1.7 - The Girl Next Door

One of the mindboggling things about Neptune is how one city manages to contain both extremes of the social economic ladder and yet, there's only room for one high school. It makes me wonder just how large/small Neptune really is. Regardless, it's pretty apparent members of all the social classes are represented at Neptune High. It's like a sociologist's dream.

It's also funny how Neptune High manages to mirror the real world so well. Whether intentional or not, the one thing that I liked about the episode was how Weevil and Weevil alone was pinned as the suspect for sticking Mr. Daniel's car on the flagpole. After all, why try to nail the rich movie star's kid (who also happens to be Caucasian, mind you), who was probably as much a suspect as the biker, when you can get the kid from the other side of the tracks with much less fuss? In the end, it's always the poorer people who end up getting screwed.

So why did Logan stick his neck out for Weevil?

Despite appearances, Logan and Weevil have somewhat of a deep understanding of each other. They won't necessarily invite the other guy over for dinner or a game of hoops, but they definitely have a chemistry. Notice that during their scenes, both guys were going toe-to-toe with each other in the verbal jabs department:

• "They teach you manners in ESL?" "If I was gonna cheat, don't you think I'd choose someone smart?"
• "You're almost as bad an actor as your father." "You know you don't need a diploma to steal hubcaps, right?"
• "What's that?" "It's my arm, man."

Back in my episode 4 review, I mentioned that current Logan, fun Logan, lives to put people down, to unleash his arsenal of one-liners. The unfortunate thing is that with most of his targets, all he gets out is one line. Weevil, however, is like a sparring partner. Logan could pull out his one caustic one liner after another and play a game of one-upsmanship with a verbal equal.

These are not the kind of people you want to lose. It's a perverse sort of entertainment enjoyed by a rare selection of participants. To meet your verbal equal is like meeting your perfect mate.

Logan may not have respected Weevil's status in life or any of the activities that he engaged in, but as a partner in insults, Weevil was one in a thousand. We see in later episodes that the respect they have for each other is a mutual thing.

Other Notes

- I hate to say it, but Veronica's arc in this episode was sort of dull. Some of it was due to the fact that I wasn't emotionally invested in Sarah and some of it was due to all the running around for nothing.

- Logan managed to one-up Buffy's "Have a sentence, even." retort to the "May I have a word?" question with his "Anthropomorphic. All yours, big guy." line. Good stuff.

- As much as I enjoyed the antics of Weevil and Logan, I hope to all heaven that I never end up with a pair like that when I become a teacher.

- I have to say that this episode probably has the most confusing flashback sequences, mainly b/c I get the feeling that the writers somehow managed to contradict themselves on several levels. I'm too lazy to go back and figure out where, though.

Final rating: ***. Weevil and Logan carry the entire episode on their backs with an additional ½* for at least trying to do something with Veronica's arc this week.