OPEN CASE: Veronica
Mars
Season 2
Episode 12
Rashard & Wallace Go to
By Spring
Summers – 04-FEB-2006
At the beginning of this episode, in the last scene of the “previouslies,”
a reporter from
REPORTER: The question is: What kind of man were you planning on being?
What makes a man a
man?
- VERONICA: The weasel is this basketball
guy.
- WEEVIL (to
- WEEVIL (about Patrick): He even did six months for assault for
beating up some stool pigeon.
- UNCLE MONTE (to Wallace): He doesn’t need a little rat like
you, messing with his head.
- VERONICA: Let’s see what’s up for “Bribe Rashard
into being a Bruin” week. (bruin
= bear)
- UNCLE MONTE: Those aren’t girls. Those are leeches.
- VERONICA (to Weevil and
What makes a man a
man, instead of an animal? I’d say what
separates us from our fellow creatures is our ability to make conscious,
deliberate choices:
- CLIFF:
My advice? Be punctual. VERONICA: Or prove your innocence. CLIFF:
Or that. Suit yourself.
- VERONICA: I’m sorry, that’s not on our menu. Maybe you should try “You’re Crazy,”
down the street.
- RASHARD: You know what? I call my own shots. Let’s go.
We suit ourselves, choose from the menu, call our own
shots. There are several other
references to options and choices, the most significant one being this:
WALLACE: There was a right thing to do, and a wrong
thing to do, and we picked wrong.
As more complex
beings, we face more complex choices; we can tell right from wrong. The episode features repeated reference to
our senses – audio without video, video without audio, smells. We’ve got instincts. And it also features many mentions of our
intellect, as we hear about ideas and “good thinking” and what’s crazy or nuts,
as opposed to what makes sense. We’ve
got intellect. (Rashard should think
with his brain, not his penis, says his Uncle Monte. Weevil reports viewing a video of a man whose
head goes up an elephant’s behind.)
We’ve got heart and head. But a
man’s heart, and his head, can be shouting in unison about the right thing to
do – but he can still choose otherwise.
It’s that whole free will thing.
A real man, a grown man, steps up to the
plate, and takes responsibility. I’m going to concentrate on the male of our
species here, because that’s what the episode does – it centers on Wallace, and
listen to how many times the word “man” is used in the episode! I counted 24.
The guy’s name is Guy. Wallace
can’t help liking sports, or noticing the boobs on Tracy James - he’s
male. Beaver’s dad, we learn, never took
him to do “man-stuff.” So the message
about the need to take responsibility is cross-gender, but the ep is definitely
concentrating on the road to manhood in particular.
Notice the central question that the
authorities are trying to answer: “Who was driving?” There are many images of cars and driving,
much talk of the accident that happened while Rashard was driving, and we watch
as the limo driver nearly has an accident.
So - who was in control?
- Veronica jokes that she can’t control
Wallace.
- Uncle Monte obviously believes he can,
should, and does control Rashard.
- The Reaper was the leader of the
gang. Weevil loses control of the
gang.
- Jackie asks if Wallace thinks that he
“owns” her.
- Reference is made to “A Funny Thing
Happened on the way to the Forum,” a play about a slave trying to earn his
freedom.
- Monte talks of kidnapping (being
forcibly transported).
- Wallace worries about being
imprisoned, where he might find himself, according to Cliff, forcibly
married to a murderer named Tiny.
So the kind of man a boy will become is in
part about what external
things and people he allows into his car – and we hear constant references to,
and see images of outside masters and external temptations (bribes, sex). We watch many people eating and drinking, or
rejecting food. And we watch them
listening carefully to the words of others, or asking them to keep it all to
themselves – LOTS of the latter:
- WEEVIL: Apparently he was going to get you
tattooed somewhere on his person.
And from your reaction, I’m guessing it wasn’t going to be his
forehead. MOLLY: Yeah.
It was kind of secret, and I’d appreciate it if it stays –
- NATHAN (to Wallace): This is why I wanted you to keep quiet.
- MONTE (to Rashard): You – don’t say anything!
- VERONICA (to Wallace): All we have to do is ease through the
door, blend in, and get you a moment alone with him. So just hold it in.
- MONTE (to Wallace): You wanna talk to someone? You talk to me. Better yet, you just keep your mouth
shut.
- THUMPER (to Weevil): Remember this? That night you nearly kicked Curly’s
head in? So I’d keep my mouth shut.
