3.10 "Show Me the Monkey"
Aired Jan 23, 2007
Roundtable Reviews
topanga: I'm so happy. I thought I'd be disappointed after the long hiatus, but this episode rocked. It was well-written, funny, and I liked every storyline.
chris: Besides the fact that they threw continuity out the window, I liked the episode.
topanga: How is continuity out the window?
chris: I think Logan was in prison with Moe and Mercer when we left the show; also, wasn't Mac a vegan?
wyk: They did say this episode happened six weeks after the previous episode, so I'm sure Logan's high-priced attorneys got him out of jail.
funky-donut: I am irritated that we didn't get any payoff to Logan being in the cell with Mercer and Moe. I can only hope they'll have a callback to it later.
tallow: I would imagine they would. I mean, doesn't everyone want to see if/how Logan messed Mercer and Moe up?
persnicketier: I was annoyed about not seeing Logan's scene with Mercer and Moe, also.
BethGee: I third that. I'm one of those annoying fangirls for whom Logan makes this show 75 percent of the time, but not this season. I'd like him to show a little heart, a little enthusiasm, a little vim and vigor! If that means cell brutality, I'm all for it.
fulfilled: I think that what we could have seen in the jail would have stemmed so much from Logan's emotional state of being at that point, and given where he and Veronica ended up...it would have been interesting. It would also be really interesting to see what would happen if Veronica found out about it — especially with the mess that's sure to come if/when she finds out about the hookup on the beach.
misskiwi: Is the continuity objection to Mac being a vegan stemming from her comments about coming from a "meat and potatoes" family?
Inigo: Because, as she told Veronica in "Silence of the Lamb", her family did eat meat, it was only she that didn't.
misskiwi: Exactly. I don't think anything Mac said would contradict her having become a vegan when she was old enough to decide to do so.
alliterator: All they did was not mention that Mac is/was a vegan, but she did mention that her family was "meat and potatoes" while she was more the latter.
chris: Hence the clothing scene where "vegan" Mac don't know what is appropriate to wear.
misskiwi: But she could be a vegan without being conscious about what clothing is animal activist-appropriate. I don't think they did anything to contradict what we know, which is that Mac was raised by a meat-loving family but later became, and still is, a vegan.
alliterator: Also, who said she was a vegan? Her mom. Mac never actually stated that she was one.
misskiwi: True. Her mom could have been exaggerating or mistaken.
wyk: Her parents wanted to name her Barbie - clearly you can't trust one word her mom says.
maribella: I have mixed feelings about the lab animal storyline. Since I've worked in a lab with animal subjects, I felt like the resolution was a little too "animal testing is mean" for my taste. But, I've never worked with primates, so I suppose that it might be a little easier to get attached to something that is that much more human-like.
misskiwi: And that can play the piano.
funky-donut: Dudes, I so loved that monkey. I know what you mean about "animal testing is bad, mmkay?", maribella, but that monkey was AWESOME! I want one!
tallow: Just so you can say when people walk into your place, "Touch my monkey! Love it!"
wyk: Are you sure you want that monkey? According to rumors, Oscar's (A.K.A. Marcel on Friends) habit of vomiting up portions of his worm diet is one of the reasons he was fired from Friends. Yeah, I know, too much information.
misskiwi: I'm in the same boat, maribella, since while I don't directly work with animals, I work with many people who do vaccine trials and have myself had to use three rabbits to generate antibodies. (Fortunately, I never had to see the probably adorable doomed little rabbits.) However, I think they did a decent job staying in a gray area. If it had been cosmetics testing or teaching the monkey to play piano, it would fall more on the side of "unnecessarily evil." If they had gone for cancer research or something like making a vaccine for Ebola or HIV, it would be harder to object. Cholesterol research nicely straddles the line between frivolous (letting fat men continue eating cheeseburgers?) and necessary (since it's often a cause of mortality regardless of lifestyle).
grim squeaker: I do agree that the animal testing storyline was largely grey — though, damn, that monkey was cute! The actor totally couldn't concentrate during his scenes with it, did you see that? He was totally smitten. So sweet!
topanga: The actor who played Gil Thomas was the weakest of the guest cast, which really bothered me because the minute he opened his mouth, I knew he was behind the monkey-napping. I don't like being able to figure out the MotW ahead of time.
wyk: Andrew McClain (Moe Slater) mentioned in his interview that he was kinda glad that he didn't know Moe was guilty until 3.09 "Spit & Eggs" because he would played Moe weirder in the early episodes, which would have probably tipped viewers off that Moe was the rapist. I guess the same would apply to the guest actors. Since the actor knew Gil Thomas was guilty, he might have acted too suspiciously in his first scene.
