No thread yet, and we’re almost ready for this week’s episode!
I love shows that reward the careful viewer.
Two quotes from this one that fit into that category:
And then the dialog between Veronica and the chick that was helping her track down the pirate radio broadcast, after the door was opened:
Nice Rocky Horror bit.
Who was that actress, by the way? Where have I seen her?
I thought there was a thread, but a search didn’t find anybody.
Are you talking about “Mac”? (computer/ tech chick). She is played by Tina Majorino (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001499/).
Next week, Willow AND Cordy!
Brian
I thought she looked familiar - she’s the chick from Napolean Dynamite!
She was an adorable (and pretty recognizeable) child actress, and I’m glad she’s making what appears to be a fairly successful transition to an adult career.
As for the episode: I like that they were spending more time on Logan’s problems. I just wish they’d wrap up some of the hundred other mysteries they’ve thrown into the mix so that we, the viewers, can concentrate on a smaller number. Plus, I miss the chummy relationship between Veronica and Keith; it seems that it’s, well… not missing, exactly, but noticeably reduced this year.
And, hell, I miss Wallace.
I got into Buffy from the very large threads here at the end of S.5 (or was it four?). Maybe if we get together, we can help generate a buzz for this excellent show. Problem is, I think many are TiVo/taping it and watching it later, since stupid UPN has put it against Lost.
It was not as solid/creepy as 2.07 but still very good. I’m actually a bit more giddy about a new Veronica Mars than a new ep of Lost at this point. Showrunner Rob Thomas is really hitting the stride this season and it’s laid out almost flawlessly.
I chuckled at those bits too.
I liked Veronica’s realistic reaction to being overpowered by the methed-up biker tattoo guy. Once her taser is useless, she’s all out of tricks and is just a tiny teenage girl who’s in grave danger. She doesn’t have mad kung fu skillz to bail her out. She’s not Buffy or Sydney Bristow. She can scream and wriggle and start crying, because she’s not a super badass.
Keith would be so pissed if he knew she just wandered back to that dive with that guy. Not too smart! I love the fact that they’ll let their main character be extremely competent, yet often dangerously overconfident.
Logan’s life would be at least 30% easier if he didn’t feel compelled to be a giant ass to everyone.
I hope we get more Mac. Veronica needs more female friends. And I suspect they could actually be friends, not just Useful Human Tools.
We TiVo both Lost and Veronica Mars, and we don’t always get to watch them that same night. We usually end up watching Lost first because my husband likes it better, though he likes VM a lot. Also, it’s much easier to avoid major spoilers for VM than for Lost, where of a character dies or something big happens, it’s on the front page of CNN.com.
she was also the older daughter in When A Man Loves A Woman
Did anyone notice who the return address on the envelope to Meg was? I couldn’t make it out. I wanna know what was in that letter, and what is it Duncan’s subconscious thinks he can do to save Meg
I didn’t notice the name/address on the letter, but I’m interested in why Duncan sees Veronica the way she was portrayed in his dream: kinda controlling and forceful.
So when Logan was kidnapped, did his tormenters use his (Logan’s) cell phone? And then gave it back to him? Or did he somehow manage to swipe it between them hanging up and him getting tossed down the embankment? That had me really confused.
Just before Logan was tossed out of the vehicle, he managed to snake his hand inside the kidnapper’s pocket and grab the kidnapper’s cell phone. (I assumed it wasn’t Logan’s cell phone; I could be wrong.)
You’re not wrong; he did snag the other guy’s cell phone. That’s how he got his call in to the other guy–just hit redial.
As a VM newcomer, I could really use a Veronica Mars primer. I’m having trouble putting everything in its place, let alone knowing the place for everything (or, perhaps, everyone). And the synopsis on the backstory on upn.com is pretty sketchy. Can someone summarize what happened in the first season. I know folks got killed, but I can’t remember who and who pulled the trigger(s). My confusion may stem from my genetic inability to tell one pretty-boy apart from another, so if anyone’s up for giving me the lowdown, please be as explicit as possible vis-a-vis characters.
Someone in Weevil’s gang is making a slow play for control. I think we’re going to see more of things happening behind Weevil’s back, more of a connection with the Fighting Fitzpatricks. That gal by the billiard table who ID’d Veronica - she must have been left back a few times - she looked a lot older than HighSchool age.
Oh, sure, the redial part I got. I just wasn’t sure if the kidnapper used Logan’s phone or his own. (When I’m tired and watching a VHS copy of the show I tend to miss the smaller details.)
If you get a chance, you should watch the first season. Not only does it explain a lot, of course, but it’s an excellent first season for any show. Smart, holds together well, and the dialogue is fun and witty. Until you get that chance, however, here’s a decent site that’ll help fill you in on the missing details from the 1st Season.
It was from someone named “Chris Talley”, in Seattle, WA. No one we’ve seen or heard of before, as far as I remember.
I agree. Right now it looks like it’s Hector, maybe, since only two PCHers were left with Felix and he was one of them (the other being someone named “Bootsy” that we’ve never been introduced to), according to the (admittedly unreliable) flashback we got this episode.
