The Verdict Is In

We have almost wrapped up our second season of Veronica Mars and I have to say that I nearly died several times last night. I can only imagine the difficulty that I am going to have during the season finale, which of course is going to be nothing compared to the agony of waiting a whole summer to figure out what’s happening next. And heaven help the folks at Paramount and Warner Brothers if they can’t find a way to get this show picked up for another season. After nearly a year of waiting around, it’s time for Aaron Echolls to face the jury in the murder of Lily Kane. And would it be too much to hope that Woody Goodman gets put behind bars for a long time? He’s got a number of things the cops should be able to lock him up for. Oh, and don’t some of these people need to graduate soon?When the rumors started that Aaron Echolls might actually be acquitted, I really began to laugh. Even if the prosecutors could create a little reasonable doubt for the murder of Lily Kane, I’ve been saying all along that they have a pretty air-tight case for a couple of other felonies. I started to worry when I saw that it looked like the jury was packed just like Aaron wanted, but when I started hearing the actual defense; I could barely control my laughter.

When Aaron was on the stand, he talked about how it was difficult for him to transition from being the leading man and the hottest commodity in Hollywood to the sideshow act for people much younger than he was. He went from the superstar to the father of the superstar. He said that Lily represented something very powerful for him; she was from that age group and in her, she saw somebody that saw him as he wanted to be seen. It didn’t matter that she was only 16, because now Mr. Echolls was very humble and concerned about what happened, and denied ever having sex with her.

So, how did Aaron’s version of the story go? Lily came over to fool around, and he decided to put an end to the relationship. Later, he noticed that she took his Academy Award, and went to her house to get it back. Lily wouldn’t give it back, threw an ashtray at him, but before Aaron could do anything, Duncan came out like a raving lunatic. Aaron started to panic and was worried for his own safety and left. He has no clue what happened after that.

For any of us who know the story of Lily, Duncan, Veronica, and Logan, seeing Aaron on the stand was enough to make you sick. Actually, I do have to say a little something about the courtroom proceedings. Usually, the prosecution makes their case, and then the defense makes their case. The opening scene looked like the defense was making it’s case, but later on in the episode, the prosecution came back to do their work, but since Veronica Mars is usually pretty good with this type of shit, I won’t nitpick.

A lot of this case would be cut and dry if it weren’t for penis head himself, Logan Echolls. We all applauded him for saving Lily’s honor by destroying the sex tapes, but was it worth the price? With that physical evidence, Aaron’s whole defense would be ruined. Now Aaron’s lawyer was going to be able to attack any sort of witness the prosecution brings to refute Aaron’s story. Veronica summed up my feelings exactly when she said that she wanted to be in the courtroom the moment they read the verdict to see that smirk wiped off his face and his expression when he realizes that he will never be a free man again.

Although there was a little bad blood brewing between Gia and Veronica last week, Gia decided that she was going to let things in the past stay in the past. We can’t be sure what gave here the change in attitude, but it might have something to do with the whole “Veronica Mars” saved my life thing. As thanks. Gia decided to give Veronica some cupcakes, and while Veronica may have been excited that some gourmet sugar was heading her way, she was more concerned about her finals. But like always, there were a lot of people looking to get some solid Veronica Mars time before the school year was out.

First we have Wallace, who really just wants to chat. He received his scholarship at Hearst, and so as long as he graduates, there is no reason for him to sweat these last few days at school. And if that wasn’t great news, Jackie is so happy that her father is still around that she thinks she should use that time to her advantage and may delay her entry into the Sorbonne for at least one semester.

While Wallace was easy to scare away, Weevil was not. Then again, his needs were a little more pressing. He needs to get at least a B in algebra to be able to finish high school. It’s not that he really cares, but it would mean a lot to his grandmother to see him get that diploma. It’s a sad story, and Veronica really wants to help, but her dreams of going to Stanford hinge on her winning the Kane Scholarship which hinges on her beating out every person in the high school to the top of her class.