misskiwi: And for my nitpicking two cents: I would like to point out for the record that from everything I've heard, primate research is very tightly controlled and only used when absolutely necessary. For example, in vaccine research like for HIV or Ebola, they'll do tests in animals such as guinea pigs or rats and only move into monkeys when the vaccine is very likely to work. Something like cholesterol research I find very hard to believe wouldn't be done solely in mice or rats. A good friend of mine is actually working on a project involving fat metabolism in the liver, and she "monitors it at the cellular level" using...cells. Like, faceless, parentless, cruelty-free cells. Not monkeys. Oh, and having control group rats to compare to a MONKEY? Total bullshit.
funky-donut: Yeah, misskiwi, I was just about to point that out. The control group would have been...another monkey.
misskiwi: I'm certainly willing to concede it for storytelling purposes, but my education has got to be good for something.
maribella: Another point on the monkey-napping: I remember talking to one of the research professors that I worked with about the possibility of getting a primate subject, and he said that if he managed to get the okay for it, the university would really beef up security specifically because of animal rights groups like PHAT. But then again, we saw how concerned they were about a serial rapist, so maybe that's not so farfetched.
misskiwi: Well, we don't know that there wasn't security: it was an inside job, remember? So even if they did secure access to the lab, Gil would have gotten around it anyways. But I agree, there are very strict regulations when you're using primates in research.
maribella: Well, that's true, I suppose. But I'd think that they would have security cameras or something. And if the security had been that tight, PHAT wouldn't have been their first suspect. Or I'd think we'd at least hear that "no one else has access to the lab."
funky-donut: Although they did point out both sides of the argument, they both happened to be pissy females on either side of the argument; Pauline and Emmy, neither of whom were likable at all. So I guess they cancel each other out?
misskiwi: Well, I get pissy too, when stuff doesn't work. If I lost a year of data? I would be leaving Incredible Hulk-sized holes in the walls.
funky-donut: Fair enough, but both those chicks were pretty damn unlikeable. Which annoyed me, because "female scientist" does not equal "bitch." But I guess that's one of those nitpicking things that probably drives the writers crazy.
Inigo: They're not already?
funky-donut: Hee. I loved Mac in this episode, and I really liked Bronson. How adorable was he?
misskiwi: Very! Yay for Mac!
funky-donut: So cute. I was very amused by Veronica's "one more and we can be the Angels" or whatever, and then who do they end up getting? Parker! Cute.
tallow: So happy to see Mac again, and with an actual mini-storyline -- score! She was so cute with Bronson. And I've been trying (without success, so far) ever since I saw the episode to work the word "libi-don't" into my vocabulary.
misskiwi: I know! Hee! And Logan, Dick, and Chip can be the Three Stooges.
wyk: Talk about continuity errors. The three guys are on the beach. Two of out three are topless. Dick isn't one of the two. Huh? We've seen Dick topless at a rally, on the frat front porch, on the frat celebratory float, and yet he's wearing a shirt at the beach?!
maribella: All I can say is please don't let Bronson turn out to be Dean O'Dell's killer.
funky-donut: Word, maribella. I couldn't help but find him a little creepy because the only thing I've seen him in before was Standoff (shut UP, it's not that bad) as a would-be suicide bomber. Once I figured that out, the creepy went away.
topanga: He is so adorable. Those eyes... One of our team members is bummed because he reminds her of BeavCassidy. I see the resemblance, but I don't think that means Bronson is going to turn out to be a homicidal rapist.
wyk: This is Veronica Mars - there are no happy endings.
maribella: Does anyone else find Logan and Veronica really uninteresting this season? I mean, I know various people have various levels of love for Logan, but I just find their relationship really stale right now. I liked them back in season one, but I guess I don't find them that interesting as a "normal" couple. And I'm a little miffed that they are back together already again. After all Rob said in interviews and whatnot, about their "journey" and how they can't be together all the time, even if the fans want it, I was expecting to see them apart for a little bit longer.
alliterator: When Veronica and Logan got back together, I was like, "Well, that was a short break-up." Although, in their time, it was like six weeks, in our world it was about an episode and a half.
topanga: It really bothered me that Logan didn't hesitate to get back together with Veronica after hooking up with some skank from the beach the day before. Granted, it was obvious he was never over Veronica in the first place, but why is it okay for him to look for love in all the wrong places and put Veronica at risk for STDs or HIV? Maybe it's because I'm a 35-year-old woman, but I agree with Kristen Bell: I wouldn't date Logan in a million years.
