Veronica Mars:  Open Case

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Season 2

Episode 21

Aired May 2, 2006

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Happy Go Lucky:  NOT!

 

By Sue

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Irony

 

Rob Thomas is playing his own private version of "Opposites Day" with us.  The man does love irony!

 

  • Lucky is not Happy. 
  • Fat men often aren’t "Tiny."
  • Veronica is not easygoing.
  • Bombs are not presents.
  • Little smiley faces don't spell wrong.
  • Keith is not sheriff.
  • Epic love ain't grand.
  • Woody is not a good man.
  • David Moran doesn't have curly hair.
  • And Aaron is Not Guilty.

 

On the other hand,

  • Dick is a dick.
  • Lobo is a wolf.
  • And Mac is a computer whiz.

 

This is not new territory.  We've been over this before.  But names are not trivial to Mr. Thomas, and neither are episode titles.  The jury is still out though on whether Cassidy is beaver (unpleasant term, I know, I apologize, but it's got to be said given all the other hints we've been getting about Cassidy:  "Sally", "Amber", and his seeming ambivalence toward his girlfriend with the male nickname).  Still, Cassidy's sexual orientation does not necessarily have anything to do with the bus crash mystery.   Also unknown thus far is whether Don is a lamb.  More on that later.

 

As to that episode title:  the irony of the phrase "happy go lucky" being applied to a tormented war veteran who is killed in the opening scene seems commentary enough. But wait!  There's more!  I missed the catch on "Never Mind the Bollocks" on my previous review so this time I had the sense to google the title phrase and lo and behold there is an album titled "Mr. Happy Go Lucky."  (Rob Thomas is the king of cultural allusions.)  Released by John Mellencamp in 1996, soon after a serious heart attack, reviewers felt that the music on the album reflected his close brush with death.  As you might imagine with song titles like "Life is Hard" and "Emotional Love" the album content clearly contradicts the title phrase.  (Lyrics can be found here:  http://www.utterlyrics.com/j/john-mellencamp/mr-happy-go-lucky-1996/).  Or maybe RT was referring to the song by The Steps who also use the title ironically:

 

"And they call me happy go lucky
They don’t know my heart is dying inside
A smile’s a frown turned upside down
I do my happy go lucky so well
I’m even fooling myself."

 

So, is anybody in Neptune happy?

 

Aaron Echolls and his lawyer presumably are quite happy.  At least for now, but hopefully it won't last.  After all, Terrance Cook was happy for a very brief moment after being released from custody and the hospital.  That is, up until Mr. Lobo showed up at his front door and explained that Terrance had only exchanged one captor for another.  (And he has Keith to thank for reminding Lobo that "it's hard to get paid by an incarcerated man.")  Of course, Mr. Lobo is happy.

 

Likewise, Jackie and Wallace had a few brief days of happiness.  Then her dad sent her off to France (can one really pack and leave for an extended trip overseas in just a few hours?) leaving behind nothing but a short note for Wallace. 

 

Weevil is happy that he passed Algebra but we can see that isn't going to last.  Mac and Cassidy smile flirtatiously with one another.  Watch out guys that can only be prelude to disaster!  Happiness is fleeting in Neptune. 

 

How about lucky?

 

Well, there's that pesky Aaron again, although he doesn't appear to have left much to luck.  More like extremely careful planning and a very long reach from his prison cell.  He arranged to steal the keys to the storage locker from Cliff's briefcase (will there be any follow-up on the missing cell-mate?), bribed Kendall to plant Duncan's hair and have the Oscar buried on the Kane property, paid off (or worse) the owner of the house who he knocked out the night he attacked Veronica, bribed Veronica's doctor to lie to her about having an STD (or at least illegally obtained access to those records), somehow got hold of the information from Don Lamb about Veronica and Duncan's B&E into the Manning house (how?), and manipulated Logan into asking for immunity, thus compromising the integrity of his testimony.  I wouldn't really call him lucky, more like incredibly devious and powerful.

 

It may be that Woody could be considered lucky.  He avoided being blown up by a bomb rigged to his car and he has managed to leave town without being arrested.

 

Oh, I know.  Angie Dahl is lucky.  Looks like the Kane scholarship is going to be dropped right into her lap.

