OPEN CASE: VERONICA MARS

Season 1 - Episode 13

LORD OF THE BLING: Veronica Baggins

by Spring Summers – 09-Feb-2005

This episode, with its Tolkien-esque title, opens with the shot of a ring, a preciousssss ring that will eventually be tossed away in to the flowing lava – I mean, the flowing sewer water - by Bone Hamilton, in exchange for something even more precious: his daughter Yolanda’s life. The Lord of the Bling is full of references to what people prize.

We watch their shifty eyes and their body language and we know they’re lying about their true feelings and desires. Watch Brice when he tells his Dad that Yolanda’s been kidnapped; watch Logan’s insincere greetings at the funeral reception; watch Veronica nervously pretend to be “Melinda”. Listen to the references to costumes. As the episode moves forward, we see that people’s true intentions, their very selves, are reflected not just in their body-language, but in what they value – in the way their actions give away what they truly cherish. Some people are better actors than Brice or Logan or Veronica, but in the end, their actions speak louder than words. Some examples among many are below:

· Bone chooses his daughter over his ring, but later, we learn from his son, Brice, that he has chosen to let people believe he is a ruthless gangsta – he couldn’t resist taking the street cred for gunning down Sam Bloom - despite the harm it did to his family.

· Logan’s sister sent a pricey floral wreath as a substitute for coming to the funeral.

· Logan believes that his Mom may have been leaving him a message because she left behind her father’s lighter. He knows she prized it; it is a precious item she always carried with her in her purse.

· Aaron chooses to respect his wife and her death by declaring he’s through with show business. But we hear from Logan that his father’s choices during the marriage reflected far less concern for his wife and family.

· Veronica chooses “cred” with Lilly and her other friends, over giving Yolanda a chance to explain her brief but ill-advised Logan-smooch. (Oh, that temptation to touch – like Veronica with Wallace’s hair - sometimes that temptation just takes front-and-center. Sometimes it becomes the most important thing.)

Sam Bloom is a Golf Champ, Brice is a Science Champ, and Bone has music awards lining his walls. We see stacks of money, and hear wealth referred to frequently (YOLANDA: “And yes, he makes more money than your dad. Is that your real question?”). Dime Bag and his posse insist on a better room. The photographer wants Aaron to pay for his expensive camera. People define themselves by what they’ve garnered, good and bad, over the years – and they are trapped, owned by the very items they lord and hoard. Logan tells us that his mother is “Free at Last” because she left behind the glitzy but inconsequential trappings of wealth and fame – she didn’t care about them anyway, he says.

But here’s the thing: Whether she escaped through death or fake (video- game-type) death, she didn’t just leave behind her faithless husband and his shiny trinkets. She left Logan. She left Logan. She chose escape, but her son is still trapped, trapped more than ever, like his grandfather in a prison camp, and all alone. Because one thing we see clearly is that The Sins of The Parents are visited upon the children. People are reaping what they’ve sown, all over the place (“This is like me, holding YOU out the window.”) And their children are suffering as well – children define themselves in large part by who their parents are (“Veronica MARS!”). Brice and Yolanda and Logan all have parents who define themselves, who draw their sense of self-worth, largely from The Bling. And the children are struggling to keep themselves from falling into the same pattern (surely some of Logan’s anger at Dad is due to guilt, and anger at himself, for his mini-Aaron-like behavior, when he “cheats” on Lilly – right before her death.)

People don’t just lie to each other in this episode; they lie to themselves; “I’m not the jealous type,” says Lilly (and you know, I still don’t think Lilly was cheating on Logan with Weevil. It doesn’t add up.). “I’m not scrawny,” says Veronica. Aaron claims he didn’t deliberately bloody li’l Logan’s nose, but we’re pretty sure he did. With mentions of skewed press stories and show-business in the background, it’s all about the way we all bend reality according to our own sensibilities, so that we can live with our surroundings, and with ourselves.

But again, and again, and again in this show, and relating back to its central mysteries, we see it: The truth will out. The truth escapes, it explodes out of Logan, in front of the photographers and into his father’s face; it bleeds out of Brice, and all over his father’s head.

Logan doesn’t need fancy talk and fancy clothes; Brice doesn’t care about the bling. They need love. Love is essential for life. It can overcome the hardest obstacles; it can bring Yolanda and Benjamin together. Love has provided the young couple a means to escape the parental trap, to wash away the sins of the fathers.

Veronica’s genuine and mutually caring relationship with her father is in sharp contrast with what we see with Brice and Logan and their respective Dads. There are many mentions and images of friends and the needed support they provide – Dime Bag and his posse; Duncan trying to be a friend to Logan; Veronica torn about how to be a friend to both Yolanda and Lilly.

Loads of water imagery again in this episode:

· Lynn wore a mermaid outfit (interesting for one who supposedly threw herself into the water in order to die. And how about the mention of Tupac being “secretly alive?”)

· Logan mentions crab puffs; Veronica mentions crabs.

· Lilly mentions fleet week and sailors in San Diego.

· Brice is experimenting with water.

· Aaron and his agent talk in front of a large pool.

· It’s raining cats-and-dogs as Bone stands waiting on the kidnappers, before he throws the ring down a sewer, where the flow of water carries it to his son.

Water, water, everywhere. How about a drink? Water – so ubiquitous you barely notice it. It’s easily taken for granted. But we need water. Water is essential for life. It can provide a force whose constancy can wash away the deepest stain and erode the hardest rock.

Veronica tells her Dad, after he’s dressed up in his workman’s outfit, that he looks like a “humble drudge no one would notice.” But I think the message of this episode is that a humble drudge, who knows how to give and receive love, is far wealthier than any Lord of The Bling.

Lord of the Bling closes with Logan, while hugging himself and standing on Veronica’s front porch, humbling himself before his enemy much as Bone has done earlier. Logan asks Veronica to help him find his mother. He wants her help and her understanding. And she ought to understand, about a missing mother. She ought to understand that Logan is asking for more than just help. He’s asking for her forgiveness, her mercy, and for a tiny glass of water.

***

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