Weevil walks away in disgust, but before Veronica can muster up feelings one way or the other, somebody fires several shots. Immediately kids start to scatter and while some others just cower away in hopes of escaping notice. The person wielding the gun is none other than Lucky. Apparently, the school fired him, which sent him over the edge. Gosh, I don’t know how they could have done something so unfair. He only cornered two students and threatened them with a knife. Like they used to say on the playground, no blood, no foul.

Lucky is in search of G-G-G, G-G-G, G-G-G, G-UNIT! OK, he was really in search of G-G-G Gia, who was hiding behind a picnic table next to Veronica. Lucky might have found these two eventually, but he was distracted when he noticed that Jackie had reached for her phone. He pointed his gun at her and Jackie started to cry. I don’t want to sound too cheesy or anything, but it is moments like these that really show what a person is made out of. When you see somebody else’s life on the line, what are you going to do? What if you try and save that person and you are injured yourself? Wouldn’t it just be better to sit and hope you aren’t one of the people chosen to die?

Wallace thought about all of these things and more. He looked at Lucky looking at Jackie, and decided that he had to do something. He lunged at Lucky and was able to knock him over and get the gun out of his hands. Unfortunately, Lucky was an Army veteran and was able to get away from Wallace quickly. Lucky grabs his gun, and decides to make Wallace pay for what he just did.

He points the gun at Wallace’s chest.

Aims.

And Shoots.

BAM! I am sitting there with my laptop as Wallace is grabbing his chest. I wait for the blood to start seeping out, but nothing happens. Lucky was using blanks. It was all a big joke to scare some kids, or more specifically, scare Gia. It just so happens that playing games with guns loaded with blanks is a bad idea these days, and the school security guard happens on the seen and shoots Lucky. Since the rent-a-cop is using actual bullets, Lucky goes down. Lucky dies.

Wow, now that was a flipping scene. I am glad there was a commercial because I had to grab a Dr. Pepper and change my boxers. When we came back from the break, Woody Goodman was having a press conference about Mr. Thomas “Lucky” Dohanick. At first I thought it would be very convenient for Woody that Lucky was dead, but his death actually focused more attention on Luck’s relationship with Woody.

Obviously, Keith was scared about what happened at the school, but what are you going to do? Besides, Veronica was going to be heading to college soon and the only thing people care about in college is studying and getting good grades, so he’ll never have to worry about her again. Well, that would be true if 18 year-olds[not tear, thanks AP] didn’t have a sex drive, or a need to get consume large amounts of alcoholic beverages. I’ll be honest. What motivated me was not wanting to waste $30,000 a year by killing off all of the brain cells I used to get that degree.

Fine! I’ll get back on topic. Keith was able to get into Lucky’s apartment and found records of lots of e-mails to Woody Goodman. Many of these e-mails included attachments, but the original files were no longer there. Although Keith knew a way that he might be able to get the e-mails, he needed to get into Woody’s house in order to download them. I wouldn’t bother you with all of the technical details that Keith talked about, but let’s just say that what he was saying would work in many cases. Therefore, it was very convenient that Veronica was heading over to the Goodman’s house to study with Gia. Veronica could easily come up with an excuse to distract Gia, all she needed was Woody’s e-mail password. And if you were still holding out any hope that Woody was just misunderstood, you probably most of cringed when you heard his password was “mrgoodwood”. Ewww. The only thing more obvious that this dude is a perv would be for him to drive a white box van with curtains in the back windows.

As expected, Veronica had no problem making her way to a spare Goodman computer. She and Gia were studying for a health exam and there were practice tests online. Veronica only needed to say that her computer crashed and Gia happily told her to use one of the computers in the guest rooms. Veronica gets there, and everything is as expected. She looks for e-mails using addresses her dad told her to look out for and sends them all to her dad.

I was shocked that Veronica was going to be able to get through this without being noticed, but she had to go and listen to one of the files herself. UGH! Just get out of there Veronica; there is no reason to stick around and give us all a heart attack. Then again, she was waiting for the files to finish sending, so I guess she has a decent enough reason. Veronica decides to listen in, and of course the volume is up full blast. She turns it down without anybody noticing, and what she hears is sickening. There is Lucky’s voice, and the voice of another person, plus some garbage in the background.

