a pointless blog
gathering moss
If it weren't for Troy, this might have been the best Veronica Mars episode of all time.
1.4 The Wrath of Con
Score: 16
Fortunately he's not in it enough to really ruin it, managing to get in only one cringe line. As it is, it's our highest scoring episode since the pilot.
Characters: 2
I've decided to award Backup a full point, rather than a half, because even though he doesn't have any lines, I'm just so happy every time he's on my screen. (I've retroactively adjusted points for the only other episode he's been in so far, the pilot.)
Troy (-1)
Lilly (+1)
Logan (+1)
Backup (+1)
Plot relevance: 5/5
Lots of Lilly flashbacks in this episode, as homecoming approaches and Veronica recalls the previous homecoming when she, Duncan, Lilly and Logan skipped the dance to have a limo party. We see Lilly telling Veronica that she is not a yellow cotton dress: she is strapless red satin. Thanks to a Never Have I Ever, we also learn that Veronica has never skinny-dipped. At the end of the episode, we see how Lilly's death has spurred Veronica into growth: she wears a strapless red satin dress to this homecoming, and she makes them stop the limo so that she can run naked into the ocean and ruin her fancy homecoming hair.
This episode marks the beginning of Logan's heel-face turn. First, he recognizes that the idea of making a tribute video of Lilly for the unveiling of her memorial fountain is too painful for Duncan, and volunteers to do it himself--the first time he's shown a shred of decency. We also get to see a lot of him in the homecoming flashbacks, when he and Veronica were friends, and you realize maybe he isn't actually an Obligatory Psychotic Jackass but a teenage boy in a lot of pain after the brutal murder of his girlfriend. We see Logan and Veronica take the first tentative steps toward friendship when they circumvent Celeste's highly curated video clips to create a montage that really shows who Lilly was. Celeste is not amused, but Jake Kane is moved to tears. There are a couple scenes establishing the Kane family dynamic in this episode, but that shot is really the only one you need.
And, to cap it all off, at the very end of the episode, you get Weevil in tears over the Lilly tribute video. Whaaaa?
Story quality: 5/5
Absolutely stellar story. Wallace has a crush on his fellow office aid, Georgia, who made a booboo and fell for a Nigerian prince scheme. Veronica solves this one by playing into men's proclivity to assume women are dumb: playing ditzy blonde Amber to trick Carl; dressing as a "she just wants attention" gamer girl and being really terrible at video games; and deflecting suspicion at the college party by playing a stupidly drunk "nerd hag."
Keith pretends to be a DEA agent (and Backup pretends to be a drug-sniffing dog) so that he can bug Grant's dorm room, and entraps Grant with the promise of an early "screening" of a new game: "Maybe you've heard of it--it's the Matrix Online game" (this is up there with the new 311 is on there as one of most 2000s sentences ever spoken). He also dunks on Troy's smirking ass, which is good for my soul.
Iconic lines/memes: +5
Wow, I'm really bad at this. I think about the breathless wonder with which she announces this all the time. Every time I'm bad at something. My friend Leah made me a meme of it.
I believe Keanu Reeves said it best when he said, "whoahhh."
Celeste: clears her throat and gestures at her cleavage Lilly: opens her extremely low-cut gown even further to expose more breast
I'm a huge Beckett fan. Hand to God!
There's so much funny 2000s game lingo in this episode: I just fragged you. Aaaand I just fragged you again. Ownage! I'm on your team, lamer! Did you see the video posted with the rag-doll effects? The physics engine is killer!
Cringe: -1
Don't worry. I give good parent. Ick.
Probably I should be docking this episode a point for its poor representation of female gamers, of which I am one. But it didn't even occur to me to be offended because it's too funny, and the outfit is too good.
Outfit of the episode:
Pardon the janky photo editing, this scene is REALLY dark.
This is my favorite outfit of the entire series: Veronica dressed as a "gamer girl" to infiltrate Gameland. It's Sailor Moon meets catholic school girl: fitted white button-up, plaid miniskirt, knee high socks, a tie, topped with a sharp black bob wig. The long, fingerless gamer gloves are the icing on the cake.
It's a high bar to win outfit of the episode this time around, because there are so many iconic looks: Her curly hair, tits-out "Amber" outfit; the incredibly long scarf she's wearing at school, and of course the red satin dress that she leaves on the beach to go skinny dipping.
Song of the episode:
It's a tie between the default iMovie music that plays at the start of Lilly's tribute video, and the Neptune High Orchestra's off-key rendition of Wind Beneath My Wings.
Anachronistic reference of the episode:
Japanimated: Wallace says the only girls that the nerds at Gameland see are "japanimated." Japanimation is what we called anime back in the 80s. "Anime" took over during the 90s. There is no way a 2004 teenager would use this term. But it was a funny line.
