Date of airing: May 9, 2006 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.42 million viewers, 1.5/2 in Households, 1.1/3 rating with Adults 18-49
teleplay by: Rob Thomas, John Enbom
story by: Rob Thomas
directed by: John Kretchmer
You could feel that there were a few too many story threats in the finale to give each and every one of them the attention they deserved. Woody Goodman gets captured quickly, and then he gets blown up on a plane, making me wonder how much time Beaver really had to place the explosives everywhere (I assume he also planted the explosives that were attributed to Lucky in the previous episode). The graduation happens, seemingly in the gym of the school, while Weevil gets arrested (and we do not see him for the remainder of the episode). Mac had a traumatic experience with her first real boyfriend, and, unfortunately, she did not know that she was attempting to make love with a killer. And then, the writers had to explain how Beaver came to be the bomber of the school bus and the killer of Woody, all while the episode also had to try and be a real season finale when it comes to certain character arcs.
Yeah, the episode was filled to the brim with stuff that was not focused on strongly. Everything involving Kendall Casablancas could have been cut, but here we were, being reminded that she was the one pulling the strings for Aaron Echoll's acquittal, and here we are, with her and Keith being part of his character cliffhanger ending. The thing with Weevil could have also been excluded from this hour, especially since it stole from us the happy end Weevil deserved after two years of being a wannabe villain with a heart: a high school graduation. And did I really need to see Veronica and Logan back together during the final minute? I am not sure it was needed, but the writers thought it was. And now we have an issue here because the main case of the season – the bus crash – was breakfasted like bacon, and probably did not make a whole lot of sense.
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| Veronica is desperate to save her father. |
First of all, I cannot even believe that Beaver was
smart enough to even develop the plan of bombing the bus and then using Curly Moran to put the blame on Aaron Echolls, all while he started
using Veronica to chase his father out of the country (that would mean
Beaver knew about the real estate fraud, and I would love to know how – then again, his real estate business has been a winner, so maybe Beaver was always destined to be a mega star in the business?). Let me get this straight:
Beaver did not want to be revealed as a victim of Woody’s sexual abuse,
so he killed the only two witnesses who were planning on coming forward. At the same time, he wanted his
idiot father out of the country, probably because Beaver needed a way to make some big money without his father getting in the way,
all while in the background, people were investigating the bus crash,
the murder of Curly Moran (let alone the fraud crimes Richard Casablancas was committing), and maybe even the murder of Felix Toombs. Damn,
Beaver really must have been the mastermind of almost all of it, and I do not believe that was ever the case – not with his disturbed mind. I am kind of surprised he never killed anyone after he got rid of Curly Moran.
In hindsight, a little too much stuff was happening for real, and there was barely focus on any of the character moments. Rob Thomas did use the opportunity to put a mirror between this episode and the first season finale though, as there have been quite a few moments that copied each other. First of all, it is the threat of Veronica getting killed while facing the mastermind of this season’s ongoing murder mystery. Veronica was worried that she might lose her life, so she became the girl again who had to do her best not to start screaming for help and crying at the same time. She worried about her father again – a season ago when she was able to hear the scuffle from inside the fridge she was trapped in, and in this episode when Beaver blew up the plane and she believed her father was on it. Veronica had a gun in her hand again, and this time she actually used it, albeit only to fire off a warning shot. And later, when Veronica realized that her father was still alive, like she did in the first season finale, she cried with happiness and told him that she loved him. Those similarities were no accident, and I do love the episode for the throwbacks to a year ago, although it did not help to bring over that suspenseful narrative. The only time things really got tense was when Logan and Beaver fought it off, which, unfortunately, was not as tense as the violent scuffle between Aaron and Keith in the first season finale.
Even Aaron’s send-off felt a little too rushed at times. While I appreciate that the kill scene not only came out of nowhere, but was also executed professionally, no one the wiser about what happened and who killed Aaron, it seemed a little weird that Kendall was in the room as well, yet she turned up at Keith’s office at the end and convinced him to give up his trip to New York with Veronica for whatever Kendall had in the suitcase (was it money?). The fact that Kendall did not even seem bothered by the notion that a bullet was put into Aaron’s skull mere meters away from her makes me think that she might have known what was coming, but why would that be? Or maybe the writers just forgot that Kendall was taking a shower when Aaron was blasted into the afterlife. Or maybe she did not care after she realized she got money out of Beaver’s real estate business, and she essentially got rid of a killer she was sleeping with. Or something else entirely that may be part of the season three narrative...
The minor stories of the episode, albeit tiny, were good. I liked Jackie’s send-off, as well as her real backstory, and I am almost happy that she and Wallace were not given that one big romantic scene in which the two embrace and then say goodbye to each other like Duncan and Veronica did. It was not needed for the story – all it needed was for Jackie to meet Wallace at the airport and tell him the truth, and that is all.
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| Duncan lives his best life in Australia. |
In the meantime, I almost felt bad for Weevil, but stuff like that happens when you live the life of a criminal in the most criminal town in America. Naturally, Sheriff Don Lamb had to be a dick and decided to arrest Weevil during the graduation ceremony, because there is no better way to humiliate a criminal and potential murderer than arresting him in front of the largest crowd Neptune had to offer that day. Any nice Sheriff would have waited outside for ten minutes and then arrested Weevil. But we all know that Sheriff Lamb is no good man.
Shoutouts were given to series writer John Enbom during the graduation ceremony (conveniently, right after he was given teleplay credits, his name was mentioned as one of the graduating students), as well as BONES series creator and writer Hart Hanson, whose name was also mentioned by Veronica. It is almost like Rob Thomas just wanted to namedrop his favorite people for the finale.
