This should be good:
Spit & Eggs. Dean O’Dell (guest star Ed Begley, Jr., "Arrested Development") reinstates the Greek system on campus and, determined to solve the campus rape case, Veronica (Kristen Bell), along with Mac (Tina Majorino), Wallace (Percy Daggs III) and Piz (Chris Lowell), attends a party armed with coasters designed to test for drugs in the drinks of her peers. Meanwhile, Dean O’Dell hires Keith (Enrico Colantoni) to investigate whether or not his wife is cheating on him. Jason Dohring, Ryan Hansen, Francis Capra, Michael Muhney and Julie Gonzalo also star. Executive producer Rob Thomas wrote and directed the episode.
Mac!
Ha, beat Dave.
I still love her more than you do.
So as we get underway, I’ll toss out a guess that the creepy RA is the rapist.
Wowza. What an episode. And what a second mystery.
Holy crap. OK, color me annoyed at the lengths gone to in order to separate V. from her support system–like, where the hell did Piz go? Hm. Does that make him a suspect?
Overall, though, great. I’m going to miss the Dean, but Logan getting himself arrested in order to pound Mercer? Intense.
So many suspects. So many motives. What the hell happened at the hotel?
How long do we have to wait for the next one? Months?
Yeah, I was sad to see Ed Begley, Jr., go, too. But it was a really good episode in what I think is so far the show’s strongest season, and it does set up a terrific next act.
I called there being more than one rapist, but I was completely fuzzy about the details or who it might be (except that Moe was clearly getting too much play to not be involved). I’m just glad Tim the TA wasn’t the rapist, as I’d like to see more interaction between him and Veronica. I just hope his outbreak at the party doesn’t mean he’s a slimeball.
I totally blew guessing the murder, though. I was sure Landry would be the one to buy it, with Dean O’Dell as a distant second. Oh well, I guess we’ll still have flashbacks with Ed Begley Jr.
What I really liked about the episode’s ending was that, while Veronica did need to be rescued again, it wasn’t by someone who knows and loves her. She was rescued by strangers, a whole bunch of them, which is a nice twist on the show’s noir-inspired mindset. Everyone may be guilty, but sometimes, everyone is also decent.
I’m going to say that Tim the TA will be at the very least a red herring for the Dean’s murder at some point. Not sure what the motivation would be, but us seeing him so upset is supposed to mean SOMETHING. And he could be (or Veronica could plausibly think he is) framing the professor for the dean’s murder.
I kind of hope we get soft focus shots of Ed Begley, Jr., ala Lily. But it seems unlikely.
I really, really liked that mostly it’s Parker who rescues her — doing for Veronica what Veronica wasn’t able to do for her. It was a nice, subtle piece of symmetry.
The more I think about this ep, the more I like it.
I especially like the fact that the episode managed to use most of the cast (except Sheriff Lamb) in a way that made sense. Even Weevil and Parker were used to good effect.
Oh, and Logan breaking up with Veronica? It was about time, but it still wasn’t any easier to watch. I’m glad that this time, he managed to split on his own terms, as opposed to waiting for Veronica to do the deed. Because of this, we don’t have the antagonism between them that there was at the beginning of season 2, which I’m glad about; even though they aren’t together, he’s still on her side. Logan seems to have matured a bit.
I completely did not call this one. I was sure that Tim was the rapist, especially since he seems to be wearing a wig and I thought that might fit in with the shaving of the head business. And then his line about being with lots of girls…
But I was a bit underwhelmed by the rapist reveal. The accomplice angle was nice, and scary once Veronica was in his room, but I thought that after so much build-up, it was just this guy is the rapist, and I just didn’t buy his reasoning.
I think the Dean’s death is much more intriguing a mystery at this point. Have they ordered a full season of the show yet? Should we expect more mini-arcs? I was actually surprised that they didn’t stretch the rapist thing out all season, but I’m not all that disappointed to see them move on.
I was glad to see the whole cast again, though.
Rajan, the show has received a full season order, but only for 20 episodes instead of the expected 22. This has led to the season’s final arc being shortened – four episodes instead of six. Simple math tells us that Dean O’Dell’s murder will be solved in seven episodes, but it’ll be another seven weeks before the show returns from hiatus.
As for Mercer’s motive, what would you have considered acceptable? He’s a serial rapist. By definition he’s a nutcase with a pathological hatred of women. I never expected the motive to be the interesting part of this mystery.
