Veronica and Logan share a moment
Veronica is in class where the television is discussing the homecoming dance. She is at a computer and Logan's putting his backpack down on a desk. When the television refers to the dedication of the Lilly Kane Memorial Fountain, both Veronica and Logan look up. I don't know if Duncan's in the room. If he is, the camera certainly does not close in on his reaction.
As the broadcast says that the Kane family have issued an invitation to attend the tribute ceremony, Veronica walks forward to watch. Logan looks up at her and they exchange a brief but significant glance at one another. Then Logan breaks contact and looks down.
Logan, Duncan and the Lilly videos
Not a LoVe moment, but I think it's worth mentioning because it provides us with an interesting insight into Logan's character. To a certain extent we have to regard all Logan moments as potential Veronica/Logan moments. Right from the start we learn about Veronica, her motives, her perspective, her background. It's different with Logan and acceptance of a LoVe relationship is only possibile when we know who he is and what makes him tick.
Logan walks up to Duncan who is standing at his locker, a box of videotapes in his hand.
"What are you doing?" Logan asks.
"My mother thought it would be nice to have a video tribute of Lilly for the dedication ceremony."
"What, she wanted you to do it?"
"No, my dad did. He wanted someone who knew her." This is sort of an odd statement but I assume what he means is that they didn't want to give it to a professional multimedia house to compile. It's almost impossible to tell from Duncan's expression how he feels about this particular task. He doesn't appear to be Zombie Duncan this week, but it is still very hard to tell what he's thinking. I am guessing that he is feeling a little reluctant to do it - just because of the way he sort of looks down and stops talking for a few moments.
Logan looks at him for a long moment, his face quite serious and then asks him: "Do you want me to do it, man? You know I’m awesome at this stuff. Come on, let me do it. I wanna do it."
Duncan nods and hands over the videos with alacrity.
"Thanks man."
"Yeah," Logan replies.
There are two interpretations of this scene. Logan sees that his friend is reluctant to engage in the somewhat painful exercise of putting together the video so he wants to spare him. The second interpretation is that he genuinely wants to do it because it's about Lilly.
I'm more inclined to go with the former simply because first, he doesn't sound all that enthusiastic, secondly his offer came after he took a good look at Duncan's sombre expression and thirdly when he speaks with Veronica later on he's not very thrilled with the task. He must have known from the start that making a video to suit Celeste Kane's requirements was going to be pretty tedious so I think he was doing it to to help out Duncan. This is complete speculation on my part.
Flashback #1: What Logan thought of Veronica the first time he saw her
In the first flashback, Logan, Veronica, Duncan and Lily are in the limo on the way to the dance. Lilly looks even more like a Bratz doll than usual.
"Okay, it’s my turn? Logan," Lilly says to Logan.
Logan chooses the truth option.
"What did you think of Veronica the first time you saw her?" Lilly wants to know.
"I don’t know, I thought she was hot," Logan murbles, looking a little embarrassed.
"I was 12 when you moved here!" Veronica gasps in disbelief.
"Oh, and, like you weren’t working it in your shorts and your kneesocks," Logan retorts.
"That was my soccer uniform!" Veronica tells him and then punches him in the shoulder.
"So, whatever! It totally worked!" Logan protests. Duncan and Lilly laugh, completely unaware that this joking confession might possibly suggest something deeper.
"Okay, Lilly," Logan tells Lilly who chooses dare.
"Shocker," Duncan says sarcastically.
"Okay, kiss someone in this limo," Logan tells her.
"Come on, dude," Duncan tells him. Lilly drinks from her champagne glass and then hands it over to Duncan.
"Come on," Logan tells her as he prepares himself for the kiss when she approaches him.
"Here we go," Duncan commentates as Logan moves himself against Veronica to give Lilly more room. Veronica covers her eyes, Lilly fakes out Logan and then instead kisses Veronica while Logan screams in delight? Veronica pushes her away laughingly as Duncan exclaims: "Oh no!"
Logan claps happily: "A little girl on girl action in the limo!"
"Oh, man! Dude! That’s my sister and my girlfriend." Duncan complains.
"Yeah, dude, like that one’s not in the rotation," Logan retorts. Duncan's response is to shake the bottle of champagne and spray Logan. While Veronica and Lilly huddle together, Logan looks annoyed: "Dude, this is my dad’s tux."
"Didn’t know man," Duncan tells him, shakes the bottle again and then sprays him again. "Here" he announces as Logan declares:
"I’m soaked!" He lunges at Duncan and they horse around for a bit.
I know I could speculate here that Logan always had the hots for Veronica, even when she was 12 years old in her soccer uniform but I don't now whether this was just kidding around or serious. What I'm more interested in is Logan's protestation that it's his father's tux. He clearly doesn't want to get it wet - is it because he's afraid that he's going to be beaten by his father?
If so and he's specifically mentioned that it's his father's tux - why isn't Duncan more apologetic? In Leave it to Beaver, when they're watching the video tapes, Veronica says this about Aaron Echolls:
"He’s psychotic. I watched him beat a guy into a bloody mess and then ask Logan how his school day was. He beats Logan, you know?"
Duncan nods, indicating he knows this to be the case.
Does Duncan know or does he not know that Aaron Echolls beats Logan?
Veronica & Logan: Lilly Video Part 1
Logan is sitting alone in a classroom in front of a very nice-looking computer screen. I look at it wistfully. The video tapes are on the table before him and as a Sarah Michelle Gellar-looking Veronica walks past, she recognises Lilly's voice and goes in.
Logan is watching and scribbling notes. Although he sees Veronica entering, he ignores her and continues making notes. Veronica approaches, watching the video which consists of sequences of Lilly's childhood. Logan glances up again and ignores her again, pretending to turn his attention back to her notes.
