Date of airing: April 5, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.78 million viewers, 1.8/3 in Households, 1.1/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Carolyn Murray
directed by: Nick Marck
And so the two Mars Investigations detectives are teaming up to solve the case of Lilly Kane’s murder and have the killer go to prison. Six episodes before the season finale, this move by the writers was super solid, and as long as the disappearance of Amelia Delongpre and Clarence Wiedman’s little win in this episode does not scare the Mars detectives away (and it certainly did not look like that after Keith opened the safe and recapped his experience in investigating the murder during the early stages), then the end of this hour could be the beginning of the real investigation into Lilly’s murder. That means every one of the suspects established so far will go through the stages of being investigated by either Keith or Veronica, including the genre-standard interrogation scenes, with the Marses asking probing questions of the suspects. And the show needs a little thrill at this point, now that we could edge closer to who really killed Lilly, and whether the Kane family is this dark and screwed-up family to see their own daughter killed by their own son and try their best to cover it up, including paying lots of money.
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| This surely is a crime in California, right? |
Other than that, the episode was solid enough, although I could barely find any interest in Veronica investigating who bothers Sabrina in the middle of studying for the midterms, and I could not find any reason why Sabrina did not just leave the house when it got too loud and studied somewhere else, in a library, for example. She had the money, so she could have just gone to a hotel to get her learning done, as Amelia did. I get that being harassed while working towards a fully paid scholarship is a major deal, and since the Kanes officially put their scholarship in front of the noses of respective Neptune High students, this case could even amount to a criminal referral (I am sure this kind of harassment is a crime in California), but for the smart girl Sabrina is supposed to be, she was not at all smart when it comes to figuring out how to study under more silent circumstances. Are there really no hotels or libraries close by? The staff of those establishments could have handled disruptions with a high decibel level more efficiently than a teenage private investigator whose office happens to be the girls' washroom at school.
However, I did like the conclusion of the case, and how Hamilton’s father was behind the harassment. This episode essentially delivered a morale about class warfare, and how rich white people always have it better than the underprivileged minority of whichever town you live in. There certainly is an argument to be made that Sabrina had better chances for a scholarship than Hamilton, who had to deal with less money and a part-time job, but in the case of this episode, it was probably good that Hamilton’s father happened to act criminally under the eyes of the Kanes and the principal. In a real world like ours though, a case like this would get the same scrutiny as Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, as well as dozens of other rich parents, cheating their kids into colleges, including paying the big bucks to do so. Both are different cases, and who knows, one might not even be criminally liable, but on social media, they would get the same amount of attention, and we would not learn anything from it.
Meanwhile, Veronica’s other job was just about stashing Amelia Delongpre in a hotel and waiting until Amelia’s mother brought over the settlement papers (which, apparently, took multiple days when it should have taken a couple of hours and an email address). That story might have been pushed a little too far in the background for my taste, as Amelia was not acting strange enough after realizing that the money she is getting is essentially a payoff negotiated with the help of her imprisoned and dying father. Amelia’s life was essentially turned upside down in this episode, but nothing of that was seen here, and Veronica did not need to work hard to get Amelia on her side, which might even be the reason why Amelia up and walked out and listened to Wiedman, because he makes himself look like the big strong authority figure. The notion that her father might be innocent seemed lost on Amelia, and the fact that she walked away means she is not interested in meeting with her father, let alone having Veronica dig deeper into the case, just so Amelia can see her father again. Is this just a plot hole, or did the writers not care enough about the story?
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| They both have a poolside chat with a dead girl. |
And finally, the "daydream flashbacks" to Lilly’s murder, which happened to be quite interesting. I am loving the narrative idea of giving each of the suspects an opportunity to be the killer, and to show the viewers what the murder might look like with them, and as it turns out each version brings its perks. The theory of Duncan being the killer is obviously the most interesting one, as he would have acted almost crazily, and if he were in court he could plead insanity, which means he might even be walking freely at the end of the trial. Not to mention that it would add to the drama of the character arcs.
I also liked that
Logan was somewhat pushed into Veronica’s investigation, learning about
it (albeit conveniently, so that he and Veronica have something to talk about again), and maybe even getting actively involved in it, although I did find
his move to read Veronica’s files on her laptop to be a dick move – this is something he should not have done, but I guess the writers needed
that to happen, just to give Veronica and Logan another instance to
connect over something, now that the story of Lynn Echolls seemed to have been finished.
