"President Evil"
Veronica waits outside a classroom for Claire so she can talk to her about the ATM surveillance photo of her (see “Charlie Don’t Surf”). Claire agrees to look at it but can’t identify the guy with her. She also can’t recognize the logo that Veronica spots on the guy’s shirt. In Intro to Criminology, Tim tells the students that Landry is out for the day, so he’ll be running the class. The students are giving oral presentations, and Tim decides to make it Veronica’s turn. Her audiovisual aid is Weevil, who helps Veronica in her presentation on his life of crime and what led him to it. This leads to story time, then a Q-and-A period in which a girl asks if Weevil thinks he’ll ever leave gang life behind. Weevil says he’s trying, but to be honest, he misses the thrill and the money he was making from criminal activities. After class, Veronica and Weevil chat and he compliments her necklace, which used to be Lilly’s. She tells him she’ll be going to a Halloween party at the on-campus casino (see “Wichita Linebacker”) with her boyfriend. After a discussion about drywall residue, Weevil advises Veronica to keep a short leash on her boyfriend because of all the girls around. He’s not happy to learn that said boyfriend is Logan.
Elsewhere on campus, Wallace gets back a mechanical engineering test and is disappointed by his results. Veronica goes to Mars Investigations, spotting a Porsche parked out front, and suggests to Keith that they call the city and watch it get towed. She shuts up when she finds out that the Porsche belongs to Dean O’Dell (see “Wichita Linebacker”) and his wife Mindy (Jaime Ray Newman), who are there for some reason that involves Mindy’s ex-husband. After his class, Wallace approaches his TA and asks how he can drop the class. He can’t - the add/drop period is over. At Mars Investigations, Veronica scans the ATM photo and enlarges it to see that the logo on the guy’s shirt is for Camp Waterloo. After some research, she calls the camp and pretends to be organizing a camp reunion so she can get a list of all the campers from the last five years. After the O’Dells leave, Keith tells Veronica that they’ve been hired to find Mindy’s first husband, since their son is dying and wants to meet his biological father. Veronica heads to the casino dressed as Meg White from the White Stripes, waiting around for Logan to arrive. As other students gamble, two guys wearing Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon wigs pull out guns and demand everyone’s money, jewelry, and watches.
The students comply with Nixon and Carter’s demands, but Mercer is reluctant to part with the cash box. Nixon collects from Veronica, who refuses to give up Lilly’s necklace. Carter takes it from her and she warns that he’ll regret that decision. Later, after the robbers are long gone, two campus police officers arrive to take statements. Some students aren’t confident that the campus cops will be able to find the culprits. One of the cops isn’t sympathetic to Mercer’s cash box being stolen, since they’ve told Mercer to shut down the casino a couple of times. Logan arrives dressed as Jack White and tells Veronica that he’s late because he was in class. Veronica tells him what happened and he comforts her. Lamb arrives with a deputy and asks for everyone’s ID, but Veronica reminds him that they all had their wallets stolen. Lamb kicks out the campus cops and Logan tells Veronica that “Scotland Yard” will find the robbers, but she’s sure she knows who the culprit is. Wallace studies and is interrupted by a guy named Mason, who thinks he’s too concerned about the fact that he’s failing mechanical engineering and wants to be a mechanical engineer. Mason would rather make Wallace go out and have fun than let him study.
Keith calls Dean O’Dell to let him know that he’s found Mindy’s ex-husband and he happens to be in Southern California. The guy has been making a living as a voiceover actor, and Keith has a plan to get him together with Dean O’Dell and Mindy. Weevil arrives home to find Veronica and Backup waiting for him, though Weevil doesn’t think Backup will do any good. Veronica demands to know where her necklace is, but Weevil doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She reminds him that she told him about the casino, then notes that one of the robbers was about his size, was covered in drywall dust, and smelled like Weevil’s cologne. She adds that he just told her class that he misses his life of crime, and he also asked her about her necklace. Weevil is shocked that Veronica would accuse him of robbing her after everything they’ve been through together, but she counters that after everything they’ve been through, he shouldn’t blame her. He kicks her out and tells her, “It’s a wonder you don’t have more friends.” The next day, Keith enlists Veronica to pretend to be a receptionist (well, she doesn’t really have to pretend) and Cliff to be a voiceover actor (an inside joke since Daran Norris does a lot of voiceover work) so they can ensnare Mindy’s ex, Steve.
