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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:25:22 GMT -5
Before I read anyone's comments - here are my thoughts: First of all - I liked it - alot. It wasn't Look who's Stalking or I am God great but as a finale that had to include a lot of things - it worked for me. I've seen a lot of negative comment but I'm just not in that camp. Beaver did it! Okay - I'm doing the I guessed the bad guy dance but really, it just seemed increasingly more obvious as the weeks whittled down. This whole year themes of truths behind the truths, the gotcha, the masks we were to hide the person we really are (and as a drama person I must say I loved this theme)simply resonated. And the gay theme - again - resonated. The blackmail theme - again resonated. So all those dots had to connect up. And in the end, the only person left standing was Beaver - er that is Cassidy. So why are people mad? Cause he was so cute and cuddly with Mac? Because the transition from likeable guy to machiavellan killer was too much? I bought it because wearing a mask, all the time, chips away at whatever core values you have till - in the end, it becomes all about wearing the mask. If the mask comes up - all bets are off the table and anything goes. So Beaver is making one final attempt to keep wearing the mask. And this involves getting rid of Veronica. Ahhh - Veronica his nemesis. The one he freaked out over finding out Mac had talked to her (because Mac, she was his little lets play at being normal while using her computer skills ploy). I think he genuinely liked Mac, she was different like him. But in the end, when she threatened his mask, she was nothing. He pushed her aside like a bug. Worse, I think he felt he had to squish her somehow, because she'd seen him vulnerable. Yep! **nods** I bought it as well. We'd already seen Cassidy showing us different sides to him with the real estate deal and how he acted when it was just him and Kendall. Very different than the Beaver we'd seen up til then. And we had other little peeks at "different" versions of Beaver, coming more frequently in recent eps. Seemed very in character for them and appropriate to the situation.
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:27:30 GMT -5
Well, she said he took "everything". Would that include her innocence and virginity? I think it could. And, his line that she was in a better place. What, she experienced the greatness that is Cassidy in a rage? *sarcasm voice* I think he raped her. No, no, no - he couldn't get it up. That's why she was sympathizing with him before the shower. There was no rape of Mac. If he couldnt' get it up then - he for sure wouldn't have time to rape her before he went up to confront V He took all her clothes, the bed sheets - it was a literal he took everything. And she was shocked because he took off the mask and revealed the real Cassidy. I suppose there really wasn't time . . . . but still. Your description is the most plausible, though, isn't it.
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:29:08 GMT -5
I'm assuming that whole mystery will be what we'll be trying to figure out next year, what with Kendall both mixed up with Liam and Weevil with Thumper's death. Liam is going to make a ooky villian. He creeps me out. I have to say - I hope we're done with the Fitzpatricks. They bore me. Next year will definitely (if we get one -please, please) be three small mysteries one of which will most certainly be the rapist. I think whatever is in the briefcase will either be quickly resolved - or we will get a Kendall mystery of some sort. But I still hope the Fitzpatricks are done. Too broad and cartoony for me. I mean I liked them but I'm done with them. I really don't want to see them anymore But Liam was creepy Karen - I agree. The Fitzpatricks don't bore me at all! Liam in particular is soooo very scary!
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:33:31 GMT -5
Okay, I'll come in after 12 pages of talky meat to be redundant. So, here goes: What an episode! There were so many twists. First, I was chuckling along with Matthew that Woody used Frodo's "Underhill" alias. Second, kudo's to our nubie for pointing out the "C.W.?" "It's a done deal." exchange. Zipped right over my head at the time, but what a wonderful shout to the fans. And what a fortuitous event, that in Clarence Wiedman the initials fit someone who would believably do the deed. I'm not even sure Duncan paid the man for it; I need to rewatch S1 to see how deep C.W.'s loyalty to the Kane's was. Paid or not, I have to agree with Matthew in his vision of Clarence as the guy who would see this as something he had to do - to finish his duty to the Kane family and to wrapping up the loose ends. **nods in agreement** We saw hints all along. I'm convinced that going back and rewatching the season would reveal even more than I'm realising right now. We've definitely got fodder for a 3rd season. Heck, for many seasons to come!
