Did I Get Really Drunk at a Biker Bar?
Okay, before, I get to posting about the episode, I have to post something else. And it might come off as bragging or self-indulgent...because it is. But when you have a fucking Master's degree and you're working in a goddamn university bookstore and you feel that if you actually took stock of your life, you'd start to cry, even the littlest things can make you ridiculously happy. And you need to cling to those things with all your might, to remind yourself that you are the coolest person in the entire world, or at least in the top ten thousand. Fifty thousand. Million, at least. You hope. Maybe.
So, in the premiere (don't worry, there are no spoilers before the cut), there was a reference to a Jennings Crawford. I immediately recognized it as a name Rob had used in both Slave Day and Cupid. So I asked him what the deal was, and he told me Jennings Crawford was a good friend of his with a cool name, and he couldn't believe I caught all those references.
Then, in Rob's commentary for the pilot, he was talking about a song playing by the Wannabes: "The lead singer, uh, of the Wannabes is named, uh, Jennings Crawford, which the close observers of my work may notice is a name that I use a lot; I just like the sound of the name."
Of course, I took "the close observers of my work" as a shout-out to me, because there was obviously no one else in the entire world who had caught his use of the name. I told him I was doing so. His response?
It was.
OMG ROB GAVE ME A SHOUT-OUT.
It totally made my day. And just so this isn't All About Me: I also sent him some comments about the commentary from the MM (anonymously, mind you). Like this one:
Ok. So I was wrong about Shelly Pomroy. And I really love RT. Seriously. As in I envy his wife.
His response?
I'll have to pass along the "envy his wife" comments to Katie. Make sure she appreciates me.
Now, let's talk about the episode, baby.
OMG MY SHOW IS BACK. No, I mean it this time, guys. Interweaving plotlines, crazy plot twists, the whole kaboodle. I love my show again. Let's give it the rundown.
FBLA! We had that at my high school. And apparently they meet during lunch, and there are only like five members. Huh. I like this new teacher, though.
Okay, hold on here. Let me first just get the one piece of bitching out of the way: the Courtney Taylor-Taylor karaoke scene, though thankfully free of wacky editing, went on way too long. We don't need to linger on him for two whole minutes; he's not important to the fucking plot. I liked the reaction shot to the other couple, though, and the thematic appropriateness of the song.
But really, I think I just need to babble about this episode holistically. Because it kind of rocked. The MOTW wasn't about some random student we just met; it was about Beaver and Kendall, characters we know. That's always a plus in my book. And I liked how it ended up tying into Big Dick's presentation at the very beginning. One thing I love about this show is that you don't realize what's a setup and what's not until you hit the payoff. It all feels throwaway at first.
And whoa, about Logan and Kendall being discovered so soon! This season is moving so damn fast. I thought they would be drawing that out for a much longer time. But Kendall must be really new to town if she doesn't recognize Veronica at all.
The Lamb scene in the teaser was great because Lamb was serious. And right. It was a side of him we'd never seen before. And speaking of good acting, Teddy was pretty good in that Logan/Duncan scene (although the fight was pretty crappy). I'd kind of forgotten the part where Logan's dad killed Duncan's sister, actually, so it was nice to understand the rift a little better.
No idea what's up with Alicia and the man with a badge trailing her and calling her weird names. But she looked really pretty in Chicago.
I HATE JACKIE SO MUCH OMG JUST DIE ALREADY PRIDE AND PREJUDICE HAS NEVER BEEN 600 FUCKING PAGES YOU STUPID BITCH.
The "Start shredding!" scene? Awesome.
Finally, Curly. And The Long Haul (directed by John Enbom, co-writer of this episode!). And re-enacting a movie stunt as a fucking bus crash. Which, let me say something about that: this is the third cliffhanger in a row I didn't get at first. The premiere, I didn't realize it was the bus that had gone off. The second episode, I didn't know who the dead guy was. And this time, I totally didn't pick up on the significance of the Big Stunt (I was thinking of Felix's murder on the bridge). So Veronica thinks that Aaron tried to kill the star witness before he got the death sentence, huh?
All right now. This season is very different from the first season, except I think it's different in a completely awesome way. Because the Alicia thing didn't get resolved in this episode. There are multiple plotlines spanning multiple episodes ending in multiple cliffhangers. No, wait, just the one cliffhanger per episode. The point is, it's reminding me of the first season of Alias. I don't even understand how Rob is getting away with it, really, because he's no longer balancing stand-alone and arc. It's all arc now, which, personally, I love, and I'm loving even more that he's tying it into the arc of the first season.
See, remember what I said about setups and payoffs? I have a sneaking suspicion that Boatloads of Fun Corp., as some have posited, may turn out to be more important than it seemed at first, especially with all this talk of investing and fraud. Plus, notice that Curly took a picture with a famous baseball star (who was not Terrence Cook). I have a feeling Woody Goodman may end being involved in all this business by the end. We've also met the county assessor, a position I knew nothing about. Rob is going to great pains to show us the corruption of the inner workings of the Neptune civil government, and this will most certainly come into play during the county supervisor election, and when Keith actually joins that government (because, really, would we go through all this if Keith doesn't get to be sheriff?). I see all these pieces being laid out, but I don't even know what game we're playing. I get the feeling things we never expected to be tied together are going to end up being tied together, which is what was shown in the microcosm of this episode. You investigate one thing, and you discover something else. And it's never what you expect.
