"Ahoy Mateys"
Duncan dreams of Meg asking if he ever loved her and telling him that she thought of him when the bus crashed. “Please,” Veronica scoffs nearby. Meg tells Duncan that he made promises and can save her if he wants to. Veronica gags her, then tells Duncan to “grow up and get over it” and slaps him awake. In the hotel suite, Veronica and Logan are quietly discussing her trip to the cigar store (see “Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner”), which she doesn’t think is important: “Sometimes a cigar store is just a cigar store.” He’s not thrilled with her levity and promises to start being nicer if she helps him figure out what really happened to Felix. He wonders if Griffith is a pipeline to prescription drugs, which Veronica says can easily be checked out. Duncan looks at the envelope he found in Meg’s room in “Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner,” which is from someone in Seattle named Chris Talley. Veronica does some investigating and learns that Griffith was involved in disciplinary action and fined for doing off-site practicing on someone named Danny Boyd. At Neptune High, Weevil is approached by an 09er who thinks Weevil is the biker he was going to buy coke from. Weevil isn’t happy to learn that he’s losing control over the bikers. At Mars Investigations, a couple named the Olivareses tells Keith that their son Marcos was one of the students killed in the bus crash. The father, Carlos, explains that they’re being harassed with toy buses and voicemail messages of Marcos’ voice. He thinks he knows who’s behind the harassment and wants Keith to get proof.
Veronica and Logan head to Danny’s house but Veronica makes Logan stay in the car because she doesn’t need violence just yet. She tells Danny that her name is Laurie and is thinking of having plastic surgery, so she wants to know if Griffith is the guy to go to. Danny takes her to a nearby bar called the River Stix, which she realizes is the home base of the bikers’ nemeses, the Fitzpatricks. Danny lets Veronica know that Griffith saved him after a bar fight and is a “friend of the family.” A girl in the bar recognizes Veronica and tells Danny and a guy named Liam that she’s Keith’s daughter. They’re not happy. Liam attacks her, slamming her on the pool table and preparing to give her a tattoo. Logan shows up with a gun and a call in to 911 and saves her. “I’ve had a very bad year,” he tells the guys to keep them away. Back in the car, Veronica breaks down into tears and blasts Logan for being reckless enough to walk around town with a gun. He tells her that it’s not loaded and he got it from Dick Sr. (see “Driver Ed”). She tells him he should just move out of town, but he can’t, since he has to wear an ankle monitor. Later, Keith and Veronica meet up at Mars Investigations, where Keith fills Veronica in on the Olivares’ lawsuit against the school district because of Marcos’ death. Veronica thinks the administrator of the school district is behind the harassment, but Keith thinks it’s personal and asks Veronica to find out more about Marcos at school. Unfortunately, she has trouble completing this assignment because no one knew who Marcos was.
Back at home, she gets an e-mail from an anonymous sender telling her that Marcos was great once people got to know him. Keith yells at a tech support person over the phone, pretending to be mad, and Veronica asks, “Why must you make the tech support people cry?” He has learned that an mp3 player in Mrs. Olivares’ car that played a loop of Marcos’ voice was paid for by the school district. Veronica restrains herself from bragging that she was right. The next day, she corners Clemmons and tells him she’s writing an article about the parents’ reactions to the bus crash. He tells her that the principal, Mr. Moorehead, has to clear things like that. Veronica is gleeful that Clemmons has to admit he’s really just a “powerless factotum.” Veronica interviews Moorehead (John Bennett Perry), who claims not to know anything about what’s happening to the Olivareses and points her in the direction of the school’s law firm, Simon & Stern. Veronica then confers with Mac, who tells her that Marcos was also known as Cap’n Krunk, half of a pirate radio duo with a cult following and a show called “Ahoy Mateys.” Mac (a huge fan) explains that they took a four-week sabbatical in August, and when the show returned Cap’n Krunk was no longer around. Veronica asks if there’s any way to find out where the other pirate is broadcasting from. Mac can, though she wants to see how long they can have a conversation with Veronica only asking questions. She would like some compensation so she can get supplies, but she likes being the Q to Veronica’s Bond.
