Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	Vanessa Carlton - White Houses

A Beginner's Guide to Veronica Mars (Episode 3: Meet John Smith)


The usual disclaimer: This essay contains some spoilers for Veronica Mars up to Episode 3, although I make the effort to not give away the main surprises of each episode I discuss. In this essay, I will discuss the general content of the third episode, ways in which Veronica Mars might be better promoted, and the third episode's contribution to VM as a whole. I write these essays to encourage newcomers to the show to seek out its episodes and watch, as well as to provide thoughtful, if longwinded analysis of previous episodes for faithful viewers. I love comments and suggestions, and am happy to answer questions and have people pointed this way. The essay on Episode 1 may be found here, and the essay on Episode 2 is located here.

The title of VM's third episode is "Meet John Smith". This, of course, refers to its central mystery du jour, in which Veronica is set to track down the father of a boy at school with only that name to go on. However, old movie buffs may find it somehow familiar, with good reason; it seems to be a sly reference to the films of Frank Capra, in particular two of the three films where he best celebrates the uncommon qualities of the common man, "Meet John Doe" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". In many TV shows, this reference would be a throwaway; in this episode, it is anything but. It's just the first of many clues to not only what is going on in the story of this episode, but is a giant running theme through both this episode in particular and the series as a whole. Those who pay close attention will note that Justin, the boy Veronica is helping, works in a video store, and there are repeated references to movies in this episode -- both explicit and visual.

Film evidence -- streaming video, movies, pictures -- is one of Veronica Mars's many recurring elements in each episode, one of several that are consistently repeated. This episode in particular is perhaps the best one to date to call attention to these repeated images and elements, because this episode is so dense thematically to the series that analyzing it has proved to me to be about as challenging as analyzing the famous 'red room dream sequence' episode of Twin Peaks or 'Restless' from Buffy -- there's simply so much here to work with, and there are many signs that the writers and directors have paid equal attention to how they use and re-use these images, and to building layers into even a single episode. It's an impressive effect in particular because this episode is in many ways less showy and self-conscious about the way in which it demonstrates its textual layers. Those episodes of those other very good shows were in some ways 'event' episodes. "Meet John Smith" is just one episode among many. Its writers are, in effect, so confident in their ability to set up the depth that they don't need to call attention to what they're doing -- but to give them kudos here, I'm going to do just that. A lot of this essay will be about the various ways in which Veronica Mars and this episode in particular are layered, although I'll also discuss the actual plot.

The title is in some way a giveaway plotwise as to some of the things you can expect in the story of this episode of Veronica Mars. Both "Meet John Doe" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" are Capra films that celebrate the uncommon spirit of the average guy, but they are also among his films whose plots revolve around, in effect, frauds and lies over the identities of their protagonists built up for illegitimate gains by the villains of the pieces, but whose substance ends up becoming somehow true over the course of the story.

This neatly parallels Justin, who hires Veronica to find his father. At first, this is a fraud he perpetrates on Veronica to get closer to her because he finds her attractive, believing his father to actually be dead and believing that she will not find out -- only to have the emotional tables turned when not only does she discover his fakery, but his father actually contacts him as a result of her efforts and is revealed not to be dead after all, with an interesting twist on identity once they actually track his father down. I'll touch more on these Capra films at the end of the episode, since I think it's worth making comparisons of the Duncan arc of this story to "Mr. Smith", possibly, but their reference to frauds and surface truths versus reality are not the only ones. Indeed, practically every film referenced in this episode, from "Grease" to "The Graduate" to "Body Heat" to even "Slap Shot" are movies whose plots revolve around frauds and lies, most specifically frauds and lies about the identities of its characters.

Identity, therefore, is one of the big themes of "Meet John Smith" -- this is an episode with a lot of soul-searching and a whole lot of toying with questions of identity for its characters. It's done both very explicitly - from the story of who John Smith really ends up being to the sheer number of times characters label themselves or others, or question themselves or others -- and implicitly and visually, especially in two of the three dream/fantasy sequences we are shown in this episode, where we are led to be unsure as to whose dream or fantasy it actually is.

