VM Episode 2.11: Donut Run
The Donut, he did run. Run, Donut, run. Here are my thoughts on this week's episode of Veronica Mars.
This week's episode was 2.11 - "Donut Run." This episode was highly entertaining with all of the scheming and double-crossing and the always great dialogue and double entendres, but I've seen it three times now and it still has way too many plot holes. And from perusing the fan reaction at TwoP, it seems like a large segment of the audience, if not an outright majority, was completely confused about what actually happened.
One of my favorite things about VM is that it doesn't always connect the dots for the audience on every little plot point and gives us enough information (usually) to connect the dots for ourselves. But this episode had an awful lot of dots to connect and I don't think every plot hole was filled. A lot of viewers were left with a lot of questions afterward, even more so than usual. (Was Logan in on it? No. Was Celeste? No. Who played the tape in Big Bear? Astrid, I think. Why did she dump the tape behind the motel, did she want it to get found? Not sure, but Veronica did seem surprised that the FBI showed up at her house with a search warrant so I would guess that maybe Astrid goofed? I don't know.)
The episode was complicated, that's for sure, but I don't mind complicated convoluted stories if they ultimately make sense on all the main beats of the plot. This one didn't, though, because the entire kidnaping scheme was unnecessary and just made no sense in the end. When Veronica told Keith, "we had to do it," I wanted Keith to say "actually, Veronica, no you didn't. It was a completely boneheaded move and if you had come to me first, I could have helped and we could have sorted it out together." Veronica, you're smart but this kidnaping scheme was all kinds of dumb.
The main problem is that there is no way that Duncan, the biological father who, oh right, just happens to be a billionaire, would not get custody of his own daughter by perfectly legal means. Not in any court in this country. The law overwhelmingly presumes that a child belongs with her biological parent(s), and if she only has one living parent, he gets custody. All Duncan needed to do was get Cliff (or a lawyer of his choice) to file a petition for custody, get a paternity test and that would be that. It might take a few weeks or even months, but he could even file an emergency petition to get temporary custody pending the final resolution - the point is that he had plenty of legal options to get custody before he would have been forced to drastic action like kidnaping the baby and running off to Mexico.
In order for the Mannings to get custody, the burden would be on them to prove that Duncan was an unfit parent. He's a model student and citizen with no criminal record, and oh yeah, he's a billionaire. Just because he has "Type IV" epilepsy would not make him an unfit parent. Plus, most of that stuff about his violent rages wouldn't even come in as evidence because there is no witness to volunteer that information. Who has witnessed his violent "episodes"? Meg was the only witness to to the car-bashing and she's dead. The only other "episode" we know about (iirc) was when Duncan put a chokehold on Jake, and the only witnesses were Jake, Celeste and Logan. I don't see any of them volunteering that information. Carrie Bishop said something about Duncan's being brought to the hospital once, when he was screaming and yelling, but as far as we know, he wasn't violent towards anyone. In any event, there is no evidence that Duncan has physically hurt another human being, and no charges have ever been brought against him.
Yes, Duncan's parents are currently in legal hot water with the whole obstruction of justice charges but I doubt that would even come in as evidence because it's Duncan's fitness as a parent that is at issue, not the Kanes' fitness as grandparents. They did assume Duncan had killed his sister but that's not Duncan's fault that his parents jumped to conclusions. And the Mannings have issues of their own; once a psychologist interviewed Meg's sisters Lizzie and Grace, there would be no way the Mannings would get custody anyway.
[Edited to add: A friend just reminded me of another reason the Mannings wouldn't get custody: they were planning on putting the baby up for adoption! They had already taken steps to have the baby adopted through that religious agency. If Duncan could show that the Mannnings were planning to have the baby adopted, and that they didn't even *want* the baby until Duncan filed a petition for custody, that alone would probably disqualify the Mannings and Duncan would get custody without any problem.]
