S01.E04: The Wrath of Con

[Lisin]

I quite like this episode. It's fun, there's undercover outfits, fake DEA agents, everything I like about this show. Veronica gets to be super full of snark and Wallace gets the girl! Go Wallace!

[David T. Cole]

Ah, I called one of our TWoP staff get-togethers Wrath of Con. I had no idea.

[Lisin]

Ah, I called one of our TWoP staff get-togethers Wrath of Con. I had no idea.

Heee! It's a good pun. It doesn't have anything to do with the plot of this episode in this instance... there's no conventions or anything... a suggested prescreening of the NEW Matrix Online game but no conventions... and I'm a dork, I just realized they mean Con as in Confidence Game not convention. Because there are plenty of those in this episode. Doh!

[Lisin]

This episode also has the excellent Lilly tribute that Logan puts together with Veronica's help and Veronica's personal skinny dipping tribute to Lilly, though I'm clearly getting old because the second I saw Lilly's homecoming dress I paused the show to go on a rant about how she shouldn't be allowed out of the house looking like that.

[formerlyfreedom]

That  was my reaction to Lilly's dress, too! Oy, vey, those crazy kids, get off my lawn!

[Lisin]

Indeed! I was watching it with 3 other ladies and we were all shocked. They're all first time watchers so they were more shocked, I was just surprised... or scandalized I suppose. Though we do tend to spend a lot of time talking about the clothes anyway because holy 2004!

[halgia]

I liked this episode too; the main plot is fun, loved the minifridge entirely full of the same soda / energy drink / whatever, the Lilly stuff (limo flashback, tribute, skinny dipping tribute) is all great, and yeah, go Wallace! Veronica also busts out three very different, pretty serious disguises this ep, which we haven't seen much of before.

The gaming and math stuff were both pretty hardcore eye-rolly, though. I remembered from the first time through the magical TV where somehow multiple people can each be playing in first-person without any split screen, but I had forgotten "What's your thing? Chaos theory, PDEs, joint estimation?" (Chaos theory being the barely-a-thing thing that non-mathy people latch onto, PDEs being the basically the most boring possible topic ever, and is joint estimation [is that what he said?] referring to jointly estimating parameters? Because that's statistics, not math.)

On the Weevil-is-a-softy front: the only time we see him here is him tearing up after Lilly's tribute.

[clemmyb]

This is the first episode where I feel like they started to have some real fun with the mysteries.  I quite like the pilot, but episodes 2 and 3 do absolutely nothing for me.  This one feels like it sets it back on track for me, and it's all gold from here.

I'm always happy to see Wallace and Veronica getting into hijincks together, and when she pretends to be drunk and calls him "Papa Bear" is one of my favorite things.

And the Lilly tribute at the end always makes me tear up.

[Lisin]

Oh yeah, I tear up every time too. 

Papa Bear also still makes me legit laugh out loud. 

I agree with you about episodes 2 and 3. They're very meh for me too. I mean obviously I still like them but nowhere near as much as this one and ones further down the line. 

[Carrie Ann]

I watched the series as it aired, and the Lilly memorial is where the show got me. That was the moment--why am I all emotional about this character I've never "met," in a show that has existed for four episodes? How did they do this? And why is Weevil crying? Why is Logan half-smiling at Veronica so moving?

[Lisin]

Yeah, I think if I were going to try to hook someone on this show I'd demand they watch until this episode. If after this they're still not "all in" they're not going to be. I successfully hooked a girls night of five girls who had never watched the show until last week and this was the episode that really clinched it. They keep texting me demanding spoilers. It's fun. 

[Carrie Ann]

You're doing the Lord's work.

[clemmyb]

Yeah, I think if I were going to try to hook someone on this show I'd demand they watch until this episode. If after this they're still not "all in" they're not going to be. I successfully hooked a girls night of five girls who had never watched the show until last week and this was the episode that really clinched it. They keep texting me demanding spoilers. It's fun. 

This is excellent.  I've successfully converted a few people (my sister, my boyfriend), but it definitely took some cajoling through episodes two and three.  From here forward, I think I'll apply this four-episode rule.

Well-played.

[Lisin]

Thanks! I mean I generally say if you absolutely HATED the pilot there's probably no hope because the pilot is really indicative of the rest of the show.  On the other hand if you like the pilot and can get the 2 and 3 behind you you're in. The memorial, crying Weevil, the look from Logan that makes you think there's still some humanity left in him, and Veronica skinny dipping at the end is really when this show "grew its beard" as they say.

[Hanahope]

Yeah, this episode was excellent.  From the little mystery to the Lilly tribute, it was very good.  It was nice seeing Logan act like a human and Veronica helping him out with the tribute that really showed Lilly's personality.  I liked the gaming "con" too.  I do take exception to VM being the only girl at the gaming place.  I mean its 2004, more females were playing by then, quite a lot more.

 

Gotta love flip phones.

[Syme]

On the Weevil-is-a-softy front: the only time we see him here is him tearing up after Lilly's tribute.

 

What got me was Jake losing it.

[jeansheridan]

Some things I noticed this time around--Keith helps her out by playing the DEA agent and because Veronica is thrifty about retrieving technology, she clues into something she needs to know.  Organic storytelling ain't easy.

 

This was the first time you really saw the core four being happy together, so yeah, if you didn't love them instantly, the rest of the show doesn't work.  I think the writers and actors succeeded in spades.  I fully believed that these people were old friends, even if it was just Veronica filming Logan and having Logan hamming it up in the background.  Those flashbacks are full of detail and energy.  Oh and I liked that we saw sexually aware and active teens without it being wrong.  Logan teasing Duncan about masturbating was both appropriate, funny, and realistic.  And Lily's imitation of her parents was classic, especially the eye roll. 

 

But we also get to see Veronica happy with Wallace and happy to help Wallace (for a finder's fee! ...I like that early Veronica was moderately money grubby).

 

And we see that Logan genuinely cares for Duncan by offering to do the video when Duncan clearly does not want to do it. 

 

And that Logan made a good video tribute that wasn't actually all that over the top.  It was fun, but not disrepectful other than her putting her bum out the window.