Veronica Mars Reviews: Season 3, Episode 2

Veronica Mars S01 titleEpisode 2: My Big Fat Greek Rush Week

This one starts shortly after the end of last episode, with Parker talking to a cop. She doesn’t remember anything after a rush party at Zeta Theta Beta sorority and woke up naked with her head shaved … just like the previous rape victims. Veronica feels bad because she was in the room to get the movie tickets while the rapist was there and assumed Parker was just getting laid because told her Parker was kinda slutty. Sheriff Lamb shows up and he’s a dick as usual. Veronica tells him the time of the rape and says she heard buzzing, which she took to be a vibrator not aKeith finds a trap shaver. Parker gets pissed off at Veronica, saying it’s her fault for not stopping it. Meanwhile, Keith is stumbling through the desert after getting away from Cormac Fitzpatrick last episode. He almost steps into a coyote trap, but keeps both his feet intact. In sociology class, Professor Kinney (played by Dan Castellaneta) is teaching the students about torture. He tells the class if they take part in an experiment, they won’t have to write a killer exam. He divides the volunteers into “guards” and “prisoners” to see if the guards can get information from the prisoners and how brutal they’ll be in going about it. Wallace and Logan are both among the volunteers.

Veronica tells Wallace she’s going to catch the rapist to assuage her guilty conscience. Moe (Wallace’s RA) comes in to tell them about new campus rules after Parker’s rape last night. In the desert, Cormac keeps tracking Nish gives Veronica an assignmentKeith, who finds a railway track to follow. Veronica goes to the college paper to apply for a photographer job and the editor (Nish) gives her a full assignment: infiltrate Zeta Theta sorority during Rush Week and find out if they have anything to do with the rapes on campus. Veronica says she’s not the sorority type, but Nish insists she’ll do fine. She tells Veronica she’s heard rumours that Zeta Theta parties are full of booze and guys, and that the Zetas get pledges wasted, then take them to a secret room and strip them so dudes can watch through a two-way mirror. Veronica knows Parker was at a Zeta Theta party right before she was raped, so she decides to take the assignment.

Parker tells Mac her mom is coming to take her back home, and to say “I told you so”; apparently, her mom never wanted Parker to go away to school, saying she wasn’t mature enough to handle it. Veronica goes to thecrappy party sorority mixer, dressed like “a 50s vacuum ad”. She meets Halley (who sounds like she inhaled helium) and , Shania, who takes her purse … it’s a sorority thing. Veronica’s looking around for the booze and sex, but all she’s offered is lemonade. (“Worst Roman orgy ever.”) She’s going nuts (the sisters are singing hymns) when a girl named Margery takes her aside to assure her it’s not as bad as it looks. Margery is actually kinda cool and introduces her to the den mother, Karen. Margery says they’re all a bit lame, but they are like family.

Professor Kinney takes the sociology class to an unused dorm and divides them up … Wallace is a guard and Logan is a prisoner. Kinney lays down the Rafe shows his true selfrules: no physical abuse other than sleep deprivation and prisoners get a certain number of calories per day, after a guard eats the food to prove it’s not complete garbage. Kinney shows the prisoners an address where a fake bomb is hidden: if the prisoners want out, they can give the guards the bomb’s location, in which case the guards “win”. If the guards don’t get the location within 48 hours, the prisoners win. Logan and Wallace make a side bet about the loser streaking in class. As soon as they begin, one of the guards (Rafe, played by Rider Strong from Boy Meets World) starts acting like a total prick, treating the prisoners like garbage and talking personal shit about them, especially one named Horshack (played by Samm Levine from Freaks and Geeks). Wallace tells him to cool it, but Rafe insists he’s just playing the role.

In the desert, Cormac finds a pen Keith left beside the railway tracks. While Cormac approaches, he steps in the coyote trap Keith hid beside the tracks. When Veronica leaves the mixer, she finds flowers in her car with a noteLiam about to kill his brother inviting her to a private party that night at Zeta Theta. That explains why they took her purse, but it also means anyone at the sorority could’ve had access to Parker’s dorm room. Out in the desert, Cormac’s leg is pretty fucked up and he doesn’t crawl very far before collapsing. His brother Liam tracks him down and asks where Kendall’s money is. When Cormac says he doesn’t know, Liam blows him away. Meanwhile, Keith follows the railway until he finds a town and goes to tell the cops about Kendall’s murder.

Veronica goes to the sorority party, expecting another dull get-together. She’s stunned to find the Zetas partying their asses off, getting wasted and Veronica gone wildhanging out with tons of dudes. Dick is there, serving as a shirtless waiter, and almost blows Veronica’s cover. Margery introduces Veronica to Chip, but they already met last season … when she accused him of being the campus rapist. Awkward! Veronica fakes being drunk, doing faux lesbian dances and acting like an idiot. She notices a camera above a locked door and starts playing to it. Margery and Chip take her out of the party and she reaches for her stun gun, thinking they’re setting her up to be raped. But Margery really thinks she’s drunk and doesn’t want her to blow her chance to become a Zeta, so she’s called a Safe Ride car and tells Chip to wait with her until it shows up so she’ll be safe.