The writers knew this plot hole existed and they attempted to explain this problem away when Veronica said that Celeste "doesn't want Duncan to adopt because she doesn't want to be a grandmother," but that didn't solve the problem. First, Duncan wouldn't be "adopting" the child because she's his daughter. (I think we can safely assume the DNA test would prove that.) Under the circumstances, the baby hasn't been legally declared his daughter yet (I doubt the Mannings put his name on the birth certificate), but once the DNA test results establish that he is the biological father, he would get presumptive custody of the baby with no "adoption" proceedings required. So Duncan is a dad and Celeste is a grandmother whether she wants to admit it or not.
Second, even if Jake or Celeste objected, Duncan doesn't need their support to file a petition for custody because he's an emancipated minor. (Or he was, he's probably 18 now.) He can hire Cliff on his own. He doesn't need them - but if he were granted custody of the baby, I have a hard time believing Celeste and Jake would turn their backs on him or cut him off financially. They adore him and they would want their grandchild taken care of in proper Kane style.
If I ignore that huge glaring problem with the story, the episode is a lot of fun, but there are also minor problems. Most of the audience didn't have a clue who Astrid was, even though they covered that in the "previouslys." The audience was never shown that Duncan or Veronica had ever established a friendship with her and it was hard to believe she would betray her employer and risk going to jail for two people she barely knew. She is now an accomplice to kidnaping, which is a federal crime. We know she didn't like Celeste, but come on. Why would she help them?
Plus, I know Vinnie van Lowe is a worm and it's been established he has no problem double-crossing his client in a "Vinnie Classic," but there is one problem here: Celeste has an infinite supply of money. Whatever Duncan offered to pay him ($30K), Celeste could easily offer more. So I don't get why Veronica and Duncan felt they could trust slimy Vinnie to help them or keep their secret. Why didn't he just go back to Celeste and tell her that he'd turn over Duncan's whereabouts if she coughed up $50K or so?
Last but not least, how is Duncan going to raise the baby all by himself in a foreign country? Do we even know that Duncan speaks Spanish? And he is going to live for how long on $50K? (He got $80K for the earrings and gave $30K to Vinnie, so doesn't that leave $50K? Or are we to assume that Duncan liquidated his trust fund or something? But that can't be right, because then there would have been no need to sell the earrings, right? So many questions.) That money isn't going to last long and something tells me it's not easy to make a decent living in Mexico. Especially when you're a teenage fugitive on the run from the FBI (like a white teenage boy with a baby wouldn't raise a red flag in any village). Any attempt to contact his parents for money would almost certainly be intercepted by the FBI. So all in all, it seems like a pretty bad plan to me.
Odds and Ends: (Literally!)
I enjoyed the scenes of FBI Agent Xena and Lamb. Good times. All the Lamb stuff was good, and I like that Lamb got a little audience sympathy in this episode when Agent Xena was such a smug bitch to him. Still, Lamb got duped in the end, just like he always does. Heh. I really did enjoy the way that Veronica's scheme worked the FBI agents and Lamb in different ways and how she played them against each other.
The lineup was funny.
I'm glad we got glimpses of Logan and Weevil working together on solving Felix's murder. Liked the fakeout pass in the hall. Logan and Weevil are always double the pleasure, double the fun, although I'm still waiting for those matching capes.
But what the heck was up with Felix and Molly Fitzpatrick? If I understand it correctly, Felix's older brother Gus "The Reaper" Toombs was a drug dealer who disappeared a couple of years ago under mysterious circumstances, presumed dead at the hands of the Fitzpatricks. So why would Felix get involved with the daughter/niece of the dudes who offed his brother? Was Felix embroiled in a scheme of his own to get revenge on the Fitzpatricks? Or was Molly playing him? Or did they genuinely care for each other, in their own version of West Side Story? The plot, it thickens.
Wallace is back. Emo girl. Heh. Obviously the Rashard story will take center stage next week, and I'm all for giving Wallace some attention after his long absence.
Keith rocks. Seriously. I've been annoyed that Veronica has been keeping so much from him this year, and this episode was another example of that. She would have been so much better off if she had told her father the truth about the Mannings, the baby, everything, and Keith could have helped Duncan get custody of the baby legally without resorting to this stupid kidnaping scheme. I loved the scene of his confronting her and I hope she wises up and learns that sometimes father does indeed know best. But I doubt it. Even though the Keith/Veronica relationship is one of my favorite aspects of the whole show, this rift was bound to happen and I can't wait to see how this affects their relationship going forward.
Finally, on the subject of Veronica and Duncan's relationship, I agree with a lot of people out there who hated the fact that they were presented as some sort of great love affair, star-crossed lovers torn apart only by circumstances beyond their control. Duncan was all kinds of boring, and Veronica ignored his maddening tendency to avoid, ignore, and repress. The writers never went to much effort to show us why she loved him in the first place, let alone why she stayed with him so long when he seemed to have the personality of a toaster. I would have preferred it if Veronica had finally woken up to the fact that Duncan is not the perfect boyfriend she always imagined he was, and she broke up with him because she realized that they were not the same people they used to be and that she didn't love him anymore, if in fact she ever did.
On the other hand, I was still sort of moved by their goodbye scene, even though I'm not all that fond of Duncan. I never had any problem with Teddy Dunn and I always wanted the writers to give Duncan more to do, so it was a nice send-off for his character (if indeed he's gone for good, which appears to be the case). The fortune cookie note was actually surprisingly touching (and the Lost numbers were a nice touch, heh).
But in the end, Veronica didn't return his "I love you," and that has to be significant. So even with the fortune cookie note, I don't think Duncan has been set up as Veronica's great love of her life that she will never get over. At least I don't see it that way. It's interesting that the writers have had both Logan and Duncan profess their love to Veronica, but she didn't return the sentiment on either occasion. Hmm.
Episode Grade: B+
Even though I had major issues with the entire premise of the kidnaping plot, the episode was still hugely entertaining with some great moments. So long as I don't think about it too hard afterwards. I know a lot of people hated it because of the Donut resolution (and for many other reasons), but I still liked it despite the huge problems I had with it.
Favorite lines (tie):
You always come.
Time to fake the donut.
Oh, Logan. Your screen time was short this week, but you always make the most of it.
This week's episode was 2.11 - "Donut Run." This episode was highly entertaining with all of the scheming and double-crossing and the always great dialogue and double entendres, but I've seen it three times now and it still has way too many plot holes. And from perusing the fan reaction at TwoP, it seems like a large segment of the audience, if not an outright majority, was completely confused about what actually happened.
One of my favorite things about VM is that it doesn't always connect the dots for the audience on every little plot point and gives us enough information (usually) to connect the dots for ourselves. But this episode had an awful lot of dots to connect and I don't think every plot hole was filled. A lot of viewers were left with a lot of questions afterward, even more so than usual. (Was Logan in on it? No. Was Celeste? No. Who played the tape in Big Bear? Astrid, I think. Why did she dump the tape behind the motel, did she want it to get found? Not sure, but Veronica did seem surprised that the FBI showed up at her house with a search warrant so I would guess that maybe Astrid goofed? I don't know.)
The episode was complicated, that's for sure, but I don't mind complicated convoluted stories if they ultimately make sense on all the main beats of the plot. This one didn't, though, because the entire kidnaping scheme was unnecessary and just made no sense in the end. When Veronica told Keith, "we had to do it," I wanted Keith to say "actually, Veronica, no you didn't. It was a completely boneheaded move and if you had come to me first, I could have helped and we could have sorted it out together." Veronica, you're smart but this kidnaping scheme was all kinds of dumb.
The main problem is that there is no way that Duncan, the biological father who, oh right, just happens to be a billionaire, would not get custody of his own daughter by perfectly legal means. Not in any court in this country. The law overwhelmingly presumes that a child belongs with her biological parent(s), and if she only has one living parent, he gets custody. All Duncan needed to do was get Cliff (or a lawyer of his choice) to file a petition for custody, get a paternity test and that would be that. It might take a few weeks or even months, but he could even file an emergency petition to get temporary custody pending the final resolution - the point is that he had plenty of legal options to get custody before he would have been forced to drastic action like kidnaping the baby and running off to Mexico.