Steve arrives for a supposed audition and Keith and Cliff pretend to be actors also auditioning. When Steve heads into the audition room, he’s confronted by Dean O’Dell and Mindy, who thinks Mindy has gone to all this trouble to bug him about alimony. She tells him that their son, Jason, is dying from bone cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant. Steve wants to know how she knows he’s a match; she tells him they learned he was from a paternity test. Mindy begs him to do the right thing, but Steve accuses her of turning Jason against him. Dean O’Dell gets involved, threatening to hurt Steve if he doesn’t help Jason, but Steven tells him that Jason is Dean O’Dell’s son, not his. On campus at night, Weevil spots Logan with a girl and asks if he’s lining up his next girlfriend. Lamb and Sacks show up to search Weevil’s car, in which they find earrings that look like a pair stolen from the casino. Logan looks on gleefully as Weevil is arrested. Veronica heads to the sheriff’s department as well, hoping to get her necklace back. Lamb, so shocked that she’s sure the bad guy is actually guilty, does the robot. He does tell her that Weevil used one of the stolen credit cards to buy a pizza and have it delivered to his own apartment.
Veronica goes to see Weevil, demanding to know where her necklace is again, and he tells her that he was framed. The pizza was prepaid, but he couldn’t say no to free food. She tells him she’ll be looking into the situation. Mason brings a couple of girls to Wallace and Piz’s room for a movie night, but Wallace tells them he’s studying. Mason gives him the number of a tutor who got him through a hard course last year (never mind the fact that he’s basically majoring in gym). Veronica heads to the pizza place Weevil’s pizza came from and learns that she’s famous, at least as far as an employee named Danny is concerned. She asks him to find out who called in Weevil’s pizza order, but it came in over the Internet. Only the manager can request the name of the orderer from their Internet service provider, but Veronica gets Danny to pretend he’s the manager. The computer where the order was placed turns out to be on Hearst’s campus, right across the hall from the campus police’s office. Veronica accidentally sits in gum and confronts a little girl sitting nearby, who has obviously misplaced part of the wad she’s chewing. The girl sasses her and heads into the campus police office.
At Mars Investigations, Keith and Cliff’s lunch is interrupted by Lamb and an LAPD detective named Sanchez. Keith has been busted for telling Steve’s apartment complex manager that he was a building inspector (named Adrian Monk) so he could get into his apartment. Keith isn’t too concerned, but he takes the situation more seriously when Lamb informs him that Steve has been missing for 52 hours and Keith is the main suspect in his disappearance. Sanchez starts interrogating Keith, but Cliff interrupts to ask if Keith will be charged with anything. He can’t be yet, so Cliff tells them to call him if they want to talk more. Later, Keith does some calling around and finds out that Jason has been released from the hospital. Cliff wonders if Dean O’Dell and Mindy kidnapped Steve to get his bone marrow. Keith thinks they did, and Cliff notes that they’ll probably wind up killing him after he proves useful, so he can’t press charges. After asking for Cliff to contact a researcher he knows, Keith heads to Dean O’Dell’s office and asks where Mindy and Jason are. Dean O’Dell tells him they’re in Mexico, and he’s afraid he’s going to lose them both because of Steve. Keith promises to track them down by tracing a call from Mindy, so Dean O’Dell offers to make the call, since he can get Mindy to yell at him for hours.
