There's Got To Be A Morning After Pill... or Not
First of all, I must warn you that I have never attempted to write a review of this show (or any other) before. Why I feel compelled to do it now is probably due to the fact that this episode hit close to home on some level. I am a preacher's daughter. Although I am not a highly religious person and rarely go to church, I was very concerned about how the religious characters in this episode would be portrayed. Most shows portray religious people as being harshly judgmental, hypocritical and intolerant (which in my experience does exist, but is not the norm - as most movies and tv shows would have you believe). Although there was some of that with the Thornton character, overall I was pleasantly surprised. Bonnie's father reminded me of my own dad in his wisdom and unconditional love for his child, regardless of her situation. In fact, that's very close to how my dad reacted when my little sister got pregnant at 18. He was disappointed, of course. But he saw past the circumstances to see the beauty of the life she would be bringing into the world. He would never taint that by being harsh or judgmental. My dad didn't send balloons, mind you. But he didn't vilify my sister either. Her daughter is now the biggest "Papa's girl" you ever saw. So I'd say the characterizations of this father/daughter relationship was very accurate.
So now that you know more than you ever wanted to about my family, I will proceed with my review of the rest of the episode.
MOTW - There's Got to Be A Morning After Pill... or not.
I thought this was a very well-written, well-executed mystery. One of the best this season. I was a little disappointed that the culprit was Bonnie's best friend, who probably though she was just following through with her bff's "choice" before her family and boyfriend interfered. Guess she didn't count on her friend's change of heart. I thought the collaboration of Keith and Veronica was the highlight of the episode. I laughed like the big dork I am when Keith introduced himself as "Carson Drew" and called Veronica "Nancy." I even giggled when Veronica called herself "Hester" (as in Hester Pryne from "The Scarlet Letter") when she went to talk to the minister about her "problem." (Finally, "shout outs" I get!)
Since I'm on the topic, I feel I should address the controversy that has sprouted up on various blog sites about this mystery. I have read numerous posts by people who are outraged at the show for spreading "misinformation" about the morning after pill. People. The show clearly states that the drug that caused the unwanted abortion was RU486. The words "morning after pill" were never used in the episode - ever. I think the title had more to do with the Logan/Madison hook-up than the MOTW. The title was derived from the Maureen McGovern song "There's Got to Be A Morning After," which is about not really knowing your lover. I know the CW said in their episode description that the drug that caused the abortion was "the morning after pill." So blame CW for the misinformation. The show itself (RT and the writers) should not be blamed for some promo monkey's mistake. Also, does anyone else find it incredibly ironic that certain feminist websites vilified the show for spreading false information before actually watching it? Didn't we see so-called "feminists" doing that exact same thing (judging without knowing the facts) during the serial rapist arc? Talk about life imitating art.
Moving on...
Madison and Logan Fall Out
When I first read the spoiler about Madison, I was pretty upset. Not because I'm a huge LoVe shipper or anything. I'm totally ready for Veronica to move on. (Just NOT with Piz.) I'm just annoyed that the show would do something this blatantly melodramatic and soapy. I hate teen soap operas with a passion - hated them even when I was a teen. I despised shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and refused to watch anything resembling a "teen soap opera." Now, here's my favorite mystery show turning into a soap opera. Ranting aside, I did like how sane/not sane Veronica stalked Madison and even went so far as to reap revenge on the bitch. Am I the only one who sees a parallel between the "non sane" Veronica and the psycho-naut Lisa Nowak, who went after her romantic rival this week? Although Veronica's means of revenge never involved physical harm or diapers, it still shows that even extremely intelligent women can be utterly stupid when it comes to matters of the heart. I was really glad that Veronica didn't go through with the revenge plot after hearing the minister tell his daughter that anger and resentment only leads to more suffering. Nice character development for our heroine.
About Logan. Is he at fault or not? I agree that technically he did nothing wrong towards Veronica because they were broken up when the Madison hook-up happened. But that doesn't mean he didn't do anything wrong. First off, Logan slept with a person that meant "less than nothing" to him and that he thought was "horrible." Why? Because booze and sex are his therapy, his way of dealing with shit. That's a big problem. It should be a problem for Veronica, too. Second, Logan knew this person in particular had deeply hurt someone he loved and enjoyed doing it. I'm not talking about her role in Veronica's rape because I don't think she was the one who was responsible for that, although I can see why Veronica would blame her to some degree. But Logan knew Madison had written "SLUT" on Veronica's car. He knew how cruel Madison was to Veronica in high school. How was he able to just say "bygones" and sleep with Madison? How drunk was the guy, anyway? Maybe he didn't even realize it was Madison until the morning after. Maybe it's a guy thing. Either way, he messed up big time and he knows it - which is why he didn't tell Veronica. This leads to my third point: Logan lied. More accurately, he withheld truth. He knew sleeping with Madison would cause a lot of damage to his relationship with Veronica. But he can't seem to grasp that not being truthful with her does the same thing.
As I said, I hate this realtionship arc because it's soooooo soapy. But if it brings back OPJ Logan or ends with Madison finally getting her long-deserved smackdown, it might just be worth it.
Murder and Mayhem in Neptune... so what's new?
I thought the Dean O'Dell murder investigation had some interesting developments in this episode. I liked that we finally met the dean's teenage son, who was the culprit in smashing-up his car earlier in the season (after stealing it, no doubt). He's going to a major suspect in this little whodunnit - especially since we know Daddy Dean was going to send him off to a boy's school for troubled teens. Did he steal his dad's car again, drive it to the campus and cap his own dad? Or was it his wife's drug addict ex-husband? Of course, we still can't rule out the usual suspects - Mindy, the philandering wife; Landry, her pothead lover who happens to be an expert on crime; or Nish, the revenge driven ex-newspaper editor who was fired by the dean. Three episodes down and I still have no clue.
Next Week On Veronica Mars: More murder! Creepy hunk! And... Veronica gets arrested! (I love it when that happens because it means good Veronica and Lamb banter.) :D