- WEEVIL (to Dick): Open your mouth, and you’re losing every
one of those teeth.
We see two books
whose words have been cut out, to make room for other things. People are choosing to take it in, or they
are deciding to keep it out. There are
many references to what’s “in” and “out” of their lives, and talk of the company
they keep: Family members, friends,
enemies, rivals, and allegiances due to race or social class or religion. Here are some examples among many:
- KEITH (to Inga): I got me a book, a Bad Company album –
take all the time you need.
- WALLACE (about Jackie): Just trying to figure out if I can deal with
someone like that in my life right now.
- MONTE (to Rashard): First of all, I ain’t man. I’m your family, your management, and
your brains.
- WALLACE (to Veronica): Alpha
- RASHARD (to Wallace): Why don’t you just go home, man? Get out of my life.
- THUMPER (to Weevil): Let me make sure I got this
straight. Working with our enemies
- you got a problem with that?
- KEITH (to Veronica): I get lonely when you’re out with all
your fancy friends and I’m here by myself with nothing.
But what kind of man Wallace, or any man,
will be, isn’t just about
who or what else he might let into his life.
It’s also about what internal part of himself he will allow at the wheel
– when does he let his emotions and instinct drive him, and when does he follow
his intellect or his conscience? When
does he listen to the better angels of his nature, and when does he give in to
devils, whispering in his ear? Did the
Because it’s not
just about becoming a man – it’s about becoming a good man:
JACKIE: It’s a dubious talent, but snagging guys has
always been a breeze. It’s holding on to
the good ones that’s tricky.
And the episode –
with its nearly constant mention of right and wrong, of good and bad and evil
(listen for this) is most definitely exploring the nature of evil.
THUMPER: So what if we want to make money selling dope
to rich white boys? Is that such a bad
thing? I don’t think so.
We hit gray area
after gray area, and the quote from Romans 12-19, with the episode’s first
reference to enemies, throws the question right in our faces:
Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil,
with good.
Do the ends ever justify the means? Can
you ever overcome evil, with more evil?
This reminds me very much of the “torture as a means of gaining
information” images from Ahoy Mates,
and just as we did in that episode, we are looking at continual images of
exploitation – violation of property, privacy, and person:
- While carrying his hollowed out book,
Keith breaks into the evidence room. (The book is called Those Who Trespass – I think this
is the roundly panned -to put it kindly - fiction by Bill O’Reilly . . .
doesn’t seem Keith is a big fan, either, does it?)
- Veronica is asked to bug a
confessional!
- Liam grossly exploits his brother’s
church to trade drugs.
- Uncle Monte painfully hits Rashard in
the genitals.
- Uncle Monte is exploiting Rashard’s
athletic talent for his own gain.
- Wallace & Veronica exploit
Jackie’s “dubious talent” for attracting guys.
- Guy Abrutti is enjoying himself on
“someone else’s tab.”
- Wallace talks about getting “off the
hook,” that Rashard has (figuratively) put him on, and later, we see
Weevil literally placed “on the hook” by the mutinous PCHers.
- The killer exploited a dead rat’s one
and only talent – smelling.
- Veronica jokingly suggests that dead
rats are exploited in the production of hot dogs. (I was born and raised in
Contrasted with the images of violation and
selfishness is the talk of
providing service:
- KEITH (to Veronica): I believe the correct response is “How
can I be of service, sir?”
- BLONDE GUY SINGER: Who do you gotta know to get some help
around here?
- VERONICA (to Weevil): And how can I help you, sir?
- GUY:
C’mon ladies. Don’t be
shy. You want more champagne? I’m on it. Room service, whatever you want.
The episode opens
with Veronica thoughtfully serving Wallace a piece of cake, and saying that she
wants to help him because it allows her to take the focus off herself. Her manager, she says, overcomes the
yuckiness of being dumped by her boyfriend, with the yumminess of German
Chocolate Nut-gasm cake. Veronica
believes that she can overcome the badness of what happened with
Becoming a good
man means establishing the sort of strong identity and inner confidence that
allows you to rise above your own misfortunes, and that allows you to be there,
in the confessional or at the pep rally, for others. Notice all the references in the episode to
names – to identity. And notice how,
when Logan asks Veronica to “just once” save his ass without comment, it is
hearing the forceful and happy mention of her own name (in song!) that fills
her with the confidence she needs to say YES to helping, but NO to doing it any
other way, than her own way.
VERONICA: No.
