Ladyghosts: Veronica Mars, S1:E17, “Kanes and Abel’s”

There are only six episodes left in the season and that means that we’re really getting into the depths of Lilly Kane’s murder and the cover-up conspiracy.  Sad news: There is not really any Weevil in this episode.  Good news: There’s no Leo, either!

The episode starts out with Veronica tracking down Abel Koontz’s daughter, Amelia, at her dorm – one step ahead of the diabolical Clarence Weidman.  Veronica has started her own little witness protection program and has Amelia stashed at a hotel and she informed Amelia that the money she’s receiving is not some out-of-court settlement like she thought, but a payoff for her dad’s confession in Lilly’s murder.  Amelia does not know that her dad is dying and doesn’t have a relationship with him because he hit her mom when he fell into depression after Jake Kane screwed him over in a business thing.

Meanwhile, Veronica is broke so she agrees to take an 09er’s case who thinks that she’s being harassed by Brad from Home Improvement, whose name in this show is Caz.  Caz denies it, but Veronica puts a tracker on Caz’s car (of course) and a tracker on Sabrina the 09er’s phone (of course) to catch the harasser, as well as shame the people who are calling the house because Sabrina’s number was posted as a sex line.  Veronica is over at Sabrina’s house, whose mom follows the Tiger Mother philosophy of hothousing her kid on every school topic ever.  While Veronica is there they catch Caz driving by, but he still claims he’s not the harrasser and he was just trying to be protective of Sabrina.  To be fair, he seems as surprised as all of them when a group of raver kids comes by looking for a party.  So, as usual, the culprit isn’t who we originally suspected, but who is it?

Back at the Mars Detective Agency, father and daughter get a visit from Vinnie, Neptune’s other private detective.  In a town that has only one hotel, police station, one main employer, one high school and one lawyer they have two private detectives.  Huh.  I like Vinnie in this series.  He’s played by the guy who played the catering boss in Party Down and he’s sleazy as can be.  The way they are introducing him here is kind of awkward, because he claims he’s just stopping by to thank Keith for sending a client his way who Keith refused to take because she wanted him to entrap her husband.  He also wants to team up with Keith because he has “more cases than he can handle,” which probably isn’t true but Keith wouldn’t do it anyway because of morals.  But anyway, Vinnie’s on the scene now, and on Mars that means that he’s going to become important.

For someone who pretty much never seems to be doing homework, Veronica is doing well in school.  So well, in fact, that she’s in the running for a Kane foundation scholarship, along with Duncan, Sabrina, and a kid named Hamilton Cho.  Being back at the Kane house is causing Veronica’s imagination to run wild, and she keeps envisioning scenarios in which each member of the Kane family could have been responsible for Lilly’s death.  Hamilton Cho and Sabrina are neck and neck for valedictorian, but Sabrina dropped 1/100th of a percent because she has been too tired to study and got a B on a test.  That makes Hamilton suspect number one and he gets the tracker treatment from Veronica.

We haven’t forgotten about Amelia DeLongpre, and Clarence Weidman hasn’t either.  He visits Keith looking for her, which lets Keith know that Veronica has been messing around in the case.  So now Veronica has to come clean about what she’s been doing.  Keith doesn’t stop her, but he does ask her to be more careful. Keith also tells Veronica that phone records show that Jake Kane called Clarence Weidman before he called the police; Veronica imagines a scenario where Clarence comes in like The Wolf from Pulp Fiction to help with a cover up.

So earlier, Logan saw Veronica’s computer and saw that there is a file on everyone about Lilly Kane’s murder.  Veronica is worried that he’s going to tell everyone that Veronica is creepin’ on them.  But Logan mostly just wants to know about Duncan’s epilepsy and tells a story about walking in on Duncan choking Jake Kane and having no memory of it the next day.

OK, back to Veronica’s mini-mystery.  Sabrina calls Veronica complaining about a car alarm going off and Veronica has her get the license plate; she traces the car to Vinnie the PI’s ex-wife (see, I told you he would be important).  She stops by Vinnie’s office, and, you guessed it! Bugs him! Of course.  She learns that it was Hamilton Cho’s dad who hired Vinnie to harrass Sabrina.  In a meeting with Jake Kane, Sabrina and her mom, Hamilton and his dad, the vice principal, and Veronica (who really should probably not be a part of the meeting), Mr. Cho explains that he feels that Sabrina had more advantages in the valedictorian race. Sabrina’s mom is unsympathetic and tells Hamilton he needs to drop out of the valedictorian race.  No Oxford for Hamilton.

Next we see Clarence Weidman approach some college kid and ask to borrow his cell phone.  Flash to Amelia, who answers a phone call from her boyfriend, the guy Weidman had approached.  It’s Weidman, and he tells Amelia that Veronica isn’t who she says she is.  Amelia had told Veronica that she had the settlement papers, which would prove that Abel Koontz had been paid off.  Veronica and Keith head to the hotel, but they’re too late.  Weidman tells them that Amelia took off because Veronica hadn’t been honest with her.  Veronica is upset that Amelia is gone, and she and Keith talk more about the case.  Keith tells Veronica (via flashback) that he suspected Jake and Celeste lied about their alibis because he heard a dryer buzz when he was over getting their statements.  He knew that the Kanes don’t do their own laundry because they have two full-time housekeepers.  He got suspicious, looked in the dryer, and found a soccer uniform.  Ugh. And that means we’re back to Duncan is craaazzyyy and he killed Lilly and forgot.  My least favorite story line.

We’ve got five more episodes, friends, until the exciting season finale! See you next week!