Episode 15: “Ruskie Business”
The way this show’s developed Logan over the course of the season is truly fantastic. Recently, we’ve started to see a softer side to him, a side that begins to let Veronica in for a friendship not tied to the Lilly Kane case and the shaky history they share. At the beginning of the season, he was still caught up in Veronica’s betrayal, unable to shake the idea of her siding with her dad over her best friend–understandable, considering what we’ve seen of him and Aaron Echolls–but now, the dynamic’s a lot different. Now, Logan’s vulnerable in front of her, breaking down in her arms in the hotel lobby after Trina leaves.
I don’t have much to say about the Valentine’s Day portions of the episode, so let’s talk about Logan again. My possible favorite moment in this episode is the Eleanor Roosevelt inspirational voice message, a small detail that perfectly encapsulates who he is as a person. Dohring’s able to use merely his voice to convey a balancing act between the harder, outer shell and the softer, inner self, and it’s fantastic.
GRADE: B+
Episode 16: “Betty and Veronica”
We’re getting to the end, and lots of information is revealed here. The episode cuts between Veronica’s talk with her mom and her stolen parrot case, and the voiceover makes sure to highlight the wide disparity between the seeming importance of the two; however, she’s Veronica Mars, and she’s going to take both. So, the talk with her mom serves as a nice framing device for the episode, and that plus the interrogation tapes answer several questions and bring up many new ones (e.g. who the hell did it, then???).
One thing we see emphasized throughout is Veronica’s independence, a trait of hers that arises especially when she has her sights set on taking down Lilly Kane’s killer. Now, it’s even more evident, and she’s becoming more isolated as she moves away from people like Meg and, to an extent, Wallace. In the end, though, she makes Snickerdoodles for her best friend and weathers the storm of the crowd in order to see him play. In the end, she may have used him, but she’ll always stand by him.
She’ll always stand by her mother, too, but this is a relationship that’s deleterious to her own future. Whereas someone like Abel Koontz is essentially giving up his life for his daughter, Amelia DeLongpre, someone like Lianne winds up hurting her own daughter by entering a 12-week program that probably won’t even help her. This entire situation, even worse, also forces Veronica to lie to her dad.
GRADE: B+
OTHER THOUGHTS:
– “I look like Manila Whore Barbie.”
– “If you’re coming home, who’ll play Dead Hooker #2 on CSI this week?” Trina and Logan, you can trade insults in front of me any day. Speaking of Trina (Alyson Hanigan), here, we see two people who act in their own, specific ways to cover up and keep pushing forward.
-I have no idea how you look at the police sketch photo and get Duncan from it.
-The negotiation scene between Clemmons and Veronica is priceless.
– “At my old school, I was Horny. We were the Rhinos, and I was the mascot.”
– “Wow. Polly wanna payback.”
– “Why? Because you loved him?” The perfect mix of sarcasm, bitterness, anger, and sadness by Bell there.
– “It takes a real man to do what you did.” That kid’s reaction to Kristen Bell flirting with him is a pretty accurate depiction of what would happen to most of the male population in the same situation.
– “That’s this close to taking a hot cousin to prom.”
Photo credit: CW/UPN, Veronica Mars
Polar Bears Watch TV 
Leave a Reply