Among the things Veronica heard was “he’s a pervert”, “he is sick”, and “what he did to us is wrong” and this is not surveillance footage from the Neverland Ranch. They were talking about Woody Goodman. A lot of people had speculated about how Woody was involved, but there isn’t much question what he was doing now. On cue, Woody walked into the guest room, and wondered what Veronica was doing at the computer. Veronica tried to use the practice test excuse to buy a little more time because the e-mail was still in the process of sending. It worked but Woody wasn’t entirely convinced and Veronica decided that she had better leave.

When she got back home, Veronica’s dad had already analyzed a bit of the tape. Lucky talked about “three people”, but there were only two other voices on the tape. Keith decided that somebody must have been edited out, but he didn’t want to spend too much time thinking about it; tomorrow was Veronica’s turn on the stand.

Now that Veronica was on the stand, I felt that we would finally get somewhere. The lawyer may be good, but he’s no match for Veronica Mars! Ha! And that’s when the testimony began. The lawyer questioned Veronica and her past boyfriends, saying that she found wealth and fame seductive. She found it so seductive that when Veronica saw the tape of Aaron Echolls and Lily Kane kissing, Veronica decided to proposition him herself.

Wha?

Sounds crazy, I know, but this lawyer has it all planned out. While Veronica is denying that she is hot for Aaron Echolls, the lawyer brings up the fact that she is undergoing treatment for an STD. Looks like she picked a bad day to be showing off her cleavage. By the way, no parent wants to hear that their daughter has an STD, and Veronica is 18 and doesn’t need to tell her dad everything, but I am sure that’s not how he would have liked to have heard that topic come up. Having and STD should in no way take away from what Veronica has to say, because she is not on trial, right? Well, the lawyer only needs one person on that jury to have one doubt about conviction, and it looked like he was doing a pretty good job.

Not everybody was getting bad news at the courthouse though. Although Terrence Cook was at the hospital, he was about to become a free man. No, Sheriff Lamb didn’t decide to start doing his job. Mr Lobo, the owner of the casino where Terrence Cook lost so many millions, decides that Keith was right. Terrence Cook is not going to be able to pay him back if he is in jail, and so it is in Mr. Lobo’s best interest to get him out. All of this would have helped Sheriff Lamb a lot more if they had brought this up sooner, but Mr. Lobo obviously has enough of the judge’s influence that Don Lamb doesn’t really have any pull in this fight.

Although Veronica was not able to help Weevil out herself, she was able to find him some help. Somebody keyed Beaver Casablancas’ car and although he is not hurting for money, he was a little worried about how much it was going to cost. Let’s see, one guy who works at a body shop who needs help with math. One guy with a wrecked car who is good at math. Bring these two together and what do you get?

Disaster.

Obviously Weevil needs help with math, but Beaver was having a hard time explaining it in any sort of way that Weevil could understand. Luckily, Mac happened to hear their conversation and said she would be glad to help. Last week, Mac and Beaver weren’t speaking, but this week it looks like they might get back to being so cute together it drives you crazy. Mac and Beaver decided that helping Weevil out was more work than one of them could handle alone, so they got together to help him out. Overall, it seemed like it was working, but Weevil was going crazy watching these two pretend to hate each other. He suggested that they get together in a coatroom to get rid of their aggression, and then come back and teach him math. Love conquers all, but sometimes it needs a little push from the quadratic equation.

Keith and Veronica have regrouped and are trying to figure out what is going on with the e-mails that he left for Woody. Most of them are complete nonsense, but in one of them, he speaks of leaving presents for Woody, and wonders why he hasn’t found them. Veronica remembers the last time she heard Lucky talk about presents, which was when he was in the janitor’s closet and he was telling Gia about his experience with a roadside bomb.

