4x07 Gods of War

[8.0/10] I keep using superlatives for this season, and I want to resist the temptation, but here we are anyway. Was the gunfight with Alonzo the most tension-filled Veronica Mars sequence ever? (I feel I should admit here that I found both Aaron Echolls’s and Beaver’s late episode supervillainy to be more cheesy than scary.) Veronica counting her bullets instantly adds to the suspense. Her breaking her “cuss” rule is an odd but effective way to signify the seriousness of the situation. And Keith rummaging through his car and trying to reload while the bad guys advance is a nail-biting moment if I’ve ever seen one.

Plus, the whole thing gives us an unexpected Big Damn Heroes moment for Weevil! That’s twice that he gets to play hero this season, and I like the nod of recognition and loyalty between him and Veronica, that cuts through their past conversations and bad blood.

Otherwise, the big news is obviously Veronica accepting Logan’s proposal, which I like the destination and reasoning of, if not every step along the way. The show tries a little too hard to fake us out with Leo, including by making Leo more of a douchebag than he was in years past to accomplish it. There’s no reason he can’t have gotten a little jerkier since we last saw him, but his intense flirting when he knows that Veronica has a boyfriend feels at least out of step with what we knew of him previously, and his little apology at the end feels like a fig leaf to try to get the audience to like him again after the show no longer needs for him to be “the other man.” And by the same token, Veronica’s erotic dream feels a little explotative as a “hey, we’re not on network television anymore” moment!

But I do like where they end up and Veronica’s reasoning, even if it takes some voiceover to convey it. The notion that post-dream, she felt relief for not hurting Logan rather than a new yearning for Leo, and that in her near-death experience, Logan’s all she could think about, works for change of heart. It’s the type of thing that could put what really matters into focus, even if it doesn't exactly wipe away the ways in which she was not being the best or most sensitive partner to Logan.

The one thing I didn’t really care for her was the obvious red herring with Patton Oswalt. Maybe it’s just the rules of T.V., where you’re sure that they’re not going to reveal the second bomber in the penultimate episode, and it seems unlikely that they’ll make the comic relief character the villain, and despite some good dramatic turns in Big Fan and Young Adult you can’t really see Oswalt as a killer. To that end, it felt like the show was spinning its wheels by focusing on him, and I didn’t really buy Keith and Veronica thinking that he’s the culprit either (though their interactions with the chief of police were amusing.)

(As an aside, was that Matt Damon on the phone as the head of the FBI? I couldn’t place the voice, but it sounded familiar.)

Thankfully, Oswalt’s interactions with Cliff were good for a laugh, and the bomber’s limerick gives us a nice ticking clock to motivate things in the final episode. Heading into the finale, my current theory is that Mama Maloof is behind it all, hoping to eliminate an unsavory prospective daughter-in-law and help propel her other son to the Senate, but hey, that’s at least my fourth theory here, so take it with a grain of salt.

The other part of this episode that I really liked was Keith’s confession to himself that he should get out of the game. You knew something bad was in the offing when the “Previously On” repeated his “what if I do something that gets us hurt” line. The actor does a great job at communicating the way that Keith hates himself over this, over the possibility that he might have gotten his daughter hurt or killed, and the hardship of having to accept that he may not be up to his chosen profession anymore. It’s really good, powerful stuff.

At the same time, I enjoyed the scenes focused on Clyde here too, including his one with Keith. It’s nice to see their mutual admiration society breaking down over the bombings, with Clyde still playing it cool. And the fact that Big Dick may have outlived his usefulness in Clyde’s eyes after going back on their deal, to the point that Clyde throws Big Dick to the wolves (aka the cartel goons), is an intriguing development.

But theirs is not the only bromance (er, friendship) to break down in this one. I like Veronica’s choice to come clean to Nicole about bugging her office. There’s this sense of nobility and honesty you don’t always see in Veronica, which makes it a good way to signify what this friendship means to her. In the same way, that makes it all the more impactful when Nicole tells her to get the hell out.

Overall, this was a very momentous episode that kept me on the edge of my seat in the suspenseful parts, and feeling for the characters in the series of one-on-one interactions that changed or reshaped any number of relationships here. On to the finale!