VM 3x11 Analysis: "Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves"
This post includes some picspam in the section about Logan and Wendy, I got all the caps from vm-caps.com but of course made them much smaller.
Random Things
- I loved the opening shot. When we saw Veronica in the cafeteria at the start of the last episode she was sitting alone. This episode kicks off with Veronica sitting alone with a pout of concentration and the camera pulls back to reveal first chips and then her companion. Not alone! I thought it was a nice little moment.
- Considering the mixed reviews of the 'Canada' cliches in last week's episode, I love the little reference to it in this episode: "I think their room was supposed to be Canada, but it was kinda lame." Hee! Veronica's quick little pouting expression was kind of funny too - like she was insulted - considering how little effort they actually put in. Nice.
- A tiny liberal arts college no one's ever heard of? Uh . . . I think the school got some notoriety from the SERIAL RAPES and RECENT DEATH OF THE DEAN. Weirdest comment ever.
- "I've had opportunities but I have standards, high standards!" Great line and greater delivery. Hee.
- Another favourite line: "Is there a reality experience where she reminds the guy she's only there because he's paying her?" Hee. Cha-ching. Guys so deserve that.
- Veronica/Keith . . . make it stop. I agree with everyone that says this relationship is empty quipsville now. As if the disney acid trip from Lord of the Pis wasn't bad enough, now we're getting disturbing hip-thrusting and musical numbers about the suicide of a quasi-friend? Dean O'Dell might not have shot himself but I'm considering it if RT continues to write their relationship in such a flamboyant but ultimately shallow way. I mean . .. they knew the dean, both of them respected the dean. I even cared about his death but now both of them are treating it like any ordinary case and neither of them really seem to give a crap he's dead. So . . . why should I?
- Hee. I know he was only joking but I kinda smiled stupidly when Logan asked if they should have got more food for the hookers.
- Logan's grin when Max walks in and quickly says 'I didn't know she was a hooker at the time'. Hee. "No one's judging, man." Well, except Veronica. And Logan was being smirky and a little judging there too but unlike Veronica he gets over his reservations as soon as he sees Wendy run and hug Max, smiling like the silly romantic fool he is. *sighs* Maybe he's just better at spotting genuine affection and could thus set aside his presumptions better than Veronica. After all, we all know how blind she is when it comes to attraction *cough*PIZ*cough*
- And I love Logan's little flourishes and lines when the first hooker came over; it was good to see him quip and be playful again. I missed that. "Well, if we're paying her anyway ..." "Honey!" ... "This is just wasteful." It is to hee.
- The "Is Dick living at the Neptune Grand?" question is starting to become a bit like the "What the hell is Woody's role in Neptune?" question last season. I don't know much about the Greek system but I figured if you were in a fraternity you'd live in the fraternity house. Plus, we've only seen Dick there once since the first episode this season. It's weird that all of a sudden he lives there again. Whatev.
- Whoa, so Logan rocked Madison's world too, huh? Coming back for seconds all the way from . . . wherever she goes to college now. Aspen must have left an impression on her. Too bad Logan didn't feel the same way. Heh. See the expression on Madison's face trying to be all sultry until she saw Veronica was the one opening the door? Hee. I actually found it strange that Veronica wasn't suspicious of that interraction straight away since Madison didn't even ask where Dick was.
- Superficial note: Yeah. Madison's hair? Which weed-wacker decided it hated her as much as Veronica does?
- Okay, Veronica. .. refresh my memory. What has Madison done to you that makes her worse than Dick???? Scusi??? She only thinks Logan should get a new roommate if Dick starts dating Madison again? Is she high? Madison is not worse than Dick. Dick actually fed her shots and set up the rape, Madison had no idea what was in the drink she gave Veronica. God, the logic of this show's protagonist is not earth logic. And yeah, side note: I know she probably wasn't being literal when she ordered him to get a new roomie if Madison dates Dick but I'd really hope Logan wouldn't bend anyway. You don't kick out your best friend because of the girlfriend that sometimes drops by. Veronica can only make that call if she lives with Logan and that's clearly not happening any time soon.
- Freakin' feminazis . . .
- Thank God they had Nish recognize Keith since she worked as an editor. It still bugs that both Landry and Nish didn't recognize Veronica though. Same concept, right?
- Okay seriously the prostitute pillow talk has to STOP. First Logan's a pro, now Veronica's quipping about being one herself? Be still my heart, I'm dying from all the sweet fluffy romance!
- Oh freaking HELL!! They clearly had Veronica bring up the Nancy rape because they realized that most of the audience assumed the rape was faked too. And this is clearing it up. (Honestly, if they're doing something else with Mexico I'll scream) But if this is really about cleaning up that loose end it is LAME. Fucking lame. Thinking that Nancy faked a rape made much more sense then Mercer actually going all the way to Mexico having fun with girls, drugging Logan, leaving the girls (or asking them to go away), driving back to Neptune, raping Nancy, driving back to mexico in time to burn down the hotel and escape with Logan. That makes no sense. I hope to God they brought this up in order for Veronica to find out Nancy is involved in the Dean's murder or that she faked it too. Because, if not, LAME. Getting Veronica's rape date wrong kind of lame.
- On a happy note, Francis is looking healthier and healthier as the weeks go on. He looked more like his mid-season two self this episode. I still think he's being wasted though and he needs a storyline pronto. I wouldn't even mind Wendy/Weevil if he hadn't been kind of insulting to her in the cafeteria. He needs a girl and I think he has a dark enough past not to hold hers against her. Too bad. And yes, I pulled that out of nowhere but I liked Wendy damn it.
- Wendy painting Max's toenails!! Oh God! We have to see Veronica do that to Logan. Hee.
Veronica
This isn't one of those "god, she's so mean" moments but I have to say I am so very uncomfortable with the way Veronica treats women she perceives as promiscuous. Considering who her best friend was (and the fact her loyalty to that dead best friend never faltered), she's so judgemental of women who have casual sex or get paid for it. I am so uncomfortable with the way she talked about Wendy as if being a prostitute somehow rendered her evil on all other counts. She does that a lot when it comes to sexual sins, we see it all the time with Logan, and then there's Landry and Keith too. And Kendall and Madison. But it only really bothered me when she started insulting Wendy because she'd never met Wendy, she had no other impressions of her personality. She just assumed the girl was black at heart and a complete liar, not just initially but she jumped all over every turn in the case like THIS proved that Wendy was nothing but a villain. I am exceedingly uncomfortable with this side of Veronica's puritanical personality because she was called a whore for over a year. She knows what it feels like to be dismissed because of general public (mis)perceptions, to get treated like your nothing because you're considered promiscuous. And yet, she displays no empathy for Wendy, all her empathy is with Max and despite the few times she softened, she almost instantly always returned to her staple decision that all prostitutes are evil.