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:35:07 GMT -5
Okay. I'm pretty sure that I've read through enough to be certain no one's offered this theory yet: what if Duncan didn't just order the hit on Aaron, but in fact helped engineer his acquittal in order to make Aaron available for Clarence to shoot? I was thinking about that particular twist as I got ready for bed last night, and what popped into my head was all those times we know Duncan was alone with Kendall; back then we wondered if Duncan and Kendall might be getting it on. But what if he spoke to her about setting up Aaron? After all, given her relationship with his roommate he knew morals and scruples were not exactly big watchwords in her vocabulary. And anyone who's watched a few hours of any given legal drama knows that, in lieu of exonerating evidence, the best way to get someone acquited of a charge is to introduce reasonable doubt--and the discovery of the Oscar with Duncan's hair on it was probably in and of itself enough for that, regardless of whose testimony the jury believed. So, Duncan comes up with a way to introduce reasonable doubt--throw suspicion on himself. He gets Kendall to visit Aaron and offer it as her idea so she can gain access to both Aaron and a potential murder weapon. Duncan also tells Kendall where she can find some of his hair, which she then plants for him. And, most important, after Aaron is acquitted she becomes one of the few people he trusts and who is invited into whatever his new living quarters are--enabling her to give Clarence access to his target. 'Cause while Clarence is good, I wonder if even he could find out where Aaron was staying and get into said location in the span of just a few hours. Thoughts, comments? Oy! You with the twisty brain and all - you're making me think! And it's too late at night for that, missy! **continues thinking about Sara's intriguing theory**
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:36:07 GMT -5
Okay. I'm pretty sure that I've read through enough to be certain no one's offered this theory yet: what if Duncan didn't just order the hit on Aaron, but in fact helped engineer his acquittal in order to make Aaron available for Clarence to shoot? I was thinking about that particular twist as I got ready for bed last night, and what popped into my head was all those times we know Duncan was alone with Kendall; back then we wondered if Duncan and Kendall might be getting it on. But what if he spoke to her about setting up Aaron? After all, given her relationship with his roommate he knew morals and scruples were not exactly big watchwords in her vocabulary. And anyone who's watched a few hours of any given legal drama knows that, in lieu of exonerating evidence, the best way to get someone acquited of a charge is to introduce reasonable doubt--and the discovery of the Oscar with Duncan's hair on it was probably in and of itself enough for that, regardless of whose testimony the jury believed. So, Duncan comes up with a way to introduce reasonable doubt--throw suspicion on himself. He gets Kendall to visit Aaron and offer it as her idea so she can gain access to both Aaron and a potential murder weapon. Duncan also tells Kendall where she can find some of his hair, which she then plants for him. And, most important, after Aaron is acquitted she becomes one of the few people he trusts and who is invited into whatever his new living quarters are--enabling her to give Clarence access to his target. 'Cause while Clarence is good, I wonder if even he could find out where Aaron was staying and get into said location in the span of just a few hours. Thoughts, comments? *gazes in amazed awe at the Sara* *boggles some* *boggles some more* *keeps boggling, will do so until Yola gets back to resume her proper boggling duties* Consider the boggling torch passed.
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:39:36 GMT -5
I love this. Quote from Rob Thomas: After watching the finale, I asked Rob how long he'd been planning to make Cassidy a mass-murderer, and he wrote back, "We knew that Beaver was the killer of Season 2 when we introduced him in Season 1. We knew his motivation, so playing him as the picked-upon, less-manly Casablancas boy was all by design." Whee - must, must go rewatch everything this summer and look at Beaver more closely. I love the planning on this show. **makes note: don't just rewatch this season, go back through last season**
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:40:04 GMT -5
Also - how much did I love Keith tasering Woody? Like father, like daughter. Have taser will travel. The family that tasers together, stays together. Hee, hee - someone stop me!!!!! ;D Now, why would we want to stop that?
