Date of airing: March 22, 2006 (UPN)
Nielsen ratings information: 2.34 million viewers, 1.7/3 in Households, 1.1/3 rating with Adults 18-49
written by: John Serge
directed by: Rick Rosenthal
It felt like a filler episode, but it was anything but. It felt like an
important piece to the narrative, in which the investigation into the bus crash
moves forward, but it was anything but, because the writers were still
playing with the notion of Terrence either being the killer or not being
the killer. And let's be real here, Terrence is not going to be the killer/bomber, since it would be ludicrous for the writers to deliver the real villain to the viewers seven episodes before the season finale when there is still enough time left to create at least half a dozen red herrings for Veronica and Keith to catch. The fact that this episode is still miles away from the finale and the conclusion to the case makes it obvious that Terrence will be exonerated somehow, or removed entirely from the bus crash plot. And that makes me wonder whether this episode is filler or if it moved said plot forward.
This episode also looked like it was developing Logan’s arc in trying to force the only witness against his case to recant his statement and give Logan a chance to walk among the free, but it was more a story of Logan being completely separated from the remainder of the narrative, doing his own thing, making his own case by being a manipulative asshole with a heart and deep feelings. It does not look good on him that he faked an email, just so Hannah’s father would recant his statement, and maybe even hid cocaine in the medicine cabinet to separate Hannah from her father, just so Logan could make his case a little easier with Hannah's father. But that also means there is going to be a break-up and a very broken and shattered heart in store for Hannah in the very near future, because, in the end, Logan was not dating Hannah for her heart, he was dating her for his freedom.
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| Kendall Casablancas delivers her boobs personally. |
I did not think this episode was especially great. A little too much stuff was happening, and it was all edited into a quickly paced episode that did not have enough minutes to warrant a whole hour of television. The “previously on” package was 168 seconds long, making me think that this episode came in short during the editing process, and with its 42 minutes per episode, the show is already too short for the number of storylines it is telling. That tells you the editors did not have much to work with, but the three or four minutes that were missing after post-production could have been enriched with a few moments of character depth and emotions. Veronica could have been somehow emotionally impacted by the missing-bride or cold-feet case she was investigating, and Keith could have been emotionally distraught that one of his favorite ballplayers has now been charged with mass murder – two major cases in this episode, and they did not seem to be keeping the Mars investigators emotionally busy, as they became just another couple of cases they were working on. I wonder why this part of the narrative was excluded from this episode, and I ask myself if that is the reason why I could not fully get into this hour. What was it that still had me bored by the end of it?
Maybe it is the fact that this is the middle of the season and the writers were still stalling to move ahead on the stories. Terrence has been a potential suspect for three episodes back-to-back, and nothing has changed in that regard. Logan has been dating Hannah for three episodes now, and this is how much time he needed for her father to recant his statement, even though that does not mean Logan is suddenly guaranteed to walk freely after the case ends. And Veronica currently has no character arc at all – no relationship to take care of, no romance to run after (she is waiting for it to come to her), no friends she has trouble with... It is almost like investigating minor cases is the only thing the writers were interested in for her, and that begs the question of why the narrative took away emotional stakes from Veronica, the titular character of her own television drama series.
But at least some of the side stories were put together nicely. To my
surprise, I started to like Kendall’s involvement in Beaver’s real
estate business and how she is about to betray her stepson, and I was
amused by her efforts to convince Aaron to come and join the
dark side, preferably with a cleavage way out in the open and ready to
suckle on for Aaron, in case he ever gets out (and thanks to the very
much
extended “previously on” segment, audiences are now reminded of the sex
tapes that were destroyed, which can make it easier for Aaron to be
acquitted). The thing about that story is that Kendall is about to screw
over Beaver, and I already feel sorry for him about that. The kid
already gets bullied left and right, and now his money-making scheme is
being ruined by a manipulative sex beast and an accused murderer in
jail.
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| When you see Veronica in the crowd, you stop having fun. |
Besides that,
it’s nice to know that one of the Casablancas kids who is credited in
the title sequence gets a story. Dick has been useless so far, as he has always been just an asshole and nothing more (nothing less either), although
maybe Ryan Hansen’s agents got him a great deal for less work that he immediately jumped upon. And you think that Sydney Tamiia Poitier was removed from the show allegedly due to budget cuts – that problem did not seem to exist this season, with two essentially useless main characters (Dick and Jackie) filling up the character pool. It also
proves that Dick was always destined to be the stupid asshole-type
character and that he was never supposed to change. Always the sexist
car-loving smirk living up to his first name, and never the center of a dramatic
plot, because the kid does not have emotions at all. Why has he not been the victim of a murder plot yet? Because he seems ripe for that kind of narrative..
