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Logan’s jealousy: sad, pathetic

Veronica’s jealousy: funny, psychotic

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Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 42: Nevermind the Buttocks, or, Weevil’s Triumph Before (and After) the Fall

[Previous Installment: Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 38: The Rapes of Graff, or, Rambling About Keith’s Bowling Buddy]

Episode 19 of each of Veronica Mars’ three seasons contains a “Weevil the Mastermind” plotline. In 1x19 (“Hot Dogs”), Weevil cleverly manipulates Veronica into getting him out of a felony charge while also retrieving evidence that might link him to Lilly’s murder. In 3x19 (“Weevils Wobble But They Don’t Go Down”), Weevil is set up as a patsy for the student charge card caper, but at the end, seems to have found the other cardmaker for himself (while hiding that fact from Veronica). It is not clear what he does with it after that, but he is clearly thinking about how he can turn the situation, including Veronica’s belief that all the card machines have been accounted for, to his advantage. (I think @bryrosea  has used this in her fic has an explanation for how Weevil got enough money to start his own shop. Correct me if I’m wrong.)

I have not discussed Weevil for a while, so with all apologies to “that’s the car that mooned me,” Wallace’s pathetic (yet, in a horrible lesson to teenage boys everywhere, ultimately successful) attempts to woo Jackie, the end scene with Veronica, Billy, and Harry foreshadowing the roof of the Neptune Grand, and even the (in a wonderful twist) Keith-requested confrontation between Veronica and Logan regarding Logan’s flings with Kendall, I have to give the Favorite Scene nod to Weevil’s rescue of Billy and the rest of the PCH from the Fitzpatricks, followed by his retirement from the life. It is a triumphant scene for Weevil, but also delineates Weevil’s own personal tragic end in season two.

Weevil’s characterization remains consistent in each of the first two seasons, but his role subtly shifts between seasons. In the first season, although he is hardly painted as a saint, he generally comes off as sympathetic. Perhaps my perspective is a bit skewed, but even while acknowledging his clumsy come-ons to Veronica in the pilot (“clumsy come-ons” might be a kind way of saying it, some might call it “sexual harassment”), his explicit threats towards her, Wallace, and Backup (and Weevil only stops his gang from attacking her once it is clear that they are being embarrassed), his suspicious trickery regarding the pen, and other less-than-wonderful deeds, both implied and shown, Weevil comes off as basically a good guy struggling with a tough situation in the first season.

Weevil also comes off well in season one because he occasionally preaches and teaches along the way. His cool dismissal of Veronica’s pretensions to be able to relate to his social position in 1x02 (“Credit Where Credit’s Due”) stands out in this regard, as does his “you people make me sick” speech to Logan in 1x07 (“The Girl Next Door”). Weevil displays at least a bit of embarrassment over ogling Lynn Echolls right in front of Logan (“An Echolls Family Christmas”) and is willing to help track down the video of Lynn falling to her death and make sure it never gets publicly released, showing Weevil’s willingness (at this stage) to look past his personal issues and feels empathy even for his perceived enemy. One might wonder why Veronica does not take Weevil more seriously as a suspect after hearing that Lilly transferred out of a gym class because of him and then his shenanigans with the pen, but it is not really that jarring since the viewer, like Veronica, never gets the sense that Weevil would go that far.

In the second season, Weevil takes on a darker role. Although the viewer is still sympathetic to Weevil, something has changed. In both seasons, Weevil is a stark and constant reminder of the economic and racial inequalities in Neptune (a thinly-veiled stand-in for American society in general). In the first season, Weevil’s social status (or lack thereof) is part of what makes the audience side with him along with his charisma, loyalty, and general sense of rightness. Weevil basically remains the same from start to finish. In the second season, it is not just Veronica and Logan on journeys (in relation to truthfulness and morality), but Weevil as well. Without downplaying the difficulties Neptune’s social structure imposes of Weevil, in the second season things get more personal. Yes, Neptune’ inequalities are a constant and brutal burden for Weevil, but in the second season, we get deeper into Weevil’s own struggles with being consumed by anger and bitterness.

The contrast between seasons is evident already in 2x01 (“Normal is the Watchword”). At the beginning of the first season, Weevil obnoxiously hits on Veronica, but even after he comes to respect her as an equal, he calmly (if angrily) delivers the previously-mentioned speech about her not being in the same social position as he. In 2x01, when they meet at the gas station, Weevil launches into an ugly, bitter tirade.

So, did you like your taste? Your little year of living dangerously? Did you get your fill? As soon as they’ll have you back, you go running to the 09ers. And as a little bonus, you give it up to the richest boys in school. Wow. Well, I’m sure their sheets are clean.

It might seem to be an echo of his “you only think you are one of us,” but it is much more personal. Rather than a reminder to Veronica (and the viewers) of his social position, his is a nasty attack on her, going so far as to slut-shame her for her dating habits.*

* This is also hypocritical, given that Weevil himself had been obsessed with Lilly, the richest girl in school. This recalls Weevil’s ironic comment to Logan at the beginning of 1x21 (“A Trip to the Dentist”): “When they run away like that, it is a hint they’re not interested.” It is true, but ironic in light of how things went down between Weevil and Lilly (the gym transfer and creepy emails). Along similar lines, in 1x20 (“M.A.D.”), Weevil, Felix, and other PCHers see Carmen and Tadd together and Weevil comments to Felix: “Now that’s a shame. Neighbourhood girl like that, wasting her assets on a white boy.” A sexist double standard is at work. Not only did Weevil himself “waste his assets” on Lilly, but he is saying this to Felix, who is seen with two white girls in the series: Wanda Varner (1x06, “Return of the Kane) and later, Molly Fitzpatrick.

Weevil’s comments on Neptune’s general inequalities are no less true in the second season than in the first, but in the second season he seems to be use those inequalities to justify his own poor decisions and anger. Weevil now knows that Logan was innocent of Lilly’s murder, and now Weevil knows he went to the bridge to kill an innocent person. Weevil seems to be retrospectively justifying that decision by insisting now that Logan killed Felix. Logan did not kill Felix, but Weevil is sure of it because a “rich and white” guy like Logan always gets away with stuff.

The way in which Weevil gets the universal (the privileged get away with stuff) right and the particular (Logan got away with killing Felix) wrong is striking. In 1x12 (“Clash of the Tritons”), Weevil rightly points out the attention given to Lilly’s murder as opposed to a girl from his neighborhood who went missing the same week. In this case, though, Felix’ murder got plenty of attention. Protesters were at the courthouse when Logan was released. Indeed, despite their disparate social positions, Logan was arrested for killing Felix. The district attorney hardly seems to have ignored the situation. Sure, it took the police a while to get the right guy, but they believed what Weevil and others believed – that Logan did it. It was Weevil’s own fellow PCHers who testified against Logan (falsely? Or just with limited information?)  at the preliminary hearing and got destroyed – rightly – by the defense attorneys (in a bitter and reversed foreshadowing of Aaron’s trial).

Weevil was able to distance himself somewhat from his personal feelings and do the right thing even when Logan was involved in the first season (e.g., the video of Lynn). Embittered by Logan’s (temporary) vindication and Felix’s death ignores that he went there to kill Logan, that his crew kept attacking Logan, that he did not actually see what happened, and that Weevil himself started the ruckus which ended with Felix’s death. His social commentary is now bent to his personal agenda, and justifies his actions in his continuing feud with Logan – dueling arsons, torture, and beatings.

I have already strayed too far into a different episode, but the general point (which could be illustrated in further detail) is that Weevil is on a narrative journey of his own in season two. Veronica struggles with personal truthfulness, Logan battles  for moral orientation, and Weevil is deals with not letting his justified protests against injustice lapse into self-destructive bitterness.

The structure of Weevil’s path somewhat resembles Logan’s. The first part of the season sees them both engaged in an virtually mindless exchange of misdeeds. The middle of the season sees them finally pull their heads out and work together to find Felix’s real killer out of mutual self-interest. In the last part of the season, as discussed elsewhere, Logan starts to do the right thing for the right reason. Weevil’s final section is less about morality (not that he is perfect, just that his arc emphasizes different things) and more about letting go of his bitterness and forging his own path in a way that might make for a workable life for him despite the unjust structure of society.

After Weevil gets the boot from the PCH and loses his motorcycle (echoing his own exile of Chardo in the pilot), like Logan’s scheme with respect to Hannah, he self-interestedly schemes for money to get a new ride (priorities!). But Weevil still wants to get justice for Felix – Logan again helps (for his own sake) by getting Dr. Griffith to recant his false testimony. However, Weevil wants to go further and take down Thumper. It begins with his acquisition of the client list in 2x13 (“Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough”). Weevil and Veronica (again with help from Logan in finding the right witness) still want to get Thumper arrested. It ends with Weevil setting Thumper up for death (more on this in a bit). Weevil is still not back in the PCH, but the way may be clear for him, and things come to a head in the scene pictured at the top of this post.

Hector comes to Weevil’s uncle’s shop to apologize and ask for help with the Fitzpatricks, who are viciously bully and torturing PCHers (including ones Weevil had deemed too young to join) for not delivering enough drug money. The scene that is my favorite here is when the Fitzpatricks are again demanding more money than the PCHers have. Weevil shows up. Having already gotten the client list from Veronica and made copies, Weevil uses it to blackmail and ensure the freedom protection of not just the PCH, but himself, from further bullying via the Fitzpatricks. I love the shot of Weevi pointing to his head – it’s like an old-school wrestling heel cheating when the ref isn’t looking then pointing to his head to send the crowd into a frenzy.

Liam respectfully acknowledges that he has been beat (the Fitzpatricks are so evil and scary, and so misused in the series) and walks off. Hector and the rest of the PCH celebrate the return of their former leader. Weevil defies their expectations in one of his most awesome moments (perhaps the most awesome of his moments) in the series:

Right, boys. You’re on your own now.

This might be read as “screw you guys for turning on me earlier,” but that seems shallow. The moment is really about Weevil realizing that whatever crappy situation life has handed him, the gang life of warfare, violence, crime, and so on was not a lasting solution (if it was ever a solution at all). He is now ready to make his own way free of this past. What particularly makes this a great moment is though he had some help along the way to taking out Thumper and freeing the PCH from the Fitzpatricks’ domination, he conceived his plan by himself, Much more important that his scheming, though, was that it was his own journey, his own realization, not a lecture from a school counselor or Veronica or anyone else, that leads to his symbolic decision here to find a better way to overcome the lousy hand he has been dealt.

Weevil’s self-made triumph here is wonderful, yet also bittersweet, because it is followed (and preceded) by a fall that is, finally, just as self-made.

Way back in 1x07 (“The Girl Next Door”), Weevil tells Logan of his promise to his grandmother to graduate from high school, something reiterated (not-so-coincidentally) during a flashback with Felix in 2x17 (“Plan B”): “I gotta graduate. I know my gram’s holdin’ on just long enough for me to cross that stage.” The moment seems to be at hand for Weevil in 2x22 (“Not Pictured”). Weevil’s grandmother (who has either drastically aged since we last saw her or is his other grandmother) is there to see him fulfill his promise. Just as the alphabetical list is nearing “N,” Weevil’s name is called by a different authority figure – Sheriff Lamb. Lamb, having heard from the kids who saw Weevil punch out Thumper, is there to arrest Weevil in connection with Thumper’s murder. Weevil begs to be allowed to graduate. We are angered and saddened.

Lamb is surely a bigoted jerk, but that is neither novel nor interesting at this point. Keep in mind that Weevil is not getting arrested for something he did not do, and what he did was not petty theft or graffiti. Weevil did in fact successfully plot Thumper’s death. Maybe Lamb could have waited, but for all of Lamb’s usual awfulness, it hard to say he is way out line in this case. Weevil set up a murder, and the victim was not a privileged person, but (for all of Thumper’s misdeeds) another member of Neptune’s oppressed underclass like Weevil himself.

Weevil’s desperate begging is heartbreaking, and Veronica looks on helplessly.

Helpless? Veronica? We want to say VERONICA DO SOMETHING. However, Veronica has done something, many things, in fact, to help Weevil get to this point. Among other things, she exonerated him from the credit card mess, got the Kanes to drop a felony charge against him (when he was 18 and would have been in adult prison), and even got Mac and Cassidy to help him pass his Algebra II final. Even Logan helped keep Weevil in school (getting the expulsion reversed in 1x07) so that he could keep his promise to his grandmother.

This is not to say that Weevil is “lucky” or to take away from his accomplishment in getting this far despite the cards almost all being stacked against him. The list is significant in that it shows what Veronica helps with in contrast to where Veronica draws the line. She is willing to help Weevil get out of false accusations (the credit card fraud) or even things Weevil is guilty of that are not that serious (breaking and entering). The difference is that Weevil is here accused of involvement in a murder, and Weevil is, in fact, guilty of it, something that Veronica makes clear she knows at the beginning of “Nevermind the Buttocks,” even if she does not pursue it (for which Weevil might be grateful).

It is also no coincidence that in the same episode (2x19) Veronica makes it clear that she knows Weevil had Thumper killed in revenge, she forgoes an opportunity for revenge at the end by lying to Harry about knowing who killed his dog – which also foreshadows the climax of 2x22 (“Not Pictured’).

Naturally, to keep Weevil on the show (to the extent he was “on the show” in the third season, but that’s another rant), he ends up only getting a few months for assault. Without commenting on sentencing and how society handles criminality, compared to what he could have gotten for murder Weevil is “lucky,” but his real punishment (symbolically) is not the prison term, but not getting to fulfill his promise to his grandmother, which (again symbolically) is much more significant than a diploma which probably is not of much real-world help to him.

The tragedy is that Weevil makes the choice that brings this on himself. Yes, he is in an unjust social situation. But he is so close to leaving much of it behind. Weevil let go of the horrible and stupid (on both sides) feud with Logan to figure out who really killed Felix. True, he had reasons to doubt that the Sheriff would get Thumper, but again, while Weevil’s general attitude toward social inequality in Neptune are justified, his particular application here does not fit. It was not the rich who covered up the truth behind Felix’s murder, it was Weevil’s own PCH comrades, the (not exactly rich) Fitzpatricks, and an (understandably) frightened truck driver who himself expressed resentment towards Logan’s position. The truck driver is convinced by his wife (who was convinced by Veronica) to finally do the right thing and come forward, and Lamb, for once, immediately tries to arrest Thumper. But Weevil has already sealed Thumper’s fate. Despite Veronica asking Weevil for more time, his desire for vengeance gets the better of him.

Weevil himself knows he has crossed a line, hence his confession at the end of “Plan B.” Weevil begs Lamb for the chance to graduate, but holds back his social commentary, as he seems to know this situation is of his own making. He is guilty, and his seeming need for revenge overtook and destroyed his self-made progress by leaving behind the gang life and graduating from high school in front of his grandmother.

This is not to minimize the inequality of the situation. It is not just Weevil’s decision to engage in revenge that is contrasted with Logan and Veronica’s symbolic renunciation of vengeance – Duncan Kane’s hit on Aaron Echolls is there as well. While Duncan is able to get away with it because of the way his privilege shields him, Weevil is not. It is unfair. 

