Veronica Mars Recap: Mars Bars
February 21, 2007 by Kath Skerry
The following contains spoilers for tonight’s episode of Veronica Mars. Something kind of big goes down so avoid this recap if you don’t want to know.
Title: Mars Bars
Original Airdate: Feb. 20, 2007
This ain’t going to be your typical recap. I’m so stunned right now that I feel like I’m writing this in a fog. I’ll do the best I can but geez, it’s a tough one. Read on and you will know why. Despite the events that unfolded tonight, this was a pretty kick ass episode of Veronica Mars. The perfect mix of drama and comedy. Loved it.
The Case of the Dead Coach…
When we last saw Veronica, she was baking cookies for jailed basketball star and accused murderer, Josh Barry. Betty Crocker she isn’t, but is Veronica’s cooking that bad that she sends the guy to the hospital? Well yes, if said guy was allergic to peanuts…oops. While he’s being transported to the hospital, Josh escapes. As Veronica was the one to give him the cookies, Lamb suggests that she helped Josh, and Veronica is thrown in the slammer.
While most young women might be a little scared, Roni seems to be enjoying herself and using this time to get in some exercise with some good ‘ol pushups. Keith comes to visit and wants to make sure Veronica’s ok. She is, and lets him know with the best quote of the night: “This girl ain’t going to be nobody’s bitch…you better recognize.” Of course Keith follows later with the second best quote of the night: [commenting on seeing his daughter in a prison cell] “I thought this site would be more traumatic for me, but…” God I love these two and if I could be half as witty, I would be a happy girl.
And if I could snag the helmet hair and Player’s Only jacket of Vinnie van Lowe then my life would be complete. Yes our favorite sleaze bag PI is back and you know he’s always good for a nice chuckle (but I’m sorry, every time I look at him I can only see him as Joey’s professor on the Creek). Seems that Mrs. Barry had hired VvL to track her husband to see if he was having an affair. VvL did snaps some shots of the Coach with another woman, but he didn’t get the money shot he needed to prove they were having an affair.
Ok so back to the case. Cliff manages to get Veronica released from jail (but not before she and Logan share a cute conversation -I guess they are friends?). She’s not out ten minutes when Josh tracks her down. Seems he has taken the liberty of kidnapping Mason as he thinks Mason is setting him up to take the fall for his father’s murder. Mason has a gun (although he previously had denied it to Veronica), but it’s not the same caliber as the one that killed the coach. Since Veronica assumes that an innocent man wouldn’t try to track down the real killer she agrees to help Josh flee…you know, once she gets Mason out of the trunk of the car. Veronica promises to hook him up with a new ID so he can flee to Mexico. Josh also needs her help in getting to his grandfather’s coin collection because he needs it for pocket change (no pun intended pun intended)
Keith tracks down the woman who was with Coach Barry in VvL’s pics. Seems she wasn’t his lover, but his neurologist. Coach Barry was dying of a rare disease (let’s call is Yakov Smirnov’s disease b/c I’m too lazy to look up the real name). The disease was debilitating and very painful prior to death.
Armed with this new information, Keith asks Mrs. Barry if she asked Josh to kill her husband so she could get the insurance money. She says this isn’t true and excuses herself and goes inside. While in there she grabs a gun hidden in the house and heads back to the deck to see Keith. But he isn’t there. Assuming she was trying to kill him, Keith wrangles the gun from Mrs. Barry. In the end she said that she wanted Keith to have the gun (a 45 none the less) and use it to prove that Josh didn’t murder his father.
Josh retrieves his safety deposit box (um, this guy escaped from jail and he can just walk into a bank, flash some ID and get access to a safety deposit box…wow, even Prison Break is more realistic than that). Along with his grandfather’s fortune in coins, Josh finds a DVD with his name on it. He and Veronica take a looksy and find that it was a video message from Josh’s Dad. On the video he admitted that he killed himself to spare his family from seeing him die a slow and painful death that would rob them of their savings. He wanted Josh to know the truth. He had his long time friend and assistant coach pull the trigger. A friend that looked a lot like Josh…enough so that Mason mistook the friend for Josh the night of the Coach’s death.