Because saving your ass with comment?
It just works better for me. I
will not bug a confessional. Video maybe
– but no sound.
Ah ha! That’s the crux of it: YES, you should help those in need. But NO, you shouldn’t act contrary to what
your own values, to what your mind and heart are telling you. Do it, but do it in the way that feels right
to you. Anyone has the right to ask you
for a favor. But no one has the right to
expect you to twist yourself and your values into painful pretzel shapes, as part
of the bargain. That’s what Monte was
expecting of Rashard, and with the prospect of $50 million dollars in front of
him, Rashard was, indeed, beginning to
twist out of the shape of that “good boy,” that was so recently Wallace’s
friend. That’s also what Rashard was
asking of Wallace, but internally Wallace’s backbone wasn’t quite so mooshy,
and externally, the voices and temptations weren’t quite so loud. (Earlier in the episode, we get an
interesting comparison of Rashard to LeBron James, whose story includes a
cousin who became his agent, and the controversial ownership of a Hummer while
he was still in high school.)
Much talk of punishment and reward reminds us of the external consequences of
our actions – it’s not just about what we consume, it’s about what we put out
there. (WALLACE: Man, I practically peed myself waiting on
you.)
This episode
features several mentions of people up high or down low,
and digging things up. And we get a shot of Thumper, standing above it all, as
Weevil is beaten. With all the religious
symbolism and talk of hell, and surveillance and security tapes
(eye-in-the-sky), the role of morality in our lives is also generally examined.
Like Wallace, a
good man does the right thing because he knows it is the right thing to
do. He doesn’t do it because he’s being
watched. He doesn’t do it for fear of
hell, or hope of heaven. He does it out
of faith – in himself, in his fellows, in his world, and if he so believes, in
his God.
Well, there’s more to notice and nit-pick, but let’s get off the analysis bus, and
onto the big yellow bus – the one that crashed.
Did we learn anything more, this week about the bus crash? Or about Felix’s murder? Here are the thoughts that come to my mind:
- Felix’s murder and the bus crash seem
to be connected – through Curly
Moran. We now know that Weevil, Felix’s friend and leader,
was so angry at Curly, not long before the crash, that he was driven to
brutally beat him. They also seem
to have a connection through the presence of a PCHer – Cervando, on the bus.
- The whole episode this week seemed to
suggest a connection between the big money associated with sports, and
evil. So when we see that Terrence Cooke knew Mr Moss, it strongly
suggests that there is a real connection between Terrence, and the bus
crash.
- Dick!
Oh, I do not trust that awful boy at
all! Underneath the goofball façade
is a truly nasty, nasty boy. Last
season, we saw him encourage his own brother to commit rape. This season, we’ve heard him make over
the top offensive comments, and this ep, we see him cruelly harass another
student (a poor kid, we can assume from Veronica’s voiceover) just for
fun. The guy is mean, selfish, and
I would put absolutely nothing past him.
And he IS the one who ordered the alternate
transportation. BUT – I can’t think
of a single reason he’d want to kill 7 people on a bus that way. Not that he might not have a reason, but
. . . what? No – if he’s involved,
it is only peripherally. What I
mean is, I don’t think he’s responsible for the bus crash. BUT, perhaps he was bribed or coerced
into playing the small part that he did play, in getting certain people
off the bus.
- I feel certain Woody is not now, nor has he ever been, psychic. So if he made a point to Gia about
staying off the bus, that definitely suggests involvement by Woody in the
bus crash. He wants to develop
Neptune into a haven for rich-folk . . . did he have reason to believe
that the deaths would run certain poor folks out of town, so he could
gobble up some property he wanted?
We saw, in Ahoy Mateys,
for example, that Marcos Oliveres’ parents were considering selling their
home. We also heard
- We hear again about Curly’s abilities as a mechanic –
suggesting that however the bus-crash happened, Curly was paid to make it
happen. Perhaps Curly, fueled by
alcohol and conversations with Woody,
had been talking trash in the bar, about the need to clear the Hispanic
element out of
Well, I’ve talked
myself out of the idea of a strong connection between Felix’s murder and the
bus crash. Felix’s murder has something
to do with the Fitzpatricks and Molly and the drugs. The bus crash had to do with Woody and his
ambitions, and somehow, Terrence.
Maybe. Who knows? My mind doth spin.
And let me close
with something that just kept striking me in this episode: Good golly – Weevil sure has pretty eyes!
***
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