Date of airing: October 5, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.73 million viewers, 1.9/3 in Households, 1.0/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Diane Ruggiero
directed by: Nick Marck
In which a murder-suicide was not taken seriously by either the survivors, the families of the victims, or the Sheriff’s department, making me wonder if that was the moment Keith decided to run for Sheriff and kick lazy Don Lamb out of the seat. Was it because of Jessie pleading Sheriff Lamb to reopen the investigation and at least consider that the apparent suicide note was a fake one for Keith to change his decision on the spot? Was it because Veronica did not have a problem with her father running for office again? Was it all of the above, and the writers just had fun waiting until the end of the episode to tell us whether or not Keith is running, having made up their minds before they even wrote a word for this season? And will Veronica’s life change this season, now that she is not only a teenage private detective, but also the only daughter of the person who is now running for an electable position in Neptune, essentially making her life a little more interesting? After all, with Keith being in the focus of the town, so should Veronica.
Not to mention that it was quite convenient that Keith's decision was this easily changed. He only needed to witness Jessie going crazy on Lamb and figure out that the current Sheriff is good for absolutely nothing, but it is not like Keith did not know that Lamb is a bad Sheriff. Someone had to run against the lazy kid, and apparently, Keith never thought about doing it himself. He was in a better spot in general after solving the Lilly Kane murder, his name was out there, and people were talking about him in a positive way, which would give him clout in case he were to run for Sheriff again. I have no idea why Jessie was needed in this scene for Keith to change his mind when the simple existence of Don Lamb should have done the trick months ago.
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| The family is back home way too early. |
The investigation into the bus driver’s suicide was a nice one. I
believed Veronica when she told Jessie that she would not know where to
start, which is why I found it convenient that Veronica recognized
the pay phone at the gas station and realized that Ed made a call before the crash. Sometimes things like that make me wonder why the Neptune
Sheriff’s department is so dumb and lazy solving cases, and why a high
school senior is the only one connecting all the dots. Okay, this is a
television show, and the writers need Veronica to connect the dots, or
there is no TV show, but the ways the writers developed the
cases every once in a while are certainly advantageous. And they do not make the Sheriff’s department shine in a good light,
when it is so easy for Don Lamb to just say “No” to someone who is asking
for a new investigation under the light of new evidence. Certainly, Lamb will not have
Jessie’s vote after that, although I am not sure if she is old enough to
vote anyway. She should be, since she looks senior enough to be 18 years old.
However, Lamb should try to get Veronica to work for the Sheriff’s department. Yes, he hates her with all the guts he might be having, but even he cannot deny that Veronica solves and closes cases, and that she might actually be a big help to his department. Granted, Veronica would not accept any offers from Lamb, now that her own father is gunning for his job, but in hindsight, I never understood why Lamb only went to Mars Investigations for help once, to catch a random serial killer the Sheriff's department could not catch. I am pretty sure by now the Marses has solved more cases than the Sheriff’s department, and that should say a lot. Mars Investigations should also put that as a line in their advertisement, so they can grab some business in the future.
Meanwhile, this episode definitely focused on Veronica’s love life, causing complications between her and her two suitors, who are so close to fighting it out over Veronica by themselves. Duncan does not seem to particularly care that she still has competition with his former best friend, making me wonder what is up with Duncan, and the writers made Veronica think about Logan a little too obviously, by having her call the hotel room Logan was staying at and hearing the voice of another woman. Getting this jealous of your ex-boyfriend’s love life this early into your current relationship? Yeah, maybe Veronica and Duncan are not destined to be with each other, and maybe the writers were actively manipulating the audience into shipping Logan and Veronica, because the writers happened to like that romance more than the current one.
Logan still screwing Kendall makes things interesting though. I have no idea what will happen when Logan is found out, and how his friendship with Dick and Beaver is going to change. Beaver seems a bit unstable and depressed in general (being bullied by his father, and most likely Dick and Logan as well), so he might have a more meaningful reaction to one of his friends screwing his step-mother, but I do not think Dick will have a problem with it. He will probably high-five Logan until his hand is falling off.
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| This is Wallace's world and we are all living in it. |
Then there was the new character in town, who immediately connected with Wallace and gave him the most amount of screentime in a single episode ever. Of course, the writers needed to give him a girlfriend sooner or later, and while Jackie was not a particularly interesting character in her first hour, the way Wallace “threw” himself at her was funny and intriguing to watch, not to mention the fact that this was Wallace's first B story in which he was the lead and not Veronica. Wallace is Watson to Veronica’s Sherlock Holmes, and he finally managed to take on a case by himself, solving it to completion and with wit. And here I was, thinking that the blond woman in the green car was destined to be Veronica, but then I remembered her Crysler convertible is not green.
Still, the way Wallace and Jackie were thrown together like she was the only way for him to get a story that does not have anything to do with the eponymous character of the show is a bit convenient, although I will take any excuse for Wallace to get his own story in the show. No matter what though, Tessa Thompson is fun to watch, especially in stuff before her career took flight and she was suddenly part of two movie franchises, with one of them fizzling out before it had the chance to become big.