You would think that the video means the end of this nightmare for Josh, but not so much. If Josh tells the authorities that his father committed suicide then his family wouldn’t get the insurance money that they desperately need. Josh mans up and decides to stay on the run in order to help his mother and his brother.
Case of the Dead Coach: SOLVED
Case of the Dead Dean…(aka ‘The Case of the I Could Care Less’)
There were a few developments in the Case of the Dead Dean. But as I’ve said in the past, I’m really not engaged with this mystery. I think the stand alone mysteries we’ve had over the past few weeks have been interesting but I just don’t feel any connection to the Dean and I don’t care to know who murdered him. But Keith does, and tonight he finds out a few things. He learns that the Dean had Xanax in his system the night he died, despite the fact that he ran out during the day and never filled his script. But being the good wife that she is, it seems that Mrs. O’Dell picked up his pills on his behalf…what a peach.
Veronica watches some TV show and figures out the timetable was wrong for when the attendant at the Neptune Grand heard the two men fighting in Mrs. O’Dell’s/Professor Landry’s hotel room. I was kind of lost by all of this and I don’t feel like going back to watch it again. Just know that it was important enough for Keith to bring it to Lamb.
Lamb dusts for prints on the Dean’s computer and finds that Richard Grieco (Steve, Mrs. O’Dell’s ex husband) had been in the office and used the Dean’s keyboard. Perhaps to write the murder/suicide note? Richard Grieco is arrested but the world’s best bad lawyer, Cliff, gets him out of jail. It’s not much later that Lamb and Sachs get the call that the O’Dell’s home is being burglarized. Suspecting Richard Grieco they head over, and Keith follows. As Sachs covers the door Lamb heads inside and hears Grieco yelling. Lamb enters a room and fires his gun…to bad it’s just his own reflection in the mirror. Then, without any warning, SMACK…Richard Grieco smashes in Lamb’s head with a baseball bat. Sachs shoots Richard Grieco dead. Keith instructs Sachs to call 911 and get an ambulance for Lamb who is bleeding from the head. But he’s not dead. Lamb looks up at Keith and says “I smell bread”*…hmmm.
In the most contrived scene of the night, Weevil accompanies the head janitor to do some cleaning in the boiler room. The janitor asks Weevil to clean the floo and while doing so, Weevil just happens to stumble across a bag stuffed in there. And what’s in the bag? Oh you know, just some bloody gloves and a bloody shirt with the initials HRL stamped on it. Yes, HRL for Hank Rhinoceros Landry (ok that’s probably not his middle name but my guess is as good as yours).
Back at Mars Investigations, Keith is pissed that Veronica helped Josh escape, well at least before Keith gets to see the suicide DVD. Just as he starts to calm down he gets a call. Ok…hmm..give me a minute because this is hard for me to write. But ok, here it goes…LAMB IS DEAD!!! Can you believe it? I still can’t. I am in a bit of shock right now. I had no idea it was coming (was this in the spoilers, because I never read VM spoilers). Needless to say I’m floored. Lamb was always such a douche, but he was consistently one of the best characters on that show. I’m so going to miss Sheriff Lamb. And if he had to go (and really why did he have to go? I’m not sure I understand), why couldn’t his cause of death be less obvious? That way Rob Thomas could have at least appeased the gays and the girls by giving us one last Shirtless!Lamb scene. It might have been on the coroner’s table but I would have taken it. Ugh, I’m so devastated. I’m going to say I’m 99% sure Lam is really dead. *But I did find his last words suspect: “I smell bread”. Remember last season when Veronica said “I smelled bacon”? Well that was a statement that revealed she was dreaming. I know it’s a stretch to think Lamb is still with us but I’m hurting here and I need to grasp on to whatever I can. (More on Lamb’s death at the end of this recap).
With Lamb, you know….gone, Keith is appointed Sheriff. His first act as the man in charge? Bring Mrs. O’Dell in for questioning. He lets her know about Hank’s initials on the bloody gloves and shirt. Keith figures that she either did it or is covering for Landry…and he wants answer. No, he wants the truth. But can he handle the truth? Sure, he’s Keith Mars.
