Note: The screen caps for this episode are from Jason-Dohring.com
At Neptune High's lunch area, Veronica is sitting kind of conspicuously at the table directly facing Duncan & the Donuts.
She stares at Duncan. Logan who is standing by the table notices her staring at her and so he commences a tauntingly obnoxious little performance for her.
Veronica's voiceover narrates: "And let's not forget Logan Echolls. His dad makes twenty million a picture. You probably own his action figure."
Logan sits on Duncan's knee. He leans back onto Duncan's chest and smirks, not taking his eyes off her. He starts rubbing his own chest lasciviously until Duncan shoves him off.
And then the lines that will haunt poor Logan forever in every single recap, summary, episode guide, review and fan fic: "Every school has an obligatory psychotic jackass. He's ours ....."
Logan sits down laughingly and points mockingly at Veronica, his gaze on hers. Veronica seems to be trying to stare him down so she doesn't notice that Wallace has sat down at her table and is unpacking his lunch.
I hated Logan in this scene. He was like every single cliched school bully you've ever seen. Good-looking, affluent, privileged and a complete and utter asshole. Jason Lohring's so good at it, that smirk and that way of horsing around just automatically pissed me off and made me hate him. On top of that his clothes are just so damned orange and ugly in this scene. Little did I know that one day I might like him.
I agree with the analysis of The LoVe Shack when they note that for some reason she introduces Logan last, lingering on his introduction and thereby making the audience linger on him as well. In flashback sequences, we are introduced to the "Logan likes to stare at Veronica" habit he has. In one, Veronica is standing by her locker, Duncan and Logan walk past and although Duncan is ignoring her, Logan is staring at her. Similarly at the flashback to Shelly Pomroy's party, Veronica is being ignored by everyone, Logan is doing shots at the bar and he turns and looks at her.
During the lunch scene, Logan is the one staring at Veronica. Duncan is in his customary catatonic state while Logan can't seem to take his eyes off her. He's even talking about her while he stares at her, when he puts on his dirty little routine on Duncan's lap, it's for her, he's taunting her, his gaze meeting hers in a sneer. You really want to smack him he's so obnoxious.
I remember reading a review about Colin Firth's performance of Mr Darcy, saying that Firth's Darcy stares at Elizabeth Bennett with the hungry intensity of a rottweiler staring at a plate of sausages he wants to devour. Hee hee, not very romantic but the intensity of the stare is quite similar. During the pilot though, I didn't find the staring romantic. It just made me dislike Logan more.
In a flashback, when Veronica sees that the video footage of Lilly's murder scene has been leaked onto the Internet, she quickly leaves and encounters Logan who tearfully demands: "So does your, uh, does your dad still think that Lilly's father did this? That's my girlfriend. Your friend. Duncan's sister. Your dad is destroying the Kane family. What's the matter with you people, huh? What's the matter with you?"
Again, I agree with the analysis of The LoVe Shack. Why is the confrontation with Logan rather than Duncan? True it's possible that Duncan was still in a semi-block of wood state but it's just strange that it's with Logan.
Logan's in orange again. "Ore-rindge" as Americans pronounce it and "orringe" as Australians pronounce it ;) where is his necklace in this scene though?
Veronica is walking across the car park. Logan is driving his bright yellow Xterra, Duncan is in the passenger's seat sitting idly by as per usual. There are a few people in the back.
"There's Veronica," Logan announces and pulls up to and keeps pace with Veronica. "Hey Ronnie. Hey, we've decided that we'd, uh, we'd rather surf than study today, you wanna come with?"
His manner is extremely friendly - Parker Lewis friendly - but I think it's an act. He's not being nice here, he's still being an asshole and if she said yes which of course she would never, he'd probably take the opportunity to mock her mercilessly. When she doesn't reply, he continues: "Duncan will promise to take his shirt off. Does that sweeten the pot?"
Neither Duncan nor Veronica respond and when Veronica continues to walk, ignoring him, her hair short and fluffy like Chloe in Smallville, Logan taunts her some more: "Does it make you horny? Hey DK, flex for your ex."
"Shut up, Logan," Block Boy finally tells his friend to pull his head in.
