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Meta Commentary: What Goes Down (Part One)
Since the first arc of What Goes Down has drawn to an end, and I finally sat down and plotted my way through the second, I thought I'd reward myself with some self-indulgent meta. This is basically a summary/cheat sheet to the first half of the series; a guide to what is (and isn't) going on, and how it relates to what's happening in canon at the same time. Spoilers for What Goes Down up to Amends (and references to upcoming chapters), and for Veronica Mars canon up to episode 3:9 - Spit & Eggs.
What Goes Down starts at the Theta Beta rush party during My Big Fat Greek Rush Week. This time, though, there's a difference - Deputy Sacks (sans moustache) is there, investigating the Pi Sigs in connection to the rapes on campus.
With Sacks at the party, Veronica doesn't pretend to get wildly drunk, nor does she use Karen's keys to sneak into her private room. Instead, she's voted into the Theta Beta sorority.
Canon continuity: As per her conversation with Wallace, he and Logan participated in the sociology experiment seen in My Big Fat Greek Rush Week.
As part of her welcome into Theta Beta, Veronica attends a masquerade party, where she runs into Lamb. Together, they search Chip Diller's room, and he ends up kissing her in an effort to explain away their presence when caught. The next week, he warns Veronica off investigating further, which, predictably, she ignores, thus marking the unofficial beginning of their working together on the case.
Canon continuity: Though not mentioned, it should be assumed that Veronica still helped Kurt locate his missing playbook (as in Wichita Linebacker); it'll come up later in the series.
Canon continuity: Also offscreen, Veronica runs into Weevil at the car wash, he gets fired, goes to work for Keith, and is fired again. Veronica is not called into the dean's office because of her story on the Theta Betas, but because of her alleged "jock strap" hazing prank; as in canon, she investigates the vandalism of the dean's car, and gets Weevil his job at the college.
Veronica and Lamb later attend another Pi Sig party, where Veronica unsuccessfully tries to get Chip to take her up to his room so she can search it more thoroughly. Logan sees her with Chip, but is intercepted by Sacks, and when Chip tries to push a drunk Veronica too far, Lamb hits him.
The next day, Logan confronts Veronica about what she was doing at the Pi Sig party. He isn't mad because she was flirting with another guy, but rather because he knows exactly what she's doing.
Canon continuity: As happens later in canon, Logan asks Veronica to stop putting herself in danger, gets mad at her when she won't, laments that she won't let him close enough to help her, and breaks things off.
In an effort to cheer her up, Wallace, Mac, and Piz suggest to Veronica that they participate in a scavenger hunt. This isn't really important, except that it includes a naked Professor Landry (hee!); it's also what Veronica was doing instead of being introduced to Logan's "brother," Charlie.
Canon continuity: With no suspicious girlfriend to expose the deceit, Logan pours his life story out to reporter Norman Phipps (as seen in Charlie Don't Surf), not realising the truth until he reads the article in Vanity Fair. Offscreen, Charlie calls Logan to let him know he had nothing to do with the reporter; though the two don't become instant BFF, they do agree, slightly uncomfortably, to stay in touch. This isn't yet mentioned in the story, but it will come up later.
Meanwhile, Veronica enlists Wallace, Mac, Piz, and Parker to help her explore the Pi Sig house, but they find nothing. Duh. Veronica begins to think that maybe the Pi Sigs aren't behind the rapes, after all; she tells Lamb as much, and he orders her off the case. Again.
For Halloween, the Theta Betas are hosting a party, and Veronica attends dressed as Wonder Woman. She sees Lamb there and asks him what he's doing, to which he replies that the Pi Sigs aren't the only Greek house to have been linked to the rapes. Reluctantly, Veronica tells him about the Theta Betas' rumoured secret room, and he asks her to sneak in there.
Canon continuity: Veronica snaps pictures of the marijuana plants, but hands them over to Lamb instead of Nish. When Marjorie tells her the story behind the plants, Veronica is able to get the pictures back off Lamb and remain in the sorority.
