"I'd Rather Be Crying": Logan Mopes While Veronica Pokes Around on "Veronica Mars"

Just a brief post on Veronica today for a number of reasons, being (A) last night's episode was the first half of a two-parter, and (B) I'm as sick as a dog today. (And on Valentine's no less!)

Last night's episode of Veronica Mars ("Postgame Mortem") featured Veronica and Keith working on two separate cases at the same time, one involving the murder of the Svengali-like basketball coach at Hearst College and the other being Mindy O'Dell's investigation of the murder of her husband, much missed Dean Cyrus O'Dell. It also featured Logan hanging out for the better part of a weekend with a precocious tween and Dick Casablancas getting hitched in Vegas. (Ah, young love.) And Wallace even dropped by to grace us with his presence. Well, for two scenes, anyway.

Keith and Veronica continue to investigate O'Dell's murder, with Veronica learning from the ever-so-helpful Jeff Ratner at the Neptune Grand (last seen in "Hi, Infidelity") that two men were heard arguing in the room the night of the murder. The second man is obviously O'Dell, but so far Landry and Mindy haven't come clean that O'Dell was at the hotel that night. (Wondering why not.) Keith discovers that Mindy called Landry's mobile that night as well, a curious fact since they were supposedly in the room together all night. But it's quickly cleared up: Mindy claims she went to the lobby to buy toothpaste and called Landry to see what brand he wanted, a story that Landry backs up. (Darn!)

Veronica learns that they ordered a pay-per-view movie around the time of the murder. Fittingly it's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (heh), but while Landry seems familiar with the movie's plot (and ending), Mindy doesn't seem to know anything about it. Could she have slipped out at that point or did she, as she claims, fall asleep? All anyone knows, thanks to come meticulous valet record keeping, is that the Volvo was checked out of the Grand right before the murder and returned a half an hour later. (I still think young Master O'Dell was the one to take the car.)

Veronica cozies up with the murdered coach's son, Josh, who's apparently Prime Suspect Numero Uno as he was seen arguing with his father hours before the murder and one witness claims to have seen him fighting with him at the scene of the crime. Of course, that witness is Mason, who has his own grudge with the coach, after he yanked him off starting. And supposedly he has a gun, to boot.

This being Neptune, the obvious go-to suspects are the PCH'ers and the fact that the coach's car is missing seems to point to a carjacking gone bad, a theory quickly disproved when it's revealed that the coach was driving an el cheapo auto, which is recovered from the ocean underneath the shooting scene. (Did anyone else think it was a great twist to have Arturo now running the PCH bike gang? I love the way this show unexpectedly reuses minor characters like Arturo, reception desk employee Tina, and Jeff Ratner.)

Sheriff Lamb arrests Josh and holds him for the murder of his father, while Veronica tries to find a way to prove his innocence (or guilt) and baked him some peanut butter cookies concealed inside a hollowed-out copy of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. Nice. Josh somehow uses the cookies to escape (I'm still waiting for next week for an explanation on that front), leading Veronica to get arrested by Lamb right in the middle of her profiling class with Professor Landry. Ouch. Hopefully, V, that won't affect your chances of getting that internship with the FBI.

Meanwhile, Logan continues to brood amid the shambles that is the presidential suite at the Neptune Grand while Dick tries to talk him into joining him at the swim team's beach bash ("You can wear your shirt that says 'I'd rather be crying'."), only to stick Logan with his date Melinda's little sister Heather (Joan of Arcadia's Juliette Goglia) for the entire weekend while they run off and get a quickie wedding in Vegas (which, I'm sure, will be pretty quickly annulled).

How cute was Heather Button though? The adorable little pixie finally managed to get Logan out of his man-funk and got him to at least emerge from his lair long enough to play Mario Cart, and she even dedicated a song on the radio to Veronica in an attempt to patch things between Logan and V. Will these two ever patch things up?

Next week on Veronica Mars ("Mars, Bars"), it's part two of a two-part episode in which Sheriff Lamb is forced to release Veronica from jail, an on-the-lam Josh tries to convince Veronica that he's being framed for his father's murder (and kidnaps Mason), and Logan joins Mac and Parker for a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt.