3.03 "Wichita Linebacker"

Aired Oct 17, 2006

Speculation

grim squeaker: Hello?
grim squeaker: Juhu...
grim squeaker: Earth to Inigo Montoya, I killed your father...
Inigo: I'm here. Hang on a sec.
grim squeaker: I will.
Inigo: Sandwich eaten. You now have my undivided attention.
grim squeaker: Well, you will have to sit tight for a minute, as I visit the bathroom.
Inigo: Sitting tight. Unlike you.
grim squeaker: There is no smilie with a raised eyebrow, so imagine me with a raised eyebrow.
Inigo: Hee.
grim squeaker: Okay, I'm back. Let's roll, dude.

One of us is crazy

Inigo: The football team.
grim squeaker: Yes? What about them?
Inigo: Let's start with the name and logo. The Rough Riders with a logo that looks like the head of a sinister man in a fedora.
grim squeaker: Maybe they are Clarence Wiedman's team? LOL I mean...carry on, I'm listening.
Inigo: It just seems...off on a campus that has a serial rapist. And it's been picked by the writers. Why? What's the significance? Rough riding can have sexual connotations, or is that just me?
grim squeaker: Why has it been picked by the writers? Wouldn't it have been designed by Rick Pickett? And, well, anything containing Rough or riding may have sexual connotations.
Inigo: It's disturbing, as is the logo. I mean, was the original Hearst supposed to be a dark Sam Spade?
grim squeaker: Maybe the College really has a sense of humour and that mascot is supposed to be William Randolph Hearst? Er, no, Hearst is Citizen Kane, not Sam Spade.
Inigo: Exactly, and the logo is more The Third Man than Kane.
grim squeaker: He did wear Fedoras occasionally, though, and it kind of fits the image the film gives of Kane.
Inigo: It's a creepy man, in the dark, at a time when a serial rapist is on the loose. So, if we assume that the name and logo are of long standing, then we have the question of whether or not the rapist is in some way living up to the image.
grim squeaker: Well...a serial rapist by definition would be dark and creepy, right? (Psst, I'm not quite following you!)
Inigo: I don't know what I'm saying. It's all half-formed. But if your college defines itself by that image, then it seems to me that doing or condoning acts that fit that image are a consequence. Does that make any sense?
grim squeaker: I'm probably just not very analytical today. So, you're saying that the mascot kind of visualizes the...willingness of the college to accept violent acts perpetrated by dark and creepy men?
Inigo: No. Not the college, not consciously anyway. But that certain twisted individuals may see it as not only a willingness to accept violent acts perpetrated by a dark and creepy man, but as a justification for perpetrating those acts — that it's a way of showing college spirit.
grim squeaker: ...That would be some very twisted logic. I think that's a little too abstract. I mean, boy goes to college, sees mascot and thinks, yay, rape a chick for Hearst? I don't think so.
Inigo: Simplistic but something like that. And maybe not a boy.
grim squeaker: I don't think it's too simplistic, I think it's a little too removed. I mean, who thinks like that?

So...Claire's dad...

grim squeaker: I make nothing of the logo other than that it's creepy. I'm still trying to remember whose room we first saw it in, was that Moe or Fagan?
Inigo: I saw it in Moe's room last week and capped it to ask if it was a comic CR. I don't remember seeing it the first week, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. This week, it was everywhere, including at the radio station. I believe it was the first time we learned the football team were called the Rough Riders.
grim squeaker: Well, it's a creepy guy who's everywhere, much like the rapist. Doesn't mean that it has to be someone from the football team.
Inigo: All right then, the second thing of interest. When Veronica selected the playbook file from Coach Fry's computer, there were other files, including one marked "Special teams." In itself, it doesn't mean anything, but it is curious as to what it might mean.
grim squeaker: What do you think it might mean? (And do you think Claire's father is Linderman? Sorry, I digress.)
Inigo: I don't know. I don't know enough about college football to know if that's unusual. Given Fry's treatment of Kurt, I think I'm safe in assuming that it's not a team for the disabled that he gives his time too.
[One week later Inigo:] Okay! I know, I KNOW...as topanga explains in the RTR. It is not unusual as "special teams" have a distinct meaning in college football. I get it. Still think there's something iffy about the team though. Back to normal transmission.
Inigo: The third thing of interest: when Veronica interviews Pop, she lets slide a comment of his that set alarms off in my head. It was this: "I was behind and I thought it's not like either of us would get caught, so..." So, Pop is saying that as a football player, his cheating on homework would not be a problem.
grim squeaker: I don't read that as it would not be a problem, I read it as they wouldn't get caught. Because, why should Kurt rat Pop out?
Inigo: Why would he think that neither of them would be caught? He's turning in exactly the same assignment.
grim squeaker: Is he? How do we know that he doesn't change some details?
Inigo: It's not about Kurt ratting him out. It's a question of why he thinks that there was no chance that the college authorities would pick up the fact that he copied, wholesale or with minor changes, Kurt's work. Or rather, that there was no chance of him getting into trouble because of it.
grim squeaker: Can we stop the recording for a second?
Inigo: Yes.
grim squeaker: I don't know what you want to reach with this. Really, I need some point of reference, like, do you think Pop did it, do you think this is a meta commentary on how athletes get away with anything... I thought the only part really relevant for the rape mystery was the stuff with the Lilith girls, the lampoon editors and Claire. And of course Weevil now being on campus. Veronica just got muscle. Apart from that, I felt that some players for the next mystery were set up. Mercer. Probably the Dean.
Inigo: I think the footballers are going to be important but whether for the rape or the other mysteries, I don't know.
grim squeaker: I really don't have many thoughts on this episode, sorry. I found it boring, it didn't get me to think much.
Inigo: Okay. Maybe I need to go away and work out a theory first.
grim squeaker: I suppose it did advance the mystery in some way, and I'm sure you are right and the posters are important, but I can't really figure out how.
Inigo: There's more, like Kurt being treated like a "piece of meat." I'll try and work through this stuff on my own and come back to you with something more cohesive.
grim squeaker: Yes, you do that. So... is Claire's dad Mr. Linderman?
Inigo: No idea.
grim squeaker: Exactly. Me neither.

A few hours later...

Inigo: Okay. So I can't come up with anything coherent. Just a conviction that there's something going with the football team. Trish said that they treated Kurt like a "piece of meat" and tortured him. That seems overblown unless there's more to it. Then there's the question about Claire's rape and whether it is the serial rapist, or an opportunistic copycat, or a Lilith House scam to help prove their point. Then there's the fact that Larry could walk in and out of Trish's room, the same dorm as Parker's. And his gambling roomie, who's associated with the oily Mercer. Then there's the dean whose wife slept with Chip. What do you think about them?
Inigo: Hello?
Inigo: Grim?
Inigo: Where are you?
grim squeaker: *snores*
Inigo: *cries*