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:41:32 GMT -5
I did think that. The problem seems to be an awfully compressed timeline. Although we can't know how long Veronica waited downstairs before she got the text message from Beaver. Perhaps he only screamed at her and confessed. A bit of a weak plot point---leaving a witness alive. Maybe he planned on coming back and killing her. Maybe so. Or maybe Cassidy never really expected to make it off the roof alive? I can see him thinking catastrophically -- thinking that his life had been so bad so far that he didn't expect to live, and just wanted to take Veronica (and Woody and Keith) with him when he went. It looked to me like a throw pillow, barely covering her when she was scrunched up in a ball, but I'm not sure. I agree. I thought Veronica's reaction spoke to her believing Mac was raped, too. And I thought the writers left wiggle room for Veronica to have been potentially waiting a little while before she got the reply text-message. Though it's also possible that Cassidy took Mac's clothes (and the room's bedding, it seemed) while she was in the shower. I too think that Cassidy was not thinking of leaving the roof himself. I mean, not leaving it alive.
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Post by Lola m on May 14, 2006 0:44:37 GMT -5
Anyone notice the funny face Veronica makes when Keith says Carol Channing's still alive isn't she? Bwah- cracked me up. I'm warning you - he doesn't carry much cash. Hee, hee. That and the vampire comment from Logan - I so love that final scene. I sort of get the impression I'm talking to myself again here but . . . . . . oh well. ETA: Never mind - thanks Sara for responding to that comment. I so want to talk about the episode with the S'cubies. It's the one thing I dislike about this thread - if you can't watch it while the show is on it always feels like you're talking to yourself. But that's the beauty of the posting board. Even if we aren't here at exactly the same time I can still respond to your comments (eventually) and vice versa. Speaking of which I haven't seen either zimshan or Fotada---are they both off in LJ land? Also, I just sent a tape to Becky, LadyDi always comes by late and Lola hasn't been here so I think we can expect a mighty run of Lola-istis as she works her way thru 16 pages. ;D You are not wrong! But I'm running out of steam now . . . I should probably come back again when I'm fresh.
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Post by William the Bloody on May 14, 2006 1:01:49 GMT -5
When I was ticking off all the ongoing plots that were resolved last night for Greg (who wasn't around to watch with me), he asked me about one that I honestly don't remember being mentioned: whether Veronica ended up being the top student. I kinda presume not, given that she skipped out on her western civ. final, but was anything said about it one way or the other? Ah yes. And I have a couple of minor nitpicks about this. 1. She seemed to have a medallion around her neck at graduation. This would argue that she was likely the Valedictorian. (Carolyn also specifically noticed and mentioned it.) This is, of course, entirely likely. Often the Val. is the student with the highest GPA; or she could have been Salutatorian (2nd highest). Also, in some schools the faculty/admin choose the Val from among the students with the highest GPAs. Anyway, I'm a bit bothered by the timeline of the Kane Scholarship because May 1 is almost universally known as acceptance day. (I'll personally guarantee that she had to let Standford know: yes or no, no later than May 1.) Now, how are you supposed to do that if you are waiting to hear about a scholarship. So that's just .......odd; off; not right. So, to answer Sara's question: no, we weren't told anything for sure but we are meant (IMO) to assume that she didn't get the scholarship due to blowing off the final. But Hearst is also a private school. If she can't afford Stanford then she can't afford Hearst. Financially speaking she's headed to San Diego State (or some other state school---I mean she could still get out of Neptune). So if she ends up at Hearst in the fall that will still need to be explained. I'd be happy to see her take a year off which is becoming more and more common. The college allows you to defer. She could work full time. The difference with Hearst... local school, living costs are going ot be lower at least... she can live with Dad, or maybe be able to live with Logan and all his bucks. And she has been offered "assistance" by one of hte faculty there earlier this season. And if she graduated 2nd or in the top few of her class, there should be plenty of scholarships available to her at that school. Also, scrimping by financially is a "plot" thing.. it