Veronica listens to some old broadcasts, learning that Cap’n Krunk and his partner Imitation Crab liked to rag on their fellow classmates (especially Logan). She sees Duncan and wonders why he’s avoiding her. Logan asks Veronica if she knows anything more about “nip/schmuck” and she tells him that he seems to be in the Fitzpatricks’ pocket. Logan isn’t sure what he did to tick them off. Moments later, Veronica blasts Weevil for lying to her, since he seems to be working with the Fitzpatricks. That night, Mac and Veronica track the broadcast signal. Weevil meets with his bikers to confront them on their rogue activities. He’s especially interested to know why the supposed witness to Felix’s murder was paid by the Fitzpatricks. One of the bikers, Thumper, admits to Weevil that he lied when he told the cops he saw what happened that night. His version of the story is that after Weevil was knocked out, Felix took over the situation and sent some of the bikers off with Weevil’s motorcycle. Logan stabbed Felix and the other bikers ran off before they could get caught at the scene. Weevil is angry that Thumper lied about what he saw, but Thumper says that they just wanted as many guys as possible united against Logan. Weevil is determined to find out what really happened. Mac and Veronica track the signal to Clemmon’s house and quickly come up with the cover story that they’re there to see Butters. (Veronica pretends that Mac has a crush on him.) Clemmons takes them to the basement, where Veronica unveils Butters’ undercover radio activities.
Veronica thinks that Butters and Marcos were going to be shut down after Clemmons found out about their show. When the Olivareses announced that they were suing, Clemmons made a deal that Butters could keep doing the show if he handed over some recordings of Marcos so Clemmons could harass his family. Butters points out that Clemmons would never let him keep up a show where all he did was talk bad about the school. Veronica asks why the show was off in August and Butters explains that Marcos’ parents sent him to some camp, and when he came home he dropped out of the show. “I really think he likes me,” Mac comments after she and Veronica leave. At Mars Investigations, Keith tells Carlos about Marcos’ radio show, noting that he may have made someone so mad that he or she decided to retaliate. Carlos still thinks someone at the school district is behind the harassment. Keith agrees to go over to his house while the Olivareses are out to see if he catches anyone red-handed. Veronica does some investigating and learns that the camp Marcos was sent to is for kids struggling with their sexuality. That evening, Keith catches a guy in the Olivareses’ house but he turns out to be a neighbor who comes over all the time for beer. Keith finds a toy bus in the fish tank and a Simon & Stern business card with the Olivareses’ security code alarm written on it. Elsewhere in Neptune, Logan is abducted into a white van.
Logan’s captors take him to a warehouse, tie him up, and demand to know what happened to Felix. Logan tells them that he doesn’t know. One of the captors confers with someone over a cell phone, then plays Russian roulette with Logan’s hand. A terrified Logan keeps repeating that he doesn’t know what happened. The captors threaten his kneecap but he still claims not to know anything. He’s finally released in the middle of nowhere, but Logan grabs the cell phone and hits redial, reaching Weevil. At Neptune High, Veronica asks Butters if Marcos ever mentioned his camp, but Butters says that Marcos wasn’t gay. Veronica replies to the anonymous e-mail with an offer of free concert tickets. Keith confronts the Olivareses, revealing his realization that Carlos faked some of the harassment. Veronica’s anonymous e-mailer calls and through looking at the caller’s phone book, figures out that it’s a girl the radio show mentioned. When Veronica goes to her house, she realizes that the girl has no idea what she’s talking about but her brother Ryan seems suspicious. He explains that he was in love with Marcos and after Marcos’ parents caught them in a compromising position, they sent him to camp. They also made him go on the field trip to the baseball field, so Ryan blames them for Marcos’ death and harassed them in retaliation. Duncan has another dream about Meg in which she tells him, “You either want to save me, or you don’t. You know you’re the only one who can.” When he wakes up he finally reads her letter and is shocked by its contents.
WELCOME TO NEPTUNE: Mr. Moorehead
THE FELIX TOOMBS CASE: Griffith has a connection to Danny Boyd, a Fitzpatrick and one of the bikers’ nemeses. According to “Green-Eyed Monster,” the Fitzpatricks may have hired Morgan to crash the bus to kill Cervando.
Thumper claims that Logan did kill Felix.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: “Oh, you’re being a jacka%$. Must be an even-numbered day.” - Veronica to Logan
Weevil: “You know, you should be nicer to me.”
Veronica: “Wait, what if nerd hunters drive by and tranq and tag me?”
Butters: (re: Marcos) “He was a Playboy-lovin’ booty hound.”
Written by John Enbom and Cathy Belben; directed by Steve Gomer
Veronica: Or you’ll huff and puff and burn my house down?”
Mac: “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Veronica: “Do me a favor: never describe me.”