While we dig into the plot itself and an episode overview, let's also touch on the many other thematic and imagery-building plates this episode is keeping spinning. This is also an episode in which most of the characters of note are all in some way dealing with the absence of one or more beloved figures in their lives. The weekly mystery is all about a missing father; in this episode, we see Keith and Veronica address Lianne Mars's absence from their lives, Duncan and Veronica acknowledge what they're missing since they broke up, and the family Kane dealing with the death of Lilly (and another disappearance from the Kane lives of great note which I'll discuss in a bit). When someone leaves you, do you keep chasing them, trying to bring them back in some way, or do you move on? And is moving on really more or less healthy than trying to bring them back into your life?

It's nice to note that, despite Veronica's voiceovered speeches about her take on the subject, what we are shown visually as to what the various characters are doing is somehow more ambivalent. Sometimes moving on is just another phrase for running away, and chasing down the problem is shown as both potentially healthy and unhealthy. Even though she tends to come down on the side of 'moving on', what's really SHOWN to be the healthy choices is when the characters choose to reach out to others rather than to isolate themselves. After all, in a sense, Duncan IS moving on by continuing to take his antidepressants; in a very real sense, he's leaving both his sister's memory and Veronica herself behind by doing so. It's shown as a bad thing precisely because it pulls him further into himself, rather than making a connection as Justin does with his father at the end of the episode, and as Keith Mars does with the attractive guidance counselor he relates to during the episode. It's not that it's necessarily better to hold on or let go, but it's best to keep making the connection with someone and keep trying.

As was mentioned, the films referenced in Episode 3 all tend to refer to movies about lies of identity. In this episode, there's an awful lot of lying, deceiving, and covering up going on, and it's not just limited to the characters who deceive our heroine and those we tend to like. Veronica herself tells a number of lies in this episode, from lies of omission to her father, to joking lies about how her date went, to a lie that's used as bait to capture Smith. She's paralleled by both Justin, who lies to get close to her, as well as Duncan, who lies by omission to his parents when it comes to taking his medicine and will not admit to them he's considering going off them, as well as lying to Logan about his real feelings when Logan -- who, love him or hate him, is pretty much the one character this episode who is all about the truth -- inquires about his well-being or things going on around them. We even get lies on Veronica's date itself, in which Troy explains a hoax he and Duncan once played; while Troy claims "he saved my life", Veronica demurs "That's one way of looking at it."

It's implied more than once in the course of this story, that maybe the lie is better and safer, and that maybe there's a reason to cover things up. While this is called into question, in the end while this episode can show understanding for its characters and why they lie and live a lie, its sympathies always rest with those who seek the truth in the end, chief among them Veronica. As Lilly says in the dream sequence near the end of the episode, the truth is going to come out, and it's implied that the characters need to wake up and face reality in various ways, and come to grips with what has happened. The lies can't keep you safe forever.

Veronica's move towards Troy at the end of this episode, in this light, is really somewhat iffy; it seems clear that she still has feelings for Duncan, and he for her, as the genuine truth of the matter. While it may also be true that she's coming to have real interest in Troy, it's worth pointing out that their entire first date that we get to see revolves around talk of Duncan. When the Duncan tale I mentioned above stops, Troy tries to change the subject:

Troy: I'm kind of, kind of tired of this song.

(Troy hits the small jukebox that's on their table. The music continues.)

Troy: I would've expected sex, had that worked.

Veronica: Had that worked, you would have gotten it. Try it again.

Troy: Check!

This may be me reading a bit much into the subtext, but Troy's efforts to change Veronica's song just haven't quite worked yet, so to speak; while she's making steps in that direction, part of her is still tuned to the Duncan Channel, as we see through much of this episode up until the end.

Thematically, this episode also grants us a close look at both the Kane family and the Mars family as they now stand, both of them missing a member, and into family dynamics as a whole, aside from the romantic issues. While, again, we're led to believe the Mars family is holding together somehow better than the Kanes, we get to see at least a little positive interaction between Jake and Duncan, and we get to see some definite signs that it's not always smooth sailing for Keith and Veronica. Indeed, in the end, Keith is left speechless when trying to deal with some of the sensitive subjects that haunt their family, and ends up turning to guidance counselor Rebecca James to help him with Veronica. Multiple scenes split back and forth between Veronica's family and Duncan's, offering an excellent mirroring effect.

