chances are, whatever her secret, it will not be used to
bring Alicia and Keith
closer together. The Mars family is good because they managed to keep
themselves on track by themselves, by relying on each other, and by not
falling prey to other people (Lianne being one of those other
people). Also, it seems unnatural that a third member be added to the
Mars family on a permanent basis, making Alicia’s dirty little secret
awakening in Chicago even more of a plot device.
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| They are the happiest couple. At the moment. |
What it also does
though is threaten Wallace’s status as a happy young man. Whatever Alicia’s case is, it
will hopefully bring in Wallace, too, and let him have a storyline that
neither has anything to do with Veronica nor with any of the attractive
women Wallace calls his girlfriends. There was a slight look into
Wallace being more than just Veronica’s Watson in the previous season,
when the Fennels were dealing with the unruly tenant, but with the
exception of that episode, there has not been a lot showcasing Wallace’s
talent as an individual character. That may change though after Jackie got a bit more depth in this episode and could be considered a mean girl who breaks hearts. And as soon as she breaks Wallace's heart, she will be the villain of the series. Turns out Veronica has all the reasons in the world to be suspicious of Jackie, even though I really wanted her to be wrong about Jackie, for the sake of Wallace's happiness.
