Date of airing: January 11, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.91 million viewers, 2.0/3 in Households, 1.1/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Philip Klemmer, Aury Wallington
directed by: David Barrett
This show was turning out to be a little more surprising with its cliffhangers these days. The previous episode established that things can get dark with murder and all that stuff (while the Christmas episode depicted a stabbing as well), but this episode proved it seems to get away with suicide as well. Lynn Echolls having potentially jumped off a bridge into her death was a pretty major twist in the story, and who knows how it is going to screw up Logan emotionally and mentally from here on. After all, the stabbing did not seem to affect Aaron that much, although it was helpful that the Christmas episode and the previous episode were switched in UPN's airing order and there was an entire episode without the Echolls, to make it more believable that Aaron is recuperating off-screen for an entire episode and a holiday season, instead of seeing him sitting in Keith's office the episode after he got dramatically stabbed.
I can only say that Logan’s mental status has always been part of his character arc, as he was always insecure about what was happening to him when it comes to his family. Having Logan potentially lose his mother would most likely put an even larger dent into his mental state, and all of a sudden the writers just created an entire half-season worth of Logan arcs for themselves, which is excellent. Besides that, it might not even be a real suicide Lynn attempted here: She might have just easily faked her death, so she can get away from Aaron. This not only means that she could not stand the pressure of this marriage, but maybe Aaron was also violent towards her and not just Logan (remember her reaction to Aaron belting his son?). That backstory itself would make Logan a screwed-up character, but now that he has to live without his mother? Things are about to go downward for him, and I could not be more excited, as it is great television drama!
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| For the first time ever, Veronica experiences the walk of shame. |
Besides that, no matter if Lynn killed herself or faked her death, Logan can connect with Veronica over a shared experience: the loss of their moms. I figured during the beginning of the show that Logan and Veronica could sort of become talking buddies, considering they both lost Lilly, but now they get an additional shared backstory, and that certainly was worth thinking about, since Veronica needed to have some friends at one point during her high school career. She cannot just always hang out with Wallace only, in addition to the characters she meets in each episode who then disappear at the end of said episode. Someday Veronica will celebrate her graduation with all her friends, who are not just Wallace and maybe Mac.
The crime case of the episode was solid. For once, Veronica was threatened by a federal case against her (although I cannot quite believe that faking IDs is a federal case, but I do not know US law), and for once she might have been worried that she will not be getting out of it, and that she will have to pay for someone else’s crime. Unfortunately though, Veronica always looked like she knew what she was doing, and that she would always get out of the mess, by finding who is behind the crime. For once I just wanted her to be worried, I wanted Keith to be worried that his daughter is about to be arrested for real, but I guess that cannot ever be part of VERONICA MARS, because it would not be true to the light nature of Veronica’s high school crime cases.
The fake ID premise though made this episode a true twenty-first-century update of 21 JUMP STREET, which was fun at times. Seeing Veronica always having the upper hand against the Tritons was amusing, and I chucked during her “Hi everybody, say oppressed homosexuality!” moment. Of course the Tritons had to be some absurd white high school students, probably rich, idiotic enough to even lead Veronica to them by letting her sing karaoke. Sure, Rick was blaming the Tritons for putting Tim in a coma, but the fact that the Tritons were rattled by Veronica being on their heel showcased that all of the boys were unworthy of being in a secret society, when they could not even keep a teenage PI at bay.
By the way, Rick was not the smartest of the bunch. He made Veronica chase the Tritons, which means Rick knew that Veronica had enough PI talents to go after the Tritons herself and therefore led the police (and Veronica) off his scent. Unfortunately for him though, because he sent Veronica after the Tritons, it was only a question of time before she was sniffing his tail, which made me wonder why he tried to blame Veronica in the first place (and I do not accept his reasoning of "revenge" after Keith investigated Rick's father, because there was not even an understandable backstory here). Did Rick not know that she was Neptune High’s very own PI who cracks all the cases? Has that word not come around to him yet? Why would you lead Veronica to your scent after you have done something hugely criminal, which is almost killing another teenage boy by putting too much alcohol in him? Rick might have been smart enough to blame the Tritons for Tim’s coma, but he was also too stupid to realize that also putting Veronica into the game would be his downfall.
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| "Hi everybody, say repressed homosexuality!" |
And finally, the Echolls arc, which was so minor that you would excuse some viewers forgetting that the story ever took place here, if it had not been for the cliffhanger ending. It does show how screwed up the Echolls family is, and how alone Logan is with his emotions. He will not talk about Lilly’s death, he does not have any friends he can confine in, his parents do not care about him, and his father physically abuses him. Of course Logan is about to have a mental breakdown, and after this episode’s ending, the clock is already ticking down, and it is close to zero.
Also, I loved that Lilly Kane’s murder is still keeping some of the students busy emotionally. Yes, Rebecca's counseling scenes were a way of reminding that the killer is still at large and that the story is still being followed and remembered by the writers (the pills Duncan is swallowing, the secret romance between Lilly and Weevil), but I loved the notion that half of the main characters are still emotionally involved in the aftermath of Lilly's murder, and that you cannot just easily get past losing a friend or lover.
