Not Pictured

OPEN CASE: Veronica Mars

Season 2

Episode 22

Not Pictured: The Facts of Life

By Spring Summers – 30-May-2006

VERONICA (in a voiceover at the start of the episode): So this is how it is: The innocent suffer, the guilty go free, and truth and fiction are pretty much interchangeable. There is neither a Santa Claus, nor an Easter Bunny, and there are no angels watching over us. Things just happen for no reason. And nothing makes any sense.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, indeed, when things don’t turn out the way we have pictured them. In Not Pictured, on graduation day, everyone’s hauled out of their warm beds of Childhood Fantasy, and into the cooler of Adult Reality, where you can get frostbite and loose three fingers if you’re not careful:

Veronica was picturing a day of reckoning for Aaron, but instead, she’s standing outside the courthouse, watching Aaron go free.
Wallace was imagining a romantic reunion with Jackie in Paris, but he finds himself being kissed off at JFK.
Veronica dreams of herself in a frilly dress, being babied by Mom & Dad, with a very sweet Logan as a boyfriend, and Lilly alive and well – until reality intrudes with the smell of bacon.
Jackie’s mom reminds her that “Terrence Cooke fantasy camp is over. This is real life.”
Woody describes the fantasy he has built around his heinous acts of child molestation, in order to justify them. But officers of the law are waiting to escort him to Reality.
Weevil grandmother has always pictured herself watching her beloved grandson cross the stage to receive his HS diploma. But instead, Reality comes calling in the form of a merciless Sheriff Lamb.
Mac was imagining a warm, romantic evening with Cassidy. But she finds herself cold and naked and alone.
Cassidy thought he could keep his Woody-shame and his crimes a secret, and live a normal life with Mac and his Phoenix-trust millions. But as Veronica tells him: “It’s over. It’s out. I know.”

You leave childhood for adulthood. You leave the little town of Neptune for the big city of New York. You leave High School for College. You turn 18. You’re orphaned, like Annie. You’re on your own at the airport, while the “Now Boarding” light flashes behind you, signaling that it’s time to take off. Fantasy worlds, like the Norman Rockwell paintings that Kendall mentions, or like the sandcastles Duncan is building for his baby on an Australian beach, come crashing down when the tide comes in.

Closing your eyes and thinking of England works very imperfectly, and only temporarily. Eventually, you’ve got to face the fact you’re being screwed. Right?

Images and mentions of puppets, jail, robbers, people being used, handcuffs, captive birds, and plank-walking suggest that we all get dragged from our childhood idealized worlds, into our adult and unpleasant real lives, kicking and screaming and protesting.

CASSIDY: “Look, please don’t drag me into this!”

But the message in this episode is not really so bleak. The message isn’t that you’re being screwed by Reality 24/7, so you should just bend over, and take it. Sometimes, you’re making love to Reality. So open those eyes, and forget about England. Focus on what’s in front of you. “When the management gives you free cake, you’re supposed to eat it,” says Veronica, to Wallace. You bet you are. And you’re supposed to show up for your free gelato, as well.

AARON: Well, it’s a free country. Those founding fathers were really on to something. Freedom is pretty damn sweet. I like it.

Who doesn’t? We’re not just stinky puppets. True, we don’t always get what we deserve.

VINNIE: “I risk my life to bring a fugitive to justice, and you’re giving me the world’s tiniest violin.”

But we affect our fates, the fates of others, and the world outside of ourselves. There are many mentions of free will and choices. Keith captures Woody; Jackie decides to provide her son a better example than she had from her own father; Cassidy causes a plane to explode by remote control; Duncan reaches out from the other side of the world for vengeance. Good or bad, pretty or ugly, we aren’t just puppets on a stage. We’re the writers and directors of a movie starring ourselves. Listen to Aaron, watching himself in an old movie, right before he gets exactly what he has, in his own way, asked for:

AARON: Well, well – who’s that handsome fella?

Real life may not be quite as under your control as your own private and somewhat cheesy fantasy camp. Notice how many times we see people taking pictures in this episode – people trying to create and preserve their vision. (Say cheese!)

Sometimes, though you struggle to establish your own firm identity, people call you by the wrong name.

AARON: I feel relieved, to have my name cleared of this horrible crime.
VERONICA: They gave me the wrong cap & gown. LOGAN: Yeah – how exactly can you tell? VERONICA: Got someone else’s name on it.
CASSIDY: My name is Cassidy.

The Principal reads name after name. But notice that we get the reverse of that “reality is cold, fantasy is warm” image when Veronica’s name is called. The applause that she gets is not at all what she had pictured in her imagination is it? No. It’s better.

So Reality: Not so bad. Sometimes you get the bear; sometimes the bear gets you. You take the good, you take the bad and there you have: The Facts of Life. Cassidy kills himself because it seems to him that he’s completely lost control of the world around him. He’s done everything that he could think to do, to shape the world to his liking, to force it to conform to his unthinking and overwhelming need for secrecy and security, but it didn’t work. The troubled and twisted and immature Cassidy can’t understand that if he would just let himself live another day, he might find a way to successfully adapt to a world where his secrets were out.

But he can’t even picture it. There is only one way that he can continue to retain the absolute control that he thinks he needs, and he takes that way out: He kills himself. But constant references to “life” and “being alive” pound the message home: As long as you’re alive, like Carol Channing, you can affect and enjoy the world around you - and someone may still ask for your autograph. And sometimes? Free cake from the management!

