Date of airing: October 19, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 3.05 million viewers, 2.1/3 in Households, 1.4/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Dayna Lynne North
directed by: Jason Bloom
In which Wallace gets a daddy, because we never thought about how the Fennels were living on their own and that Wallace never talked about never having known his father, let alone asked about him, or told stories about him to Veronica. I could think of some reasons that the writers had similar thoughts after the first season was finished, and they figured that this might be a potential plot for the second season. I am happy about it, because for once, Wallace gets a meaningful storyline, and here is to hoping that it will not end badly, and Carl Morgan or Nathan Woods or whatever his name will be for the remainder of his stay in Neptune, California sticks around to be a father to his kid and a love interest to his baby mama.
Then again, maybe Alicia was not lying when she said that she was running away from her abusive boyfriend back then and Carl/Nathan has returned to pay the bill. Whatever is going to happen, I do not think Keith’s relationship with Alicia is going to survive this, and once more I say that it is not a relationship for the ages, although keeping it going for the rest of the season would prove that the writers were interested in breaking television norms, simply because an interracial couple surviving for more than one episode on mid-2000s television would be nice. And now that Alicia is getting a backstory, there certainly is a reason for her to stick around a little longer, and to make that story count, instead of using it as her exit strategy. Because as soon as a dark past has been uncovered, that usually means someone is going to run, especially in Neptune.
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| Keith likes his job and ladyfriend very much. |
I would not consider this a particularly special episode, as it developed the story of the bus crash, while Veronica was dealing with a case that could have turned out weird, but did not. It is not quite a filler episode, since the bus crash storyline did move forward an inch, while Keith’s romance with Alicia was leveled up, but I would also not consider this episode important enough for the big narrative of the season, especially when it comes to Duncan and Veronica’s romance. He was definitely not ready to answer Veronica’s question when she was asking about Meg, which means there are secrets there, which means those secrets will come to light soon, which means Duncan and Veronica are probably history very soon, because Veronica is still a teenager and she gets her heart broken easily. It is a good thing then that I am not uninterested in whatever Duncan’s secret is, although the episode did not really manage to get me hooked on what the story could turn out to be.
What I do like though is how mature Veronica’s relationship with Duncan looks like right now. They are regularly in bed together and probably having tons of sex. Keith does not seem to mind (at least not out loud, and not 24 hours a day, seven days a week), and even Logan keeps his distance (in spite of his jealousy), giving Veronica and Duncan enough room to play with their (dull) romance. They almost have the most normal of relationships, despite the fact that they are still teenagers and just went through some major stuff together during the past year. How can you even have a normal relationship with all the murder stuff in your life?
The development in the bus crash story made one thing clear: It is a story to stay, and it is a story that will keep Veronica investigating. That might or might not have been obvious after “Driver Ed,” but with the revelation that the stunt coordinator for one of Aaron’s action flicks might be behind the bus crash in some form of another and might have targeted Veronica, it turned into the season-long mystery that needs solving – the cliffhanger from the previous episode set up the story to be the season-long arc, and this episode made its beginning in that case, with Veronica not really coming far enough to even think about what the stunt coordinator and the bus crash have to do with each other. Not even I could imagine what the conspiracy behind that looks like, and if Veronica really was targeted. If Aaron really wanted to take revenge, he probably would have just hired an assassin from jail to put a bullet in Veronica’s skull, but a complex plot that make her death look like an accident? Yeah, I do not think Aaron and whoever he hired are that smart. And one question still needs to be answered: What has Weevil to do with all of this? What is the connection between Moran and the PCHers? And why does he wear such terrible bling on his earlobe?
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| Veronica should work for the FBI as a honeypot. |
Meanwhile, I was expecting for Veronica’s case to prove Julie’s
fiance is a liar and a cheater to be a little weird and curious midway
through, and like the clock striking 12 at midnight, the weird
definitely happened. For once, Veronica was happy to announce that
nothing awfully evil exists about the person she was hired to trail and
surveil, but Julie still had to be something of a creep as a client who
apparently just needed a girlfriend to talk to than a private investigator. Julie
could have saved all the money she spent on Veronica’s investigation, if
she only would have had a few BFFs to take her shopping or to a club, or the courage to talk to Colin’s
exes herself.
But hey, this case was proof that not everyone in Neptune is a secret killer or stalker, right? Because I get the feeling Jackie is definitely a creeper in town, the way she looked at Wallace and told him that she is not to be messed with. My spider senses were tingling during that scene, and I wanted to scream at Wallace to run away immediately.
