TV: Veronica Mars (3.10) - 'Show Me the Monkey'

vm 3-10

Air date: (1/23/06)
Uh-oh. It looks like someone might have nabbed Veronica's "perfect murder" report and followed it step-by-step to get away with killing Dean O'Dell, who's death was officially ruled a suicide. Sounds like we got us a mystery arc for the rest of this season (I only wish it hadn't cost us Ed Begley Jr., he was great in this series).

So, who's the murderer? After two and a half seasons of series creator Rob Thomas proving he's way smarter than I am, I've learned to stop guessing so early on. NeptuneSite has a list of possible suspects, if you're into that sort of thing.

Instead of depositing my murder theories here, I'd rather dive into what this episode was really about: conviction (personal and political), relationships, and a monkey.

We catch up with Veronica six weeks after O'Dell's death. Veronica and Logan are still split, and she's hired by a couple of campus lab techs to find their stolen lab monkey.

Many primate jokes abound, including a "the case of the stolen monkey" jab courtesy of Piz, but only Veronica Mars can start an ep with such a basic mystery plot like "find the stolen monkey" and end up being one of the most engaging, fun and complex things to watch on TV.

Veronica goes undercover at the hilariously named PHAT (People for Humane Animal Treatment) group on campus to find the monkey nabbers. We get the usual role-playing and sneaky tactics she's used to great effect in the past, but it was obvious and a little disappointing to find that the guy behind the mystery turned out to be one of the techs who reported it. Also, there was a little too much "girlyness" going on in this ep for my comfort level -- and that's coming from a guy who's been watching Gilmore Girls for years. Plus, we had to sit through a few minutes of sad music scored animals right proselytizing (Blech), but those were small prices to pay for a damn fine hour of television that delivered a love interest for Mac, a LoVe reunion and the definition of "Manila."

The LoVe reunion that capped this ep was nice, but I really enjoyed Veronica's earlier scenes with Piz. They have a good dynamic, and I really related to their talk about not dating just to date. It's better to stick with what you like, especially when you know what you like, Piz said. True. Too bad for him then, since that means Veronica must go running back to Logan. Piz is cool, but there's tons more drama and conflict with Logan. I still felt for Piz in that last scene, though (Been there dude). But remember, Veronica's interest was peaked when Parker mentioned that he might have a girlfriend "back home," so the door was left a little open there.

And speaking of Logan, why does he hang around with every scuzzy guy on the planet? He goes surfing with Dick and who do they meet at the beach but none other than Chip Diller, the biggest panty waste on campus. So far, Logan's rolled with a fun loving but brain dead frat boy (Dick), a convicted rapist (Mercer), and now an accused rapist and misogynist (Chip). Come on Logan, I think it's time to find some new friends. Why don't they pair Logan up with Wallace? I've always dug watching them together. At least then Wallace might show up in a few more eps this season.

Besides the last act, episode highlights included the Ted Nugent digs, Veronica's mock rock out to Barenaked Ladies, the Canada room at the "around the world" party and, of course, Keith's scene with Landry at the bar.

What did Keith's "scotch" comment to O'Dell's widow mean? I'm sure he's talking about more than O'Dell's untouched bottle. Like I wrote before, I'm not guessing yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Catch a video preview of the next ep here. Also, the CW is now streaming episodes of Veronica Mars online here.

Memorable quote:
Mac: OK. I get cruelty free, but I'm an animal too. The no bathing thing and the clove cigarettes is cruelty to me.

Gilmore Girls note:
I've decided to stop writing Gilmore Girls episode reviews after watching last Tuesday's ep. I probably won't even follow the show like I used to; it's just become so charmless over the past year. I might start blogging about it again if it gets any better, but I doubt it will.

Update:
This review was picked up for national newspaper Web site syndication!