Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE SEVEN 'Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner' (2005)

"Duncan, I know Wallace Fennel...and you are no Wallace
Fennel."

" A ten year-old boy who voluntarily washes his hands, who enjoys quiet time, and does what he's told with a smile. If he doesn't pick his nose soon, I'm looking for wires."

1) While there is some lip service given to there being a done-in-one plot, this is really Diane Ruggiero setting up a whole slew of threads for the second act of this season’s mystery.  And it’s to her credit that some of these thread set ups are very, very subtle.

2) And that done-in-one is a Trojan Horse that advances Duncan’s subplot while foreshadowing the reintroduction of Alona Tal’s Meg, and her ultimate role as this season’s Lilly Kane stand-in.  And, quite frankly, the final reveal is truly shocking.

3) This may be the only time that Michael Muhney’s Sheriff Lamb acts like a human being.  After a healthy dollop of comic relief, Lamb actually acts like a sheriff when confronted with what Veronica and Duncan discover.  It’s a rare moment that gives this otherwise one dimensional character a little nuance.

4) While I understand that at this phase of the Kendall Casablancas’ character arc, she’s serving as the lead up to the Fitzpatrick subplot (more on this in later episodes), but too much is spent on her striving to stay a woman of leisure in light of her husband’s disappearance.  Now maybe some of this is my feeling that a little Charisma Carpenter goes a long way, but I could really do without her taking up so much running time.  On top of that, there’s that weird little grace note that seems designed to throw doubt into the Veronica/Duncan storyline that I don’t recall going anywhere.

This scene is the one that almost makes
it worthwhile.

5) Boy, Krysten Ritter is a touch broad at this phase in her career.  I gather that Gia is supposed to be a spoiled rich girl trying to hard to fit in and become part of the Cool Clique, but her forced cherriness and cluelessness seems too forced.  Even though she gets much, much better in the years following her one year tenure here but at this moment...Yikes!

6) I am still amazed at how subtle some of the clues as to the solution of the season mystery is.  There’s a single line of dialogue from the person who turns out to be the villain, and its not until you’ve seen the mystery play out that you realize he’s trying to escape the scene of the crime.

7) It strikes me that there’s what I assume to be a conscious parallel between a scene with Steve Guttenberg’s Wally Goodman an his son and the scene in season one where Logan enters The Belt Room.  What it says about Goodman speaks volumes once we realize the skeleton in his closet.

8) This is the beginning of the Dr. Thomas Griffith subplot.  Maybe it’s because Rick Peters isn’t that great of an actor; maybe it’s because I know how this storyline goes nowhere...but it turns out to be really, really awful.

Not the picture I would draw of Kristen Bell, to be honest.

9) You know, I would not have known that was supposed to be Amanda Noret’s Madison Sinclair at Gia’s pajama party landing zings against Veronica if it wasn't for the closing credits.  Given how massive an influence Madison has in Veronica Mars mythology (so much so that the movie goes out of its way to give us a scene of Veronica slugging her), making her appearance in this episode so generic is puzzling.

10) In this episode, there is an attempt to make Duncan into a Wallace Manque....and Teddy Dunn thoroughly fails to live up to the task.  His lameness in Watsoning Veronica only makes one yearn for Percy Daggs all the more.

Overall...the final third almost makes up for the scattershot nature of the rest of the episode, as the episode tries too much to cover all its bases.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE TWO 'Driver Ed' (2005)

Kevin Smith in this episode?  How can that be?

"Jessie, I wouldn't even know where to start with that. I mean, how do you prove that someone didn't kill themselves?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't be waiting for Veronica Mars in a bathroom."

　

1) And we start this episode with Veronica experiencing some guilt--and oh, yeah, the rather...annoying debut of Tessa Thompson's Jackie Cook. I warned you about her last episode, but to reiterate--she's the most unwelcome cast member since, well, ever, and no matter how much Thomas and company try to get you to have sympathy for her later on, we never do. And what's more, the fact that Wallace falls for her so hard so quickly sort of diminishes him in our mind.

2) Notice how Diane Ruggerio's script still uses the 'done in one mini-mystery' format...only this mini-mystery ties directly into the overarc, as Veronica is hired to prove that the bus driver responsible for last episode's tragedy didn't do it to commit suicide...

3) And on top of that, the shakedown cruise of the first season has given our writing staff a little more confidence in dealing with multiple balls--for an example, witness how the build up of the storyline involving Woody Goodman and his political ambitions dovetail nicely not only with the ongoing background noise of the increasing racial and economic tensions in the city, but introduces an intriguing slant in the character arc of Keith Mars. We're on edge with Guttenberg's Woody since everything about his presence screams 'this is your villian for the season'...and yet, his interplay with Keith is very genuine and he seems real in his desire to get things done (notice how he appears in the background of Sheriff Lamb's press conference).

"Noooo, Wallace!  Stay away from Annoying New Supporting
Romantic Interest Girl!"

4) Oh, yeah...this is the episode that features Kevin Smith in a small role. He's...okay, I guess (a damn sight better than Joss Whedon when he shows up a few episodes later), but he's dripping with red herring oil....

5) Another introduction--David Starzyk's Richard Casablancas, the father of Dick and Cassidy. I'm going to be honest--he never quite makes an impression, coming off throughout his appearances as a sort of 'Jake Kane Light', but he is essential in contributing to the overarc in a way that will pay out toward the end of this season.

6) I really appreciate how the solution to the mini-mystery comes out of a shift of perception that's thoroughly logical given the circumstances--yes, Sheriff Lamb gets it wrong, but not due to incompetence but placing the suicide note in the context of the situation as he sees it, whereas Veronica sees the real circumstance and acts upon it. And while we're on the subject...

7) The ultimate solution doesn't give Jessie the kind of comfort we'd expect it to--it's a solution that opens up a whole new box of messiness, and doesn't necessarily translate into accomplishing the goal of getting the insurance company to pay out.

8) Now here's something that I do think the second season--and especially the third season--tends to do that I think detracted from the show...namely pump up the soap operatics. The whole side trip to Veronica sleeping with Duncan and then learning that...dumdumdum...Logan has rented the suite next door just drags the show down into the netlet mud, erasing the smartness of the show even for a few minutes.

And the plot thickens....

9) Reasons why I love Enrico Colantoni as an actor--the single, sustained shot of his face as he watches Sheriff Lamb dismiss Jessie is magnificent. His expression doesn't change a whit, and yet you can see everything that is going through his head, including an increasing outrage.

10) And then, after putting paid to Wallace's mini-mystery and giving us a cool lil' bit between Bell and Colantoni which includes the hint that he knows she had sex....Ruggerio grabs hold of our attention to drive home that this is all about the overarc, as we get the stinger with Veronica's name written on the bus driver's corpse.

Overall...a pretty good episode bouyed by some great guest performances, the best thing about this is how it keeps introducing threads that all play into the greater tapestry of the overarc. Yeah, we're going to see some of those threads get pretty inconsequential soon, but right now we're just salivating for more.

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.