3.08 "Lord of the Pi's"
Aired Nov 21, 2000
Roundtable Reviews
misskiwi: Like last week, I thought this one was good, but not great. Certainly nothing to complain about, but I didn't leave fingernail marks on the arms of my chair, either.
Inigo: I wasn't overwhelmed. Initially, I found Veronica's hyper-exuberance around Keith a little perplexing and annoying, but on reflection it made some sense. After the attack on her, she needs to keep Keith sweet, a job made harder by Logan's appearance at the apartment. I think she spent the episode being deliberately light with Keith to reassure him that she was fine. She kids him, she kids herself.
misskiwi: Plus, she spent the last episode giving him such a cold shoulder that he probably got frostbite, and he went and dumped his new girlfriend partly as a result of that. She probably feels...not bad, since she feels that it was the right thing to do, but she probably is overcompensating a bit now that they're back on good terms.
funky-donut: I liked this episode as well, although I found myself annoyed during the Logan/Veronica fight. It's clear to me that a lot of Logan's protectiveness stems from Lilly, yet he never mentioned her. It's also clear to me that a lot of Veronica's drive to stop the rapist stems from her own rape, which Logan should understand, yet she never mentions it. It frustrates me that those issues didn't come up, because I suspect that the writers don't want to mention events of past seasons for fear of confusing new viewers. But those issues are very pertinent, so I wish they were mentioned. I also have to point out that it really annoyed me that Wallace got clocked, Veronica got dragged away, and then we never saw her check on him. We never even saw him again in the episode! It's a little thing, but we should have seen her check on him.
misskiwi: Nice, funky-donut, I never even thought of that. Yeah, I'm always a fan of them referencing past events like Veronica's rape and Lilly's murder and how they've impacted (and even, in a way, created) our characters.
topanga: funky-donut, you're a genius. I didn't think of that, either. Poor Wallace. Veronica's dissin' him left and right. Maybe she doesn't like his new haircut. I don't either.
It seems like the writers are deliberately ignoring continuity in an effort not to confuse new viewers. But it makes perfect sense that Logan would be so protective of Veronica. He was indirectly responsible for her first rape — both her encounter with Duncan and her real rape by Cassidy — he provided the GHB that eventually drugged Veronica. And I'm convinced he still thinks he could have protected Lilly from being murdered, as he did in "Clash of the Tritons."
wyk: Veronica did mention her rape to Parker, so the writers aren't deliberately avoiding the issue. I think part of the reason why the characters don't go around saying, "I act this way because this, this, and this happened" is because Rob doesn't like emotional exposition.
Inigo: Speaking of characters talking: Patty Hearst was a mistake. The associations are all very well, but damn, the woman cannot act for toffee, and it pulled me out of what was otherwise a fair mystery. It wasn't one where massive numbers of folk could say "I saw that coming," and it's refreshing not to hear/read it. Of course, the alternative response is "I didn't get it," which in this case I find hard to understand. It was pretty straightforward after all.
misskiwi: Yeah, I just didn't find that it surprised me or that it was one of those reveals that's a head-slapping, "Oh, of COURSE!" moment.
funky-donut: I suspect Hallie made the whole thing up about Brant's Swimfan love for Budd, but that wasn't really confirmed. Other than that, I thought it was a pretty good mystery, although I agree that Patty couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.
topanga: The real question: can Patty Hearst keep a straight face while robbing a bank? Sorry. That was mean.
misskiwi: I'm so impressed with how they're working this conflict between Logan and Veronica. I completely buy every reaction they've had to each other and how they've responded to the various situations. I'm not necessarily rooting for them to break up, but I like seeing a conflict that arises very naturally from what we know about the characters.
Inigo: Okay. I'll admit it. I did want to shake Veronica on Logan's behalf — not for wanting to avoid the confrontation at the apartment, not for neglecting to tell Keith about her hair, not for being pissed off that Logan hired a bodyguard without her knowledge, but for telling him she loved him, so casually, when she's not even sure if she's capable of what she knows he means by it. If that makes sense. She fobbed him off, and he didn't deserve it. But I agree it was perfectly in character.
funky-donut: I don't really get why Veronica doesn't want Keith to know about the hair. What is the purpose of keeping that from him?
wyk: She didn't tell Keith about being raped at Shelly's party, so it's in character for her not to tell Keith the entire truth about her encounter with the Hearst rapist. I wonder if she even told him that she saw the rapist in the garage.
fulfilled: The dynamic between Logan and Keith lately is fascinating to me. Ever since "Charlie Don't Surf," when we first saw Logan's feelings about Veronica and Keith's relationship, it seems like they're forging a sort of alliance. While there's still almost as much history between the two of them as there is between Veronica and either of them, it seems like they're realizing that they both love Veronica, and that makes them allies. Logan, in particular, seems to be working to include Keith (encouraging Veronica to talk to him, being upfront with him about Veronica's whereabouts and the fact that they're having trouble, and both of them sitting with her while she was recovering, for instance), which, given his own history, is a complete 180 from anything he would have ever done around Aaron.
