Easter Egg Hunt: The Clues Begin to Add Up on "Veronica Mars"

Whew. So it's been a rather long time since last week's episode of Veronica Mars aired... well, at least for the rest of the country. For those of us in the Los Angeles area, we finally got to see "Lord of the Pi's" on Saturday night. And while the wait was worth it (there are very few series I can say that about), I'm at least glad that it was last week's episode that was pre-empted by KTLA and not what looks to be a real mind-blower of an episode tonight. More on that later.

First up, I'm heart-broken about what appears to be a full-blown chasm developing between young lovers Veronica and Logan. I understand Veronica's need to solve the serial rapist case but I also get why Logan is freaking out. For the first time in his life, he's actually in love and he doesn't want anything to happen to Veronica. Personally, I can't believe that Veronica never told Keith that the rapist actually got close enough to her to start shaving her head and, while I don't think that Logan can be the one to break that lovely bit o' news to Papa Keith, I hate that Veronica's keeping him in the dark and then running off to do solo research at the darkened, deserted, and very creepy Hearst College library in the middle of the night. Especially when there's a serial rapist about. So it's not the wisest move imaginable but it fits Logan's character that he would hire a bodyguard for Veronica... or a tough-looking guy who's meant to be keeping an eye on our favorite sleuth. But Logan, not the smartest thing to do when you and Veronica are on such thin ice (after the whole screaming at her with her dad in the next room and all). Still, I couldn't help but feel like I was kicked in the gut when I saw Veronica coolly ignore an incoming cell phone call from Logan... as Logan stands across the food court seeing the whole thing. Poor Logan. I think he and V. are definitely standing at opposite ends of a precipice. Let just hope they don't end up falling in altogether...

(Aside: how great was it to see The Nanny's Mr. Sheffield, guest star Charles Shaughnessy, pop up as the wheelchair-bound husband to the missing Hearst heiress Selma Rose... who wasn't really missing at all? Classic.)

Meanwhile, a few rather interesting developments in the rape case this week. At the beginning of this week's episode, Creepy Frat Guy (a.k.a. Chip Diller) ends up stripped, shaved, drugged, and left on the quad, with a little memento of the whole experience: an Easter egg, um, placed somewhere on his person. Or rather, somewhere inside his person, according to Dick Casablancas. And that egg contained some roman numerals which Wallace and Veronica (wow, a Veronica/Wallace scene!) puzzle over. It's clearly a message and it's no time at all before our dynamic duo puzzles out the fact that the numbers are referring to a date. But what's the significance of the date?

It's that question which leads our girl Veronica to the shadowy carrels of the Hearst library by night. Turns out that a sorority girl, Patrice Petrelli, fell off the sorority house on that very date. And Chip was involved with the motivations behind her "fall." Veronica tracks down some answers from Hallie, the mousy-voiced sorority girl tied up in the whole disappearance of Selma Rose (guest star Patty Hearst). She didn't know Patrice (the whole incident happened before she was at Hearst) but she tells her that Patrice didn't fall off the roof at all. After being humiliated by the sorority and Chip Diller's Pi Sig boys, she went up to the roof... and just kept walking. Hallie doesn't know anything else but suggests that Veronica go question Claire--the girl who faked the rape a few weeks back--as they were in the same pledge class.

And guess who she finds at Claire's? Why it's none other than ex-Hearst College paper editor-in-chief Nish, who helped fake Claire's rape in the first place, and Fern (she of the adorable, um, metal nose ring). Turns out that the two-way mirror Veronica broke into the sorority house to look for DID used to exist. Patrice was Claire's BFF and vindication for her death could be prompting not only the need for revenge against Chip (and the little, um, Easter present) but also the entire rape scenario. Except for one little thing: Patrice isn't dead (I actually assumed she was), but she IS in a mental health facility. Which means Veronica isn't likely to be questioning her tonight, but it also means that Patrice isn't behind the entire revenge plot herself. Veronica says that the fact that Claire and Nish faked Claire's rape in the first place damages the cause more than anything and leads her to believe that perhaps ALL of the rapes were faked. Which really makes no sense whatsoever as Stacy's rape definitely wasn't faked (remember Alia Shawkat, people?), nor was Parker's. But is Patrice's face-dive related to the rapist's attacks or is it just a coda to something else altogether?

Tonight on Veronica Mars ("Spit & Eggs"): Mac finally returns from what must have been the most grueling school "project" of all time, Veronica runs, Parker screams rape, and the rapist is finally unmasked... but not before one character goes to the college campus in the sky.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Friday Night Lights (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC); Standoff (FOX); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Veronica Mars (CW); Big Day/Help Me Help You (ABC); House (FOX); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: 3 LBS. (CBS); Law & Order: SVU (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gilmore Girls.

I'm really ready to give up on this show now. I miss the old Gilmore Girls, and, no, I am not talking about last season. On tonight's episode ("Knit, People, Knit!"), Lorelai is forced to admit that her old friends may not accept Christopher with open arms, a fact made all the more apparent when Chris accidentally causes Stars Hollow's Knit-a-Thon (whah?) to end early.

8 pm: A Charlie Brown Christmas.

If seeing Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang gather together to make that sad little Christmas tree something beautiful doesn't tug on your heart strings, then you just haven't got a heart. Me, I've been humming the Charlie Brown Xmas music since Thanksgiving ended.

9 pm: Veronica Mars.

On tonight's episode ("Spit & Eggs"), Dean O'Dell reinstates the Greek system on Hearst College's campus, while Veronica, Wallace, and Piz test for the presence of drugs in the drinks at a campus party. This being the end of November sweeps and all, something tells me Veronica might just get to the bottom of the serial rapist mystery tonight. Call it a hunch.

10 pm: Doctor Who on BBC America.

While Sci Fi might be airing Season Two of the newest incarnation of Doctor Who (complete with another new Doctor, played by David Tennant), catch up on Season One, beginning anew tonight on BBC America as the Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston) first meets Rose Tyler for the first time. On tonight's episode ("The End of the World"), the Doctor takes Rose to the actual end of the Earth as congregants gather upon a space station to watch the sun consume the planet. But a murderer is at work and none of them may make it off the station alive...