In order for the Mannings to get custody, the burden would be on them to prove that Duncan was an unfit parent. He's a model student and citizen with no criminal record, and oh yeah, he's a billionaire. Just because he has "Type IV" epilepsy would not make him an unfit parent. Plus, most of that stuff about his violent rages wouldn't even come in as evidence because there is no witness to volunteer that information. Who has witnessed his violent "episodes"? Meg was the only witness to to the car-bashing and she's dead. The only other "episode" we know about (iirc) was when Duncan put a chokehold on Jake, and the only witnesses were Jake, Celeste and Logan. I don't see any of them volunteering that information. Carrie Bishop said something about Duncan's being brought to the hospital once, when he was screaming and yelling, but as far as we know, he wasn't violent towards anyone. In any event, there is no evidence that Duncan has physically hurt another human being, and no charges have ever been brought against him.
Yes, Duncan's parents are currently in legal hot water with the whole obstruction of justice charges but I doubt that would even come in as evidence because it's Duncan's fitness as a parent that is at issue, not the Kanes' fitness as grandparents. They did assume Duncan had killed his sister but that's not Duncan's fault that his parents jumped to conclusions. And the Mannings have issues of their own; once a psychologist interviewed Meg's sisters Lizzie and Grace, there would be no way the Mannings would get custody anyway.
[Edited to add: A friend just reminded me of another reason the Mannings wouldn't get custody: they were planning on putting the baby up for adoption! They had already taken steps to have the baby adopted through that religious agency. If Duncan could show that the Mannnings were planning to have the baby adopted, and that they didn't even *want* the baby until Duncan filed a petition for custody, that alone would probably disqualify the Mannings and Duncan would get custody without any problem.]
The writers knew this plot hole existed and they attempted to explain this problem away when Veronica said that Celeste "doesn't want Duncan to adopt because she doesn't want to be a grandmother," but that didn't solve the problem. First, Duncan wouldn't be "adopting" the child because she's his daughter. (I think we can safely assume the DNA test would prove that.) Under the circumstances, the baby hasn't been legally declared his daughter yet (I doubt the Mannings put his name on the birth certificate), but once the DNA test results establish that he is the biological father, he would get presumptive custody of the baby with no "adoption" proceedings required. So Duncan is a dad and Celeste is a grandmother whether she wants to admit it or not.
Second, even if Jake or Celeste objected, Duncan doesn't need their support to file a petition for custody because he's an emancipated minor. (Or he was, he's probably 18 now.) He can hire Cliff on his own. He doesn't need them - but if he were granted custody of the baby, I have a hard time believing Celeste and Jake would turn their backs on him or cut him off financially. They adore him and they would want their grandchild taken care of in proper Kane style.
If I ignore that huge glaring problem with the story, the episode is a lot of fun, but there are also minor problems. Most of the audience didn't have a clue who Astrid was, even though they covered that in the "previouslys." The audience was never shown that Duncan or Veronica had ever established a friendship with her and it was hard to believe she would betray her employer and risk going to jail for two people she barely knew. She is now an accomplice to kidnaping, which is a federal crime. We know she didn't like Celeste, but come on. Why would she help them?
Plus, I know Vinnie van Lowe is a worm and it's been established he has no problem double-crossing his client in a "Vinnie Classic," but there is one problem here: Celeste has an infinite supply of money. Whatever Duncan offered to pay him ($30K), Celeste could easily offer more. So I don't get why Veronica and Duncan felt they could trust slimy Vinnie to help them or keep their secret. Why didn't he just go back to Celeste and tell her that he'd turn over Duncan's whereabouts if she coughed up $50K or so?
Last but not least, how is Duncan going to raise the baby all by himself in a foreign country? Do we even know that Duncan speaks Spanish? And he is going to live for how long on $50K? (He got $80K for the earrings and gave $30K to Vinnie, so doesn't that leave $50K? Or are we to assume that Duncan liquidated his trust fund or something? But that can't be right, because then there would have been no need to sell the earrings, right? So many questions.) That money isn't going to last long and something tells me it's not easy to make a decent living in Mexico. Especially when you're a teenage fugitive on the run from the FBI (like a white teenage boy with a baby wouldn't raise a red flag in any village). Any attempt to contact his parents for money would almost certainly be intercepted by the FBI. So all in all, it seems like a pretty bad plan to me.
