Veronica Mars 2/6/2007 (S03E12) "There's Got to Be a Morning After Pill"

[dswallow]

Oh man, that really bites. Veronica didn't get to hear Logan's message. Though I suppose after hearing the minister talk about anger she's going to forgive/forget about his one night with Madison. Still, it'd have been nice if she'd heard everything else Logan said after he stopped babbling.

[LoadStar]

I have a simple question: has Veronica EVER been right? I mean, I'm having trouble remembering too many times when Veronica has actually accused the correct person. Inevitably, just like this week, she gets SO close, but yet so far from the truth. She's got good skills in getting that far, but she has issues completing the process. (As a corollary: one of these days, she has to learn she can't just blurt out what she thinks happens, she needs to pull the client aside and tell them confidentially.)

I was close in my theory - I was right in that she was undercover, but missed the mark about where she said it. Oh, well, can't get em all right. ;)

So - are we going for the world's slowest development of the big mystery? I mean, unless there was something I missed, the only substantial thing we learned was that the murder or suicide may or may not have happened at 2:20 a.m. Woo.

[Royster]

I have to say, I pegged the roommate from her first moment onscreen.

[WinBear]

Did Keith find eggshell on the Volvo?

[edc]

So - are we going for the world's slowest development of the big mystery? I mean, unless there was something I missed, the only substantial thing we learned was that the murder or suicide may or may not have happened at 2:20 a.m. Woo.

Oh, I'm betting all of those scenes at the wife's house (notably the eggshell [?] under the wiper blade) end up being pretty significant.

[cmontyburns]

Oh, I'm betting all of those scenes at the wife's house (notably the eggshell [?] under the wiper blade) end up being pretty significant.

Agreed, or at least the eggshell part. It's possible that the bit with Mrs O'Dell's ex coming to her house was just a plot device to get Keith over there so he could find the eggshell. Or maybe it was to make her ex a suspect. Or Cyrus' angry son. It seemed rather pointed that we got a look at Keith checking in on the kid. Plus he'd have access to all the keys needed to move the cars around, or to take the Volvo to campus that night to kill his dad -- who was planning to send him to military school (or whatever it was).

I didn't think this ep was as good as last week, but it was strong overall. Thus far I'm liking the middle batch of episodes this season much better than the first third. Although Veronica sure has turned a corner, negatively, in her morals. They've always been somewhat flexible, but in general she's been of the "minor wrong to make a major right" school of thought. But so far in this part of the season, she's judge, jury, and executioner to everyone she comes across. Blackmailing the judge last week was just the start, apparently. Having Madison's car stolen and crushed -- well, almost -- shocked me.

[LoadStar]

Oh, I'm betting all of those scenes at the wife's house (notably the eggshell [?] under the wiper blade) end up being pretty significant.

Ah, I must've gotten distracted during that scene. I totally missed that.

[Fleegle]

I love Veronica's cover name when she met with the TV Preacher: hester. As in Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter.

[LoadStar]

I love Veronica's cover name when she met with the TV Preacher: hester. As in Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter.

Not to mention the name she went by when going into the Good News Press... :)

[MikeCC]

Sure, and Keith's alias was the same name as Nancy's Dad.

[NoThru22]

Sure, and Keith's alias was the same name as Nancy's Dad.
Good catch!

[mwhip]

Agreed, or at least the eggshell part. It's possible that the bit with Mrs O'Dell's ex coming to her house was just a plot device to get Keith over there so he could find the eggshell.


Or maybe just to give Richard Grieco more acting work.

I was listening to a TV podcast and they were talking about how they care more about these MOW's more than the O'Dell murder and how that is a good sign for the show that the episodes at the end are going to be stand alone and they could be really great. I totally agree. At this point I could care less who killed the Dean just want to see Keith make the sheriff look bad and want to watch the Veronica/Logan tension.

[LoadStar]

Well, honestly, at this point I'm not much caring about the big mystery either... except that it's sort of hanging out there, and it's annoying that they're moving rather slowly with it, given only a few more weeks before the show has to solve the mystery.

[wouldworker]

So - are we going for the world's slowest development of the big mystery? I mean, unless there was something I missed, the only substantial thing we learned was that the murder or suicide may or may not have happened at 2:20 a.m. Woo.The pace of development of the big mystery hardly matters. They never give us enough information to actually figure out who did it. All we can do is guess and then Veronica will pull the real answer out of her cute bottom after incorrectly accusing everybody else. Then she'll go to confront the murderer herself instead of calling the cops. She'll be in mortal danger and then a white knight will save her. Cue cliffhanger and roll credits.

I like this show, but it's not because of the mysteries. They're necessary, but fortunately they don't actually have to be done well in order for the show to be entertaining. The characters make this show. The mysteries just give them something to do.

[TAsunder]

wouldworker, I am a little surprised that you think no one can solve the big plot mysteries. many people figured out most of the mystery last season, and it was not that hard to put the clues together in the first season. the nice thing about veronica mars is that it DOESN'T just arbitrarily solve the mystery without any clues the viewer can follow. Even the Aha moment is not arbitrary. We could figure things out just like veronica does at the moment she gets the final piece of information.

[cmontyburns]

Well, honestly, at this point I'm not much caring about the big mystery either... except that it's sort of hanging out there, and it's annoying that they're moving rather slowly with it, given only a few more weeks before the show has to solve the mystery.

At least this is not atypical of how the show has always treated the mystery arc. It'c certainly true of the rapist arc from the first third of the season, and going back to the prior two seasons we had, sometimes, weeks between developments in Lily's murder or the bus crash.

