Veronica Mars

Disappointing episode. Maybe it's unfair, but I expected edge-of-my-seat nail biting entertainment from Thomas & Co. during the penultimate episode of the season and what I got was . . . meh.

I might have been able to enjoy the episode more if it hadn't started out with a scene that made me groan and think "Please don't tell me that none of the writers have ever watched Law & Order, or CourtTV or, worse, expect that the audience hasn't and doesn't know that the DEFENDANT in a MURDER TRIAL would not be on the stand on the first day of trial. For the sake of my adoration of this show, don't let that be the case." But it did start that way, and for the rest of the episode I was distracted by trying to reconcile what was going on in that courtroom with, I don't know, the LAW!

I could only think of a few ways that things could have played out in the order we saw. Perhaps others can weigh in with evidence to support these options, or maybe someone out there can come up with a more plausible justification. I'd love to hear it. Although, even if someone can explain to me why things happened the way they did (other than some crazy writer's desire to both have the episode begin with Aaron on the stand and show us the testimony of Veronica, Keith, and Logan) it's too late. The implausibility of it all damn near ruined the episode for me. Ok, my lame attempt to justify the course of this trial:

(1) We didn't see any of the prosecution's case-in-chief, and either (2) the prosecution did NOT CALL three of what we'd been led to believe were their most important witnesses against Aaron (Veronica, Logan, and Keith) during their presentation of the case, and instead called them as rebuttal witnesses after the Defense rested (which strains the bounds of credulity enormously); or (3) called these three witnesses during their case-in-chief, chatted casually about the weather, and then called them AGAIN after the defense rested as rebuttal witnesses to actually discuss the evidence (which not only makes my head hurt, but did not seem to be the case given the out-of-court discussions of these three characters).

But even without my annoyance with this, I think I would have been disappointed in the episode. It seemed slow and like not much happened, which is ridiculous because how could an episode featuring a murder trial, a school shooting, a pedophile investigation, and Weevil being fingered in a murder feel like not much happened? But for me it did.

Enough whining, there were some good things about this episode. Namely, I really like how they set up Veronica's eventual enrollment at Hearst next year. Her walking out of her final to see the verdict live, thereby throwing away her chance at the Kane scholarship and Stanford, seemed believable to me. I also enjoyed the Mac/Beaver tutoring Weevil scenes. All three of those actors have great chemistry. Oh, and those scenes remind me of one more thing to whine about. Is it just me or is Jason Dohring really starting to go overboard with Logan's mannerisms? Everything he did in the scene where he was talking to his father in prison seemed so studied. It stands out in such stark contrast to the naturalism of the other actors on the show, especially those Kristin Bell, Tina Majorino, and Francis Capra.

All that said, the previews for the season finale look amazing and I'm crossing fingers and toes that the CW brings this show back next year.