"Mars, Bars"
Lamb has Veronica in an interrogation room at the sheriff’s department, having arrested her for aiding and abetting Josh’s escape at the end of “Postgame Mortem.” Lamb explains that Josh was allergic to the peanut butter cookies that Veronica brought him, and after a paramedic tended to him, Josh overpowered him and ran off. Veronica has no information to provide and asks for her one phone call. At Josh’s house, Keith tells the coach’s wife, Kathleen, that if Josh calls her, she needs to contact Keith. As he receives Veronica’s call, he notices an invoice sent to Kathleen from Vinnie. Keith heads to the sheriff’s department to find a fake-tattooed, braided Veronica doing pushups. (The tattoo is of a pony.) She tells him that she didn’t help Josh escape, at least not intentionally, and that he took advantage of her kindness. “That’s got to be the first time that’s worked for anybody,” Keith remarks. Cliff arrives, reminded by the scene that he needs to return Caged Heat, and announces that Josh’s cellmate ate the rest of the cookies and was proven to be drunk when Josh ate them, so there’s no evidence against Veronica. However, Lamb is still going to keep her in lockup as long as he legally can. Veronica asks Keith to bring her some cigarettes to use as currency. She and Keith both think Josh is on his way out of the country, and Cliff thinks that he’s innocent. Keith heads off to talk to Dean O’Dell’s old assistant, remarking that he’s not as traumatized seeing Veronica in jail as he expected he would be.
On his way out, Keith runs into Vinnie and asks him about the invoice he sent to Kathleen. Vinnie has no problems violating confidentiality and tells Keith that Kathleen thought her husband was cheating, but the only photo Vinnie ever got was of him in a parking lot with a married woman. He agrees to send Keith the photo and comments that he’s heard Keith is looking for Josh. Vinnie has thought about getting involved as well, but only because he thinks Josh killed his father. At Hearst, Keith meets with Dean O’Dell’s assistant, who tells him that Mel Stoltz paid Dean O’Dell a visit (see “Spit and Eggs”), though she’s not sure why. She also mentions that Dean O’Dell’s prescription for Xanax ran out and she called in a refill, but he didn’t get a chance to go pick it up. Keith makes some calls about the prescription at Mars Investigations, then gets a visit from Landry, who is angry that someone put a bug on his cell phone. Keith didn’t do it, and he tries to convince Landry that Veronica didn’t either. Landry gives his full alibi for the night of the dean’s death - he checked into the Neptune Grand at 7:30, watched a Clippers game until 8:15, had sex with Mindy, and put on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang before going to sleep. Keith heads back to the sheriff’s department and tells him he’s sure Dean O’Dell didn’t commit suicide. He reminds Lamb that the toxicology report noted that Dean O’Dell had Xanax in his system, but he didn’t pick up the refill that night - Mindy did. Lamb finally gets a clue and tells Sacks to dust Dean O’Dell’s office things for fingerprints and have Mindy brought in.
Keith goes to see Veronica and asks her if she bugged Landry’s phone. She says she didn’t and Keith eventually believes her. She thinks Landry suspects her because she asked about the movie; Keith thinks next time she should ask about the Clippers game instead. Logan arrives to see if Veronica needs anything and she asks him to take her wireless card to Mac. Logan agrees and amuses himself by taking a picture of Veronica in jail. Mindy is brought in and Lamb asks her about the movie, which she says Landry must have ordered after she fell asleep. Lamb asks about the Xanax, but she says she didn’t see Dean O’Dell after she signed for his refill, so she didn’t give him the pills. Lamb also can’t check up on the bottle because Mindy has since taken some Xanax herself. At Hearst, Weevil takes Sacks to the storage area so he can get Dean O’Dell’s computer. Logan goes to Mac and Parker’s room, where they’re hanging out with Bronson (see “Show Me the Monkey”), and gives Mac the wireless card. Bronson gets a message from a friend telling him he can’t participate in something, so Parker asks Logan if they can borrow him. Wallace visits Veronica in lockup and tells her that Mason hasn’t been seen for a while. Cliff shows up to release an excited Veronica from jail, much to Lamb’s dismay. He recognizes Wallace from their meeting in the pilot and Wallace gets off an insult. As Veronica returns home, she’s grabbed by Josh, who shows her that he’s tied up Mason and put him in the trunk of his own car.
