Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE TWELVE 'Clash Of The Tritons' (2005)

Yes, Kristen...I will call you...once you cancel the restraining
order....

"I don't want to talk away my grief. I want to turn it into something else--fuel. I know how I'll feel better, and it's not be talking about how sad I am."

1) A lot happens in this episode--but what is arguably the most important thing is the furthering of Logan Echolls' character arc. The script by Phil Klemmer and Aury Wallington uses the events of 'An Echolls Family Christmas' to give Logan some echoes of the problems Veronica has faced after Lily's death...thus positioning himself a little more to the point where he becomes an ally (and a bit more) in the season's third act.

2) And Logan isn't the only one who gets some character advancement--Francis Capra rises to the challenge of giving some more dimensions to Weevil when he reveals his affair with Lily to Paula Marshall's Rebecca...his acting here proves that the real secret weapon of this series was some truly smart casting.

3) The funny thing is that The Tritons, the secret society that is the subject of the episodes' A plot, are built up to be Really Bad Guys, that facade is torn down...and then they literally disappear. We hear nothing more about them until a surprise reappearance at the end of Season Three, where they once again are Really Bad Guys.

The funny thing is, two of the people in this photo are going
to get reaaaaaal close soon...

4) I know we haven't brought up the soundtrack in a while...but I really, really love how at key moments a riff from 'Army Of Me' comes lumbering out of the speakers as a counterpoint to the intrigue on the screen.

5) Okay...I'll admit it...even though the sequence gets a lil' too public access music video, the sight of Kristen Bell (who has a background in musical theater) swinging that ponytail while belting out 'One Way Or Another'....win.

6) This is the last appearance Marshall has as Rebecca James this season--she does pop up for an episode in Season Two--and here she's used very effectively, as a stand-in for Veronica, interrogating characters who will end up being suspects in Lily's murder. Of course, perhaps the most effective moment is when Logan reveals to her exactly why he hates Veronica so much....

7) And speaking of the Echolls family...we get some major movement in defining this group of characters (Hell, there's a blink-and-you-miss-it mention of Trina, who will show up soon in the person of Buffy's Alyson Hannigan)...and it's hard to place which moment is the best--Logan threatening his dad when Aaron vows to ruin Lynn...or Lynn's rather ignoble but subtle exit from the series, leading to the episode's last haunting image. I've said it before--I don't care for Lisa Rinna as an actress, but on this series she did some great work.

Funny...they don't look like evil masterminds...

8) You know...this episode really drives home how much I missed Percy Daggs' Wallace--for the first time in a while he takes his position as Veronica's Watson, and makes it work something fierce.

9) Conversely, having almost no Keith and Veronica Mars moments--while it does allow other characters who have been underused, like Cliff and Vice Principal Clemmons, room to strut--drives home how much that relationship is vital to the show. I missed seeing Bell and Colantoni interact, and I think the episode suffers a bit for it.

10) I appreciate how Thomas and crew seem to find different ways for Veronica to have her final reveal for each episode...this episode's rather fun scene in Sheriff Lamb's office is particularly amusing.

Overall...some really choice bits throughout make this an above average episode...and I'm not saying that just because we get to see Bell getting her go-go on.....

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE TEN 'An Ecchols Family Christmas' (2004)

This may be a Christmas episode--but it's not one fulla cheer....

"Annoy, tiny blonde one. Annoy like the wind."

1) How can you not love an episode (and I love this episode--it's one of my all-time favorites, and arguably my favorite of the first season) that begins with a riff on my favorite number from my favorite Christmas Special, The Year Without A Santa Claus? Keith Mars loves the Miser Brothers, thus he is empirically proven to be a good guy.

2) Diane Ruggerio's script cleverly gives Veronica multiple incentives to take on this week's case-within-the-episode..and also gives her reason to interact with many of the supporting cast to a degree she hasn't before. This is a good thing because....

3) Francis Capra, Teddy Dunn and Jason Dohring are waaaay at the top of their game. They've got the rhythm of the show down dead, and engage in these great back-and-forths full of wonderful lines. Hell, the line I use as the header, which is Dohring's, ranks as one of my favorite lines in the series ever.

There's a good reason these 09'ers ultimately opted out of
rushing for Weevil's budding fraternity....

4) This is prolly the most we see of Lisa Rinna as Lynn Ecchols...and she's actually extremely good. I like how, even before she kinda, sorta apologizes to Keith for not staying in touch, you get the sense that this woman, of all the '09'er parents, is the one person who didn't resent him for doing what he did, who genuinely liked him and still does. Pity she's not much longer for this series.

5) Compare Lynn's interaction with Keith to the way Harry Hamlin's Aaron deals with him...yes, on the surface Aaron is just as warm and friendly as his wife...and yet, there's a sense of panic to the way he guides him to the door, a strange undercurrent of discomfort in his voice. Ladies and gentlemen, you have encountered your first clue in the overarc...and I doubt any of you realize that it was presented to you.

6) Emmanuelle Vaugier is in this as one of the women who is suspected of being Aaron's stalker. As always, she's not that great an actress, but...Emmanuelle Vaugier.

