TVSquad

After catching the latest episode of Veronica Mars this past Tuesday, I was sort-of left feeling empty about how things ended. It just seemed that there were some key elements I've been used to seeing in the previous big mysteries solved, something that made me think "ah ha!" when looking back at previous evidence. After reading comments last week from some observant commenters, it all becomes clear now ... and it's pretty damn cool.

In an odd bit of network news, The CW nixed a lesbian kiss planned between Veronica Mars guest-star Patty Hearst and actress Keri Pratt. Hearst, playing a trustee to the fictional Hearst College on Tuesday night's Mars episode, didn't get to lock lips with her lady love due to an intervention on the part of the suits. Reporting to the New York Daily News, Hearst said, "I meet Keri and I'm like, 'Hello.' We didn't know until we were on the set we couldn't actually kiss. We were all set for that."

This is just weird. Didn't The CW get the memo that lesbians kissing in primetime are hot? It's gay men kissing that are supposed to get the patriarchy all nervous. I guess when they figured out that it was the 52 year-old, Symbionese Liberation Army kidnap victim Hearst getting down Sappho-style and not uber-hot Kristin Bell they freaked. It just doesn't have the same sweeps promo potential as "Veronica macks on Mac."

(S03E08) We've known about this episode for quite some time now -- the Patty Hearst episode. Thankfully she didn't really have a whole lot of air time, because she's not an actress and, well, it showed. I mean, she wasn't horrible, just not great.

Speaking of Patty Hearst (I mean, Selma Rose), there was one mini-mystery I didn't much care for other than two details from it:

Remember the days when alternative music and indie movies were actually alternative and independent? When I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s, you got beat up for liking Hal Hartley movies, listening to bands from Athens and thinking Crispin Glover was the best part of Back to the Future. Members of Generation X that had taken a liking to punk rock or arty movies had to wait until college to find like-minded folks. This may, of course, be my romanticizing memory at work, but if your glory days were anything like mine, than The Adventures of Pete & Pete was your show.

The Nickelodeon show started out as a series of shorts and developed into a show which ran for three seasons between 1993 and 1996. The show's eccentric cast of characters included two brothers named Pete, their mom, the metal plate inside mom's head, dad, the eldest Pete's best friend Ellen, Artie the strongest man in the world and little Pete's tattoo Petunia. The show followed the kids' adventures in the suburban town of Wellsville.

The most famous kidnapping victim ever will appear on, and then disappear from, Veronica Mars. Heiress Patty Hearst will play the granddaughter of the founder of Hearst College (the fictional university on the show). Patty's character, a member of the Board of Trustees, will mysteriously disappear the night before a big vote regarding the university's future. The episode airs during ratings, November 21. Hearst has made a number of guest appearances on shows such as Frasier, Boston Common, and Son of the Beach.

Eh. I like Veronica Mars, but if they're really scrambling for ratings, I don't think the power of Patty Hearst is going to help them much. I'm more excited about Ed Begley, Jr.