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 FIVE 'You Think You Know Somebody' (2004)

Though there is a mystery in this episode, this is one of two
relationships that really drive the story...

"The best way to dull the pain of your best friend's murder is to have your mother abandon you as soon as possible. It's like hitting your thumb with a hammer, then when it's throbbing so badly you don't think you'll survive...you cut the damn thing off."
 

1) This is one of those episodes where the mini-mystery is designed to close out a number of plotlines--mainly Veronica's relationship with Troy, but writer Dayna North manages to use this further darkening of Troy to cast a little reflection on Veronica learning of her father's relationship with Rebecca...and even puts down further hints as to Logan's growing respect for our heroine. It's this sort of multitasking that the show does well.

2) Perhaps the strangest element of this episode is director Nick Gomez. Gomez was something of a hot talent back in 1992, when his microbudgeted, Brooklyn set crime drama The Laws of Gravity generated a lot of critical buzz. Then he followed it up with the ludicrous New Jersey Drive (with my neighborhood of Ridgewood recognizably filling in for New Jersey and--outside of a few more stabs at featuredom--retreated into serialized television. For someone who once had a very distinct, rubbed-raw style, Gomez' directing is very vanilla here save for one or two moments.

3) It's a pity Paula Marshall has this rep as a series-killer. She's hella sexy in a girl-next-door kinda way and has a definite charisma that leaves a lasting impression even in her very brief scenes in this episode.

Sparks fly between these two like an electric chair.....

4) I don't think we've mentioned Jason Dohring for a while--but he continues to prove that he was the absolute right person for this. Even though Thomas' plan is to do a slooooow burn towards the ultimate relationship between Logan and Veronica, Dohring is able to keep planting seeds (the playfulness with which they interact in the first act) while still retaining that vicious hardboiled edge in other moments. Watching these two interact, throwing barbs at each other as if they're sword blows, is one of the joys of these early episodes.

5) We get another revelation about Veronica's mother in what is arguably the few moments where the Gomez of 1992 shines through. And it's a pretty damn scary revelation that will lead to the introduction of another key satellite character whose presence is felt throughout the series' three season run.

6) I didn't realize that Luke, the hapless victim/client of this episode, is played by Sam Huntington, who will go on to play the slightly creepy Jimmy Olsen of Superman Returns and the sidekick to the titular character in Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. I guess that speaks pretty highly of his abilities, huh?

7) Boy, that scene where Luke laments about how the value of his Barry Bonds signed baseball will skyrocket once Bonds retires sure sounds hilarious in retrospective, doesn't it?

8) You wanna see proof that Kristen Bell and Enrico Colantoni are perfect playing a family, even though they don't look at all alike? Check out the scene at roughly the half hour mark. These two actors play it rough, play it raw, play each line as if they've been dragged through broken glass...and never once do you lose sight of the fact that these two people care deeply about each other even though they're out to wound emotionally.

9) Give Aaron Ashmore credit--even though it becomes rather obvious that he's Up To No Good (as opposed to Rebecca, who genuinely made Bad Choices In Her Past but is honestly a good person) very early on, he manages to keep the viewer in doubt as to whether he's a True Bounder or Not...and his ultimate fate is very satisfying. And speaking of satisfying...

Corinne Bohrer proves the old adage about leaving the
public wanting more....

10) Unlike previous episodes, this one's stinger does work. The scene of Corinne Bohrer recording a message for Veronica at a neon-drenched racetrack as The Postal Service's "From Great Hieghts" (a song that Gomez uses as a music cue throughout the episode) swells on the sountrack works perfectly to leave little hooks of curiosity in our brains as to what is going on with Lianne Mars that will build throughout Season One's first half.

Overall...this is another episode that works more for what is going on in the individual storylines than for the main mystery--but the excellent acting from Colantoni, Ashmore and others really elevate it into a great little piece of work.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE, EPISODE THREE 'Meet John Smith' (2004)

One of the moments that truly define this as A Show That Will
Be Whatever It Wants To Be, Damnit

 

1) Even though there is a mystery to solve here, the real focus of this episode is Duncan Kane, Veronica's ex and his flirtation with not taking his anti-depressants. Teddy Dunn is usually an average actor--but here he rises to the occasion, peeling away layers of Duncan until we see the boy Veronica used to see. It's a great performance.

2) Another introduction here--namely, Paula Marshall's Rebecca James. Rebecca is the first of a number of attempts to give Keith Mars something of a romantic interest, and Marshall is her usual girl-next-door hot self. Sadly, she's only around for a few episodes...as she does seem to have a nice chemistry with Enrico Colantoni. Oh...and her presence here should act as proof that she is not an automatic series-killer.

3) Another reason I'm absolutely in love with Kristen Bell, and why it galls me so much that she's stuck in Rom-Com Hell? Her body language. Take a look at this episode, and how she conveys so much with a smile, a tilt of the head, a sudden pull back. She's so in command of how to commicate non-verbally that it makes the moment where director Harry Winer uses some optical tricks to convey a moment of Veronica emo-ness feel forced.

"Wait, wait...in this episode I'm playing WHAT, exactly?"

4) I wonder what Melissa Leo feels when she looks back at this episode given how the fact she was cast as Julia Smith reflects on her.

5) You know...every time Veronica shows up in what I like to call her 'work clothes,' it makes me even more convinced that she would be the perfect inheritor of Anne Francis' mantle whenever a reboot of Honey West is proposed.

6) Once more, Rob Thomas shows how much he understands the film noir meme with which he is working. The mystery here is one that is uncovered as the results of another investigation...and manages to shed new light on our heroine and her emotional state.

7) And here, at the 32:39 minute mark, Jed Seidel's script pulls Veronica Mars away from being just another teen mystery series and situates itself firmly in the crossroads between suspense, horror and fantasy. Amanda Seyfried, from this moment on, steps out of the flashbacks to become something that's one part ghost, one part muse...and could very well be just some weird consensual hallucination. But she lives the part, and makes sure we're never quite comfortable when we visit Neptune from now on.

When Bell puts on this outfit....the gloves are coming off...

8) And speaking of Seyfried--the fact that she spends her life on the show with her skull cracked in, blood running down the side of her head once more drives home the point that this is not Safe Television.

9) The choice that Duncan eventually makes is devastating....not because of the why, but because by making this decision, he may be shutting off memories that may be painful, but also make him a more vital person.

10) The biggest sour note of this episode lies in its final sequence. Yes, it's important as it plants the seeds for one of the big plot hooks that will lead us into the second half of this season, but it rings false--especially given how the simple exchange between Veronica and her 'client' concerning what they've learned and their feelings about their missing parents more than makes the point that needs to be made.

Overall...an important episode in the season's development that fleshes out our characters more and finally positions this series as an eclectic mix of the suspense and fantasy unique onto itself.

"Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's the mansion you remember, or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild."