"Versatile Toppings"
Corny attempts to deliver a pizza at night in Neptune but is tased into unconsciousness instead. At school the next morning, Dick dings Veronica’s car with his door, then makes fun of her for having a less-than-expensive vehicle. A couple of baseball players, one named Kelly, taunt Dick for his encounter with the escort in “Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough” and for possibly being gay. At lunch, Logan and Hannah (see “Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough”) make out and Logan wonders if Griffith said anything about them being together at the carnival. Hannah says he never said anything and invites Logan to her father’s house that weekend. At Mars Investigations, Terrence tells Keith about everything he’s been going through. Keith tells him that if Lamb doesn’t press charges, the media will stop paying attention to him. Terrence tells Keith that the day of the bus crash, he left the stadium around 5:00. Keith notes that the bus went over the cliff at 7:03, but Terrence can’t remember what he was doing until about 11:00, when he heard about the crash on the news. Keith finds this suspicious until Terrence asks him where he was at 7:03 that day.
At Neptune High, a student named Marlena finds a flyer on her locker containing a poem she wrote about Madison. Ryan (see “Ahoy Mateys”) pulls Veronica aside and tells her that Corny was only one of five pizza boys recently mugged. Ryan was another, and his wallet, which was stolen, contained a list of students at Neptune High who are gay but not out. The list also contained usernames and passwords for a confidential website, and the info on it is now getting out. Marlena was outed because she couldn’t pay the mugger the $5,000 he requested to stay quiet. Ryan asks Veronica to find out who is behind the muggings. Later, Veronica visits Corny at work and he and Ryan reveal that the orders placed to get the mugged pizza boys to deliver were fake ones. Veronica requests a list of the names and addresses the mugger used. At Neptune High, Hannah sells spirit stuff to Dick and Logan, who acts like he’s never met her before. In the restroom, Veronica is approached by a cheerleader named Kylie who outs herself and shows her her blackmail note. Veronica tells her to respond to it, asking for another 24 hours to come up with the money, and let her worry about the money and the drop-off.
At Mars Investigations, Veronica learns that Keith is helping Terrence out, despite the fact that he’s been accused of murder. She wonders if Keith isn’t thinking clearly because he idolizes Terrence. She notes that if Terrence is guilty, the bus did crash because of her. Keith thinks that she would be happy because he’s helping her friend’s father, but Veronica notes that she and Jackie aren’t that close. She confirms that she wants to help and she trusts Keith’s instincts about Terrence. Later, after Terrence has dropped by, Veronica gets the name of a car detail guy, Hank, who saw Terrence the day of the crash. Terrence tells Keith that he calls Hank whenever he goes to the Seven Rivers Casino, which means he was there that day. Keith thinks this is good because he’ll be able to get Terrence on surveillance footage, but Terrence doesn’t think Leonard Lobo, the guy who runs the casino, will be helpful. Terrence owes him a lot of money and has Fitzpatricks on his payroll. At Neptune High, Kylie reports on the pizza boy muggings on the news, noting that the mugger has now targeted Kelly. She proceeds to come out, adding that Marlena is her girlfriend and the mugger won’t be able to get money from them now.
Dick and a friend are accepting of Kylie and Marlena’s sexuality because it means they get to watch two girls together. He mocks Veronica for being “rich-dude kryptonite” because of everything that’s happened to Duncan and Logan. Veronica encounters Carmen (see “M.A.D.”), as the mugger used her name for a fake call, and asks her what she has common with the other students whose names were used. Carmen notes that they’re all “coconuts,” Hispanic students who date white people and get good grades. Veronica asks her to make a list of all of the students who have been made fun of for that. Later, Veronica runs into Kelly and asks for more details on his mugging. Kelly isn’t forthcoming. Logan heads to Hannah’s house and she lets him know that she’s upset with him for ignoring him at school. He tells her that he wants to protect her, since his first girlfriend was murdered and his last girlfriend was almost shot in his car. Later, Griffith finds them together and doesn’t seem happy. He catches Logan on his way out of the bathroom and tells him to leave Hannah alone. Logan encourages him to rethink what he saw on the bridge the night Felix was killed. He also guesses that Griffith hasn’t told Hannah about his connection to the case.