Yes.  I think she's hot.  Deal.

7) Since Veronica's case is more of a standard drawing room mystery, I love how Ruggerio ends up revealing the solution in her version of an Agatha Christie last act, with our heroine bearding the (not very convincing) villain in the scene of the crime. And since the Ecchols Family Christmas Party is going on at the same time....

8) The scene toward the end where Veronica confronts Jake Kane is something else--just as much for Kyle Secor's acting as for Bell's. There's obvious confusion in the way both of these people are interacting, and the way they get even more frustrated in the mass of accusations is magnificent. It's to Secor's credit that when he practically screams 'I don't know,' you believe him...and it's to Bell's credit that when she retorts 'I don't believe you'...you suspect she might believe him a little as well. This, and the little exchange with Celeste that follows, is another indication that Jake Kane is far from a one-dimensional monster....

The beautiful thing about this scene is that things end up
bloody and unpleasant for all three of these people given time...

9) There is a sense of profane beauty to the way the Stalker storyline resolves...but a beauty that is intentionally artifical. And the fact that the stalker turns out to be literally a nobody, someone who walks on at the last minute to stab Aaron...well, let's say we've just been handed another clue we won't even know we had until the end of this season.

10) If there is one sour note, it is the overtly affected performance by Kevin Sheridan as Sean Friedrich. It's so arch, so mannered that it's hard not to think he's the villain in Veronica's subplot.

Overall...as I said, this is one of my favorite episode--not just because it is fun and exciting, not just because it shows most of the cast at the top of their game, but because during this forty-some-odd minutes we learn a lot about a lot of these characters in their behavior and interaction with each other....and in the course of these interaction, learn some things we don't realize we learn until the resolution of this season's mystery has shaken out.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE SIX 'Return of The Kane' (2004)

"Yeah, and I bet this is how Jeb Bush did it, too..."

"Arrest records. Evidence Log. Autopsy Report. How many times do I have to look at this stuff? Until it starts to make sense."
 

1) Even before the credits, alot gets done--we finally get introduced to the Echols parents, played by real life celebrity couple Harry Hamlin and Lisa 'Fish Lips' Rinna; we see the storyline involving Jake Kane's pushing Duncan to be more involved progressed; we establish a little more about Wallace in setting up the central mystery for this episode; we are introduced to Abel Koontz (played by the highly underrated Christian Clemenson), the supposed killer of Lily; and we get Kristen Bell making sundaes. Okay, so that last part is only of interest to me, but still...it's obvious that Thomas--who wrote the story for scripter Phil Klemmer--is getting ready to start kicking things into high gear.

2) Oh, and one more thing...Amanda Seyfried pops up for the first time as a vision/guiding spirit, helping her piece together the mystery of her own murder. Supposedly, Seyfriend was only to appear in a small number of episodes, but Thomas liked the energy she brought to the set so much, he kept adding her to other stories...and boy, does the ghoulish chemistry between Veronica and Lily just supercharges every scene they're in together.

3) I'm still not sure why the whole 'Bum Fights' angle gets dragged into this story; it really doesn't interact much with the actual 'student election/Pirate Points' main spine...yes, it does help define the sort of home life Logan suffers through, but it could just as easily have been dropped into a dozen other stories.

Jane Lynch..torturing kids
since 2004...

4) Wow, Jane Lynch was being a bitch to high schoolers loooooooong before Glee, you Gleeks.

5) You really have to wonder if the whole storyline revolving around the school election was a reaction to the whole 'hanging chad' situation--which still rubbed some people the wrong way four years later.

6) While this may not look like a significant introduction, Madison Sinclair, played to Heather-y perfection by Amanda Noret makes an impression...and becomes a very significant thorn in Veronica's side as this season and next continues...

7) There's a definite parallel between Kyle Secor's Jake Kane who (at least at this point) is a well-rounded character who actively wants what's best for his son, and Hamlin's Aaron Echolls, whose only thoughts are of himself. This will play out as we go deep into Season One.

As we'll learn as we get deeper into season one, all families
are unhappy in their own way...and the Echolls family's
unhappiness is a dark and perverse one...

8) The sequence that begins with Logan picked out a belt from a large closet full of them and ends with Lisa Rinna sitting alone with an enigmatic look on her face, drinking while the sounds of a beating reverberate through the house, is powerful film noir manque. Rinna has never been a great actress, but she does have moments of greatness...this one, where she is a modern Sphinx, her reaction to the violence elsewhere unreadable, is one of those moments of greatness.

9) The whole throughline involving Wanda and Veronica may seem a little deux ex machina...but I do think it serves to shore up the film noir cred of the series--namely, that anybody can betray our heroine, and anybody can prove to be an ally.

10) The stinger, which sort of brings the Abel Koontz situation to the fore for future episode, works here--it's a cliffhanger-without-being-a-cliffhanger, driving us to follow on to next week.

Overall....this is a collection of great moments that maybe shouldn't be hanging out together, but is still a great lil' forty-some-odd minutes thanks to a lot of set-up and advancement of individual story arcs.