VM ep. 19 & 20 spoilers, my reaction
I don't know about you guys, but I've been through all the stages of grief this week. Denial, bargaining, anger, the whole deal. And it's all over a fucking TV show. I do not understand this. I am a grownup! What's my problem?
I was horrified when I found out. No matter how hard I tried to twist it into a positive, this is just part of the rollercoaster wank, it never fit (and oh, how I tried!).
For me, it comes down to this. Rob Thomas is ending the season - and the series - with Veronica happily involved with Piz and "justifiably" angry at Logan for the violence he displays while protecting her. While Logan by all accounts ends up alone and miserable, still hopelessly in love with Veronica but doomed never to have her. And I can only read it one way. RT doesn't give a rat's ass about Logan. Doesn't want to see Logan with Veronica. Doesn’t see them the way we all do, as two people who complement each other, who can push each other in both good and bad ways, who get each other the way nobody else ever could. Who FIT. Apparently Rob doesn't even think Logan deserves to mature into himself, to develop self respect and self-worth. He wants to make Logan suffer and wants to make Veronica happy, regardless of which character deserves which treatment. It seems as though Rob Thomas, like Kristen Bell, doesn't watch his own show.
It felt very much like the rug being pulled out from under me. I kept thinking back to what nessaassen said after 3.12: that when Veronica deleted Logan's voicemail message, it felt like our version of the show was being deleted along with it. "This interpretation no longer supported by the text," wasn't it? I didn't want to believe that then. It made no sense. It still makes no sense. But now I think it's absolutely, dead-on accurate.
Yes, it's theoretically still possible that RT was telling the truth when he said that he was writing this as a season ender, not a series ender. That he wanted to estrange Logan and Veronica so that he'll have some drama to work with for next season. But even if that's the case, why end things with Veronica OVERTLY HAPPY with another boy and Logan miserable and defeated? It doesn't compute. It feels very much like he's simply slapping Logan down and raising Veronica up in a perverse fuck-you to his audience, who love Logan and have grown to dislike the supposed heroine. It feels very much like someone who doesn't want to give Veronica a character arc, who doesn’t think she needs to change, who seems to think that Logan apparently, what, can't change? Doesn’t deserve happiness? sowell was concerned that Logan would be with Parker at the end, destroying the strength and power of the L/V ship. Now I wish that it were true. I'd rather close the book knowing that at least Logan found happiness, you know?
No, it seems now in retrospect like this has been RT's intention from the beginning of this season. He's handled it in a clumsy, half-assed way, but what else is new? That's been a consistent thread though this Season of Bad Writing Choices. But remember when Piz first saw Logan taser the guy who was beating Dick to shreds? He turned to Veronica and said, "Does that sort of thing work with college girls? 'Cause I'll tell you up front, I'm a lover, I'm not a fighter." And now at the end of the season, we have a videotape of Piz as lover and, in response, Logan shows his, what, true self? as a fighter like his father (ugh ugh ugh).
And remember when Piz and Veronica talked at cross purposes in episode 10? He talked about not settling. She said she thought she understood. And we thought so too, when she went to Logan. We all cheered. But the next morning, when Logan asks, "What's new?", Piz responded, "Nothing, apparently." Which served as a bitter little moment, but, in typical Rob Thomas fashion, was probably also meant to be an anvil of doom. Veronica and Logan getting back together only to hurt each other once more. Nothing new. Piz + Veronica = change. And apparently, change is good? Change = growth? She's getting rid of "old junk" (cf: ep. 12) (and ouch) and moving on to someone pure and good and dopey. Maybe Piz= not settling? (Yeah, my stomach is churning too.)
It reeks. In real life maybe we want our daughters and best friends to end up with the nice guy, but we also want our sons and male friends to end up with the nice girl. And Veronica ain't no sweetheart. Also, it violates every good tenet of drama. You set up an emotional connection between two volatile characters, that's where your dramatic tension lies, that's where your audience will be drawn, inevitably and irrevocably. You can't retcon that. It's powerful stuff.
But if Rob Thomas never meant it, if he never thought Logan was good enough, healthy enough, together enough to be a long term romantic partner for Veronica, why did he build the intensity into the story last season and the season before?
Okay, no, I understand S1. He was meant to be the final red herring, and that's more powerful if he's become a love interest. It's the frisson of tension at the root of every romantic suspense story.
