After one long day...
Here's my immediate reactions LJ post that turned out ALOT longer than it should have. I wasn't going to even post it here because it was so insanely long, and I didn't want to gum up the thread, but see as how you guys are only on page 3? What happened to everyone last night?
I apologize in advance for the flailing nature of this post. I'm just REALLY happy about this one and have lost all ability to communicate in full coherency...
VM - 2x12 - ‘Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle‘ as I promise never to make fun of White Castle ever againOH.MY.GOD. That was just…DAMN.
I’m sorry, but how on earth did this ep ROCK SO DAMN HARD?!?! I’m trying to put in words exactly how completely AWESOME it was and am failing miserably!
ENBOM? IS THE HERO TO END ALL HEROES!
Because WHOA. Could it have been any more excellent? I really need to stop having expectations for an ep because this was NOTHING like what I thought. My expectations were, well, I wasn't expecting much at all. I was thinking it’d be one of those average, mediocre eps. But WHOA. Did they prove me wrong. Seriously, I am loving Enbom so hard right now! You want me to count the number of times I had to pause because I was in utter shock? Where I just sat there mouth gaping open staring at my paused TV screen. Good God, I love that. THIS is why I love my television. THIS is why I love my show.
OMG. That script? It was SO plotty! IN a good way plotty, because it was season mystery plotty. Seriously, that’s got to be the most season mystery plotty script EVER. It was season-mystery-plot-oh-licious! Okay, I’ll stop. I love how after all my complaining them not addressing the season mysteries and not having a handle on the show anymore, they go and deliver THAT! I’ve never been so happy to be slapped in the face! It was like, ‘TAKE THAT, ye person of such little faith‘. I was FLOORED.
It starts with me doubting that the knife in the opener had any significance other than to prove they were cool in freaking viewers out, and ends with me going, ‘HOLY CRAP. IT DID.’ I really wish I had the time to do a review for this episode this week. Because there was SOO much there to play around with. So much excellent meat to grab onto. I haven’t had an ep strike the reviewin’ bug in me since 2x02. Damn, this ep having to air during my busiest week of school yet…
Yes, I was anxious to move past the baby storyline mess and onto better things, but WOW. I NEVER expected it to get moving so fast! So this is what happens when they don’t have to deal with stupid actor exits? This is how they open the second half of the season? Because DAMN, what a way to get the ball rolling!
Let’s start out with the season mystery arcs because dare I say, OMG THEY’RE ALL CONNECTED!!!
THE BUS CRASHSo, the ep opens up and within two minutes, Keith is already scheming to get some answers. And OMG. There was a point to OAV! He got the whole lowdown of the Sheriff office security for Leo and Sachs. How awesome was it to hear them cashing in on that! That whole sequence was just so amusing, because I don’t think we’ve ever seen him so schemey-like. It was a very Veronica sequence. But now we know exactly where that comes from. That’s not learned behavior, That’s genetics, baby!
Can I just take a second to say, *points to Keith accusingly* YOU’VE STOLEN EVIDENCE! THIS IS A FELONY. YOU COULD GO TO JAIL! GASP!
Just like what you told Logan...
I do love how finally we're getting some ideas of suspects. We had the people we thought would be suspects but never actually got anything connected to their names, until now. This episode closed and all of a sudden almost EVERYONE is a suspect. We've officially kicked things up a notch!
Terrence Cook! And Mrs. Dumas! Damn. Who would have thunk that one? She’s actually important. And I wonder if this explains his fuss with Woody when he first came to the field back in 201. At any rate, with that gambling record he's running up, owning
"millions to scary men", looks like he’s Lamb’s newest suspect...
And the rat! Finally, Keith figures out what we’ve all known for MONTHS. It was not a warning, it was there for the SMELL. Very good kiddies. Now let’s move on from there…
DUN DUN DUN. Woody is finally implicated in matters. How long have we waited for that? Because we all know MAYORS ARE EVIL.
THE FITZs AND THE PCHersHoly moly, did we get a lot of development on this front. Let’s see if I can break it down…
MOLLY
So, it sounds like she’s against her families doings. Hopefully that wraps up any suspicions that Felix was working for the Fitzs, because I don’t want him being the bad guy. I liked Felix.
