Date of airing: April 12, 2005 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.30 million viewers, 1.6/2 in Households, 0.9/2 with Adults 18-49
written by: Jed Seidel
directed by: John T. Kretchmer
This episode could have gone anywhere between brutal and dark with its bomb threat and possible school shooter premise, but the writers decided to make a hoax out of it, rightfully so, even if the more tragic and violent option of the story would have made for a more thrilling episode. Turning VERONICA MARS into one of the shows depicting a school shooting or a massacre would have fit with the dark tone of the series, but considering how the darkest themes of the show’s stories always happened to be situated in the cases Veronica and/or Keith were working on that happened not to be part of the Neptune High life, a school massacre might have been too far-fetched. Creating such a story though might have opened some eyes among the viewers, and realize that school shootings were not only part of the new normal, but that it is an epidemic needing to be fought, like any other illnesses killing people needs eradication (viruses, for example, or criminal US presidents via impeachments and indictments).
But having a school shooting episode on television is quite a huge step, kind of like how having an African-American actor in a television lead during the 1950s and 1960s was huge, or having a gay romance in an ongoing story during the 1980s and 1990s was huge. And the thing is, school shootings in scripted television mean violence, and the producers and network executives would rather stay away from too much violence. Except you’re part of the FOX family, just having ordered TWENTY-FOUR to series, then you will not care about the level of violence. Not to mention that school shootings are rarely a story in scripted media. You can watch WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN or the second-season finale of THIRD WATCH as often as you like, but those two are about 20 percent of school shooter material in fiction in existence – America does not like to fictionalize its own worst nightmare, even though it absolutely loves depicting guns in media.
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| To print or not to print, that is the question. |
The bomb threats were a hoax within the narrative, but that does not
mean this was not a dark episode. The threats opened up the possibility to
go down that route of storytelling, and have some of the viewers and
Veronica fear that something like this might happen, turning
this hour into a conversation piece at school (and it would have been
a conversation piece if VERONICA MARS happened to be a more successful
show on a network that was not UPN). It became obvious though that the
writers were a bit gun-shy to go deep into the narrative of a
school massacre – the theme was never openly mentioned, and the only way
the characters were talking about it was via Veronica’s voiceover only,
when she was directly musing about wallowing in the grief of
betraying an ex-boyfriend or following the guy who might want to blow up
the school. The other time Veronica was talking about it was
with Mac, but then she was taking the words “apocalypse,” which was not
talking about a potential school shooting, because the word "apocalypse" could mean anything. I would assume UPN’s
Standards and Practices department had a few issues with this episode, and it was
then toned down significantly either during or after production of this
hour.
Besides that, how dumb was the ATF in this episode to arrest a high school student who was thought to be a potential threat to said school? Could Ben be fired by his government for executing a scheme to arrest a high school student he thought of dangerous enough, just so Norris can get pulled off the streets? After all, Veronica had photographic evidence, and her article was most likely causing some trouble inside the walls of the ATF. Plus, all of that is grounds for Norris and his family to sue the ATF, especially their 21 JUMP STREET agent Ben, for an unwarranted arrest, although that is a criminal or civil case I would love to see play out in a legal drama in the vein of THE GOOD WIFE. There is a story here for a legal drama, particularly after Norris turned out to be just a noob about all things pointy weapons. The way he got so excited about the replicas of knives and swords Veronica was asking about made me think that Norris was the wrong guy from the beginning, and he was just a nerd.
Here is another reason why I believe this episode was tampered with in post-production: The difference between the viewers being led to believe that Ben and Norris are about to blow up Neptune High, and the twist of Ben being Johnny Depp and Norris just being a geek, is a little too drastic and came too suddenly. And let’s not forget that Ben was being photographed loading stuff into the trunk of his car, and Ben never thought about why Veronica was following him, or if she might have some information about what he has been doing these past few hours. He just got into her car, then he told her all about his mission. Did Ben not think that arresting Norris might bite him in the butt after Veronica pretty much witnessed all of what happened? It turns out that Ben was not the smartest of ATF agents in the universe of VERONICA MARS.
Also, what weirded me out during this hour was that Norris is a spitting image of a young Samy Naceri – a French actor most known for the TAXI franchise – at least from a side profile, which confused me on more than one occasion. Not just because Naceri is French, and pretty much a bully himself, which is why the most famous French cab driver has smelled a prison cell from the inside as well, and Norris is anything but French, but because a fictional character in VERONICA MARS and an unrelated French actor have something in common. The world is small, and television makes it even smaller for me.
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| One day, Veronica will have a badge with her name on it. |
The rest of the episode was good enough. Keith and Alicia dating was like a bomb being dropped into Veronica and Wallace’s laps, which was hilarious at first, but then turned out to be a nice conflict in their friendship – one I would not mind seeing continued for as long as the writers keep dragging that otherwise unnecessary Keith/Alicia romance.
Duncan learning about Veronica’s investigative files was also interesting, as it finally showed Duncan’s true colors. Okay, we already saw those true colors, but he revealed them for the first time directly to Veronica. And I do believe Duncan was asking himself for the first time whether he might have killed Lilly and he just cannot remember.
And finally, the famous kiss that opened all the floodgates of everyone considering VERONICA MARS their favorite-ever show. And the thing is, Veronica and Logan kissing does not even come suddenly. The two have been bonding over shared experiences for a bunch of episodes now, and a potential romance between the two was not at all far-fetched. Although it certainly is convenient, now that Veronica has a boyfriend with Leo and a secret affair with Logan – VERONICA MARS, the teenage PI high school drama cannot stay away from having its eponymous character be involved with two boys at the same time, as every teenage drama likes to do.