Odds and Ends: (Literally!)
I enjoyed the scenes of FBI Agent Xena and Lamb. Good times. All the Lamb stuff was good, and I like that Lamb got a little audience sympathy in this episode when Agent Xena was such a smug bitch to him. Still, Lamb got duped in the end, just like he always does. Heh. I really did enjoy the way that Veronica's scheme worked the FBI agents and Lamb in different ways and how she played them against each other.
The lineup was funny.
I'm glad we got glimpses of Logan and Weevil working together on solving Felix's murder. Liked the fakeout pass in the hall. Logan and Weevil are always double the pleasure, double the fun, although I'm still waiting for those matching capes.
But what the heck was up with Felix and Molly Fitzpatrick? If I understand it correctly, Felix's older brother Gus "The Reaper" Toombs was a drug dealer who disappeared a couple of years ago under mysterious circumstances, presumed dead at the hands of the Fitzpatricks. So why would Felix get involved with the daughter/niece of the dudes who offed his brother? Was Felix embroiled in a scheme of his own to get revenge on the Fitzpatricks? Or was Molly playing him? Or did they genuinely care for each other, in their own version of West Side Story? The plot, it thickens.
Wallace is back. Emo girl. Heh. Obviously the Rashard story will take center stage next week, and I'm all for giving Wallace some attention after his long absence.
Keith rocks. Seriously. I've been annoyed that Veronica has been keeping so much from him this year, and this episode was another example of that. She would have been so much better off if she had told her father the truth about the Mannings, the baby, everything, and Keith could have helped Duncan get custody of the baby legally without resorting to this stupid kidnaping scheme. I loved the scene of his confronting her and I hope she wises up and learns that sometimes father does indeed know best. But I doubt it. Even though the Keith/Veronica relationship is one of my favorite aspects of the whole show, this rift was bound to happen and I can't wait to see how this affects their relationship going forward.
Finally, on the subject of Veronica and Duncan's relationship, I agree with a lot of people out there who hated the fact that they were presented as some sort of great love affair, star-crossed lovers torn apart only by circumstances beyond their control. Duncan was all kinds of boring, and Veronica ignored his maddening tendency to avoid, ignore, and repress. The writers never went to much effort to show us why she loved him in the first place, let alone why she stayed with him so long when he seemed to have the personality of a toaster. I would have preferred it if Veronica had finally woken up to the fact that Duncan is not the perfect boyfriend she always imagined he was, and she broke up with him because she realized that they were not the same people they used to be and that she didn't love him anymore, if in fact she ever did.
On the other hand, I was still sort of moved by their goodbye scene, even though I'm not all that fond of Duncan. I never had any problem with Teddy Dunn and I always wanted the writers to give Duncan more to do, so it was a nice send-off for his character (if indeed he's gone for good, which appears to be the case). The fortune cookie note was actually surprisingly touching (and the Lost numbers were a nice touch, heh).
But in the end, Veronica didn't return his "I love you," and that has to be significant. So even with the fortune cookie note, I don't think Duncan has been set up as Veronica's great love of her life that she will never get over. At least I don't see it that way. It's interesting that the writers have had both Logan and Duncan profess their love to Veronica, but she didn't return the sentiment on either occasion. Hmm.
Episode Grade: B+
Even though I had major issues with the entire premise of the kidnaping plot, the episode was still hugely entertaining with some great moments. So long as I don't think about it too hard afterwards. I know a lot of people hated it because of the Donut resolution (and for many other reasons), but I still liked it despite the huge problems I had with it.
Favorite lines (tie):
You always come.
Time to fake the donut.
Oh, Logan. Your screen time was short this week, but you always make the most of it.
posted by Magnolia at
11:36 PM
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