There are two moments in the running for 'most painful family moment' in an episode just chock-full of them. The worst for the Kanes is, of course, Duncan's salute to his dog Molly. Apropos of nothing, as his parents talk over his head about ways to make him more passionate about things (parallel to Veronica again, remember; the counselor called her just last episode disconnected and passionless), he rises to his feet and salutes his beloved dog -- who was removed from the family after she couldn't stop peeing in the flowerbeds,in effect spoiling the surface appearance of the family. One can't help but be reminded of Lilly; it's a neat little speech to demonstrate a slightly manic edge to Duncan when not medicated, and also to demonstrate that even if (as he claims in a later dream sequence) he doesn't know exactly how Lilly's death does not add up, he knows enough about his family and how they treat disruptive elements to be bothered.

The Mars family is doing somewhat better -- Keith and Veronica are at least making some efforts to connect to one another -- and yet, we're given repeated tense conversations between them this episode, culminating in Keith trying to convince Veronica her mother is not the villain in their split. Veronica replies that "The hero is the one that stays, and the villain is the one that splits" -- and Keith, saddened and uncomfortable, really can't do more than stumble lamely over that statement and try to demur, ultimately shutting the door. Disconnection and lies and too many secrets between them are causing trouble between Veronica and her father.

This episode shows many other instances of profound disconnection and isolation of its characters, the better to emphasize its themes of the need to reach out and connect. This is true of Veronica, especially when we see the swirling shot early on of her standing alone in the crowd of her high school hallway, but is even more deeply true of Duncan.

It's worth it to note that while we often get a glimpse into Veronica's head, Duncan is the first secondary character whose viewpoint we really get to explicitly share through two of the three dream sequences in this episode. Several times when in closeup on Duncan, the camera work becomes jerky, using what I might term 'drug-trip-o-vision' shots of him that are not one continuous take, but are intentionally disrupted, highlighting his own disconnection and self-contained behavior. Duncan's parents talk at him and around him and about him, but really don't talk to him, nor he to them; in almost every instance we see them together, the entire Kane family seems to constantly be having three different conversations where no one is really listening to anyone else. Duncan spends much of this episode struggling with his antidepressant use and a renewed effort to connect, but in the end, he retreats again to his isolation.

To move on briefly from all these heavy thematic elements that this one episode juggles, I'd like to point out the imagery that Veronica Mars uses in almost every episode. Not only do we almost always have elements of story that involve film, cameras, and using video or pictures to 'see' the situations through, but in this episode and many others, the importance of eyewitnessing and seeing someone's face is also used as contrast. In the pilot episode, much is made of the fact that Veronica did not get to see the face of the woman Jake Kane was meeting at the Camelot Motel; in episodes to follow, seeing someone's face tends to provide truth or revelation. It's not until Justin sees his father that he correctly ascertains what happened to him, when we see those much-discussed brown eyes in context. Likewise, when Veronica chases down her mother, it's not until we see the woman's face that we realize it's not actually Lianne Mars.

But the best use of this effect, perhaps the best shot in this entire episode, is the second dream sequence. Veronica has just come home from her date with Troy, and asks herself, "What's wrong with you, Veronica?" Now, since we have seen that the first such dream sequence is Veronica's, when we see a shot of her kissing a boy wearing pretty much the same clothes that Troy wore on their date, it seems as if she must again be fantasizing, and that the boy is Troy. When the shaft of light hits his face, however, it's revealed to actually be Duncan, who says a single word as the couple leans down out of the screen: "Veronica." Immediately, both of them sit up again -- and the actual girl he's with, when you see her face is NOT Veronica. It's an absolutely perfect reaction when she demands, "WHAT did you just call me?" and all Duncan can do is laugh at himself and the situation and his slip of the tongue. In an episode about identity and missing those who are out of our reach, that moment really stands out.

