"Hi, Infidelity" is episode 6 of season 3. It had an estimated audience of 2.87 million viewers.
Plot
Things are starting to go Veronica's way. With Veronica's help, Dean O'Dell was able to expose Claire's rape as a fake. In Veronica's Criminology class, her paper received the only A and her professor offers to sponsor her. While contemplating her professor's offer, Veronica gets called into her TA's office. He accuses her of plagiarism. Veronica's professor gives her three days to prove that her paper was not plagiarized.
Elsewhere, Wallace is in some trouble of his own after being caught cheating on his mechanical engineering test. Dean O'Dell decides to go easy on Wallace because he is an athlete. Wallace agrees to take a zero on the exam and is offered an opportunity to drop out of the class after the drop date. Wallace mulls over his options and decides to keep the class because mechanical engineering is what he wants to do with his life. Balancing basketball and class proves to be difficult for Wallace and he has to make a choice between the two. He chooses to sit out basketball, where he had a chance to be a starter, and concentrate on his studies.
Piz tries to get Veronica to come to a social event with him and 'the gang'. Unbeknownst to her, 'the gang' consists of Wallace, who doesn't go because he wants to study, and so the evening consists of just Piz, Veronica, Logan, and a dismal Parker. Parker gets onto a winning streak and admits that she's finally having fun, and even that she has an interest in Piz - who, the next day, admits to Veronica that he isn't interested in Parker. Nonetheless Parker insists on stopping by to see Piz record his radio show, along with Veronica, where the three have a brief encounter with Mercer, the student running the casino. Parker tells Veronica that she recognizes Mercer's cologne - from the night of her rape. Veronica searches Mercer's room and finds an electric razor, hidden in his drawer. Veronica takes the information to Sheriff Lamb, who reveals that the Sheriff's Department recovered the cashbox stolen from Mercer's casino (in President Evil), and that they found empty vials of GHB, the drug used in the rapes.
Keith has been socially seeing Harmony, professing to Veronica that they are only good friends and honestly believing it. But one evening when they're having drinks at the Neptune Grand Harmony non-so-subtly asks Keith if he'd like to get a room. She says that she doesn't want to lie on her deathbed and regret what might have been. Keith replies that he doesn't want to regret doing something stupid and leaves. Driving home, he's involved in a car accident when pickup truck smashes into him in an intersection. Both Keith and the other driver are fine, but Keith, having had a near-death experience, has found a new take on regret, and goes back to Harmony's room where they kiss and tear each other's clothes off.
Meanwhile, Veronica follows the trail of clues to a Rory Finch who posted her paper online from the Neptune Grand. Using a contact of Logan, Veronica finds out Rory Finch's hotel room and goes up to meet him. To her surprise, Dean O'Dell's wife opens the door, wearing a robe. Veronica apologizes and heads back toward the elevator. On the way there, she comes across her professor who had been getting off the elevator. After having a brief conversation with him, she calls out "Rory Finch" to which her professor responds.
Veronica heads to her TA's office and tells him she knows who posted the paper online. The TA did. When she asks him why, the TA explains to her, hypothetically speaking, that if he did post her paper, he would have done it to lead Veronica to discover the type of person her professor really is: the type of person that would sleep with the Dean's wife. About to leave, Veronica sees the TA's back wall: covered with news articles, pictures, maps, and charts all pertaining to the Hearst rapes. The TA tells Veronica that no forensic evidence of the perpetrators was left at the scenes, and the audience realizes that the TA has been investigating the rapes as well.
In the food court on-campus Veronica eats with Dean O'Dell, but refrains from telling him about his wife. Logan interrupts to tell Veronica that Mercer has been arrested by Lamb, but is innocent: he was with Logan, doing something that Logan refuses to talk about.
Arc significance
- It was revealed that Claire wasn't raped. The Asian boy in the ATM photo was her boyfriend, and she faked her rape.
- No hair or DNA from the rapist has ever been found at the crime scenes.
- Parker recognizes Mercer's cologne as that of the rapist.
- Veronica finds clippers in Mercer's room which leads to his arrest.
- Sheriff Lamb said that 2 vials of the date rape drug GHB, the same used in at least two of the campus rapes, were found in Mercer's stolen cash box from his illegal casino
- Logan tells Veronica that Mercer couldn't be the rapist because he was with him at the time of one of the rapes.
- Wallace chooses to sit out of basketball for the semester to concentrate on his mechanical engineering class.
- Veronica discovers Hank Landry is having an affair with the Dean O'Dell's wife.
Music
- "Say About Me" - Tamar Berk
- "Prince of Wands" - Douglas Armour
- "I'm Not in Love" - 10cc
Feedback and ratings
- "Hi, Infidelity" had a viewership of approximately 2.87 million viewers, according to Zap2It.
Quotes and trivia
- The title Hi, Infidelity is a reference to the book High Fidelity by British author Nick Hornby, and later a film starring John Cusack. It also refers to the extramarital affair Harmony has with Keith Mars and Hank Landry with the Dean O'Dell's wife.
- At the bowling alley, there was a sign that read "Wednesday: THE BIG LEBOWLSKI." This is the sixth reference to The Big Lebowski in Veronica Mars.
External links
- MI.net's Roundtable Review.
- Soulful Spike Society's Open Case.
- Television Without Pity Recap.