my mother, the fiend (veronica mars 2.9)

Each week, I watch Veronica Mars at my house with my friends Allison and Lara. But last week I went to stay at my parents' house for Thanksgiving. My family was pre-warned about the need for VM time, and I had a TV all to myself, but no tivo. More than most shows, VM is especially suited for watching with tivo, whether to pause for discussion with the aforementioned Allison and Lara or to pause to let things sink in or just scream "WTF?" at the screen. Without that ability, I found myself unable to think clearly about the episode the next day, and I finally understood why a lot of people just don't watch, especially after my mom turned down my repeated invites to come watch with me. It's not an easy show to watch. It demands a lot from viewers. But that's why I love it so much!

So, last night's episode!

1. I love that Clemmons busted Veronica, even if it was to ultimately serve his own interests. I can't remember if he took all her keys away, but if so, doesn't he only have the right to take away the school keys? Veronica might need that Vespa key someday. With all this mention of the Kane scholarship, I'm thinking it's going to figure in at the end of this season--like maybe Veronica wins it and they refuse to give it to her?

2. I also love that this episode centered around Lianne without her ever appearing (I read on a gossip site that Corinne Bohrer wanted too much money to come back, but take that with a grain of salt.)

3. It was awesome to learn some more about the Jake-Celeste-Lianne history, but I still want to know more. How did Lianne end up with Keith? How did Lianne and Jake end up fooling around again, and how many times did it happen and for how long? When and why did she start drinking, if she was such a great person in high school? We never did find out whether Celeste was pregnant--if she had been faking it all along, why didn't Jake then dump her and get back together with Lianne? There's a lot more we can learn about this whole situation, and I hope we will.

4. Speaking of Celeste, there has to be another side to her. Yes, she's mean to her servant, but it is pretty nice that she would offer to send her to grad school afterwards. When Lianne's old friend mentioned that Celeste had to move away and attend Pan High, I thought maybe there was something there. Maybe she was really rich and her family lost all its money? Why does she hate Lianne so much, if she stole Jake from her to begin with? And one thing that has always, ALWAYS bothered me about Celeste is that we've never even been given a hint of why she hated Lilly, her own daughter. Obviously parents have favorites, but it seems like it was a little extreme. Why? No one on this show is all evil!

5. The prom baby storyline was nicely done, I thought. I had suspected it was Trina at first, but then I fell for the servant thing too. And it was nice that Veronica clued Trina in on what she was going to do--I think too often Veronica thinks that people (mostly her dad) will try and stop her when in reality they won't.

6. The meeting between Trina and Kendall (aka the Buffy reunion) was okay, but Logan had the best line with "Rode hard, meet put away wet."

7. I think it's still up in the air as to whether Kendall and Duncan did anything. She said she's been in his bed, but that doesn't mean anything.

8. Beaver and Mac! I love them both. Does anyone else think Beaver is just setting Kendall up?

9. Weevil and Logan teaming up is amazing. I wonder if they're going to include Veronica?

10. Ok, so Keith is tampering with evidence with that rat in the freezer. But I don't really think it matters, because Lamb never would have found it anyway.

11. And finally, Meg. I'd seen some message board speculation that Meg might be pregnant but written it off, so I was still surprised to see those two heart monitors. I said it before, but I love what they're doing with Meg, showing that it's not just the evil characters who have other sides to them. And I'm very happy to see she's awake. That's going to be good.

12. The alternate ending: First, it was really annoying that each ending was the same for the first ten minutes or so. Why not just start the clips with the hospital scene? Second, I did not at all expect Meg's mom to kill her, and it was very chilling. But I prefer the original. The alternate made Meg's family almost too fucked up, and it also would rob us of Alona Tal, who is really good as Meg. We're just starting to dig below the surface on Meg, and I would hate to see that end. Plus, it would be super boring and annoying if we knew that Veronica hadn't done it but everyone thought she did. This show is way, way above hijinks like that.

13. NEXT WEEK SOMEONE IN VERONICA'S WORLD WILL DIE. But before that, does anyone else think it's probably not Duncan's baby? It could be Meg's dad's (I would not be shocked at sexual abuse), Mr. Fuller's, the mysterious non-Duncan boyfriend she brought to the Fullers, Chris Talley, or any number of other people, because Meg is totally wild and fucked up, apparently. So Laura Palmer.

But yes, someone will die. We watched the part of the preview with all the squares of different people in slow motion, so I can tell you that most people on the show were on it. If it's a main character, I'm still going with Duncan, though that is a little disappointing since I feel like we're on the brink of having his character get way more interesting. If it's Weevil, I'll cry. (Speaking of crying, I teared up when Mary Mooney told Veronica her mother was nice.) The only people I was surprised to see were the Manning family members, but I can't decide if that's significant or a red herring.

One more episode until the winter break! Then no new eps until January 18.