Episode Report Card Couch Baron: A | 3 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Murderball
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 13 | Aired on 02.12.2007
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Wow. Seems unfair that Keckler had to slog through those last two episodes and I come back to this jewel. Okay, remember Wallace's coach? And how nice he was when Wallace needed some time off from basketball to study? Well, he's not so nice to his son, although his sour mood does come in the wake of a twenty-point drubbing. Which is especially rough, given that he soon turns up dead on the PCH. That's no way to leave a legacy. Lamb suspects the son, Josh, who discovered his dad's cooling and gunshot-ridden corpse. Meanwhile, Logan's in trouble with both his Economics professor and the Neptune Grand staff due to his deep Veronica-related depression. Dick does his best to snap Logan out of it, even going so far as to fix him up with Little Girl God from Joan Of Arcadia. When Dick and LGG's sister run off to Vegas together (and get MARRIED, no lie), Logan's forced to babysit, and LGG gives him advice and helps him out in a way that's happily not beyond her years, and which has the bonus of leading to the most AWESOME elevator ride ever. What's totally not awesome is Logan yelling at Little Girl God, but he makes it up to her with ice cream, and I don't know an eleven-year-old on whom that trick wouldn't work. In the end, Logan gets his groove back, or something. Keith tells Mindy O'Dell that he wants off the murder case, since he believes that she and Landry aren't being honest. His efforts to trap her in a lie fail, however, so he stays on. However, Keith learns that the eggshell-marked Volvo was checked out soon before the murder, and returned soon after. In other news, Veronica did apply for that FBI internship, and it turns out Dean Ed wrote her a lovely recommendation, which spurs Veronica and Keith to redouble their efforts in solving the murder. When Veronica discovers that Mindy and Landry had company (Dean Ed, although they don't know that yet) on the night of the murder, Keith tells Mindy in no uncertain terms that he's going to get to the bottom of her lies. Back in A-plot Land, Josh points Keith in the direction of that mysterious rich alumnus who forced Dean Ed to reinstate the Greek system. His name is Mel Stoltz, and he's a nasty piece of work who's happy to be rid of the coach one way or the other. Veronica pursues her own angle by getting Weevil to check in with the PCHers. Their leader is now Arturo, that little kid who zapped Corny last year, and who denies involvement in the coach's murder. Meanwhile, Wallace's dick friend Mason tells Lamb that he saw Josh at the scene of the crime, and he's quickly arrested, but not before Veronica discovers some suspicious tire tracks at the scene of the crime. Also, Josh informs Veronica -- who takes quite the shine to him as the episode goes on -- that Mason, who'd recently lost his starting position, owns a gun. Veronica interrogates Mason and realizes that he didn't see Josh's face at the scene of the crime. In the end, Veronica visits Josh in jail and slips him something, and before you even realize it's 9:59, we're in a cliffhanger, as Lamb enters Landry's classroom and arrests Veronica for aiding and abetting Josh's escape. DUN! Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Many thanks to Keckler for covering for me these last two weeks. I owe her a big froofy cocktail or two.
Wallace's basketball coach, so nice the last time we saw him, is chewing out his players. He rounds on a tall skinny kid, "Josh," asking if he's going to pull his head out of his ass. It turns out that Josh is the coach's son, and he doesn't appreciate being told to "man up" in front of his teammates. He quits the team and storms out, ignoring the assistant coach's efforts to talk him down. After a moment to take that in, the coach gathers his team around. Wallace is watching Josh leave, though, so the coach tells him to look alive. Given what's to come: physician, heal thyself.
Cut to Wallace eating with Veronica, who tells him to look on the bright side. Wallace incredulously asks what the bright side of a twenty-point loss could be, especially given that the "All-Conference small forward" quit the team. Veronica gamely (heh) points out that Wallace did get to play a lot of minutes for a guy who recently went on sabbatical. Wallace points out that he took his dick friend Mason's starting position, and that Mason hasn't been speaking to him as a result. I have to say that neither of those occurrences is making Veronica's side seem any less bright. In fact, I should grab some shades so I can stop squinting. Wallace expresses doubt as to whether he's really better than Mason, and then, as Veronica gets up to go, asks her how she's doing with the Logan situation. Veronica gives a forced smile and says that she was trying not to think about it, "so thanks for bringing it up." That sounds bad on paper, but from her delivery and the fact that Wallace looks only very mildly chastened, I don't think she meant to be harsh there. Of course, it's hard to leave the bright side on such short notice.
Chez Mars. Veronica, dressed and ready to go, emerges from her bedroom and smiles upon seeing food waiting for her. She grabs a pastry and starts chewing, but then notices a nearby note. She grabs it, and we get a Keith VO: "If you've eaten any of this breakfast, you now owe me. Invoices have to go out today. See you at the office!" Hee. Veronica stopping mid-chew in chagrin is what sells it. She crumples up the note and muses that she always falls for this trick, and then she grabs some more food and heads out the door. That's right -- at least get your money's worth. We tried to do that at Denny's in college, but even at their prices, it wasn't easy.