Inigo: I agree and I hope it continues to develop, although with the break-up inevitable at this point there must be fewer opportunities.
misskiwi: It's nice, too, to see Keith (mostly) get over his dislike of Logan, as he realizes that he's not all bad.
topanga: But how does Veronica really feel about Logan? When he asked her if she loved him, I agree with Inigo that her "Yeah" was very lackluster. Was she being guarded, or did she just say that to keep the peace? There was no VO to help me out.
misskiwi: You're right. Changing subjects: did the feminists actually admit to attacking Chip? We were led to believe that, but I don't think they actually admitted it. I just get a really odd vibe from this...what was the point of writing that date on the egg in Roman numerals? My first instinct was that the Roman numerals were connected to the "scores" that the Pi Sigs assign girls they sleep with, so I found it really weird that it ended up being a date.
wyk: I'm not sure if the feminists attacked Chip. Other possibilities: 1) someone else connected to Patrice attacked Chip or 2) someone who Chip pissed off attacked him.
Inigo: I don't think there was any doubt that they attacked Chip. Who else would have any reason to so forcefully remind Chip of that date? What's not clear is whether Chip recognised the significance of the date, or even that it was a date. He too may have thought it was to do with the SexQuest scores — maybe the work of a cuckolded husband/boyfriend. In that respect, the attack was quite clever. If Chip had reported it, which he clearly didn't, then it wouldn't have led investigators straight to the girls.
misskiwi: But...if you disguised the date so as not to get caught if/when it was reported, why put the date there at all, if nobody will understand? I don't get it.
funky-donut: I read it as being a sort of tribute to Patrice, misskiwi. They made it obscure enough that it wasn't easily recognizable as a date, but it was there. I don't think they were expecting anyone to connect the dots to them, but they did it for her.
misskiwi: ...Okay, I'll buy that.
Inigo: I'm happy that we finally know what drives Nish, Fern and Claire, and why they targeted the Pi Sigs and the Theta Betas particularly. I don't think they faked any rapes other than Claire's, and the serial rapist is still to be found. I do, however, now think that Nish and Fern did know that Claire faked the rape from the start — that it was a joint effort. Like the attack on Chip must have been, otherwise it would have surely happened sooner, it was an opportune act on the back of the Lampoon article. Claire and Fern seemed to me to be abashed at Veronica's words, realising the power of them, and looked to Nish, who remained defiantly convinced that what they'd done was right. That smacks to me of Claire's rape being Nish's idea.
fulfilled: The date really struck me, and you'll have to excuse the convoluted path my mind went on to get to this place. It always fascinates me when I become friends with someone, and realize that at the same time as I was going through whatever life-defining events I was dealing with, they were going through their own joys and crises on a parallel path, all leading up to the place where our paths intersect.
The date of Patrice's fall — this life-changing, definitive moment for Nish, Fern, and Claire — took place during the same time period as Veronica was reeling from Lilly's death and all the aftermath of that, and I think there's great significance there. Veronica's life was being turned upside-down, and she was in the process of becoming someone very different from her younger, more innocent self, and her driving purpose was being defined and sharpened, first in finding Lilly's killer, and then expanding on that to seeking justice in a slightly broader, more general term. It's defined her family relationships, her love life, her friendships, her education and career paths, her issues, her personality...everything. There's nothing about Veronica's life that escaped unscathed. The feminists' journey very much parallels that, following a very similar path along a similar timeline, leading to this point where Veronica's quest for justice intersects with theirs. And, while I still don't like them, it humanizes them much more, simply because we've seen Veronica follow that same path.
Inigo: I love your convoluted brain! It's an excellent observation and of course, one could add that the impressions that we initially had of the Lilith Housers mirror the impressions that others have of Veronica — cold, bitchy, single-mindedly focused, the unwavering conviction of the rightness of what they do.
topanga: So which rapes were staged? Claire's, obviously. And Nancy's? But Parker's seemed real, unless they set her up somehow — drugged her and had a skeevy guy take her home. But Stacy? And the Hawaiian girl? I don't know. I guess we'll find out next week.