So, in the premiere (don't worry, there are no spoilers before the cut), there was a reference to a Jennings Crawford. I immediately recognized it as a name Rob had used in both Slave Day and Cupid. So I asked him what the deal was, and he told me Jennings Crawford was a good friend of his with a cool name, and he couldn't believe I caught all those references.
Then, in Rob's commentary for the pilot, he was talking about a song playing by the Wannabes: "The lead singer, uh, of the Wannabes is named, uh, Jennings Crawford, which the close observers of my work may notice is a name that I use a lot; I just like the sound of the name."
Of course, I took "the close observers of my work" as a shout-out to me, because there was obviously no one else in the entire world who had caught his use of the name. I told him I was doing so. His response?
It was.
OMG ROB GAVE ME A SHOUT-OUT.
It totally made my day. And just so this isn't All About Me: I also sent him some comments about the commentary from the MM (anonymously, mind you). Like this one:
Ok. So I was wrong about Shelly Pomroy. And I really love RT. Seriously. As in I envy his wife.
His response?
I'll have to pass along the "envy his wife" comments to Katie. Make sure she appreciates me.
Now, let's talk about the episode, baby.
OMG MY SHOW IS BACK. No, I mean it this time, guys. Interweaving plotlines, crazy plot twists, the whole kaboodle. I love my show again. Let's give it the rundown.
FBLA! We had that at my high school. And apparently they meet during lunch, and there are only like five members. Huh. I like this new teacher, though.
Okay, hold on here. Let me first just get the one piece of bitching out of the way: the Courtney Taylor-Taylor karaoke scene, though thankfully free of wacky editing, went on way too long. We don't need to linger on him for two whole minutes; he's not important to the fucking plot. I liked the reaction shot to the other couple, though, and the thematic appropriateness of the song.
But really, I think I just need to babble about this episode holistically. Because it kind of rocked. The MOTW wasn't about some random student we just met; it was about Beaver and Kendall, characters we know. That's always a plus in my book. And I liked how it ended up tying into Big Dick's presentation at the very beginning. One thing I love about this show is that you don't realize what's a setup and what's not until you hit the payoff. It all feels throwaway at first.
And whoa, about Logan and Kendall being discovered so soon! This season is moving so damn fast. I thought they would be drawing that out for a much longer time. But Kendall must be really new to town if she doesn't recognize Veronica at all.
The Lamb scene in the teaser was great because Lamb was serious. And right. It was a side of him we'd never seen before. And speaking of good acting, Teddy was pretty good in that Logan/Duncan scene (although the fight was pretty crappy). I'd kind of forgotten the part where Logan's dad killed Duncan's sister, actually, so it was nice to understand the rift a little better.
No idea what's up with Alicia and the man with a badge trailing her and calling her weird names. But she looked really pretty in Chicago.
I HATE JACKIE SO MUCH OMG JUST DIE ALREADY PRIDE AND PREJUDICE HAS NEVER BEEN 600 FUCKING PAGES YOU STUPID BITCH.
The "Start shredding!" scene? Awesome.
Finally, Curly. And The Long Haul (directed by John Enbom, co-writer of this episode!). And re-enacting a movie stunt as a fucking bus crash. Which, let me say something about that: this is the third cliffhanger in a row I didn't get at first. The premiere, I didn't realize it was the bus that had gone off. The second episode, I didn't know who the dead guy was. And this time, I totally didn't pick up on the significance of the Big Stunt (I was thinking of Felix's murder on the bridge). So Veronica thinks that Aaron tried to kill the star witness before he got the death sentence, huh?
All right now. This season is very different from the first season, except I think it's different in a completely awesome way. Because the Alicia thing didn't get resolved in this episode. There are multiple plotlines spanning multiple episodes ending in multiple cliffhangers. No, wait, just the one cliffhanger per episode. The point is, it's reminding me of the first season of Alias. I don't even understand how Rob is getting away with it, really, because he's no longer balancing stand-alone and arc. It's all arc now, which, personally, I love, and I'm loving even more that he's tying it into the arc of the first season.
See, remember what I said about setups and payoffs? I have a sneaking suspicion that Boatloads of Fun Corp., as some have posited, may turn out to be more important than it seemed at first, especially with all this talk of investing and fraud. Plus, notice that Curly took a picture with a famous baseball star (who was not Terrence Cook). I have a feeling Woody Goodman may end being involved in all this business by the end. We've also met the county assessor, a position I knew nothing about. Rob is going to great pains to show us the corruption of the inner workings of the Neptune civil government, and this will most certainly come into play during the county supervisor election, and when Keith actually joins that government (because, really, would we go through all this if Keith doesn't get to be sheriff?). I see all these pieces being laid out, but I don't even know what game we're playing. I get the feeling things we never expected to be tied together are going to end up being tied together, which is what was shown in the microcosm of this episode. You investigate one thing, and you discover something else. And it's never what you expect.