Canon continuity: Without Veronica in attendance, Mercer's casino was still held up and robbed (as seen in President Evil). This is mentioned later.
After hearing news of Claire's rape at the Pi Sig haunted house, Veronica makes a note to investigate further. Her thoughts are interrupted by Parker, who asks Veronica to find out what Piz thinks of her.
Canon continuity: Veronica, Logan, Piz, and Parker never go bowling (as they do in Hi, Infidelity). Instead, Parker developed her crush on Piz while helping Veronica search the Pi Sig house. Piz, as in canon, tells Veronica that Parker just isn't his type; outside the radio station, Parker runs into Mercer and recognises his cologne. Veronica searches Mercer's room and finds clippers.
Canon continuity: As in canon, Veronica "babysits" Weevil's keys when he goes away for the weekend.
Canon continuity: The originality of Veronica's criminology paper is still called into question. She investigates as far as finding that the email address from which the copy of her paper was posted was created after she handed the paper in, but, distracted as she is, does not investigate Rory Finch further. Accordingly, she has no idea that Hank Landry is having an affair with Mindy O'Dell.
Canon continuity: Since she never goes to the Neptune Grand to investigate Rory Finch, and she certainly isn't there to visit Logan, Veronica never discovers her father having drinks with Harmony Chase.
Canon continuity: Veronica goes to Lamb with the clippers she found in Mercer's room. He tells her about the GHB found when they recovered Mercer's stolen cash box, and arrests Mercer.
Lamb also tells Veronica about a case he's working on; Jake Kane suspects Kane Software's CFO of embezzling. He wants Lamb to investigate, and Lamb wants Veronica's help. The plan is for her to get close the the CFO at a bar and see what she can find out, but it's derailed when they see some of the Theta Betas at the bar, one of whom recognises Lamb from the Halloween party and assumes he and Veronica are dating. Instead of investigating the CFO, Lamb and Veronica share a few drinks with the Theta Betas, who invite Lamb to their upcoming carnival.
Canon continuity: When Veronica wakes in the morning, Keith hasn't been home. Since she hadn't seen Keith and Harmony together, she believes his story that he was out all night working on a case.
She asks Keith to investigate the CFO, and goes to Lamb with the news: he isn't embezzling, but he's doing something shady. Lamb tells Veronica they let Mercer go; there was no hard evidence on him, and he has an alibi for the night of one of the rapes.
Canon continuity: Unable to turn to Veronica for help getting Mercer exonerated as in Of Vice And Men, Logan gives Mercer's alibi to the sheriff's department, conveniently forgetting to mention that whole part about the burning building.
Canon continuity: As in President Evil, Veronica investigates Claire's rape and finds out that it was faked.
Lamb comes to the Mars Investigations office to chase up a missing credit card statement from the case Veronica investigated for him. He reads her notes on Claire's rape, and tacitly apologises for accusing Veronica of doing the same thing three years ago. In her father's office to look for the statement, Veronica finds an itinerary which intrigues her.
Canon continuity: The itinerary is for Keith's trip to Palm Springs with Harmony, mentioned in Of Vice And Men.
Canon continuity: When Veronica goes to the sheriff's department to officially invite Lamb to the Theta Beta carnival, they're taking Sully to the hospital. Without having discovered her father's affair and temporarily moved into Wallace and Piz's room as in Of Vice And Men, Veronica wasn't there to help Meryl find her boyfriend.
Veronica and Lamb attend the carnival. He buys her a slushie. She pulls him aside to hide from Dick Casablancas (which, incidentally, is probably the most face time Dick's going to get all series. Poor Dick). He wins her a stuffed tiger he names "Don." They seem blissfully unaware that they're on a date.
Back at home, Veronica asks Keith where he's been. Once again, he tells her he was working on a case, but this time she knows better than to believe him. Instead of staying in Wallace's room, Veronica goes to the Theta Beta house and asks if she can stay a few days.
Canon continuity: As in Of Vice And Men, Keith and Veronica fight over his affair with Harmony.