Veronica takes Mason’s gun away from Josh and tells him it wasn’t the same gun used to kill Coach Barry. Josh yells at Mason, asking him why he lied about seeing him fighting with Coach Barry, but Veronica breaks things up and tells Josh he needs to turn himself in. Josh wants to leave the country but needs cash first, so he needs a fake ID so he can get some valuable coins out of his family’s safety-deposit box. Veronica tells him to buy a disposable cell phone and call her in 24 hours. After Josh takes off, Veronica releases Mason and blasts him for lying about having a gun. Mason replies that he wasn’t lying about seeing Josh and his father fighting just before Coach Barry was killed. Logan, Parker, Mac, and Bronson head to the food court for a Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt, in which they’ll have to go certain places, take photos of themselves doing things, and send them back to the hunt organizers to get the next clue. At the Mars residence, Keith finds Mason’s gun in the freezer and asks Veronica why it’s there. She tells him about her run-in with Josh and Mason, mentioning that she thinks Josh is innocent, which Keith now thinks as well. He tells her about Coach Barry’s possible affair and shows her Vinnie’s photo of Coach Barry with a married woman. Veronica wonders if Kathleen hired someone to kill her husband, but Keith isn’t sure why she would hire them if that were the case. However, the woman in the photo is married to a Naval officer who has the kind of gun that killed Coach Barry, so maybe he killed the coach. Veronica tells Keith that she’ll talk to Josh again in 24 hours and agreed to help him get the coins, but she’s not really going to do it.
Mac, Logan, Parker, and Bronson go to the library to figure out their next clue, which sends them to a copy of Indian Sutras. Parker and Logan, followed by Bronson and Mac, demonstrate one of the Kama Sutra positions in the book and send in photos of themselves. At home, Veronica turns on the TV (apparently to watch Sex and the City) and sees that it’s been pushed back an hour because of a Clippers game. The scavenger hunt sends Logan, Mac, Parker, and Bronson to a drugstore where Logan and Mac purchase condoms. Veronica tells Keith that because there was a Clippers game on the night Dean O’Dell died, everything on that channel was pushed back an hour, so when Anthony (see “There’s Got to Be a Morning After Pill”) heard the shot, it was an hour later than Veronica and Keith thought. That means the dean’s Volvo was already back in the Neptune Grand garage when the dean was shot. Parker, Bronson, Mac, and Logan end up on the beach early in the morning and head up to the lifeguard station to get their last clue. They spot a heart-shaped balloon out in the water and realize they have to go swim out to get it. Bronson begs off, saying he’s not a swimmer, so after some bantering, Parker and Logan brave the cold water on their own. Keith and Veronica go to the sheriff’s department and announce to Lamb that they got the dean’s time of death wrong, and Mindy was back at the hotel when he was killed. Sacks interrupts to say that they dusted the dean’s computer for prints and found Steve’s. Veronica wonders if Jeff heard Landry and Steve fighting at the Neptune Grand (see “Postgame Mortem”).
Bronson, Parker, Mac, and Logan head back to the food court and learn that after all of their hard work, they only came in third. Their prize is a disappointing gift certificate for the Neptune Grand restaurant. After Mac and Bronson head off, Parker and Logan tell each other they had a good time. Bronson mentions to Mac that he doesn’t have much time to head home before his next class, so she suggests that they go to her room and “crash.” They wind up doing something a little less relaxing than sleeping and both end up happy. Lamb has Steve brought to the sheriff’s department and asks why his fingerprints were on Dean O’Dell’s computer keyboard, noting that the last thing typed on the computer was a fake suicide note. Steve thinks that Mindy is setting him up and refuses to say anything more without a lawyer. Later, Cliff is assigned to be said lawyer and quickly gets Steve released after noting that he was picked up for questioning outside of the county and anything he says will be inadmissible. Keith stakes out Coach Barry’s possible mistress’ house and asks her for information about the coach. She tells him that she’s a neurologist and Coach Barry had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which would have made him suffer before eventually killing him. She thinks that whoever killed the coach actually did him a favor. At home, Keith tells Veronica that Kathleen took out an additional life-insurance policy on his husband right after Vinnie showed her the photo of him with another woman. Plus, if his death is ruled an accident, it pays out double. Veronica still wonders if Kathleen hired someone to kill Coach Barry, since she had an alibi for the night of his death, but Keith notes that she didn’t have the money to hire anyone. He adds the news that the coach was dying.