Now, I realize this won't bother most people because prostitutes have a bad social stereotype that people look down on. But it really bothers me coming from Veronica more than any other character because she has reason to realize that you just can't treat women that way, no matter their sexual history. But Veronica acts like the way she was treated by the 09ers was only wrong because she wasn't sexually loose, she'd been raped and otherwise chaste. But that's not what made the 09er behaviour wrong to me. It doesn't matter if the sexual insults are true or not . . . it's just wrong to treat a person like they're nothing but a whore. Because not even prostitutes are nothing but whores. Veronica didn't even feel like something might have been off when Wendy didn't sleep with Max but stayed up all night talking to him, she probably just assumed that made Wendy even worse because she "stole" their money without doing her job. And that's just . . . well, it doesn't endear Veronica to me. It makes me very uncomfortable.
I'll go into more detail about this in the largest part of my episode discussion below, looking at the analogous relationship between Logan/Veronica and Max/Wendy.
Logan and Veronica: What's a Real Connection?
I found their conversations very telling. Logan doesn't need to know Veronica's deep dark secrets (of which, she has many). And Veronica reads way too much into everything he says. He doesn't want to go into prostitues and past affairs because he knows her. It's a minefield and he was exactly right. He said he didn't want to answer the question, she assumed it was answer enough. He explains that he just thinks it opens the floor into subquestions (an interrogation that he's been through with her before); she assumes that his subquestions mean he's been with more than one hooker multiple times. And that's Logan's point. She asks a question and if he's uncomfortable, she assumes the worst. It's just like the Mexico thing - he says 'trust me, I can't tell you', she assumes he fucked somebody. Oy.
Veronica: Look, why not disspell any romantic notions?
Belinda: [After falling off seat due to incredulous coughing/laughter fit] You have romantic notions about Logan???? Are you freakin' kidding me?
Veronica: If we see each other - warts and all - and still like each other, that's a real connection.
Belinda:: [Slaps] Um . . . you see all of his warts already, you see warts that God doesn't see. And if you still don't think there's a connection after going through so much and seeing all those warts, a conversation about hookers isn't magically going to open your freakin' eyes. *mutters*
Logan: [Far more diplomatically] Maybe I enjoy my romantic notions. Maybe I don't care to see any warts - yours or mine. See you're smiling so it's just fun and safe. But it's a slippery slope from 'have you ever been' to 'how many' and 'how often.'
Veronica: So you've been with multiple hookers, on several occasions.
Logan: [Face darkening, he turns away] I'm not having this conversation.
Veronica: [Still not getting why he's pissed off/annoyed, kinda smiles until there's a knock at the door]
Honestly, I liked the conversation but it really bugs me that Veronica's so clueless when it comes to her issues that she actually thinks everything coming out of her mouth was a genuine attempt to 'get closer' rather than pump him for information to dispell her insecurities. Her need for knowledge has nothing to do with intimacy - it's always been there, she's just using a different line to get her answers. Needing to see all of Logan's warts is about control, not intimacy and it's a joke that the writers had her saying this stuff. Maybe she really wants to be intimate but the subconscious impulse comes from somewhere more instinctive - the same place that made her blackmail Logan to get the truth about Mexico. It's do with control: feeling like she's in control and knows what's coming so there's no nasty surprises (which she feels are inevitable in any relationship but especially one with Logan). But she genuinely doesn't seem to get it. It's seriously a joke that she brings up warts and all now considering their history. Wasn't she there??? They've seen each other warts and all, they know each other's faults. *mutters* If anything, they need more nice fluffy romance because they seldom get any of that.
If Veronica doesn't think they have a real connection and hasn't accepted his faults yet ... then we have a serious problem, that's all I'm saying. I cringed when Veronica asked Wendy what the secret was to making a guy as smitten as Max. What the fuck? Does a guy risking his own life to save you multiple times not tell you he's just as smitten with you if not more? I thought she finally knew this season how into her he was, how hung up on her he was . . . but now she's acting like she's clueless again (which is a trend for her character this season).
On the prostitute question: So, some people probably have their doubts but I think Logan was being honest about the hookers. He told Kendall pretty rudely that when the milk stops being free, he doesn't drink it. She basically wanted to be his prostitute on retainer. And he turned her down cold. He doesn't need to call prostitutes to get laid that's pretty well established. Some people might doubt that because he protested so much (even Jason Dohring made it sound like that Logan was lying in that interview) but I really think Logan is just sick of being interrogated. He wants to relax and he wants Veronica to stop making the worst assumptions about him and he knows one question just leads to another. You can see that he dreads those conversations with Veronica and finds them unnecessary from his end. When she said they'd put everything out there, he could have questioned her about staying with Piz or what she thinks of him...but he didn't. He first asked a silly question about whether she'd been with a prostitute and then he passed his turn. That felt more like intimacy to me because he honestly doesn't care if she has dark secrets and therefore feels no burning curiosity to demand the truth from her.
Logan and the Wendy-Lady: Two Doomed Relationships walk into a Presidential Suite . . .
Before I get into this analysis (sorry for the length - I really empathised with this MoTW), I want to show you some visual aids that I think really establish the analogy between the characters: Logan/Wendy and Veronica/Max.
So, the joke might start like this: two doomed romantic relationships walk into a presidential suite and . . .
Veronica and Logan, meet your magic mirror couple--
Wendy and Max
Success! It's one happy reunion and neither cares about their audience of two - currently experiencing two very different reactions:
Veronica's reaction: What the frakk? Yegh.
Yay!! Sweet love, renew thy force!! You sappy romantic, you.
Their empathy when Wendy decided she couldn't allow her co-worker and "friend" to be abused by their pimp because she ran off on the job, went to two different places. Logan looks like he's just breaking for Wendy as she gives up Max, whimsically saying they'd had a great day but she has to go back:
Damn ...
And I had to make this photo a little bigger so you can see their expressions--
Divided empathy: Logan is looking after Wendy, upset at what she'd just had to sacrifice and empathising with her distress at the sight of her battered friend. Veronica, on the other hand, is looking at poor, dejected Max.
Empathy speaks a thousand words my friends, and yes, I have a point. But it's going to take a while to work through:
I've asked myself many times why I love Logan more than I'll ever be capable of loving Veronica, this episode explored that reason and I feel like I have to discuss it.