"All right, all right. Hey. Hey. Hey!" Logan exclaims and both the car and Veronica stop as Logan pulls out his hipflask.
"What do you say to a little hooch, huh? What's the matter, aren't you your mother's daughter? Hmm? Now there was a woman who could drink. Hey, what's she up to nowadays, maybe she'll join us. Do you know where she is? Any clue?" Veronica's just staring at him accusingly.
Finally Block Boy snaps into action again and grabs Logan by the shoulder. "Leave her alone, man."
"Ooh, chill pill, man. All right. Aw, she used to be fun, man. Bye". Logan zooms off noisily and Veronica stare after them.
There is nothing redeeming about Logan in this scene. He's pure bullying jerk. Yes he's trying to get Veronica's attention, yes he's obsessed with her but there's nothing about him - even his faux-affectionate 'Ronnie' that indicates that he likes her in a nice way.
I'm also unimpressed with Duncan. If he broke it off with Veronica because he thought she was his sister, then he should have invented some other reason for breaking up with her instead of letting the whole school including his best friend assume that it was because she was a skanky ho.
What do I take away from this scene? Logan is a jerk and deserves to be bitch-slapped! Oh, and Duncan needs a scolding, too.
Veronica and Wallace enter the school and run up a short flight of steps.
"Let's go!" Veronica calls out. She's so cute with her little pigtails.
"Hey, FloJo, slow your ass down!" I didn't understand what he called the first time. Mojo? Bobo? Hoho? Blojo? Oh, FloJo. :) » Jerilee inserts miniscule comment: {Hee hee... FloJo is actually a nickname for late female American track star, Florence Griffith Joyner.}
Veronica pauses at the corner and holds Wallace back so that she can observe Logan who is about to have his locker (top level) searched by the Vice Principal and the deputy.
Logan opens his locker with a flourish and steps back, smug in the knowledge that there is nothing incriminating in his locker.
"There you go".
There's a bong in the locker shaped like a cherub. Clemmons reaches for it.
"Well, what's this Logan? This would appear to be a device they use to smoke marijuana".
"That's exactly what it looks like," the deputy says.
"Back to the office. Come on," Clemmons says.
Logan looks gobsmacked and looks around suspiciously.
He spots Veronica and his gaze narrows in on her. A random extra walks by: "Oh man, Logan's busted."
Logan points at her. "It was you?"
Veronica does a very stagey ‘who me?' gesture which is cute. Logan laughs and then looks at her grimly. "Listen, I know it was you. This isn't over, okay."
Veronica yawns exaggeratedly.
"Hey," Clemmons interjects.
Logan grins but is pointing, closer to Veronica now. "You're so cute. Listen, I'll get you for this," he tells her.
Clemmons pushes Logan along: "Let's go".
"I will," Logan promises with an almost laugh.
"Come on, let's go," Clemmons tells him.
Corny (the guy who made the bong for Veronica) watches and then walks on, congratulating Veronica as he goes.
"You're right, that was funny," Wallace declares and Veronica tells him: "Meet me at my car after school. Let's see if you've done your part".
I can't really see this scene as romantic, sorry. It's funny and cute in its own way. Yes Logan calls her 'cute', but it was an angry, sarcastic cute.
He is doing a lot of staring at her which is intriguing but there's hostility. I do agree with the analysis of The LoVe Shack when they say:
She just set him up to be arrested, most likely suspended as well, and he is grinning. His attitude is almost a show of 'Okay, you got me this round, just wait til it's my turn!' Which flash backs to the last scene before where he kept digging and digging and was just so nasty -- nasty in a way we really don't see him ever at any other time. And taking in this scene and his reaction of near-glee, one wonders if the object was to show that the only spark that Logan got out of life then was his little back-and-forth game of one-upmanship with Veronica and in the parking lot scene, she hadn't played along. And here with the bong, the vicious cruelty of the "Hey, Ronnie" scene was missing because she was playing with him again.
It's true that although he was annoyed, his reaction was quite tame given that he was possibly going to be arrested, suspended and belted by his cruel, sadistic, abusive father ..... This scene is interesting because it's yet another facet of the fiery relationship that is Logan and Veronica, but it is still not what I would call romantic. I mean she set him up! OK that's kind of funny ....
