Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE FIVE 'Blast From The Past' (2005)

Admittedly, a chicken outfit is not involved in any of
the fantasies I have about Kristen Bell.

"I'll need an orchid wristlet, preferably in the fushia family, a Rolls Royce limo, and some Kane Software stationary."
"Seriously? Stationary? What for?"

"You're here for your looks. Why don't you leave the heavy thinking to me, sugarpants?"

1) We start a couple of minutes after last episode ended, with Wallace confronting his mother about Nathan. This storyline is coming to a head pretty rapidly, and will result in Wallace disappearing for a stretch only to return in a diminshed role, and Alicia disappearing altogether. However...

2) this is the first 'let's get Veronica and Jackie to bond' episode...and if you've been following my journey through the show, you'll know how much I'm down on that. To be fair, there is another one of these episodes that's a little more effective down the line, and the neat little inversion (Jackie wants to hire Veronica to prove her friend Cora didn't do it in spite of all the evidence, but this outing just doesn't quite rid us of Jackie-stank to work.

This episode is a showcase for Percy Daggs...just in time for
him to be sent away for a while...

3) Boy, Percy Daggs got some pipes on him...and he chooses to rebuke his dad with Motown!

4) You know what I find really, really strange? It's established very early on that this is all taking place during the days leading up to Homecoming--and yet the Bus Crash Overarc is not mentioned at all. It does get brought up elsewhere (as we'll get to in Point 5), but the fact that it doesn't come up during this rather important part of the school year is odd; especially since it could've been solved with a single line of dialogue claiming the Dance is in memory of the Bus Crash dead, or that some students are questioning holding it. A strange misstep for a script crew that's usually spot on.

5) The moment where Veronica listens in to a phone message left by one of The Bus Crash Dead is truly horrifying...and Kristen Bell sells it, and sells it well..

6) I like how director Harry Winer handles Veronica's bugging of Lamb...when she fast forwards through the recording, we cut to the squadroom in fast motion...until, of course, we're hit with the revelation of Terence Cook's secret shame.

7) And here's why this episode does not succeed in getting us more on Jackie's side...by having her get some digs at Veronica through the psychic, she comes off as even more petty and nasty than we've been assuming up to this point...especially given how Veronica has spent quite some time helping her out. Being played by Tessa Thompson doesn't help endear her much, either...

"...and then our growing closer will be stunted by my doing
something petty against you...it's to laugh, right?"

8) Now here's why I am so going to miss Percy Daggs when he is demoted to secondary sidekick soon...there is a scene here where he confronts Veronica and basically gets her dead to rights. It's a brilliantly written scene, all the more so because Wallace is correct in his assessment about the situation. But it would not have worked if Daggs wasn't able to give it the emotional heft it needed. Hell, the contrasting of how he speaks to Veronica, with passion and anger, to the way he speaks to Jackie in the next scene, drives home how close these two characters are.

9) We get another example of Enrico Colantoni's physical acting--the anguish on his face after hearing the phone message speaks volumes about how conflicted he is about telling Veronica he won't use the Bus Crash as leverage to win the election.

10) If you thought wasting time with a Dandy Warhol was a good idea, keep an eye out for the band at Homecoming. That's The Faders, an all-girl group who had the first in a series of...let me check...one hit, getting a rather generous chunk of air time.

Overall...this episode could have been a disaster, but it is salvaged by the reintroduction of the Overarc in the back end. There's some truly choice elements in here, so try to ignore the screechy performance by Erica Gimpel, the hamhanded handling of the Nathan Cook storyline and other missteps and enjoy the diamonds in this pile of chiffon.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE FOUR 'Green Eyed Monster' (2005)

I'm sorry...I briefly lost the capacity to think....

"There's a fine line between looking for a problem, and creating one."

1) As you'll learn as we go deeper into this season, it's pretty grim...thus, we hit the first of a couple of 'breather' episodes, mostly done in one stories to give us a break from the relentless gloom of The Bus Crash Overarc. This one is pretty frothy, although I should warn you--a couple of the others are almost as grim as the thing we're taking a break from.

2) Of course, that doesn't mean the various story arcs set up in the first three episodes are ignored--we get nearly ten minutes at the top of this episode devoted to the continuing Alicia's Got A Past storyline. Trust me--it may look like it's still going somewhere, but...well, it'll go twisting off into oblivion soon.

3) I know that this episode is supposed to be light hearted and all, but Laura Bell Bundy's Julie may be too far into the comedic, becoming shrill and unrealistic. Hell, she's so paranoid that you have to wonder why her fiance'--who comes off as rather nice and reasonable when we meet him--puts up with her.

4) And here in the middle of everything, we have the first mention of the Fitzpatrick family, who are going to pretty much be nightmares for Veronica for the rest of the series. We'll talk more about them when we get to their first onscreen appearance.

"And I will grow a mustache ttttthiiiis big!"

5) Seriously, why was Tessa Thompson cast? Weren't there other African-American actresses more capable of expressing emotions in a way that was more realistic than her? If her earlier 'I's so proud of my man' moment was bad, wait until you endured her jealousy hissy fit when Wallace heads off to help Veronica. Totally and thoroughly unbelievable.

6) As mentioned earlier, I do rather like Michael E. Rodgers' Colin in his one extended scene. It's played for laughs, with Veronica trying to play temptress, but he's an excellent straight man.