But first things first: I've read several comments that the writers of the show were trying to "say" that a woman who's been a prostitute doesn't deserve love and I don't understand that argument at all after seeing the episode. I found their portrayal of Wendy very sympathetic - losing Max wasn't a moral condemnation by the writers. At least, not in my opinion. It wasn't Wendy with problems, it was Max; Wendy just accepted that she couldn't fix a relationship that was broken by her past. Sexual ideologies are almost impossible to change and Max clearly had an instinctive problem with her history. There was no moral judgement from the writers just the presentation of a real situation with raw feelings and nobody's to blame. That's not the writers saying she doesn't deserve to receive love, that's them acknowledging the puritanical side of the world that makes it almost impossible for people to see past the surface taint of the world's oldest profession. It's not a moral judgement to show us the world as it is and people do judge prostitutes like this, denying that would make the writers look like fools. Max was incapable of getting over what she did . . . but that doesn't mean everyone would be incapable of it nor does it imply she doesn't deserve it.
Being a prostitute renders a girl nothing but flesh in the eyes of men and women - they feel like they have the right to demean her because she's beneath the respect one would afford a 'woman' (because a prostitute in this mindset is property not a woman). Just because Max struggled with that doesn't mean the writers were saying it was right that Wendy ended up alone. I liked the story, I loved the sympathetic character . . . and man, when Max's friends laughed when they saw her in his room and proceeded to offer her a job stripping, my heart just broke for her in a way it absolutely didn't when I saw Veronica crying in the shower over Logan. Maybe because one situation felt hopeless and the other didn't. And Wendy was crying and I just thought . . . damn, I love this story because the parallels with Logan/Veronica are killing my soul and just showing me how hopeless the situation with Logan/Veronica is.
Watch my heart break
I love the writers for exploring this problem and finally giving us a real woman who works as a prostitute, not a cliche cutout prostitute that has no character beyond her profession. This mystery was close to the Cliff-falls-for-a-hooker story but that story was all about giggles and guy-jokes. Everyone had a nice laugh about it . . . is it wrong that I love Cliff more now because it's obvious that he wouldn't have cared about her history? That hooker was portrayed as shallow and she was meat and everyone laughed about how silly Cliff was for thinking his thing with a hooker was real. I always cringe when prostitutes get treated by society like they've ceased to be a person; newspaper headings read "Hooker Gets Strangled" rather than "Woman Gets Strangled" and nobody cares because suddenly it's like she asked for it because she put herself in that situation (disregarding how she'd come to need to be in that situation in the first place). How many girls in this profession get killed or abused and how many people actually care? They sell their body, so it's like they're missing a soul and everyone - men and women - treat them like meat on a rack, like they deserve whatever comes to them. That's a taint that can never be removed.
What bothers me and struck the painful chord in my heart wasn't Max's asshole room mates, or Weevil's thoughtless "Hey, you have a dragon tattoo on your left butt cheek!" comment (Weevil's always respected women - remember Carmen? - he'd never say that to a girl who wasn't a stripper/prostitute and I hate that he even did that) . . . I'm broken down by Veronica's reaction especially given the analogy between the relationships. It about says it all. Wendy was reduced to soulless in her eyes on first, second, third assumption because she has sex with strangers for money. That's it. Veronica knew nothing else about Wendy aside from the fact she had sex as a job but that was enough for Veronica to believe that Wendy was a thief and a liar and a manipulator and someone that needed to be CRUSHED for all her scheming and her deceit. For a girl who was called a whore constantly for several years, you'd think she would have more empathy with what it feels like to be dismissed by the world on the basis of sexual promiscuity. But no, it just made her more judgemental apparently. You'd think that in her job, scouring Neptune's seedy underbelly she would have seen by now that women don't actually get born wanting to become prostitutes; it's not a lifetime ambition and they aren't evil.
Many people were pleased with Veronica in this episode because she was continuing to be "nice." I was cringing all the way through it not because I hated it but because the writing was on the wall and this was perfectly in character. This part of Veronica's personality will never change and it's why her attempt to be "intimate" with Logan was a joke. Logan saw right through it. True intimacy is feeling safe enough to expose your darkest deeds without being dragged over the coals for it, trusting in someone's love and acceptance that much. Logan can't trust Veronica like that and he's fully aware of that because she can't stay and love someone who's done something she hates on principle. She always runs away and abandons him . . . so how could they ever have real intimacy? Veronica doesn't trust Logan to be a good boy and he doesn't trust her to love him unconditionally so he baulked and tried to avoid playing true confessions.
The truth is Logan doesn't need to know Veronica's darkest secrets, he knows he'll love her anyway. After all the times she's betrayed him and got him arrested - all the things she thinks he's capable of - he knows absolutely that he just doesn't care what she does, he'll love her still. Veronica needed to ask the questions not because of "intimacy" but because she needs to know what he was up to. It's just like the situation in Of Vice and Men when she NEEDED to know his secret about what he and Mercer had done. And blackmailed him to find out! Hence, my cringing when Veronica oh-so-perkily discussed the wonderful fun of blackmailing a judge with Logan in this episode: "It's blackmail! It's the go-to idea! . . . In case of emergency break glass or blackmail!" Yeah, I'm sure he sees that differently to her.
Veronica needs to be in control, she needs to know all his dark little secrets so she's prepared and has settled herself to ignore the problem should it come up later on. She has good intentions but the fact is, Logan knows Veronica better than she knows herself; he knew that she was looking for trouble, looking for the mistakes he'd made when they were apart and that there was a big possibility she wouldn't forgive him for it. He's so resigned to her believing that he's going to cheat on her one day - she kept peppering him with prostitute questions like him telling her he had would be such a big bad secret no matter when he had been with a prostitute (like before they even contemplated dating). And that's just crazy. Then she asks if he was with anyone else. Just like she asked if he was with anyone while with Mercer in Mexico. She's looking for the problems before they find her because she assumes he's done something. She'll always assume he's done something and it's not intimacy to tell your lover: "tell me all the bad shit you did so I can do my best to process it because if I find it out on my own, we're going to have problems and I'm going to leave you." Logan was right - she finds things out because she looks around and snoops and investigates every little bump in his character to see what he's done wrong this time. That's her nature, it's engrained in her because it's her job. It's engrained in her in the same way she figures prostitutes get engrained as liars and thieves by their job. Logan is aware of that and that's why he looked so shocked and touched when she said she still loved him; you can tell by the look on his face that he absolutely did not expect that answer because he's never received it before:
Will wonders never cease!
He knows her and he's going to have all his suspicions confirmed next week because it's easy to ignore some shadow in the past that has no name and no face and no personality. But an actual person? Not so much.
