Oh MAN, stuff is getting GOOD. This episode really dives RIGHT IN and I'm just loving it. I'm not even going to waste any time! Here. We. GO.
Highlights
Veronica tracks down Abel Koontz's daughter, Amelia DeLongpre. She's a college student in Los Angeles, and V brings her to a hotel in order to keep her safe from Clarence Weidman. Amelia knows she's getting money from her dad, but she thinks it's some kind of investment or something - she doesn't know he's dying and that he offered to take the blame for Lilly Kane's murder in order to make sure his daughter was well taken care of in his absence. V asks Amelia to get her mom to send her the paperwork for the investments. She also gives Amelia a burn phone so that Wiedman can't track her.
Meanwhile, midterms are in full swing at Neptune High. Veronica is struggling to balance her own midterms while also taking care of Amelia when she's approached by Sabrina Fuller in the bathroom. Sabrina is having someone sabotage her midterms by disrupting her studying every single night. It's far-fetched, but it proves to be true.
Sabrina is sure that her ex-boyfriend, Caz, is the one doing the sabotaging. Her idea on motive makes no sense to me, but she's convinced. V tracks him down, but it's decidedly NOT Caz. He's, honestly, not smart enough to pull something like that off.
V goes with her next idea for Sabrina, which is the other person competing for valedictorian of the senior class - Hamilton Cho. V visits Hamilton at work, and he's studying while also delivering pizzas for his family - he's on V's side of the tracks, as in, not an 09er. She stakes him out while a car alarm wreaks havoc on Sabrina's sleep, so she eliminates him as well.
V looks up the owner of the car with the alarm... and it turns out it belongs to Vinny Van Loew's ex-wife! Aha! So someone is paying Vinny to sabotage Sabrina. And it doesn't take long for V to figure out who that person is. Hamilton Cho has always worked hard for his grades, and he's had nothing handed to him, like Sabrina has. His dad tried to even the score, and Hamilton didn't even know about it.
There's a scholarship dinner held at the Kane house for the top five students in the junior and senior classes - one person from each class would be getting a scholarship for full tuition for four years in honor of Lilly Kane. It's the first time Veronica has been back to the Kane house since Lilly died, and she's seeing a lot of memories.
Lilly appears to Veronica and asks her to think a little harder about who could have possibly done this to her. Then Duncan interrupts V's imagination to say that he often goes to the pool - where Lilly was found - to feel closer to her.
Once it is revealed that Mr. Cho was the one sabotaging Sabrina, Sabrina and her mom insist that Hamilton withdraw from the scholarship competition. He agrees, even though V confronts him and tells him how unfair it all is. He agrees with that too, and humbly says that studying Proust will be the same at Oxford and UCLA. I don't know about that, but what a good sport.
Throughout the episode, V also has encounters with Logan Echolls, who I love on my screen no matter what is happening. First, he pays her for helping him "find" his mom, but she rips up the check because his mom was dead, and she doesn't feel right taking the money. Then she talks to Logan about Duncan's "condition," which is clearly (at least to me) a form of epilepsy. Logan tells V a story about how Duncan turned on his dad, trying to choke him out one time, and V is shocked. Then Logan reveals it happened the week that they broke up.
In the end, Clarence Wiedman finds Amelia DeLongpre. He gets her to sign the settlement papers before V and Mr. Mars can talk her out of it. Oh, and Clarence Wiedman had tried breaking into the Mars' apartment too, but Mr. Mars had been home and invited him in. Lol.
Episode Mystery
Who is sabotaging poor, rich, privileged Sabrina Fuller?? Yawn. I was super not into that part of the plot, but the scholarship and how it all ties back to Lilly's murder was pretty fascinating. I kind of hated that it turned out to be Hamilton Cho's dad trying to even the score, but it was a decent plot arc, I guess.
Overall Mystery
Who killed Lilly Kane?
This one is getting complicated. It wasn't Jake Kane. It wasn't Abel Koontz. But the Kanes are definitely covering for someone, because they paid Koontz - and his daughter - to take the fall. Could it have been Duncan? That's where roads are currently leading...
Who raped Veronica?
No progress made in this episode. I SWEAR THIS IS A THING.
Where is Lianne Mars? [solved in Episode 16]
Sucking up V's college fund at rehab.
Who is Veronica’s father?
No progress in this episode.
Is Lynn Echolls dead? [solved in Episode 15]
Yeah, she is. 😦
What Aged Like a Dairy Product
The fact that V could disappear a college student with a cheap hotel room and a burner flip phone. Lol, that would never work these days. People are way too connected. Even the sabotaging of the valedictorian would be super hard to pull off in an era where everyone knows everything about everyone.
Umm, also? Not acknowledging Duncan's mostly-well-controlled epilepsy is SUPER OLD SCHOOL AND WEIRD.
What Aged Like a Fine Wine
A good ole murder mystery! We're getting so close to finding the truth, y'all!
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.
I can already tell I'm going to have trouble rating this episode, because the Sabrina Fuller plot was so boring to me. I guess I just have to go with my gut. I'm giving Season 1, Episode 17 a GREEN rating. It's not bad, but it wasn't my favorite.
Stay safe, Marshmallows! There's good stuff coming our way!