For all its twists and turns, this week’s Veronica Mars came off as rather pointless. Sure we had a bit of advancement in Veronica/Logan’s relationship and the murder investigation but the main plot basically just went in one big circle.
Now having a story come full circle is often a good thing, but in a story with some very many twists, it left me feeling very underwhelmed. The episode probably could have benefited from a few less twists. We had Max hiring Veronica to track down Chelsea before she got married. Then we found out that she was actually a prostitute but Max doesn’t care about that and still wants to be with her. And, once they find her, she wants him. Chelsea, who is actually Wendy, tells Max she wants out of the prostitute life. But then another prostitute shows up battered and bruised saying Wendy has to come back with $1000 or she’ll get beat up some more so Max pays her. Then it turns out the other woman faked her injuries so Veronica and Max think Wendy scammed them. But then it turned out Wendy’s pimp ran the scam on her own and would let Wendy go for even more money. Despite the high possibility that this is also a scam, Max pays the pimp and Wendy does leave the life of prostitution to be with him. But then, after a brief period of happiness, it turns out Max does care that she was a prostitute and she leaves him. And then she starts back on the road to prostitution, despite apparently being quite happy to be free of it. That’s far too many plot twists for a one hour episode that ultimately goes nowhere.
The ending of the Max/Wendy story, in particular, drove home the pointlessness of the whole thing. Wendy leaves Max but thanks him for showing her what was missing from her life. Then she takes up a job as a stripper so she can repay him his money. This seems roughly analogous to a recovering alcoholic, fresh out of detox, taking a job as a bartender. Being a stripper doesn’t automatically lead to prostitution, but considering that’s apparently what lead to her gig as a prostitute in the first place, it doesn’t seem like a very good job for Wendy to be doing.
As for stuff that wasn’t related to the Wendy and Max plot, we didn’t really get a whole lot. We learned that Mindy may have come to see her husband the night he was shot, possibly. As for Logan sleeping with Madison after he broke up with Veronica, I’ll refrain from commenting for now. Partly because the previews suggest it will be explored in far more detail next week, and partly because I missed part of the scene where Logan was telling Veronica about someone he slept with while they were on their break.
