Date of airing: April 19, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.48 million viewers, 1.8/3 in Households, 1.0/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Dayna Lynne North
directed by: Nick Marck
And the writers continued to go all in on the Lilly Kane murder investigation, creating one suspect after another and teasing that Veronica is very much close to finding out who the killer is, which is not much of a twist, considering the season only has three episodes left – enough time to fully go into the case and work towards a conclusion. The previous episode established Duncan Kane as the number one suspect, and the fact that he disappeared for this episode means he might be running from the law, just in case he happens to be guilty.
But this episode also brought
Weevil front and center as a suspect. It would be kind of absurd
that the Kanes would cover up Lilly’s murder when Weevil was the
killer, but who knows what the Kanes were doing two years ago, and how
crazy they are behind closed doors. Unlike the Echolls, the Kanes
have been quiet and reserved, almost controlling over their public
image, and that usually means they work hard on hiding their true faces.
In contrast, the Echolls are pretty much all over the place – violent,
idiotic and dumb, almost untrustworthy, and definitely lying sons of
bitches. They might be hiding that from the public as well, but it is not
like they are not living out their rage in their own home and keep
it a secret from each other. It is weird though how the writers have not gotten into the Echolls being murder suspects. Considering how Veronica has files on everyone on her computer, and Logan has seen those files, it seems a bit awkward that none of them are being treated as suspects. Especially Logan right now, who has been turned into a love interest – if he was Lilly's killer, it would stir trouble in Veronica's emotional minefield.
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| Veronica uses the universal language to say "shut up, men!" |
And holy cow, Aaron beating up Trina's abusive boyfriend Dylan was an awesome scene to watch. First of all, I find enjoyment in abusers getting punched out left and right, bleeding on the ground and walking back to their car in pain. Secondly, having Aaron be the defender of his daughter’s pride was something to behold as well, as I was not expecting it to happen. All I wanted was for Logan to get some of his seemingly violent rages over and make his sister’s boyfriend pay, but it turns out that Aaron is already trained in beating up people his kids’ age, and of course he had to finish Dylan’s punishment with the belt, like he was punishing one of his kids (most likely Logan, because I do not think that Trina ever got any abuse from Aaron, although who knows...).
In hindsight, it makes total and complete sense that it was Aaron who punished Dylan, considering the fact that Aaron does not have his violent tendencies under control. Maybe he got so used to starring in action films, he started liking the violent nature of them. Maybe the backstory about his father hitting him, which he monologued to Dylan before beating the crap out of him, was true from A to Z, and all Aaron ever learned was that violence solves all problems. Or maybe Aaron changed after Lynn’s suicide, and he is trying to be more of a father figure to his kids, a protector for them. But should we start trusting Aaron, now that he almost beat Dylan into a hospital and only stopped doing so when he saw that Logan and Veronica were watching?
Veronica’s case on the missing dogs and the reward hunters was intriguing. I came to realize that VERONICA MARS tried its best to come up with the weirdest and most unique cases of the week, simply because the show is a teenage drama at times, and you cannot have the titular character investigating homicides in every episode. Coming up with missing people cases is quite easy (there was an entire show about them on CBS during the 2000s that aired for seven years), but having her deal with dog kidnappers who are out for the big bucks, and then glorifying that story with Veronica, Mandy, Leo, and Wallace entering the pound on the lookout for kidnapped dogs, just to have Mandy go all nuts on Hans, gave me all the points I needed to realize that it is difficult to come up with cases of the week for a show like VERONICA MARS and still be an entertaining and enormously enjoyable show. I do not think I have ever been this happy seeing Mandy and her taser on Hans, and if I had been part of the group, I would have kept Veronica away from pulling Mandy back. Mandy needed that outburst of emotional violence, and she really needed to tell Hans who is the boss here and who is about to go to jail for kidnapping and potentially killing dogs. By the way, I was also happy that the case ended with a happy end, although I do not know if it would have been better if Mandy had been the one going home empty, and her dog might have been the only one killed by the employees of the pound.
Meanwhile, Weevil smelled the inside of a cell again, and I am wondering if that was a prophetic image, in case he happens to be Lilly’s killer for real (the episode made sure that the viewers know about his alibi, so that it can be re-introduced as a red herring). It never looked and felt like he is the killer, and the writers just dropped that secret message pen scene at the end to just give a feeling of “there is more than meets the eye” to every one of Veronica’s suspects, but I am not much of a friend of the secret lover being the killer, even if there is an easy way to write Weevil as the killer, considering he is the criminal among the characters and had a relationship with the victim that could have ended badly for him if people had found out. I did however like that Veronica used Weevil’s current predicament to give Celeste an ultimatum, and considering Weevil’s appearance at school the next day, it means that Celeste chose Veronica looking for Duncan, which apparently is the premise for the next episode (or Veronica does not keep her promise, which could cause a different problem with her and the Kanes). Besides that, with Duncan’s disappearance, the writers forced Veronica back to the Kanes, and with the returning backstory of Veronica potentially being a Kane heir, it is another one of those ongoing stories the writers have brought back, now that the season finale is only three episodes away.
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| Dog nappers deserve everything they get in this screenshot. |
The rest of the episode was solid. Logan and Veronica are a little too in love with each other for my taste, especially since Veronica still hates him, but I guess love is a fickle bitch, and the writers like giving Veronica the bad boys. She dated a guy who might have violent episodes, and then she dated a guy who was a drug dealer. She then continued to date a guy who is a Deputy Sheriff and gets paid to carry a gun, and now she is making out with a guy who does not have a white vest either. Veronica and her men... none of them are angels.
Nonetheless, Logan dating the “good girl” now does give him a shiny new
coat of paint for his character. Compared to how much of a dick he was
during the first couple of episodes, the guy definitely changed for the
better. Maybe some pressure has been removed now that his father is not
as abusive to him any longer, and he got the opportunity to move on from
Lilly’s death? That usually means the writers were putting Logan on a
good path, just to pull the rug from under him, which means we can all
see his long fall from grace. And that can only happen if he turns out to be Lilly's killer.
