Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE SIX 'Rat Saw God' (2005)

No one expected the return of Abel Koontz...but maybe
they expected how dark his story becomes.

"Wow. Where did you learn that interrogation technique?"
“"Harvard. Pretty convincing hysterical routine you got. Where'd you learn that?"
“Watching cheerleading tryouts results."

1) It seems like every season after the first, where everything was new and bright and Rob Thomas was setting up the ground rules for the VM Universe, there is always one or more episodes devoted to tying up loose ends from the previous season.  This is that episode from this season, as writer John Enbom and Phil Klemmer address the fate of Christian Clemenson’s Abel Koontz and his daughter.  As such, it’s a very, very dark episode.

2) You wanna know why I hated Clemenson’s recurring character in Boston Legal?  Just watch his performance here as the dying Koontz.  Clemenson only has two scenes, but those scenes run the gambit from compassion to despair to happiness as he is seeking out the fate of his daughter.

3) This is the first episode without Percy Daggs’ participation, as Wallace is off in Chicago following his own subplot.  And even beyond Veronica’s pointing it out, it’s very obvious that Daggs’ presence is missed.  Without Wallace (or for that matter, his mom) to provide a little light in the dark, dim world of Veronica, the world becomes oppresively noir.

Go away, BUFFY creator!  Stop stinking up my show!

4) This is, of course, the Joss Whedon cameo episode and, as much as the Kevin Smith cameo sucked ass, it paled to Whedon’s broad caricature of The Mean Boss to America’s Top Model’s Kim Stoltz.  The less said about him, the better.

5) Oddly enough, the most intriguing aspect of this episode is the presence of Christopher B. Duncan’s Clarence Weidman, and the strange respect that Thomas seems to be growing between him and Veronica.  Do they like each other?  No.  But as their respective investigations into Amelia Delongpre’s fate dovetail, they see something in each other that makes them reliable allies.

6) The surprising return of Harry Hamlin’s Aaron Echols results in two rather strong scenes.  What strikes me, and continues to strike me, about Hamlin’s performance is his absolute conviction that he is A Good Man Who Has Done Nothing Wrong.  Even as he tries to convince Logan that Duncan was the true killer, Hamlin doesn’t seem to understand how monstrous he’s become.  And speaking of those two scenes....

This is the last tender moment these two will have this episode.

7) Those of us, like me, who prefer our Enrico Colantoni hardcore will love his role in this episode.  Don’t be fooled by his more or less lighthearted moments at the top of the hour; once we get deep into the episode, Colantoni’s Keith Mars is all business, culminating in a downright bad ass scene where you expect Keith to be after one thing, only for us to realize what he’s really after and why Aaron should be very worried.  I’ve always said Colantoni is a major player in why I love this show, and this episode is further proof as to why.

8) I’ll call it--even for a show like this, the ending of this done-in-one, where we learn Amelia’s fate and how Veronica chooses to handle telling Abel as he’s literally dying is one of the grimmest ever.  It’s made especially grim by how, by the nature of the mystery, so much of the interaction happens off-screen.  Only when Veronica is face-to-hand with Amelia’s ultimate fate does anything happen immediately.

9) I never was quite comfortable with Ryan Hansen’s promotion to series regular, and this episode makes the argument for me.  The scenes of Dick Casablancas uilizing his father’s outlawdom to get into (a very green, acting-wise) Krysten Ritter’s Gia, or giving Logan the tacit approval to bang his stepmom just feels....weird.

(and if you think his behavior is strange now, wait until we get to next season....)

10) Look, I know that this single episode gets so dark that everyone felt that some serious comic relief was needed--but those scenes with Tracy Walter’s Motel Manager are not only unfunny but They.  Keep.  Coming.  Back.  To. Him.  I would accept an entire mystery built around Joss Whedon’s rent-a-car manager before I watch one more second of that toothless stereotype of a motel guy.

Overall...a truly grim little episode that actually gives some relief to the overarc by having the done-in-one story darker and nastier than it is.  Recommended, but be prepared; saying relief is sparse is being kind.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE ONE 'Normal Is The Watchword' (2005)...Plus some words on how we got here...

The biggest surprise about Veronica's lovelife is that it doesn't
include Duncan or Logan...no, wait....

"This is Neptune. Nothing happens accidentally."