Still, the appropriate response to this inequality is not “If Duncan can get away with murder for revenge, Weevil should be able to get away with murder for revenge.” The best response is “”No one should be able to get away with murder for revenge.” That is technically correct, but by itself does not express the way in which Duncan’s position enables him to get away with wrongdoing. One person getting away with (or not getting away with) murder for vengeance does not justify another getting away with it (or not). Yet it is hard not to answer that way because it is so clear that Duncan abuses his position in a way that Weevil, for all his scheming, cannot match. The oppressive social structure thus rears its head once more with respect to Weevil. Indeed, it was never gone.

However, what really makes Weevil’s fate tragic is that he was so close to making a new start for himself, a way beyond the role society seems to have forced upon him. His triumph in “Nevermind the Buttocks” was, despite some help along the way, finally his own moral decision to leave that role behind and forge his own path. Just as Weevil’s own wise moral decision forged that triumph, his own vengeful immoral decision to exact vengeance already set up his fall before his triumph, a fall that is only evident after the triumph. For all that society had contributed, it was finally Weevil’s one choice that cost him a possible way out of the morass. If in season one and three Weevil is the likable but morally questionable noir criminal contact and representative of the underclass, in season two he is another tragic figure doomed partly by fate, but in the end his own poor decision.

Weevil’s triumph for himself is 2x19 is beautiful, but that beauty is finally bittersweet. That incredible (retrospective) bittersweetness is what makes it my Favorite Scene of “Nevermind the Buttocks.”

[Screenshots from vm-caps.com; quotes from vmtranscripts.com]

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Murderer with a conscience versus a sociopath

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During the first season, Veronica speculates that Clarence Wiedman does what he does for the Kanes because he is “a good man in a bad situation.” We aren’t given any reasons why she thinks that. What if Wiedman’s connection to Jake Kane is based on something else entirely?

Wiedman is head of security at Kane Software, yet his purview seems to go far beyond that. He is a personal “fix it” man for the Kanes, dealing not just with the cover up of Duncan’s assumed role in Lilly’s death, but in running Leanne out of town.

In “The Bitch is Back,” Wiedman is even involved in the Castle’s business. The Castle’s affairs are supposedly open to examination only by its members, the elite of the elite (according to them). That stuff seems far beyond the job description of a Head of Security or the Kanes’ personal fix-it guy.

In 2x06 (“Rat Saw God”), Wiedman tells Veronica he attended Harvard. It comes off ambiguously, as learning to get information by dangling people out of balconies doesn’t seem very “Harvard,” yet he delivers it in such a deadpan manner as to indicate that he may very well have attended.

Generally, Harvard is an indication (rightly or wrongly) of “elite” status. Wiedman went to Harvard and is privy to the ugliest side of The Castle. Rather than seeing Wiedman as a mere employee of one of the Castle’s most powerful members, perhaps Clarence Wiedman is connected to Jale Kane because they are Castle brethren.

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While doing research for other stuff, I re-watched this scene from “Rapes of Graff.” Some of my recent posts have beaten the “Veronica as observer of Logan’s moral struggle”: thing into the ground, and this scene is part of that, but when re-watching, I noticed something pretty entertaining (maybe everyone else already has, I’m pretty slow on the uptake).

Veronica approaches Logan to congratulate him on his case dismissal and see how she is. They briefly banter and then Veronica “innocently” asks “And did Hannah understand why you wouldn’t be seeing her anymore?” Of course Logan has not, and Veronica looks exasperated as he departs.

Part of Veronica does want Logan to be a decent person, (and that is where the viewer’s attention is supposed to be directed), but something about the way she approaches him and very quickly slips in a question about whether he had broken up with Hannah is so Veronica. What she really wants to know is if Logan is once more available, or at least whether the “good taste” period for him to cool off before he can reasonably begin dating someone else has begun. 

Veronica wants that next person to be herself, naturally, even though she probably is not explicitly admitting it to herself at this point. She is even wearing an uncharacteristically pastel shirt, a more purple color than the one we see Hannah wearing in her next scene with Logan. Maybe she thinks that is the sort of thing Logan now likes. She’s pretending to be a “good girl.” (Oh Veronica) Her facial expression as Logan walks away screams “I need to pretend to be morally indignant even though I’m really impatient waiting for this guy!”

Basically, though, I find it comically typical of Veronica that under the guise of moral concern, she rapidly gets to the “you aren’t with someone else anymore, right?” information she really wanted. Classic.

Wallace walking up and pretending not to watch while probably thinking “oh no, not this again” is the perfect segue, as even he can see through Veronica’s “I can’t stand Logan” facade.

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Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 38: The Rapes of Graff, or, Rambling About Keith’s Bowling Buddy

[Previous Installment: Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 39: Plan B, or, Why Logan Kant Just Agree to Help Veronica]

Dr. Tom Griffith is a relatively minor character in the second season of Veronica Mars. Dr. Tom is a plastic surgeon in hock to the Fitzpatricks for drug money (Griffith has coke habit), and the Fitzpatricks force him to lie and say he saw Logan kill Felix so that Thumper could start secretly using the PCH to sell drugs for the Fitzpatricks. Dr. Griffith is also the father of Hannah. Logan figures this out, and so seduces Hannah in order to manipulate the doctor into recanting the false testimony. It works, and Logan dumps Hannah.

Logan being Logan, he develops feelings for the girl and feels horrible about what he has done. This leads to the (almost) hookup scene in Logan’s hotel room. Griffith interrupts and gives the bad boy the classic “stay away from my daughter,” Logan says “you can’t stop me, the deal is off” (or something) and Griffith gives him the staredown above and notes that it is too late. Logan really can’t refute that, and makes one of his classic woobie faces. Later, at school, Logan finds out Hannah got shipped off to boarding school.

Is this my favorite scene? I dunno. It is not really the ‘hotness” aspect, as Hannah just seems so much younger (which was probably intentional in order to emphasize the awfulness of Logan’s scheme) Honestly, the staredown pic is so funny that I had to put it up there. It is such a generic “Dad of innocent girl goes off on bad boy” shot. I also like it because it puts Logan’s occasionally exaggerated height into perspective. Logan is usually around Veronica, Keith, Weevil, and the rest of the hobbits so it is easy to miss that Jason Dohring is of basically average height.

I could discuss Veronica tasering an unsuspecting guy just because he was a douche earlier and got in the way of her flying beers, but I’d rather do something a little different and talk about Dr. Griffith.

“Oooo, that Dr. Griffith I hate him so much!” Does anyone really think that? I don’t know. I’m not here to evaluate and/or set straight whatever the consensus might be. Is Dr. Griffith a bad guy? He certainly makes mistakes. Being an addict in itself does not make him a bad guy, but the addiction (and the debts to which it led) put him in a position to be compromised. We do not know exactly what went down between Dr. Tom and Hannah’s mom (Stephanie), as Hannah seems pretty clueless, and even her half-revelations that they broke up over money and drugs does not reveal much. Without saying that the divorce was all on him, it is fair to say that he definitely made his share of mistakes that led to the end of his marriage.

A lot of people screw up relationships and let their addictions get the best of them (and Dr. Tom does not seem totally dominated by drugs, either), that does not make them evil in real life, or even a “bad guy” in real life. Heck, Logan does both of those things and more, and at this point we are rooting for him as if he were a good guy.

Obviously, giving false testimony against an innocent person is wrong. So, like with his marital mistakes, that is a strike against Dr. Griffith, but does that mean he is just evil? I do not think so.