And I love Wendy's speech because it speaks to how Logan must feel about a lot of his choices:
"I was such a girl when he dropped me off at the airport, all misty and dramatic . . . when he was leaving, I felt this rush, I thought about everything that led to that moment and all the choices I had made that got me to that exact spot at that exact time . . . how if I'd made different ones I could be with the sweet guy who's dropping me off at the airport, all teary eyed . . ."
Honestly, how can your heart not like this girl??? Being able to stay that romantic when you've been used by guys over and over and over again must be so hard. She is such a female version of Logan. And no, I'm not being so literal as to call Logan a prostitute or even imply that. This is about something more basic in their characters that Veronica could never understand.
That's what this episode was setting up with its beautiful analogous relationship: here are two people with an amazing, instant connection - they're the couple that shouldacouldawoulda but won't ever work. One side of the relationship has a promiscuous past that, despite genuine attempts, the other simply can't get over. Wendy's letter broke my heart and I just wanted her to be hugged. Which is exactly the feeling I get when I watch Logan's heart get broken. I want someone to understand Logan and I wanted someone to understand Wendy. They are the characters that touch my soul, the broken ones who get up when they're knocked down and know the goodness in themselves even if no one else sees it and dismisses them as hopeless. Despite how they should be after the things they've been through, they're hopeless romantics who just want love and to get beyond the shadow of their past. And it's impossible when they fall in love with people like Veronica and Max. Again, I don't think Veronica and Max are bad people for their assumptions or instinctive wariness - it's a decidedly average reaction. Wendy and Logan would probably only find understanding with someone like themselves but, of course, that's not who they want. Wendy told Max that she was glad they'd been together because she knew now what she was missing and I think Veronica had the same effect on Logan when they first got together, only he failed in his attempt to let go of that dream in Spit and Eggs. Note the wording in both Logan and Wendy's farewells - he didn't want to feel like a disappointment any more; she didn't want to see how Max's feelings for her had changed when he realised what she had done for a living. It breaks my heart but I love the execution of the parallel.
Veronica may have wanted true intimacy, but she's incapable of it with Logan even though it seemed like she was finally really, really trying so hard in this episode. It's heartbreaking to watch her try so hard when you know she's going to fail. And Logan knows it, that's why he kept trying to avoid her landmines. I'm not saying she's evil or wrong or even a bad person for that. She's just not capable of what she thinks she wants with Logan - especially not with him because of her perception of his sexuality. So even as she's saying she wants to be that close with him, it's as empty as her epiphanies-of-the-week and the tragedy is, she has no idea it's an empty promise because she really wants it to work between them. I believe that she believes she wants to get them functioning in a more healthy way. Kudos for the attempt.
But when the girl he fooled around with was faceless, she could suppress it and ignore it. But I'd never say she dealt with it and accepted it as a past indiscretion that wasn't a betrayal to her - it just wasn't real to her yet and she was trying to make a point to Logan by showing him how "cool" she was. As soon as Madison told Veronica that Logan had been with her, you could see it on Veronica's face: now the girl had a name and a face and a personality Veronica hated and Logan fucked her. She absolutely can't deal with it even though they played true confessions and Logan was perfectly honest: he slept with someone he didn't even like and the thought sickens him . . .
There's your landmine, do you still love me?
Well, yes, she does love him. But that's not the problem. Veronica is incapable of reconciling Logan's past with their present. To borrow Wendy's phrasing: now she's going to look at him differently, touch him differently - he'll see it in her face. She's not okay with him sleeping with Madison. And let's face it, Veronica doesn't have the hurdle that Max had to deal with - she only has a boy having casual sex with someone she doesn't like whereas Max had to deal with the woman he loved being recognized by so many people as a woman who sold herself as a stripper and a prostitute and I've already covered the public perception of that which would be engrained in Max and all his friends. Veronica doesn't have to deal with that kind of difficulty, it's just casual sex. But Max/Wendy is just an exaggerated version of the same problem. Can Veronica deal with it? No. Because she's not like Logan, she's not capable of the kind of intimacy he is because she doesn't forgive with the same almost blind recklessness that Logan does. She can't have that kind of intimacy with someone with his history. Maybe she will be able to one day (I won't hold my breath for such drastic growth), but I don't see it because you can't change that - you are who you are and Veronica's perception of sexuality has not altered over three seasons. She's very much a prude and very judgemental about casual sex, let alone prostitution.
Logan was absolutely right to dodge her questions because, you could tell from the way she kept jumping to conclusions about Wendy. Did it remind you of anyone? Of course it did. Wendy is a prostitute so she must be a thief and a liar and all things horrible to Veronica. She only smiled at Wendy (not really buying it, but warily pleased) when Wendy continued to prove her wrong and even then the next time some twist occured Veronica went all: "Wendy is EVIL and we must CRUSH her!" Rather than thinking Wendy might be a victim too. Veronica literally went from saying she was wrong about Wendy, that Max/Wendy were "great" together to seeing the makeup on the towel and deciding Wendy was a complete bitch again. So much for being convinced of their twu wuv. Now, it might seem a reasonable conclusion to some people but it's also reasonable to think Wendy was duped too. The point is, given Wendy's history it was much easier for her to jump to the worst possible conclusions at every moment of doubt.
The analogy was so obvious I felt like I was being punched in the face repeatedly. Logan is her Wendy, and she's his Max. There's an awesome connection between the pairings but only one knows the meaning of unconditional love despite the fact that their partners are morally grey in their own way (unethical in their different pursuits - Max is an intellectual prostitute for freeloading students after all).
That's it, that's my love for Logan. After all the shit he's been through he has this unfailing capacity to love unconditionally and give all of himself, forgiving easily and understanding much as long as there is love. I think Wendy shared that. And maybe you can only know unconditional love when you've seen every other type of shallow affectation of love. Maybe Veronica is still too naive or innocent or puritanical to know that kind of love or be able to give it because she doesn't know how rare it is. When she sees flaws, she feels vulnerable in a bad way and withdraws while Logan only feels closer to his object of affection. They both have flaws but there's something about the romantic, hopeful side of Logan that draws me to him like Veronica could never draw me. They're both vulnerable but he would jump into fire while she has to cautiously test the temperature of water with her toes. There's no competition for me. Likewise my sympathy was with Wendy in this episode rather than Max.
It just sucks that both Wendy and Logan lose who they really are and regress to their unhappy states when they're alone. Logan goes back to shallow socializing and casual, empty sex . . . Wendy goes back to being a prostitute. I kinda hated that Max looked more sad for himself in the end than the girl who went back to demeaning herself because she couldn't handle seeing the change in his face when he looked at her. So sad ...