Case of the Dead Dean: UNSOLVED
The Case of the Mismatched Couples…
Doing a favor for Veronica, Logan finds himself in Parker and Mac’s room just in time to be roped into doing a favor for them. Seems Hearst is running Valentine’s Day Scavenger Hunt contest. Each “couple” has to find clues and take pictures of themselves performing each task. Couple #1 (Mac and Bronson) and Couple #2 (Logan and Parker) pair up and begin the day. The game was sexual in nature and required the couples to do things like buy x-large condoms and engage in sexual postitions (fully clothed of course) outlined in the Karma Sutra, a book Mr. Echolls knew well. Ha. One task even required a retrival of a clue from the cold Pacific Ocean – a task that Parker and Logan both partook in. As much as it pleases me to see an almost shirtless Logan Echolls, I’m not liking it when he’s almost shirtless and flirting with Parker. Um, weren’t you the guy that jsut last week couldn’t leave his apartment because he loved Veronica so much?! Yeah. This week Logan is all goofy and smiley…what gives dude?
Anyway, game on with Logan and Parker. Nothing has happened yet but it will. Oh and Parker, getting involved with your friends ex, nee, very recent ex would NOT endear you to my group of girlfriends…I’m just saying.
Mac is finally over Beaver Cassidy and is no longer the frigid woman she once was. Hence the banging she and Bronson did in her dorm room in between classes. I really liked Bronson the first week he was introduced, but tonight he seemed kind of bland. I’ll give him another shot…for Mac’s sake.
Oh and Wallace was in the episode too, but for the life of me I can’t remember what he was doing. Ok, so we had Wallace, Weevil, Mac and Lamb all in one episode. Couldn’t they have thrown in one random scene with Dick and Piz so we could have had the whole crew representin’ tonight? Is that too much to ask?
Mary Had a Little…Sniff, sniff..
Yes, it’s true. Lamb is dead. I’m personally crushed, and by the emails I received tonight, I know that many of you are going to miss Lamb too. Just seconds after watching the episode I reached out to Michael Muhney. He and I are going to catch up later in the week and I’ll be sure to let you know what he had to say about Lamb’s passing. Right now, he said his “heart was welling up” with all the emails and all the fan support online.
Yeah Lamb was a jerk, but he was OUR jerk. If you’d like to let Michael Muhney know how much you will miss Lamb, please feel free to leave a comment here. He will be reading your messages.
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Filed under TV News, Veronica Mars
No! No! No! Lamb is NOT dead. It just isn’t possible.
Michael Muhney – You were just perfect as Lamb. Thanks for everything you did to make Veronica Mars the best show on TV. You will be missed. Tell me you already have something lined up, please.
I’m so sad I could cry.
Michael, can you tell us the significance to Lamb’s last line.
I just discovered your site tonight. How did I now know about it before. I just bookmarked it. I’ve spent the last 2 hours reading your recaps and reading about your day on the set of VM.
How did you talk to Michael Muhney? He loved the show and must be so bummed right now. Michael if you are reading this then I wanted to say that I love you and I will miss seeing you every week.
-Heidi
Michael, you were consistently one of the most amazing parts about VM. At random intervals during tonight’s episode, not knowing what was coming, I kept saying aloud, “I love Lamb!” because you always brought so much to the show. I don’t know what I (or Veronica!) will do without you, but you will most seriously be missed.
Lamb was an asshole, but I just couldn’t hate him. Michael Muhney was just too perfect in the role and even though I know I wouldn’t want to know Lamb in real life, I loved watching him every week. I met Michael last year and I have to say that he’s incredibly kind and gives the best hugs. I’m going to miss seeing him on Veronica Mars, but I look forward to everything he decides to do in the future. Lots of love, Mr. Muhney!!
A few people over at TWoP and livejournal have speculated that the “I smell bread” thing is a reference to M*A*S*H?
And I am seriously dying inside a little bit over Lamb’s death – and – AND absolutely furious! FURIOUS! with the execution [bah! no pun intended] of Michael’s exit from the show. Having met the man and seen how extremely dedicated he was to the show and to the fans, and not forgetting the fact that he played one of the most consistent characters on the show that has changed (and not so much for the better) since season 1, it could have been better. Like say, on screen? Too much to ask? Sigh.
Waahh!!
