Date of airing: January 4, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.84 million viewers, 2.0/3 in Households, 1.2/3 with Adults 18-49
written by: Jed Seidel, Dayna Lynne North
directed by: John Kretchmer
Mac must have been going through the worst moments of her life in this episode, essentially creating a path for her becoming a major character in later episodes, since her backstory can be used for so much drama now. Finding out you were switched at birth, that you have a sister you never knew about and a brother who is not your brother at all, and suddenly facing the potential of living a life with your rich 09er family are things that must be emotional torture for the young woman. The writers obviously had an interest in bringing the latter parts of that story, but it might have been difficult to bring that story with a character who has not been properly established before, who has not built up a repertoire with Veronica yet, and who has not been involved in anything more than a little get-rich-quick scheme.
That is probably why the writers decided to use Mac for that story – either because she already appeared in the show before, or simply because her appearance in "Like a Virgin" was always planned to be the introduction to the character before being dropped in her own dramatic storyline that could either be episodic (and therefore being concluded in this episode), or ongoing, making her a recurring character. But maybe the producers just liked Tina Majorino enough to want her back on the show for more episodes, and voila, Mac is suddenly a recurring character. It is not like this is the first time that happened on VERONICA MARS. Amanda Seyfried was given a couple more episodes to play her character of Lilly Kane because she was a delight to work with.
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| Major backstory alert on VERONICA MARS! |
This was quite the intriguing episode, although I did found a much better liking to Mac’s story than Keith’s short-lived partnership with the Sheriff’s department to catch a one-and-done serial killer. Witnessing Mac go through this emotional spiel of wanting to know more about her parents and then finding out there’s a whole layer of secrets hiding in the backstory, was the more dramatic story to tell (and one that could have deserved more episodes), and because of the great acting, it was the better-depicted storyline. Who cares about a serial killer case when the detectives managed to catch the killer during the first episode the story was depicted in? Who cares about the serial killer case, when it was only part of the episode to showcase that the Sheriff’s department cannot do their work properly, and they had to go to a private investigator to get caught up in the background of the murder investigations? Not that I mind seeing Don Lamb failing in investigating a serial killer case, and for Keith to get all the fame (and most likely the bounty), but as long as the writers will not make much out of Sheriff Lamb’s failures and have his department be under investigation for all the potentially illegal things he did, I rather spend my time worrying about the characters with actual emotional arcs.
At least the serial killer case brought Max Greenfield to the episode, have his character immediately be smitten by Veronica (and vice versa), and prove that she is capable of wrapping all the guys around her finger, in case she needs some information you do not want to give out on a voluntary basis. I almost felt sorry for Leo at the end – he helped catch a serial killer, which should be the greatest day of his cop life, he saved a couple of lives in the progress, but he still got suspended because he did not think that Veronica, despite her status as a manipulator, would actually manipulate him. Leo did not think for a single second that the cute teenager who showed a bit of interest in him was not here just for him. Looks like he got manipulated, and he was one of the very few lucky ones who got to realize they were being manipulated by Veronica.
I think it is not a
spoiler when I say that Leo will be a recurring character as well, and I
am interested to see how he gets over the fact that Veronica was using him,
and whether their business and potential private relationship will be
defined by what Veronica did to him here. How will their friendship form when their origin story is all about lies and deceit? Is Veronica about to get a nemesis, since Leo was close to losing the job he really likes, and will most likely be written up for it for the remainder of his career in law enforcement?
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| Is this the beginning of a wonderful mother/daughter relationship? |
Meanwhile, the switched-at-birth story is hopefully not over just
yet. It has been a long time since I saw this season, so I cannot remember
anything about it (except the season finale, for obvious reasons), but I
cannot think of a reason why the story of Mac and Madison Sinclair
should be over here. It would be fascinating to see that story develop,
and have the two teenagers get friendly with each other, have the
families deal with their decision to keep the lawsuit from 1992 years ago
private, and to see Mac having two families. Since Mac is a recurring
character, it should be the defining arc for her, and just having ended
that story with Mac and Madison’s mother touching hands on a glass would
be a bit of a cop-out. Every other decision to not follow up on the
story would be a disappointing cop-out, and it would be a wasted
opportunity not to make Mac an even more compelling character, now that she
turned from a computer hacker and Veronica’s friend from the back of the
room to a victim of secrecy and a potential millionaire. Not to mention that Mac's story resembles Veronica's, with the difference that Veronica decided not to find out for real who her biological father is. The writers decided to drop the story when it comes to Veronica's character arc, but the story may have been intriguing enough for them to deliver it anyhow, and that is why they recreated it with Mac.