Dr. Griffith’s domestic screw-ups and false testimony against Logan (and the latter’s perspective and comment on the doctor) tend to make Tom look pretty bad. Since we get mostly Logan’s perspective, though, it is skewed. Logan may be projecting his own daddy issues onto the situation, thus it is easy for him to reduce Hannah’s dad to a “lying coke-head plastic surgeon” (twice in 2x15, once to Cliff and once to the doctor’s face). Logan is often very insightful about people, but his (understandable) anger and fear should give us pause before we reduce Dr. Griffith to just that.

Veronica Mars is a virtual parade of horrible parents. Is Dr. Griffith one of them, right there with Aaron, Lianne, Steve Batando, and the rest?

Lianne is an interesting case. Again, it is not so much the addiction itself that makes her loathsome, it is her selfishness. Yes, she felt she had to leave because of Celeste’s threats, but she did so in a way that made Veronica feel like Lianne simply did not care. Letting Veronica pay for a rehab stint with her college fund is questionable, at best. Dropping out of rehab and coming home  and hiding her delinquincy (as well as the continued drinking) is awful. When Veronica tells her to leave, Lianne does not just leave the apartment, she blows town for good, taking the $50,000 check from the Kanes with her (college fund number two! Still wondering how Lianne cashed that thing) and disappears from Veronica’s life for about a decade.

Like Lianne, Dr. Griffith has let let his addiction contribute to the destruction of his marriage. Lianne lacks personal integrity, and Dr. Griffith’s is compromised to the point where he is doing dirty work in case against Logan. Yet, unlike Lianne, he tries to fight through his troubles. He is determined to stay in Neptune and stay close to his daughter. If that means being the Fitzpatrick’s boy rather than fleeing Neptune and their reach, so be it.

Hannah is finally sent away from her father, but it seems as if it is a last resort. Dr. Griffith is trying to keep her away from Logan, but it likely is as much to keep Hannah away from himself, who is likely in deep trouble with the Fitzpatricks (who would have no problems coming after his family) after recanting his false testimony. The Fitzpatricks are a much bigger threat to Hannah than Logan. Dr. Griffith made bad decisions, but he tried as long as he could to keep Hannah close until he just could not any more. (Frankly, given the nature of Neptune, a lot of kids probably would have been better off in boarding schools).

Way back in 1x7 (“Kanes and Abel’s), Veronica characterizes Clarence Wiedman as a “good man in a bad situation.” Wiedman seems to be a fan favorite, probably because he’s tall, handsome, and badass. We are, for whatever reason, taking Veronica’s word for it (her snapshot judgments of character are, let’s say, not always great) on both the “good man” and “bad situation” parts. I like Wiedman, too, and even if one gives him a pass on killing Aaron Echolls (not that I am saying one should, just do not want to get into that here), he did the following (among other) really horrible things: 1) helped cover up Lilly’s time of death when he, Jake, and Celeste had every reason to believe Duncan did it; 2) helped pay off and get Abel Koontz to accept a death sentence; 3) stalks Veronica, takes pictures, and sends them to Lianne with Veronica in crosshairs; 4) helps Jake Kane (although also restraining him) put Keith and Veronica in a vice grip in the series finale.

That is a pretty horrible list. Maybe Wiedman really is a “good man in a bad situation.” Wiedman is not the point here. It is simply to illustrate that we might readily accept that for a guy who has done many worse things than Dr. Griffith, and, more precisely, “good man in a bad situation” seems to be a pretty accurate description of the doctor.

The doctor screwed up his marriage and put himself in a position to be used by criminals. But Griffith seems to be doing the best he can to keep it together, even if it is far from perfect. He seems to have a good reputation, as Cliff remarks in 2x15. Reputation is pretty sketchy in Neptune, but there are indications that it is justified. In 2x07 (“Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner”), Griffith turns down what might seem to be easy money when Veronica asks him for plastic surgery. It might have been because he knew her or just needed to get rid of her to “go to the cigar shop,” but it seemed sincere to me. In any case, he had the “Body Biomorphic Disorder” right there at hand, which indicates he does not take the easy money all of the time and is aware of and perhaps sensitive the issues around cosmetic surgery.  Griffith did get fined for “inappropriate off-site practice,” and while Danny Boyd is not a lovable, starving orphan, Dr. Griffith did save his life.

Whatever his screw-ups, Dr. Griffith never denies them. He does not plead with Logan for himself, but for Hannah. In 2x15, when he and Logan strike the deal it is for Hannah, not Dr. Griffith himself. Even Logan is a bit taken aback and asks about the Fitzpatricks; Dr. Griffith says the Fitzpatricks are his own problem. Griffith, while angry and backed into a corner, offers Logan advice which I take as sincere (although not friendly) and without self-congratulation: “Mark my words, some day that smirk is gonna get wiped off your face.” When Logan snarks back about the doctor’s own misdeeds and pretensions to teach Logan about “karma,” Griffith does not try to justify himself. Dr. Griffith has accepted that he has to face the Fitzpatricks for himself, “it certainly has caught up with me.”

Later, in 2x16, Griffith accepts that, despite everything, he cannot keep both his integrity intact and his daughter in safe proximity. He has already recanted his testimony, it is too late to go back on the deal with Logan. Griffith, unlike, for example, Lianne, has done all he can for Hannah in the bad situation he has had a hand in creating. Now, although it is far from ideal, and far from what he wants, the doctor realizes he has to send his daughter away for her own protection.

While on a stakeout together in 2x17 (“Plan B”), Veronica asks Logan about Hannah and makes the joke about him now being “officially a bad boy” because his girlfriend got sent out of town by her dad. Logan, echoing John Bender from The Breakfast Club, replies that Dr. Griffith and Keith “should get together and go bowling.” Keith, of course, also wants his daughter away from Logan. While I tend to roll my eyes at invocations of Keith as some sort of ideal dad (and this from professional critics!), my problems with Keith’s parenting choices (I will not get into it all here) have little or nothing to do with his issues about Logan and Veronica. I root for Logan, but just as with Dr. Griffith, I totally get Dr. Griffith’s perspective, even if it is limited.

Whatever Keith’s blind spots and mistakes (and there are plenty), he is a good person His mistakes with respect to Veronica are not for lack of love or trying or good intention. Given the situation he found himself in, Dr. Griffith may have had better alternatives than sending Hannah away, but one gets the sense that he felt he had no other choice. Keith seems to be doing the best he can as well, but did he really make the right decision to stay in Neptune after he lost his sheriff’s job and he and Veronica became pariahs? One reason he stayed was to see that justice would be done in the Lilly Kane case. He also wanted to be there to take a small stand against the corruption in the Sheriff's office.

Yet underlying both those reasons (although not completely subverting them) is a sense that Keith stayed out of pride, to show that he would not be run out of town. Keith is entitled to his sense of pride, but was it really the right decision for his family, more specifically, Veronica? Sure, she always stood by him and it is pretty clear that Keith only had a vague idea of what Veronica was going through at school, but he knew enough to know she was deeply unhappy. He also seems to have realized that having her involved in the P.I. business was warping and jading Veronica’s perception of the world.

Neptune needed someone to fight against its ugly side, but it is clear that even as principled a person as Keith Mars is still just one person, and cannot make much of a dent in it. Dr. Griffith finally gives in to his own pride and lets Logan win, and finally accepts thath the situation is such that he cannot keep his daughter both safe and close. Keith,, may have been too proud to call it a day and start over in Pan or somewhere else where Veronica may have had better options.

Of course, if that had happened, we would not have had much of a show. That aside, I am not saying Keith’s choice was the wrong one. There was no perfect decision. Keith was another good person in a bad situation. He has to live with his mistakes. Dr. Griffith has made his own mistakes, and has to live with them as well, but his own willingness to realize that the mess his has created in his own life has no perfectly happy resolution, his willingness to give up his pride, risk his life, and send Hannah away shows that he has accepted his mistakes as his own, and he is doing the best he can.