So long, wonderful Veronica/Lamb snark! The show will never be the same again. :'(
I can’t believe Lamb is dead!!! From what I’ve heard, Michael Muhney’s so great to VM fans, which makes me even madder about his death. The show went off 3 hours ago, and I’m still in shock.
Michael, you were great as Sheriff Lamb! Always one of my favorite characters! I’ll miss the snarky Lamb/Veronica scenes. Thanks for helping to make Veronica Mars the best show I’ve ever seen! Hope to see you in something soon.
Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (and the more well known vCJD, or variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease– also known as “Mad Cow”) is a prion disease with rapid dementia, poor motor control and spongiform (yep, the brain softens) change. It’s uncurable.
Despite Lamb’s slaughter (yes, I just said that ;-)) I thought this was a fantastic episode, particuarly the scavenger hunt – until Parker and Logan started getting too cozy. Grrr!
Lamb’s always been one of my favorite characters and I’ll definitely miss him. Michael Muhney brought quality to an already quality show. But I’m going to try to look on the bright side…maybe we’ll finally get Piz back.
Such a good episode… but I am floored by the death of Lamb. I loved the banterbetween the Mars’ and him. As for spoilers, this wasn’t one that I had expected. I knew someone was going to die, but I just assumed it was the coach last week… but Lamb?
I do wish Michael well in whatever he decides to do after this, but I’m surely going to miss him on VM.. he was a great character!
I believe the ‘I smell bread’ may be a shout out to the M*A*S*H* episode but also Phantom smells are associated with traumatic brain injury or brain tumors. It’s medically known as Phantosmia (definition): ‘is a situation in which one smells an odor for which there is no stimulus; hence it is a phantom smell.’
The moment Lamb uttered those words my stomach sank, I knew he was going to die. I was holding out hope of hopes that they would make him comatose but, nooooo they had to kill off Lamb. I’m going to miss this character! Best wishes to Michael in his future career.
Hey guys –
FYI – Sorry if some of you are having issues with the comments. There was a bug where all comments looked like they were coming from me, but I think it’s fixed now. I went in an manually changed ‘GMMR’ to your name, but if I screwed up on something, please let me know.
Ok, can someone explain the ‘I love bread’ MASH reference?
I think Veronica kept saying “I smell bacon” in that episode when she thought Keith was dead. Apparently on this show, when someone is dead or thought to be dead, charactors on the show smell food. Next food should be eggs, then someone could have a breakfast of bacon, bread (toast) and eggs.
I CAN NOT believe Lamb is dead!!! That was SUCH a shock to me. I called a freind of mine and he answered the phone by saying “I know, I can’t believe it either”. Lamb was finally growing on me, and tonight is the first episode ever where he listened to Keith. Great timing.
Why did they bring Michael on as a series regular and then kill him off??? Mac better watch her back.
And what’s up with Logan and Parker??? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! That is really going to make me so mad. When he went to Mac’s room and Parker answered the door, I thought “They better not try to put Logan and Parker together”. And how did she swim when she’s wearing a wig??? 😉
I am so mad they had to bring on Parker and Piz on the show to make LoVe have such a complicated relationship this year. Why can’t they put Parker and Piz together and leave my LoVe alone???? =(
Michael Muhney – best wishes to you with your career. You are one amazing actor! Maybe Lamb could have a twin brother??? We’d really like to see you back somehow on this show. It will not be the same without you.
Ok, one last comment/question from me, then I’ll stop for a few minutes. Wallace’s line, I didn’t really understand. Can someone help me out? Lamb told Wallace he remembered him from somewhere and Wallace said that Lamb told him to go see the wizard and ask for guts. Lamb asked how that went and Wallace said the wizard said Lamb was the only sherrif who was a friend of Dorothy’s. Is that his way of calling Lamb gay?
I felt like Wallace was calling him the scarecrow…you know, no brains. but i’d love to hear exactly what it meant too. I did love the callback to the pilot. i hadn’t realized that Wallace and Lamb never saw each other since then.
I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat when Lamb got hit. I couldn’t believe it. I was really hoping for more Roni/Lamb snark this year.
Best wishes, Michael. I really hope you can land another series soon AND a guest/recurring/regular spot on BSG. that would rock.