In a way this is indicative of why Rob Thomas isn't too broken up at the prospect of losing the big mystery at the end of the season or, possibly, in a potential fourth season. He has pointed out that, realistically, there are a limited number of ways of coming up with big mysteries that are personally engaging to Veronica -- short of killing Keith or something, there is probably no way of matching the impact of Lily's murder -- and, by extension, to the audience. I'm still good with the O'Dell murder plot, and I'd be fine with more such arcs, but I see what Thomas means.

[Magnolia88]

I really liked this episode a lot. In fact, the past three episodes have all been pretty fantastic. I was engaged in the MOTW and didn't really suspect the roommate b/c I thought it was going to be that Thurman dude.

Compared to S1, I think the MOTWs this season have been much more interesting and well executed. Otoh, the overall mystery arc is less involving, but then again, I can't imagine anything being more involving than Lilly's murder because of how it affected Veronica so deeply. But I agree that there is no way they can come up with any crime that could affect Veronica as deeply, short of killing Keith, Wallace, Mac or Logan -- and that would be sort of ridiculous, given how many deaths have already occurred. I don't want Veronica turned into Jessica Fletcher, with everyone she knows dropping dead.

[dswallow]

I know where season 4 could go...

Firefly gets caught in a time/space vortex and ends up disabled in 20th century earth and Veronica accidentally ends up onboard when the ship is repaired and manages to get back to their own time, and we go forward with Veronica as a new crew member.

... :)

[Jesda]

Kristen Bell has a sexy back.

[phox_mulder]

Kristen Bell has a sexy back.

And front, and top, and bottom.

Too bad we only got to see the back this ep.


phox

[mwhip]

Kristen Bell has a sexy back.

And it is oh so good in HD.

[Jonathan_S]

In the scene where Veronica shows up to talk to Dick the first time there was an amusing bit of dialog in the closed captioning that they replace with the rather bland vocalization.

"I'm not quite sure how I know this, but I have Dick's leering schedule memorized." "It disturbs me to have this in my brain" (paraphrased from memory)

I'm not sure the angry son is a good suspect for the Dean's death. I believe the Widow that she had the Volvo at the Neptune Grand. I can't decide whether she drove it to the school or whether the criminology professor did.

Side note: When Veronica stuck the webcam to monitor the keyboard so she could record the password I thought she was going to install a hardware keystroke logger. It would have been less noticeable and a bit more reliable. (And also might have caught other items of interest).

[TAsunder]

She's only moderately techno savvy. She should move in with Mac if she wants to learn about stuff like key loggers.

[Royster]

Side note: When Veronica stuck the webcam to monitor the keyboard so she could record the password I thought she was going to install a hardware keystroke logger. It would have been less noticeable and a bit more reliable. (And also might have caught other items of interest).

Not only that, she had physical access to the machine. Boot it with a bootable Linux CD and just read the hard drive.

[Jonathan_S]

Not only that, she had physical access to the machine. Boot it with a bootable Linux CD and just read the hard drive.
True. Although looking through browser history from examining the files from linux would likely be annoying.

Also, I can't recall if the computer was sitting at the log in screen or the screensaver password screen. After rebooting you'd be back to the log in screen, which might have be noticed by a sufficiently paranoid user.
Of course you could cover that by making it appear that a cleaner had knocked the plug to the computer loose and just leaving it off.

[smak]

True. Although looking through browser history from examining the files from linux would likely be annoying.

Also, I can't recall if the computer was sitting at the log in screen or the screensaver password screen. After rebooting you'd be back to the log in screen, which might have be noticed by a sufficiently paranoid user.
Of course you could cover that by making it appear that a cleaner had knocked the plug to the computer loose and just leaving it off.

If the computer was on the regular log in screen, she could reboot afterwards to get back there.

If it was on the screensaver/password screen, she could just let it default back to that screen after the obligatory 10 min wait or however long.

Since she had his password, she could leave it where she wanted.

If she didn't have his password, but logged in as somebody else, THAT's when it would be hard to put it back in the exact same place.

-smak-

[Havana Brown]

I"m not looking, I'm not looking.

I went to watch this episode last night, but it seems like it never changed channels to record. :(

Does anyone still have it and can send me a DVD of it? PM me please.

[TAsunder]

Doesn't the CW have the episode on their web site? I can't recall if VM is included, I thought it was.

[Robin]

Yes, CW has the eps on their website.

Last week's was bumped back 10 min for me. :mad: We watched the first 3/4 on the TiVo then fired up the laptop for the conclusion.

[Magnolia88]

The CW also has the opening scene and the "director's cut" from next week's episode on the website. Looks good.

[DevdogAZ]

Not only that, she had physical access to the machine. Boot it with a bootable Linux CD and just read the hard drive.
None of the options you guys pointed out would be as easy to explain on camera and would look as "sexy" as a little camera that wirelessly transmits it's data to an iPod Shuffle. It's not about realism, it's about what translates best on screen when the majority of viewers are not tech savvy at all.

[LoadStar]

None of the options you guys pointed out would be as easy to explain on camera and would look as "sexy" as a little camera that wirelessly transmits it's data to an iPod Shuffle. It's not about realism, it's about what translates best on screen when the majority of viewers are not tech savvy at all.

Which is fine, except the show (up until now) has actually been very good (one of the best I can ever remember) about using realistic looking technology in a realistic way, including search engines that look and behave like search engines, not to mention the conversation when we first met Mac about Ubuntu vs. OS X.

[dswallow]

None of the options you guys pointed out would be as easy to explain on camera and would look as "sexy" as a little camera that wirelessly transmits it's data to an iPod Shuffle. It's not about realism, it's about what translates best on screen when the majority of viewers are not tech savvy at all.
Like most things, they'd just have Veronica voiceover/talking to herself about having borrowed the keylogger or what happened the last time she used it, thus explaining to everyone what she's doing/has done.

[gilmoregirls102]

I hope Logan and Veronica end up together...

Next week looks interesting. :up: