Veronica Mars – “Debasement Tapes” airdate 05/08/07

Tonight on the CW: Paul Rudd guest stars as Desmond Fellows, a spineless, possibly alcoholic has-been rock star (I think I got the quote right). Also, a shameless product plug on Piz’s radio show is made soooooo much more obvious by a commercial for the very same product immediately after the act break. Frackin’ network.

Veronica and Wallace are at Veronica’s house, watching some movie for Wallace’s film studies class. Veronica tries to find out if Piz is pining for her but Wallace refuses to indulge her. Keith comes home to announce that so far, it looks as though he will be running unopposed in the upcoming Sheriff election. Logan forgot to do a project for his business (?) class and has the weekend to come up with a business plan presentation. The college radio station is hosting a benefit concert with the sole living member of “My Pretty Pony,” Paul Rudd, a/k/a Desmond Fellows. [Does anyone know if Rudd in fact plays or sings at all? If not, he’s fairly convincing, at least to my inexpert eyes.] Piz gets to baby-sit Desmond for the weekend. At the hotel, a hasn’t-seen-her-teen-years-in-years groupie crashes the hotel room and, as the door hits her ass on the way out, she apparently snags the backing tapes out of Desmond’s backpack. Since his MPP partner died, Des does live shows with a recording of the dead guy’s vocals, so losing the tapes is a big problem.

Veronica finally gets to discuss boys - with Mac in the cafeteria; turns out that Mac is attracted to Max even though Bronson is a sweetie. Piz calls Veronica to help him find Desmond’s tapes. As she rides the elevator to Desmond’s hotel room, Logan hops on and attempts to not be jealous of Piz, but when Piz meets Veronica at the door, he gets all hang-doggy. [I miss snarky Logan and his ripped abs, although his arms are looking all kinds of huge these days. And, on another note: I hate all the side ponytails Veronica and Mac are sporting these days – way too precious.] When he sees the web site Dick is perusing, Logan gets an idea for his project – www.grademyass.net - and calls Mac to help him with the online stuff. Mac, exhausted from outdoor activities with Bronson, is more than happy to spend the weekend indoors, fueled by Red Bull and red licorice. [My teeth hurt just thinking about it.] Leo – skinnier but still mumbling – visits Keith to ask for help since he thinks the sporting goods store for which he does security may be robbed by fightin’ Irish Danny Boyd. [Boy, we’re bringing all the alumni back for this one, aren’t we?]

Veronica and Piz manage to track down the groupie from the teaser. She’s an assistant professor of Chinese at Hearst and, after speaking with her, Veronica is convinced that she didn’t take the tapes. Mac and Logan run into some techie trouble and she calls Max to help them out; it doesn’t take long for Logan to pick up on their cute “hot nerd on nerd action.” Piz tries to persuade Desmond to stay in and work on some new songs, but Des succumbs to the beast within and hits a dorm party. He rallies the troops to go skinny-dipping and is quickly nabbed by Sacks after experiencing some significant shrinkage. The Pacific Ocean is COLD, dude.

There’s a fairly funny gag with Desmond and Keith about the Beatles, then Piz and Veronica bail Desmond out. Veronica asks to look at Des’s pack and quickly ascertains that it is not, in fact his: he took the wrong bag off the airport carousel. Veronica and Piz head to Los Angeles to switch packs back, promising to be back in time for the concert. On the ride home, they discover Des’s notebook full of lyrics and a CD labeled “New Crap” which turns out to not be crap at all. They call Desmond at the concert, saying they won’t make it back in time … maybe he has some newer stuff he can play? He tentatively takes the stage and offers up some new solo stuff which the crowd, of course, loves. Veronica and Piz sneak into the show, proud of their little boy all growed up, and Veronica - admitting to herself that she may actually like a good guy for a change - takes Piz’s hand. Mac, on the other hand, breaks up with Bronson who, if he were a better actor, would have looked crushed.

Keith and Leo stake out Leo’s warehouse and notice Vinnie Van Lowe with Danny and the other presumed robbers. They then notice Vinnie locking Danny et al., into the warehouse and calling the cops. [Vinnie has a new Members Only jacket on – a blue one!] At the sheriff’s office the next day, Vinnie (back in his regular gray M.O. jacket) thanks Keith for the props in the newspaper about the foiled robbery: “Vincent Van Lowe is an asset to the community.” Vinnie thinks that quote will look great on his Van Lowe For Sheriff campaign posters. Poor Keith.