Dr. Griffith is not perfect, but among the parents of Neptune, he is one of the very few who puts his own desires aside for his child, even if it takes him a while to figure out how to do it. He is surely closer in spirit to Keith than he is to Lianne.

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What is Logan thinking when he gets the “Meet me on the roof” text from Veronica? He is not expecting what he found, since in the second picture he isn’t sneaking or cautious or anything.

My guess: Logan probably expects to go up to the roof and see Veronica waving goodbye while embracing Duncan from a helicopter door as they fly away forever.

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The only sure way for me to notice all my typos and "sentences" abandoned halfway through editing is for me to notice all that stuff has been reblogged. Ugh. Can't stand my writing.

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Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 39: Plan B, or, Why Logan Kant Just Agree to Help Veronica

[Previous Installment: Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 37: The Quick and the Wed, or, A Prick’s Progress]

The Scruple of Conscience

‘Gladly I serve my friends, but alas I do it with pleasure.

Hence I am plagued with doubt that I am not virtuous.

The Verdict

For that there is no other advice: you must try to despise them,

And then do with aversion what your duty commands.’

Friedrich Schiller, as translated by Frederick Beiser

Last year, probably right before I joined tumblr, there was some sort of Favorite Episodes poll. I dunno, I’m too lazy to look it up. I do remember that “An Echolls Family Christmas” won. Plan B was right in there -- perhaps it was second. “Plan B” is an amazing pre-finale climax. Plots lines gets wrapped up in an intertwined manner while pointing forward. The ending is simultaneously satisfying yet troubling. The fluff is, well, fluffy yet meaningful (the Jackie-Wallace-Jane drama and, yes, “Sway”).

However, I have to make a choice, as @susanmichelin has asked us to pick out our Favorite Scene, and mine is, well, not “Sway,”*  the Shocker scene, Danny Boyd (always a plus), Mac and Cassidy being adorable, Jackie laying the smack down on Wallace (for the moment, sigh), Weevil finally making Logan into a killer after spending the last couple years trying, or anything else. Nope, my Favorite Scene in “Plan B” is Veronica and Logan’s conversation in the parking lot near the beginning.

* Big Admission: I don’t mind the “Sway” thing, but it is not even in my top five Veronica and Logan moments. I dunno, but it isn’t just because Logan’s necklace in the scene looks like something you would buy your nine-year-old niece at Claire’s. Sorry.  You can hold on to my fan card until I’m done in the confessional. Dang it, Weevil is still in there!*

So what is with the quote at the top?

Friedrich Schiller’s little ditty from  Xenien is often casually read as a satire of Immanuel Kant’s ethical theory. Actually, Schiller’s epigram probably was meant to satirize simplistic misunderstandings of Kant’s account of morality, but straightening the historical record on this score is beyond my abilities (and the reader’s interest). Even as a satire of a misreading of Kant’s moral theory, though, the quote gets at something with difficult with respect to moral motivation.

Don’t worry, this is not going to get too deep in metaethics (on the off chance an ethicist or Kant scholar reads this -- have mercy, I’m not trying to tread on your turf or pretending to be a scholar, just having some fun) . A very quick way of expressing this aspect of Kant’s moral theory is that moral obligations are justified by what reason determines is the right action to take in a given situation; this is a moral agent’s duty. This duty, rather than self-interest, feeling better about oneself, going to heaven, or whatever else, should to be the primary motive for moral behavior.

Schiller’s lines mock a (still) common misreading of Kant’s point. The misreading of Kant takes him to be saying that if one does the right thing, but enjoys doing so (in the example Schiller gives, serving one’s friends with pleasure), then it is not really “virtuous” action. According to this way of (mis)understanding Kant, doing the right thing is only “right” when one does not enjoy doing it. That seems pretty brutal, not to mention wrong.

A more charitable reading of Kant understands him not as rejecting enjoyment deriving from acting morally, but that enjoyment (or pleasure or coincidental self-interest or whatever) cannot not be the primary motivation or reason for action if the action is to be considered moral. Whether this is a good reading of Kant is one thing, whether even properly-understood Kant offers a satisifying account of morality is another.

Kant scholarship and debates about ethical theory are not my focus here. I do think that Kant (and others before and after him who think along similar lines) gets at something correct here. Acting rightly cannot be based on or reduced to the pleasure or interests. Doing something simply because it benefits oneself (even if it might be right) is not exceptional, and does not reflect the irreducible character of the good. One need not necessarily be Kantian (or think about or ascribe to any particular ethical theory) to see that doing the right thing when it does not benefit oneself (or even to the detriment of oneself) is more admirable than doing the right thing when it benefits oneself.

So what does this have to do with Veronica Mars, or, more accurately, Logan Echolls? As discussed at interminable length is some previous posts, Logan’s arc in the last part of the second season is about Logan gaining moral orientation. His actions towards Hannah, are clearly wrong, despite him doing it to free himself of unjust prosecution. Even when Logan helped Weevil discover Felix’s real killer, Logan was not motivated by justice in itself. He was motivated in that case by self-preservation.

Logan is off to something of a fresh start in “Plan B.” The Hannah incident ended badly, but it did end with Dr. Griffith recanting his lie, and Logan is finally free of the prosecution. “Plan B” begins with Logan winning the essay contest (and the internship with Woody Goodman). Veronica, likely frustrated because not only did she not win, she lost to him, reads the essay and picks up on the Easy Rider quote. Since Veronica hates plagiarism so much (ahem), she confronts Logan (she probably was not pleased about all his fangirls congratulating him either) about it, thus setting the “ethical” tone for the first part of this episode.

After talking to Weevil (and her hilarious “Shocker” failure), Veronica realizes she needs to find the real witness to get Thumper arrested for murdering Felix. She reluctantly (after their snarky exchange earlier) has to go back to Logan.

Logan, free of his previous burdens, is back in prime douchebag form. He shoves his (tainted) victory and internship in Veronica’s face. To get his attention, Veronica grabs his car keys as he tosses them and holds them hostage. She demands Logan tell her about the night Felix was killed. Logan is a jerk about it, and says he has no inclination to help take Thumper down now that Logan himself is safe from prosecution (he also manages to [deceptively] zing Veronica on the way):

The whole dead Felix business has lost its intrigue for me, and when something stops being important to me, my memory gets a little fuzzy. Wait...who are you?

Seeing justice done would not give him any additional pleasure by relieving  him of emotional distress. Despite Thumper being free, Logan manages to “sleep like a baby.”

Logan makes it clear that he would not even get any pleasure from getting revenge on Thumper, who, as Veronica notes, framed him (among other things):

Follow the bouncing ball: Not. My. Prob-lem.

It might hard to see through his general obnoxiousness (or hilarity, or both depending on your perspective), but douchebaggery aside, Logan is making it clear that he would get no pleasure, has no personal desire, has no inclination to get involved in the “getting justice for Felix” game.

Logan is, though, still holding back information, just as Veronica is still holding his keys. He pretends to not remember anything about This actually matters. Veronica takes his keys in order to get him to stop and listen to her. Regaining the keys is her intended motivator for him to tell her what he might know. While she holds the keys, he refuses to give up anything helpful about the real witness, snarking back:

Mexican dude, driving a truck. Oh, his truck had a bumper sticker. It said "How's my driving? Call 1-800-EAT"...something.

Veronica is frustrated and gives up, and prepares to stomp away in anger as she does so often when Logan is being like this, but first she returns Logan’s keys.