We know he's only pretending because he then asks her: "What part of my ignoring you makes you think you’re welcome?" His tone is not particularly nasty, just kind of offbeat.
"What are you doing?" Veronica asks in a slightly wondering voice.
Logan looks down at his hands and says seriously,"Assembling the world’s most boring memorial video." He punctuates "boring" with a slight flourish of his hands.
He makes a slightly self-mocking sound and runs through the videotapes he has - ballet, choir recital, debutante crap… His tone of voice is dismissive.
When he says: "…girl scouts", Veronica gives a small smile but Logan gives a sigh. "Memories both misty and water-coloured." A rather creepy looking video of Lilly dolled up with make-up and singing into a microphone comes on and I know I'm not the only one who was thinking JonBenet Ramsey. I find young children wearing make-up a little disconcerting.
Logan drops the video tapes down on the table
"It’s Lilly as a long-distance commercial," Veronica quips.
"Well, it isn’t really about Lilly, is it?" Logan comments looking sombre. He watches for a few moments and gives a vaguely amused laugh.
"God, this would piss her off," he says and his tone of voice in talking to Veronica is just from one person to another. They're not adversaries in this scene.
Veronica watches with a misty expression on her face as we know the flashback is coming.
Despite being a LoVe supporter, this scene is really more about their respective relationships to and memories of Lilly rather than to each other.. Certainly it's an uncharacteristically quiet moment in their ordinarily hostile relationship, but what is keeping them quiet here are their thoughts of Lilly. They're not arguing with one another but I won't say there's any chemistry here yet. I won't recap the next flashback because it's really more about Duncan and Veronica than Logan although it's a little bit gross that Logan knew what Duncan had done. :)
Veronica & Logan: Lilly Video Part 2
Logan is in front of the computer again and Veronica walks in asking: "How’s it going?"
"It’s very “Wonder Years.” he tells her as they stare at a picture of Lilly in some sort of royal costume.
"Celeste will love it," Logan comments disparagingly.
"So…" Veronica begins as she sits next to Logan. "I was going through some of my stuff and I found this."
She holds out a small mini-cassette labelled "Fun With Lilly".
"What is it?" Logan asks her.
"It’s not a violin recital". Logan looks at the tape, then at Veronica, then he looks back at the screen.
"I’ve got a lot of work to do," he says, dismissing her.
"Yeah. No, me too". Logan nods and Veronica leaves.
Again, this isn't really so much a Veronica/Logan moment as a moment to flesh out some background to the characters. The implied truce when Veronica gives Logan the videotape of Lilly again isn't really about Veronica and Logan, it's about memories of Lilly and coming to terms with her death and an unspoken acknowledgment that they both cared about Lilly. I wasn't squealing yet - but then again, I still didn't like Logan yet at this point in the series.....
Flashback scene at the Kane Residence, presumably the night after homecoming dance. Logan is lying with his head in Lilly’s lap while she pours a drink into his mouth.
This scene is mostly demonstrating that Lilly's relationship with her parents was not good.
Celeste is furious and says: "You are absolutely unbelievable. Why do you insist on humiliating me?"
"Um, two kids, both out all night and one getting screamed at?" Lilly questions.
"‘Cause I know you, Lilly. Any trouble this family has ever had, you’ve been at the root of it."
"Mom! It’s my fault, it was my idea." Duncan tries to defend his sister.
Jake leaps in playing peacemaker of sorts and sends everyone into the house. Lilly then throws a challenging look at her father, grabs Logan and gives him a long kiss for show. Logan looks very uncomfortable at being used to prove a point and he glances warily at the Kanes. There's a rather sweet little byplay between Veronica and Logan and then everyone disperses. Not a Logan / Veronica moment but an interesting insight into the Logan/Lilly dynamic. I think he was definitely much more into her than she was into him..... Poor Logan.
At the dedication service, a really bad version of Wind Beneath My Wings is playing. Oh dear. The Kanes are sitting on a small raised section, there's a video screen, Veronica's taking photographs and Logan is in the crowd.
As is his habit, his head is down but he does look up when he sees Veronica. When Celeste begins her introduction, Duncan looks like a zombie again and Logan stares down at his feet again. Veronica stares at icky Troy. When Duncan pulls the cord to uncover the fountain on the wall .... which kind of looks like a weird urinal ....., Logan starts the video.
The beginning of the video is Celeste-Friendly, being the original cutesy "long distance commercial" material. The soft guitar music gives away to Now is the Time by Damone. Logan looks mischievous although Celeste is not happy as the footage moves to the "wild child Lilly" material that Veronica had on her tape.
Interestingly, Logan has included footage of Lilly and Veronica dancing in the back seat. Being kick ass at this kind of thing, he could have edited Veronica out of the memories. Some people laugh as does Logan. The people in the crowd go through a wide range of emotions but at the end of it all, Logan looks over at Veronica. She smiles at him and he returns the smile.
From a Veronica/Logan perspective, what is very interesting here is the fact that all of the interaction is between Veronica and Logan. Duncan is barely even a blip in this episode and he was Lilly's brother, the love of Veronica's life. The exchanged glances and smiles at the service were a foreshadowing of the thawing in Veronica/Logan relations.
At the time, I wasn't entirely approving because I was still anti-Logan and thinking: "Don't humanise him, I don't like him, he's a jerk!" I was not yet won over. Gosh I was a hard case but look at me now.
A couple of thoughts that occur to to me. When Slimy Troy and Veronica were engaging in flirtation, Troy grossed me out when he said "Don't worry, I give good parent". Ick.
Is the music playing in Veronica's Magyver safecracking moment the same music playing when Logan and Veronica kiss in the Echolls' driveway? Sounds like it.
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