Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Veronica Mars: Drinking the Kool-Aid

Veronica: "Forbidden barn, check. Implied polygamy, check. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a cult."

About halfway through this episode, I remembered that the writers are big on red herrings and started thinking that the cultists of the Mooncalf Collective were probably Good People. In fact, they were a damned nice bunch of sixties throwbacks. What a fun twist. As always, things on this show aren't what they first appear to be. And biological parents certainly aren't always the best parents for their kids, as Casey's and Rain's clearly demonstrated.

Which brings us to Veronica possibly being Jake Kane's daughter. In her heart, Veronica is Keith's daughter. Forget the millions; Veronica is better off with Keith, even with the yard sale waterbed and the sucky plumbing. Interesting how Veronica kept seeing the possibility of Jake Kane being her father in terms of money, while Keith just gave up five grand that he desperately needed because it was the right thing to do.

Veronica told Keith that if he was a good father, he'd take that blood test for her. Note the irony in that statement. I was seriously bummed that Veronica destroyed the results of the paternity test after all that trouble, because hey, it's absolutely going to come up again. How could super-detective Veronica Mars let something this important rest at the bottom of a shredder? Veronica has to be Keith's daughter. Where else would she have gotten her exceptional natural talent as a detective?

Bits and pieces:

— This episode began where the last one left off. That was different.

— Veronica was shockingly slow on the uptake regarding Duncan. I thought she'd have gotten the whole half-brother scenario instantly. She was probably suppressing it because subconsciously, she didn't want to face it.

— The somewhat cool Mallory Dent was no longer in the cast. Ms. Dent, we hardly knew ye.

— The poem Veronica submitted to the lit mag in order to appear alienated, sexually ambivalent, self-loathing, and into death was "I cut because I can." :)

— Has the rather sweet Casey now been successfully deprogrammed back into a money-grubbing Oh-Niner jerk?

— There were a couple of references to Christmas approaching: the poinsettia crop and the waterbed gift.

— How did Keith mess up his face? Really?

— This was the second episode in a row with no Logan or Weevil. Were they still in detention?

— Clarence Wiedman, head of security at Kane Software, took those gunsight surveillance photos of Veronica. For whom? Jake Kane?

Lots of great lines:

Veronica: "The way you explained it, Santa was cool with the basic concept, but had grave doubts about second floor deployment."
Keith: "That well-known bedrock pragmatism of elvish culture."

Keith: "This is so endearing. My badass action figure daughter is afraid to draw a teensy little drop of blood."

Wallace: "Hacky sack. The final arena of unquestioned white domination."

Veronica: "Enough already with this mellow incense and peppermints vibe. Let's break out the mushrooms and dance naked."


Veronica: "I was just reading in last month's Koreshian Bride that four out of five cult leaders like their handmaidens nubile, flighty, and teetering on the edge of a breakdown."

Veronica: "Heard anything incriminating yet?"
Keith: "Nope. It's like listening to The Brady Bunch with a reggae soundtrack."

Another good one. Three out of four stars,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

4 comments:

  1. This was just another episode showing how corrupt Neptune is. Casey´s parents were afraid that Casey would give the money to the Collective and leave them broke, that´s all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Billie!

    I found your blog through one of your new posters maxpower03 a while back, and I've been enjoying these 'Mars reviews of yours. They're different to my own, but I rather like your approach!

    I love what you said about how long it too Ronnie to put 2 and 2 together about her and Duncan's shared lineage, a bit remiss of her isn't it?!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, Panda! Thanks for the comments. It looks like we have a lot of the same favorites.

    ReplyDelete
  4. All I could think about while Veronica was shredding was "take the paper with you!" I can't imagine Keith not trying to (literally) piece together what his daughter was so compelled to shred in the middle of the night.

    What works so well with this series is how the story of the week always dovetails with the larger arc. So far, there have been remarkably few missteps. This episode made me sad. Deprogrammed Casey seems a lot less pleasant than programmed...

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.