Veronica Mars Re-Watch: Clash of the Tritons and Lord of the Bling (Season 1 Episode 12 and 13)

“Clash of the Tritons” and “Lord of the Bling” are not two of the better episodes of Veronica Mars, to be quite honest. In my re-watching, though, I’ve come to realize that taken as a pair, the two hold up much better.

A lot is set up in “Clash of the Tritons” that we then get the “pay off” for in “Lord of the Bling.” And, of course, the big moment that we’ve (read: I’ve) been waiting for finally arrives at the close of “Lord of the Bling”– a desperate Logan arrives at shocked Veronica’s doorstep, needing her help to find his mother.

AND SO IT BEGINS. (I may have mentioned in passing that I’m a tiny bit in love with the Logan/Veronica pairing, whose ‘ship name is also conveniently abbreviated LoVe).

Clash of the Tritons

“Clash of the Tritons” centers primarily around Veronica trying to figure out why a secret society at Neptune High is framing her for selling fake IDs to students. The running joke, best played by Wallace, is that Veronica totally does make fake IDs– she just doesn’t sell them to kids. She has them for her own personal mystery-solving purposes.

Duncan is a new pledge in this secret society (called the “Tritons,” because, get it, Neptune High? Groan), and this revelation makes Duncan exactly zero percent more interesting because it is literally impossible to make Duncan less boring.

OK, that’s not exactly fair. I should specify that this pertains to Season 1 Duncan. Season 2 Duncan gets a bit more interesting. There’s simply no hope for Season 1 Duncan. Sorry, Duncan.

The big twist is that the Tritons are harmless all along: Rick, the high school student who gave Veronica’s name to the cops and told Veronica that the Tritons made him do it after his friend/drinking-buddy turned up comatose, is the true villain.

Veronica uncovers this with one of her more clever schemes. Having figured out (with Wallace’s help) that the fake IDs were ordered by dropping the money for them in a certain locker, she has Sheriff Lamb pick a student at random while she sits in her office, to prove she’s not the one making the IDs. She calls Rick to the sheriff’s office, where she forces him to surrender his wallet. In his wallet are a few crisp bills, one of which says “Veronica Mars is smarter than me.” This proves Rick is the ID-selling culprit.

While this plan is cool and smart, there are a few giant holes in it. Chiefly:

• What if Rick had not put the ID money in his wallet and taken it with him to the sheriff’s office? What if he went home and put it in his sock drawer?

That would have put the kibosh on the whole plan, no?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter because we get to see Veronica karaoke to “One Way or Another” by Blondie when she’s trying to finagle facetime with the illusive Tritons (when she thinks they’re the ones framing her), and it’s a glorious performance.

Subplots include Keith tracking down the person who is selling gossip/pics of Aaron Echolls to the press. It’s Lynn. The two have a blowout fight outside of the office where Logan is waiting to get a reprimanding from the principal, culminating in Aaron threatening to ruin Lynn should she attempt to move forward with her plan to divorce him. Lynn storms off, pops a few pills, and by the end, abandons her convertible on a bridge to jump off of it (though we don’t actually see her jump). In all, it’s just terribly tragic. My heart always breaks for poor Lynn.

It also makes no sense whatsoever that Keith would tell Aaron what he found if it implicated Lynn. It seems obvious, based on “An Echolls’ Family Christmas,” at least, that Keith sympathizes with Lynn over Aaron’s bad behavior. Why on earth would Keith willingly tell Aaron that Lynn was selling gossip? Bad move, Mars.

A secondary subplot tying into the Lilly Kane murder mystery deals with Veronica bugging the guidance counselor’s office to snoop on kids going in for one year follow up grief counseling. She uncovers three juicy tidbits:

• Weevil and Lilly were involved prior to Lilly’s death (we basically knew this already, what with the anvil-sized hints). He loved her but she left him to go back to Logan. Conclusion: Lilly was a heartless mean girl and Weevil is a big ol’ teddy bear.
• Logan cheated on Lilly before she died, and blames himself for her death (the thought process being that if he hadn’t cheated, he would have been there to save her when she was killed). He also blames Veronica, because she snitched about the cheating. Conclusion: Oh, Logan, honey, logic is not your strong suit.
• Duncan has a total hole in his memory surrounding Lilly’s death and the days after it. Conclusion: Did Duncan kill Lilly? (That’s not a conclusion, that’s a question. I’m aware.)

 

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