Here comes the “key” moment. (groan)

Throughout the scene, Logan has repeatedly made the point (and I have probably beat this into the ground, sorry) that he has no motivation with respect to pleasure, revenge, or other variation on self-interest to help get Thumper arrested for killing Felix. Even the promise of getting his keys back does not get him to agree to help. Veronica gives up, and throws the keys she was holding hostage back to Logan after he does not give her anything.

Only then, after verbally making the point that he personally has nothing to gain by finding the real witness, and after getting his keys back, does Logan suddenly volunteer to help (while ducking his head as Logan is wont to do in such situations):

I think it was a, uh, San Diego Seafood truck. Probably know him if I saw him.

Why didn’t Logan just tell Veronica this in the first place? Why did he change his tune? Speculating on Logan’s personal internal dialogue or whatever (e.g., maybe he’s just trying to spend time with Veronica!) along those lines are misses the real significance of what is going on here. The scene is telling us (and Veronica) about how Logan has shifted. The condescension of his responses to Veronica cleverly disguises this aspect of their exchange.

Now that he is no longer in danger of prosecution, Logan gets no benefit from making sure Thumper gets arrested. He does not care about revenge. He is not bothered by the guy who framed him going free. Even getting his keys back does not motivate him. Once Veronica gives back his keys, the last bit of non-moral motivation Logan clearly has for giving Veronica the information she wants, does Logan “do with aversion what [his] duty commands” and offer his help. The change in Veronica’s body language indicates that she notices the difference, even if he does not exactly understand it.

This is a classic snark exchange between Veronica and Logan, but it is not merely fan service. The scene can’t just have Logan simply agree to help Veronica, because he needs to make explicit his lack of self-interest in busting Thumper (and getting his keys back) in order for us to see he is acting from duty alone. There are other signposts both before and after this to be discussed, but this scene makes it most clear: Logan’s moral reorientation is set. Redemption, although not symbolically completed yet, is just around the corner.

In real life, people do not need to articulate or even have an ethical theory in order to act rightly. I personally doubt Logan thinks in theoretical terms (he is smart, but is usually focused on practical and immediate matters). In fiction, however, we need the signs, although they cannot be too obvious or things would get boring. This scene wonderfully articulates Logan’s shift while not making it too easy for us to see it (due to his irritating surface attitude). Almost every little bit of it matters, from Logan’s different ways of saying that helping won’t benefit him to the timing of the key return and Logan’s sudden volunteering of information. If Logan just agreed to help, we would miss his new moral orientation.

That is why, despite Weevil’s machinations, the Fitzpatricks, Wallace and Jane and Jackie,  Mac and Cassidy, and, yes, even “Sway,” this is my Favorite Scene from “Plan B.”

[Screen caps are from vm-caps.com, quotes from the show are from vm-transcripts.com]

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A very meaningful juxtaposition and beautifully done. Because I am shallow, though, I have to say that particular shot from the movie needs its own subtitle. “Logan, wait, I haven’t had an excuse to feel your bicep yet!” 

“Nine years of radio silence, and yet I still kind of knew, deep down, that I can count on you”.

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Nothing like allergic reactions to pollen for the first time since junior high then topping it off with a summer cold to free up time for writing more boring _Veronica Mars_ meta. Coming up later tonight: taking a classic episode (”Plan B”) and spending most of the post talking about ethical theory written by dudes who died ~200 years go.

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That’s basically what happened in the movie.

-----

Guess what! I’ve uncovered a transcript of the pre-season three writers/producers meeting for Veronica Mars. An excerpt from a meeting already in progress:

----

WRITER 1: Excuse me, but "nice guy" and "hip musical taste?" Aren't these just generic stand-ins that lazy shows use to make a character seem likable? Not that I'm accusing you of anything like that. I'm fired, aren't I?

ROB THOMAS: Oh yes. The rest of you writers start thinking up a name for this nice guy love interest; I dunno, something along the lines of say... “Piz,” only hipsterer.

GENERIC CW NETWORK EXECUTIVE: Yeah!

[THOMAS and GENERIC CW NETWORK EXECUTIVE leave]

DIANE RUGGIERO: So, “Piz” okay with everybody?

OTHER WRITERS: Yeah...

Yup.

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Yup.

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Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 37: The Quick and the Wed, or, A Prick’s Progress

[Previous Installment: Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 36: Versatile Toppings, or, Body and Soul]

“The Quick and the Wed” has much to recommend it: a meta-filled Mystery of the Week, Kendall involved in separate schemes with Cassidy and Aaron and the aftermath of Veronica finding explosives in Terrence’s garage. Although those all deserve attention in their own right, I am going to continue to mine Logan’s moral reformation arc, as it is pulled off well.

There are a few different scenes I could pick as my “Favorite” to use as a jumping-off point, but I have picked the well-known “you’re cute when you’re jealous” nose bop because it shows both the nature of Veronica’s concern and perspective, as well as highlighting Logan’s own shift in attitude during the episode by way of contrast with the final scene.

This scene seems to be well-loved. Veronica is doing one of her classic stone cold/repressed lust confrontations with Logan in front of the Celeste-Kane’s-Trench-Coat-colored lockers (I maintain that one of the primary difficulties with Veronica and Logan’s relationship in the third season was that Hearst did not have yellow lockers). Logan is being an ass in response. Not everyone enjoys this scene, or at least not Logan in this scene. I personally feel there is no conflict between acknowledging that Logan is being an entitled, condescending prick here (right down to the nose bop) and also still loving the scene because the actors get across its explicit significance as well as the incredibly rich subtext between the two characters.

As for the theme of this point...

The previous installment discussed (at length) the perspectival shift regarding Logan. Veronica directs herself away from Logan’s potential death (and his body generally, including sexuality) and towards his moral orientation (soul). Veronica is stopped in her tracks not so much by seeing Logan with Hannah, but by her realization that Logan is merely manipulating the girl (and thereby his father) to secure his own freedom from unjust prosecution.

The perspective shift is driven home at the beginning of the episode, as various characters are seen watching TInseltown Diaries. While the viewers have had a front seat to the Echolls mess, Tinseltown Diaries gives us a window into how the situation must look from in-universe spectators. Of particular interest here is that Logan is seen worried, as he knows how his past of bum fights and the Felix murder rap looks from the outside -- is he just another spoiled Hollywood wild child taking after his murderous father? Hannah’s mother certainly seems to think so -- “That’s who you’re dating?” Aaron is already readying his defense (No tapes! Duncan is violent!), manipulating things to make him seem innocent of the crime we committed. Logan is innocent, but, like his father, is utilizing privilege (the popular, good-looking senior) to manipulate the situation.

Veronica understands why Logan is doing what he is doing. When she confronts him in front of the lockers, she acknowledges “San Quentin isn't quite as enticing as, say, college.”* Yet Veronica is stunned by the apparent cruelty of Logan’s plan: “Toying with a sweet little girl's heart just to screw with her dad... .  damn, you've really plumbed new depths, Logan.” After all, if anyone knows what it is like to have one’s heart betrayed, it should be Logan. Beyond whatever feelings of jealousy Veronica is feeling (and they are there, as Logan obnoxiously [and defensively] points out as he walks off), she is disgusted with his continuing amoral behavior -- the end (Logan being free of mistaken prosecution for Felix’s murder) does not justify the means (using Hannah as a pawn).

* This might be understood as a suggestion on Veronica’s part that Logan think about his future; as we learn at the beginning of 2x20, Logan has not really considered it at all. I have been told this is common among victims of child abuse.

