Episode 10: Show Me the Monkey
This one starts about six weeks after the last episode, with Mindy O’Dell coming to see Keith at his office. She insists her husband (Cyrus O’Dell, Dean of Hearst College, who was found dead at the end of last episode) didn’t kill himself; she says her infidelity would’ve made him morose and he might’ve even divorced her, but he’d never commit suicide. Mindy admits her main reason for wanting Keith to prove murder is so she can collect Cyrus’s life insurance. She says she and Professor Landry were
together the night Cyrus died, so they aren’t guilty. Keith says he’ll look around and if he finds anything to indicate murder, he’ll take the case. At Hearst, Mac is called to a biology lab to try and recover info from a hard drive. Someone broke into the lab, trashed the place, burned the hard drive, and liberated the test subjects—twenty rats and a monkey designated Number 25. The head researcher (Pauline) and her partner (Gil) say the monkey was their big project and their professor will fail them if the data can’t be retrieved or the monkey isn’t found.
In the cafeteria, Mac introduces Pauline and Gil to Veronica, hoping she can help find the monkey, who is genetically altered (or something) as part of their research project. Pauline thinks an animal rights group called PHAT 
(People for Humane Animal Treatment) took the monkey and their research data and they need Veronica to find it. Veronica sees a flyer on a bulletin board about a PHAT recruitment meeting, so she and Mac plan to attend. She runs into her dad, who’s looking for Weevil since he’s the one who found O’Dell’s body. In Mac’s dorm, a girl comes in to tell them about an Around the World-themed party where each room in the dorm decorates like a different country and people mingle and hang out. Mac isn’t into it, but Parker gives her shit, saying it’s a bit weird that she (a recent sexual assault survivor) is more excited at the prospect of having a bunch of dudes around than Mac and Veronica … who are both single, as Parker points out. Mac finally agrees to the party plans.
At the PHAT meeting, Mac has a slight vibe with a dude named Bronson, but figures she blew it when she goes on about how sanctimonious these activists are and Bronson turns out to be the leader. Veronica very unsubtly asks if they’ll be liberating any animals and Bronson says PHAT doesn’t do
that, but they’re welcome to join the letter-writing campaign. Another girl (Darla) mentions that a well-known rock musician (Ed Argent) is in town and suggests they picket him. Bronson says Argent’s fans are hard-core and there might be trouble if they show up at the station. Ed Argent is described as a conservative bow-hunter, obviously a reference to Ted Nugent (who was originally supposed to appear in the episode, but it fell through). Keith talks to Weevil, who lets him into the Dean’s office to look around. Weevil tells Keith that Cyrus typed a suicide note (“Goodbye cruel world.”) on his computer and Keith notices that Cyrus’s fancy bottle of scotch hasn’t been opened.
At Logan’s place, Dick is taking pictures of his cock and tossing them off the balcony for fun. Dick tells Logan he needs to get over Veronica and go out 
and have some fun. At PHAT headquarters, Veronica and Mac show up to help with the letter campaign and Veronica hints to Darla that she’s ready to do something more radical. Another dude says they agree with her, but she’ll have to prove herself by doing something to get their attention. At home, Keith tells Veronica about the Dean drinking inferior booze before blowing his brains out and mentions the banal suicide note. That gets Veronica’s attention; in her “Plan the Perfect Murder” paper for Landry’s class, her victim left a fake suicide note on a computer that said “Goodbye Cruel World”.
At Hearst, Veronica asks Piz if he’ll arrange an interview at the college radio station with Ed Argent. He knows she’s up to something, but can’t say no to
her. Veronica drops by the lab to update Pauline and Gil on her investigation and finds out someone took 25’s food. They admit to her that they were planning to kill the monkey after the experiment, to confirm their results, which bothers Veronica. Another student (Emi) comes in from the lab next door to complain about them keeping the A/C so high. (“If you want to see my nipples, just ask.”) Apparently, she’s doing botany research and the cold isn’t good for her plants. Veronica talks to Emi, but she says she’s a scientist, so she’d never vandalize a lab.