When Keith hears this, he immediately heads to Woody’s office to warn him, saying that his family needs to leave his house and the bomb squad needs to comb the place. Woody isn’t worried about Lucky since “Tommy is dead”. Maybe I am reading a little too much into it, but I think that it says something that Woody called him “Tommy” instead of Thomas like he did in the press conference. It shows some familiarity with him that goes back a ways, especially since people now call him Lucky. Woody is more interested in how Keith got access to his e-mail, and says that most adults don’t have their kids do espionage work for them. Unfazed, Keith comes back saying, “Most adults keep their hands off other people’s children”. SLAM!

Keith then goes on to say that this is more than a bat boy who resented getting fired from his high school and Woody decides that he is finished playing nice. He looks at Keith and tells him that if word ever gets out about this, he will ruin Keith and his family. Luckily for Woody, Keith has a small family, so it shouldn’t be difficult work. Then again, Keith is not so easily intimidated.

If Woody needs help intimidating Keith, maybe he should ask Mr. Lobo. After Mr. Lobo’s testimony, Terrence was let out of the hospital ward. At first, he was so very excited to see his daughter but he wasn’t in his house for two minutes before Lobo was there with his goons. Now that Terrence’s gambling problems are public and the story about him betting on baseball is out in the open, it’s going to be tough for him to make money by signing baseballs and being a sports broadcaster. Mr. Lobo still needs his money, so he “offers” Terrence a job as a greeter in his casino. In ten or fifteen years, Terrence will have paid off his debt (if he doesn’t gamble his earnings away) and he will truly be a free man.

After the Logan got her hopes up about getting together and subsequently dashing them back down to earth by waking up the next morning with Kendall, Veronica had been avoiding him like the plague. She did need some information about Lucky, and asked him if he had ever said anything about Woody Goodman. Logan said that Lucky never mentioned Woody, but he was witness to Lucky when he decided to clean his feet with bleach while wearing a catcher’s mask. Oh man, if Lucky believed his feet were dirty, I really don’t want to know what kind of freaky shit Woody is into.

Aaron Echolls’ lawyer had put some holes in the Lily Kane murder accusations, but now he had to work on that whole incident with Keith and Veronica and the fire and the breaking and entering. Keith was on the stand, and Aaron’s version of the story was that he and Veronica had stopped by a local homeowner’s house in order to ask for help after Veronica accidentally ran off the road. That local homeowner has happened to go missing, meaning the events of that night are still he said/she said.

The defense attorney then starts to poke holes in Keith credibility. He asks Keith if he knew that Veronica was caught breaking and entering the Manning’s house, and that she was mentioned in Leo D’Amato’s disciplinary file in the. The attorney suggested that maybe Veronica had one “boyfriend” get evidence for another “boyfriend” to help acquit yet another “boyfriend”. Each time he said “boyfriend”, he used air quotes, which was supposed to suggest that Veronica slept around. As soon as the attorney got close enough to Keith, Keith pulled his tie and said that if he uses air quotes again, Keith will break his fingers off. If you are looking to protect your daughter, it’s a great line, but if you are interested in convicting Aaron Echolls, it wasn’t necessarily a smooth move.

When Veronica sees her father that night, she mentions the incident where Lucky was bleaching his feet. When Keith hears catcher’s mask, it reminds him of something he saw on the first DVD that Lucky sent. The Goodman’s were having dinner at the table, and behind the table was a painting of a catcher’s mask. Keith figured that is where Lucky hid the bomb and decided to call the police before running it by Woody. While he was doing that, Veronica noticed that there was another portion of the video that showed some of Woody’s old little league teams that he coached. All this time they had been thinking that the other people that were molested had something to do with Woody’s Major League team because he was a batboy. But when Veronica looks at the pictures of the little league teams, she notices Marcos Olivares and Peter Farerre are pictured.

What does this all mean? Well the bomb squad went to Woody’s house and found that there were no bombs in the house, but there was one under the car. The next day, Keith tries to make his case to Sheriff Lamb to pick up Woody before he disappears, but Lamb is too paranoid that Keith is trying to embarrass him to do the right thing. I don’t agree with Don Lamb too often, but I can see where he would be a little skeptical of the story. Woody was trying to kill the kids on the bus by putting a bomb there, but the only evidence we have of anybody planting bombs is Lucky, but it doesn’t make sense for Lucky to have wanted to kill the other kids on the bus, would it? If only we knew the name of that third kid right? Well, we are pretty sure that third kid is Cassidy Casablancas, but Keith and Veronica haven’t quite figured it out yet.

