OPEN CASE:  Veronica Mars

 

 

 


VM 3X05

Aired: 10/31/06

 

President Evil: Life is not a dress rehearsal

Review By Fotada

 

 

 

 


Life’s a show and we all play a part
And when the music starts,
We open up our hearts.

-- “Once More With Feeling”

 

This episode aired on Halloween, and how very apropos that is. As we know from watching Buffy, Halloween is come as you aren't night, and this episode is chock full of people who aren’t quite what they first appear. But they have very different motivations for putting on an act. Putting on a costume can be innocent fun, like Veronica and Logan dressing up as the White Stripes. And other people play a part with the only the best of intentions, such as when Keith impersonates a building inspector in order to track down Steve Batando, the deadbeat dad. But some put on a performance for their own selfish gain, like the campus security guys pulling off a Point Break-cum-Scarface style robbery.

 

In this show called life, we all play a part. Logan is playing Joe College, while Weevil is José Lunchpail.  Wallace’s team mate asks him if he’s posing for the Hearst College brochure, the caption underneath reading, “The dedicated students are the very picture of diligence as they strive to meet Hearst’s rigorous academic standards.” In actuality, Wallace isn’t meeting those standards. His friend tips him off about a guy who plays the part of a “tutor” offering “study guides.” Wallace sees through the tutor’s act, obviously, but it’s still unclear to whether he cheated on his exam. My guess? I believe he decided at the last second not to go through with it, and instead wrote a note to his professor that he would rather fail than cheat. My theory is that his professor summoned Wallace to cooperate in a sting operation to catch the kid selling the test answers in lieu of being expelled from college.

 

Danny the pizza employee views Veronica in the role of superhero, a legend of Neptune High. Because of that, he agrees to help her by impersonating his boss Walter Wolfcastle in order to obtain the IP address of a pizza order. Lamb does a mean Robot for Veronica, not to impress, but rather to mock her. He also does a very good imitation of Mr. Microphone when he hilariously promises Logan, “Hey good lookin’, we’ll be back to pick you up later!”

 

Others may assume a false identity to hide what they really are. One of the casino robbers is a make-believe cop holding a make-believe gun using a fake accent à la Scarface, a make-believe character. And we learn that Claire is posing as a rape victim: she calls herself useless when asked to identify the Asian boy in the ATM photo, but Veronica eventually discovers that the kid is, in fact, Claire’s boyfriend.

 

Some may justify playing a part as for the greater good, a means to an end. Mars Investigations assumes the role of Mars Advertising and Media Solutions while Cliff and Keith pretend to audition for a voice-over part, all for the sake of setting up a meeting between Batando and the O’Dells. Veronica uses a sugar and sunshine down-home accent to gain access to the list of past Camp Waterloo campers. Veronica also puts on a pretty convincing act when she tells the rent-a-cop that all she cares about is getting her necklace back. She offers to trade him the masks o’ DNA in exchange for her necklace, but her true motivation is nobler. Veronica does her own bad Scarface imitation (“Say hello to my little friend”) as she reveals that she’s wired for sound.

 

Sometimes people play their parts so convincingly the lines between fiction and reality blur. As Logan pointed out, art can imitate life. When Cyrus O’Dell married Mindy, he took on the role of stepfather to her son. Cyrus and Mindy put on an act for Keith, telling him that it’s her son Jason’s last dying wish to see his father. In fact, they needed Steve Batando’s bone marrow to save Jason’s life. Dean O’Dell has filled the part of the boy’s father so well that he actually becomes his father. To paraphrase Joss Whedon, the music has started, and he’s opened up his heart. After Keith discovers that Cyrus helped kidnap Batando, the dean tells Keith, “Do you expect me to apologize, Keith? He's my son. You need me to get on my knees? I'll get on my knees. You stop that operation, that's it. My son is dead.” Even Batando believes it. He tells Cyrus, “He's not my son. He's your son.”

 

But sometimes you can’t make do with the understudy; you have to have the real thing. Only his biological father can ultimately save Jason’s life. But because Batando wouldn’t willingly step into his role as father, Cyrus and Mindy risk going to prison to make sure that he finally did.  And while Batando doesn’t get cast for the fake voice-over part, he does get the lead role in convincing Lamb that he hadn’t been kidnapped, but instead was off camping. In exchange for his semi-credible performance, Batando is permanently relieved from his role as ex-husband to Mindy and father to Jason.

 

Sometimes, people are miscast for their role. It’s very easy to unjustly pigeonhole people based on surface appearances. Some examples in this episode:

  • Veronica notices that one of the thieves wearing a mask is about Weevil's size, and happens to be covered in a thin film of drywall dust and the stench of Drakkar cologne. She miscasts Weevil as the perpetrator.
  • As does Sheriff Lamb, in part because the security officers purposely miscast Weevil in order to frame him for the robbery. 
  • Veronica jumps to the wrong conclusions when she learns that the guns used in the robbery were props. She is quickly set straight: “We're the theatre department. We don't do guns. We do Moliere. You want a poor man's Tarantino? That would be the film department.”
  • The gum-chewing little girl miscasts Veronica when she runs up to her car and shouts, “You did this. You set up my daddy, you stupid cow. Go back to Hearst where you belong. You come into this town and treat everyone like dirt.” She incorrectly assumes Veronica is a stuck-up college transplant, not a hometown Neptune girl. 

 

For Veronica’s criminology class, she recruits Weevil as an audio-visual aid for her presentation on the links between poverty and crime. Weevil talks about his (very recent) past life of crime.  To the students’ great entertainment, he recounts the tale of how he and his gang crushed a truck as payback for a bike being vandalized, and how he later found out they took out their revenge on the wrong person’s vehicle. Not only was the wrong person punished, but the punishment far outweighed the crime. This may be a hint toward solving the rape mystery. Is the rapist exacting some kind of payback on innocent women after being “wronged” by someone else?

 

Weevil admits that he misses the thrill and the easy cash, and continues to be tempted by his old way of life. And tempting it must be for Weevil, being that he’s been reduced to a bit part as Maintenance Man, surrounded by college kids (and security officers) who judge him based on a stereotype. Like the tattoos permanently etched in his skin, Weevil just can’t seem to escape his past. I also found this exchange very interesting:

 

Weevil: I can’t believe you think I’d do that—to you—after all we’ve been through.

Veronica: After all we’ve been through, can you really blame me?

 

Weevil assumed their history together had formed a bond of trust between them. Veronica, on the other hand, considered their history as circumstantial evidence against him. Logan recently accused Veronica of getting off on judging bad boys, and that predilection was in full force in this episode.

 

Other references to the past popped up in this episode: Veronica commented that she’d been thinking a lot about her old friend Lilly. The stolen necklace represented her memories of her murdered best friend, and further, Veronica’s loss of innocence. There were also references to ex-presidents (Nixon and Carter), allusions to old movies (Scarface and Point Break), and even older songs (“Busted” by Johnny Cash plays as Wallace is called before his professor).

 

And finally, this doesn’t really fit anywhere else, but seems important to note. Three different Asian men have played small, yet key roles in the last few episodes--

 

-         Charleston Chu, one of Pi Sigs

-         Wang Li, Claire’s boyfriend

-         Officer Sasaki, one of the rent-a-cops

 

I’m sure there’s significance to their roles, but it is yet to be revealed.

 

And…scene.

______________________________________________

 

Please join in the discussion of this review at the Soulful Spike Society Message Board. Go there NOW!

If you enjoyed this review and are reading it from outside the Soulful Spike Society website (www.soulfulspike.com), then click the logo below to access the S3 in a new window. There you will find more great reviews, analyses, fanfiction and a link to our marvelous message board.