But in S2, well, yes, Veronica dumped Logan as quickly as Rob Thomas could devise (all hail the mighty plot device known as a pool burning) and returned to her sweet, flat Duncan. But, as I've discussed before, the entire interplay was written as a romantic comedy, and, though Kristen Bell played it ice cold, there was clearly meant to be a strong subtext of attraction and jealousy between Logan and Veronica. And then of course the anvil later in the season: "Guess you never know where true love's gonna find you." "If it comes looking for me, I'll be over by the espresso machine." And who was waiting by the espresso machine? Logan, of course. If you buy into that - and I do - it sure as hell looks like RT meant for Logan to be the end-all of S2. For fuck's sake, he rewrote Phil Klemmer's epic speech to make it more intense, more emotional, more compelling.
I am not going to try and guess now whether RT actually believed that Logan and Veronica were the OTP or whether he was just playing it for the dramatic beats last season because he was forced into it by the network or by the fans or by…? The fact is, it was there in the text. And I loved it. And I don't want to go back now and look at those episodes and find them massively diminished because RT, what, never intended for the pairing to fly as high as it has? (More fool he.) I'm very afraid I will. But then there's the final stage of grief: acceptance. Here's where I am now:
I know - it's painfully obvious in her performance as well as her countless idiotic interviews - that Kristin Bell has never embraced the couple. It's also extremely obvious that Jason Dohring has given it his all. In a way, his acting ability and their apparently inadvertent chemistry have driven this ship. Rob Thomas may not think Logan deserves Veronica now, but - and it feels very odd to say this - he's not necessarily the author of this pair anymore. Yes, he came up with the characters. Yes, he cast the actors. Yes, he wrote at least some of the dialogue and actions that made them powerful together. But there are other authors here. The network or studio, which may well have said, "Hey, these two are hot together!" The actors themselves, especially JD, who has this uncanny ability to make you empathize with him and understand his emotional state at all times, no matter how unlikely the actions of his character. The other writers, perhaps especially Dayna Lynn North, though it's hard really to know, except that she's responsible for Plan B and is a woman and is not around this season of suck. The directors, who vary in their ability and perhaps desire to show the intensity and, yes, the tenderness of the relationship, but some of whom have done a wonderful job playing on closeness and subtext, blocking and pacing. And, last but far from least, there's us. The viewers.
Every poll this year asking viewers to choose between Logan and Piz ended up something like 80% voting for Logan. Logan and Veronica have won Best Couple, Best Kiss, Best Chemistry in various magazine articles and online snippets. When the news came out about a theoretical VM: FBI Season Four, I was pleased to see the number of LJ posts and TWoP comments to the effect of: "Lose Logan and I'm not watching," and, "Of course Logan will be part of it, the only question is what they'll do with everyone else." Given the turn of events in ep. 20, I have to wonder if RT was writing Logan out (as in Down and Out, Over and Out) and really intended to start clean with just Veronica. In which case, well, he's an idiot, we already know this. He'd be better off starting fresh with just Jason Dohring, but he can't, because the show is called Veronica Mars, not Logan Echolls. (Besides, Logan would make an even worse FBI agent than Veronica would!)
Anyway, I digress. It's easy to. I'm still steaming. But my point is simply this: A TV show is not a book. Even though it's tempting to consider the creator the author, he is not the sole creative voice here. The network, directors, actors, audience reaction, they all play a part in shaping what we see onscreen. And so if RT is shitting all over what is probably the only or at least main thing that has kept his show alive these past three years, I think I can now look past that to what the show is, who the characters are. He's defined them but I refuse to let him continue to do so when he's doing such a bad job of it, violating his own canon left and right.
Oddly, it validates fanfiction for me. Especially once the show is over. Because in the best fanfic, these characters are more alive, more fully themselves, more consistent and three dimensional than Rob Thomas has allowed them to be this season. And if I stop thinking of this world as his sole creation, under his sole ownership, then I can both look back at S2 and especially S1 and enjoy the relationship as I perceive it to be. And enjoy the best fanfic, which will bring these two back together, I hope in emotionally satisfying ways. That will allow Veronica to grow and Logan to heal.
If there were a S4 (and oh, how I hope there isn't!), I now have no doubt that RT would mess things up even worse than he has. But since the writing is on the wall and the show is VERY likely already cancelled, we don’t have to worry about canon past ep. 3.20. We can spin the stories we need, gain the closure we crave. It's all we've got, after all, and since the characterizations on the show itself have gotten progressively more bizarrely written, maybe it's ultimately for the best?
And by the way, I won't be watching the last five episodes, or, if I do, it'll only be after the show airs and only the bits I've already heard are palatable. I'm not delusional enough to think if I don't see it, it isn't happening. But I don't want certain images burned in my brain either.