Veronica Mars Reviews: Season 3, Episode 9

Veronica Mars S01 titleEpisode 9: Spit and Eggs

This one starts in medias res, with Piz and Mac at a big party wondering where Veronica is. Veronica’s currently running through the empty halls of the dorm, frantically hammering at Piz’s door. But Piz isn’t there, so Veronica collapses on the floor and we see blood on her face. Some dude walks up beside her, but we don’t see who it is. The action then shifts back to a couple days ago, which is my least favourite storytelling device, but whatever. The Lilith House girls are celebrating theLogan breaks up with Veronica end of the fraternity system at Hearst, which Veronica thinks is a bit short-sighted since there’s still a rapist wandering around campus. She runs into Logan, who’s kinda been avoiding her for the past week, and gets blindsided when he breaks up with her. He says things aren’t really working between them; she obviously isn’t built to let anyone get too close to her and he’s not built to take a back seat. Logan says it’ll be less painful if they break up now instead of later. In the Dean’s office, Weevil finishes hooking up O’Dell’s TV and says he’ll be back to hook up the hi-def receiver as soon as it arrives.

O’Dell’s wife Mindy comes in to tell him she’s got a business meeting in Sacramento and mentions she’s taking her associate along, so she needs to swap cars with O’Dell. After she leaves, a guy named Mel (who looks and crying in the showertalks like a mobster) comes in to tell O’Dell how much he loved the frat life back when he was a student … and to remind O’Dell how generous he’s been. I expect Mel is O’Dell’s gambling connection, or maybe a loan shark; either way, O’Dell is feeling the pressure. In the cafeteria, Mac and Wallace try to talk to Veronica about her break-up, but she insists she’s fine. Piz comes in and is completely clueless, as usual. At the office, O’Dell hires Keith to check up on Mindy and her associate Wally in Sacramento because he’s afraid Mindy might be screwing around on him. When Keith finds out about Veronica and Logan breaking up, he offers to put off the case and stay with her, but she says she’s fine. After he leaves, we get the obligatory “crying in the shower” scene.

On Piz’s radio show, he talks to a couple of people who have ideas on what to do with the now-empty frat houses. (Two of the ideas involve paramilitary training and a Christian society, so those are the ones to beat.) O’Dell surprises Piz by showing up and announcing that the fraternity system is being reinstated because of some irregularities with the board ofLiliths show the Dean how they feel trustees, leaving O’Dell to cast the swing vote in favour of the frats. Piz’s phone lines immediately light up like a Christmas tree. The next day, the Liliths egg the shit out of O’Dell’s car and swarm it, almost turning it over. O’Dell does get some good news … Keith found out that Mindy’s friend Wally is gay, so she’s definitely not banging him. O’Dell’s assistant comes in with the campus newspaper and points out a classified ad that seems to be from the rapist, saying he’ll choose his next victim at the Pi Sigma frat party.

Veronica wonders if the Liliths might’ve planted the ad to scare people away from the party, but Parker says if that’s the case, it doesn’t seem to be working. She’s handing out chemically-treated coasters that change colour Parker shows Veronica the coastersin the presence of roofies or GHB and says tons of people have been by to pick them up. Veronica takes a whole bunch, since she wants to help (and needs to get her mind off Logan). Parker also gives her a rape whistle, although Veronica doesn’t think that’ll bring any help. Her faith in mankind is at a pretty low ebb right now. She goes to O’Dell and tells him he should make the Pi Sigmas hand out the anti-rape coasters at their party and he agrees. O’Dell mentions his wife is getting back from Sacramento tonight and that gets Veronica’s attention, since she knows Keith is working on an infidelity case in Sacramento.

In criminology class, Professor Landry hands back the “perfect murder” papers, on which Veronica got an A. Landry’s TA (Tim) asks to see Veronicastudying Tim's board after class and while she’s waiting in his office, she studies his bulletin board full of clues on the campus rapes. Tim tells her to back off, saying he wants full credit when he solves the rapes. Veronica gives him shit for being selfish, but isn’t willing to share any of her ideas about the rapes either. Tim’s girlfriend comes in and Veronica is surprised to see it’s Bonnie, the girl who banged Dick and numerous other frat brothers last episode. Luckily, Bonnie was pretty hung over when she saw Veronica, so she doesn’t remember her.

At home, Veronica tells Keith that Mindy O’Dell is cheating with Landry and Mac agrees to attend the partythat Landry always uses the pseudonym Rory Finch for his hotel trysts. Keith isn’t happy, but says he has a duty to let O’Dell know. At the dorm, Veronica stops by to invite Wallace and Piz to the big Pi Sigma party, but she just wants their help to patrol the party and keep people safe. She tells their RA (Moe, who’s volunteering as a Safe Ride driver again) to call her if he sees anything suspicious. Veronica invites Mac to the party too; Mac’s not thrilled by the idea, but does want to help stop the rapist. In the Dean’s office, Keith gives him the bad news about Mindy and Landry.

At the frat party, Veronica tells Wallace, Piz, and Mac to watch for girls who are really out of it and test their drinks. (She also gives them fake IDs.) Veronica figures out the Pi Sigmas are handing out fake coasters at the party and gives Chip shit, but he doesn’t much care what she thinks. While PizDick and Bonnie having fun and Wallace go around testing drinks, Veronica finds Dick and Bonnie making out. She tests Bonnie’s drink and gives her shit for screwing around on her boyfriend. Some loser tries hitting on Mac, but she still has no interest in romance (or sex, I guess), though she does test he booze in his flask to make sure he’s not the rapist. In the office, O’Dell is getting drunk and maudlin, asking Keith why people cheat. O’Dell is pretty far gone, but he’s lucid enough to give Keith shit for almost opening his 40 year-old McCracken. He tells Keith he’s going to pass out on the couch, but as soon as Keith leaves, he gets a gun from his desk and heads out.