At the Theta Beta house, Veronica and some of the girls have a gratuitous flour fight while baking. Lamb, unaware that Veronica is staying at the house, has come over to further investigate the Theta Betas. Angry at Lamb for still suspecting the Theta Betas, and taking out residual anger at her father on him, Veronica coldly tells Lamb that there's nothing between them.
Canon continuity: Without the article in the newspaper about the marijuana plants at the Theta Beta house, a large part of the impetus to get rid of the Greek system at Heart has been removed. Accordingly, there is no vote over the matter, and the Greek houses remain untouched.
Canon continuity: Instead of the Pi Sig party seen in Spit & Eggs, Veronica asks Wallace, Mac, and Piz to attend a Theta Beta pre-pre-Christmas party and look out for potential rape victims.
At the party, Veronica accepts a drink from one of the Theta Betas. When she spots Logan, she leaves it in the care of another Theta Beta - who, unfortunately, isn't watching too closely as Mercer drops GHB in it. After a while, the Theta Beta realises that she hasn't been keeping her eye on the drink, and picks it up.
Canon continuity: Veronica and Logan talk at the party, as in Spit & Eggs. They agree to remain friends.
Still tense from the conversation with Logan, Veronica finishes her now-drugged drink, something she quickly realises was a bad idea. She stumbles upstairs to her room, and Mercer follows her. Luckily, Lamb is at the party, and sees Mercer. He rescues Veronica and takes her home.
Canon continuity: As in Spit & Eggs, Wallace, Mac, and Piz come to visit Veronica. Logan is conspicuously absent, busy smashing a sheriff's department cruiser in an effort to get close enough to seek revenge on a now-jailed Mercer.
A couple of weeks later, Keith receives an invitation in the mail for the sheriff's department Christmas party. He says he might be there late, if at all, but Veronica still wants to go. At the party, she sees Sacks for a moment - long enough to register that he's now wearing a fake moustache - before Lamb kisses her. She kisses him back before pulling away, and Lamb points up toward the mistletoe hanging over them. Before she leaves, though, Veronica kisses Lamb again, thanking him for saving her.
Amends ends with a teaser for the second mystery arc - on Christmas morning, Lamb shows up at Veronica's apartment, asking for her help on a case.
Part two of the commentary is here.
What Goes Down starts at the Theta Beta rush party during My Big Fat Greek Rush Week. This time, though, there's a difference - Deputy Sacks (sans moustache) is there, investigating the Pi Sigs in connection to the rapes on campus.
With Sacks at the party, Veronica doesn't pretend to get wildly drunk, nor does she use Karen's keys to sneak into her private room. Instead, she's voted into the Theta Beta sorority.
Canon continuity: As per her conversation with Wallace, he and Logan participated in the sociology experiment seen in My Big Fat Greek Rush Week.
As part of her welcome into Theta Beta, Veronica attends a masquerade party, where she runs into Lamb. Together, they search Chip Diller's room, and he ends up kissing her in an effort to explain away their presence when caught. The next week, he warns Veronica off investigating further, which, predictably, she ignores, thus marking the unofficial beginning of their working together on the case.
Canon continuity: Though not mentioned, it should be assumed that Veronica still helped Kurt locate his missing playbook (as in Wichita Linebacker); it'll come up later in the series.
Canon continuity: Also offscreen, Veronica runs into Weevil at the car wash, he gets fired, goes to work for Keith, and is fired again. Veronica is not called into the dean's office because of her story on the Theta Betas, but because of her alleged "jock strap" hazing prank; as in canon, she investigates the vandalism of the dean's car, and gets Weevil his job at the college.
Veronica and Lamb later attend another Pi Sig party, where Veronica unsuccessfully tries to get Chip to take her up to his room so she can search it more thoroughly. Logan sees her with Chip, but is intercepted by Sacks, and when Chip tries to push a drunk Veronica too far, Lamb hits him.
The next day, Logan confronts Veronica about what she was doing at the Pi Sig party. He isn't mad because she was flirting with another guy, but rather because he knows exactly what she's doing.
