Okay, so I haven't gotten to read everyone else's posts yet, so much of this has already been discussed. It's been a crazy day today...and I chose to end it by writing a
really long post of filled with rambling thoughts. So typical of me...
Immediate reactions et al....
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OH. MY. GOD.
Mucho Logan + Mucho Cliff + Mucho Clarence + Koontz reappears + dead body + Joss Cameo + Harry Hamlin = BEST EPISODE EVER!! ;D
Seriously, could that have been any more amazing?
I had such unbelievably high expectations for it after hearing all the buzz, and they completely exceeded them.
And I thought the last one was golden. Hah! This blew every other episode this season RIGHT out of the water!
At this point, I'd seriously go so far as to say that it was the best ep ever. Okay, so I'm probably not reliable enough to determine that now seeing as how I've only watched it once but…OMG!
SOOO much good to talk about. Where to even begin…
THE BIGGER BITS...-
CLIFF! He came back! My wish came true! Why does it feel like Christmas? I could hardly believe how MUCH Cliff there was. They gave him so much material! Hilarious deadpan delivered lines. I almost dropped dead of excitement. His phone exchange with Veronica was the cutest thing ever. And then faking the hysterical father! Right in front of Logan! OMG. Cliff, I love you! Your biggest fan ever? Sitting right here!
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CLARENCE! I almost died when I saw 'Christopher B. Duncan' come up in the credits. No way did I ever think we'd see him again. I spent all last year with this wild fascination with him, and his hat. He brought a lovely amount of noir mysteriousness and a dash of scary creepiness. And this year? He comes back, and he's mysterious and creepy and funny as hell to boot. His "Answer the question or I'll break all your fingers" sent chills down my spine. He scared me to pieces when he threw that kid out the window. And then two minutes later, his deadpan, "Harvard" just sent me into stitches. Talk about character versatility. I sure hope this isn't the last of him…
- And of course, the big thing here.
Logan finally gets his storyline! Complete with half the episode's screentime, and some of the best lines to date. But the real amazement was JD. Holy CRAP did he sell this one! See what we've been missing for the first five episodes? That was just excellent acting through and through. Active acting, to the utmost. Ah, what a dramatist Logan is. That 'You like me' scene in the line up? Hilarious. And reminded me of the Hot Dogs, "Push in on our hero" scene. All of his interactions were just spot on, between Aaron, Lamb, Weevil, and OMG, Aaron! All of those Logan layers came forth so incredibly well here. I don't think I could have dreamed of a better confrontation. There was hatred, but there was also pain, and sadness, and a tiny glimpse that still ever everything, somehow he does care for his father. And for just a second, he wanted to believe him. How I love those layers! And on a fun note, did you notice all the small details JD stuck in there? Him trying to read the paper Cliff was flying around in his hand while talking on the phone? Trying to look through a window as Lamb was escorting him off to the jail cell? Looking out the window in the car? Wiping the pizza sauce off him face and licking his fingers? All acting like a hyperactive five year old kid. Hehe. Just excellent.
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Harry Hamlin!OMG. How much praise can be said about this man? Seriously, there are not enough words to say how FLOORED I was over his performance. I wondered how on earth they were going to do this. Aaron always had had this wonderfully fucked-up and complex grayness about him, where you never really knew what to think of him, and never really knew whether he himself did either. It's partly why at first, I was mad that he turned out to be the killer. Because that gray complexity was gone and he turned to pure villain. So I can't even say how much I loved to see them go back to that. One wouldn't think they could go back, but they did and they succeeded! He actually had me believing his story for a minute there. If that's not a testament to that performance, I don't know what is.
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Koontz and Amelie. I can not stress enough how much I loved that the CotW was such a revisit to Season One storylines. To jump across season lines for a major episode plot, that's gutsy. Not to mention, how wonderfully dark this one the resolution turned out to be. I didn't even realize it until VMVO pointed it out, that Koontz who thought he was helping his daughter by taking the fall and getting her money, actually lead to her death. It's absolutely chilling and such a VM grayness move.
- And last but not least,
Joss's cameo. Hehehehehehehehe. Joss, you're just as cute as a button! The german part. Hehe. And the color, white. Hehe. And then the 'ranting rental car saleman' Joss? Just as entertaining. Hehe.
Now let's turn to
THE SCRIPT! OMG. Klembom really outdid themselves with this script! I stand in amazement. The line by line's were excellent. An overabundance of hilariously great quotage. And as much as it seemed first time around? Excellent construction. I mean, simply the way they were able to keep elevating the tensions higher and higher, with more and more shock and awe moments? This script never slowed down. The momentum was simply amazing. It was packed to the hilt with information, and yet it didn't at all seem cramped. It was humorous, it was painful and it was shocking! I stand in awe.