Wallace and Veronica are at the beach but Wallace looks up, seeing something in the distance.
"Uh, Veronica?"
"Yeah?"
"Your car." Wallace points out.
Veronica looks and then hands the controls of the remote control aeroplane back to Wallace before walking up to her car. Logan is lying on the hood of her car, something long and metallic (I'm going to call it a crowbar) in his hands. Three of his obligatory flunkies are nearby. School bullies always have flunkies - just see Evil Johnny in the Karate Kid 1. They have to stand around and say: "Yeah man go for it, yeah yeah - hit harder" and then run away when the going gets tough.
Beside Veronica's car is another SUV.
"Hey, Veronica Mars." Logan calls out and then jumps off her car. "Do you know what your little joke cost me?" He gives a kind of swagger, reminiscent of all other "psychotic school bullies" that you see on tv and in the movies.
"Well, I'm pretty sure you won't be getting your bong back," Veronica quips back with a cheeky grin. I really like Veronica. It's rare that I like the lead female in high school dramas. They're normally annoyingly perky, cute or hideously self-absorbed but Veronica is just so cool and mouthy.
Logan looks at her, swings the crowbar and smashes out the right headlight. Veronica flinches and Logan grins cruelly and twirls the crowbar.
"Wrong answer. Would you care to guess again?"
"Clearly your sense of humor," she retorts.
Logan takes out the other headlight. "Nope. You're usually so good at pop quizzes. No, the correct answer is my car. That's right. My Daddy took my T-Bird away. And you know what I won't be having? Fun, fun, fun."
Logan smirks and moves to stand directly in front of Veronica, the crowbar is resting on the back of his neck. No, I don't think he would have hit her. He doesn't notice the sound of the motorbikes pulling up, he's just too busy staring into Veronica's face.
"Uh-uh, Logan," one of his flunkeys says nervously. He's stupid-looking. Meanwhile, Logan's still staring Veronica down, smirking and smiling at her.
Weevil (who is very short) and his flunkeys pull up. It's very Westside Story. Logan is snapped out of his Veronica-staring trance and turns around. Weevil gets off his bike as Logan heads towards him.
"What do we have here? Vandalism? No, no, no. Only vandalism that happens in this town goes through me," Weevil comments. I like Weevil's character. He's like a short Billy Zane with dry wit.
"Listen man, I don't have a problem with you," Logan tries to tell him.
"That's where you're wrong," Weevil corrects him.
They stare at each other and Weevil takes the crowbar from Logan. Felix, one of the Weevil's flunkeys has been snooping in the SUV. "Hey yo. Is this O-Town any good? I mean my little sister likes it but you know, she likes ponies and juice boxes too."
Weevil's flunkeys laugh and Logan is looking at Weevil's Flunkeys, clearly aware that Weevil's Flunkey's outnumber his flunkeys.
Logan gives a long and intense glare. Even though he's such a jerk in this scene, he looks hot. :) Sorry, I'm so shallow.
Wallace says plaintively: "I suddenly feel like I'm in a scene from ‘The Outsiders'."
"Be cool, Sodapop," Veronica tells him absently and I choke with uncontrollable laughter. I remember the SE Hinton book and the movie that had a very very young Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise in it. Such a sad, sad story. I had a friend who was so obsessed with that book and must have read it a dozen times. Anyway, the Wallace/Veronica exchange made me hee hee to myself for ages.
Weevil with crowbar in hand walks to the SUV.
Logan's flunkey bleats: "Hey that's not his car, that's my mom's car."
"She can bill me," Weevil retorts.
Weevil hits the SUV in the middle of the hood very hard. It only makes a very tiny dent. No, I just checked my dvd. I can't see anything. Perhaps this annoys him because then he smashes one of the headlights and then attacks the hood twice more - ok he makes a small dent now. Everyone watches. Logan's standing there looking on grimly.
"That's it," Weevil announces. I wonder if he feels a bit foolish because he wasn't quite bad ass enough - it looks like the SUV beat him in that rumble. Oh well, win some lose some.
Weevil hands the crowbar to the horrified flunkey.
"Head for the hills. I'm not gonna say it twice," Weevil says threateningly and even though he did a bad job of beating the crap out of the SUV, the Logan Flunkeys know that the crowbar's going to hurt if hits one of them with it, so they scramble towards the SUV.