 

And then there are those who are GO(ne):

 

Lucky went twice:  first fired and then killed, neither happily.  Curly Moran is also dead but surely still has a part to plan in the finale.  Meg, Cervando, Peter, Marcos, Rhonda, Bettina, Ed Doyle and Ms. Dumas are all gone.  Woody is gone.   Did his family go with him?  Jackie is gone.  Duncan and baby Lilly are gone.  Lianne is gone.  Aaron is gone from jail.  Weevil will be missing from graduation.  Veronica is gone from class.  The Kane Scholarship is gone.  Veronica, on the other hand appears to have lost her best chance at getting gone.  This development should not be underestimated.  Veronica repeatedly emphasized how important it was to "ace all my finals."  She brushed aside Keith, Wallace, and Weevil to focus on her studying. Aaron Echolls has screwed up Veronica's life in more ways than one.

 

Guilty or Innocent?

 

So, Aaron has been declared "not guilty" but we know differently.  Proof, I suppose, that justice is indeed blind.

 

Who else?

  • Weevil is guilty of exacting revenge on Thumper by putting him in harm's way with the Fitzpatricks, but did not physically put him in the stadium.  Does that make him guilty of murder?  (And just how is Rob going to explain the backstory behind this at the start of season 3?)
  • Terrance is guilty of betting, fixing a game, breaking and entering, gambling and losing huge piles of money.  Plus being mean to his daughter when he has to suffer for his actions.  No sympathy here man.
  • Jackie is an innocent bystander.  Same for Wallace.
  • Veronica is guilty of lying to Keith....repeatedly.
  • Keith is guilty of losing his temper.
  • Logan is guilty of stealing the tapes, destroying them and sleeping with Kendall.
  • Kendall is guilty of too much to bother listing.  Same for the Fitzpatricks.
  • Woody is guilty of....much which has been implied but nothing which has been proven.  I sure am wishing that Lucky had completed his confidence to Keith in the cell before Don Lamb interrupted them.
  • Cassidy is innocent?  In what sense of the word?
  • Dick is guilty of being himself.  Same for Madison.

 

Rob Thomas is potentially guilty of having more loose ends than he can possibly tie up in 42 minutes.  Still, innocent until proven guilty so the jury is still out.

 

Motive, Means, Opportunity

 

Well, I wasn't sure whether to post my lame personal theories here or just save them for the posting board.  But I decided to lay them all out for posterity so you can point your fingers and laugh your heads off when I prove to be in another hemisphere from the actual solution.

 

Common consensus seems to be that Woody is just too obvious to be the culprit.  He had motive.  That is, if you believe that he did indeed sexually abuse a number of young gay little leaguers.  Then again that taped conversation might have been in reference to Woody merely requiring that Marcos and Peter run extra laps for missing practice (okay, that's a stretch, but you see my point.) Perhaps the missing third voice set the conversation up with the two boys to sound incriminating and then the unknown used it to blackmail Woody even though there was no truth to the implication. He had means.  The explosives were found in his airplane hangar.  He had opportunity to put a bomb on the bus while it was parked at Shark Field.  And he did tell Gia not to take the bus back to school.  Maybe he just wanted to be sure she rode back with the other rich kids.  But is he just too good of a suspect to actually be the murderer?  Like Logan on the bridge with Felix's body and Weevil being the last person to be seen assaulting Thumper.  Both instances look terribly incriminating but neither tells the whole story.

 

My personal reasonable guess is that Kendall Casablancas had the bomb planted by the Fitzpatricks:

  • Motive:  the money – Dick and Cassidy's life insurance.  Offing Cervando was just icing on the cake to the drug family.
  • Means:  the Fitzpatricks had access to explosives and no moral qualms about murder.  (Felix, Felix's older brother, Thumper)
  • Opportunity:  as yet unknown but with the number of Fitzpatricks in Neptune there is a reasonable possibility one might have worked at the ballpark. 