misskiwi: I don't object to her and Logan, but seriously. Therapists would look at them and start filling out applications to send their fifteen children to Harvard. In BMWs. They are two seriously messed up people, so I fail to see the logical leap between "recognizing the good" and "Gee, I think I'll go back to Logan, with whom I shall rule the land of Passive Aggressiva." Of course, I could be biased since I (a) think Piz is completely awesome and (b) have been in Piz's situation more times than I care to count.
tallow: Does Veronica have any idea that Piz worships the ground on which she treads? I can't tell. There are looks, but sometimes they're indecipherable to me. I felt so bad for him. The look on his face when he saw them together -- ugh. I think we've all been there.
funky-donut: She has to, at least a little, sense Piz's worshipfulness. She looked really uncomfortable when Parker mentioned that she'd given up on Piz because he was, like, all hung up on someone. And she looked like she had a serious case of Awkward at breakfast. And I adore Piz, too, but it would be way too pat for her to suddenly go, "oh, I'm over Logan and I love Piz!" So while I think her separation from Logan was a little too short, show-wise, I can't see her and Piz together.
topanga: I agree, funky-donut, but Veronica would have to be really dumb (which she's not) or really mean (usually not) in order not to recognize that their late-night conversation was encouraging poor Piz. She's known that Piz likes her since the end of the season's first episode, so she can't claim ignorance.
wyk: I don't think Veronica knew Piz liked her until the end of this episode. If she had known since 3.01 "Welcome Wagon" that Piz like her, I doubt she would have stayed in his dorm room just wearing a t-shirt and boxers.
fulfilled: I don't think she knew how much he liked her. I think that she had a sense in the season premiere, but just in that initial "oh crap, I think he's attracted to me" kind of way. They became friends, and I think that on Veronica's part, that probably canceled out her concern that he'd liked her at the beginning. On Piz's part, it seemed much more like biding his time, getting to know her, and waiting for an opportunity...which he thought he had.
misskiwi: Well, at least two of the twists in the Dean's murder investigation were obvious a mile away: the unopened bottle of scotch, and the involvement of Veronica's "Perfect Murder" paper. Other thoughts?
BethGee:The two main suspects seem horribly obvious: Landry and Lucky Timothy. If it is either of them, I will be so disappointed. If it is anyone other than them, I will think it is a stretch and a half. But then again ... Beaver?
tallow: I'd be curious to actually see the suicide "note." And perhaps I'm just insane for thinking this, but Weevil said his head must have hit the Z -- it looked like the O'Dead head was towards the right, but the Z key is on the left.
funky-donut: Hee. Occupational hazard, tallow. I'm actually glad they got the scotch and the Perfect Murder paper out of the way early. Since we know it obviously wasn't a suicide, it would have been annoying to have it take any longer for Keith to get involved in the case. Question: Mindy didn't mention seeing Cyrus that night, did she?
wyk: Nope. Keith said he saw Cyrus, and Mindy admitted she was with Hank, but she didn't tell Keith that Cyrus went to the hotel room. I know Mindy needs the money, but why would she risk letting news about her affair with Hank get out? That would make them both prime suspects number one.
I wonder why the sheriff department ruled it a suicide. They didn't know about Mindy's affair. They must have seen the egg stains on the windows which would have shown someone didn't like the Dean. I'm guessing that they made the suicide ruling based on the gunshot forensic evidence, which raises the questions of how the killer was able to stand close enough to the Dean to make the shot look like a suicide.
topanga: I'm still hung up on the "Z" thing. If the back of the dean's head, which is the heavier part of the skull, hit the left side of the keyboard, then it's possible for it to land on the Z key.
Inigo: Ease yourself, woman. If you look at the shot shown in the "Previously...," his head is on the left side of the keyboard, not the right. Not that I'm sure it matters, because it can't really be that it happened as Weevil supposes unless it really is a suicide. Think about it. For Cyrus to have added the "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz," the note would have been already written on the screen. Unless the killer made him type the message with the gun at his head then shot just as he finished, the "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" was as staged as the rest.
funky-donut: Well, I don't think the killer typed the note after he shot him, not with his head on the keyboard. I think it's entirely possible that the killer wrote the note, shot him, and then the zzz's got added when Cyrus's head hit the key, and the killer either didn't notice or didn't want to risk moving him to delete them.
Inigo: I'm more curious as to why Mindy needs the insurance money. Cyrus should have been wealthy (...gambling losses?...) and left significant assets (...to someone other than his wife?...). Is she confessing to greed to hide a greater sin? Fun, fun.