Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Gang's All Here!
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 1 | Aired on 10.02.2006
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.So it turns out that Neptune High let Veronica retake that final she missed when she went to hear the Haaron verdict, so we open at Stanford, where she and Angie have become BFFs and...oh, fine, I'm no good at this fiction stuff anyway. So, Season 3 at Hearst College! Veronica's taking Criminology, taught by a Dr. Landry, and impresses him very quickly when she breaks a record by cheating. Interesting choices all around. She makes a quick enemy of Dr. Landry's TA, but given that he's the same actor who played dead Lucky, only with worse hair, I don't know that she should be too worried. Logan and Veronica are still going out, and Logan's at Hearst with her, along with Wallace, Mac, and...Dick. Failing senior Physics apparently isn't all it's cracked up to be. Fans of Dick's will be happy at his shirtlessness, while detractors will take pleasure in his getting kneed in the balls. Something for everyone! Also, Logan and Veronica seem to have a slightly more, um, aerobic sex life than certain other pairings we've seen, which could be the reason Logan gives Veronica the key to his room. Never has a piece of plastic made more people sigh with appreciation. The moment is interrupted by Dick's flamboyant and public downward spiral, and at the end of the episode, he sobbingly collapses into Logan's arms. Vinnie Vanlowe proposes teaming up with Keith for some case, but Keith isn't interested. Cormac Fitzpatrick gets out of jail, and Keith picks him up. Turns out Keith has Kendall stashed away for safekeeping, but thanks to Vinnie and a spy pen Keith REALLY should have been prepared for, the whole thing goes horribly wrong, and Cormac kills Kendall and almost does the same to Keith. Yikes. Back on campus, Wallace has a new roommate, Piz, whose stuff gets stolen out of his car within his first thirty seconds of screen time. He's on the right show, at least. Also, he's not the only one, so Veronica does some poking around and gets the better of reincarnated Lucky again in busting an underage ring of thieves. Also: Piz likes Veronica! Piz likes Veronica! Good thing for him he's kind of cute and charming. Finally, there's a Take Back The Night rally on campus, as the rapist from last season's "The Rapes Of Graff" has continued to be, um, busy. So, too, has Mac's bubbly roommate Parker, at least according to Mac. Parker tags along when Veronica and Mac go see a band, and Mac and Veronica aren't too enamored of her, so they're glad later in the episode not to have her along for another night out. They regret their attitude, however, when Parker turns out to be the next rape victim. Well, it's no school bus going over a cliff. THANK GOD. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Welcome back, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the summer. Mine had a few more Muppets in it than I originally anticipated, which will make going back to recapping real fictional people an adjustment. But let's get to it.
We pan down from an opening shot of a cloudy sky to see Veronica walking through a courtyard at Hearst College, her eventual alma mater. Hey, nothing wrong with a little optimism, right? She walks under a banner advertising a Take Back The Night rally as VMVO intones, "Here it is. First day of college. What do you say, Veronica? New school, fresh start -- how about you try not to piss anyone off this time around?" As Yoda would say, "Do or do not. There is no try." Particularly not in Veronica's case, if the next scene is any indication.
Cut to a title card on a TV screen that reads "Intro To Criminology." The professor tells them that it's okay to skip class in college -- just not his. Some chick next to Veronica is all, "'Skip class.' I'm gonna staple myself to the floor," and Veronica gives an answering feline growl to indicate that she, too, is hot for the professor's chili. Now, I should mention that the professor is played by Patrick Fabian, who Joan Of Arcadia viewers will remember as the loathsome Principal Gavin Price. I'm not saying he's not attractive, but it's hard for me to think of him in that way, since I associate him with such prickitude that I think perhaps the biggest in the laundry list of tragedies caused by Joan's premature cancellation is that we never got to see Helen finally knee Price in the groin. But anyway, he seems decent enough here, as he tells the class that the Criminology Department has a mentoring program involving "at-risk" kids in Neptune: "Our philosophy is that it's better to prevent crimes through intervention than be forced to solve them later." And I guess that would reduce our prison population too -- too bad that's not how we do things in this day and age. Go back to the '60s, pinko! Dr. Landry (that's Price's name) then introduces his teaching assistant, "Timothy Foil," and if his surname is supposed to indicate the nature of his relationship to our heroine, it's perhaps a little heavy-handed. If not, forget I said anything -- cool name! Timothy, by the way, is played by James Jordan, who was the also-unfortunately-named Lucky last season before going down in a hail of bullets and repressed sexual abuse. They're disguising this fact by giving the character asstastic longish hair and a rather toolish beard and glasses, an effort which achieves the goal but makes me shake my head at the heavy price. Dr. Landry clicks to the next slide and tells the class that it shows their reading list for the semester. The girl next to Veronica preeningly pipes up to ask about Dr. Landry's book, and she's annoying me already. I hope those staples hurt. Landry: "Profiling is an upper-level course. Gotta walk before we run." This guy's publisher hates him. Landry then suggests that they start the semester with a little "ridiculous fun" -- a murder mystery game called "Riverboat Queen." Tim hands out envelopes, which contain cover stories for the passengers, to some of the students. The rest of the students are supposed to be the detectives, who can ask the passengers questions to try to solve the case. Additional instructions such as "don't use the internet" and "you should really consider getting off your duffs" will no doubt be added to next year's teaching notes. Landry informs us that the current record for solving the case is sixteen minutes, and is held by none other than Tim himself. Landry instructs the class to get to work, but Veronica just gets on her laptop.