Whoopsie, I’m late:
Witchita Linebacker. Veronica (Kristen Bell) is hired by a campus football player to help him find his stolen playbook before the next practice, or risk losing his scholarship. As a result of the expose Veronica wrote about the campus sorority, Dean O’Dell (guest star Ed Begley, Jr., "Arrested Development") threatens to expel her if she doesn’t reveal one of her sources. Logan (Jason Dohring) tells Veronica his schedule is keeping them apart, but she realizes he has been spending time participating in illegal gambling. Meanwhile, Veronica convinces Keith (Enrico Colantoni) to hire Weevil (Francis Capra) to assist with office work at Mars Investigations.
I’m conflicted about this one too… why are they writing Logan so flat and Duncan-like?
I, uh, fell asleep halfway through and woke up during the library scene. Not sure I liked what I saw enough to bother with the download. Guess I’ll be catching the TWOP recap when it’s up.
Good to see Weevil again, but the character…I appreciate that yeah, events have probably changed him. But that didn’t _feel_ like Weevil. Weird.
There was a bit of a “fat Apollo” vibe to Weevil, wasn’t there? None of the beloved characters feel completely themselves to me (including Veronica) — though I’m liking Wallace’s roomie more. But seriously, remember how Buffy seasons had that pattern where the second episode was always her friends behaving completely out of character? I’m beginning to suspect a similar pattern with Veronica’s relationships — Veronica in love, but boy distant by third episode, kind of thing.
I have to say, I think that one thing V. has in common with Buffy is that she’s more interesting when she’s unattached. (Of course, the Buffy writers never seemed to agree with me on that.) I’m hoping the romance with Logan will end soon. Also, with neither Mac or Wallace around, V. seemed a little less down-to-earth.
It’s hard, at this point, for me to be invested in much of what’s going on mystery-wise. It doesn’t have the emotional resonance of my-best-friend-was-murdered or I-could-have-been-on-that-bus. And the football guy? Sorry, still a jerk, as he revealed in the think-with-his-muscles “Where is it, Jerry?” scene. (What, me? Have a problem with jocks? Nah.) The feminists are so cartoony. I hope that’s remedied soon.
I really hoped that Detective!Weevil would work out. I think the dynamic between him and Keith could have been really interesting. Him as the janitor might be more realistic, but it shifts the focus of the show further away from Keith and also smacks of Xander-ification. Which parallel is already present in the poor guy’s sudden weight gain. Prison reform should include nutritionists, I’m thinking.
I thought the episode was a bit meh. I’m not particularly buying that the girlfriend would believe that he could just apply for the scholarships or whatever in the middle of the school year and get the money in time to pay for the ongoing term. My experience with financial aid and loans was nowhere near that easy.
(Also, the super double twist where random guy stole the playbook from the girlfriend so they could gamble on the game? Yeah, not feeling it so much.)
Glad Weevil is back and I liked that he screwed up working on the custody case.
Veronica’s standoff with the dean felt like a weak replica of the good old days when she was facing off against Principal Clemmons.
Oh and here’s an unusual theory on the rapes
Dave said: Which parallel is already present in the poor guy’s sudden weight gain.
Was just me who thought Weevil looked fat pretty much all of last season?
I too wanted more of Weevil and Keith — but at least they’ve left the door open that he’s good at it and liked doing it. It was a little disconcerting how much they looked like bizarro world versions of each other though.
Should come in handy having a Weevil who owes V. with access to so much of campus after hours though.
Re: the unusual theory. I could kinda see this, but I don’t know how you can be tricked into thinking you were raped. Most girls can tell when they’ve had sex and when they haven’t — and we’re talking drugged girls being forcibly assaulted here. Not that this show hasn’t indulged in serious handwaving before.
Clearly, the writers prefer writing V. solo — the show’s so much sparkier when she is — so just break them up already!
Oh, forgot to say: Neko Case shout-out! That made me happy.
>Was just me who thought Weevil looked fat pretty much all of last season?
Just you.
But he was dressed differently last episode, and sitting down much more, and I wondered if that was part of the altered look.
This episode felt a little fluffy and hollow to me, though it introduced a few new characters, and brought Weevil back. I was thinking “fat Apollo” too, though in Weevil’s case it’s probably not deliberate. There’s just more of him to love, I guess (sorry Karen F, I know he murdered that one guy but they do write him loveable and I’m putty in their hands).
