In the eighth episode of the third season of Veronica Mars, Veronica and Keith are hired by Dean O’Dell to track down a missing alumna. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Veronica Mars.
Trigger Warning: There’s extensive talk of rape/sexual assault below.
- I’m still bothered by the framing of this season, despite that there are also some powerful things done with the story. Basically, I have complex feelings about Veronica Mars, which I appreciate! Sometimes, I feel drained writing about the same things over and over again, and I admit it’s emotionally taxing to basically be tasked with writing about something that’s so personal for me. It’s not like I can just choose to ignore the rape plot because it makes up a great deal of the serialized arc in this season. I have to say something about it. But at the same time, I am enjoying the opportunity to be honest. I’m enjoying how season three has a slightly different feel from the previous two seasons. I’m enjoying how most of this show feels exactly like Veronica Mars, which is refreshing. The writers haven’t lost sight of what makes this show hum. Sure, I disagree with some of the things stated in this episode, but I’m also thrilled by the experience.
- So! Let’s start with Chip Diller. I was increasingly uncomfortable with the humorous angle taken regarding Chip’s rape because… wow, that made me super uncomfortable. Thankfully, Veronica actually calls it a rape in that final scene with Claire, Nish, and Fern. Because that’s what it was! So yeah, all the puns and jokes aren’t cool ever. Don’t do that.
- I’m still confused as to why it’s necessary to take the feminist group and make them out to be so awful. Here’s the thing: Veronica’s little lecture at the end of this episode is a necessary conversation to have. Faking a rape damages the cause. It casts unnecessary suspicion on people who were actually raped; it devalues the trauma experienced by victims; and it makes the entire reporting process a billion times more difficult. She’s absolutely right. I’m just bewildered that the group of people who appear to be part of Claire’s fake rape are precisely the same people who would have already known that faking a rape is a terrible thing. The way Veronica speaks to those three women, you’d think they didn’t even know the basics of Feminism 101. Like… you’re telling me that the three people who would be most well-versed in rape statistics, power dynamics, and the damage of fake rape accusations are the exact people who would fake a rape? It’s just more evidence that, unfortunately, these characters are nothing more than straw feminists. Their own feminism doesn’t even make sense. And perhaps this might make more sense if this season was about some sort of introspective journey through feminism and its flaws, but… it’s not? The feminist characters have virtually no background, we know little of them aside from their names, and we’re constantly meant to dislike them. Meanwhile, we find out how truly fucking terrible the Pi Sigs and the Theta Betas have been, but are they ever as prominently displayed as Fern, Nish, and Claire are as antagonistic forces?
- There’s also the unfortunate implications of Veronica’s angry demand to know if the other rapes were faked: Parker was definitely raped, so yeah. That’s uncomfortable. You probably shouldn’t do that.
- The writers are also a bit shaky on the issue of consent as it applies to Logan and Veronica, and this episode features yet another example of Logan’s desire to protect Veronica coming off way more inappropriate than he intended it to. As it turns out, he’s hired a security detail to trail her to keep her safe. In theory, it’s… no, even in theory, that’s REALLY CREEPY. I mean, the point Veronica makes is that given the attempted rape in the past episode, she’s even more nervous and jumpy than usual, and having people FOLLOW HER AROUND doesn’t help! But you know, I admit that this is in-character with Logan in a couple ways. We’ve seen how obsessive Logan can get; we know he has used his money in the past to get what he wants; and we know his love for Veronica is all-encompassing. So I understand why the writers are having him say he doesn’t care what he does as long as Veronica is safe. If you put that into the context of his family history, it makes sense that he’d take this route to protect the one he loves, you know? His last girlfriend was sent to boarding school; his mother killed herself; his father was a murderer; he’s been framed for more things than I can count. Logan has had a messed-up life, and I think that’s reflected in the way that he essentially turns Veronica’s suspicion around back on her. Logan is willing to do anything to save her, even if it basically turns her against him.
- It’s sad, more than anything else. These two are both so messed up by what’s happened in their lives, and I was kind of disturbed by their declarations of love to one another. Not because I doubted them! But because I could tell that neither one of them was fine. They weren’t! Veronica wasn’t exactly leaping out of her shoes to affirm her love for Logan, and at the end of the episode, Logan’s clearly crushed by Veronica not answering his phone call.
- I hate to say it, as I’ve been entertained by the exploration of Logan/Veronica in a relationship, but I think for the moment that these two can’t be with each other. I’m not saying that’s a permanent thing, as there’s a ton of chemistry between these two characters, but they’re both so wrapped up in issues of trust and faith and it’s just a mess.
- Meanwhile, there’s an actual mystery this week! And you know, I unabashedly love it. It’s very, very, very queer, canonically so! But it’s also one of those beautiful whodunnits that the writers pull out of nowhere that’s fun to watch and a blast to try and figure out. Dean O’Dell hires Keith – again! – to help locate the missing Selma Hearst Rose, played by Patty Hearst. Which is so strangely meta and fascinating because she was actually kidnapped in real life? My brain is broken.
- And goddamn, SHE’S SO GREAT IN THIS EPISODE. Strangely, I can’t imagine Selma played by anyone else, and I love that we get this queer twist to her character that’s never this huge, distracting moment. She’s canonically bisexual at the very least, and her seduction by Hallie is portrayed as something completely awful.
- Can we also talk about how resolutely AMAZING it is that Keith and Veronica work this case together? It meant a lot to me to see this after the events of the previous episode because THEY BELONG TOGETHER. Oh my god, I loved that Veronica couldn’t resist cracking jokes while breaking into the Rose residence. BLESS HER HEART.
- This episode also features a wonderful example of how the Mars family gets justice, and I admit I love it when Keith and Veronica orchestrate a complicated plan to get revenge. IT’S LOVELY.
- And it’s also entertaining when the case Veronica works on intersects with the season’s mystery. In this case, Chip’s rape was most likely due to what he’d done to Patrice Pitrelli three years prior. The connection? Hallie, who provides Veronica with Claire’s name, which leads Veronica to the truth: Patrice wasn’t pushed off the Theta Beta’s roof. She walked off herself.
- So it makes me wonder if Selma’s promise to vote against the Greek system is going to get them removed from campus. We’ve learned so many terrible things about the main fraternity and sorority, and this episode reveals that the Theta Betas subjected their less traditionally attractive rushes to an embarrassing and humiliating process that mimicked the pre-plastic surgery procedures. Chip was one of the main people who bullied Patrice after the experience. Oh, and the Pi Sig’s resurrected SexQuest. Again.
- Yeah, so while the feminists might be misguided in their attempts to take down the Greek system, if everything we’ve learned about them is true, then I’m not going to feel bad if their charters are revoked. They’re toxic at best.
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