Canon continuity: As happens later in canon, Logan asks Veronica to stop putting herself in danger, gets mad at her when she won't, laments that she won't let him close enough to help her, and breaks things off.
In an effort to cheer her up, Wallace, Mac, and Piz suggest to Veronica that they participate in a scavenger hunt. This isn't really important, except that it includes a naked Professor Landry (hee!); it's also what Veronica was doing instead of being introduced to Logan's "brother," Charlie.
Canon continuity: With no suspicious girlfriend to expose the deceit, Logan pours his life story out to reporter Norman Phipps (as seen in Charlie Don't Surf), not realising the truth until he reads the article in Vanity Fair. Offscreen, Charlie calls Logan to let him know he had nothing to do with the reporter; though the two don't become instant BFF, they do agree, slightly uncomfortably, to stay in touch. This isn't yet mentioned in the story, but it will come up later.
Meanwhile, Veronica enlists Wallace, Mac, Piz, and Parker to help her explore the Pi Sig house, but they find nothing. Duh. Veronica begins to think that maybe the Pi Sigs aren't behind the rapes, after all; she tells Lamb as much, and he orders her off the case. Again.
For Halloween, the Theta Betas are hosting a party, and Veronica attends dressed as Wonder Woman. She sees Lamb there and asks him what he's doing, to which he replies that the Pi Sigs aren't the only Greek house to have been linked to the rapes. Reluctantly, Veronica tells him about the Theta Betas' rumoured secret room, and he asks her to sneak in there.
Canon continuity: Veronica snaps pictures of the marijuana plants, but hands them over to Lamb instead of Nish. When Marjorie tells her the story behind the plants, Veronica is able to get the pictures back off Lamb and remain in the sorority.
Canon continuity: Without Veronica in attendance, Mercer's casino was still held up and robbed (as seen in President Evil). This is mentioned later.
After hearing news of Claire's rape at the Pi Sig haunted house, Veronica makes a note to investigate further. Her thoughts are interrupted by Parker, who asks Veronica to find out what Piz thinks of her.
Canon continuity: Veronica, Logan, Piz, and Parker never go bowling (as they do in Hi, Infidelity). Instead, Parker developed her crush on Piz while helping Veronica search the Pi Sig house. Piz, as in canon, tells Veronica that Parker just isn't his type; outside the radio station, Parker runs into Mercer and recognises his cologne. Veronica searches Mercer's room and finds clippers.
Canon continuity: As in canon, Veronica "babysits" Weevil's keys when he goes away for the weekend.
Canon continuity: The originality of Veronica's criminology paper is still called into question. She investigates as far as finding that the email address from which the copy of her paper was posted was created after she handed the paper in, but, distracted as she is, does not investigate Rory Finch further. Accordingly, she has no idea that Hank Landry is having an affair with Mindy O'Dell.
Canon continuity: Since she never goes to the Neptune Grand to investigate Rory Finch, and she certainly isn't there to visit Logan, Veronica never discovers her father having drinks with Harmony Chase.
Canon continuity: Veronica goes to Lamb with the clippers she found in Mercer's room. He tells her about the GHB found when they recovered Mercer's stolen cash box, and arrests Mercer.
Lamb also tells Veronica about a case he's working on; Jake Kane suspects Kane Software's CFO of embezzling. He wants Lamb to investigate, and Lamb wants Veronica's help. The plan is for her to get close the the CFO at a bar and see what she can find out, but it's derailed when they see some of the Theta Betas at the bar, one of whom recognises Lamb from the Halloween party and assumes he and Veronica are dating. Instead of investigating the CFO, Lamb and Veronica share a few drinks with the Theta Betas, who invite Lamb to their upcoming carnival.
Canon continuity: When Veronica wakes in the morning, Keith hasn't been home. Since she hadn't seen Keith and Harmony together, she believes his story that he was out all night working on a case.
She asks Keith to investigate the CFO, and goes to Lamb with the news: he isn't embezzling, but he's doing something shady. Lamb tells Veronica they let Mercer go; there was no hard evidence on him, and he has an alibi for the night of one of the rapes.
