THE PLOT FINALLY THICKENS!! Stuff HAPPENS in this episode… sort of? Isn’t this always the case?? It feels like a lot of things happen when really, not a whole lot of things happen? We’re getting closer to the end of the season though, and things are getting realllllll interesting.
Highlights
- Wallace is a big shot ball player now! Everyone says hi to him in the halls and someone makes him snickerdoodle cookies and just leaves them in his locker! He’s living the high life.
- The Neptune High mascot, Polly the Parrot, was stolen. They believe it was taken by someone from their rival school, Pan High, who they are playing in basketball that week.
- The Vice Principle tasks Veronica to find Polly. So she goes undercover at Pan High School to try to figure out who took Polly. Her alter ego? Obviously Betty, the foil of her usual Veronica. And what school did she go to before Pan High? RIVERDALE. The Easter eggs in this episode are killer. Well. That one Easter egg, at least.
- Pan High’s mascot also gets stolen… theirs is a goat though, which is a lot less interesting. Turns out, some of the guys on the team stole Billy the goat and have Wallace taking care of it. But goats are destructive! So now Wallace’s friend has a trashed van.
- Turns out someone on NEPTUNE’S OWN TEAM stole Polly to try to keep Wallace from playing so that he could rig the score and lose because he bet all his money on Pan winning. Wow. That’s cold.
- Meanwhile, we flash back to the previous weekend, when Veronica traveled to the desert somewhere to find her mom at a bar. Her mom is a raging alcoholic and can hardly stay sober enough to talk to her, but she explains a few things to V. First, Jake Kane did not kill Lilly. She knows that because she was with Jake Kane at the Neptune Grand Hotel on the night of the murder. Yikes. Second, she doesn’t know who V’s father is, because it could easily be either Jake Kane or Keith Mars! Dude, gross. And third, she’s not ready to get clean. That much is for damn sure.
- Veronica takes her to rehab, using all of her college savings to check her into a 12 week program.
- V also finds a bug in her room, sent to her in the mail in a pencil sharpener by Clarence Weidman. She almost destroys it, but then decides to use it to her advantage. She asks her dad why someone would confess to a crime they didn’t commit if they were dying, and he says to make sure their loved ones are taken care of monetarily. And V knows what Clarence does next, because she had Wallace drop off a bugged plant with Clarence’s receptionist. Clarence immediately starts looking into someone named Amelia DeLongpre… who is Abel Koontz’s daughter! Dun dun dun!
- Also meanwhile… Deputy Leo steals the Lilly Kane case interrogation tapes, and Veronica agrees to go on a date with him! Which is very exciting. It’s all going well until they get to the restaurant and see Meg and Duncan there… with the Kane family. YIKES. There is a lot of awkwardness. Then later, Meg is trying to be helpful to V and V is being weird and Meg says she wants to be friends. V says she can’t forgive the popular kids for being terrible to her and Meg says they can be their own friend group. It’s pretty sweet, really.
- Finally, Wallace figures out that it’s Veronica who is making him the snickerdoodles, and he realizes that she’s been doing all this stuff she hates because he doesn’t hate it. In the end, she even watches the basketball game for him. Their friendship is my favorite.
Episode Mystery
Who took Polly the Parrot?? A pretty benign mystery, but there was bigger stuff working in the background.
Overall Mystery
- Who killed Lilly Kane?
No definite answers, but Veronica is starting to unravel the pieces. We know it’s not Jake Kane, and it’s not Abel Koontz.
- Who raped Veronica?
No progress made in this episode.
- Where is Lianne Mars? [solved!]
At the beginning of the episode, she’s still at the bar in the desert, but by the end, she’s in a rehab facility trying to dry out with V’s college money.
- Who is Veronica’s father?
No one knows for sure. Lianne admits that it could be either Mr. Mars or Jake Kane.
- Is Lynn Echolls dead? [solved in Episode 15]
Yeah, she is. 😦
What Aged Like a Dairy Product
Real animal mascots? Has that ever been a thing? I’ve never seen it, lol.
Oh, actually – V just WALKED INTO A DIFFERENT SCHOOL AND PRETENDED TO BE A STUDENT. Now that we’re in the age of school shootings everywhere, that’s completely not realistic anymore.
What Aged Like a Fine Wine
Two things come to mind! First, the Jughead references! Who would have guessed that Riverdale would be a whole show over a decade after this episode originally aired?? Second, Wallace and Veronica’s friendship. It’s so pure and so wonderfully platonic. They support each other and help each other, and even though it sometimes seems like V is a bad friend to Wallace, then there’s an episode like this and you remember why they’re friends in the first place.
Rating
A reminder of the rating system:
- Red = I couldn’t even get through this episode because it was so bad
- Orange = Pushed through, hated everything
- Yellow = Opposite of enjoyable, but had some bright spots
- Green = This was mediocre!
- Blue = A solid episode!
- Purple = Television at it’s finest, 12/10, must watch repeatedly.
My only real complaint with this episode is the severe lack of Logan! And the ease with with Veronica walked into a different school and pretended to be a student?? How did she even do that? I have some questions. Anyway. I’m giving Season 1, Episode 16 a BLUE rating! We learned a lot, and I’m ready to get into the really exciting episodes to come.
Stay healthy, Marshmallows!
Snark & Squee 