will explain why Veronica keeps taking cases. She NEEDS the money. Very similar to last year with her mom running off with the 50K. Huh, you know, I never thought of this before. With all the monies that the Kanes have (and Duncan has access to) and Logan should have(now that Dad is dead)... after all Veronica has done for those guys, you don't think they could spring for her tuition costs? I mean, what's an ivy league school to multi-millionaires? I mean we could argue "Veronica wouldnt accept it" So what? IT could be a loan. She is a practical enough girl... blah blah blah. Frankly, I hope that if she decides to stay in or near Neptune, it's because she decides that is where she belongs... that running away to Stanford was jsut that.. running away. People need her in Neptune. Vlad
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Post by William the Bloody on May 14, 2006 1:16:04 GMT -5
I believe Sue is referring to the Bowling Green in Kentucky, if my geographical memory serves me correctly. There are 2 Bowling Greens. v. good. Yes, BG, KY: home of the Corvette museum and headquarters for Fruit of the Loom underwear. (Jim's sister, Barb worked there: "I'm in men's underwear.") And home of Western KY University. And the first rest stop when driving from Nashville to Pittsburgh with 3 young children in the van. As well as being home to Mammoth Cave... a truly exciting adventure for folks to tour. I reccommend the 3-4 hour lantern tour.. nothing but you and about 20 folks holding 10-12 kerosene lanterns and seeing hte cave the way Tom Sawyer woulda. It's a VERY interesting tour. Vlad
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Post by Matthew on May 14, 2006 2:21:38 GMT -5
I agree, great Pieta symbolism. Does anyone else think that Cassidy might have raped Mac before going up to the roof? I thought that's what they were trying to imply, but I haven't heard anyone else mention it, so maybe I'm wrong. I also thought that maybe those strange Sally and/or Amber comments were about other young women he raped? I don't know - maybe I'm not making much sense. Got to run anyway - so enjoying reading this thread! Yay, yay, yay for Rob! I was thinking that too. Because Mac at the end was very traumatised by something. And she hadn't been when we last saw her with Cassidy. Lemme see: she had a fight with this boyfriend when she'd mentioned her talking with her girlfriend about their sex life (and lack thereof). He dumped her, unceremoniously and bluntly. She still was crazy about him, and saw a way to get back to talking with him in assisting him in helping Eli out. They make up. Things get better and better. He initiates the move that she's been WANTING him to make for ages: he's got the room, he's got the confidence, and then.... something happens. (Specifically, Corny mentions the airplane and Woody on it). BING BING BING BING!! Danger!! It might be revealed the Cassidy is gay! (No, I don't think that males who are raped are gay: but that is an issue abused male children often have, relating to their sexual identity) So he can't perform. She goes off into the shower, as he broods again on his "failure as a man," and how things might be ready to come apart again. Then he sees himself outed (as the killer) on the text message on Mac's phone. Two ways to take it from here: he took everything from the bathroom, the bedroom, etc. in the way of linens because he 1) didn't want to kill her, period, because he loved her, but needed her immobilized or 2) he didn't want to kill her then because he wasn't sure he'd be able to do it without making loud banging noises inside a hotel: she's not a petite flower, and would likely fight savagely. I think it's the first one, myself: whether or not he wouldn't make it off the roof alive, he delayed "dealing" with Mac for the time being, which is NOT very much like him: he's shown to be decisive, quick, and brutal. IF he'd wanted to kill her, he could have pushed her down in the shower, I think. *shrug* I think that her trauma is related to his complete freak-ass behavior in the "prank" or torture or whatever he pulled on her, as far as the stripping of the room is concerned. Particularly if he did it while, say, holding a gun on her, rather than while she was still in the shower. I don't think he was capable of raping her, physically or mentally: I think he was marshalling all his mental resources for how to deal with Veronica. I don't think he raped Mac, so much as he freaked living hell out of her with his behavior: and I think it might be because he was reluctant to simply kill her, though he wanted Veronica to think she was dead. (He recapitulated)
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Post by William the Bloody on May 14, 2006 2:26:25 GMT -5
