That would be The Dan Fienberg, whose post on last night's "O.C." says pretty much everything I intended to say, and probably in a funnier manner.
I'll be out of the loop until at least Sunday night. Having just watched the last two "Veronica Mars"es back to back, I'm almost afraid to comment on episode 21 until show 22 airs. But anyone who wants to comment on the penultimate chapter, feel free to discuss it here (do "O.C." discussion at Dan's site), and I'll do some more detailed analysis of the finale on Wednesday morning.
The last episode was half great and half awful. The court room scenes were nonsensical and lacked any reality. They were the worst written, most implausible story line since Duncan left (the nadir of the season). A disappointment after the last couple of episodes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the last episode was severely lacking in any sort of emotional connection to the events taking places. The episode was that much more disappointing because our standards for this show are so high, because when they are on - see the anti-prom scenes - this show is the best of tv.
ReplyDeleteI just don't like how this season it's been plot over and to the exclusion of emotion. No, it's not Th O.C., but VM at its core is about these beautifully rich, damaed characters.
That said, on pins and needles for the finale.
Mmkay. So how does the elder Echolls' cellmate (mentioned offhand in two episodes now) figure into this thing? Why did Mr. Manning post bail for Lucky?
ReplyDeleteSince Aaron defeated the prosecution's case in spite of Veronica surviving the bus explosion, he seems motive-less as a repeat villain. Goodman has been the audience's primary suspect for too many episodes and looks far too guilty to be Thomas' patsy.
All that said, the best part of Season 1's finale was how left-field crazy the choice of Aaron Echolls was as murderer and yet how completely plausible his motives were.
That in mind, it won't surprise me when Thomas unmasks one of these sideline characters on Tuesday. I'm sure the explanation will, though..
* Kendall Casablancas -- 4:1
* The Fitzpatricks -- 5:1
* Terrence Cook -- 10:1
* Weevil -- 20:1
* Maggie Simpson -- 3:2
Just trying to cope is all.
I agree, Richard -- the courtroom scenes stank. I don't expect total realism, but the problems in this episode were too glaring to ignore. The verdict itself I buy (not the first wealthy SoCal guy to go free despite overwhelming evidence), but not what went on in the courtroom. No defense attorney would ever get away with the kinds of questions Aaron's lawyer asked Veronica. Also, why did Aaron go on the stand before the prosecution's witnesses? I love this show, but given this episode and the one where Veronica serves on a jury, I think we have to conclude that Rob Thomas and Co. can't write a legal storyline to save their lives. (But Rob Thomas is still smarter than me.)
ReplyDeleteEverything that happened outside the courtroom, I loved -- the Wallace/Veronica moment, Beaver and Mac tutoring Weevil, and Veronica breaking into Woody's computer files. Still tons of questions to be answered in the finale -- I have no idea how they'll get to them all! Is Woody the bus bomber? Where did Kendall go? How did Veronica get chlymidia? What's up with the Mannings? Is Beaver one of Woody's victims? How does Curley fit into all of this? And how will Aaron's release affect it all?
I don't think we can discount Charlie the Retard from the Sadie Hawkins Dance, either.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really been trying to figure out whodunit, mainly because there's so many different plot threads that if I try and wrap my brain around all of them, something squishes out. So I basically decided awhile back to pick out a non-obvious suspect and create a case. So I'll say that the killer is....Beaver.
ReplyDeleteWhy'd he do it? Well, between Dick treating him like a joke, and his (presumed) abuse by Woody, he's actually kind of a sociopath. When Woody's other 2 victims talked to him about coming forward, he couldn't face that kind of embarassment, so he had to stop them. (He's the missing third voice on the discussion, although I'm not entirely sure who was taping it. But I could see him deleting his own voice and passing it on for Lucky to use it to blackmail Woody.) With his father's real estate dealings, he probably could have gotten access to a construction site and thus the explosives. Then put in the rat to stink up the bus, knowing that Dick would pay for a limo, and with nobody paying attention to him, use his cell phone to set it off.
Now, if I actually had to put money down on this, it'd probably go on Kendall, but if I got good odds on the Beav, I'd take them too.
So, we know for sure now that Woody is a molester, but do we know for a fact that he was exclusive to young boys? After all, Keith helped him get rid of that hooker that other time, so maybe he was intimate with some young girls, too. Girls like Meg. Whose parents are these creepy biblethumpers who would prefer to lock their daughter up in the closet than let her live among her friends, who would probably prefer to blow their other daughter up than let her live, carrying a bastard child. So they used Lucky to blow up both Woody (Lucky wanted revenge, they wanted dead the man who impregnated their daughter) and the bus (thus ending Meg's indecent pregnancy).
ReplyDeleteTotally out of the left field, but a t this point I can't see any of the more obvious theories working anymore.
I just can't wait to see the finale!
I feel so good about this prediction that I'm going to be cryptic about it: I think one character has a backstory that another mostly-well-thought-of show has already used, but the other show went with it during this season, so Rob Thomas was already committed to it.
ReplyDeleteI know that's sort of obnoxious, but I swear I'll be back in about 8 hours to say what I was thinking, one way or the other.
Now that I think about it...no spoilers on this thread for the finale. I'll followup once the real thread is available.
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