7) All of Laura Bell Bundy's goofiness is worth it just to see Keith finally deliver a little truth to his daughter. At this point, Colantoni and Bell are so comfortable with each other that they can do what might come off in a lesser show as an abrupt shift in character tone and make it make sense.

"Is this a good psycho face?  Be honest, now...."

8) Of course, the brilliance of this is that while Keith takes the high ground, he turns around and starts invading his girlfriend's privacy in his desire to get to the bottom of the whole situation with her and her ex. And it's doubly hypocritical when we see that Veronica chose not to invade Duncan's privacy when it comes to reading his emails to Meg.

9) Gleefully, writer Dayna Lynne North once again drags in the Curly/Aaron Echolls connection as part of her continuing campaign of misdirection...plus it gives us a logical excuse to have Veronica confront Logan anew, keeping that relationship still percolating.

10) And speaking of Duncan...we get the first murmuring of his storyline. You'll see throughout the year that Rob Thomas is determined to streamline and refine his supporting cast, writing some out and reducing the importance of others. As we'll see, some of these movements aren't entirely successful...and I'd kind of put Duncan's repositioning in there, as we'll see.

Overall...an okay episode muddled by those storylines that really don't go anywhere and a truly broad performance that sort of makes you want to root against Veronica making things work out for Julie.

Ten Statements About....VERONICA MARS SEASON TWO, EPISODE THREE 'Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang' (2005)



"How do you get along without actual, you know, talent,Ms. Carpenter?"


"Somewhere that million chimps with their million typewriters must've finally written King Lear, because Sheriff Lamb is actually right about something. I have seen this man before."

　

1) As mentioned earlier, the mini-mysteries (in this case, Cassidy hiring Veronica to catch Charisma Carpenter's Kendall cheating) end up serving the overarc while giving us a satisfying done-in-one puzzle for us fans. Of course, we're still early enough in the season that some of the additions to this overarc, like the man washed up ashore with Veronica's name in his palm, just add to the maze we're going to spend a year trying to transverse.

2) As terrific as this season is--and I really do feel it is the best of the three seasons this series lasted--there are a couple of really baffling dead ends and missteps...as we see early on with the first rumblings of what is going to be a really daft subplot involving the Fennels and the skeletons in their closet. Okay, it's just a little reaction of Alicia's when Keith asks her to come with him on a trip to Chicago right now, and a couple of appearances by a mysterious, vaguely menacing man, but trust me...soon we'll be up a cul de sac the series didn't need to go down.

3) The connection of our dead body to Aaron Echolls is actually sort of clever, as it gives us, the audience, a credible possible solution to the overarc tied in with last season's overarc. This ends up diverting us away from the real villain, who has shown his face several times already, and will show it a number of times before this season is over.

Everybody turns their back on Beaver...

4) This episode does feature the first one on one interaction between Duncan and Logan this season--and it is interesting how, even at this point, Jason Dohring is a little ahead of the game. The way he allows Logan all this anger at being abandoned--and then slips in the one thing that should unify these two friends--is very interesting. Pity that Logan is one of those characters that the writers don't seem to know what to do with, as he sort of drifts from ill-defined sub-plot to ill-defined sub plot for the first half of this season; he rapidly becomes the character the writers think is essential to the show, but have no idea what to do with...and it gets sort of worse next season.

5) I was never much of a Charisma Carpenter fan--thought she was kinda shrill and one-note in Buffy--but let's give her credit for one thing. When she needs to do a little comedic facial acting, like she does in her scene with Veronica in the gym, she's very, very good.

6) More reasons why I think Enrico Colantoni is an amazing actor--look at the moment when he discusses wanting to become Sheriff again...yes, he's joking during most of that, but he keeps that somewhat serious tone and face from when he tells Alicia, 'Yes. Part of me likes being that guy.' It makes it very clear how important this opportunity is to him, even when he's making cracks about Veronica struggling to wrestle methheads into the cop car.

7) We've talked in the past about some of the really small done-in-one characters--Michael Kostroff's Mr. Pope is in maybe ten minutes of this episode spread out over the first two acts, and yet this actor infuses this teacher with a great deal of life and moral character. That he refuses Veronica's advice when it becomes obvious the Casablancas scam is about to go belly up speaks volumes for what kind of man he is...and that Kostroff sells it without going into hysterics is commendable.

8) Boy, that extended cameo by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, lead singer of the Dandy Warhols, was a bit...random, wasn't it?

Richard Casablancas...the lame-ass you get when you can't
get Jake Kane....

9) Here's why David Starzyk's Richard Casablanacas never quite works--unlike Jake Kane, Richard gets maybe four scenes over two episodes, then disappears in a rush when Cassidy reveals that Kendall has been cheating. Granted, the whole point of introducing Richard is to drive home Cassidy's feelings of neglect, but there needed to be more life in the elder Casablancas for this to work.

10) And we end with Veronica making the connection we made--that if the dead man on the beach was a stunt coordinator connected with Aaron Echolls, he probably was hired to cause the bus crash to kill her. And the brilliance of this is that it strengthen what the show has led the audience to believe...which allows their misdirection to continue further beyond this episode.

Overall...while this episode features a couple of the messy bits that will detract from this season as a whole (I'm not even mentioning the continued wince-itude that is Tessa Thompson), there are enough good bits that make this watchable.

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.