From The TV IV

Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang is the third episode of the second season of Veronica Mars, and is the twenty-fifth episode overall. After Beaver finds the used condom wrapper on the floor in his house, he goes to Veronica to try to prove his stepmom's infidelities which in turn accidentally reveal ulterior motives of the Casablancas family.

Starring: Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel), Teddy Dunn (Duncan Kane), Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls), Francis Capra (Eli "Weevil" Navarro (credit only)), Ryan Hansen (Richard "Dick" Casablancas), Kyle Gallner (Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas), Tessa Thompson (Jackie Cook)

And: Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars)

Guest Stars: Michael Muhney (Sheriff Don Lamb), Erica Gimpel (Alicia Fennel), David Starzyk (Richard "Big Dick" Casablancas, Sr.), Michael Kostroff (Samuel Nelson Pope), Cress Williams (Nathan Woods)

And: Charisma Carpenter as Kendall Casablancas

Co-Stars: Courtney Taylor (Courtney), Brent DeBoer (Brent), Brandon Hillock (Deputy Sacks), Adam Bitterman (Curly/Man in Loud Hawaiian Shirt), Michael Otis (Jack Montana), John Ciccolini (Mechanic), Janene Possell (School Nurse), Mary Lou Flesh (Secretary), Mike King (Singer), Kevin Gregg (Clerk)

Uncredited: Ivor Shier (Helicopter Pilot)

Contents 1 Plot Overview 2 Notes 2.1 Mystery of the Week 2.2 The School Bus Disaster 3 Arc Advancement 3.1 Happenings 3.2 Characters 3.3 Referbacks 4 Trivia 4.1 The Show 4.2 Behind the Scenes 4.3 Allusions and References 4.4 Memorable Moments 5 Quotes 6 Reviews

[edit] Plot Overview

Beaver hires Veronica to investigate Kendall, who he believes is cheating on his father, violating a pre-nuptial agreement. While investigating, Veronica comes across a man she believes to be cheating with Kendall. Tailing him, she discovers that he is actually the County Assessor, who was taking bribes from Dick Casablancas. Casablancas was running a financial scam where he lured investors with photos of expensive hotels to inflate the value of the stock of his company, when in fact these were not his hotels at all.

Beaver takes the evidence of the affair (which turns out was with Logan) to Dick Casablancas, who realizes that in investigating the affair, the private investigator would have uncovered evidence of the scam. Caught, Dick Casablancas storms out of his office with some files, and frantically tells his staff to shred all of their documents before he escapes in a helicopter.

Meanwhile, Wallace likes the new girl, Jackie. He tries to get her to become friends with Veronica, but she does not trust Jackie following a confrontation they had in Driver Ed. However, for the sake of friendship she decides to try and help Wallace by inviting them to see Pride and Prejudice with herself and Duncan. While they are watching the movie Jackie never stops talking about herself and all of the celebrities that she knows. Veronica tells Wallace that she thinks he is too good for Jackie, but Wallace has an obvious crush. At the restaurant where Veronica works, while giving Beaver evidence of Kendall's affair, she sees Jackie with another guy.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Mystery of the Week

• Casablancas Affair: Beaver Casablancas is worried about his father. Ever since Kendall came into the picture she has only been emptying his bank accounts. To end the relationship without the pre-nuptial agreement kicking in, Beaver asks Veronica to get proof of her infidelity. When her first attempts don't pan out, Veronica buys an iPod Shuffle and hides a camera inside it. After making the switch with Kendall, she catches Kendall and Logan in the act. Unfortunately for Richard Casablancas, Sr., she also caught the real-estate fraud that he had been perpetrating.

[edit] The School Bus Disaster

• Veronica concludes that the school bus going over the cliff was meant to kill her.

