S01.E19: Hot Dogs

[Lisin]

From IMDB: "When awkward classmate Mandy asks Veronica to help her find her missing dog, a much larger scheme is exposed as they follow the trail. Meanwhile, Logan's sister Trina begs her father to play a role in her new boyfriend's movie, while Logan suspects that Trina is hiding something."

OK I loved this one. I love the dog storyline because it ends well. I love the Logan/Trina storyline because of his "big brother" type reaction to his discovery of Trina's abuse and I love that Veronica gets to see how psycho Mr. Echols really is. Great movement of the plot. a really strong episode in my opinion.

[Carrie Ann]

I like this one, but Mandy is a cartoon character and she drives me crazy. I also dislike both of Veronica's little monologues--first to Mandy about demanding respect and then to the bully about being a terrible person. They just don't work for me. Not sure why.

But I like the Echolls family stuff, and the scene where he beats the kid to the tune of "That's Amore" is pretty brilliant. Plus, "Now I don't have to feel guilty anymore." "For what?" "Moving on." Swoooooooooooon.

[Lisin]

Yeah, I'm positive I'm forgiving all the not so great stuff in this episode specifically for the "Moving on" line. Egads is he swoony! 

[halgia]

I agree about Veronica's "demand respect" monologue to Mandy – it seems kind of out of character to her and a little victim-blamey to criticize the little guy for getting picked on. I liked the telling a bully he's awful part, though it is kind of fan servicey. The dog story is also as a whole pretty fun, especially the Deputy Leo raid right after she dumps him. It's much more grounded and believable than the whole ATF bomb threat bullshit from the week before, which is a good thing for this show.

I liked Logan's part of the Trina storyline, but the whole "That's Amore" bit made me really uncomfortable. Yes, obviously boyfriend is a mega creeperface, and it makes sense that Aaron would react that way, but the soundtrack in particular and also Veronica/Logan's reactions made it seem like the show approved of beating the shit out of someone as a valid reaction to that kind of thing. It actually sort of reminded me of the way The Sopranos would treat these super-violent scenes, but that show had a much more complicated relationship with its characters' and audience's relationship to violence where a scene like this could be both cathartic and exhilarating to watch but also have an additional layer of criticism underneath it. That's completely lacking here, and like I said it makes me squirm a little.

Edited June 24, 2014 by Dougal

[Carrie Ann]

I see what you're saying about that scene, but I think it's sort of played that way ironically. It feels like the viewer is first supposed to be sort of happy this a-hole is getting a taste of his own medicine, but then quickly become uncomfortable with the level of violence Aaron displays. The way Logan and Veronica sort of approve of it is, in my opinion, meant to be sort of squirm-inducing. They didn't see the whole scene, so all they know is that Aaron beat this guy up, but they don't really see the extent of it or the relentlessness of the attack. They see it as him protecting his daughter.

From Logan's perspective, it makes total sense that he would approve of this. He does it himself when he thinks he needs to, because he's learned violence from Aaron. For Veronica, it's a little trickier for me. She heard Trina talk about Logan's "stories" about Aaron's abuse, so she has that in the back of her mind. At the same time, she always wants perfect justice, and sometimes that can be ugly. I think it's kind of telling that in this particular instance, she's less grossed out by how violent Aaron is than she is satisfied that Dylan got what was coming to him.

[Hanahope]

So it seems by now, Veronica has this reputation at school for being a detective, so why did Hans risk her looking into the dognapping scam he was doing.  He should have just called to say they found the dog, then Mandy would have been happy and Veronica would have likely let the whole thing drop. And was Hans and the other guy getting money from the hispanic man to 'find' the dog and collect the rest of the money?  Otherwise, why let the hispanic guy get $1,000?

 

I do like Veronica and Logan together and its nice that Logan wanted to help Trina once he learned she was getting beat up.  I suppose showing us Aaron's temper big time is now supposed to make him look like a possible killer of Lilly?

 

Oh and I didn't recall seeing Weavil break into the Kane house the episode before (though I admit, its been several weeks since I watched).  It just seemed like that story line continued from something before.

 

A bit surprised Logan's mother didn't have more money, but I guess it was all from Aaron.

[scarynikki12]

Weevil broke into the house at the beginning of this episode after studying with Veronica, during the cold open.  Veronica arranging his release was his last get out of jail card as he's gotten into trouble at times all season long but this specific incident was the same episode.

[Hanahope]

I must have missed that.  Well, not that important.

[swtrgrl]

"Moving on..." Swoon-worthy, indeed.

[LeGrandElephant]

On 1/23/2014 at 11:21 AM, Carrie Ann said:

"Now I don't have to feel guilty anymore." "For what?" "Moving on." Swoooooooooooon.

Swoon as long as we forget he already moved on and was with Paris Hilton at the beginning of the season. Oh well, we can pretend she never existed. 

[marshmallows]

On 10/1/2019 at 5:32 PM, LeGrandElephant said:

Swoon as long as we forget he already moved on and was with Paris Hilton at the beginning of the season. Oh well, we can pretend she never existed. 

I feel like that was not really moving on. You can date other people after a break up or after a significant other's death and still feel like you haven't moved on. What he had with Paris Hilton was superficial at best. You can see that how when he is with Veronica he is moving on and he has deeper feelings for her.