SMALLER BITS...- LAMB WON! Woohoo! Break out the champagne! Mars Investigations and pretty windows and Mars Maverickisms are here to stay! Seriously, we needed him to stay the underdog, trying to beat the system. It's no fun if he's a part of the system. That last scene proved to me why he couldn't win the election. Because if he was a cop, how much sneaking around would he really have to do. Definitely no fun. This way, he has to sneak around in the dark, break in a warehouse to find the bus, hide when someone comes, and gets to see an icky rat.
- The Echolls house getting burnt down? Oh my God. As if everything else in Logan's life isn't already gone already. And I gotta say, I'm gonna miss that house. It was pretty.
- But who actually burned it down? They definitely set up that Weevil and the PCHers were the ones who did it. But I'm inclined to believe that Weevil in fact was not a part of it. That this was yet another case of his boys pulling rank and doing something with his knowing. That aspect was emphasized in the pilot, and that Weevil had no clue about the drive by. This is of the same degree of violence. That hallway scene just showed how agitated the guys were about Weevil's leadership, and his scene later with Logan made me believe he knew nothing about burning down the house. I mean, Weevil looked like he was ready to cry there in the beginning. He didn't seem to understand why Logan did what he did.
- And I believe Logan's move against Weevil was completely justified for the character. I was surprised he didn't do something worse actually. I mean, the friggin' burnt his house down. This is not just a prank. This is not just lighting fire to a community pool. This is private property, and this is endangering others around, neighbors as well as local officials trying to put out the blaze. Issuing an eviction notice in retaliation is tame in comparison.
- Look at how useful the VMVOs were here. Her thoughts about Wallace. Three times? Aww. I love that they didn't completely forget about him. Although I do wonder who is looking for him. I would have thought Alicia would make Keith search high and low for him. But for Veronica, his absence if prolonged for as long as I think, is bound break her eventually. She needs her Wallace to balance out her life. Without him, what will she do?
- Even for all my Clarence love, I’m not entirely fixed on the fact that it wasn't Clarence who killed Amelia. Because that ice? It's a total shout out to his maneuver last year with Lilly and still screams to me that it was indeed him. And he just did a damn good job of covering it up. I'm just not closing up that possibility just yet.
- Veronica's line about Duncan. "My adorable, honest boyfriend." Honest? Whoa. I saw the red flag shooting up with that line. Quite like when Veronica said Logan's alibi was airtight last year. I'm thinking they got quite a doozy coming up with Duncan. I'm thinking that Mr. "I'm all that I perceive to be" is not quite all that he perceives to be. And I'm hoping I'm not wrong, because this could prove to be very interesting.
- I must say, I'm quite impressed at how they've been able to get all the same actors back whenever they need them. Even the smallest of small parts. The girl that was Amelia's roommate. She had more lines in this ep then she did in 1x17, when she merely opened a door. But what really flabbergasted me was Wiedman's secretary. Same lady as 1x09, was it? Whatever the case, I stand in awe. How do they get all these people back so easily.
- So Cliff was the one who recover Veronica's fakes after 1x12. Great S1 refernece. One of these days, I am going to sit down and make a list of every S1 reference they've used in each episode. Because clearly, the writers room is having one big huge contest and everyone is determined to win. I love it!
- Aww. Look at the writers trying to fix their mistakes by incorporating it into canon! It's so cute! Look how much they care! The reporter explained the mayor to supervisor switch. Formerly the position called the mayor of Neptune, as of this year, they're calling it supervisor. Hehe. And then later, the reinforcement that indeed there is a kid at Neptune High who's name is John Enbom, separate from the director of 'The Long Haul'. So that was his father then? By the same name? Who now owns his own airline?
- And I can't end without giving props to that awesome little play they did at the end. The Logan in a Duncan sweater. Oh, that soo threw me for a loop! The sweater was just oh so Duncan, I never even questioned it. When I saw the magazine over his head, I almost thought for a second Duncan might be dead! (Yea, that's become a common thought for me to jump to this season. I have no clue why…) But then it was Logan! And I fell out of my chair laughing so damn hard! Damn great little play! Highly amusing, indeed!
- BTW, what was the point of changing the title from the books singluar, 'rat', to the ep's plural, 'rats'? Any ideas?
- And what about this emphasis on fire this year? As a weapon of warfare? First Aaron's fire in 1x22, then the PCHers and the 09ers set pools on fire, now Logan's house is set on fire. Could there possibly be any significance?
- I must do a LJ quotage post of this episode some time this week, because this stuff was excellent. I've especially been loving Cliff's "So Chip, why don't you thank me by taking the Old Block's advice" ever since I caught it. Such an awesome play on words there...
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Now off to read the discussion.