It’s sort of heartbreaking that Veronica’s trying to tone down the worst of her paranoid ways with Logan, who’s surely going to betray her trust. When he said something about “beyond pathological” and she cut in to apologise and explain herself, I thought for a moment that he would say “No, I meant me.” And go on to confess whatever he’s been up to. The situation seemed to call for a more mutual apology. But I think they’re setting us up for the big betrayal.
Good soundtrack, anyway.
Yeah, this episode was kind of lightweight, which surprised me given that they only have three or four more episodes with which to wrap up the rape plot.
I’ve been dreading Weevil’s return, expecting him to start bemoaning his sorry lot in life the way he did most of last season (which sorry lot, just to recap, is serving a couple of months for a murder). Instead, it seems that life has hit Weevil hard in the face, and made him a little humble. Seeing him like this was a little nice and a lot sad.
The situation seemed to call for a more mutual apology.
I thought this, too. (What, me? Have a problem with bad boy boyfriends? Nah.)
Other than that, though, I seem to be in the minority in that I liked it. I thought the Weevil stuff was nicely done, I thought the MotW was good, and up until that last scene I was happy with the way the Logan/Veronica relationship was being handled.
I see no reason for Logan to apologize to Veronica. I waited one whole season to hear her apologize to him.
1) I’m sorry I accused you of killing your girlfriend.
2) I’m sorry I made the accusation where Eli could hear and almost got you killed as a result.
3) I’m sorry the whole thing led to you being accused of murdering Felix and despised by the whole town. I never did acknowledge my role in that.
4) I’m sorry I never got very interested in finding out who did kill Felix. Even though you were my boyfriend at the time, I just couldn’t be bothered. I would have investigated if it had been anyone but you. I’m sorry I let you get spit on and shot at and didn’t do a thing.
5) I’m sorry I expected you to get past the death of your mother and the realization that your father had murdered your girlfriend in a couple of months over the summer and dumped you when you didn’t.
6) I’m sorry that after dumping you, I hooked up with your best friend so you’d lose him as well as me. I was really worried about Meg, but you–not so much.
And now she’s tracked his cellphone. He can be a jerk, but over the course of their relationship he’s treated her a lot better than she’s treated him.
Well, when you put it that way…
I love Logan, and he’s come through for Veronica beautifully, over and over. But after Lily died, he made her life hell for months on end, while doing some pretty shady things, so I don’t blame her for taking a long time to trust him. Since then, he’s earned a lot more trust than she gives him. And yes, she has wronged him, and owes him big. I guess I’ve assumed there’s been a lot of apologising offscreen. She’s helped him out of his jams, too (including, uh, the jams she got him into).
But right now I get the feeling that Logan’s in a self-destruct pattern and I suspect he’s up to something that he isn’t telling her about. Which is why I think that of all the times for her to start acknowledging her errors and trying to give him the trust he deserves, this one may tragically backfire. I hope I’m wrong about that.
Karen F: You and I have talked about this before and I agree. When Veronica and Logan have been together in the past, he has treated her much better than she gives him back — and much better than Duncan ever did. What frustrates me, is that they’re now writing Logan acting just as shady as they were writing Duncan last year. It’s behavior that’s not inconsistent with Logan as a character — but is incredibly inconsistent with how Logan behaves when he’s with Veronica.
OTOH, because he’s being written in this way, I agree with Karen M that it seems V. has cause to doubt him at this moment. It does seem like they have him up to something. Also frustrating.
I’m just hoping they have more than one relationship template for V.’s love life to follow.
I expect you’ll both turn out to be right. Logan is always on self-destruct and there was something very suspicious about the class he said he had to go to, but Dick said didn’t take place. Anyway the writers have to break them up somehow because it’s an accepted rule of tv series that people happily in love are boring (and stupid, too. Nothing shaves the IQ points like love. Logan hardly ever gets off a good line anymore) And it can’t be Veronica’s fault (though she’s screwing up a lot so far this season, at least she SEEMS to be screwing up a lot) so it will have to be Logan’s.
I continue to like the new characters though we saw too little of them this show and I’m coming around to Karen M.’s position on the new credits. And the soundtrack.
Just saw the episode, and have a really trivial complaint: the two women who appear in the dean’s office and then on the radio program were the newspaper editor who printed the story about the marijuana against Veronica’s wishes, and the safe-ride driver who condemned Veronica for writing that story. It seems kind of odd that they should be friends.
I thought the safe-ride driver was giving V. kudos for writing the story, actually. She was very down on the sororities.