Random Things
- I loved the opening shot. When we saw Veronica in the cafeteria at the start of the last episode she was sitting alone. This episode kicks off with Veronica sitting alone with a pout of concentration and the camera pulls back to reveal first chips and then her companion. Not alone! I thought it was a nice little moment.
- Considering the mixed reviews of the 'Canada' cliches in last week's episode, I love the little reference to it in this episode: "I think their room was supposed to be Canada, but it was kinda lame." Hee! Veronica's quick little pouting expression was kind of funny too - like she was insulted - considering how little effort they actually put in. Nice.
- A tiny liberal arts college no one's ever heard of? Uh . . . I think the school got some notoriety from the SERIAL RAPES and RECENT DEATH OF THE DEAN. Weirdest comment ever.
- "I've had opportunities but I have standards, high standards!" Great line and greater delivery. Hee.
- Another favourite line: "Is there a reality experience where she reminds the guy she's only there because he's paying her?" Hee. Cha-ching. Guys so deserve that.
- Veronica/Keith . . . make it stop. I agree with everyone that says this relationship is empty quipsville now. As if the disney acid trip from Lord of the Pis wasn't bad enough, now we're getting disturbing hip-thrusting and musical numbers about the suicide of a quasi-friend? Dean O'Dell might not have shot himself but I'm considering it if RT continues to write their relationship in such a flamboyant but ultimately shallow way. I mean . .. they knew the dean, both of them respected the dean. I even cared about his death but now both of them are treating it like any ordinary case and neither of them really seem to give a crap he's dead. So . . . why should I?
- Hee. I know he was only joking but I kinda smiled stupidly when Logan asked if they should have got more food for the hookers.
- Logan's grin when Max walks in and quickly says 'I didn't know she was a hooker at the time'. Hee. "No one's judging, man." Well, except Veronica. And Logan was being smirky and a little judging there too but unlike Veronica he gets over his reservations as soon as he sees Wendy run and hug Max, smiling like the silly romantic fool he is. *sighs* Maybe he's just better at spotting genuine affection and could thus set aside his presumptions better than Veronica. After all, we all know how blind she is when it comes to attraction *cough*PIZ*cough*
- And I love Logan's little flourishes and lines when the first hooker came over; it was good to see him quip and be playful again. I missed that. "Well, if we're paying her anyway ..." "Honey!" ... "This is just wasteful." It is to hee.
- The "Is Dick living at the Neptune Grand?" question is starting to become a bit like the "What the hell is Woody's role in Neptune?" question last season. I don't know much about the Greek system but I figured if you were in a fraternity you'd live in the fraternity house. Plus, we've only seen Dick there once since the first episode this season. It's weird that all of a sudden he lives there again. Whatev.
- Whoa, so Logan rocked Madison's world too, huh? Coming back for seconds all the way from . . . wherever she goes to college now. Aspen must have left an impression on her. Too bad Logan didn't feel the same way. Heh. See the expression on Madison's face trying to be all sultry until she saw Veronica was the one opening the door? Hee. I actually found it strange that Veronica wasn't suspicious of that interraction straight away since Madison didn't even ask where Dick was.
- Superficial note: Yeah. Madison's hair? Which weed-wacker decided it hated her as much as Veronica does?
- Okay, Veronica. .. refresh my memory. What has Madison done to you that makes her worse than Dick???? Scusi??? She only thinks Logan should get a new roommate if Dick starts dating Madison again? Is she high? Madison is not worse than Dick. Dick actually fed her shots and set up the rape, Madison had no idea what was in the drink she gave Veronica. God, the logic of this show's protagonist is not earth logic. And yeah, side note: I know she probably wasn't being literal when she ordered him to get a new roomie if Madison dates Dick but I'd really hope Logan wouldn't bend anyway. You don't kick out your best friend because of the girlfriend that sometimes drops by. Veronica can only make that call if she lives with Logan and that's clearly not happening any time soon.
- Freakin' feminazis . . .
- Thank God they had Nish recognize Keith since she worked as an editor. It still bugs that both Landry and Nish didn't recognize Veronica though. Same concept, right?
- Okay seriously the prostitute pillow talk has to STOP. First Logan's a pro, now Veronica's quipping about being one herself? Be still my heart, I'm dying from all the sweet fluffy romance!
- Oh freaking HELL!! They clearly had Veronica bring up the Nancy rape because they realized that most of the audience assumed the rape was faked too. And this is clearing it up. (Honestly, if they're doing something else with Mexico I'll scream) But if this is really about cleaning up that loose end it is LAME. Fucking lame. Thinking that Nancy faked a rape made much more sense then Mercer actually going all the way to Mexico having fun with girls, drugging Logan, leaving the girls (or asking them to go away), driving back to Neptune, raping Nancy, driving back to mexico in time to burn down the hotel and escape with Logan. That makes no sense. I hope to God they brought this up in order for Veronica to find out Nancy is involved in the Dean's murder or that she faked it too. Because, if not, LAME. Getting Veronica's rape date wrong kind of lame.
- On a happy note, Francis is looking healthier and healthier as the weeks go on. He looked more like his mid-season two self this episode. I still think he's being wasted though and he needs a storyline pronto. I wouldn't even mind Wendy/Weevil if he hadn't been kind of insulting to her in the cafeteria. He needs a girl and I think he has a dark enough past not to hold hers against her. Too bad. And yes, I pulled that out of nowhere but I liked Wendy damn it.
- Wendy painting Max's toenails!! Oh God! We have to see Veronica do that to Logan. Hee.
Veronica
This isn't one of those "god, she's so mean" moments but I have to say I am so very uncomfortable with the way Veronica treats women she perceives as promiscuous. Considering who her best friend was (and the fact her loyalty to that dead best friend never faltered), she's so judgemental of women who have casual sex or get paid for it. I am so uncomfortable with the way she talked about Wendy as if being a prostitute somehow rendered her evil on all other counts. She does that a lot when it comes to sexual sins, we see it all the time with Logan, and then there's Landry and Keith too. And Kendall and Madison. But it only really bothered me when she started insulting Wendy because she'd never met Wendy, she had no other impressions of her personality. She just assumed the girl was black at heart and a complete liar, not just initially but she jumped all over every turn in the case like THIS proved that Wendy was nothing but a villain. I am exceedingly uncomfortable with this side of Veronica's puritanical personality because she was called a whore for over a year. She knows what it feels like to be dismissed because of general public (mis)perceptions, to get treated like your nothing because you're considered promiscuous. And yet, she displays no empathy for Wendy, all her empathy is with Max and despite the few times she softened, she almost instantly always returned to her staple decision that all prostitutes are evil.
