Veronica Mars: Lord of the Pi’s

Four days after it aired in most parts of the country, Los Angeles residents finally got to see the penultimate episode of the season’s first mystery arc. It was good. It wasn’t as jaw-dropping as Season One’s A Trip to the Dentist, but it nicely set up what looks to be thriller of a conclusion.

The A story was about Selma Hearst Rose, a former national joke and the swing vote in the board’s decision to keep or expel the Greeks. When she goes missing in the middle of a reception, O’Dell hires Keith to find her. There are twists and turns and a moderately satisfying outcome, but the meat of the episode is elsewhere.

Logan is worried about Veronica and they’re on the rocks because she refuses to stop looking into the rapes. He retaliates by hiring a body guard to keep an eye on her. After a fight in which they both rightly accuse the other of being incapable of change, Veronica admits that she loves him. It’s the first time we’ve heard her say that she loves anyone other than Keith or Lilly (and maybe her mom, but that’s misplaced so whatev). They emotionally agree to go easier on each other, but the last image of the episode is Logan surreptitiously watching Veronica ignore his phone call in the cafeteria. The look in Jason Dohring’s eyes is heart breaking.

Rape news: Shady frat prez Chip Diller is drugged, stripped and left on campus with his head shaved. Later Veronica learns from Dick that Chip was basically raped with an Easter egg containing roman numerals. After delegating some dumpster diving, she gets the egg and realizes that the numerals are in reference to a date nearly three years ago when a sorority pledge named Patrice fell off the roof of the sorority house. V goes digging and Claire, Fern and Nish tell her that Patrice was a victim of the two-way mirror “You’re so fat” room mentioned in the second episode and that she didn’t fall, she walked. Claire, who we last saw faking her rape, was a fellow pledge at the time and Patrice is now in a mental hospital. Veronica notes that this is awful, but wonders how many of the rapes were faked in the name of driving the evil Pi Sigs from campus.

I, personally, doubt the other rapes were faked. At least not all of them… Maebe and Parker were way too upset to be acting, and they were the only two we saw immediately post-attack. Plus the first victim didn’t come forward until after Maebe’s rape, so that makes no sense. I’m not absolutely certain that Nish is the rapist, but really think she and Fern had something to do with it. I’m really hoping it’s not that sweet RA Mo. That’ll annoy the frak out of me. I’m still smarting over the whole Beaver thing.

In Next Week Looks Awesome News: Next week looks awesome. Mac and Piz are back, Veronica’s running for her life, Parker’s screaming about rape and someone’s going to die! If it’s someone I love, I’m gonna be three kinds of pissed.