I can't read this article. It told me to click on an ad that doesnt exist. I figure it's my Ad blocking software, so I shut that off.. no go. So, I open the URL in IE with my Norton ad blocking off.. And I get a pop up window for Netflix.. but no way to continue ot the article. On top of htat, Ad-aware (which i forgot was also running) popped up twice telling me that a malicious code was trying to violate my sweet innocent computer at Salon.com. At this point, I said "Screw this." So, here's my thing.. would someone please re-copy the Salon article and post it here or somewhere? Because I tried to comply with Salon.com and I even read their Netflix ad. Vlad
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Post by Sue on May 14, 2006 7:27:25 GMT -5
I can't read this article. It told me to click on an ad that doesnt exist. I figure it's my Ad blocking software, so I shut that off.. no go. So, I open the URL in IE with my Norton ad blocking off.. And I get a pop up window for Netflix.. but no way to continue ot the article. On top of htat, Ad-aware (which i forgot was also running) popped up twice telling me that a malicious code was trying to violate my sweet innocent computer at Salon.com. At this point, I said "Screw this." So, here's my thing.. would someone please re-copy the Salon article and post it here or somewhere? Because I tried to comply with Salon.com and I even read their Netflix ad. Vlad Finale wrap-up: "Veronica Mars" Oh, the suspense! This season ender left us glued to our couches and cursing the commercials. By Stephanie Zacharek Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars May 10, 2006 | When television is done right, an interminable bank of commercials -- an ad for a teen skin cleanser that zaps oil, followed by a teaser for the 10 o'clock news telling of a wild bear on the loose, followed by a roundup of cheap Mother's Day gifts available at some giant, faceless chain store -- can seem like an affront to humanity, a chunk of uselessness cluttering the hairline eternity between life and death. On the season finale of Rob Thomas' "Veronica Mars," which aired Tuesday night, Beaver Casablancas (Kyle Gallner) -- whom Veronica (Kristen Bell) has fingered as the mastermind behind a bus explosion that killed a number of her fellow students -- has cornered Veronica on the roof of a hotel. It's graduation night; earlier, Veronica's dad, Keith (Enrico Colantoni), has presented her with her graduation gift: The two are going to New York City for a week, an oasis of urban sophistication ("SoHo!" Veronica exclaims; "Shea Stadium!" her dad counters) far away from their small-minded, money-obsessed SoCal town. But just now, Beaver has told Veronica that the device he's holding in his hand is set to blow up the small plane that her father is traveling in. He gives her less than a minute to call Keith on her cellphone, but she can't summon him. Beaver responds with a nasty shrug. And then, beyond these two rooftop figures, we see a fireball in the sky, a ragged symbol for one of the roughest passages in life -- that of losing a parent, and, in Veronica's case, a colleague who sometimes seems to be the only true friend she's got. Then the commercials kick in, of course, because that's the nature of television: If the show is good, we're a captive audience, unable to leave the couch even to get a drink of water. But the cheerful hawking of pimple cleansers could be a message from aliens alerting us they're going to take over the Earth, and we'd still be thinking about the look on Kristen Bell's face as she watches that explosion in the sky, a perversion of teenage openness in which a young person, ostensibly with everything to look forward to, is instead looking out on a vast world of grief. One of the purposes of season finales is to wrap up a million and one loose ends -- or, in the case of "Veronica Mars," a million and two: Former gang leader Weevil (Francis Capra) gets to graduate -- almost. (The A-1 asshole Sheriff Lamb, played by Michael Muhney, arrests him just as he's about to get his diploma, as his grandmother looks on.) We get a brief glimpse of Veronica's ex-boyfriend, Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn), on a beach in Australia, with his baby daughter -- and we learn that he's just succeeded, via a hit man, in avenging the death of his sister, Lilly, whose murderer, Aaron Echolls (Harry Hamlin), has just been set free. And we learn that Jackie Cook (Tessa Thompson) is, instead of the poor little rich girl she's always pretended to be, really a teenage mom who no longer wants to run away from her responsibilities. But like any great TV show, "Veronica Mars" is so much more than just the sum of its elaborate (sometimes perhaps too elaborate) plot machinations. The really interesting things on "Veronica Mars" all happen