"The Rapes of Graff"
At Neptune High, a teacher tells her class (including Veronica, Logan, and Dick) that Woody is holding an essay contest for students to write about freedom. The winner gets to serve as his intern for a week and push the plunger to demolish the old Shark Stadium. After class, Veronica tells Logan that he’ll probably do well with the essay since he’s now had the case against him dismissed (see “The Quick and the Wed”). She realizes that Logan hasn’t told Hannah why they won’t be seeing each other anymore. After Logan leaves, Wallace approaches and notes to Veronica that Logan seems to have nine lives. He shows her a brochure he got from Hearst College (see “One Angry Veronica”) and they discuss the upcoming “get to know Hearst” weekend he wants them both to attend. Veronica isn’t thrilled, since the school is in Neptune, but she’ll go since it means she gets to miss school. Hannah catches up to Logan in the parking lot and expresses how excited she is about their upcoming sailing expedition. He informs her that they can’t see each other anymore. He tells her that she’s a sweet girl, but the problem is that he’s not a sweet guy. At Hearst, Veronica and Wallace’s student guide, Dean, starts the tour by pairing up students with people they don’t know to play Two Truths and a Lie. Veronica winds up with Dean until another student joins the group - Troy (last seen in “You Think You Know Somebody”).
Troy tries to convince Veronica that he’s reformed, but she doesn’t believe him. At Neptune High, Logan opens his locker to find a cake from Hannah; it’s decorated with a picture of an escaped convict and the words, “Get out of jail free.” Dick asks Logan if he’s stuck with Hannah for the weekend or if they can hang out. Logan informs him that he’s now a free man. Dick is also single, since Madison has apparently met someone more mature. “Where, at Lego Land?” Logan asks. At Hearst, Veronica and Wallace head to a party, where a girl named Stacy talks to a guy named Gordon. A guy named Drew approaches Veronica and awards her 210 points for being a natural blond, super-cute, sassy, and a pre-freshman. He tries to hook up with her and is rewarded with a beer in the face. Troy rescues Veronica before anything else can happen but Drew decks him to get away from him. Troy winds up with Stacy and Wallace and Veronica meet up with Dean again and discuss the supposedly intellectual conversations college students have. On their way out, they spot Troy and Stacy making out and leaving together. Veronica also catches Drew hitting on another girl and tases him. Keith heads to the Neptune Grand, talking to someone on his cell phone, and finds Cliff handcuffed to a bed and in need of liberation. He explains that he stopped by the previous night for an OB/GYN convention and wound up with a woman who wasn’t actually a doctor. She also appears to have stolen his briefcase.
At home, Veronica is woken by a phone call from Troy telling her that he’s at the police station. Veronica heads to the sheriff’s department and learns that Stacy was date-raped after the party; she was roofied and had her head shaved as well. Troy tries to convince Veronica that he didn’t do anything, but she points out that she doesn’t know him well enough to believe that he wouldn’t rape someone. Plus, Troy was the last person seen with Stacy, his hair and fibers are on her, and his clothes were recently washed. He claims that this is because Stacy got sick on him, then passed out. Veronica tells him that if she decides he’s guilty, she’ll make sure he gets what he deserves. She then asks him for more details about the previous night and he tells her that there was a frat guy hanging around who didn’t look happy that Troy was with Stacy. At Mars Investigations, Keith tells Cliff that his non-OB/GYN, Daphne, was registered at the hotel under a fake name. He obtained a security tape from the elevator, thanks to the hotel security guys, whom he got to know well when Veronica was dating Duncan. Keith asks what was in Cliff’s briefcase, but Cliff doesn’t think there was anything important that anyone would want to steal. He notes that Logan’s murder case files were in there, but since the case was dismissed, he doesn’t think it matters. Watching the tape, Keith gets to see Cliff and Daphne making out and teases him about his “zest for life.” The two also see Lamb and a make-out buddy in the elevator and note that Lamb and Daphne appear to know each other. Veronica pops in to get an address and announces that Lamb’s new girlfriend is Madison.
Veronica goes to the Pi Sigma Sigma frat house to try to find the guy who didn’t like Troy being with Stacy. She’s not surprised that Drew is a brother there. She’s not allowed into the house without an invitation, but a brother named Chip Diller (David Tom) tells her that Gordon, the guy who didn’t like Troy, spent the night in the hospital, having his stomach pumped. Later, Veronica rejoins her tour group and tells Troy that Gordon couldn’t have raped Stacy because he was in the hospital. He remembers that he left his name and phone number on Stacy’s message board, something he probably wouldn’t have done after raping her. At the Neptune Grand, Logan and Dick continue their lost weekend of drinking and video games by attempting to cut Hannah’s cake. Dick discovers that there’s a file inside. Veronica finds Troy’s name and number on Stacy’s board, as well as the letters CCC. Stacy emerges from her room and blasts Veronica for coming by. Veronica tries to sympathize with her, having gone through something similar, and tells her that they’re trying to figure out what happened. Stacy spots a box on the floor and opens it to find hair inside. However, it’s not her hair. A friend of hers arrives and announces that Veronica was at the party with Troy. Veronica winds up at a wig shop, thinking that another girl at Hearst was also raped and had her head shaved. She tries to get the name of a Hearst student who recently came in to get a wig by putting on an emotional performance about her sister running away. The store’s owner doesn’t buy the story but tells Veronica that the girl was Hawaiian.