At the radio station, Veronica, Mac, and Parker pretend to be sorority girls who just love Ed Argent. They convince him to wear one of their 
sweatshirts, but he’s so clueless he doesn’t even notice it says “Meat is Murder”. That impresses the PHAT people, who allow Veronica and Mac into the inner sanctum (after freaking them out by making them think they have to pose nude for an anti-fur campaign). Bronson is obviously into Mac and Veronica invites him to their Around the World party at the dorm. But since they’ve had no prep time, they decide to decorate the room as Canada, which basically means a moose photo, stupid accents, and Barenaked Ladies songs. It was literally the least they could do.
Parker is psyched to socialize, but Veronica is terrible at mingling (she’s not over Logan yet) and Mac is disappointed when Bronson doesn’t show up. Veronica kicks everyone out of Canada, but Bronson does show up later and
Parker gives him and Mac some privacy. They get along pretty well, but when he tries to kiss her, she flinches away and he leaves. Dick and Logan head down to do some surfing with Chip and notice some hot girls nearby. Logan’s not looking for anything like that … he’s just there for the surfing. Veronica and Parker take Mac to Bronson’s place to return his wallet (which Parker stole to give Mac an excuse to see Bronson again) and get a shock when a good-looking girl (Amy) answers the door.
Bronson tells them about some PHAT stuff and when Mac goes to get a drink she sees the stolen rats in a bedroom. Down on the beach, Logan and his pals end up hanging out with the three surfer chicks. Mac tells Veronica 
about the rats and mentions it Bronson, asking where the monkey is. Bronson says the rats were delivered in a box on the doorstep, but he has no clue where the monkey is. Veronica wants to see the box but it’s not much help. She does she collects the remains of a shredded magazine that the box contained. Parker slyly quizzes Bronson about Amy, finding out she’s his sister. Veronica tells Mac she’s obligated to tell her clients about the rats. Near the beach, Logan bangs one of the girls, but doesn’t seem to enjoy it much (especially since she can’t stop going on about him being Aaron Echolls’s son).
Veronica tells Pauline and Gil about the rats and they get the police to check Bronson’s place, but the rats are gone. Mac admits she warned Bronson because she didn’t want him to get in trouble. She tells Veronica she found
something on the motherboard of the lab computer when she took it apart … tiny leaves. Veronica takes them to Emi, who tells her they’re green tea leaves. Veronica notices a banana squeaky-toy and Emi says she took it from 25’s cage a while back because the constant squeaking on weekends was driving her nuts. Veronica finds some green tea in the biology lab and when she finally pieces together the shredded paper from Bronson’s trash, it’s a bunch of naked women from a porno mag.
Veronica goes to see Gil, who admits he’s the one who stole the monkey, pouring Pauline’s green tea into the hard drive to wreck it. Gil started 
spending time with the monkey and got attached. He played with the monkey, gave it toys, and named it Oscar. (Oscar is apparently played by the same monkey who played Marcel on Friends.) Gil says the reason they don’t name the animals is so it’ll be easier to kill them when the time comes. Veronica decides she doesn’t want Oscar to die, so she returns the cheque to Pauline and says she couldn’t find out who was responsible. Veronica mentions that Mac recovered most of the hard drive data and Pauline and Gil’s professor says they can have a new monkey there in six days. Science marches on.
Mac goes to see Bronson, invites him to a movie, and kisses him. Piz runs into Veronica in the cafeteria and they commiserate over how their friends expect them to move on and hook up with someone just for the sake of hooking up. Piz tells Veronica that knowing the difference between what’s
real and what isn’t is what’s really important. It doesn’t have the effect he was hoping for though, as she immediately rushes over to reunite with Logan. At a bar, Keith “accidentally” runs into Professor Landry and tries to get info out of him on O’Dell’s murder. But Landry is a criminology professor and he read Keith’s book, so he recognizes him. He tells Keith he had nothing to do with O’Dell’s death. Keith tells Mindy he’ll take her case, mostly because of the scotch. The next morning, Piz learns Veronica and Logan are back together and Veronica finally seems to realize that Piz is into her.