OPEN CASE: Veronica Mars

Season 3

Episode 10

SHOW ME THE MONKEY: To know me is to love me

By Spring Summers – 11-MAR-2007

This episode features a researcher, Gil, who loves his lab monkey, Oscar. How can a love so forbidden be anything but sweet? See, Gil just couldn’t help himself. He got to know Research Subject #25, and the day came that #25 offered his favorite toy, a squeaky plastic banana, to Gil. In doing so, he showed Gil an undeniable sign of individual personality and affection. He showed Gil the inner monkey. Guilelessly, #25 saved his own life by letting Gil see what he was made of – turns out it was more than just meat. It’s how we all come to love one another, and it was no different for our odd couple. Gil, our devoted scientist, named the monkey Oscar, and it was a downhill slide from there.

Listen to the conversation, shortly after we watch Dick take a picture of his genitals and throw it off the balcony, for any passerby to see. Dick has accused Logan of being emasculated by Veronica:

LOGAN: My man parts are intact.

DICK: Show me.

LOGAN: Well, you’ll have to take my word for it.

Ah. I see Logan is a bit more reluctant than Oscar or Dick have been, to offer up the banana. But, just as Parker has done earlier with Veronica & Mac, Dick continues to encourage Logan to stop moping, and tells him to get back to living. And while Dick may not be much of a sage overall, he isn’t wrong to suggest that Logan needs to get back out into the world.

Many references to groups, national identities, private space, nakedness, locks, borders, and break-ins, hammer home the theme: No man is an Island, entire of itself. Further underlining the need for social connection is the constant reference to names and titles. A name, after all, is not something you have because YOU need it. It is what identifies you to the outside world; it establishes you as an individual. It is the most basic of information, and it provides an initial point of contact; it’s the tiny peephole on your triple-locked front door. Unlike Mac’s blah wardrobe choice, it does not say: “I’ve given up, don’t look at me.” You have a name for one reason, and one reason only: So that others can identify you. So that others can begin to see you, and know you.

Why does Logan look so miserable and dissatisfied after his sexual encounter with a girl whose name he barely knows? Why do we feel sorry for him, when the girl reveals that her interest in him is all about his famous movie-star dad? We feel for him because we know that she couldn’t care less about who Logan really is; it was his dad’s name and fame, and nothing about Logan himself, which attracted her. And Logan, for his part, was attracted only by the superficial prettiness of the girl. They’ve made no real connection.

VERONICA: “If it ever had a face, or parents, you can’t wear it.”

MAC: “So my mollusk shoes are cool?”

Love happens when we begin to truly see the other, and begin to feel truly seen by the other. Love is what moves us toward cruelty-free behavior, in this cruel, cruel, world. (“Goodbye, cruel world.”)

It’s risky, no two ways about it, though you need that two-way street. You may put it all out there, the way Piz does with Veronica, but still not be seen. Piz was being fairly obvious, only barely hiding his interest in Veronica behind carefully chosen words, as he flirted with her over dinner. But Veronica didn’t pick up on it, because her mind was elsewhere. She wasn’t paying attention. She wasn’t tuned to Piz’s frequency. He was broadcasting; she wasn’t receiving. When she shows up with Logan the next morning, he realizes that Veronica wasn’t reading him correctly, and vice-versa. He walks off, upset and disappointed to learn that he didn’t make a connection, after all.

From China to Canada, from Italy to Cuba, be you a lab-oriented realist or a vegetable-eating idealist – you’re a sucker for LOVE. It’s what makes the world go ‘round. As Linda Ronstadt sings at the end of this episode, while Keith and Hank discuss what they’ve done for love: Love will abide.

So tell me your name. Say mine. Let me see the real you. Look at me. Let me care about you. Love me. Show me your monkey, and I’ll show you mine.

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