1.8 - Like a Virgin

Oh my Mac, my Mac, where have you been, where have you been...

... ok, I promise to stay off Tina Majorino (Mac) until episode 11.

Take a look at Tickle, Sparknotes, or even some of the sites listed on bored.com. Despite what you may think, our society is fascinated with tests. I'm looking at Tickle right now and I see some really scientific tests, such as "Are You Secretly Texan?" and "What's Your Holiday Wish?" All I gotta say is, if you need a test to answer the last question, I suggest seeing a man, one who has a large couch and a deep knowledge of Freud.

However, the one comfort in taking these tests is that fact the we know that no one else can see the results. Okay, maybe no one will care that you're 87% Texan, but would you want your friends to know that your IQ is only in the double digits range? That's you're suffering from borderline personality disorder? That you've done a reverse cowgirl?

The purity test demonstrates the nice double standard that we put on people. If you're male, you HAVE to score relatively low. A male who scores 50% has status while the male who scores 90% is a weenie. A female who scores 90% is left alone, but score below that and all of a sudden, you're the slut of the school. Jeez, talk about a weapon...

And high school is all about using weapons.

The one thing I love about shows like Veronica Mars is that it really tackles the issues that high school students struggle with on a daily basis. The ideas of petty jealousy, gossip, love, hate, sex, etc. are themes that are found today and in the past. We think of them as overly dramatic, but you have to remember that to teens, everything is about the drama. The only difference is the form in which it takes. We can talk about taking guns in schools, but no one seems to care about the verbal, mental, and emotional knives that are thrown around, the things that can destroy a person forever.

Imagine if Veronica hadn't offered to help Meg. This one cruel act of petty jealousy could have triggered a spiral down into depression, loneliness, isolation. The kindest girl in school could have turned herself into one of the apathetic ones over something that is so trivial.

The ironic thing about this entire episode is that in order to help Meg, Veronica has to use her weapons to traumatize several other people. We may consider them to be the "bad guys," but in reality, they're people, too. Isn't it odd how high school resembles a battlefield, where it's kill or be killed? The war of words has to leave one person devastated.

And as we see time and time again, Veronica is one who always comes out on top. It looks like her philosophy does work after all, at the expense of lasting friendships.

By the way, I scored a 72% when I took a purity test, in case ya'll wondering. I was also half sleep when taking it, so I can't guarantee its accuracy.

Other Notes

- Yeah, it was unethical, but Mac's idea was pure genius.

- The first time I watched this episode, I thought that Abel Koontz was just being a jerk at the end... however, after watching episode 5 again, I'm beginning to suspect that there might be some truth to his revelation. In particular, in episode 5, look for a Veronica-Lianne sequence when Veronica tells Lianne that she's hooked up with Duncan Kane and just watch Lianne's face.

- For some reason or another, I really dug the substory for this episode (Keith helping Wallace's family). In particular, that entire sequence with Keith in the tenant's room was hilarious.

Final Rating: ****½. Near perfect, but the standard was set later on. This one lacks that little something extra, namely, a person name Logan.