in the margins: It's in the way Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), Veronica's onetime boyfriend, can be an outright jerk one minute and the next inform her, with lovesickness so genuine that we have no trouble believing it, that their love is "epic." It's in the way whiz-girl Mac (played by the charming Tina Majorino) steps in to help Weevil with his algebra (he needs to pass the final in order to graduate, which is his grandmother's dream), cajoling him into at least a cursory understanding of all those damn numbers and symbols -- even though the two of them have almost nothing in common. But mostly, it's in the light-as-gossamer, tough-as-nails relationship Veronica has with her father. The two are partners in the family detective agency: Keith pretends to prefer that Veronica focus on her schoolwork, but he also knows she's capable of getting information he can't. And instead of just doting on her, he genuinely admires her -- you can see it in the proud flicker of a smile that creases Colantoni's face when she's come up with some brilliant, previously hidden snippet of information. Colantoni -- who played the Thermian leader Mathesar in "Galaxy Quest" -- is a marvelous actor, and the rapport between him and Bell is one of the loveliest, most unsentimental parent-child relationships ever seen on television. In an earlier episode, after an instance in which Veronica lied to him, his anger is so palpable it's frightening. But you can see how deep his love for his daughter cuts into him: He wants to keep her safe, but protecting her too much would only undercut her independence, and her intelligence. In another episode, Veronica learns that she has contracted chlamydia, although she doesn't immediately know how she got it. She says the word aloud, and matter-of-factly, an astonishing thing even by the standards of modern TV: No coy euphemisms here, not even the generically handy term "venereal disease." And there's no "A Very Special Veronica Mars" speech in which she vows to be a good girl from now on. (The show never pretends that these high school kids don't have a sex life.) All kinds of things that we feel we can't, or shouldn't, talk about, "Veronica Mars" blurts out. Veronica doesn't tell her father she has chlamydia: He learns about it in a crowded courtroom, when it's brought up during Aaron Echolls' murder trial, as a way of discrediting her. The look on Keith's face, the set of his gently wrinkled brow, tell us 12 things at once: He's surprised and concerned; he's angry that any misfortune his daughter has suffered is being used as the tool of scumbags; he maybe wonders why Veronica didn't tell him, and is pained by fact that she didn't tell him -- and yet he can't blame her a bit for not wanting to tell him. This is more than just a "My little girl is growing up" moment. It's a small flash of recognition that he has to allow Veronica, as an adult, her privacy, which means his role as her protector and caretaker has its definite limits. Veronica is sometimes rankled by her father's protectiveness. But mostly, she understands him so well as a human being -- he's just doing his job, doing what dads do -- that it's not even an issue. In a dewy-edged, painful dream sequence during this finale, Veronica imagines an alternative graduation day: Her parents are still together (in Veronica's real life, her mother, played by Corinne Bohrer, has a serious drinking problem and has left her family behind); Logan Echolls, and not Duncan Kane, is her true-blue boyfriend; and her best friend, Lilly Kane, is still alive. Everyone is happier this way, and at one point during this dream of the way things ought to be, Veronica looks at her father and catches the look of contentment on his face. The moment represents everything she wants for him -- a recognition of the reality that part of growing up is wanting happiness as much for our parents as we do for ourselves. And Bell, a terrific actress who knows how to turn a tossed-off zinger into the best kind of "I love you," captures that realization perfectly. Her lively, intelligent eyes are always busy reading the people around her. Veronica, as a good detective always does, is always stepping into other people's shoes. But later in this episode, when she sees that ball of fire in the sky and realizes that her father may have been taken away from her forever, there are no shoes to stand in but her own. Long after that endless commercial break, we realize Keith Mars isn't dead. But for a time, we live with Veronica's loss, and we feel it as if it were our own. Even those of us who lost parents long ago, and under far less dramatic circumstances, are likely to have felt a pang. You're never too old to be an orphan.
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