Veronica Mars Re-Watch: Season One Episode Five

It took me a long time to write my last post on my Veronica Mars re-watch. I watched the first four episodes in five or six days. When I started to write, I realized that I wasn't always clear on what happened in what episode (besides Pilot) and had to go back to TWoP recaps.  So now I'll discuss one episode at a time.

You Think You Know Someone: The mystery of the week revolves around a missing car and missing steroids. The car belongs to Troy's father. Troy is an '09er (a resident of Neptune's richest zip code) but a newcomer to Neptune High who doesn't ostracize Veronica. He's previously appeared in Episodes 2 through 4 and has emerged as Veronica's love interest. The set up: Troy, Logan and another friend Luke had gone down to Tijuana for the weekend. They return, grab some food at a border diner but find the car gone when they leave the restaurant. A pinata in the back seat is also gone--a pinata that Luke has stuffed withs steroids.

Veronica is not the only one with a new love interest in the episode. Keith has been seeing Veronica's guidance counselor off-screen. (They did meet in a previous episode and Keith went to her favorite coffee shop to "accidentally" run into her.) There's an interesting dynamic in the two relationships.Veronica investigates her guidance counselor and gives Keith a report that she says he needs to read. Keith later does the same; he gives a report on Troy to Veronica but tells her it's her choice to read the report or not.

There's an interesting, almost throw-away scene with Veronica in journalism class practicing interviewing skills. A snotty girl asks how Veronica responds to rumors that her boyfriend hooked up with strippers in Tijuana. Veronica asks who she'll live with after her parents' divorce and what she thinks of her father's mistress. This is the Veronica who later described her philosophy as get even.

Both Keith's and Veronica's relationships come to an end in this episode. Keith decides that Veronica isn't ready for him to date and breaks up with the guidance counselor. Veronica confronts Troy after reading that he was expelled from two schools for drug dealing along with "Shauna." Troy does a great acting job and it seems that Veronica has jumped to the wrong conclusion again. But no! Troy succeeded in stealing the car and almost succeeded in stealing the steroids but Veronica foils him.

In the season long mystery, Veronica finds a key to her mother's safe deposit box. She prints out a faked death certificate to gain access and finds several photographs of her from the previous year with cross-hairs drawn around her head. She mails untraceable cell phones to all her mother's friends. Unfortunately when she gets a return call from mom, she's listening to music on her headphones and misses it.