I don’t know; I agree, Abigail, that the rapist’s motive was never going to be the interesting part of the story, but I can see Rajan’s point in that the motive needs to be believeable. I’m not sure it does us much good to consign Mercer to the dustbin of incomprehensible loonies. It seems too easy, too neat — we need to be able to believe in him as a person, even if an unstable, deeply unpleasant person.
I think you could argue, in fact, that one of Veronica Mars‘s consistent weaknesses is the psychology of its Big Bads. The villains in any given individual episode tend to be interestingly complex, but to a greater or lesser extent Aaron Echolls, Beaver, and now Mercer all got flattened out once revealed as the villain.
Just to add to the list of ridiculously hand-rubbing, moustache twirling villainy, I tend to hate the scenes when the Fitzpatricks show up.
But I like how much the show expects of us. All we get is a photo on a wall and we’re expected to put the whole backstory of the prisoner guard game together. I like the fact that you often need to watch the show twice to pick up what you were supposed to pick up.
I liked the fact that Parker saved her. There was something very satisfying about that.
I like the fact that Moe’s tendency to give people tea was already in place. I didn’t like the fact that, in this particular instance, there was really no time to make a cup of tea.
>I really, really liked that mostly it’s Parker who rescues her — doing for Veronica what Veronica wasn’t able to do for her. It was a nice, subtle piece of symmetry.
Yes, and also the number of other people, strangers, stepping out and taking an interest. Part of the problem all along was people not watching out for each other–see also the collapsed girl (Carrie?) at the party–and it was thematically satisfying to see that change.
I know what you guys mean about the villain psychology on this show — to a certain extent it suffers from the tendency to need a “This is why I am evil” or “I am evil” speech simultaneous with the reveal. They do it more skillfully than most on this show, but it still doesn’t quite work.
Yep, Hannah. Completely agree.
Some belated thoughts:
— There was no good explanation for the complete lack of hair or semen.
— Veronica had previously asked if Mercer’s radio show could be prerecorded, and Piz told her that it couldn’t, because it was a call-in show. It seems a tad unfair for it turn that, indeed, Mercer’s call-in show is prerecorded.
— Which girl was raped while Mercer was in Tijuana with Logan over the summer? Was that a real one, or a faked one? It couldn’t have been Claire’s faked rape, since that took place during the school year and not during the summer.
You’re right on the lack of hair and semen, unless someone can jump in with an explanation. (“Mercer, the Amazing No Hair or Semen Man.”)
There were (at least) two faked rapes, right? I don’t remember the other girl’s name though.
I actually liked the fact that Veronica had cleared Mercer previously, and that it was his alibi/the glitch on the recording that allowed her to put it together. I can’t imagine how else the rapist could still turn out to be Mercer and all of us not have been fingering him–especially after Parker’s recognizing his cologne.
But if Mercer has been broadcasting prerecorded shows, wouldn’t there be others who were aware of this? Is it possible to broadcast a prerecorded show without anyone else at the radio station knowing about it?
And, with some rewriting, the attack on Veronica (or even on someone else) while Mercer was in custody could have cleared him.
I think that would require too many things to change.
That was the intention of the attack, right? But the way it was written, there was no reason for Veronica to be thinking about someone else trying to clear Mercer, because she was clearing him and more focused on that (than more interesting motivations for her attacker). It might have hinted at the teamwork aspect of the reveal, even while officially clearing him. (As written, it’s just supporting evidence after the reveal.)
Not to mention the fact that it does give the story more twisty resonance to have Veronica herself clear Mercer — if the attack on her takes the phony alibi’s place in the story, then Moe needs to be the key to her solving it, which changes things completely. And it goes along with the theme they keep coming back to this season of V always thinking she’s right and (almost) infallible. And plays into the complications in her relationship with Logan.
It also would have made it quite the leap for Veronica to hear a catch in the tape and figure out Mercer was the rapist… so you’d have to reconfigure that too.
And I thought the pay-off actually worked really well in this mystery–I was surprised and not surprised, which is what I wanted from it. (Not reading spoilers sure helps.)
I’m assuming that only a small portion of the show was pre-recorded, but the timing would have to be dead on (that said, he could play pretty long songs considering the type of music). I think he could sneak in and out doing a late-night broadcast, and then return and do most of the show live without being busted. Especially considering there were relatively few rapes, so relatively few instances for him to be caught.
I’m not sure I find any of this any less plausible than all the stuff we’re supposed to believe Evil Genius Cassady pulled off last season. It’ll be nice if there’s less mustache twirling at the end of the next arc. Will stop now!