Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 7 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Art Imitating Life
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.20.2006
Low road. Veronica, wearing a bandanna on her head to hide the bald spot, is asking the rather put-upon-acting caterer for the names of her waitstaff. After Veronica name-drops Dean Ed, the woman tells her that there was only one female member of her waitstaff working the night before...
...and then, Veronica's waiting outside a classroom when Fern appears. Fern greets her as "Buffy, Tiffany, whatever your name is." Veronica: "'The Female Voice In Celtic Literature.' I am woman, hear me bore." Hee. Fern, who's wearing a rather intimidating nose hoop, is slightly amused, so this isn't Veronica being over-the-top bitchy. Veronica brings up the Selma conversation, and Fern tells her she was informing Selma that she had a phone call from another woman. That's all Fern claims to know, but Veronica opines that it's strange that one of the driving forces behind the potential elimination of the Greek system is the last person who talked to the swing vote. Well, it's maybe a little ironic, sure, but unless Fern was planning on replacing Selma with a pod person, I don't know what she'd have to gain. Unless she was hoping that Selma would grow a strange sort of attachment to her kidnapper, but what kind of precedent is there for that? Fern counters that "the girl who saved the Pi Sigs" is leading the charge to find Selma. She adds that the Pi Sigs just kicked off "Sex Quest '06," which is the points-for-sex system we saw back in "The Rapes Of Graff." Which...was also in '06, but at least from a recapping standpoint, I'll admit that it seems like a lifetime ago. Fern counsels Veronica to watch what she drinks, and Veronica wonders where the hell Fern was an episode ago.
High road. Keith rings the bell at a large estate. Inside, he examines a wall of framed certificates and the like, and I'm happy to have Joe R to tell me that this entire scene right down to the camera set-ups is one enormous homage to The Big Lebowski. I recognize elements from the scene, but I've only seen the movie once, much to the dismay of my sister, who could recite the entire movie from memory if not for the fact that she'd keep hysterically cracking herself up. Anyway, a prissy guy, "Brandt," is telling Keith that Mr. Rose won't be able to see him, and I have to add that his character's name is also ripped off from the film, in which the assistant was played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. This Brandt lacks the original's oily obsequiousness, and since I'm in a generous mood, I'll just end the comparisons right there. Brandt continues his stonewalling until an English-accented voice calls in for him to stop harassing their guest. It's much the same voice I associate with him stomping into a room and shouting, "MISS FINE!," but we'll see in a moment that that's impossible. Yes, when Brandt leads Keith into an office/study of some sort, we see that Mr. Rose is being played by Charles Shaughnessy, famous for playing "Mistah SHEFF-ield" on The Nanny. Also, continuing the Lebowski homage, he's wheelchair-bound.