Date of airing: November 16, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.94 million viewers, 2.0/3 in Households, 1.3/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Diane Ruggiero
directed by: Nick Marck
Child abuse is never an easy thing to depict on television. Child abuse is not even an easy thing to watch on television, especially when it comes without a trigger warning first. Grace might not have been physically abused (although I do not know if you are allowed to call it physical abuse when you lock a kid into a tiny room for an entire night), but what she went through could have easily triggered some viewers at home, since America is more than obviously the most developed nation in the world that likes to abuse its children, whether it be through punishment under the eyes of their god, or active shooter drills in elementary school, high school, and maybe even college, all while you surf the internet and are being bombarded with Nazism and the sweet words of secret predators whose only mission is to find their next victim. Grace maybe had luck only being locked in a tiny room (not knowing about what might have happened to her that Meg did not write about in her journal), although it is as messed up as any other method of controlling your children and making them fear you.
Maybe the Department of Children and Family Services should open up a shop in Neptune, and then parents will stop being evil to their kids in this town. Parenting has never been depicted more worse than in this episode, and this is not the first episode in which the writers decided to include bad parenting. No wonder Keith Mars is seen as one of the greatest TV fathers, because his competition in this show is pretty much non-existent. Well, there is Mac's father, who seemed very nice as well...
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| High school is prime real estate for babysitting advertisements. |
Besides that, this episode managed to put Sheriff Don Lamb under a different spotlight. He immediately knew what he had walked into after he heard Veronica’s words, and he seemed interested already in giving Grace’s parents all the punishment he could give under the eyes of his own version of the law – probably because Sheriff Lamb himself experienced abuse at the hands of his father, judging by his comment to Grace's father. And since we already know that little children are not the only ones being abused (remember Logan getting belt-whipped by his father in the previous season?), Neptune is not only known for trust fund kids doing dumb crap and rich fathers marrying hot women whose career is it to dig gold, but also for kids getting abused by their parents, making it even more understandable why this town is a cesspool. Veronica was never abused in her childhood, but even she had to go through some trauma with her own family after her mother’s disappearance. Maybe no one should ever move to Neptune until its last remaining citizens have died off, and you can repopulate the town with a new motto in mind. Or replace the entire law enforcement of the town, because their corruption is apparently leaking into the brains of the citizens the Sheriff is "protecting."
The episode’s premise was a good way to get Veronica introduced to a little more than just the latest mini crime spree of whichever bad person she is investigating. Seeing her turn into a babysitter for a case was funny for a little while, and it turns out that Neptune is not only rich with abused children, but also rich with freakishly weird children. Every kid Veronica saw in this episode had their own little weirdness going on, and I have to say it might all just be because of the money. Have rich parents, and they will not care about raising you, which makes you a screwed-up kid.
Hence Dick Casablancas hitting on his stepmother, because he thinks it is the hottest thing to do in Neptune. What a shame that his trust fund opens when he is 21 years old, which is a few years off, and Kendall will not have time to wait that long (she needs the money now). Otherwise, he would be a literal motherlover by now.
I also liked that Veronica was investigating the case involving Meg together with Duncan, showcasing what that team-up could look like if the super-couple of the show was also the main investigating team of the show. Sort of like a buddy comedy cop show, but VERONICA MARS-style, with a lot of darkness going on behind closed doors and closets. By the way, the first thing Duncan did when the light turned on in Grace’s room was to stand between Meg’s father and Veronica. This young man has the protector instinct, making him the currently best possible boyfriend available for Veronica. That also kind of means the writers have somewhat retconned Duncan's violet episodes from the previous seasons. Or, who knows, maybe he is just taking his medication this time around, but it is curious how that part of Duncan’s life has not been mentioned since the season finale, now that he was being written as this gentleman caller for Veronica.
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| Duncan gets into protector mode. |
Finally, Logan had a story or two as well, with the writers continuing to focus on the murder that was being pinned on him. Since Logan pretty much "hired" Veronica to investigate the only
witness having come forward, the writers could have re-created the "buddy team" premise of Veronica and Duncan's story with Veronica and Logan, essentially giving her two major cases to work on during this hour, with her partner being both of the guys she recently dated. But the writers were not particularly
interested in going too deep into Felix’s murder in this episode.
Although it was a nice reminder that the story is still ongoing, and
that Logan likes to be exonerated on it and only trusts Veronica to do
him that particular favor.