“My uncles and cousins didn’t know about us. If they did, they probably would have killed us both.“ Whoa. So they’re really going for the R &J route here. Not just the romance stuff, but the hardcore, killing other family members for a living stuff. And I confess I laughed myself silly over
“We met at church.“ Hehe. It’s a shame this actress just doesn’t cut it. Especially since, she SO does not pass for a high schooler. She looks like she’s about 30.
The PCHer CoupOh Lordie, this surprised the hell out of me. I might have been incoherent for five minutes straight before I could go on. I knew this was gonna happen one day. But THIS SOON? Knocked me flat on the floor.
Who on S3 was the one that noted the circling speech of Weevil in 208? Well whoever it was, they noticed how during that speech, Weevil was addressing the gang in a circle, turning as he talked. Everywhere he turned, he always had someone behind his back. They likened it to a pack of wolves drawning near their prey. And that is EXACTLY what happened here! Who ever it was, round of applause!
And AH-HA! So it WAS Thumper! Deceiving Weevil and taking over the gang, of course. I don’t actually think he murdered Felix. But this does mean his whole entire story is shot to hell! Fun! And dare say, Hector (was that Hector?) looked sympathetic towards Weevil?
But if you think about it, Weevil is now like last year’s Veronica. Him standing BY Felix is what gets him completely outsted from the gang that thought he wasn’t being loyal to Felix. Just like Veronica being ostracized by the 09ers her standing by her father and the truth for Lilly, when they all though she was disgracing Lilly. Except, Weevil! That was supposed to be Logan’s place. He was supposed to be the last year Veronica this year. I still can’t believe Rob passed that up. The symmetry would have been insane.
CURLY MORANOMG. Weevil beat Curly’s head in! So, did Curly get beat up by Weevil for something stupid, and Thumper took advantage of it, killed Curly so he could blackmail Weevil when he started getting nosy on the whole Felix thing?
This whole thing puts a monkey wrench in the Logan and Weevil investigation though. If Weevil’s being blackmailed, do you really think he’ll tell Logan what he found out about Thumper? I doubt it. If he can’t tell Logan, then Logan doesn’t find out who it was, and his investigation stops. Except that he needs to find out who really did it so he gets off. So does that bring him straight back to Veronica? AGAIN? Hmmph. Not sure whether I like that…
And then we’ve got Mr. C and Dick who knew Curly from the shop, as well as Woody.
WEEVIL AND LOGANThese two working together is by far one of the best ideas they’ve EVER had.
Logan’s not paying attention and Weevil gets MAD. Fun! And then we have this lovely
“You think I like SNEAKING over here like this?” Excuse me while I go giggling in the corner. Then he’s spotted walking out of Logan’s hotel room, and later we get lines like,
"Then maybe you should tell us what you were doing meeting at the Neptune Grand with Logan Echolls." Yup, corner. Giggling. Like a five year old.
Then the two of them at Java the Hut? Now that? Is quite possibly one of my favorite scenes EVER. Veronica snarks. Logan's revealed. Gasp! They're working together! Clandestine meetings. Sitting at separate tables, all Godfather-like. I felt like someone should wack someone over the head with a cannoli. And then there’s roomie talk, and peanut butter, and pantomime horse disguises. Plus, the awesomely discreet Capra delivery of
“Can we focus here ‘cause if we’re seen together by the wrong people *picks up coffee cup* that would be bad.”KEITH AND VERONICAHmm. Why is it that this show refuses to do fallouts? Whenever we think there is going to be a big relationship fallout from actions of an ep, the next week, everything seems all honky dorey. I refer back to the M.A.D to ATttD transition where we thought for sure there would be a huge Wallace/Veronica fallout, but it’s by far not the only time this has happened. This week, yes, we got that little mention of him not trusting her, but for the most part, they seemed to get along perfectly fine. Which I must say, is disappointing…
WALLACE‘s TROUBLESOkay, so the reason why I wasn’t expecting much with this ep was because I knew it revolved around this new mess they created for Wallace. Come on, a hit and run causes Wallace to have conflicting feelings about his morals? I figured, irritating. But no, within the first five minutes, they turned the whole situation upside down and straight onto Wallace. Now that’s in the true VM spirit! Do the right thing, and the rich will nail you on a cross for it.