So that’s what this episode is about: Our characters are graduating from High School, and about to begin their entrance into adult Reality in earnest. As much as Veronica dreams of her Ideal, note how Reality intrudes into her dreams – with the smell of bacon, but also with the image of Logan as her boyfriend, and the presence of the Lilly Kane Memorial Fountain. Reality will creep in – through your nose (DUNCAN: “I’da been happier if you hadn’t had that chili dog”) or your ears or your eyes or the feeling in your gut.

Notice how Veronica wears that girlish print dress in her dreams, but wears a sophisticated black dress in reality. Notice too how she’s flitting from Logan to Dad in this episode. Logan and Dad are dressed somewhat alike in her dream. Later, she even calls out “Dad?” But it’s Logan – and she takes comfort from him, in the absence of Dad. Dad shows up – and she runs to him. Dad makes a comment about being glad Logan’s presence wasn’t too intrusive (sexual), and Logan leaves.

Veronica is a girl in transition between the Daddy she needs as a child and the Lover/Husband she needs as an adult.

The growing-up themes were very skillfully placed in the episode – but this ep is more than just a collection of relevant themes. It is one rockin’ good finale. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! That’s what I kept saying, watching the story unfold. Here are the things that I absolutely loved:

The funny, light jab at VP Cheney, in the whole “Quail Creek Lodge” story, and Keith’s explanation as to why he rarely goes “to Texas.”
Jackie as a young mom and waitress.
Aaron with Logan, Aaron with Veronica in the elevator, Aaron with Kendall. Aaron.
The explanation for how Veronica got Chlamydia. Perfection.
The whole scene on the roof. It was just soooo well done by all involved.
Clarence’s shocking murder of Aaron, followed by the even more shocking reveal that Duncan was behind it.
Kendall razzing Logan & Veronica about their “young love.”

And here’s the way it all played out for me, chronologically:

As a young child, and along with Peter and Marcos, Cassidy is raped by Woody – who has Chlamydia.
As a teenager, Cassidy rapes Veronica while she’s roofied, but then he lies to her about it. She gets Chlamydia.
Peter and Marcos plan to “out” Woody, and tell everyone about the abuse that they, and Cassidy, suffered at his hands. Cassidy says no, but they won’t listen to him. Cassidy is completely, totally, and overwhelmingly desperate to hide this shame from everyone – I imagine, most particularly, from his father.
Cassidy puts a bomb on the bus, and a dead rat. The dead rat is to create a smell, to manipulate Dick into calling for a limo. The bomb is to kill Peter and Marcos, to stop them from talking. Once everyone is in the limo, and the bus is in the right spot, Cassidy blows up the bus by sending a cell signal.
Curly, perhaps remembering questions Cassidy may have asked him or whatever, somehow figures out that Cassidy must have bombed the bus. Cassidy gets wind of this, or suspects it. He uses the fact that bus-victim Cervando was on the outs with Liam, to convince the PCHers that Curly bombed the bus for the Fitzpatricks. He hopes that the PCHers will conveniently kill Curly for him.
The PCHers don’t kill Curly, so Cassidy has to run him down. He writes “Veronica Mars” on Curly’s hand, hoping to confuse investigators and possibly point a finger at Aaron.
Cassidy begins his Phoenix Trust Co. He wants Neptune-incorporation to be defeated. So he blackmails Woody, saying something to the effect of: “Figure a way to defeat incorporation, or I’ll tell about what you did to me.” Woody cooks up the “girl in the motel” plan, and sure enough, incorporation is defeated.
All seems well, but due to events beyond Cassidy’s control, Woody becomes a bus crash suspect, and Woody’s child molestation activities are coming to light.
Veronica is looking for the “third boy,” hoping to strengthen the case against Woody. When she realizes the third boy was Cassidy, suddenly, everything comes together for her: Cassidy was sexually abused by Woody. Oh my God – Woody had Chlamydia. She’s been wondering all day if, and if so how, Chlamydia could have gotten from Woody to her. Cassidy must have raped her, though he said he did not. She realizes that Cassidy is not at all what he seems. From there it’s a short leap into beginning to suspect him for the bus crash. She calls Mac with a warning.
Veronica calls Hart, and her suspicions are confirmed. She hasn’t heard from Mac, so she heads for the party. And the rest is history.

But let’s talk about next season!

What does Kendall want from Keith? I suspect there’s cold hard cash in that briefcase – enough to tempt Keith, because he’s got a daughter who wants to go to pricey schools, after all. But regardless of what is in it – what does she want?
And what is with Logan & Veronica? They’re obviously slated to try to hook-up again, and they are both very into it, as we can see. And Veronica says to him: “I’ll be back and everything will be fine.” But Logan replies: “You say that, but I don’t know.” Logan, I join you in your skepticism. Epic poems usually have a few more ups and downs in them.
College! I am going to guess that Logan, Wallace, Dick, Mac and Veronica will all head to Hearst.
Weevil! Oh, no. How is this going to play out? The fact that Weevil’s been jailed for Thumper’s murder is going to have to be part of next season’s story – which I hate, because I was kinda hoping not to see anymore of the Fitzpatricks. Weevil is guilty here – he deliberately set Thumper up to be killed. So how’s he getting out of this? And how will he redeem himself? That part could be interesting, indeed.

This finale was everything I was hoping for, and more. I was glad to hear of the renewal of the show, and I am really hoping that the CW network lets it run the full season, AND renews it for a season four.

See you in September.

***

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