In the prison experiment, the guards serve some kind of gross slop for dinner and Wallace is the one who has to eat it to prove it’s palatable … which he seems to enjoy. I guess he has a cast-iron stomach. Outside Zetajudgemental driver Theta, Veronica’s still not sure about Chip, so she pretends to hurl in the bushes. (“Vomit is the new mace.”) The Safe Ride shows up (it’s a golf cart) and the driver is pretty snotty, basically saying girls who get wasted at parties should expect to be raped. Veronica convinces her she’s sober, so she lets Veronica off before getting back to Mac’s dorm. Out in the desert, the cabin where Kendall was shot is torn apart, but neither her body nor the money are there. The cops do find some blood on a painting frame.

In the prison experiment, Rafe continues being a dick and Horshack pisses himself because he couldn’t go in the bathroom when Rafe was standing Rafe giving Horshack a hard timeright beside him. At home, Veronica is surprised to find Keith home, but soon realizes something’s wrong. He admits he fucked up bad and got someone hurt. Veronica knows exactly how he feels. In the prison, the guards serve pig knuckles, which Horshack can’t eat since he’s Jewish. Rafe shows more class by making Anti-Semitic jokes and when he notices Horshack somehow found clean pants to wear, he tosses him in solitary. At the dormitory, Parker’s mom is giving her shit, saying she’s incapable of making a good decision for herself and insisting she come home. Mac isn’t impressed by her overbearing attitude.

Veronica tells Nish she thinks the Zetas might be on the level (especially since Margery called to check on her this morning and suggested she stop drinking so much). Nish is adamant the Zetas are up to something andtalking to Moe Veronica says she’ll snoop around tonight when the sorority is having a meeting. She mentions the Safe Ride thing, wondering if Parker’s driver might know something (or be guilty of something). Nish checks with a friend and finds out Moe was Parker’s Safe ride driver the night she was raped. Moe says he didn’t even know Parker was the girl who was raped. He says he and another girl (who hitched a ride because she didn’t want to walk home alone) took Parker upstairs to her room and left her there.

In the prison experiment, Logan and the others convince Horshack that he’s remembering the address wrong. Obviously, they think he’ll crack and are Veronica steals the keystaking precautions. Veronica finds out the girl who helped Moe with Parker was an RA in the girls’ dorm, so her suspicions go back to Zeta Theta. She heads over there and impresses Karen with her contrition. She snoops around and finds a set of keys and the monitors for the cameras in Karen’s room. The prisoners climb out the window with bedsheets and go to get some real food at a restaurant. Rafe finds them and hauls them all back, giving Wallace and another guard shit for not noticing they were gone. Wallace says they fell asleep on guard duty.

At Zeta Theta, Veronica breaks into the mystery room and finds a shitload of weed plants. She takes photos and gives them to Nish, who’s ecstatic. With the grow-op and the booze parties, she figures they can shut the sororitygrow-op down and has her sights set on the other houses as well. Veronica tries to tell her the Zetas weren’t all bad, but Nish won’t listen. In the prison, Rafe is still on Horshack’s ass and he finally cracks, giving up the (wrong) address. Margery finds Veronica and asks why she went into the dope room. (There was another camera inside.) Veronica says she was investigating the rape and Margery assures her Zeta Theta had nothing to do with it. She says Karen has advanced cancer and the weed is medicinal. She urges Veronica not to tell anyone because Karen will lose her job and her medical insurance.

In the prison, Rafe gives Professor Kinney the address and finds out it’s wrong. He freaks and throws Horshack back in solitary, even though he knows Logan is the ringleader of the prisoners now. Veronica begs Nish not Mac and Parker hugging it outto print the sorority story, but she won’t listen. Veronica goes to warn Karen about the article and tells her to get rid of all her dope. Margery tells Veronica she was voted in by the Zetas, which makes her feel even worse. In the dorm, Mac urges Parker to stay and says she’s got her back, no matter what. In the experiment, the prisoners think they’ve won and give up the address, but it turns out Wallace and another guard set the clocks back fifteen minutes (while the prisoners were out at the restaurant), so the experiment is still on. The guards win and Logan is kinda impressed at Wallace’s ingenuity.

At home, Veronica reviews her progress: Chip seems to be around when the rapes happen; the Safe Ride program may not be so safe; and someone at Zeta Theta could’ve gotten hold of Parker’s keys the night she was raped. Meanwhile, Keith takes a Van Gogh to sell at an art gallery. Turns out, theLogan streaks in class Van Gogh is what Kendall gave him last season in the briefcase (and that explains why nobody can find her money). Keith tells the gallery all the proceeds should go to the Neptune Food Bank. In class, Horshack tells Wallace he’s forgiven Rafe being a dick, assuring him “he’s not really like that”. Personally, I think the experiment just gave Rafe a chance to let out his inner asshole. Logan streaks through class to pay off his bet with Wallace. Veronica reads her story in the paper about the Zetas and feels even more guilty, but she’s already quit the paper and is working in the library now. So, now all the Zetas hate her guts, but on the bright side, the snotty Safe Ride driver gives her a double thumbs up.