Yes, Mandy…calling someone a “friend of Dorothy” means that you’re calling them gay. I never completely understood the origin, but I’m assuming it has something to do with loving showtunes, Judy Garland, Liza, etc….
I can’t believe it. Lamb is dead. What is this? I love this show, and all of its characters. I really wish that hadn’t killed Lamb. My question is, if they HAD to kill Lamb, why didn’t they create some mystery around it. That would have held viewers interest. I am a VM fan through and through, so I love each new episode equally. But even I have to say Dean O’dell’s murder mystery isn’t that compelling. But Lamb’s mystery SO could have been. We could have had old videos of interrogations, women coming out of the woodworks, flashbacks galore. Why didn’t they do something like this? All of the sudden, BAM, Lamb is dead. I don’t think I’m going to be okay with this.
that totally would have been a good way to engage the viewers with the mystery- moreso than the deans deal did… that weevil segment was a little disjointed to me. it seems like it was just stuck in there without any real reason to be- it was the only scene we saw him in. i just think they could have happened upon the bloody shirt in some other way…
i still can’t believe Lamb is dead… i’m in shock…
LAMB!!!!!!!!! Oh my God. Sure, he was an asshole, but I loved him!!!!! The show just won’t be the same. Ever.
I still can’t believe it. Oh my God. And it was SO sudden! Just a phone call, and BOOM. It was so abrupt.
Lamb!!! *sobs*
On the M*A*S*H* ‘I smell bread’ connection in one episode Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester began to question the afterlife after finding a bullet hole from a sniper that went through his hat. Later as he was aiding a critically wounded soldier, the soldier asked him to hold his hand and stated that he could not feel it when Charles replied he was. The soldier then siad something to the point of ‘I’m dieing’ Where Charles began to question him on what was happening to the soldier as he lay dieing. “What do you see? What is happening to you?’ To no avail the last comment the soldier said before dieng was ‘I smell bread.’
I, too, loved the witty banter between Lamb and Veronica – great love-hate relationship…they loved needling each other.
Michael will be missed on the show. He is such a talented actor and I’m sure he will find plenty of work.
I see Beaver, er, Cassidy on so many shows now (Smallville, CSI NY, etc.) that I know Veronica Mars is making stars out of their past characters. I know we have not seen the last of our “Sheriff Lamb” – his career is just expanding. Good Luck, Michael!!!
I am so sad that Lamb is gone. He was one of my favorite characters and I loved the chemistry he had with Veronica. And I will say that the elevator make-out scene he had with Madison (last season? the one before?) was one of the HOTTEST on the show. Ever.
I will be on the lookout for Michael Muhney’s hotness in the future. Best of luck.
The “I smell bread” comment from Lamb shows that he has a serious brain injury. When one’s brain is damaged seriously, hallucination of all the senses can occur. Apparently smelling bread after a serious head injury is rather common.
Poor, poor Lamb… am totally bummed about this. I was watching it on DVD and just after Lamb was all “I smell bread” I had to go out for dinner, didn’t get back for about 3 hours during which time I was totally shocked – I couldn’t decide whether I wanted Lamb to die or not – I mean obviously I didn’t WANT him to die cause I just loved him, but I HATE fakeouts and if he wasn’t dead, when they’d so clearly made him seem so, I was gonna be peeved. Then when he was… dude. I cried over that, and I don’t cry easy when watching TV. It took a repeat viewing of Denny’s death on Grey’s to get my waterworks going, and I’ve honestly never cried over VM before, but the loss of Lamb is just … well frankly it sucks. Havin said that, I’m not burning effigies of Rob Thomas, I adore Rob and I’m not really mad that it happened, just a little saddened.
People are complaining that he got a lame death scene, but I liken it in a way to the death scene of Lindsay MacDonald in “Angel” when he is shot by Lorne, and he just keeps saying how he wasn’t supposed to die that way, Angel was going to kill him, not some flunky… for Lindsay, who thought of himself as Angel’s nemesis, it was the ultimate embarassment to be killed by the weakest member of the team.
P.S. Is this the first time we’ve seen Logan being functional and sane without Veronica by his side? Nice. Also, I totally
Oh did my message end up being too long? I wanted to say that I totally