 

Why else do I like her for the crime?  Because Kendall is the linchpin tying together so many different characters, factions and plotlines.  Kendall was involved with the Fitzpatricks long before she even married Dick Sr. She's a con artist.  Possibly that was the primary reason Big Dick married her.  She was certainly part of his scam.  She helped Aaron falsify evidence and avoid conviction.  She seduced Logan for reasons as yet unknown. She had financial reasons to want her stepsons dead.  She is still keeping company with the Fitzpatricks who we know are involved in drugs, blackmail, intimidation, torture, and at least three murders.  I really don't believe they or she would stop at murdering a busload of innocent students to get at the one (or two) persons targeted.  Besides, those extra deaths help take the focus off the Casablancas brothers as the primary victims.  The bus crash was a fantastic opportunity to kill both Cassidy and Dick at the same time while not arousing unnecessary suspicions.  The one person she hasn't been directly linked to is Woody, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that they had some kind of conspiracy going on.  If she's not at the root of this season's mystery then she needs to come back next season to get her comeuppance.

 

But I have a second, totally wacko, theory:  Don Lamb did it.  (#Eyes bug out.#):

  • Means:  Well, he's the sheriff; he could probably get his hands on some explosives.
  • Opportunity:  Again, he's the sheriff.  It's the perfect "hide in plain sight" cover to be anywhere, anytime without causing undue comment.
  • Motive:  Um, this one's a little tougher but there are a number of possibilities.  I think he hates Veronica, and Keith, more than we may realize.  Keith was running against him for sheriff.  Or he may have been after a whole bunch of rich, upper class kids--he clearly has self-image issues.  Maybe he is actually the one with a serious grudge against Woody and was gunning for Gia.  Okay, I don't really know what his motive might be and I'm reaching.

 

What makes me suspect Lamb then?  I started looking more closely at Lamb after Keith said to him: "Is your ego really so enormous that you can take the death of eight people and make it all about you?"  Then I wondered how Aaron's attorney knew about Veronica being in the Manning's house.  I can't imagine Mr. Manning told him so I'm left with Lamb giving him that information.  And there was his strange smirk after Veronica's testimony was torn to pieces.  Maybe the bus crash was an opportunity to kill several birds with one stone.  He certainly was anxious to pin the crash on the driver and later Terrance Cook.  He didn't appear at all eager to follow up on the leads Keith and Veronica brought him.  He was in no hurry to arrest Woody and did everything in his power to keep Lucky from confiding in Keith.  Is it conceivable that he is somehow colluding with Woody?  Or Aaron?

 

No? You're not buying it?  Well then, here's my last guess:  Emily Gilmore did it!  In a spectacular set up for mega-crossovers next year on The CW!  You heard it here first.  [Really, imagine the possibilities.  The Luke--Lorelei--Keith triangle.  The double dates with R/L and V/L.  The Taylor vs. Lamb showdown.  I'm sure there are any number of jobs Kirk could do in Neptune.  Kill off Zach and match Lane up with Wallace.  Mrs. Kim can hire Vinnie to investigate the murder and Cliff to defend Lane.  Deep breath.  Refocus.]

 

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Miscellaneous:

 

Did you notice the blindfolded statute holding the scales of justice behind Aaron's left shoulder as he was testifying?  Laying on the irony with a trowel I say.

 

I found it interesting that at the moment that Lucky shot Wallace the camera was on Veronica's face, not Jackie's.

 

And, I just have to ask:  Did anyone else watch Mr. Lobo refer to his black, bald, corporate attorney and flash on Gunn?  Really, Mr. L is a classic Wolfram and Hart client.

 

So Gia first gave Veronica a present of cupcakes and later offered her ice cream.  Anything in that?

 

I've learned to pay very close attention to the "previouslies."  They are carefully chosen to highlight moments or comments that eerily predict the action about to take place.  With that in mind I've got to wonder how significant these quotes may turn out to be:

 

KEITH (to Veronica in the previouslies):  "Stay away from this case.  This is more than some obsessed school kid."

 

Aaron Echolls:  "It's a very powerful thing when someone sees you as the person you wish you were."

 

MAC (to Cassidy):  "I'm smarter than you."  (Not sure if that is exactly predictive of anything or simply the one line in the entire episode where a character speaks the simple truth with no other possible underlying meanings intended.  Still, it remains to be seen if the statement is true.)

 

LOGAN:  "Ah, gee, Dad, you're always looking out for me."

 

GIA:  "Finals are so stupid.  We've already learned this stuff. Why do we have to learn it all over again?"

 

Speaking for myself, Gia, I'd say:  “Because I just haven't been able to put all the information together in any cohesive pattern to form a clear picture.”  I'm hoping Rob has the answer key.

 

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