LogFAQs > #888751684

Season 1, Episode 3

Recap: Duncan is experiencing dissociation since Lily's death, which draws the attention of his parents. He deals with it by fucking women (while thinking of Veronica) and taking antidepressants. Veronica gets tapped by a skinny kid to find his father, inspiring her to look for her mom - but she's skipped town.

I'm working without my notes here for an episode I saw two nights ago, so bear with me.

By far the best episode yet. The psychological glimpse into Duncan Kane is exactly what this show needed - a human perspective from a different angle regarding Lily Kane's murder. (Props to Veronica for calling out her dad on hiding secrets. He then uses the typically cliche 'for your own good' line on her, but good on you, V.)

There's nothing likable about Duncan - he's spoiled and rich; he enables his spoiled and rich friends when they abuse Veronica; he's emotionally unavailable both to his family and to the girls he dates; he's jealousy and has a punchable face. And yet... he's sympathetic. I think I can trust Veronica's judgment of his character, and she's not over him. We know he underwent massive trauma. And it sounds like his sister might have been the only other functional human being in the household.

When Duncan sees that kid go over the bleachers, he's looking for an escape. It's mindnumbingly stupid when he goes over it, but dude is off. It's clear from the story about the dog who got immediately given away that there are reasons for Duncan to dislike his father (and to ignore Jay's pleading for Duncan to find ambition). In the end, he figures out why he's so bothered - something is seriously wrong about the Lily situation. And for now, he's not ready to struggle with that pain - back to the pills it is.

The story with skinny kid's fake dad real dad transgender woman video store rental crush on Veronica is... well, I'll just let that jumble of words speak for itself. It's the nominal A-plot and it's a joke. The upshot of it is that Veronica is spurred to take action. It's far too early in a 22-episode season for Veronica to meet her mother yet, but when Veronica cries afterward, it's so real. The budding romance is mostly whatever, but I like the way we learn about Veronica's mental state through her reaction to this perfectly normal dude.

One trope I'm not a huge fan of that I'm finding in common between Buffy and VM - it seems imperative that we understand the protagonist would be cool/popular, if not for such-and-such circumstances. I feel like it's a distinction that the showrunners need to be made for some reason, perhaps because the lead actresses look like lead actresses. But no such qualification usually applies for male characters.

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* Did Duncan have sex twice this episode, or was the first one a flashback for Veronica?

* Pop getting involved with Veronica's counselor NO THANKS

* Love the exchange where Veronica tells her dad that she's been having wild sex, and he says THAT'S NOT FUNNY. Veronica pauses, then says that she finds it funny.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness