Quacks Attacked?!

Quacks Attacked?

Veronica Mars Season 4 Episode 5

4 Pretzels

Hey there Marshmallows, this episode takes a break from the nonstop action to focus on our characters a bit more which I appreciate. We never do hear what happened with the recently risen redneck from last episode but that’s fine. I’m not particularly engaged with the Maloof family story line.

What we do get in this episode is Chief Langdon telling the father of the roofie guy who got blown up last episode straight the cuss off after he tries to step to her. It’s satisfying but ineffective as the dad, who’s a women’s exploitation media mogul naturally, goes to the press and offers a $250,000.00 reward for the bomber. Dead or Alive.  This, of course, raises the level of chaos in Neptune even higher as half the town starts searching for clues.

Penn and his stupid Murder Heads are obviously on the hunt but the Murder Heads are pretty sick of his wack theories. That is, until the lady Murder Head that Penn has a crush on finds her own connection to OSD in the letter the bomber sent police. As a side note the bomber forced Neptune’s mayor to streak. The mayor is adorable and his wife is great. Also, the mayor apparently has a pretty bomb package of his own if ya know what I’m sayin’. Wink, wink. Nudge,nudge. Good for him. Anyway, Clyde and OSD are pissed at Penn for accusing them in front of the whole actual town so after Clyde goes to Keith and blows off some steam he forgoes the public humiliation that he had planned for Penn and simply leaves a dead duck in Penn’s bed.

Penn got off lucky because Veronica has managed to squeeze the little PCHer punk for information and has confirmed that Clyde was paying Weevil to pay the PCHers a hundie for every spring breaker wallet they stole. She also has proof that OSD is behind all of the shell companies that are trying to buy the boardwalk businesses for cheap. That can’t be what the bombings are about though. It all seems too easy.

So, Weevil goes to see Veronica before she gets said punk to crack to ask that she please not send him to prison where he will be killed. The scene is really tense. Apparently, in these books there’s a whole plot where Veronica feels that Weevil betrayed her and Keith and so has washed her hands clean of him. Weevil makes a compelling case that he did what he felt he had to do but it leaves Veronica cold. As Weevil leaves you see the toll that it takes on her to treat Weevil that way. It must be devastating and my heart hurts for both of them. On the bright side, Nicole and Veronica manage to have a great time for most of this episode. They sneak off to get high at Wallace’s terrible housewarming party, trade hugs and some delightful banter, and then go do some target practice with Veronica’s gun where Nicole shares the very sad way that she came to own Comrade Quack’s and goes quite dark for a minute.

Once Keith finds out about Nicole’s sexual assault he suggest that Nicole could be the bomber. A sexual predator was killed in every attack, after all. Veronica and I dismiss this theory quickly because Nicole is wonderful and also because it doesn’t hold up. Keith’s new friend Clyde is the Shady Sam here even if he did hook Keith up with that great doctor.

Speaking of, Veronica’s finally finds out about Keith’s secret memory issues and they hold hands and love each other and cry. Then I cried because they are the absolute best. Keith thinks they should shut down the firm after this case before he accidentally gets one or both of them hurt and Veronica is not having it. When she vents to the newly amazing Logan he points out that knowing  Veronica was safe would make Keith happy. He also makes some pretty spot on observations about Veronica’s need to suffer instead of chasing her own happiness and well being. He asks what Veronica would want to or be do if he and Keith weren’t a part of her life and she says that she couldn’t live without them.

That makes me worry that one or both of our boys aren’t going to make it to the end of the season. Another thing that makes me worry is that both Veronica and Keith had gun involved dates with their new friends. I’m thinking this may be a Chekhov’s gun situation. You know, if you see a gun in act one it’s bound to go off before the end of act three. I don’t know how or when yet but the reckoning in act three is coming.

Let’s take a break from the scary stuff and talk about Vinnie Van Lowe. He’s at Comrade Quacks not to gethis duck wet but to go through the lost and found in search of the Maloof’s missing ring and score a sweet 80’s windbreaker for himself. Actually, he’s just killing time until he can talk to Nicole. He’s after that 250 grand and would like to see her surveillance footage. Before she can tell him to cuss off a bomb goes off and scares the cuss right out of me, Nobody is killed but it scares the cuss right out of Nicole as well. She decides to sell the bar to OSD and move on. Veronica is deeply disappointed and I feel that this may be the end of their friendship which is a shame and exactly the kind of emotional self sabotage that Logan was talking about earlier. RuPaul would be very disappointed.

This episode ends on a pretty melancholy note but this is a noirestory so I guess that’s to be expected. I’m feeling a pretty heavy sense of dread on behalf of our crew. There are three episodes left and I’m sure they will bring as much pain as revelation. Stick it out with me though guys. I’m sure it’ll be worth it.