“Is there anyone you don‘t think is corrupt deep down“ “Yes. You.”Picture me grinning as bright as can be while hearing this. I don’t know who I’m more proud of. Wallace, as the awesome guy he is, or Veronica for getting back to her cynical side of life…
And Nathan was involved in all this! See, now this made me happy. I was definitely afraid they would completely drop the father storyline which would have just been really wrong. Instead, he helped him. Well, in the end. I’m still fixated on the fact that his original advice to his son was to keep his mouth shut. I’m thinking…we might not be done with Nathan Woods after all…
Am I stupid to think that Uncle Rucker just may be connected with Terrence or Woody? It is all sports afterall….
MORE PEOPLE RETURN!INGA’S BACK AGAIN!! I begged for Inga to come back for at least ten episodes straight, so I will never not be happy to see her again!
CLIFF! For the second time in a row! The mere mention of a lawyer sent me squealing! But he’s back to his day spiffy look again. Too bad. The disheveled look was quite entertaining…
LARS! He’s back and singing bad karoke again. AND losing his girl’s attention to the special music guest. Oh, poor Lars.
They even brought JANE back! Seemingly throwaway character in Driver’s Ed with the crutches? Helping Wallace up one on Jackie…
Mr. Wu has a game show quiz? Oh, dear God, please don’t let that just be a throwaway.
JACKIEOkay, now as FRIGGIN’ awesome as I thought the Jackie twist was, when exactly did she get in the plan? She walks up to them in the beginning and I’m assuming that much is real. They had to reconcile at some point, and it’s sad that we didn’t ever get to see that scene. Especially strange is that her screaming at Wallace scene seemed very true to what needed to happen. So saying it was all a ruse is abit weird. But I was pretty flabbergasted at the twist and it wasn’t nearly as crazed as last weeks twist so…
Taking the Part from the WholeOkay, I’m digging abit deep here, but I was all entertained by it and oh, I'd love to play around with this whole theme more because it's all over the ep but why oh why can't we get more time in the day?
Within the first couple frames of the episode, we see a knife in slow motion which is revealed to be cutting a cake. The one piece is pulled out of the otherwise full cake, as it is singled out on a plate to be brought away. What the hell does this have to do with the episode?
Everyone is being singled out in this episode. Taken out of one sector and being left alone in another. Everyone is that piece of cake. Wallace gets cut from his Chicago buddies for doing the right thing. Logan’s the loner in the 09er pie. Veronica decides to cut her own self off of the rest of the cake and be Veronica again. And Weevil. Weevil IS this lone little piece of cake. Utterly and completely. By the end of the episode, he’s been pulled away from his gang of PCHers. The knife severed their ties completely. And alone he is placed, at a table all by himself. See, fun? Damn, I wish I had the time to expand this so it would make more sense…
LOGAN, LOGAN, EVERYWHERESo am I crazy, or were there Logan undercurrents EVERYWHERE in this ep? Seriously, at first I thought I was just being funny, but then I kept seeing them, and they became more and more heavyhanded, and by the end, I decided there was no way they didn’t write them purposefully. Which is insane, except that how could so many be there if they hadn’t planned it? I was 14 minutes into the ep and ALREADY it felt like the whole ep is pushing through with this foreboding shadow of Lg/VM showdown. It’s just, I wasn't not even looking for them and they keep popping up. Something was brewing…
First parallel that jumped out at me, was when Wallace was talking about Jackie.
“I just don’t know if I can handle someone like that in my life right now.“ Yea, Wallace was talking about Jackie, but there was this big loom of Logan surrounding it.
Then we’ve got this lovely line, where Wallace tells Veronica,
“You’ve got my future in your hands. Don’t drop it.” And whoa. Of course my mind jets to the Logan parallel of
"Help me, Mars-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." But the reaction KB gives to that one, the writers might not have written it as Logan undercurrents, but KB certainly decided to play it as such.
