Date of airing: February 22, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.34 million viewers, 1.7/2 in Households, 1.0/2 with Adults 18-49
written by: Phil Klemmer, John Enbom
directed by: Guy Norman Bee
Veronica was a busy teenage girl in this episode, working on three different love-related cases all at once, making me wonder why she has never been asking for money from her peers, because she could have been making some serious cash during these days. And who knows, maybe the days around Valentine's Day are the busiest of hers, which is when she could ask for higher rates. Logan is a rich kid, so he definitely could have paid Veronica well while he was still hoping for his mother to be alive, and Meg could have paid Veronica handsomely as well for finding her secret admirer, although I do believe she paid with her friendship, which I guess is fine by Veronica. At least she got paid handsomely by the Russian woman, considering her looking for her American not-mail-but-internet-order husband was official PI business.
This was an entertaining episode with a few surprises here and there, and some even could advance Veronica’s overall storyline if the writers were interested to do so. That the case with the Russian woman would turn out to be part of a hit against a person in the witness protection program was neat, and I had my jar drop to the floor when the twist was revealed. If Keith had arrived three seconds later, some angry-looking Russian dudes would have killed someone in the witness protection program, and it would have all been Veronica’s fault. But because Keith came back to the office right on time, he congratulated for work well done.
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| This is the closest Veronica and Logan have ever gotten. |
And that you really need to mention: Veronica found someone in the witness protection program, and she did it in a couple of days. Sure, that happened by accident, but the methods she employed to accidentally find someone in the witness protection program make her the best PI in town, and Keith never has to wonder what is going to happen with Mars Investigations when he decides to retire or return to the Sheriff’s department, because Veronica will definitely take over the business and solve some seriously hard-to-crack cases. On paper, this was a hard-to-crack case, and Veronica seemed to have solved it with some ease and patience. In case the FBI needs to find someone, they should maybe call up Veronica.
Even Meg’s investigative problem was enjoyable, thanks to the surprising “twist” at the end, since it kind of finishes off the thought of seeing Veronica and Duncan back together again. It must have been part of the writers' room's discussions about whether to reunite Veronica and Duncan, and I am glad they have sort of made a decision by the end of this episode by simply moving away from the couple and giving the two former lovebirds to other people for a change. This could be considered courageous writing, because the writers just killed a romance that might have been shipped by some viewers, and gave Duncan to another girl, while Veronica is given to another man. I do not know how easy it is in the writers' room to kill a potential romance plot, to put fire to the will-they/won't-they premise, but I was happy to see that it smoothly burned to the ground here. Duncan might be better off with someone he does not have a past with, and it is not like Meg is not right for him, while Veronica seems to fit better with the Deputy Sheriff, although I would love to know how old Leo really is (I think it was mentioned that he is twenty years old), and whether Keith will have some problems with that relationship. His prized possession is dating a cop? Yeah, he will have some harsh words for Leo, like he was looking suspiciously at Troy Vandegraff early in the season. Maybe Leo gets the same background check treatment?
And Veronica was not finished investigating the third case yet, as she was still trying to find Logan’s mother with him. Granted, Logan did the grunt work here, sitting in the hotel lobby and waiting for Lynn to exit the elevator, but it was yet another case that kept Veronica busy, and this time around it kept her busy emotionally, as she was asked to be the consolidator – a role Veronica might not like herself in, or does not have any experience in, or is simply just weirded out by it, because it is Logan who needed her shoulder to cry on, and Logan was not particularly nice to her this past year and a half.
In the meantime, I am curious why the writers killed the potential of Lynn still being alive once more, as she has now officially died, come back to life, died again, came back to live again, and with Alyson Hannigan’s appearance, Lynn died a third time. At this point, the story will have to rest, because Veronica continuing to follow clues to Lynn’s potential whereabouts would turn funny pretty soon, and in this case, funny is not a positive thing. While it still seems probable that Lynn faked her suicide and just escaped her abusive marriage, her being dead brings a bigger punch for Logan’s character arc, and Logan is the character the writers should focus on and not Lynn. And if Lynn really is dead, it is time for Logan to lose himself and be even more screwed up than just losing his shorts, getting drunk, and playing Tom Cruise in RISKY BUSINESS. *checks episode title* Oh, I see what the writers did here.
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| Leo shines as the hero of the day. |
Veronica’s day did not end here though, because something else was still happening to her. The prank phone calls to her were unsurprisingly solved though, as it was pretty much clear that Lianne was calling her, and not just because of the “Previously on” segment, which reminded us of Lianne calling Veronica and warning her to stay away. I am however surprised that Veronica did not ask Leo for another favor midway through the episode though, and have him trace the calls she was getting. Granted, I find it nice that Veronica was not using Leo for her cases all the time, and he was during the trace “for free” (and because he cared for Veronica), but I am pretty sure Leo would have just said “yes” to her request anyway. He has a crush on her after all, and he would probably do anything for her that is minor enough to not wake up the sleeping giants in the Sheriff’s department and reprimand Leo for another mistake he did for Veronica.
