Date of airing: November 30, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.82 million viewers, 2.0/3 in Households, 1.1 rating with Adults 18-49
written by: Phil Klemmer, Dayna Lynne North
directed by: Nick Marck
Vice Principal Van Clemmons is a sly dog. Using Veronica to be promoted to Principal, because that was a job title Clemmons was obviously hot for, or maybe it pays more, or maybe Clemmons just wanted a bit of that power he was radiating throughout the first season. Or maybe Principal Moorehead simply was an asshole of a person who needed to be removed from his position immediately, and Clemmons thought that Neptune High would be much better off without the grey-haired dude running the show.
I am asking myself whether it would have been a good or bad idea to give a motive to Clemmons’ decision to use Veronica in an elaborate scheme to get that promotion, or if it might have been easier for Clemmons to just leak the fact that Trina is the child of a Neptune High student and the Vice Principal in 1980, since he must have known about it. Otherwise, he would not have led Veronica to the basement with all the student records. It is much easier to become Principal when it happens with the unknowing help of a third party, but there was no guarantee that Veronica would ever solve the case of what happened in 1980, and who the prom baby was. By the way, since Trina was called the “prom baby” in 1980, one might think that the discovery of a newborn in the girls’ washroom would have been major news in 1980, and something that would have gotten Trina's attention a long time ago, if she was ever interested in finding her biological parents.
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| He who tapes people to the pole has been taped to the pole. |
I liked this episode very much. Rob Thomas may or may not have been following the CBS crime drama COLD CASE back then, but this episode was essentially the VERONICA MARS version of Lilly Rush investigating a murder from 25 years ago, or maybe it could have been a crossover episode between two shows. Put a murder into this episode (which is not that hard to do in Neptune, California), and suddenly you have a very viable crossover, in which the clever and sarcastic Veronica Mars partners up with the clever, secretive and distant Lilly Rush. The idea might not have brought ratings to either show, but damn, it would have been a fun idea like it was a fun idea for Chris Carter (THE X-FILES) and David E. Kelly (PICKET FENCES) to talk about a crossover between their two shows in the 1990s.
The development of Veronica’s investigation was pretty neat, and I liked all the red herrings the writers brought into the script, whether it be Celeste Kane’s appearance (the chances of her being the bio-mom who got rid of her baby) or the chance that Trina may have been a Kane, and therefore being eligible for some of that money that Veronica signed away in the first season finale. The show has been great with red herrings so far, although I could not even name them all since there have not been that many over the course of the series, and Veronica’s cases have always been straightforward.
In a way, this episode’s case might not have been
as straightforward in the beginning. When Veronica decided to pick up
this cold case, she did not know it would involve an abandoned baby,
but here we are at the end of the episode; Trina is bursting into a
school board meeting and blowing up her biological father, and making
Clemmons get what he always wanted: a better job. But again, I would love to know how much of that Clemmons knew already. He must have known that Moorehead was the target of Veronica's investigation before he manipulated her into said investigation, making me wonder why Clemmons could not have revealed that information anonymously.
Trina's third appearance (and, unfortunately, her last) was delightful. The way she reacted to Logan and Kendall Casablancas "dating" already gave me joy (and not just because it was an impromptu BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER reunion), but her reaction when Veronica told her about the prom baby, let alone potentially being an illegitimate Kane child, made me laugh. Trina has no clue about how to be a normal person, she is always looking for the scandal, and she has no interest in hiding her enjoyment of everything juicy, even if it includes her own upbringing (no words though about how she made it through the fact that her adoptive father is a murderer, so I guess she is happy about the money she will be getting). Trina would be a potentially fun character in a 90210-style spin-off show, but Alyson Hannigan did not have time to think about that, because her life was about a different mother back then.
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| Mac gets some happy times with a boy. |
The rest of the episode was good enough. Finally, the writers managed to find a story for Beaver, and it is his turn into the secret CEO of a real estate company, which kind of is a weird thing to be into right now, after his father escaped the country doing illegal real estate business. Besides that, does Beaver not have any other interest than making a quick buck, or is he truly his father’s child, and what we will get to see next is how he fails to be a 17-year-old career man? I do like that Kendall chose to be part of the story, as she now has a reason to stay in Neptune and continue being a thorn in most people’s side. For the first few episodes, I saw Kendall mostly as a throwaway character who was giving her booty to Logan, but she stuck around. Now she is about to be the CEO of a teenager’s company.
Logan and Weevil’s war of fists and words was also intriguing. Their fight in the men’s washroom was great to look at, and it was another example of season two of VERONICA MARS going all in when it comes to turning stuff on its head, including the depiction of violence. The kind of ironic thing here is that fights like those do, in fact, happen in American high schools with a bunch of rich idiots in it, so VERONICA MARS was closer to real-life than viewers might have liked. I can only hope that Logan and Weevil will not be in a secret alliance for long, because I do love seeing two idiot guys fight it out over absolutely nothing. But yeah, it is all about Felix’s murder, and it is about time that story is being developed.