Now, I realize this won't bother most people because prostitutes have a bad social stereotype that people look down on. But it really bothers me coming from Veronica more than any other character because she has reason to realize that you just can't treat women that way, no matter their sexual history. But Veronica acts like the way she was treated by the 09ers was only wrong because she wasn't sexually loose, she'd been raped and otherwise chaste. But that's not what made the 09er behaviour wrong to me. It doesn't matter if the sexual insults are true or not . . . it's just wrong to treat a person like they're nothing but a whore. Because not even prostitutes are nothing but whores. Veronica didn't even feel like something might have been off when Wendy didn't sleep with Max but stayed up all night talking to him, she probably just assumed that made Wendy even worse because she "stole" their money without doing her job. And that's just . . . well, it doesn't endear Veronica to me. It makes me very uncomfortable.
I'll go into more detail about this in the largest part of my episode discussion below, looking at the analogous relationship between Logan/Veronica and Max/Wendy.
Logan and Veronica: What's a Real Connection?
I found their conversations very telling. Logan doesn't need to know Veronica's deep dark secrets (of which, she has many). And Veronica reads way too much into everything he says. He doesn't want to go into prostitues and past affairs because he knows her. It's a minefield and he was exactly right. He said he didn't want to answer the question, she assumed it was answer enough. He explains that he just thinks it opens the floor into subquestions (an interrogation that he's been through with her before); she assumes that his subquestions mean he's been with more than one hooker multiple times. And that's Logan's point. She asks a question and if he's uncomfortable, she assumes the worst. It's just like the Mexico thing - he says 'trust me, I can't tell you', she assumes he fucked somebody. Oy.
Veronica: Look, why not disspell any romantic notions?
Belinda: [After falling off seat due to incredulous coughing/laughter fit] You have romantic notions about Logan???? Are you freakin' kidding me?
Veronica: If we see each other - warts and all - and still like each other, that's a real connection.
Belinda:: [Slaps] Um . . . you see all of his warts already, you see warts that God doesn't see. And if you still don't think there's a connection after going through so much and seeing all those warts, a conversation about hookers isn't magically going to open your freakin' eyes. *mutters*
Logan: [Far more diplomatically] Maybe I enjoy my romantic notions. Maybe I don't care to see any warts - yours or mine. See you're smiling so it's just fun and safe. But it's a slippery slope from 'have you ever been' to 'how many' and 'how often.'
Veronica: So you've been with multiple hookers, on several occasions.
Logan: [Face darkening, he turns away] I'm not having this conversation.
Veronica: [Still not getting why he's pissed off/annoyed, kinda smiles until there's a knock at the door]
Honestly, I liked the conversation but it really bugs me that Veronica's so clueless when it comes to her issues that she actually thinks everything coming out of her mouth was a genuine attempt to 'get closer' rather than pump him for information to dispell her insecurities. Her need for knowledge has nothing to do with intimacy - it's always been there, she's just using a different line to get her answers. Needing to see all of Logan's warts is about control, not intimacy and it's a joke that the writers had her saying this stuff. Maybe she really wants to be intimate but the subconscious impulse comes from somewhere more instinctive - the same place that made her blackmail Logan to get the truth about Mexico. It's do with control: feeling like she's in control and knows what's coming so there's no nasty surprises (which she feels are inevitable in any relationship but especially one with Logan). But she genuinely doesn't seem to get it. It's seriously a joke that she brings up warts and all now considering their history. Wasn't she there??? They've seen each other warts and all, they know each other's faults. *mutters* If anything, they need more nice fluffy romance because they seldom get any of that.
If Veronica doesn't think they have a real connection and hasn't accepted his faults yet ... then we have a serious problem, that's all I'm saying. I cringed when Veronica asked Wendy what the secret was to making a guy as smitten as Max. What the fuck? Does a guy risking his own life to save you multiple times not tell you he's just as smitten with you if not more? I thought she finally knew this season how into her he was, how hung up on her he was . . . but now she's acting like she's clueless again (which is a trend for her character this season).
On the prostitute question: So, some people probably have their doubts but I think Logan was being honest about the hookers. He told Kendall pretty rudely that when the milk stops being free, he doesn't drink it. She basically wanted to be his prostitute on retainer. And he turned her down cold. He doesn't need to call prostitutes to get laid that's pretty well established. Some people might doubt that because he protested so much (even Jason Dohring made it sound like that Logan was lying in that interview) but I really think Logan is just sick of being interrogated. He wants to relax and he wants Veronica to stop making the worst assumptions about him and he knows one question just leads to another. You can see that he dreads those conversations with Veronica and finds them unnecessary from his end. When she said they'd put everything out there, he could have questioned her about staying with Piz or what she thinks of him...but he didn't. He first asked a silly question about whether she'd been with a prostitute and then he passed his turn. That felt more like intimacy to me because he honestly doesn't care if she has dark secrets and therefore feels no burning curiosity to demand the truth from her.
Logan and the Wendy-Lady: Two Doomed Relationships walk into a Presidential Suite . . .
Before I get into this analysis (sorry for the length - I really empathised with this MoTW), I want to show you some visual aids that I think really establish the analogy between the characters: Logan/Wendy and Veronica/Max.
So, the joke might start like this: two doomed romantic relationships walk into a presidential suite and . . .
Veronica and Logan, meet your magic mirror couple--
Wendy and Max
Success! It's one happy reunion and neither cares about their audience of two - currently experiencing two very different reactions:
Veronica's reaction: What the frakk? Yegh.
Yay!! Sweet love, renew thy force!! You sappy romantic, you.
Their empathy when Wendy decided she couldn't allow her co-worker and "friend" to be abused by their pimp because she ran off on the job, went to two different places. Logan looks like he's just breaking for Wendy as she gives up Max, whimsically saying they'd had a great day but she has to go back:
Damn ...
And I had to make this photo a little bigger so you can see their expressions--
Divided empathy: Logan is looking after Wendy, upset at what she'd just had to sacrifice and empathising with her distress at the sight of her battered friend. Veronica, on the other hand, is looking at poor, dejected Max.
Empathy speaks a thousand words my friends, and yes, I have a point. But it's going to take a while to work through:
I've asked myself many times why I love Logan more than I'll ever be capable of loving Veronica, this episode explored that reason and I feel like I have to discuss it.