The final piece of the testification puzzle, or if you are speaking English, the last bit of testimony we are waiting for is that of Logan Echolls. Logan was determined to testify against his father, and even had a visit the day before where Aaron told him not to testify because he will be admitting to the destruction of state’s evidence. That doesn’t phase Logan and he goes into testify against his father. Logan is very convincing, but then we find out that he was given immunity on the evidence tampering charge in exchange for his testimony. Doh! OK, I can understand that he didn’t want his girlfriend’s naughty bits displayed all over town. But if he wanted his father convicted, he either had to leave the tapes alone or own up to the evidence tampering charge.

While the jury is deliberating, life goes on for everybody else. Weevil? He passed his test, but remember back when he beat up Thumper and took the drop money? There was a kid in the back of a nearby van who saw the whole thing, and he came forward when he saw the news of Thumper’s disappearance in the paper. After looking through some mug shots, the boy picked Weevil out of the lineup. Looks like his grandmother’s dreams are going to have to wait.

How about Wallace? Would things end better for him? He caught Veronica in the hallway just after his last test and right before hers, and says simply “It was worth being taped to a pole”, meaning he was glad that he met Veronica and got to spend time with her over the last couple of years. Wallace and Veronica’s relationship was strained and it’s rare that they ever mention to each other how much they appreciate how much the other means to them. It’s hard to imagine Wallace and Veronica breaking up, but now that he has a serious girlfriend, maybe it’s time that they end their monogamous friendship before the two of them get drunk, make out, and never talk to each other again. Either that or sign each other’s yearbooks and never talk to each other again.

After his test, Wallace heads straight over to Jackie’s house, and, surprise! Jackie has left for the Sorbonne. But why leave without telling Wallace? Well, she had a fight with her dad. He is too embarrassed to tell her that he is under a gangster’s thumb and suggests that maybe it would be better for both of them if she just left. I know that she was planning on leaving after five weeks of bliss, but I thought that Wallace deserved more than a note to say I’ll never see you again. At least give the kids some see you later sex, or something.

And finally, there is Veronica. The Kane scholarship was all going to come down to one test, but then she got a text message saying they were about to read the Echolls verdict. Veronica should really just take her test and not worry about what happens, right? That would be the easy way and the way that a lot of us would handle it. Think about the future, don’t worry about the past and all that shit, but Veronica can’t do that. This case consumed her for so long, defined her high school existence, brought her closer than ever to her father, and she had to see how it played out.

Veronica got up from her test and you wonder if her dreams of the Kane Scholarship left with that decision as well. So, what was the verdict?

Not Guilty.

Not Guilty.

Not Guilty.

Aaron Echolls was a free man. You can tell from Veronica’s look that it seemed like it was happening all over again. I was kind of expecting it to happen, even though I thought there was no possible way for it to be true, so when it played out, I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

So, where do we go from here? Some people might say that they should just focus on getting Woody in jail and deal with Aaron at another time. Those people probably don’t realize that Woody Goodman left town on his plane. Sheriff Lamb didn’t pick up Woody the first time because there was a report that Lucky had skipped work, meaning he could have been close enough to the bus to cause the explosion. Keith found out that he was in a VA hospital at the time and couldn’t have set off the explosion that crashed the bus. By the time that news came, Woody was already gone.

Sorry for the monster recap once again. There was just so much I wanted to cover. I thought this was a really good episode, and it sets up some great stuff for the finale. Are they going to find Woody? What is Aaron Echolls going to do now that he is a free man? Did Veronica get the scholarship? Is she going to Stanford? It’s literally almost too much to bear. I will say this though, there has to be a way that Kendall, the Fitzpatricks and Cassidy fit into this thing, and I am dying to find out how.

What did you think of the episode? Will there be no justice for Lily Kane? Will they ever catch Woody Goodman?