Veronica heads back to the sheriff’s department, where Weevil tells her that another maintenance guy found the Carter and Nixon masks and guns in a Dumpster behind the dorm where the casino is. Veronica tells him she’ll find out who owned the guns, but Weevil tells her they’re fake. Veronica heads to Hearst’s drama department, where the students can’t go on stage because it’s been coated in Pam by the film department, and learns that the guns would have come from the film students, not the drama students. Wallace goes to see Mason’s tutor, Max, who really just provides people with tests in advance. After having been convinced that it’s a “study guide,” Wallace buys one. The film students hold a short film festival at Hearst’s food court, and when Veronica and Logan arrive, they discover that someone made a short film with characters wearing the Nixon and Carter masks and robbing a store. Later, Veronica confronts the filmmaker, who wonders if Logan would like to make an investment. (He wouldn’t.) The filmmaker tells Veronica that the department’s equipment truck disappeared about a week ago and was tracked down by the campus police. The only things never recovered were the masks and guns.
Wallace uses his study guide, then heads back to Max to get the answers. Keith and Dean O’Dell arrive at a Mexican hospital, where Keith gets a call from Cliff telling him that Mindy and Jason are actually in San Diego. Dean O’Dell admits that they brought Steve in unconscious for the surgery. Wallace takes his mechanical engineering test, turning in two booklets when he’s done. Veronica and Backup go to the house of one of the campus cops and Veronica asks for her necklace back. She’s figured out that the other campus cop didn’t talk because he has an accent, and they were able to frame Weevil because his criminal record came across their desks when he was hired at the school. The cop notes that she doesn’t have any proof, but Veronica does have the masks, which she offers to trade for her necklace. The cop starts to take the deal but says that it will take a day for him to get the necklace back. Veronica holds onto the masks and reveals that she’s been wearing a wire for the cops. Keith and Dean O’Dell head to San Diego, where Dean O’Dell begs Keith to leave things alone until after Jason’s operation. Keith doesn’t want to let Steve die instead, but Dean O’Dell says that he and Mindy are willing to go to jail for forcing Steve to be there if it means that Jason gets to live.
Back at the cop’s house, Lamb gives Veronica the news that a search of the residence didn’t turn up her necklace. The bratty girl from Hearst arrives - she happens to be the campus cop’s daughter - and Veronica grabs her necklace, which is actually hers. As Wallace is summoned to see his mechanical engineering professor, Weevil is released from jail. One week later, Keith brings Steve to Lamb’s office and makes him announce that he was unreachable because he was camping. Afterwards, Steve drives off in Mindy’s Porsche, having been promised never to be contacted again. Veronica receives the e-mail from Camp Waterloo, and after figuring out who the guy was in the photo, she heads to his place with Logan and Backup. The guy’s roommate is the only one home, but he tells Veronica that he probably didn’t rape Claire - he’s her boyfriend.
WELCOME TO NEPTUNE: Mindy
THE TITLE IS A PLAY ON...: The video game/movie Resident Evil.
THE RAPE CASE: Around the time Claire was supposedly raped, she was with her boyfriend.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: “Well, well, what do we have here? An illegal gambling establishment. Underage drinking. Public displays of affection. It’s like Sodom and Gomorrah in here.” - Lamb re: the on-campus casino
Keith: “He left a trail of ex-wives.”
“My cologne stinks? So all this play I’ve been getting is from pure sex appeal?” - Weevil
Lamb: (to Weevil) “Hey, what do you say we do your Miranda Rights in harmony this time? I’ll take lead. You take tenor?”
Lamb: “Does not compute.”
“Excuse me, officers, but if I don’t bring up the law, then this won’t be considered a billable hour.” - Cliff to Lamb and Sanchez
Written by Jonathan Moskin and David Mulei; directed by Nick Marck
Dean O’Dell: “And it led you straight to the corner where he was passing out fliers dressed as a cell phone?”
Logan: “Is it still called déjà vu when something happens more than twice, or is that something different? I’ll have to look that up.” (to Weevil) “Ask for cell B. It has the best light.”
Lamb: (to Logan) “Hey, good-looking, we’ll be back to pick you up later!”
Deputy: “Hey, sheriff’s doing the robot again.”
Lamb: “Does not compute.”
Deputy: “I’ll get my camera phone.”
Veronica: “You must have been fun in the ‘80s.”