But first things first: I've read several comments that the writers of the show were trying to "say" that a woman who's been a prostitute doesn't deserve love and I don't understand that argument at all after seeing the episode. I found their portrayal of Wendy very sympathetic - losing Max wasn't a moral condemnation by the writers. At least, not in my opinion. It wasn't Wendy with problems, it was Max; Wendy just accepted that she couldn't fix a relationship that was broken by her past. Sexual ideologies are almost impossible to change and Max clearly had an instinctive problem with her history. There was no moral judgement from the writers just the presentation of a real situation with raw feelings and nobody's to blame. That's not the writers saying she doesn't deserve to receive love, that's them acknowledging the puritanical side of the world that makes it almost impossible for people to see past the surface taint of the world's oldest profession. It's not a moral judgement to show us the world as it is and people do judge prostitutes like this, denying that would make the writers look like fools. Max was incapable of getting over what she did . . . but that doesn't mean everyone would be incapable of it nor does it imply she doesn't deserve it.
Being a prostitute renders a girl nothing but flesh in the eyes of men and women - they feel like they have the right to demean her because she's beneath the respect one would afford a 'woman' (because a prostitute in this mindset is property not a woman). Just because Max struggled with that doesn't mean the writers were saying it was right that Wendy ended up alone. I liked the story, I loved the sympathetic character . . . and man, when Max's friends laughed when they saw her in his room and proceeded to offer her a job stripping, my heart just broke for her in a way it absolutely didn't when I saw Veronica crying in the shower over Logan. Maybe because one situation felt hopeless and the other didn't. And Wendy was crying and I just thought . . . damn, I love this story because the parallels with Logan/Veronica are killing my soul and just showing me how hopeless the situation with Logan/Veronica is.
Watch my heart break
I love the writers for exploring this problem and finally giving us a real woman who works as a prostitute, not a cliche cutout prostitute that has no character beyond her profession. This mystery was close to the Cliff-falls-for-a-hooker story but that story was all about giggles and guy-jokes. Everyone had a nice laugh about it . . . is it wrong that I love Cliff more now because it's obvious that he wouldn't have cared about her history? That hooker was portrayed as shallow and she was meat and everyone laughed about how silly Cliff was for thinking his thing with a hooker was real. I always cringe when prostitutes get treated by society like they've ceased to be a person; newspaper headings read "Hooker Gets Strangled" rather than "Woman Gets Strangled" and nobody cares because suddenly it's like she asked for it because she put herself in that situation (disregarding how she'd come to need to be in that situation in the first place). How many girls in this profession get killed or abused and how many people actually care? They sell their body, so it's like they're missing a soul and everyone - men and women - treat them like meat on a rack, like they deserve whatever comes to them. That's a taint that can never be removed.
What bothers me and struck the painful chord in my heart wasn't Max's asshole room mates, or Weevil's thoughtless "Hey, you have a dragon tattoo on your left butt cheek!" comment (Weevil's always respected women - remember Carmen? - he'd never say that to a girl who wasn't a stripper/prostitute and I hate that he even did that) . . . I'm broken down by Veronica's reaction especially given the analogy between the relationships. It about says it all. Wendy was reduced to soulless in her eyes on first, second, third assumption because she has sex with strangers for money. That's it. Veronica knew nothing else about Wendy aside from the fact she had sex as a job but that was enough for Veronica to believe that Wendy was a thief and a liar and a manipulator and someone that needed to be CRUSHED for all her scheming and her deceit. For a girl who was called a whore constantly for several years, you'd think she would have more empathy with what it feels like to be dismissed by the world on the basis of sexual promiscuity. But no, it just made her more judgemental apparently. You'd think that in her job, scouring Neptune's seedy underbelly she would have seen by now that women don't actually get born wanting to become prostitutes; it's not a lifetime ambition and they aren't evil.
Many people were pleased with Veronica in this episode because she was continuing to be "nice." I was cringing all the way through it not because I hated it but because the writing was on the wall and this was perfectly in character. This part of Veronica's personality will never change and it's why her attempt to be "intimate" with Logan was a joke. Logan saw right through it. True intimacy is feeling safe enough to expose your darkest deeds without being dragged over the coals for it, trusting in someone's love and acceptance that much. Logan can't trust Veronica like that and he's fully aware of that because she can't stay and love someone who's done something she hates on principle. She always runs away and abandons him . . . so how could they ever have real intimacy? Veronica doesn't trust Logan to be a good boy and he doesn't trust her to love him unconditionally so he baulked and tried to avoid playing true confessions.
The truth is Logan doesn't need to know Veronica's darkest secrets, he knows he'll love her anyway. After all the times she's betrayed him and got him arrested - all the things she thinks he's capable of - he knows absolutely that he just doesn't care what she does, he'll love her still. Veronica needed to ask the questions not because of "intimacy" but because she needs to know what he was up to. It's just like the situation in Of Vice and Men when she NEEDED to know his secret about what he and Mercer had done. And blackmailed him to find out! Hence, my cringing when Veronica oh-so-perkily discussed the wonderful fun of blackmailing a judge with Logan in this episode: "It's blackmail! It's the go-to idea! . . . In case of emergency break glass or blackmail!" Yeah, I'm sure he sees that differently to her.
Veronica needs to be in control, she needs to know all his dark little secrets so she's prepared and has settled herself to ignore the problem should it come up later on. She has good intentions but the fact is, Logan knows Veronica better than she knows herself; he knew that she was looking for trouble, looking for the mistakes he'd made when they were apart and that there was a big possibility she wouldn't forgive him for it. He's so resigned to her believing that he's going to cheat on her one day - she kept peppering him with prostitute questions like him telling her he had would be such a big bad secret no matter when he had been with a prostitute (like before they even contemplated dating). And that's just crazy. Then she asks if he was with anyone else. Just like she asked if he was with anyone while with Mercer in Mexico. She's looking for the problems before they find her because she assumes he's done something. She'll always assume he's done something and it's not intimacy to tell your lover: "tell me all the bad shit you did so I can do my best to process it because if I find it out on my own, we're going to have problems and I'm going to leave you." Logan was right - she finds things out because she looks around and snoops and investigates every little bump in his character to see what he's done wrong this time. That's her nature, it's engrained in her because it's her job. It's engrained in her in the same way she figures prostitutes get engrained as liars and thieves by their job. Logan is aware of that and that's why he looked so shocked and touched when she said she still loved him; you can tell by the look on his face that he absolutely did not expect that answer because he's never received it before:
Will wonders never cease!
He knows her and he's going to have all his suspicions confirmed next week because it's easy to ignore some shadow in the past that has no name and no face and no personality. But an actual person? Not so much.
