Veronica Mars 2.09 My Mother, the Fiend

This episode tackles a number of familiar themes from the previous season by including a couple of familiar names and faces, and is filled with both touching moments and truly amazing take-downs. It chronicles Veronica’s constant struggle with her mother’s depravity, and how often she’s forced to help clean up the messes she leaves in her wake.

Lianne has always been a huge letdown to Veronica, and all we’ve seen or heard up till now hasn’t done her any favours. This episode tackles the idea of a child desperately trying to find out if their presumably horrible parent wasn’t always a walking disaster. The case evolves wonderfully, with everything coming together brilliantly in the end, with that incredibly touching ending between Mary and Triona, and the lovely revelation Veronica gets about her mother’s caring nature when she was her age.

Though she never re-appears in Veronica’s life, it’s important that there be some sort of redeemable quality to Lianne, however small. The case also brought back the stuck up snotty nosed Celeste to add a touch more familiarity to the story. The series always brings back characters time and time again and it all goes towards creating that important sense of a community in Neptune.

All the various ‘Buffy’ reunions that occur from time to time are so blatant, but I think that's the whole idea. Here it’s Willow and Cordelia who unexpectedly meet. Nothing much happens but the banter between the two is generally amusing. It’s funny, Charisma is essentially playing Cordelia 2.0 here, without all the ‘Angel’ development but hey, she does it well so why mess with a good thing.

Mac's increased involvement in the series continues here, with a seemingly standard filler plot, helping Beaver with his potentially dynamite idea. It's one that isn't all that interesting, but Mac being one the most likable TV characters, ever, it's a diversion that I don't mind a whole lot since it goes that much further in making her an integral part of the series. She’s always been a favourite of mine, and her adorableness grows the more screen-time she gets.

Then, of course, there’s the major twist at the end of this week’s episode. The revelation of Meg’s pregnancy is obviously the catalyst created to set-up the big episode in a couple of weeks time, but it certainly made the episode one to remember in terms of where we are in the season.

9/10