Keith heads to the Barrys’ house as Veronica gets a call from Josh and meets him at the bank to give him his fake ID. As he heads inside, she voices over that if the coins aren’t inside, Kathleen may have taken them to hire a hit man. After asking Keith if he thinks she had Josh kill Coach Barry for the husband, Kathleen goes to get something she wants to show him. She grabs a gun from its hiding spot as Josh is given access to the safety-deposit box. Kathleen returns to where she left Keith, but he’s not there. He ambushes her and notes that she has the same kind of gun that killed her husband. Josh gets the coins from the safety-deposit box, finding a DVD with them. Kathleen tells Keith that she just wanted to show him the gun, which she hid after Josh told her Coach Barry was dead. She was afraid it would make Josh look guilty, and she wants the gun tested to see if it was fired. Josh rejoins Veronica and tells her the DVD has his father’s handwriting on it. Keith takes the gun to the sheriff’s department and asks Sacks to have it tested for powder residue. Before he can, Lamb arrives and tells Sacks that Mindy called in a breaking and entering at her house. Keith thinks Steve is to blame again (see “There’s Got to Be a Morning After Pill”) and offers to come along to help, but Lamb tells him to stay put. At the house, Lamb hears Steve yelling and makes his way upstairs, where he shoots at his own reflection in a mirror. He’s so distracted that he’s unable to prevent Steve from hitting him over the head with a bat. Sacks shows up in time to shoot Steve in the chest, then try to tend to a barely conscious Lamb, who murmurs, “I smell bread.” Keith appears and sends Sacks off to call an ambulance.
At the beach, Josh and Veronica watch the DVD and hear Coach Barry say that he’s responsible for his own death. He knew he was dying and didn’t want to leave his family without any money, so he asked a friend to help him die. Veronica spots someone on the DVD who looks like Josh from the back. Josh recognizes the person as his father’s assistant coach, and Veronica realizes that that’s who Mason saw the coach fighting with. At Mars Investigations, Keith tells Veronica that Josh was spotted crossing the border with a fake ID; he’s not happy with Veronica for helping him. (Apparently Keith has completely forgotten about the events of “Donut Run.”) Veronica just gives him the DVD. At Hearst, Weevil and his boss are cleaning in the basement when Weevil finds bloody clothes and gloves in the flue. Keith finishes the DVD and Veronica tells him that Josh is planning to stay gone until his family gets the insurance money. The county commissioner calls and informs Keith that Lamb is dead. In the food court, Veronica and Wallace spot Parker and Logan having lunch together. Sacks brings Mindy back to the sheriff’s department, where she’s surprised to learn that Keith is the sheriff again. He tells her about the bloody clothes found in the basement and shows her a photo of the shirt, which has Landry’s initials on it. “Either you’re covering for him or he’s covering for you,” he notes, and he wants Mindy to tell him which it is.
THE DEAN O’DELL CASE: Mindy picked up Dean O’Dell’s Xanax prescription the night he died, and though he died with Xanax in his system, she claims she never gave him the pills.
Because of a Clippers game on TV the night Dean O’Dell died, Anthony heard the shot an hour later than he thought, which means the Volvo was back at the Neptune Grand before the dean died.
A bloody shirt and pair of gloves apparently belonging to Landry were hidden in a basement at Hearst.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: “Yo, Pops, check it out. This girl ain’t gonna be nobody’s b^%#$. You better recognize.” - Veronica in lockup
Keith: “I need to see the sheriff.”
Parker: “Logan, can we, like, borrow you?”
Lamb: “I know you from somewhere.”
Keith: “Honey, why is there a pistol in the freezer?”
Lamb: “So, what, now I’m a jerk because I listened to a concerned citizen?”
Bronson: (post-sex) “And this is what you meant by ‘crash’?”
Written by Phil Klemmer, John Enbom, and Joe Voci; directed by Harry Winer
Sacks: “I don’t know, Keith. He looks kind of busy.”
Keith: “Well, that’s something I got to see.”
Logan: “Will I be returned in my current pristine condition?”
Wallace: “Yeah, you told me to go see the Wizard and ask him for some guts.”
Lamb: Well, did you?”
Wallace: “Yeah. He said to let you know you’re the only sheriff in America who he considers a true friend of Dorothy.”
Veronica: “Because there's this guy, see, and I want to put him on ice. Because revenge is a dish best served cold. Because I want to commit murder in the 28th degree?”
Veronica: “No, just ‘cause.”
Mac: “Oh. Yeah. I meant ‘bang.’ I got my onomatopoeias mixed up.”