Back at Hearst, Veronica learns from Dean that Hawaiian students at Hearst hang out with other Pacific Islander kids. She spots the letters CL on someone’s door and Dean explains that they’re a Pi Sig score in Roman numerals. He thinks that the frat brothers keep track of their scores on a board in their basement and the students who don’t score high enough are punished by having their heads shaved. Keith and Cliff confront Lamb with photos from the security tape, including one of him with Madison. Lamb notes that she’s 18, so their relationship is legal, and Keith and Cliff show him a mock-up of a campaign ad with the slogan, “18 - it’s legal.” Lamb admits that Daphne is an escort he’s busted a few times. “I’d vote for you,” Cliff tells Lamb on the way out. Wallace gets a tour of Pi Sig in order to let Veronica into the frat house so she can sneak to the basement and look at the board. She finds out that one of the brothers, “Iceman,” scored the 300 points written on Stacy’s door. Veronica gets caught by Iceman, aka Chip, and the newly-shorn Gordon, and they tell her that Chip got his 300 points for having sex with the dean’s wife (see “President Evil”), not raping Stacy. Gordon claims that he doesn’t care that Stacy blew him off for Troy since she’s a tease. Drew arrives and Veronica announced that he never scored the 240 points he claimed he got for hooking up with her. (She added 30 because he “undercounted the sassy.”) Veronica finds the Pacific Islanders eating lunch together and, after a false guess, figures out which one was raped and had her head shaved. She takes the girl, Dawn, to the dean and tells her and Stacy that Troy is innocent. She adds that the hair sent to Stacy was Gordon’s and tells the dean about the Pi Sigs’ basement activities.
The Hearst tour ends and Wallace tells Veronica that he hopes to attend next year. Troy arrives to announce that the charges against him have been dropped and he’s grateful for Veronica’s help. He adds that the Pi Sigs are all on probation for a semester, so if Veronica attends Hearst next year, she’ll already have some enemies. Stacy heads to the frat house to return Gordon’s hair by throwing it into the ceiling fan. At Neptune High, Logan tells Hannah that her father agreed to rescind his testimony if Logan would break up with her. He admits that that’s the reason he asked her out in the first place. Hannah quickly forgives him. Veronica heads home, where a jumpy Keith tries to get rid of her before Daphne arrives. Instead, Veronica is the one to open the door and tell Keith, “Dad, your hooker’s here.” Cliff appears and the men confront Daphne, who says that she was paid to swipe the briefcase, though she doesn’t know who hired her. Logan and Hannah go at it at the hotel but are interrupted by Griffith. Logan tells him he can’t stop them from seeing each other, but Griffith knows something he doesn’t. At home, Veronica tells Keith that she doesn’t want to go to Hearst because of its proximity to home. She finds the letter about the essay contest and wonders if Woody has access to explosives like the ones she found at the hangar (see “Versatile Toppings”) in order to demolish the stadium. At Neptune High, Wallace shows off a letter announcing that he’s received a scholarship and tells Veronica he’s definitely going to Hearst. Logan learns from some of Hannah’s friends that she’s been sent to boarding school in Vermont. Veronica heads to Sharks Field to learn more about C-4 and spots Danny Boyd (see “Ahoy Mateys”) working, adding the Fitzpatricks to her list of bus crash suspects.
WELCOME TO NEPTUNE: Chip
THE TITLE IS A PLAY ON... The book The Grapes of Wrath.
THE SCHOOL BUS CASE: The explosives in Woody’s hangar might have belonged to him, not Terrence.
Danny has access to explosives due to his job at Sharks Field, which means…
THE FELIX TOOMBS CASE: …the Fitzpatricks might be involved in both mysteries.
THE RAPE CASE: (which will be revisited starting in “Welcome Wagon”) The rape victims are given date-rape drugs and have their heads shaved.
The Pi Sigs seem to be the main suspects.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Logan: “You lied to a janitor?”
Veronica: Okay, I’m Veronica, I’m from Neptune, and I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”
“Gone on puzzling errand.” - Keith’s note to Veronica
“Someone with the handle Bird Dawg says he scored me? That is wrong both factually and ontologically.” - Veronica
Written by John Enbom; directed by Michael Fields
Hannah: “I’ve resigned myself to burning in Hell. You know, all the girls on track are jealous of me.”
Logan: “I’m sure they could burn in Hell, too, if they’d just, uh, put in the effort.”
Dean: “Oh, how’d that go?”
Veronica: “It was a bit of a letdown.”
Dean: “Hmm. Well, uh, I don’t believe that you’re from Neptune.”
Veronica: “Wrong. Is that the end?”
Dean: “Um, okay, well, uh, my name is Dean, I’m from Wheaton, Illinois, uh, my father owns a Ford dealership, and I also shot a man in Reno, but it was not to watch him die. It was for other issues.”
Veronica: “Your father doesn’t sell Fords.”
Dean: “That’s right. Toyotas. How did you know?”
Veronica: “It’s all in the eyes.”