"Except for you," he says pointing at Logan. "You, say you're sorry".
Logan gives a little chuckle. "Rub a lamp," he says defiantly. The fact that he has his hand up in his hair though betrays that he's feeling unsettled. I notice that Logan tends to do that when he's feeling uneasy.
I really love his delivery of the line. I've just realized that sometimes Jason Dohring reminds me of that bad guy from "The Pretender". You know the good-looking bad guy who has his thumb chopped off by the yakuza and ended up being Miss Parker's brother? I just googled him, his name is Jamie Denton and he played "Mr Lyle". {He is now the sexy Mike Delfino from ABC's Desperate Housewives. You know the one with Lois Lane from The New Adventures of Superman?}
Anyway, Logan winks and smirks in an endearing way. Weevil clearly does not find his smirk as endearing as I do because he punches Logan in the stomach - hard. Logan goes down because he is not an SUV and Veronica looks on, looking a little uncomfortable.
"I said, say you're sorry," Weevil repeats.
Logan gets back up onto his feet and faces Weevil again. "Kiss my ass," he says deliberately, his face defiant.
Weevil punches Logan's face. He goes down again and Weevil laughs. Logan gets up again. Blood is coming from his nose but he doesn't hit back. He looks defiant and is not going to apologize.
"Now ..." Weevil says.
"Let him go," Veronica orders.
"Are you sure? I could do this for a while."
"I don't want his apology," Veronica tells Weevil and Logan gives a look - it's not clear whether it's at Weevil or at Veronica.
Logan wipes the blood from his nose and makes a sound of disgust or contempt before he walks back to the SUV, stumbling slightly.
Even in the midst of his pain, he manages to quip at his useless flunkeys: "I hope you guys are comfortable". As they drive away, he's still staring at Veronica.
Gosh what to say about this scene. Yes there's chemistry here. There's taunting by Logan. It's almost like he's saying: "I'll apologize when she apologises for putting that bong in my locker". There's no affection, but there's a lot of tension and crackling emotion between them.
Veronica also definitely does not like seeing Logan beaten up. There's an argument that she probably wouldn't enjoy seeing anyone get beaten up before her, but there's something about the way she reacts which suggests that she might have some kind of soft spot for Logan. Again, I'm more inclined to think that she just wouldn't want anyone to be beaten up. Veronica likes to use psychological means for revenge, not physical violence although she's not above using Weevil and his Flunkeys as a threat. See "The Girl Next Door".
I agree with this line from The LoVe Shack: "HE pushes her buttons the way no one else appears to and SHE pushes his as well. And just for the record, they really *really* do have some damn fine chemistry."
There is of course another element to Logan's response to the beating. We know that Logan is not above using violence when he's angry but he doesn't hit back at all in this scene. One might say that it's because he knew that his flunkeys were outnumbered by Weevil's, but if that was the case - why did he continue to mouth off at Weevil (rub a lamp, kiss my ass) instead of just apologising? Words like that are just as inflammatory as if he had struck back physically. Logan doesn't want to back down in front of Veronica and the tragic truth of the matter is, he knows how to take a hit.
As the season unfolds, we learn that Logan is beaten (presumably on regular basis) by his father. Does anyone remember that scene from Return of the Kane? We heard the sound of the belt hitting flesh but no sound of cries from Logan. It's quite tragic when you think about it.
I am not sure if this is the reason why Rob Thomas didn't make Logan the "psychotic bully with the heart of a coward". You know the stereotype - he's a bully when surrounded by his friends, but in the smackdown, he'll usually sell out his buddies / start sniveling and crying and completely back down. The fact that Logan does not back down is already rejecting a standard television/movie cliché.
As a non-sequitur, a non-LoVe moment I really loved was this:
WEEVIL: My uncle has a body shop on the highway. If you come in, you
know, I can make sure your body gets the full service treatment.
VERONICA: Okay, now you apologise.
WEEVIL: I'm sorry, was that too dirty, ‘cause…
VERONICA: Not to me dork. [Indicating Wallace] To him.
Hee hee hee.....
Return to the Episode Commentaries' Index