Veronica’s disapproval of Logan justifying ends by means, of throwing scruples to the wind to obtain a just result is ironic given many of her various operations throughout the series. That irony is worth reflection, but Logan’s moral orientation is the focus here

While there were already signs in 2x14 that Logan knows just how awful he is being (trying to hide his relationship with Hannah -- not because he is ashamed of her, but because he is ashamed of himself), he is desperate. He knows how “Tinseltown Diaries” plays to the public. Cliff makes it clear to him in their meeting that it does not really matter if he is innocent, if the witness is crooked, or even it would have been self-defense (a striking anticipation of how Aaron’s trial goes, albeit from the other direction). Logan does not want to believe this, but Cliff convinces him. Cliff also, unwittingly, then, helps Logan justify his manipulation of Hannah and her parents to himself.

An important signpost along the way is the devastating (if perhaps too forward) scene in which Logan tricks Hannah’s mother into letting him use her computer and writes an email to Hannah’s father to get him concerned (thus confirming, without her knowledge, Hannah’s mother’s opinion of him). As he walks back in, he overhears Hannah arguing with her mother. Hannah is defending Logan as her mother recites Logan’s public misdeeds, and really lets loose with some key comments: “He's a phony. He's ugly on the inside… he's gonna break your heart.” Logan does end up breaking Hannah’s heart despite himself. Logan, being a world-class recipient of heartbreak, knows how that feels (and being Logan, falls for Hannah enough to get his own taste).

Sympathetic viewers “know” that Logan is not “really” like this, that he is only manipulating Hannah because he has to do so. But who is Logan, really. Good intentions and a “good heart” only go so far. No matter the justification, Logan is being phony. After so many bad acts, so much abuse of privilege, it there any point to pretending Logan “really” is not like that? Is Logan willing to to be just like Aaron, who pretends to be a good guy while actually just doing whatever he wants? Logan might as well be  “ugly on the inside” if he can really justify using Hannah in this manner.

* I left out the phrase about sex because, although it is a legitimate concern from Hannah’s mother’s perspective, that is not why Logan is doing this.

Logan’s later statement to Hannah that her mother might be right about him (even as he continues his plan) expresses his struggle:

HANNAH: You heard what my mom said, didn't you?

LOGAN: Yeah, I got the gist.

HANNAH: Just ignore her. She's bitter about the divorce. She thinks all men are evil.

LOGAN: Well, maybe she's right.

HANNAH: What, about men?

Logan halts and faces Hannah.

LOGAN: No. About me.

Logan fails to do the right thing, still. He is still on the downward path. There are signs he can turn it around. He realizes he has no excuses, that his actions, not some unseen inner hidden beauty are finally what matters. Logan is cognizant how far he has gone (watching Hannah, the innocent young girl, pressuring a stunned Logan for sex is priceless), but nonetheless he makes the deal with Hannah’s father -- his plan worked. Logan mocks Dr. Griffith’s angry attempt to proffer advice, but it is clear that it does not feel good.

Personally, I think the “waiting for true love by the espresso machine” thing is too obvious, but it fits well enough. What is really happening in this scene (well, right after the scene, but we get the picture is Logan’s admission to Veronica (and the viewers) that he has, after all, “done something horrible.” He lets go of the pride and defensiveness that fueled his obnoxious reaction to Veronica’s less-than-tactful approach during their initial encounter by the lockers to be honest with her and confess his wrongdoing.

On one level, it is important that Logan and Veronica return more directly into each other’s emotional space for their romantic storyline to make sense. Romance is not just romance with Logan and Veronica, and in this case, in particular, she is less a participant than an observer. Beyond that surface level the more important sign is that Logan not only recognizes his wrongdoing, but is willing to admit that it is wrong for all to see. It is an both an implicit apology to Veronica for his earlier dismissal of her, and an admission to the world that his ends do not justify the means. Seen in this light, the encounter by the lockers becomes more than a guilty pleasure, it is necessary to mark Logan’s progress from the start to the end of this episode.

(Or maybe I’m just trying to rationalize naming it my favorite and writing another overlong post on this topic.)

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Rereading @cheshirecatstrut’s 80s fic and I’ve decided that the random long haired passive aggressive guy in wheelie shoes is Piz. No one tell me that it isn’t.

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Oh You Idiots, Part 523454 (Classic Logan, Classic Veronica)

These aren’t funny scenes, but because I am a horrible person, part of me can’t help but laugh at the hilarious predictability of how each incident turns out.

Top Set: Logan comes up with an Eeeevil plan that involves threatening the false witness with the seduction of the witness’ innocent daughter unless the false testimony is revoked. It works, but Logan ends up falling for Hannah anyway because Logan. He is so crushed when Hannah’s dad spirits her away that Logan makes perhaps his second-most-intense woobie face* of the series.

*  Number One is definitely the insanely (and comically)  over-the-top face from the end of 3x8 when Veronica lets him go to voicemail ARGH THE AGONY. They might as well have had Logan grasping on to a teddy bear or something.

Bottom Set: Veronica wants to be “really [emotionally] intimate” with Logan. Hey, that sounds great! Unfortunately, Veronica can’t tell the difference between a heart-to-heart talk and a one-sided interrogation because Veronica. Cue another Logan woobie face.

Yes, they are emotionally intense scenes, but also so Logan/so Veronica that they are pretty funny. (Again, this may just be because I’m awful.)

Oh you idiots, you lovable idiots.

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Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 36: Versatile Toppings, or, Body and Soul

[Previous Installment: Favorite Scene From Each Episode of Veronica Mars Day 41: I Am God, or, One for Wu]

Logan Echolls has been a bad boy from the very first episode. Fans understandably bristle at the idea of Logan being a generic “bad boy,” but he does fit enough of the tropes. There is little point in arguing about a label so broad that it misses the specificity of what people love (and/or hate) about Logan. Jason Dohring’s performance is so oustanding it transcends the more cliche moments. His skill combined with the generally excellent writing for Logan makes the character more than just another example.

One of the tropes of the bad boy love interest is his redemption. The markers for redemption in fiction and in real life are two different things. Real life is far more complicated. In fiction, we do not really get to see every little bit of what might be required for personal redemption in reality. That would actually be rather boring. Fiction uses signposts and symbolism to make the point.

While we have been at least somewhat sympathetic to Logan’s plight since at least 1x6 (the “Return of the Kane” belt closet) and have grown to understand why he does the things he does a bit better, that understanding is not the same as exoneration. Just because we better understand why someone does something awful does not make that awful act okay. Explanation is not justification. We see glimpses already in the first season that Logan can be a better person, indeed, quite a different person than he often is. However, there is never really a “redemption arc” in the first season.

A while back I was reading some review (I can’t remember exactly where; I have a good guess, but do not want to get it wrong) of the movie that claimed Logan’s redemption in the movie seemed too quick and easy. Since I do not remember all the details and refuting every little thing out there is not my goal, I will not pursue that further. I only mention it because the comment struck me as missing the point: Logan’s moral redemption actually happens symbolically in the series, and actually happens in the latter half of season two.

Perhaps the commentator missed the arc because Logan still screws up (though not as badly) in season three, or that he is still intensely self-destructive. Saying that he is “redeemed” does not mean he is now perfect, only that something has shifted in the way the character should be seen. Logan suddenly (from our perspective not having seen the the nine year interim) having his life together at the beginning of the movie mean redemption, anyway – at least not in the moral sense I am discussing here. One can be properly morally oriented towards the world while still making mistakes and not having a vocational direction.

For much of the first season and the first part of the second season, Logan seems to lack a sense that he should be ethical. This is not to say Logan never does the right thing for its own sake: getting Weevil’s expulsion revoked (1x7), coming to Veronica’s “rescue” (1x18, down the road I’ll get to the quote marks), standing up for Veronica then telling her the truth when he did not have to (as opposed to everyone else) and taking responsibility for his misdeeds (1x21) are just a few examples. Although these and other actions indicate that Logan is not a sociopath like his father, they are still at that point exceptional acts of a screwed-up kid who mostly lets his instincts guide him, sometimes to the right thing, but more often than not immediate, poorly thought out, and selfish actions.