Thanks for the direction arrow. I’ll give it a good look.
Not A Tame Lion: I’ll try to help.
Veronica is now a high school senior, the daughter of Keith and Lianne Mars. Once upon a time, Lily Kane was Veronica’s best friend. Lily’s brother Duncan was Veronica’s boyfriend. This made Veronica a de facto member of the “09-ers” the wealthy kids who live in a zip code ending in -09. Keith Mars was Neptune’s county sheriff, so the Mars family had some standing in the community.
One day Lily was murdered, bludgeoned to death next to her family’s swimming pool. Keith Mars was Neptune’s sheriff and he suspected Lily’s father, Jake Kane, of the murder. Jake Kane is a software zillionaire a la Bill Gates, so the murder and accusations were very high profile. Keith was unable to prove that Jake was the murderer, and he was thrown out of office, replaced by Sheriff Lamb.
Keith needed a job, so he became a private investigator. Lianne Mars couldn’t handle the loss of standing in the community after Keith was disgraced and thrown out of office, so she freaked out and abandoned Keith and Veronica, headed for Parts Unknown. Veronica spent the first half of Season One trying to locate her. When Veronica eventually found her, Lianne was a serious alcoholic who was also being intimidated by Clarence Wiedman, Kane Software’s head of security and Jake Kane’s personal henchman. Jake and Lianne were high school sweethearts and were having an affair at the time Lily was murdered. Around this time (I can’t remember if it was before or after Lily’s death, but I think it was right before), Duncan suddenly and inexplicably broke up with Veronica.
There was an implication that Jake might be Veronica’s real father, which would make her Duncan her boyfriend AND her half-brother. More on that later.
A suspect, Abel Koontz, soon was arrested and convicted for Lily’s murder, but for several good reasons Veronica still had her doubts about the killer’s identity and she continued to investigate on her own.
Wow, they covered a lot of ground last season!
Logan Echolls was Lily’s boyfriend, and best friends with Duncan. After Lily’s murder he really turned up the Total Prick Factor and was an antagonist to Veronica early in Season One, and then they started dating. Really. It was eventually revealed that his father, semiwashed-up movie star Aaron Echolls, was an abusive psycho (especially towards Logan). Logan’s mother spent a lot of time trying to drink her troubles away and apparently committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. Aaron has an older daughter, a wannabe actress named Trina, from a previous marriage. You may recognize her because she’s played by Alyson Hannigan, and she will appear in this week’s episode.
Another important subplot last year was the fact that at a party towards the end of her sophomore year (post-murder and breakup with Duncan), Veronica attended a big party at which she was drugged and probably raped. All she knew was someone put something in her drink, and she woke up the next morning knowing she’d had sex for the first time with an unknown partner. She did not share this information with anyone, including her father, but it was obviously traumatic and provided a secondary mystery for her to stew over. No, wait! She reported it to Sheriff Lamb, who made fun of her and blew her off while she cried because he hates Keith and is a Colossal Ass. Near the end of last season, Veronica found out what happened. Dick Casablancas gave a drink spiked with GHB to a girl named Madison, who didn’t know it was spiked. She was angry at Veronica, so she spit in the drink then gave it to Veronica, who drank it and started to be really dazed and out of it because of the drug.
Dick proceeded to make out a little with drugged Veronica in front of a bunch of people who found this hilarious. I think they even tried to get her to make out with a girl at one point. When Veronica passed out, Duncan rescued her from everyone and tried to get her out of there. At this point, Logan helpfully spiked Duncan’s drink with the same GHB, thereby lowering his inhibitions as well. He carried her to a room in the house. A very drunk and drugged Veronica halfway woke up, found herself with her beloved ex-boyfriend, and they proceeded to have sex. She couldn’t remember any of it when she woke up in the morning, and had to piece all this together by talking to about half a dozen people. So technically she hadn’t been raped, but by this time Veronica also knew that Duncan was possibly her brother.
This was resolved when Keith took a DNA test and proved without a doubt that he was really Veronica’s father. Yay!
Oh, in the middle of the season, Veronica spent her college fund putting her mother into alcohol rehab. After that Lianne came home for awhile, but it turned out she’d simply ditched the rehab and continued to drink. She stole $50,000 that Keith had earned and disappeared.
Ok, so there were a lot of twists and turns and almost everyone was a murder suspect, but eventually Veronica discovered that Lily had a secret affair with Aaron Echolls, and he killed her. Then he tried to kill Veronica and Keith, failed, and was arrested for Lily’s murder. That’s pretty much where the season ended.
I totally left out Wallace and Weevil.
Wallace is Veronica’s new best friend, and he often gets dragged into her investigatons. He has a single mother and a small brother, and Wallce’s mom (Alicia) started dating Keith when Lianne was gone.
Weevil is a biker boy from the wrong side of the tracks. He ALSO had a secret relationship with Lily. He and Veronica were on guardedly friendly terms most of the time. His gang has had run-ins with some of the 09-ers, and he had a beef with Logan at the end of last year, which culminated in the altercation on the bridge where Felix, one of the bikers, was stabbed.
