Veronica Mars 1.19 'Hot Dogs'

Get dogs involved and you’ve invested pretty much everyone in the story’s outcome. This episode works on a number of levels, but it still presents a few minor issues that affect my enjoyment. We still have loads going on, and things seem to be falling into place for Veronica’s last few steps in finding out Lilly’s killer with more suspects piling up. 

‘Hot Dogs’ follows Veronica’s investigation into a classmate’s missing dog, which turns out to be a much more complicated case than she initially thought. Triona (Alyson Hannigan) asks her father to help out her new boyfriend, but things take a dark turn when he realises what has been going on between them.

I loved this week’s simple, yet effective stand-alone case. She may put up a hard front, but Veronica has frequently shown the soft caring nature that she keeps hidden most of the time. Her helping Mandy not only find her dog, but confront the people who torture her is a testament to how hard Veronica’s personal shell has become. In order to get respect from the people who treated her so cruelly she had to demand it. Of course, the fact that we’ve got dogs involved makes it even more watchable. Plus I’ve always loved Mandy’s reunion with Chester. It may not have been a major moment, but seeing her back together with her best friend really got to me!

In relation to the bigger picture, this episode and the following ‘M.A.D.’ are all about the big setup for the season’s closing episodes. All the various suspects that could be involved in Lilly’s death are lined up; along with the Kane’s who are still #1, we now add Weevil to the ever growing list of possible perpetrators. I always found this episodes cliff-hanger a bit odd. While it was obviously written to make Weevil a plausible candidate, we never actually found out what he found in that pen. It seems like the writers didn’t really care much about what went down between him and Lilly and though it’s not a major loss, I still find myself more than a little curious about what they’re relationship would have been like.

[Highlight for spoilers through 1.22] If it weren’t for the clever use of ‘That’s Amore’ this episode would have made the true killer painfully obvious. Only ‘Veronica Mars’ could develop someone into a true villain and reveal him weeks later without allowing the penny to drop for the viewers (at least, not in my case). That scene is hugely disturbing, and superbly filmed. Alyson Hannigan’s role is, like her last appearance, quite diminished here and while she still doesn’t show off her incredible talent, she tackles that dark scene perfectly.

We’re getting closer and closer to the big reveal and this episode brilliantly continues with all the important plot elements that will come to a head during ‘A Trip to the Dentist and ‘Leave it to Beaver’; another success.

8.5/10