Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Veronica Mars: “I Know What You’ll Do Next Summer” – airdate 05/15/07

I’m a little torn here, but my gut feeling is if this is what we can expect as to the caliber of the mystery-of-the-week episodes from here on out, then they might as well cancel VM and let us remember her glory days with fondness. I don’t mean to belittle the social issue they presented, but jeesum, I could have solved this mystery myself.

Chez Mars, Veronica is studying for her PI licensing exam, while Piz is reading Soldier of Misfortune, a book written by Hearst student, Apollo Bukenya, a former child soldier from Uganda. The book is causing a huge sensation – movie deal! increased social awareness! – and Piz gets the first on-radio interview with Apollo. Keith is worked up because there’s been a rash of ‘09er home burglaries [Sacks’ first name is Jerry? Since when?!]. Piz gets a summer internship at an NYC internet music something-or-other; Veronica is thrilled for him, but he thinks the East Coast is really, really far away from the West Coast. In the meantime, Veronica gets a 95 on her PI test!

Veronica gets a call from Kizza, a Ugandan refugee purporting to be Apollo’s long-lost father. She poses as a Hearst College newspaper reporter and arranges an “interview” with Apollo. Wallace is skeptical, thinking that long-lost relatives always show up when someone is about to come into a lot of money; Wallace also warns Veronica not to break Piz’s heart. Keith thinks the Kirkpatrick clan is behind the home burglaries. Parker finds out that Logan has planned a summer-long South American surfing trip with Dick [um, it’ll be winter in that hemisphere during the No. American summertime, so I’m not sure that surfing’s the best idea, but whatever]; she is put out that he didn’t think about being away from her for three months. Veronica manages to obtain some proof [her word] that makes Kizza’s claim look legitimate. By the way, Parker and Logan STILL have no chemistry.

Veronica tells Kizza to come to California and they’ll do a paternity test. Piz decides to take a different internship with a Neptune radio station which, while not as glamorous as the NYC one, is (a) in radio which he loves, and (b) closer to Veronica whom he loves. Keith meets with Liam Fitzpatrick and suggests that since Liam is working on his third strike, he might want to scale back on the burglaries. Mac and Max are blissfully in the middle of a “sex/nap/eat loop,” or, as Max puts it “Poundhog Day.” “Poundhog Day” is funny.

Apollo figures out that Veronica is up to something and she confesses that Kizza hired her. Understandably, Apollo is not happy about it. Mac and Veronica catch up about their various love-lives: Mac is worried about losing herself in her relationship with Max; Veronica is enjoying “Pizneyland,” saying that although “there’s no rollercoaster, [she’s okay] without the adrenalin and the nausea.” That’s my second favorite line from the episode. At the sheriff’s office, the 09er Homeowners’ Association is putting pressure on Keith; he discovers that all the burgled homes have the same security system. That’s a clue! Veronica – with the best kitty pen ever - is at the PI office when Kizza shows up. He agrees to a blood test, although she does tell him that the movie deal has fallen through for Apollo (i.e., no big check). Logan asks Parker to come with him and Dick to South America for the summer. She is very excited and squeaky about it, but his expression is ambivalent at best. Veronica, while attempting to track down Apollo, meets Zeke, another African student; he tells Veronica that Apollo’s book is a fraud, the stories he tells are not his (he was never conscripted as a child soldier), plus the advisor wrote it.

Wallace thinks that Veronica should not expose the book since the publicity it’s been generating is bringing a lot of attention to the social issue. Veronica finally finds Apollo and he reluctantly agrees to the paternity test. At the hotel, Dick is surprised to find his father waiting for him. Big Dick has turned himself in and will be going to jail – for a measly year – at the end of the summer. Dick says he’s got a surf trip planned for the summer; Big Dick thinks he should stay home for some father-son time. Vinnie stops by the sheriff’s office and Keith theorizes that he is in cahoots with the Fitzpatricks on the burglaries; Vinnie dares him to prove it.

After an hour of waiting for Kizza to show up for the blood test, Apollo tells Veronica that he used her to weed out the gold-diggers. He did write the book, it all actually happened to him, and everything that she found out was in fact “disinformation.” Keith then calls from work: Kizza’s rental car had stolen plates and he is being detained at the sheriff’s office. Apollo is reunited with the father he never knew and tough-girl Veronica gets a little choked up. Mac tells Max that she doesn’t want to break up with him, she just needs to slow things down a little. Dick has a powerful scene where he tells Big Dick how guilty he feels about Cassidy’s suicide and how both the Dicks are responsible. Logan calls off the surf trip entirely when Dick backs out in favor of time with his father. Parker is disappointed and says she’ll just go back to Denver for the summer; Logan doesn’t seem too disappointed about that. And Veronica gets accepted to the FBI’s summer internship program … Piz: “That’s in Virginia, right?”

Next time: the two hour season, and series-as-we-know-it, finale. Oh! My favorite line? When Vinnie refers to himself as “a walking big tent party.”

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