Toss Up: Lost vs Veronica Mars week 9

For the first time since early December, Lost went head to head with Veronica Mars with new episodes. Who had the better one? Let’s play a little game I like to call Toss Up. (Picture to the right is courtesy of UPN/Warner. Used by permission)

Best Breakup
Lost – Claire kicks Charlie to the curb, and then slaps him when he tries to get back together.
Veronica Mars – Veronica and Duncan have a very public breakup with a lot of mud slinging only for it to be a whole set up.
Winner – Veronica Mars


Best Middle School Flashback
Lost – The cool kid tries to get the fat kid to ask out the hot chick.
Veronica Mars – Veronica puts on some horribly depressing music post break-up including How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? By Al Green from The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack.
Winner – Lost


Best Lie
Lost – Libby tells Hurley that he stepped on her foot when he boarded the plane yet she was supposedly in the back of the plane while he was in the middle.
Veronica Mars – Veronica fools everyone into thinking she’s not in cahoots with Duncan.
Winner – Veronica Mars


Best Baby Namesake
Lost – Charlie’s sister-in-law named his niece after his mother even though the father didn’t bother to show up.
Veronica Mars – Duncan names his daughter after his sister.
Winner – Veronica Mars


Good to See Again
Lost – Liam
Veronica Mars – Vinnie Van Lowe, Cliff, Sean, and Xena the Warrior Princess
Winner – Veronica Mars


Best Line(s)
Lost – Anna Lucia, “You hitting that?”
Veronica Mars – Dick, “He told me to go have sexual intercourse with myself.” Logan, “Doesn’t he know if you could do that you’d never leave the house?” Dick, “You know it.”


MIA
Lost – Michael’s still in the jungle.
Veronica Mars – Jackie hasn’t been seen since Homecoming. Plus no Beaver.
Winner - Lost


Worst Song
Lost – Charlie writes a song that in no way could get his band back on the charts.
Veronica Mars – While moping around Veronica listens to Paula Cole’s I Don’t Want to Wait (and didn’t make a Dawson's Creek joke) and The Hollies’ Air That I Breathe (to be honest, I do have this on my iPod).
Winner - Lost


Pep Talk
Lost – Sawyer tries to help Hurley out on how to hook up with Libby.
Veronica Mars – Dick tries help Veronica forget about Duncan by explaining why Duncan would hook up with Kendall in graphic detail.
Winner – Veronica Mars


4 8 15 16 23 42
Lost – Were nowhere to be found.
Veronica Mars – Were on the fortune cookie Duncan gave to Veronica in the season premiere with the words “True love stories never have endings.”
Winner – Veronica Mars


Worth the Wait
Lost – Comes back after a hiatus with a decent episode, a good one, and an absolutely boring one.
Veronica Mars – Comes back after a hiatus with one of the best hours this year on television.
Winner – Veronica Mars


This week’s toss up was no contest as Veronica Mars had one of the best episodes this year whereas Lost was one of the worst hours of television I’ve seen this year. I would rather watch an hour of Emily’s Reasons Why Not and Courting Alex than to see Fire+Water ever again.

Lost had a Charlie-centric episode but his flashbacks/dream sequences didn’t do much to help the storyline. I guess they were trying to convey that he has abandonment issues and doesn’t want to lose his new family (Claire and Aaron) like he did his real one. But much like Jack the episode before, they made him out to be such a tool that I really don’t feel sorry for him. Even Locke became more unlikeable and for some reason is keeping all the Virgin Mary’s around. ThenThrow in some weird piano and religious metaphors and you totally lose me. There are very few things more annoying than dream sequences.

The non Charlie segments were somewhat better with an exchange between Hurley and Libby that totally change my crack pot theory about the mysterious tailie. Last Week (See Toss Up… ) I theorized that she is whom Jack wife left him for. But when Hurley asked her if they had met before and she gave the obviously improbable lie I’m thinking that she worked at nut house where Hurley was at because she did mention that she was a psychologist. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is aware of the numbers too and was working with Leonard.

Then there was Veronica Mars who packed in more excitement before its theme song than Lost had all episode. The show starts off with a very public breakup followed by a great montage of depressed Veronica (personally I would have thrown on a little Anna Begins in this situation, but anyways). But this was all a part of a great plan Veronica and Duncan devised to get his baby from the Mannings. I have to admit I was completely fooled and didn’t suspect anything that grand until Veronica looked behind her when she was about to go into her apartment only to go next door.

There were a few things that bugged me with the whole plan though. First when Veronica brought Vinnie in, presumably in the “private” letter meant for Duncan, Vinnie’s the type a person whom would have turned around and seen if Celeste would have upped the offer. Also why would Celeste’s personal assistant, who she was putting through grad school, participate in all of this? Then there is the sequencing where Vinnie and the chick make the fake phone call in Big Bear, drive back to Neptune to pick up baby Lily, and drive to Mexico to use Veronica’s ATM all in the time allotted by the other thing that happened. But since the episode as a whole was great, it’s easy to overlook the holes.

Elsewhere in Neptune, Wallace has come back and he says it was to play basketball. But it turned out that was a lie and he was really getting away from being apart of a hit and run back in Chicago. Again a big plot hole in that most schools don’t people who transferred in the middle of the year play sports and Wallace was able to do it and then was able to transfer during the season to get back on the Pirate squad. I can’t imagine that the California and Illinois High School Association rules are that lax.

Then there was a small advancement of the Felix murder as Logan and Weevil continue to look for the real killer. The only real news here was that Felix was hooking up with one of the lady Fitzpatrick’s. But this whole storyline were enhanced by the involvement of Dick who is currently neck in neck with Barney from How I Met our Mother for the best character on television. Dick wasn’t the only one to get off some one-liners as Xena as an FBI agent had some great lines at the expense of Sheriff Lamb my favorite was when Lamb expressed interest in joining the FBI.

Next week Lost is already back to repeats while Veronica seems to be helping out Wallace in the little hit and run incident. For more on Veronica Mars, here is the official press release From UPN:


A DETERMINED VERONICA HELPS WALLACE CLEAR HIS NAME WHEN TROUBLE FOLLOWS HIM FROM CHICAGO, ON "VERONICA MARS," WEDNESDAY, FEB. 1 ON UPN

Jeffery Sams ("Soul Food") Returns as Baseball Legend Terrence Cook

"Rashard and Wallace Go To White Castle" -- Wallace is forced to turn to Veronica for help when a star player from his former Chicago high-school basketball team and his shady uncle falsely name Wallace as the driver in a tragic hit-and-run accident, on VERONICA MARS, Wednesday, Feb. 1 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on UPN. John Kretchmer directed the episode from a script written by John Enbom.

Meanwhile, Veronica and Keith stumble on evidence that links Jackie's dad Terrance Cook (guest star Jeffery Sams) with the teacher that died in the bus crash. Later, looking for solid proof that would tie his gang with the Fighting Fitzpatricks mob, Weevil asks Veronica to bug Father Patrick Fitzpatrick's confessional at the local church.