[edit] Arc Advancement

[edit] Happenings

• Infidelities: Beaver, Veronica, and Richard Casablancas, Sr. learn about Kendall Casablancas's affair with Logan Echolls.
• Alicia's Secret: Alicia is being followed by a man who stumbles across her when she and Keith travel to Chicago together.
• White Collar Crime: Richard Casablancas, Sr. has been defrauding his investors through his real estate investment trust. When Beaver hires Veronica to tail his stepmom, she discovers his fraud and notifies the SEC. Casablancas orders his employees to shred all documents and boards a helicopter.
• Interrogation: Veronica is interrogated by the Sheriff, where she learns the identity of Curly Moran.
• Clues: While being interrogated, the Sheriff shows Veronica an earring that looks suspiciously like one that Weevil wears.

[edit] Characters

• Alicia: During her stay in Chicago, Alicia is followed by a man, apparently a detective.
• Jackie: Jackie appears to start a relationship with Wallace, but shows up at Veronica's work with another guy.
• Logan: Logan confesses to Duncan that the reason he's mad at him is not that he's dating Veronica, but that Duncan abandoned him over the summer.

[edit] Referbacks

• 1x22 - Leave It to Beaver: Logan and Duncan fight about the Lilly Kane murder, particularly about Logan's father's involvement in her death.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] The Show

• Unseen: Francis Capra does not appear in this episode.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

[edit] Allusions and References

• Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang: The episode title is a reference to the Ian Fleming novel "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" about an inventor who renovates an old car. The novel was adapted into a musical in 1968 starring Dick Van Dyke. Although the episode doesn't have anything in common with the source material (other than the play on words), Ian Fleming is the creator of James Bond.
• Java the Hut: Veronica refers to the place where she works as "Java the Hut". This is the name of the Lucasfilm craft services (i.e. on-set food) company, a pun on the character name Jabba the Hutt.

[edit] Memorable Moments

• Veronica Mars doing a Mr Burns' "Excellent" after finding out from Duncan that they are screwing the workers in the business leaders class.
  
• Courtney Taylor-Taylor doing karaoke at Veronica's work. Courtney is the lead singer of the Dandy Warhols, who do the intro song ("We Used to Be Friends") for the show.

[edit] Quotes

[edit] Reviews

• Overall Grade: A with 3 reviews
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 3 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 0 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 0 F: 0

1. This seems like the first episode this season that Veronica Mars finally finds its footing after a long summer hiatus. A lot of plots are progressed in this episode, and many new ones are introduced, all of them intriguing. The acting is much better from the last episode, and the clues provided to both Veronica and the audience aren't as farfetched, either. I'm curious to see what direction all of these mysteries are being taken in, as it seems that's a lot more character involvement this season than last, when most of the stories seemed to focus around Veronica and only Veronica. The Casablancas family is an excellent addition in the primary cast, and is definitely a welcome change after the Kane and Echolls families have all but disappeared this season. Grade: A --Wizardryo 01:42, 13 Oct 2005 (EDT)
2. This was a wonderful episode. We got a lot of meat with character development and plot development, all wrapped up neatly in a mystery of the week, which doesn't feel anything like a quick and dirty "Mystery of the Week". The events of this episode will likely reverberate throughout the entire season, but it completely works as a standalone episode. It's amazing how the writers can keep this up. They must be superhuman. The new characters are starting to come into their own, and become real people in the story, and even Teddy Dunn seemed to be an actual human and not a robot. And Logan seems to be coming back from the brink. There's going to be several episodes during this season that we'll look back on and point to as lynchpins of all the larger story arcs. This will be one of them. Grade: A --mangler103 09:44, 13 Oct 2005 (EDT)
3. In my opinion, the first two episodes didn't have that "Veronica Mars" sparkle that was shining at the end of the first season. With this episode, though, the writers really hit their stride, mangaging to add to the intrigue while batting 1000 with Veronica's zany zingers. Logan's especially worth watching in this episode; it's going to be very interesting to see where his arc goes this season. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but this episode has made me think that the bus crash mystery could be as good as Lily's murder. All around, a great episode, and a promise of great things to come. Grade: A --Frobozz