Veronica Mars: Hi, Infidelity

Before I get into the first mystery of the season, the serial rapist at Hearst College, I’d like to say how much I like Piz. For once a boy that’s interested in Veronica isn’t tragically damaged. I’m not saying I want her to dump Logan for him, but it’s nice to see that she can attract someone who’s nice and normal. He gets excited about real college boy things like his radio show and sunbathing girls. He's not tortured by his girlfriend's death at the hands of his father or his mother's suicide or about that time he thought his girlfriend was his sister, but he slept with her anyway and tried to live with the gnawing guilt. Additionally, he's not a cop trying to scam on a high school chick or a steriod smuggling drug dealer. It's refreshing.

Things that I miss: Veronica's normal hair, not having the image of a Keith love scene burned into my brain, Beaver (sigh) and Mac.

The only good thing about Mac not being in the last few episodes is that it probably means she’s heavily featured in one of the next big mystery arcs. And frankly, I don’t need Mac to be too involved in the rape mystery. The last thing she needs after all the Beaver drama is to be raped. That’s not to say that Parker deserved to be raped because she was so cheerful, but this show already heaps horrible circumstance after horrible circumstance onto characters like Logan and Veronica so I’m glad they’re giving Mac a bit of a break.

I kind of love Dean O’Dell right now. The fact that Veronica so easily snooped in his office as he enjoyed boxing and junk food was sweet. Clemmons was way too savvy by senior year to let our sleuth pull any of that crap. And I loved him telling off Nish, who I think is the rapist.

Yeah, it may be a stretch, since she’s female, but as Tim the creepy TA pointed out, no hair or semen has been found at the crime scenes. Add to that the fact that she seemed to be complicit in Claire’s fake rape. Exactly how badly does the former editor want the Greeks off campus? She doesn’t seem to care who gets hurt in her crusade, so what’s a few rape victims when compared to the lives she may think she’s saving by outlawing frats.

Rape’s is obviously a very tricky subject and the show doesn’t always handled it well. The main problem is Dick. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Ryan Hansen. And since Logan’s not the jackass he once was, it’s nice that Dick fills that snarky void. But after Veronica learned that he spiked his uptight girlfriend’s drink, thus setting into motion the events that led to her own rape, she really shouldn’t have gotten over it. Before she knew for sure that Beaver had raped her, she knew that Dick had goaded him to do it. So whether or not she knew that Beaver had gone through with it, she spent Season 2 knowing that Dick had intended to basically date rape Madison and that he had encouraged Beaver to assault Veronica.

I don’t buy that with all that information Veronica would still seem to view him as a harmless dummy. She did bring him up as a possible rape suspect, but I think that’s probably more red herring than anything. It’s quite obvious that like James Jordan (the actor who portrayed Lucky and is now Tim), the show’s creative staff is fond of Hansen. But just to play Devil’s Advocate, I wonder if Beaver’s “Remember Sally” warning will reveal something unsavory in Dick’s past.