I’m still leaving a lot out. Anyone else care to correct what I got wrong and fill in gaps?
Gah! On preview, I see SkipMagic has provided a link. Well, I’m posting anyway.
6.5GB of data downloaded to get all of season 1, and it turns out, I could have just stopped here for the Dope.
Though, actually, it seems like perhaps Veronice Mars doesn’t air on any stations in Canada, and thus I’ll be downloading it from her to eternity, what with the ravaging addiction that has resulted from watching all the episodes up to now. All of them. In less than a week.
That’s a good summary, cbawlmer. I just wanted to emphasize that a lot of what you mention is backstory. Lilly’s death, Duncan’s break-up with Veronica (which happens before the murder), Veronica’s rape, and Lianne leaving all happen during Veronica’s sophomore (and what was Lilly’s junior) year, and are presented to us in flashback form.
Season 1 opens with Veronica coming off that low point. She’s now an outcast without a single real friend at her high school, and ostracized by the in-crowd she used to be part of. She and her dad are living in a cramped apartment in the dingy section of town while he tries to make ends meet as a PI/bounty hunter, and she helps at his office after school and sometimes gets involved in his cases. She’s transformed herself, both mentally and physically (through her haircut and clothes in early season 1), from a naive, sweet, girly girl to a more hardboiled, hard-edged outsider, as a way to cope with what she’s gone through.
At school she’s either ignored (Duncan) or mocked (Logan, Dick, and a lot of the other 09ers) by her former friends, but she’s started giving as good as she gets, especially towards Logan. About halfway through the season when his mom disappears, and is persumed dead, she sympathizes with him and helps Logan look for her. At one point they track down one of her credit cards that is still being used, sure that it has to be his mother (Lynn Echolls) using it, but it turns out to be his half-sister, Trina, instead, and his mother is really dead. Logan collapses into Veronica’s arms crying when it hits him that is mother is definitely gone. After that their relationship thaws and at the end of the season they start a passionite but rocky relationship (especially since Veronica at one point provides the sheriff’s office with evidence that Logan killed Lilly, which turns out to be a dead end). Eventually they break up over the summer, as is related in the first episode of this season.
Another important character for this season is Meg. Meg was a cheerleader, and popular girl who was still nice to Veronica after she lost her popularity, and pretty much the only 09er who tried to be her friend. At one point (mid last season) Veronica helped Meg find out who was spreading rumors about her sexual history in a case of the week. Then a while later, Veronica helps Meg track down a secret admirer, who turns out to be Duncan. Veronica is somewhat conflicted about this, as she’s not completely over Duncan, but she basically gives her approval to Meg, and Meg and Duncan start dating. Later, when Veronica starts dating Logan, Duncan flips out over it in jealousy, going postal on his car with a shovel, even though he thinks Veronica is his sister at that point. Eventually Veronica reveals to Duncan (in the season finale) that they’re not related, and we find out in the season premiere that Duncan broke up with Meg shortly thereafter.
Actually, it was (the very appropriately named) Dick who carried Veronica into the bedroom. Duncan does rescue Veronica from some guys who are doing body shots off of her at the party, but after he’s drugged it’s not clear what happens to him. He seems to wander off or otherwise leave Veronica. Veronica ends up making out with Dick and being fed more shots by Dick and some of his friends. He eventually carries her into a guest bedroom and eggs on his brother Cassidy (aka “Beaver”) about having sex with Veronica. But after Dick and his friend (Sean, who popped up a few times last season, and is another horrible person, but he’s not very important and hasn’t been seen this year) leave the room, Beaver has second thoughts and leaves without doing anything. At this point Duncan turns back up, pretty out of it, and finds Veronica, who is now half awake, and (to his point of view) willing, and in a bed, and they have sex.
Dick, as can be seen from his actions the night Veronica was raped (or thought she was raped, whatever) is pretty scummy. He’s one of Logan’s better friends, and is somewhat friendly with Duncan. Veronica doesn’t like him, but she seems to be tolerating him this season. He’s kind of a brainless, high school party dude, who has very little empathy or consideration for anyone else, though he is loyal to Logan.
His younger brother, Beaver, is a junior this year. He’s the only regular HS character (other than Lilly, who’s dead, and wasn’t a regular) who’s not in the same grade as Veronica et al. He seems to be more decent than Dick, but still follows him around and participates in a lot of his activities.
I think that covers all of the regulars except for Jackie, who wasn’t present in season one.
There’s also “Butters” aka Vincent - the vice principal’s son who is also a junior this year - who was featured in “Ahoy, Mateys”
Thanks for filling all that in. I forgot how complicated the whole thing was with Dick at the party. It made it more confusing that we saw several different versions through the flashbacks of multiple characters, Rashomon-style.
And I did completely forget to mention Meg. Oops, sorry Coma Girl.
Maybe I focus on the backstory because I spent so much time trying to figure it out. We started watching almost halfway through last season, but we picked up reruns as we went along. I think there’s still 2 or 3 episodes I haven’t seen. I need to get the DVDs, but I suspect Santa is bringing them this year. 