At the party, Piz and Wallace help a girl who’s passed out, and Moe and Fern show up with the Safe Ride golf cart to take her back to her dorm. Tim Wallace and Piz tell Veronica about the drugged drinkshows up and freaks out on Bonnie, saying he’s always known she was screwing around and that he’s been out getting some too. Veronica runs into Logan and Mercer and things are pretty awkward. Mercer says he has to go do his radio show, but before things can get too weird with Veronica and Logan, Wallace and Piz show up to tell her they got a positive for drugs in the drink of a girl named Kim Kaiser. Since all the rapes have happened in the victims’ homes, Veronica sends Wallace and Logan to Kim’s place to get her out if she’s there, and goes onstage to make an announcement about the drugged drink.

In the Neptune Grand Hotel, Landry and Mindy have just finished banging when O’Dell shows up … and he ain’t happy. At the party, a girl tells Veronica that Kim didn’t come to the party, but lent her ID to her sister,Mercer talks to his victim Kerri. Kerri lives in the dorms, so Veronica figures she’d better go check on her. Mercer’s radio show is playing over the PA and Veronica notices a weird sound problem that makes her think it’s taped instead of live. She calls in a bomb threat to the cops, but Deputy Sacks ignores it, figuring it’s a prank. Turns out Veronica’s hunch was right, Mercer is the rapist. He breaks into Kerri’s dorm room (which is absolutely festooned with unicorns) and she’s already passed out from the drug he slipped her.

Mercer does a monologue and we find out that he rapes girls because he can’t be bothered wasting twenty or thirty minutes seducing them. No Mercer and Veronica fightingexplanation for why he shaves their heads, but before he can start buzzing Kerri’s hair, he hears something in the closet and goes to look. He finds Kerri passed out in the closet and Veronica jumps out of the bed to taser him. He decks her before she can zap him and they start fighting. She scratches him and he knocks her around a bit. She crawls under the bed and finds a unicorn statuette, which she uses to stab him in the leg. He falls over, breaking the unicorn horn off in his leg and Veronica takes off. This is where we came in at the beginning of the episode, except now she’s running in slow motion.

The guy who finds her outside Piz’s room turns out to be Moe, who takes her next door to his room and gives her some herbal tea while he calls the cops. Moe tells Veronica he’ll get some guys and go check Kerri’s room,Veronica finds girls' hair in the closet since she’s still in there. After he leaves, Veronica notices a photo of Moe and Mercer looking very friendly and starts feeling a bit loopy. Yeah, Moe drugged her tea. She’s locked in his room and really feeling the effects of the drug, so she opens the window to see if she can get out, but it’s too high up. She hides in the closet with Moe’s phone and tries to call her father, but gets no answer. She finds a hammer and a bunch of girls’ hair in the closet, which really creeps her out.

When Moe returns with Mercer, Mercer is pissed off that Veronica’s not there and slaps Moe around a bit because he thinks she climbed out the Veronica blows the whistlewindow. I think these two have a bit of a Leopold and Loeb thing going on. Veronica’s phone rings, but before she can tell her dad what’s going on, Mercer and Moe drag her from the closet. She smashes Moe’s foot with the hammer, but the GHB is really fucking her up now. Mercer figures if they dose her with even more of it, she’ll be so out of it she won’t remember anything. Veronica pulls out the rape whistle and blows it before Mercer takes it away. Moe’s out of GHB, so Mercer heads back to his room to get some, but the whistle got Parker’s attention and she confronts him outside Moe’s room.

She starts screaming rape, which attracts numerous people from surrounding rooms. Mercer tries to pretend everything is cool, but his leg wounds kinda proves he’s full of shit. Mercer takes off, followed by Moe andMercer caught by Parker and friends Parker goes into Moe’s room and finds Veronica. In the Dean’s office, O’Dell is woken by the sound of someone egging his windows and he’s surprised when someone comes into the office; judging by his reaction, it’s someone he knows. At the police station, Keith gives Sacks shit for not responding to the bomb threat and says he’s taking Veronica home. She tells Keith she called him from Moe’s phone, so he now has his number saved and since Moe’s probably too stupid to turn his phone off, they can track him.

Keith tracks Mercer and Moe to a motel where Moe is pulling the unicorn horn from Mercer’s leg. Keith is ready to blow both of them away and says he hopes they give him an excuse. Veronica explains things to Wallace and Weevil finds the Dean deadMac (and us); Moe was the set-up guy for mercer, since he could dose the victims and had a master key for the dorms. Moe is also the one who jumped Veronica in the parking lot and tried to shave her, probably just to provide Mercer an alibi. Mac asks if Logan has been by and Veronica says she hasn’t seen him. We see Logan downtown, trashing a cop car so he’ll be thrown in the holding cell … with Mercer and Moe. Later, Weevil comes by O’Dell’s office with a hi-def receiver and finds O’Dell dead with a gunshot wound in his temple. Suicide … or murder? I guess we know what the mystery arc will be for the rest of the season.