Toss Up: Lost vs Veronica Mars week 12

Last night we had two highly anticipated episodes of Lost and Veronica Mars, which one lived up to the hype more than the other, well let’s just go to the Toss Up to see which one come out on top:

Fox Sitcom
Lost: Married... with Children, with Peggy Bundy, ran for decades before it wasn’t renewed without warning.
Veronica Mars: Arrested Development, with George Michael and Maeby, ran for three season of time slot moves and reduced episodes until, well, I guess it hasn’t technically been canceled yet.
Winner: Veronica Mars

Episode Title
Lost: Lockdown (click to dowload it)
Veronica Mars: The Raps of Graff
Winner: Veronica Mars

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Lost: Peggy tosses Locke aside when he chose his father over her.
Veronica Mars: Madison tosses Dick aside when she chose a more mature mate.
Winner: Lost

Hair
Lost: Locke has some in his flashbacks.
Veronica Mars: Maeby has about the same about.
Winner: Lost

Trustworthy?
Lost: Henry Gale
Veronica Mars - Troy Vandergraff
Winner: Veronica Mars

Male Dominance
Lost: Jack schools Sawyer in poker.
Veronica Mars: Dick schools Logan in Mortal Combat.
Winner: Lost

Lies
Lost: Henry Gale says he’s Henry Gale.
Veronica Mars: Veronica shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.
Winner: Veronica Mars

Ouch
Lost: Locke gets impaled by the hatch.
Veronica Mars: Troy gets punched trying to defend Veronica’s honor.
Winner: Lost

Welcome Back
Lost: Peggy Bundy
Veronica Mars: Troy Vandergraff
Winner: Veronica Mars

Did You See?
Lost: Walt was found on My Name Is Earl (ha-ha, he called Earl a butt-wad).
Veronica Mars: The helicopter in the building.
Winner: Veronica Mars

It’s Legal
Lost: Off-shore gambling with fruit.
Veronica Mars: Madison Sinclair.
Winner: Veronica Mars

Lived Up to the Hype
Lost: Said there were five can’t miss moments, let me count the ways; finding the balloon, the lockdown, Locke getting impaled, Peggy showing up at the motel, Henry Gale is black, and dead.
Veronica Mars: Rob Thomas said it was up there, but not as good, as A Trip to the Dentist. Five most see moments; Veronica pulling her hair in front of her face, Johnny Cash references, Veronica debating her worth, Cliff in handcuffs, “18-It's Legal; Re-Elect Don Lamb,” Veronica giving a different type of shocker to frat boy, “Dad, you’re hooker’s here, and of course anything with Dick.
Winner: Veronica Mars


Finally, of weeks of sluggish episodes Lost has it’s first episode to live up to the hype, even though any Locke-centric episode that doesn’t tell us why he was in the wheelchair is by definition disappointing. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought he was going to be paralyzed when the dudes who were looking for daddy shoot him. But by the end of the episode, Locke was still standing. But the big news of the flashback was Locke had yet another job. By my track you can add housing inspector to toy store and box company employee.

Back on the island, even though the trio found the balloon, I was convinced that Henry was still an Other, which turned out to be true. But something should be said that the Others gave the dude a proper burial even with a cross. It’s looks as if the group already accused not Henry of murder, but I’m not entirely sure. But not Henry didn’t run when he had the chance, but that may be because he didn’t expect Sayid to did up his not wife. Plus he also now has Locke’s word which will obviously come back to hurt Locke in the end.

Then there was the lockdown that came right before the voice of God, sounding like every drive thru speaker I’ve ever been to. The only thing I could decipher was “Leave the hatch now” followed by a countdown. I’m sure some uber-nerd has already figured out the whole warning by now, but I haven’t the time to search again. Then in a try to get out, Locke gets pinned under the door, symbolically crushing his legs. But with the clock running down he gets not Henry to crawl threw the vents to punch in the numbers, which not Henry seemed to memorize quite quickly as if he already knew them. This does beg the question, why didn’t Locke first try to crawl threw the vents first? Wouldn’t that have been easier than trying to lift those doors? But it did give Locke a chance to see the blacklight image, which again I’m sure some uber-nerd has translated by now, while not Henry punched in the numbers, or so he says. And it’s safe to say that the lockdown has something to do with the food that magically appeared outside the hatch.

But it was Veronica Mars that outshined allcomers last night. It totally lived up to Rob’s hype, although I may put the first episode of this season above this one too as of now. It really seemed as if all the actors tonight brought their A game and seemed to walk with a swagger. I loved how the show started off with Wallace and Veronica and she tries to get out of her college visit by pulling her hair across her face. Kristen Bell hasn’t been cuter since Emmy Idol. Of course she goes basically to get out of class for a couple days (who has a three day campus visit anyways). There she runs into Troy Vandergraff, her first bad boy boyfriend, long before Logan. The following conversation was great, drudging up everything bad in their past.

Also on campus we get George Michael, still in geeky George Michael mode except he shot a man in Reno, but it wasn’t to watch him die. Maeby on the other hand take a surprising dramatic turn as rape victim. I’m not sure I was ready to see her in that light just yet. This gets me wondering, as it’s pretty obvious that Veronica will be joining Wallace at Hearst next year, will we see more of George Michael and Maeby, or even Troy, in season three? And as Rob Thomas said at the Blogger’s Press Day, the observant viewer will see the seeds of season three’s mystery later in this season, I wonder if Veronica battling with the frat boys will be involved. I believe they never did find out who exactly was the rapist, just that it wasn’t Troy. Speaking of harebrain theories, I hope everyone noticed Veronica wondered if the bus crash and Felix’s murder were connected when she saw Danny Boyd at the construction site.

But there was much off-campus events in this episode too highlighted by “18-It's Legal; Re-Elect Don Lamb” flyer. May I also point out even Lamb would hook up with Madison Sinclair. But this all came about because Cliff got fooled by a hooker who stole his caseload, including his Logan information, and handcuffed him to the bedpost. And speaking of Logan, after spending a day with Dick, he quickly realizes that not what he wants his life to be, sending him back into the arms of Hannah, even though he had an agreement with pappa to stay away from her. And then she was promptly shipped off to Vermont. Oh Hanna, we hardly knew ya. But this is Veronica Mars, so don’t rule out her staying there, because I’d personally like to see more of her.

And the cool thing about the Blogger Press Day is seeing things that other people wouldn’t even think about like the helicopter in the building in the background during the break up scene of Logan and Hannah while they were walking to the parking lot. Not convinced that what I’m talking about is true, click on the picture at right to see the building in question better. Next to where Veronica Mars shoots, there is a place where the military trains troops in urban warfare in Iraq. Who knew Baghdad was a suburb of Neptune?

Next week, we finally get more of Hurley. Will Libby show up like I theorized earlier? What we do know is that Hurley will see a person from his past ala Jack with his father last season. While on Veronica Mars, someone wins a day with Woody Goodman which includes being able to blow up the former Sharks stadium, possible destroying evidence in the process. I get that sense. Oh and look out for another America’s Next Top Model cameo. Yippee.