This is not a white wash. Logan has done some horrible stuff. This actually sets Logan Echolls apart from many teen fiction “bad boys”: he has actually been bad. Logan isn’t like one of the inmates in some prison movies: “I got 15 years for stealing lollipops for my orphaned niece, I don’t know if I can make it on the outside.” Some bad boys are simply snarky jerks – Logan is that, but if snark and being obnoxious makes someone a “bad” then Veronica would be a bad. Nor is Logan “bad” because he is poor or from the wrong side of the tracks (a lame way of making audiences wary of a character’s alleged badness, since it is not wrong to be poor, it makes most of us sympathetic to his plight).*

* This is an interesting twist. It is commonplace in fiction to cast the economically marginalized in a sympathetic or heroic light (even though that does not necessarily mean all such works have a “progressive” message), and Veronica Mars does so right from the start (although not to a cloying extent – Weevil is hardly portrayed as a saint). In such a context, Logan being a rich, spoiled kid only adds to his “badness.” From Veronica’s perspective, the 09er zip code is the wrong side of the tracks (or at least she says so now that she is not one of them).

Logan did not steal bread for the starving or smart off to unreasonable teachers. (Well, he kind of does both of those things, but those are not what require a specific redemption arc.) He has done really bad stuff. If you need some examples (although if you are reading this you’ve seen the show and know this): bullying Veronica, bashing in her headlights, running bum fights, using a impaired Veronica as a salt lick, drugging Duncan, burning down a pool, and, as the most proximate example, his seduction of Hannah for his own ends.

It is not just the individual acts that make Logan one bad dude, it is his outlook: entitled, violent, selfish, classist, and bigoted.

So yes, it is well-established that Logan needs redemption.

Let’s get one thing clear: Logan needs redemption for his own sake because moral orientation matters. It would be easy to get sucked into thinking Logan needs redemption because only then would it make him “worthy” of Veronica. That is another side rant in already too-lengthy post. In short, Veronica’s love and companionship (or any other person) is not a “prize” to be won as if Logan was a knight jousting for his fair (indeed, incredibly pale) maiden or something silly like that. But I’m getting distracted. Logan needs moral redemption for his own sake, for the sake, one might say, of his soul. Moreover, as we will see, although Veronica is present (in one way or another) for significant signposts along the way, Logan does not do it “for her sake” nor does she provide him with any real guidance – and she can’t without defeating the purpose.*

* Note the twisted isomorphism between Logan’s escape from his legal plight (he is innocent and is trying to get off of charges) and his symbolic moral progress (he is “bad” and needs to redeem himself) over the next few episodes. Although it is often said (and often true) that Veronica is always getting Logan out of jams, in this particular case (the renewed charges), Logan basically does it by himself. Veronica helped him figure out who Dr. Griffiths was, and Weevil helped figured out it was Thumper (for his own purposes), but it is completely Logan’s scheme with Hannah that finally gets him out of the legal jam. Logan has to do something wrong (the violation of the trust on an innocent) in order to get justice for himself. At the same time he is doing wrong in order to get things right, he is in the process of making a moral shift makes him authentically understand why doing this wrong thing to help ensure that he is rightly let go in this case is wrong. Right? (Sorry) Just as Veronica does not help him with the real work of getting himself off the charges, she cannot do the work of shifting his moral orientation.

When does Logan’s redemption arc really start? It arguably starts at the beginning of the series, when he takes Weevil’s beating without fighting back so that his worthless friends do not get beaten down by the PCH. That is a legitimate way of looking at it. However, like the other incidents of Logan doing the right thing from season one and the first part of season two, I see those as more a preparation for a more specific, explicit shift in moral orientation for Logan. They are signs that he can be better.

In the way I am construing the things, Logan’s very specific symbolic shift takes place in the last part of season two, culminating in his actions on the roof of the Neptune Grand. As so often in the series, Veronica’s perspective points us the way with respect to Logan – and this is a particularly outstanding case of “showing not saying” because she never “says” anything very informative (if at all)  to us about Logan in her voice overs.

It begins in the scene screencapped at the beginning of this post. We start with from Logan’s perspective. Hannah has just told Logan that he was right about her father. As the ingenue walks out, Logan takes her hand and books, the music swells, and hearts swoon.

Veronica and Mac walk past Logan and Hannah, and the scene is handed off to Veronica and Mac. Veronica feigns nonchalance, and asks Mac who the girl is. Veronica keeps walking with until this bombshell stops her in her tracks: “Hannah something, I think. I’d be a willowy blonde too if my dad was a plastic surgeon.” Veronica does not understand how Logan is with some girl she does not recognize and that Veronica has never seen him with, but she does know that Dr. Griffiths, a plastic surgeon, is the witness who lied about Logan killing Felix. It all falls into  place.

While Veronica is jealous both here and the scenes at the beginning of the next episode, that is really a side issue (although Logan uses it effectively [and obnoxiously] to silence her legitimate moral concerns at the beginning of 1x15). Veronica’s thoughts here are fodder for speculation: “her” Logan, the “real” Logan is sincere, loving, vulnerable, open, and totally focused on his paramour. Has he lost that? Or worse, was “her” Logan also a mirage? (To add to the irony, just as Veronica sees Logan faking his affections for Hannah for his own gain, he is actually starting to have feelings for the younger girl.)

Whatever Veronica’s specific personal thoughts at the moment, the general tenor of the scene is Veronica’s disappointment in Logan, which reflects and guides the viewer’s. This marks the beginning of Logan’s specific redemption arc. Veronica does not stop and turn when she sees Logan with another (potential) sexual partner, she turns when she realizes that he is using Hannah.

Veronica has cared about Logan doing the right thing in the past, but this scene makes his moral character the center of her focus (as well the audience’s) in way it has not been before. She is always concerned with Logan, but earlier in the season, it was concern about his bodily well-being, his potential bodily death or (from her perspective) defilement (or not being possessed by her). Some examples:

– “Someone is going to get killed” (2x1) in the gang wars he helps perpetuate

– Veronica’s obsession with Logan sexually (particularly in 2x02 and 2x03), which is not so much about Logan’s adulterous ways, but about Veronica’s desire to possess him sexually (or at least that another not possess him sexually)

– Even in 2x3, Veronica’s expresses concern about Logan’s death (what will happen with Big Dick finds out?).

– The sexual element is not really present in the wake of their escape from the River Styx in 2x8, but her concern is still that Logan is going to get himself killed.

Although Logan and Veronica have some good scenes together between 2x8 and 2x14, it is only here (well, actually, the beginning of the next episode) that they begin to enter into each other’s emotion orbit once more. But in contrast to earlier in the season when Veronica was obsessed Logan’s body, this scene marks a shift of her (and our) perspective from concern with his body to his moral self, what might in some traditions be thought of as his soul. Veronica is able to keep cool when she sees Logan holding another girl’s hand, it is the revelation that he is manipulating an innocent that stops her in her tracks.

Logan deflects Veronica when she confronts him at the beginning of 2x15, he begins to make progress by letting go of his defensiveness (a bit) and confessing to her at the end of that episode. She confronts him again at the beginning of 2x16, but in any case, Veronica remain an observer to Logan’s conflicting struggle for both legal exoneration (of a sort) and moral progress (some details of which will be forthcoming, I hope). As Logan struggles, Veronica, like those of us in the audience, can only watch in frustration and expectation as Logan steps forward and backward along the path.