To the surprise of everybody--including series creator Rob Thomas--Veronica Mars was renewed. At the time, it was the lowest-rated drama series to ever be picked up for a second season, and the only new show on UPN's 2004 schedule to be on its 2005 schedule. Part of the reasoning was because the show had garnered some celebrity fans. In an article in Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King of all people praised the show as being 'Nancy Drew meets Philip Marlowe.' Kevin Smith posted on his blog called it the best show on television, and Joss Whedon actually expressed envy over how well-crafted the season finale was. This resulted in both Smith and Whedon taking small parts in Season Two.

But I have to think somebody at Viacom, which owned both UPN and CBS, took a shine to the show. During the summer, key episodes of the first season were presented on CBS during prime-time on Friday. And a new advertising push spurred on by these celebrity endorsements preceded the show's return in late September of 2005. It's obvious that there was a desire for this show to succeed.

Which leads us to....

1) Well, it's the second year and even though Thomas and company decide to try to fool us into thinking we're back in the 'done-in-one-mini-mysteries' structure at first, it doesn't mean that things haven't been shifted around. And it's clever how Thomas is able to hold off some of the major revelations--especially the ones about the way the Veronica-Duncan-Logan-Meg rectangle has shifted--until late in the episode.

2) Now knowing he has another full season, Thomas chooses to make a few changes--primarily ratcheting up the '09er/PCHer tension through one of the loose ends in last season's finale. It allows for him to comment on then-current concerns, like the introduction of metal detectors in inner-city schools, without venturing out of Neptune proper.

3) We also get a couple of new additions to the cast. Along with Ryan Hansen and Kyle Gallner's Casablancas brothers being fully promoted to regulars (and we'll see the genius of that as we go along) and the addition of Charisma Carpenter, fresh from Angel, as Kendall Casablancas, Dick and Cassidy' stepmom, we get Steve Guttenberg's Woody Goodman. Of course, the brillance of introducing Guttenberg up front as a recurring character is that we're automatically assuming he's this season's Aaron Ecchols, a bad guy who will somehow be involved in the overarc. As we'll learn....yes and no.

There are ways to introduce Whedonverse actresses to
bolster ratings, and there are ways....

4) On the other hand...the presence of Goodman also introduces a puzzling new aspect to Neptune--namely that it's a large enough market for it to support an MLB team, The Sharks. This is really peculiar given how close Neptune has been established as being to San Diego, and how Keith Mars was depicted as a Padres fan (there was even a subplot in one episode last season that had Veronica saving up to send her dad to Padres Fantasy Camp). This element really adds nothing to the season's overarc, and it simply muddies the continuity between the two.

5) Okay, I lied...the Sharks angle does give Thomas an excuse to introduce the Cooks, Jeffrey D. Sam's Terrance and his daughter, Tessa Thompson's Jackie. I suspect that Jackie was introduced to give Wallace a concrete love interest this season, but as we'll learn. this character is so badly written that we'll wish the Cooks weren't bolted onto this season's overarc so awkwardly. but then....

6) As we'll see, the series doesn't quite know what to do with Wallace this season. While he's a major portion of this episode, once more acting as Watson to Veronica's Holmes, his role gets reduced quite rapidly to the point where he literally drops out of sight for the middle portion of the season. It's a criminal underuse of Percy Daggs.

7) I have to admit...when we get the story about how Veronica and Duncan got back together, I love that we never find out what was written inside the birthday fortune cookie. Thomas is confident enough in the audience that has followed this show to this moment to know they will come up with the right answer to that question.

8) I appreciate that Thomas doesn't let Veronica and Weevil stay buddy-buddy like they were in Season One...but that the relationship and the respect hasn't degraded to the point where they're not there for each other. Yes, the words in their scene get heated (and sets up one of the sub-plot threads for this season), but in the end it is Weevil who offers Veronica a ride--not because he has to, but because he recognizes that she is one person he can count on.

Believe it or not, what precedes this shot is the biggest
suprise of this episode....

9) Of course, mention should be made of the sudden, blink-and-you-miss-it uncredited cameo by Amanda Seyfried as Lily, running out of the corner of Veronica's eye to lead her to Weevil. It's an indicator that the magic realism aspect of the series is not quite going away just yet...

10) And here's where Thomas pulls the rug out from under us...after all the indication that this season's mystery was going to involve the murder of a PCHer apparently at Logan's hand, we get the actual start of this season's overarc--the crash of the school bus and the death of all within. And it becomes apparent from the one quick, horrific shot of the path the bus took to its watery grave that what Thomas has in mind is a lot more grandiose than what he's been letting us in on.

Overall...if we ignore how some of these plot threads sour, this is an excellent start to the second season, climaxing in that one moment of magnificent misdirection that makes it clear that things are going to get darker...maybe even darker than they were last season.