In the fourth episode of the third season of Veronica Mars, Veronica is hired by the Pi Sigs to exonerate them of wrongdoing, but in doing so, she may lose Parker. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Veronica Mars.
Trigger Warning: There will be extensive talk of rape here.
- GREAT, NOW I CAN’T EVEN THINK ABOUT THE SCENE IN THE COLD OPEN AT THE MARS RESIDENCE WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT WHY LOGAN WAS SMILING DURING IT. Oh my god, I’m crushed. I’M CRUSHED. It was like the show had Logan admit that the relationship between Keith and Veronica was the best thing in the universe, but in order to do so, he had to realize THAT HIS OWN FAMILY WAS THE WORST THING IN THE UNIVERSE.
- Initially, I thought he smiled during that scene because he realized where Veronica had gotten her combative wittiness.
- BUT NOPE
- NOPE.
- And seriously, as someone who came from a home with parents who were argumentative or abusive or rarely showed affection, I can’t even begin to tell you how familiar it was for me to listen to Logan tell Veronica about how he never had a family like that. It still fucks me up to this day to know that there are people out there who never once questioned whether their parents loved them.
- Anyway, let’s not get too serious too soon! I must say that I appreciated Veronica opening up to Mac Parker about her own rape because I think Mac Parker needed some confirmation that Veronica understood the trauma that Mac Parker had experienced. As of the moment I’m writing this, the review for the finale of season 2 has gone up, and there’s lots of talk (that I don’t disagree with!) about the unnecessary revision of “A Trip to the Dentist.” I think that conversation is vital here, too, because of the bizarre framing of “Charlie Don’t Surf.” In one moment, Veronica is perfectly sympathetic to the other victims of rape, and in the next, she’s rolling her eyes at the vitriol being spewed at the Pi Sig fraternity. Even worse, the show is increasingly portraying the campus’s feminists as nothing more than an antagonistic force who shouldn’t be trusted.
- For me, it’s the false equivalency that’s most grating. If you’re going to write a story about campus rapes and the trauma they cause, fine. But these recent episodes have been ignoring the power dynamics at hand. They ignore historical examples of oppression or precedent set. I mean, Veronica Mars is often about the (sometimes flawed) process of getting justice and closure. Why on earth would you portray victims and their allies as the antagonists in this sort of setting? Plus, the imbalance is in the fraternity’s favor, too! To date, we’ve learned way more about the disgusting dudes in the frat than a single one of the feminists like Nish or Fern. They’re given the benefit of the doubt despite the fact that there is an overwhelming precedent in the United States for frat culture to be completely ignorant of consent or what sexism is or how you should treat women or HOW TO BE DECENT HUMAN BEINGS. Which isn’t to say that all frats are awful and the whole Greek system is worthless, because that’s simply not the case. But the frat within the Veronica Mars universe isn’t that kind of frat. THEY ARE SO AWFUL! So yeah, if I were in this context, I’d be pissed at Veronica, too! You can prove who the real perpetrator is without casting the victims as these weird pseudo-villains, too.
- Thankfully, there’s a lot more going on aside from the Hearst rapist disaster in this episode. LOGAN. I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT LOGAN. Y’all, I just… I just didn’t expect anything significant to come of the tax records! So, someone was trying to steal from an Echolls. WHO IS SURPRISED? It’s not like we’d met this Avi Kaufman before, so there was no emotional issue at hand. So why? Why is this happening?
- BECAUSE AARON ECHOLLS, LITERAL WORST HUMAN BEING IN THE WORLD, WAS HIDING ANOTHER SON.
- !!!!!!!!!!
- LOGAN HAS A HALF-BROTHER.
- !!!!!!!!!!
- THIS IS TOO MUCH, I WASN’T PREPARED TO DEAL WITH THIS.
- Of course, knowing that Logan so desperately wanted some sort of family in his life, that makes everything the most soul-crushing thing in the whole fucking universe. He opened up to Charlie. HE WENT SURFING WITH HIM AND TOLD STORIES OF HOW AARON WOULD ABUSE HIM. oh my god
- And it was just so gutting to stick the reveal that the Charlie Stone Logan was talking to wasn’t his real half-brother because the entire time Logan was telling that story, my brain was shrieking. NO, STOP IT, HE’S NOT WHO HE SAYS HE IS.
- But this is what Logan’s life has become. Reporters are pretending to be his long-lost half-brother and his actual sibling wants nothing to do with him. Jesus, a wave of loneliness hit me during that final image of Logan by himself in his hotel room because WOW THIS SHOW IS CRUEL. However, I must admit I was momentarily distracted from my own sadness by that really nice fireplace. That thing looked awesome!
- Meanwhile, Keith is off having his own complicated, morally-dense adventure, this time involving Harmony Chase. (Can I just imagine that her name is a Buffy reference? Thanks.) Keith is hired to track down a possibly cheating husband, but in the process, he starts to develop some pretty intense feelings for Harmony.
- I mean, I’m pretty sure I’d fall for anyone who arrived to meetings with me and brought a whole cheese pizza for me to eat.
- I need to have more meetings so that can happen.
- No, I just need more pizza.
- ……pizza.
- OKAY, BACK ON TOPIC. Harmony’s case is unfortunately common for Keith, which is why so much of it ends up being surprising. She’s not the first person to come to him, revealing her loveless marriage and suspicions that her spouse is cheating. And it’s fascinating to track her emotional reaction to Keith’s work, too, because we see how she reacts at both ends of the spectrum. Initially, she’s joyous and relieved that her husband might actually be cheating on her because it would mean that she had a justification for leaving. But when Keith presents her with evidence that her husband kissed another woman, she’s a lot more upset than she was before. The reality of it hits her hard, except… yeah, it doesn’t Because then Keith reveals (through the bug planted in the tie NOW I GET IT) that her husband didn’t cheat on her and actually rejected the woman’s advances and WOW. THAT GOT REALLY UPSETTING AND WEIRD SUPER FAST. Oh, well. I’m guessing that this is the last time we’ll see Harmony, given that there’s no reason for her to pursue a relationship with Keith unless she breaks up with her husband. Which she should do??? Soon???
- Back to Veronica!
- For the most part, it’s clear that this mystery isn’t going to be resolved soon, though “Charlie Don’t Surf” provides more clues about the possible identity of the Hearst rapist. We move forward on two fronts: Chip and his mysterious partner put him at the top of the suspicion pile. Sort of. I mean, fuck, ANY OF THESE DUDES COULD BE A RAPIST. They made a pitch black room in their house so they could grope women. Ugh, that is a direct violation of consent. How the fuck should any of us believe that these people wouldn’t be rapists??? Again, the framing of this episode is just ridiculous the more I think about it.
- Though shout-out to the women who thought about sticking live mouse traps on their body. Y’all are fucking brilliant.
- It also looks very likely that Dick’s breakdown in the season premiere could be his admission of guilt in raping Parker and others. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was him, either.
- But now we’ve got this mysterious guy in Claire’s ATM photo. He’s someone we’ve never seen before, and I got a horrible vibe from that photo, as if she was being forced to take out money at that ATM.
- Basically, I still haven’t figured this out. Drat!
- More Wallace and Mac soon, please? THAT WOULD BE GREAT.
The video commission for “Charlie Don’t Surf” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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