'Versatile Toppings' LoVe Thoughts
Scene One: Pensive When Jealous
It's not much and can be attritubted to Veronica's annoyance with Logan fooling with this young girl's heart, but the fact that Veronica sat there staring for several seconds at Logan and Hannah, I think, showed a deeper feeling. And it was one that wasn't based on annoyance, but rather jealousy. Think of how often last season we saw Veronica staring at Duncan (with Shelly, with Meg, with Logan) with an almost longing of what was. Maybe I am fanwanking, but I do believe we saw a bit of that here as well here.
And of course, much like most of that period when Veronica was beginning to fall for Logan in season one, we are getting no voiceover as to her feelings. (Admittedly, we haven't gotten much voiceover period, but we're allowed to be biased here and assume all roads lead to a LoVe reunion.) And no voiceover equals (or did last season in relation to Logan) confusion over what she is feeling and/or refusal to admit that there are genuine feelings there. Uh huh.
Scene Two: Cute When Jealous
You know, I don't care if it's only 23 seconds long, but dang if this isn't one of the most adorable LoVe scenes in forever, regardless of the insensitive San Quentin line from Veronica. Why? You gotta watch Logan's face throughout the entire exchange and Veronica's reaction after the nose bop/jealous comment. You'll see why.
Viewers can't actually see Logan's expression, but Jason Dohring rocks so damn hard, it's not necessary because just the profile tells the whole story. The entire time Veronica is giving her little spiel, Logan is gearing up to respond. However, he isn't swallowing to cover his pain that Veronica is being so callous towards his future. Nah, he's grinning, and even trying not to laugh (note the way his cheek puffs out as if his tongue -- mind out of the gutter -- is pressed against it). He isn't upset or bothered by the not-so-nice comments that Veronica is making because it's crystal clear to him that, yeah ... She. Is. Jealous.
Veronica is using the poor, soon-to-be wounded young girl as a moral excuse, but she's just jealous. And he knows it. Again, check out what you can see of his grin while she's speaking and then when we do get the full-on face shot, his eyes are sparkling. He is practically beaming. He loves that she's jealous because it does show that she still cares (and it also confirms that Logan feels nothing truly romantic for Hannah).
And what's even better than the adorable smile and nose bop -- which really is too cute for words, and kinda sexy too, the way he doesn't do it quickly, but almost a slow slide. Sigh. Ahem, anyhoo, what's even better is that Veronica clearly IS jealous. That is obvious by her expression as he walks away. Maybe I'm reading too much into it (me, nah!), but it sure looked like someone who was annoyed because they were caught. It wasn't annoyance that he was reducing her concern to jealousy; it was annoyance because the fucker saw straight through her so-called concern for poor Hannah and knew right away that she was simply jealous.
Burn! I love it.
Scene Three: And I Mean This ... Aww!
If you doubt that Veronica was jealous of Hannah above, here is more proof that Miss Mars is not too keen about this 'relationship.' Herewith, I present pictorial evidence. Check out this screencap (from vm-caps.com):
Take a gander at what you can see of her expression as she stares at him intently. In warching the scene, you can see she seeks to pierce that moment in which Logan looked genuinely into Hannah. And why exactly does Logan seem so into Hannah in this moment? As in the earlier scene between the two, I think it was about the situation as opposed to the girl. I'm not saying that he doesn't care about her, I just don't believe that he likes likes her. I think his actions that could be construed as a genuine romantic interest in her are all preceeded by situations that lead him to be simply grateful for the presence of someone (not Hannah, per se, just someone, *anyone*) in his life who, you know, actually likes him.
Earlier in the episode, Logan buried himself in Hannah's affection as an antidote to the emotional abuse he'd suffered -- The Tinseltown Diaries with Dick's obliviousness to his pain, followed by his lawyer's 'friendly' advice, Veronica's 'plumbing new depths' comment, the punk spittle. Now yet again, he was shot down (Mr. Pope stopping just as Logan was about to speak -- clearly not as motionally demeaning as all of the above, but still, judging from his expression and body language, an unwelcome hit). And lo and behold, look who comes along to make him feel better once more because she likes him, she really likes him. (Or not ... since she doesn't really know him, but Logan's at the point where he's taking what he can get -- literally.)
I feel it was the same situation here. The key word being "situation." Not Hannah specifically, but a someone, an *anyone* who actually treats him like a non-disposable human being. Of course, then in Veronica's emotionally down moment (ie, jealousy) and naturally being unaware of just how very, very bad Logan's last couple of days have been, she attempts to ding that little bubble moment of his. And she succeeded, judging by the clear discomfort and embarrassment Logan responds to her "aww" with.
What is also interesting is that we have Veronica and Logan switching places here (in a way that does bode well for LoVe). Belinda noted this correlation between an FBLA scene from Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang in which VD had a cutesy moment and Logan was witness to it. In both cases, they openly showed forms of affection to their respective significant other. And in both cases, the exes responded with disgust (open in Logan's case, mocking snark in Veronica's). And of course, they both then reacted to the other's reaction with immediate embarrassment. I know. Things that make you go hmmm ... In other words, it looks like Miss Mars is not as unaffected as she pretends to be.
Uh huh! See? Jealous.
Scene Four: True LoVe Stories Never Have Endings!
Okay, seriously, how was this not totally a shout-out? No way that it wasn't. Logan is Veronica's true love! Nyeah-nyeah-nyeah! Take that, Donut-boy!
Ahem, moving along. Like the above two scenes, this bit of interaction is just that, a bit, but it offers much more in terms of potential LoVe goodies than any scene, erm, all season from the Veronica point of view. By commenting "If it [true love] comes looking for me, I'll be over by the espresso machine (cue Logan's arrival)," even jokingly, the acknowledgement is there that she does not have a true love as of yet.
True, this could be seen as bad for LoVe if we didn't already have pretty compelling evidence (Veronica's actions/words all season) that she was doing her damndest to ignore the fact that she was ever actually involved with Logan. Of course, we do have such proof, which is why this isn't a LoVe negative. Instead, it reflects badly upon the whole VD arc this season. If she can even joke about true love finding her a few months after Donut ran, Veronica Mars doesn't believe that such a thing existed between her and Duncan. So yay.
Also, she didn't react to Logan's pronouncement with a roll of her eyes, a grimace, a smirk, or any other like indication that she figured, 'Well, of course, you did something horrible. You're you!' Instead, she genuinely took stock of what he was saying, his body language, expression and tone of voice and appeared to take him seriously. So double yay!
On the flip side, perhaps the very reason that we saw actual concern from Veronica was because Logan wasn't flip, wasn't snarky, sarcastic or rude or any of the other negatives he's been while requesting (more like, demanding!) Veronica's help this season. He first acknowledged that she was busy and basically apologized for intruding on her work. That showed an understanding of something outside of "it's all about me!" which I don't think we've EVER seen before when Logan has asked her for help. Furthermore, during the entire exchange (short as it may have been), he wasn't snarky, he wasn't sarcastic and more importantly, he wasn't overly dramatic. He was just telling it like it was with no embellishments. "I did a horrible thing." And that is why I believe that Veronica showed such true concern for Logan.
The straws are piling up. Oh yes. Jealousy, irritation with Logan (hah!) 'moving on,' genuine concern. Uh huh, what is that I see? Yes indeedy, it's a little, dinky-winky, but none-the-less visible, haystack! We are getting somewhere! YES!