Veronica Mars/Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner
Season 2, Episode 7
Airdate	November 16, 2005
Production Number	2T7207
Written by	Diane Ruggiero
Directed by	Nick Marck
← 2x06 Rat Saw God	2x08 → Ahoy, Mateys!
Veronica Mars — Season Two

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner is the seventh episode of the second season of Veronica Mars, and the twenty-ninth episode overall. As Veronica Mars investigates the underlying child abuse present in most of Neptune's 09er families, the Casablancas family begins to see the consequences that stem from Richard Casablancas and his illegal firm.

Starring: Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel) (credit only), 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) (credit only)

and Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars)

Guest Starring: Michael Muhney (Sheriff Don Lamb), Krysten Ritter (Gia Goodman), Rick Peters (Dr. Tom Griffith), Geoff Pierson (Stewart Manning), Kari Coleman (Deborah Hauser), Kate McNeil (Betina Casablancas), Lisa Long (Jessica Fuller), Katie Mitchell (Rose Manning), Michael Kostroff (Samuel Pope)

with: Charisma Carpenter (Kendall Casablancas)

and: Steve Guttenberg (Woody Goodman)

Co-Starring: Roy Werner (Lawyer Barry), Logan Fields (Edwin), Valorie Curry (Jeanie Lazlo), Tony Noakes (Mr. Fuller), Jorge Ordonez (Store Clerk), Amanda Noret (Madison Sinclair), Ari Lerner (Albert), Kendall Rose (Jodie Levine), Ian Brininstool (Rodney Goodman), GiGi Erneta (Mrs. Goodman), Alexandra Harris (Grace Manning)

Uncredited: Lefty (Backup)

Notes

Mystery of the Week

• Child Protection: Meg's e-mails reveal that she has been attempting to alert child services to an abused child that she babysits. Duncan and Veronica pick up the case. The child isn't physically or sexually abused, but he is negatively reinforced with harsh punishment. They come up with a list of people who Meg has previously babysat for and Veronica gets to work on getting handwriting samples. After marking off various families, the culprit seems to be the Goodmans, whose son seems cripplingly obsessive compulsive out of fear of punishment. This leaves Duncan and Veronica to attempt to steal a book which the parents forced the abused child to write degrading things over and over again in from Meg's home. Veronica realizes that the writing is female. The abused child in question was actually her sister, Grace. Veronica and Duncan find her locked in a small room in the closet. Before they can help her, the Mannings come home early from church and call the police. Lamb arrests them, and Veronica tips him off about the hidden room. Lamb escort Veronica and Duncan from the Manning house, returns and discovers the room. He let's Veronica and Duncan go before returning to the Manning house and is last seen parked outside.

The School Bus Disaster

• Woody Goodman claims that Lamb has continued to follow up on leads.

Felix's Murder

• Logan attempts to enlist Veronica's aid in proving that the man who came forward as the anonymous tipster is lying about what he alleges that Logan did. Veronica compiles a file on the man who came forward, but Logan sees that it isn't the same person who was on the bridge that night. She makes an appointment with the doctor, but he has leave suddenly. Veronica trails him to a cigar shop where he spends 35 minutes buying a mysterious sack. Later, Keith confronts Veronica about the tobacco smell on her coat and tells her that the shop is notorious for dealing drugs.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Class War: Woody Goodman has won the mayoral race and intends to turn Neptune from a county seat to a real town. However, his plan cuts out the poorer areas of Neptune.
• Screaming Infidelities: Duncan may have cheated on Veronica with Kendall after Logan showed her the door.

Characters

• Keith: Keith is offered a new job, chief of police for Woody Goodman's new city.
• Dick and Beaver: It is revealed that the two have trust funds, but they can't withdraw from it until they're 21. Their biological mother signs over their respective trust funds.

Referbacks

• 2x03 - Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang: The Casablancas stock sank when Veronica exposed Dick Sr.'s fraudulent activities. He since escaped when the SEC come down on him.
• 2x04 - Green-Eyed Monster: Meg's laptop was entrusted to Duncan when Meg's family was introduced at the hospital. Veronica previously downloaded data onto a thumbdrive but she refrained from reading any of it. It is also worth noting that Grace looks subtlely physically abused in the scene in the hospital.

Trivia

The Show

• Music: The music that played in the final scene was "Run" by Air of their album Talkie Walkie.

Allusions and References

• Dirty Dancing: The episode title is a reference to a line spoken by Patrick Swayze about Jennifer Grey in the 1987 movie, Dirty Dancing. Although the band Fall Out Boy also has a song called "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner," it is also a reference to the movie.

• The Big Lebowski: The Big Lebowski is a cult film by the Coen Brothers starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Julianne Moore among others. The movie has reached such a fanatic level that annual conventions are held and is oftenly quoted verbatim by fans. The scene watched by Veronica was the confrontation between the Dude and Mr. Lebowski, where the Dude gives a list of things that he can be called other than Mr. Lebowski.

• Doogie Howser, M.D.: Doogie Howser is a teenage doctor played by Neil Patrick Harris. At the end of every episode, Doogie wrote in his electronic journal, which is what Veronica is referring to.

Veronica: This is a little too Doogie Howser's journal for me.

• The Brady Bunch: The Bradys were a family on the long running ABC sitcom, The Brady Bunch. The family is most often referenced as the kind of archetypal perfect American family. In the series a man with three sons and a woman with three daughters get married and antics ensue. The plot-lines were generally clean cut, hence the reference.

Betina: When was the last time you had a lunch like this?

Dick: When I was a Brady.

• Spider-Man: Spider-Man is a Marvel superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Among his various super-powers, he has a sense that allows him to feel danger approaching. The phrase "My Spider-Sense is tingling" is an oft used phrase that references the sense activating.

Veronica: My Spidey-Sense is tingling.

• Gone With the Wind: Based off the novel of the same name, Gone With the Wind is a movie set during the American Civil War about Scarlett O'Hara, a rebellious southern woman, and Rhett Butler, the man she loves. The complete exchange from the film is Scarlett saying "Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?" and Rhett replying, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Logan: Frankly, my dear... You know the rest.

Quotes

• Mr. Fuller: We have a standing dinner date with friends on Fridays. Saturdays, of course, I'm on the boat by myself if you want to stop by, smoke a J and fool around. We usually do a day trip once a month with my boss, if you don't mind working on a Sunday.

• Kendall: Doesn't this mean anything to you?

Logan: It does. It means I'm getting laid... And I owe your village a goat.