Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 4 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Double Your Mothers, Double Your Fun
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 3 | Aired on 10.11.2004
WOW! That was awesome. I didn't see it coming at all. I was thinking about whether I should have, and the answer is probably, because where else would this woman fit in given that the episode is almost over, but seriously? The story was so well-told, and the episode so well-paced, that I didn't really have time to think about it. Man, this show kicks ass. I don't even care that I'm jinxing it. Choose Mars! Go, Rob Thomas! Go, UPN! (Okay, now I'm getting carried away.)
Oh, the one nitpick about this I've seen is that people wondered whether Justin's dad would have kept his name as a woman, since it seems like he had to him to be on Veronica's original list. I think it's entirely possible that his dad never changed his name in whatever database she used to get the names (Social Security, for example) so that didn't bother me at all. It's possible it doesn't really completely add up, but…see the preceding paragraph.
We return to the same tableau. It's dusk, which seems wrong, since it was still day before the commercial, and you'd think no time would have passed. On the other hand, considering how long I stared slackjawed after the reveal, maybe it's not too much to believe that the actual participants needed a few beats to absorb what happened. Justin is crying as he tells his dad that he thought she was dead since he was eleven. So these last two months must have been really rough. Melissa Leo tells Justin that she's not surprised, as his mother threatened that she would tell him that. She's crying too as she goes on that she came to the video store to see that he was all right. Justin isn't so much about understanding or forgiveness at the moment, and after calling Melissa Leo a "circus freak," he tells Veronica he wants to go. Veronica: "It was nice meeting everyone." That's a pitfall of a line, but Kristen Bell delivered it with just the right amount of "I'm sorry" in her voice. Nice. Melissa Leo cries on her husband's shoulder.
Car. Veronica thickly points out to Justin that his dad travels ninety miles to see him for a few seconds every week. She goes on that she would give anything to feel that her mom cared enough about her to do that. Man, how well do we know Veronica in the space of just three episodes? I've had boyfriends I didn't know this well. And didn't want to, frankly, but that's another story. Justin's tears are still flowing as he considers Veronica's words in silence.
VMVO tells us that she's driving to Arizona after school. In a school week that's apparently a year long. She tells us she can make it to Phoenix in four hours if the roads are clear. And if the speed limit is about a hundred and twenty. She tells us that tragedy uproots everything like a tornado, but after the dust settles, you make a choice. She strides out resolutely. Cut to Duncan taking his pill. "You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember." In the school hallway, Veronica smilingly greets Duncan and asks how his head is. Duncan unsmilingly flatlines, "Better." Welcome back-o, Mr. Roboto. He walks off, and Veronica and Logan both look deeply concerned. "Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild." Keith "accidentally" runs into BSK! at the coffee house. Hee. "Because after disaster strikes, the important thing is that you move on." Someone in the video store gives Justin the copy of Body Heat he ordered. Cut to him calling Melissa Leo. As his tears flow again, they arrange for her to come pick it up Saturday. Well, apparently she'll never see it, then. "But if you're like me, you just keep chasing the storm." Veronica pulls up to a house, outside of which she sees a blonde woman from the back. She yells, "Mom?" No, it's a much prettier woman. Veronica tells her she's looking for Lianne Mars. The woman immediately identifies Veronica (although you'd think she would have known her by sight, as no matter how shitty a mom Lianne might be, she's got to have a picture of her daughter) and quickly embraces her, saying she's "Adrianna," a college friend of Lianne's. Veronica asks where Lianne is, but she took off about two weeks earlier. Veronica starts to panic as she asks where she went, and when Adrianna says she doesn't know, her voice breaks completely. Adrianna says Lianne thought Keith might come looking for her. Interesting. I wonder if he did in these last two weeks. Veronica tremblingly asks if her mom doesn't care about her. Adrianna: "You're all she cares about." Veronica struggles for a moment, and replies, "Mark me down as skeptical." And mark me down as hooked. Veronica leaves.