And then as if that isn’t enough, a minute later, they are talking about this random couple. The Murray file. Veronica asks incredulously, “
They reconciled? How?” “The mystery of love I would guess”. And man, I now sound crazy, but the way KB delivered that “They reconciled?”. Like they had fought like cats and dogs and if they could reconcile, anyone could. And then, she does a look(at the pictures, 2x03 anyone?), sigh, and shred.
Then, in the next scene, Logan pops up unexpectedly. And I just can’t help but feel the whole ep was narrowing into that scene. Where he begs for her help, and combined with his comment and the song playing, she has her little enlightenment. ‘Be Veronica again’ I can’t tell you how great it is that they used that song, because it is just perfect. No, not because it has her name in it.
Look at the lyrics. All about losing herself and finding herself again. And sure, that little enlightenment part was abit heavyhanded, but I’d rather have it bad than not at all, just because of what it means for Veronica’s character…
And then, we have the confessional scene.
“I’ve done some things that, probably aren’t quite…one the up and up. God-wise.” “Sometimes when I know someone is bad, I do..improper things. Like trying to prove to the world that they’re bad and get them punished”And then the priest gives her this passage:
“Roman 12:19. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, sayeth the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him, and if thine enemy thirst, give him drink. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”Although, yes, she’s talking about bugging the confessional in the beginning there, but his response. Well, it can be applied to a number of things, including Jackie, and her somehow becoming nice toward her, as well as Logan. Not like I really want her to give up her revenge backbone…
And speaking of Logan, I’ve got a bunch of notes for him…
LOGAN in his DISTRAUGHTNESSSo we have the hotel scene where JD’s line deliveries are about the sharpest they’ve ever been. Biting words. It’s the spit. I’ve told ya. Spit is a Logan requirement.
And then later, the fabulous scene at The Hut which I just love to death! Where he’s just so distraught about Duncan I want to cry. Seriously, JD here just nails this whole thing so well, it knocked the wind RIGHT out of me. You’ve got it all here, the intense stare with the urgent line deliveries, complete with the sheepish ear fiddling and head in hands. It’s just…GAH!
“Funny you should bring up roomies, seeing as I just lost one. I don‘t suppose you could help me find where Duncan disappeared?”*melts* Good God! How did he do that? Deliver it like that! *dies*
I’ve decided an addendum should be placed on JD’s contract. Wear black sweaters whenever possible. Because OMG.
But, rewinding abit, why is Weevil talking about the Felix case and yet Logan’s not focusing? BECAUSE HE’S MISSING DUNCAN!! Yes, he’s playing THEIR little mini-golf game!! From 205? He’s reminiscing and moping about how his best friend is gone! Yes, Logan is distraught. YES!
CONTRAST PRETTINESSNow I don’t want to get all pretentious about the lighting and such, but this has got to be the most noir looking episode of them all. Most of the ep was darkly lit, with bunches of shadows everywhere, and oOo did I mention the wet streets again? Just the whole look of the episode was lovely and I praise Kletchmer for all the awesome shots he got out of it. It makes me a happy, happy girl.
THE WARDROBE REPEATSOkay, so it’s seriously sad how friggin’ happy it made me to see Veronica in that green 113/114 sweatshirt. I was jumping up and down. Then we had her green blazer which was happily back again, because if we would have never seen it again, then I would be mad. Good to see she’s continually using it. And then we had the 2x06 tan leather jacket too. Oh, and the 210 cute hat. Yes, I was amused.
Little Bits and Pieces: - Hey, who said we’d probably never see the new tat Weevil got last week? ‘Cause this week, it’s there, in all it’s distracting ways. Seriously, that’s an eyesore Capra! Friggin’ HUGE thing on his NECK. Why would you want to do that to yourself? Please stop the tats now, before we have no more Weevil skin to even look at…
- Did anyone find any symmetry at all in this ep? At all? I’ve been looking but I’ve come up woefully short. ;(
And now off to chill on the couch and read everyone else's posts...
I think it was just Thumper or maybe one other guy in on it. Because he uses the whole "Logan killed Felix" in front of the group to say that Weevil is doing business with an "enemy".
Lame response, I know: but I think you've hit on something with it: she reasserts herself while the Elvis song is being sung: it's a rather neat touch underscoring the whole scene.
My only disagreement is minor.
