Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 5 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Meeeeooooow! (Ffffft!)
By Couch Baron | Season 2 | Episode 9 | Aired on 11.29.2005
Neptune High, Soliloquy Division. Veronica enters to find some dude reciting the "Alas, poor Yorick" line. Heh. Trina calls a break and excitedly rushes over to Veronica, who hands her a copy of the Instigator with Trina as the cover story, the caption of which reads, "Starlet's Silent Struggle With Death." Well, everything in those rags is made up, so I won't take issue with the use of the word "starlet." "Silent," however, is really threatening to cross a line. Trina looks at a couple of the other tabloids until Mary agitatedly bustles in and starts signing away. Veronica asks her to go slower, and Trina happily says it's "Lunchlady Doris," who was always nice to Trina and gave her extra cake. Mary signs that she wants to help, and Trina tells Veronica to thank her, but that it's a student production. Come on, Trina -- if you want to get the best possible performances, don't underestimate the power of good craft services. Trina starts to turn away, but Veronica calls her back, as Mary's meaning is becoming plainer. Trina's face starts to break a little as she starts to suspect the gist, but timidly asks Veronica what Mary is saying. Veronica: "She's saying...she wants to give you her bone marrow." Mary starts to cry and embraces the shocked Trina as Veronica looks like she might tear up too. Mary breaks the embrace with a fond smile, and in an unexpected and unexpectedly affecting moment, Trina smiles through her emotions and hugs Mary again. That was really sweet, and the actress playing Mary really sold that scene. I hope there are special provisions to get her an SAG card.
In the outside area, Veronica is using her Powerbook to debrief Mary. She confirms that Trina was the Prom Baby and that Mary is her mother, and then asks what Lianne did to hurt Mary. Mary takes the keyboard and tells her what many of us guessed, that Lianne was her friend. Mary goes on to say that since Lianne could sign, they could communicate well, and would eat lunch together most days: "She was the sweetest, coolest girl in school." Mary takes Veronica's hand, and they both smile. Aw. This storyline has brought out a couple of the most human moments we've seen in some time on this show. Just another example of the wisdom of "show, don't tell."
Elsewhere, Veronica and Trina walk together as Trina says that, when she was a kid, she would dream that her biological parents were movie stars. She then asks Veronica why she got so tied up in this drama, so Veronica tells her the rest of what Mary told her: when they were in high school, Mary told Lianne that she was having an affair with a faculty member, and Lianne made the mistake of asking her friend, the future Ms. Hauser, for advice. Ms. Hauser then spread the news all over school, so she and Lianne got called into the principal's office. I hope Lianne got even with her by telling her she didn't think there was any way her boyfriend could be gay. Trina asks if her mystery dad got nailed, but Veronica says no -- Lianne recanted and said she made the whole thing up, starting a downward spiral of addiction, abandonment, and the stealing of large checks. Or something. Actually, Mary begged Lianne not to reveal the father's identity, because she didn't want the story confirmed. She left Trina on her father's doorstep, and he's the one who dumped her at the prom in the hopes that people would assume she belonged to a student. Trina asks the money question, which is who her real dad is: "You said he was a teacher, right?" Veronica: "Even better."