Veronica Mars S01E16

The episode in which Veronica finds a parrot, a mother, and a little spirit.

“Whoever said it’s a man’s world had no idea how easy it is sometimes to be a girl.”

“Please tell me that’s not filled with Polish hookers?”

“I don’t want to hear about your protein deficiency. If you eat eggs, you eat babies.”

If you were surprised that Abel Koontz is leaving behind survivors, raise your hand. What a surprise. Of course he has survivors. These murder mystery revelations are non-revelations. I figured out these things a while back.

Oh, and if Veronica’s mom really thought that Veronica was Kane’s daughter, why didn’t she try to break up Veronica and Duncan? I think that’s just more ephemera to tantalize us.

Speaking of tantalizing, I think the murder mystery bit is leading us down the wrong paths. They’re setting up Duncan’s epilepsy and memory loss as a possibility. They’re also setting up something with the Weevil/Lilly angle as well as the Logan/Lilly break up. This episode reiterated the Celeste Kane possibility. They keep setting up more whos for the whodunit. But I think Logan, Weevil, and Duncan loved her too much. I’m even going to assume Celeste isn’t a total witch, just hates what Veronica might represent. And Veronica’s mom corroborates Jake Kane’s alibi. So, who did it? Argh. I get this feeling that the writers are going to pull the same trick they did with the answer to this episode: not provide enough foreshadowing then suddenly drag the criminal from nowhere.

Look at the violation of mystery procedure perpetrated in this episode. We have several people set up who may have done it, none of whom did. We could guess it was someone from Neptune. We found out it was #13. We knew Jake had orchestrated the goat kidnapping, but only after the missing parrot had become news (it could be unrelated). And we knew that Wallace was better than him in basketball. BUT, we don’t get to see Jack’s number until seconds before the revelation was made. The rest was circumstantial and most of the hints could implicate anyone at Neptune, especially Wallace. So, we were not provided with the tools to accurately guess the identity of the parrotknapper until seconds before Veronica tells us. The story is entertaining, but it doesn’t play the game fairly. A good mystery provides the clues but does so in such clever riddles that you don’t figure it out until your told, but when you look back, you say, “Blyad! I’m stupid.”

As I said, I think this episode is representative of the overall murder. I think that none of the people being set up as possibilities now will be the murderer and we won’t be given the tools to even start looking at the riddle until the last moments before the solution is revealed. It’s just not playing fair.

On a better note, I liked how Veronica has overcome her hatred of school activities for the sake of friends in the last two episodes. First she went with Meg to a party then the dance. Now she does school spirit things for Wallace like attend the game and bake snickerdoodles. She’s growing in a way that lets her accept her old self. Now if she could just accept that Meg and Duncan are a better match than her and Duncan.

Second, I was happy to see the mother, even if she was a wreck. It helps to balance the image of Veronica’s family that we have been getting. It seems strange they couldn’t get her some sort of treatment that didn’t cost the entirety of Veronica’s college fund, but that just emphasizes the unfailingness of familial love.