And I love Wendy's speech because it speaks to how Logan must feel about a lot of his choices:
"I was such a girl when he dropped me off at the airport, all misty and dramatic . . . when he was leaving, I felt this rush, I thought about everything that led to that moment and all the choices I had made that got me to that exact spot at that exact time . . . how if I'd made different ones I could be with the sweet guy who's dropping me off at the airport, all teary eyed . . ."
Honestly, how can your heart not like this girl??? Being able to stay that romantic when you've been used by guys over and over and over again must be so hard. She is such a female version of Logan. And no, I'm not being so literal as to call Logan a prostitute or even imply that. This is about something more basic in their characters that Veronica could never understand.
That's what this episode was setting up with its beautiful analogous relationship: here are two people with an amazing, instant connection - they're the couple that shouldacouldawoulda but won't ever work. One side of the relationship has a promiscuous past that, despite genuine attempts, the other simply can't get over. Wendy's letter broke my heart and I just wanted her to be hugged. Which is exactly the feeling I get when I watch Logan's heart get broken. I want someone to understand Logan and I wanted someone to understand Wendy. They are the characters that touch my soul, the broken ones who get up when they're knocked down and know the goodness in themselves even if no one else sees it and dismisses them as hopeless. Despite how they should be after the things they've been through, they're hopeless romantics who just want love and to get beyond the shadow of their past. And it's impossible when they fall in love with people like Veronica and Max. Again, I don't think Veronica and Max are bad people for their assumptions or instinctive wariness - it's a decidedly average reaction. Wendy and Logan would probably only find understanding with someone like themselves but, of course, that's not who they want. Wendy told Max that she was glad they'd been together because she knew now what she was missing and I think Veronica had the same effect on Logan when they first got together, only he failed in his attempt to let go of that dream in Spit and Eggs. Note the wording in both Logan and Wendy's farewells - he didn't want to feel like a disappointment any more; she didn't want to see how Max's feelings for her had changed when he realised what she had done for a living. It breaks my heart but I love the execution of the parallel.
Veronica may have wanted true intimacy, but she's incapable of it with Logan even though it seemed like she was finally really, really trying so hard in this episode. It's heartbreaking to watch her try so hard when you know she's going to fail. And Logan knows it, that's why he kept trying to avoid her landmines. I'm not saying she's evil or wrong or even a bad person for that. She's just not capable of what she thinks she wants with Logan - especially not with him because of her perception of his sexuality. So even as she's saying she wants to be that close with him, it's as empty as her epiphanies-of-the-week and the tragedy is, she has no idea it's an empty promise because she really wants it to work between them. I believe that she believes she wants to get them functioning in a more healthy way. Kudos for the attempt.
But when the girl he fooled around with was faceless, she could suppress it and ignore it. But I'd never say she dealt with it and accepted it as a past indiscretion that wasn't a betrayal to her - it just wasn't real to her yet and she was trying to make a point to Logan by showing him how "cool" she was. As soon as Madison told Veronica that Logan had been with her, you could see it on Veronica's face: now the girl had a name and a face and a personality Veronica hated and Logan fucked her. She absolutely can't deal with it even though they played true confessions and Logan was perfectly honest: he slept with someone he didn't even like and the thought sickens him . . .
There's your landmine, do you still love me?
Well, yes, she does love him. But that's not the problem. Veronica is incapable of reconciling Logan's past with their present. To borrow Wendy's phrasing: now she's going to look at him differently, touch him differently - he'll see it in her face. She's not okay with him sleeping with Madison. And let's face it, Veronica doesn't have the hurdle that Max had to deal with - she only has a boy having casual sex with someone she doesn't like whereas Max had to deal with the woman he loved being recognized by so many people as a woman who sold herself as a stripper and a prostitute and I've already covered the public perception of that which would be engrained in Max and all his friends. Veronica doesn't have to deal with that kind of difficulty, it's just casual sex. But Max/Wendy is just an exaggerated version of the same problem. Can Veronica deal with it? No. Because she's not like Logan, she's not capable of the kind of intimacy he is because she doesn't forgive with the same almost blind recklessness that Logan does. She can't have that kind of intimacy with someone with his history. Maybe she will be able to one day (I won't hold my breath for such drastic growth), but I don't see it because you can't change that - you are who you are and Veronica's perception of sexuality has not altered over three seasons. She's very much a prude and very judgemental about casual sex, let alone prostitution.
Logan was absolutely right to dodge her questions because, you could tell from the way she kept jumping to conclusions about Wendy. Did it remind you of anyone? Of course it did. Wendy is a prostitute so she must be a thief and a liar and all things horrible to Veronica. She only smiled at Wendy (not really buying it, but warily pleased) when Wendy continued to prove her wrong and even then the next time some twist occured Veronica went all: "Wendy is EVIL and we must CRUSH her!" Rather than thinking Wendy might be a victim too. Veronica literally went from saying she was wrong about Wendy, that Max/Wendy were "great" together to seeing the makeup on the towel and deciding Wendy was a complete bitch again. So much for being convinced of their twu wuv. Now, it might seem a reasonable conclusion to some people but it's also reasonable to think Wendy was duped too. The point is, given Wendy's history it was much easier for her to jump to the worst possible conclusions at every moment of doubt.
The analogy was so obvious I felt like I was being punched in the face repeatedly. Logan is her Wendy, and she's his Max. There's an awesome connection between the pairings but only one knows the meaning of unconditional love despite the fact that their partners are morally grey in their own way (unethical in their different pursuits - Max is an intellectual prostitute for freeloading students after all).
That's it, that's my love for Logan. After all the shit he's been through he has this unfailing capacity to love unconditionally and give all of himself, forgiving easily and understanding much as long as there is love. I think Wendy shared that. And maybe you can only know unconditional love when you've seen every other type of shallow affectation of love. Maybe Veronica is still too naive or innocent or puritanical to know that kind of love or be able to give it because she doesn't know how rare it is. When she sees flaws, she feels vulnerable in a bad way and withdraws while Logan only feels closer to his object of affection. They both have flaws but there's something about the romantic, hopeful side of Logan that draws me to him like Veronica could never draw me. They're both vulnerable but he would jump into fire while she has to cautiously test the temperature of water with her toes. There's no competition for me. Likewise my sympathy was with Wendy in this episode rather than Max.
It just sucks that both Wendy and Logan lose who they really are and regress to their unhappy states when they're alone. Logan goes back to shallow socializing and casual, empty sex . . . Wendy goes back to being a prostitute. I kinda hated that Max looked more sad for himself in the end than the girl who went back to demeaning herself because she couldn't handle seeing the change in his face when he looked at her. So sad ...