Canon continuity: Unable to turn to Veronica for help getting Mercer exonerated as in Of Vice And Men, Logan gives Mercer's alibi to the sheriff's department, conveniently forgetting to mention that whole part about the burning building.
Canon continuity: As in President Evil, Veronica investigates Claire's rape and finds out that it was faked.
Lamb comes to the Mars Investigations office to chase up a missing credit card statement from the case Veronica investigated for him. He reads her notes on Claire's rape, and tacitly apologises for accusing Veronica of doing the same thing three years ago. In her father's office to look for the statement, Veronica finds an itinerary which intrigues her.
Canon continuity: The itinerary is for Keith's trip to Palm Springs with Harmony, mentioned in Of Vice And Men.
Canon continuity: When Veronica goes to the sheriff's department to officially invite Lamb to the Theta Beta carnival, they're taking Sully to the hospital. Without having discovered her father's affair and temporarily moved into Wallace and Piz's room as in Of Vice And Men, Veronica wasn't there to help Meryl find her boyfriend.
Veronica and Lamb attend the carnival. He buys her a slushie. She pulls him aside to hide from Dick Casablancas (which, incidentally, is probably the most face time Dick's going to get all series. Poor Dick). He wins her a stuffed tiger he names "Don." They seem blissfully unaware that they're on a date.
Back at home, Veronica asks Keith where he's been. Once again, he tells her he was working on a case, but this time she knows better than to believe him. Instead of staying in Wallace's room, Veronica goes to the Theta Beta house and asks if she can stay a few days.
Canon continuity: As in Of Vice And Men, Keith and Veronica fight over his affair with Harmony.
At the Theta Beta house, Veronica and some of the girls have a gratuitous flour fight while baking. Lamb, unaware that Veronica is staying at the house, has come over to further investigate the Theta Betas. Angry at Lamb for still suspecting the Theta Betas, and taking out residual anger at her father on him, Veronica coldly tells Lamb that there's nothing between them.
Canon continuity: Without the article in the newspaper about the marijuana plants at the Theta Beta house, a large part of the impetus to get rid of the Greek system at Heart has been removed. Accordingly, there is no vote over the matter, and the Greek houses remain untouched.
Canon continuity: Instead of the Pi Sig party seen in Spit & Eggs, Veronica asks Wallace, Mac, and Piz to attend a Theta Beta pre-pre-Christmas party and look out for potential rape victims.
At the party, Veronica accepts a drink from one of the Theta Betas. When she spots Logan, she leaves it in the care of another Theta Beta - who, unfortunately, isn't watching too closely as Mercer drops GHB in it. After a while, the Theta Beta realises that she hasn't been keeping her eye on the drink, and picks it up.
Canon continuity: Veronica and Logan talk at the party, as in Spit & Eggs. They agree to remain friends.
Still tense from the conversation with Logan, Veronica finishes her now-drugged drink, something she quickly realises was a bad idea. She stumbles upstairs to her room, and Mercer follows her. Luckily, Lamb is at the party, and sees Mercer. He rescues Veronica and takes her home.
Canon continuity: As in Spit & Eggs, Wallace, Mac, and Piz come to visit Veronica. Logan is conspicuously absent, busy smashing a sheriff's department cruiser in an effort to get close enough to seek revenge on a now-jailed Mercer.
A couple of weeks later, Keith receives an invitation in the mail for the sheriff's department Christmas party. He says he might be there late, if at all, but Veronica still wants to go. At the party, she sees Sacks for a moment - long enough to register that he's now wearing a fake moustache - before Lamb kisses her. She kisses him back before pulling away, and Lamb points up toward the mistletoe hanging over them. Before she leaves, though, Veronica kisses Lamb again, thanking him for saving her.
Amends ends with a teaser for the second mystery arc - on Christmas morning, Lamb shows up at Veronica's apartment, asking for her help on a case.
Part two of the commentary is here.