It's also notable that both dream sequences of Duncan and Veronica making out are set in cars. Cars and vehicles in Veronica Mars are being shown to be a huge signifier of identity. The woman meeting Jake Kane in the hotel is tracked down via her license plate; a major revelation about Lilly comes through a moving violation from her car in the second episode, and motorcycle gear is a giveaway for the culprit in the small mystery of the second episode. Veronica's car is vandalized repeatedly in other episodes to show how people at school feel comfortable targeting her, and to punish Logan, his father takes his car away. In this episode, the way we come to learn John Smith's identity outside of the much-made-of brown eyes is by the passion for classic cars; when Veronica chases down a first target who's driving average-joe automobiles, it tells us she's on the wrong track in this case. And I think it's terribly obvious that you can make a lot out of the fact that Veronica keeps leaving Troy in the parking lot, often while she and Duncan drive off together.

But perhaps the most potent images tied together in this episode above all, but also in the series as a whole, are the repeated references to drugs and drug use, as well as the way drug use plays into what the characters remember. Much of this episode, of course, revolves around Duncan Kane's decision to cold-turkey his antidepressants, the use of which seems to explain his woodenness -- there's more than a hint that whatever he is taking, it is perhaps not the correct dosage or otherwise not good for him, as it seems to flatten him out and numb him away from his real personality. It is keeping him disconnected. When he goes off these drugs, he starts to reconnect -- but perhaps too potently to be handled, because his vision of Lilly urging him to realize her death doesn't add up drives him back to drug use, and perhaps tellingly, she asks if he's forgotten her already -- and maybe in some senses, he has.

We see one other notable use of drugs in this episode -- the boys drinking on the bleachers, particularly Logan Echolls, who has his own reasons to kill the pain a bit. In the first episode when Veronica is drugged, we have another instance of disconnection, and we have a number of references to Lilly in flashback perhaps being medicated herself. I'd say this isn't a coincidence, and while I don't think the writers are striving for a generic 'drugs bad' message, I think they're using images of being drugged very deliberately to heighten elements of disconnection in the stories they tell.

Whew! I told you this was a deep show.

In the end, none of the plots of this episode are tied up in a neat little bow. The closest is the tale of Justin and his father, which at least ends on a hopeful note, for all it's a rocky ending. Our picture of Duncan is greatly disturbed; we know now for sure there's a lot more to him than the zombie who can barely summon five words for Veronica, and are troubled by his retreat rather than embrace of his vision of Lilly urging him to "wake up". Veronica's efforts to find her mother meet with no success, only assurances from someone she doesn't even know that Veronica is all her mother cares about, something Veronica can't believe in the absence of any effort to contact her. Veronica reaches out to Troy -- but after this episode, can we really be fully comfortable either going back towards Duncan, whose weaknesses have been telegraphed in great detail in this episode, or comfortable with her choosing Troy with Duncan still hovering about?

And that is one of the real strengths of this show: even the soap opera elements and the interpersonal drama serve the overall story in Veronica Mars. Even scenes of apparent filler are shown in this episode to suddenly matter deeply, and just when we least expect it, it turns around and surprises us. It's a show that's willing to muddy up its waters, to make the viewer be patient in figuring out its mysteries, and to dare to tell its stories in such a way that we are forced to draw our own conclusions rather than have them spoon-fed to us.

I mentioned at the beginning of this piece that the little mystery of Justin and his father seemed to relate to the movie "Meet John Doe" by Frank Capra (the great-grandfather, we might note, of castmember Francis Capra, who amusingly does not appear in this episode that references his family member.). The overall story of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", the other film the title references, seems to resonate with the Duncan and Veronica story for me, and for the Mars family in Neptune in general. "Mr Smith" involves an innocent man enduring all sorts of slander against him to take a stand against corruption, even in the face of admired once-allies trying to personally bring him down. In the end, it's his former ally who knows about the corruption but is rather weak-willed in the face of fighting it, much like Duncan seems to be, who ends up coming forth with the truth about Smith's crusade in Washington. It's hard to say whether this parallels Veronica Mars's story, and whether this implies guilt on Duncan's part or merely witnessing the truly guilty parties and continuing to play accomplice by his silence, but given the thought and care in these episodes, I don't think it can be written off.

In Veronica Mars, almost everything has meaning.