Keith heads to the casino, where Lobo tells him that he doesn’t care what happens to Terrence. Keith points out that Terrence won’t be able to pay back the money he owes if he’s in jail. Lobo agrees to look at the surveillance tapes from the day of the crash, then gives Keith a couple of bucks to gamble with. After Logan leaves, Griffith tells Hannah that he needs to talk to her. Back at the casino, Keith struggles to give up the money Lobo gave him. (He busts anyway.) Veronica hangs out with Corny at work, heading out with him when he gets a call from one of the names on Carmen’s list. Lobo’s surveillance photos show Terrence at the casino at 7:01 and 7:06, but there’s no photo of him at 7:03. As Keith is leaving, he learns that all cell phone signals are jammed within a hundred-yard radius around the casino, so Terrence couldn’t have placed a call and detonated the bomb on the bus. On his pizza run, Corny is almost attacked but Veronica and Backup stop his assailant from getting too far. The attacker turns out not to be the blackmailer, but a kid named Arturo who’s trying to prove himself to the reassembling bikers. Just for the heck of it, Veronica tapes Arturo to a street sign and attaches a confession to him.
At Neptune High, Veronica asks Mac to get her access to the gay students’ website, learning that Mac herself set up the site for them. She agrees to print out the message board and users so Veronica can figure out who’s blackmailing them. Veronica then asks the basketball coach if she can ride to an away game with the team. He won’t let her, but Jackie overhears and offers her a ride, which she accepts. Ryan catches Veronica with the list and tells her that there’s been another blackmail letter. However, he won’t tell Veronica who’s being targeted this time. Logan gets Hannah out of class and she lets him know that Griffith told her that Logan killed Felix. Logan says that Griffith is lying and wasn’t even there. He adds that when he met Hannah at the carnival, he didn’t know who she was. Logan then says that Griffith is a coke user and only testified because he owes the Fitzpatricks money. Hannah doesn’t believe him so he tells her to look around the house and see for herself. At Mars Investigations, Keith shares the news with Terrence that he can prove he didn’t have anything to do with the bus crash. Terrence notes that he also has proof he was in a meeting with Lobo, who he wasn’t supposed to be in contact with as a baseball player. Keith promises to make sure the photos don’t get out.
At school, Veronica catches up to Kelly and reveals that she’s figured out wasn’t really mugged, as his license plates are similar to a username on the students’ site. Kelly says that he wanted to make sure he wasn’t outed. He shows her his blackmail letter (from “Rick Santorum”) and reports that the money is to be mailed to a provided address. At home, Hannah looks around the house, finding coke in a Band-Aid box in the bathroom. At Mars Investigations, Veronica tells Ryan that Kelly’s blackmail payment is tagged and at the post office, waiting to be picked up. It starts moving and Veronica and Ryan both recognize the address where it has ended up. It belongs to Kylie, who gives Veronica back the tracer she put on the package and explains that she got it because her mother works at the post office. She continues that she wanted to out everyone because she wanted to be able to walk down the hall with Marlena like all of the other couples. She told Marlena not to pay the blackmailer because she wanted her out, too. Logan meets Hannah after class and she tells him that she believes him about Griffith. As they head off together, Mac and Veronica spot them and Mac notes that she’d look like Hannah if her father were a plastic surgeon. Veronica quickly figures out why Logan is with Hannah.
On their way to the basketball game, Jackie and Veronica stop at Woody’s hangar, where Terrence is allowed to keep his collection of expensive cars. Keith and Terrence head to the sheriff’s department and give Lamb Terrence’s alibi. Lamb thinks of a number of loopholes but doesn’t want to put forth the effort to check them out. He’s sure that Terrence is responsible for the crash, but Keith is sure that he won’t press charges, thanks to the recording Veronica made in “Blast from the Past.” On the way home after the basketball game, Jackie thanks Veronica for helping out with Terrence’s case. Back at the hangar, Veronica goes to a closet to get tools to fix the top of the car they drove. There, she spots something shocking. At home, she wakes up Keith and tells him what she saw - explosives and detonators. Despite the fact that the hangar is Woody’s and he told Gia not to get back on the bus (see “Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle”), Keith thinks that his instincts about Terrence were wrong after all.
THE SCHOOL BUS CASE: The evening of the bus crash, Terrence was in a casino that jams all cell phone signals within a hundred-yard radius. Therefore, he couldn’t have made a call to detonate a bomb on the bus.
MEMORABLE QUOTES: Keith: “I’m helping your friend’s dad.”
Veronica: “I work for Ryan, too, now, so if you could just--.”
“Our lives are so similar. The Mars family hangar is a spitting image of this one.” - Veronica to Jackie
Written by Phil Klemmer; directed by Sarah Pia Anderson
Veronica: “Where are you getting your intel? Jackie and I aren’t exactly the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She’s not what you’d call huggable.”
Keith: “Whereas you warm right up to people?”
Mac: “So then why wouldn’t he have let you on it himself?”
Veronica: “Da%$ you and your valid questions.”