Tom is also very sleepy.

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Sleep-deprived Tom is funny.

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Loved it overall.

Loved that Kendall got the money. Sometimes people get away with bad behavior.

Loved that Aaron was killed. Sometimes people don’t get away. Karma bites.

But, didn’t like that Duncan arranged for it - it felt more like a Celeste Kane move to me. But loved that it was Clarence (The “CW” was a total shout out to the new network)

BUT disliked the plane being blown up and all of us mourning Keith before we realized that he wasn’t dead. I felt way too manipulated. But I was surprised how much it hurt and how much I believed it. (Didn’t need the fake airborne explosion – I believed Cassiday when he pushed the button). It felt like a Joss thing – help “graduate” Veronica but stripping away her last “protector”

Mac broke me

Wished I had taped the season, because I bet on rewatching it will be more apparent how messed up Cassidy was. He was bullied and abused. And then trapped by the fear that the other boys were going to “out” him as well as Woody. He would need a lot of support to get through that and, well, he wasn’t going to get that from his parents or brother. So he killed to protect that secret (the bus crash). And then killed again (Curly). Then he got revenge on his dad (I wonder if he called the SEC?). Then he got revenge on Woody (blackmailing him into demolishing the incorporation campaign through personal scandal). He also got revenge on Dick (setting him up with the drag queen hooker).

Amazing that he was so cold and evil on the roof. He decided to kill Veronica and anyone who knew his secret. The collateral damage be damned. He broke only at the end, when Logan called him “Beaver.” It was as if that summed it all up for Cassidy. A great touch from RT because it showed the person we had been seeing all season was still there. It was just that there was this other, colder, person we hadn’t noticed who was there as well.

Cassidy also met Mac. Maybe if they had been together the prior year Cassidy could have handled the “Outing of all Outings” – someone would have been in his life who really cared about him. Maybe not. Maybe the guilt and shame was so great or maybe the fear of Mac finding out would have pushed him to blow up the bus anyway. The ripple effect of Woody’s molestation (not just the STD) and his family’s treatment. I’m not excusing Cassidy; it’s just that he had a lot going against him.

So did Weevil. But he also sowed the seeds of his own destruction. Had he just waited for Veronica, Thumper would have been arrested. Instead, he set Thumper up and is going to be blamed for the murder. (Unless, of course, somehow Veronica gets him out of that.)

Liked how Jackie redeemed herself – at least one selfish person grew up and learned.

Liked the dreams – very revealing. Enjoyed that in the dream Veronica met Wallace.

Think Veronica will mention to anyone that Aaron copped to the murder in the elevator with the all seeing security camera?

Cameras. Not audio.

Betsy, couldn't he be tried for perjury? And if he perjured himself, couldn't they throw out the verdict?

Depending upon the particulars of California law, he could be tried for perjury. Courts arent’ crazy about this because of the potential for abuse. But I know of at least one case where this took place – acquitted murder went to jail because he perjured himself at trial. But no, the verdict cannot be thrown out.

More later .....

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I also loved the principal's comments to Veronica at graduation. I'm so glad he wasn't eaten by a giant snake. I would have liked him to speak up and demand that Weevil be allowed to get his diploma but that's too much to hope for.

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Death isn't comeuppance to me. It's revenge, yeah, but it's not justice. Being tried and convicted, especially Beav, so that the families of the kids on the bus could know who to blame, and see them being punished, that'd be comeuppance.

It is in noir. Keith telegraphed this all nicely, during the teaser. He tells Veronica, "We're people with lives and we will not obsess. We move on. Aaron Echolls will get his justice in his own way."

for one thing, Beaver chose his death. That's not justice, just because he's dead. It's another way out, for him, another way to deny what he did and the responsibility for it.

To me, that's the beauty of it, Amy. It works perfectly within the rules of this 'verse. Beaver was not only villain, he was victim and in fact was villain because he was first victim. He was the victim of Woody, and he had been the victim of his screwed up family, his entire life. He was a monster, because life turned him into one. I think it was appropriate that he took control of his own fate. I also found it powerful that Logan still couldn't offer any reason not to jump.

Wished I had taped the season, because I bet on rewatching it will be more apparent how messed up Cassidy was. He was bullied and abused.

I think I read that the DVDs are coming out something like August 22nd.

Good summary, Narrator. I'm with you on just about everything.

My mind is blown and I am exhausted. Need more coffee.

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I also loved the principal's comments to Veronica at graduation. I'm so glad he wasn't eaten by a giant snake. I would have liked him to speak up and demand that Weevil be allowed to get his diploma but that's too much to hope for.

Me, too! And yeah.

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Also slightly surprised that Veronica, when raped, wouldn't have gone to the doctor and been tested back then--I mean, sure, once she thought it was Duncan, we can see why she wouldn't, but...when she thought someone skanky and random did it? I'm surprised. (Also that means she had chlamydia for like, a year and a half! Eek!)

Dude, how long did *Cassidy* have chlamydia???

The Mannings offering a reward- made sense. Meg was the only person on the bus that had a family in the position to make such a reward offer.

Oh, duh. I didn't even think about that. Okay, the Mannings get one grudging bit of respect in my book.

Was I the only one who thought Logan was going to pull a Giles/Gunn, and follow up his "you're not a killer" with a "but I am" and shoot Cassidy?

I immediately thought of Gunn shooting Professor Portal, and I totally expected Logan to do it.

It was, I think, a poorly structured season, for all that it seemed like the producers wanted to accomplish. But, although flawed, I applaud the scope and the emotional places some of these stories went to.

I was mostly worried this season would hit bad sophomore slump, and I don't think that it did. I agree that it was poorly structured, but I'm satisfied with it.

I also find it very interesting that now both Weevil and Duncan have basically been responsible for arranging executions.

And it really points out the have/have-not dichotomy of Neptune. Duncan got away with it (as far as we know; maybe it'll come back to bite him in the ass next season) and is loafing on a beach with his daughter. Weevil, on the other hand, didn't even get to walk across the stage to get his diploma. (I was half expecting Principal Clemmons to jump from whatever letter he was on to "Navarro," just so that Weevil could get that diploma, because Clemmons isn't a bad guy -- he's no Snyder.)

And really, I have such a weakness for Weevil despite his criminal tendencies, I really really REALLY want Lamb to have been on the plane and all blown up. He deserves it.

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And really, I have such a weakness for Weevil despite his criminal tendencies

I have an idealized vision of the future where Weevil, having escaped the murder rap, becomes a priest who devotes himself to social justice and plots with Father Fitzpatrick to save underpriviledged children.

I never said that my idealized vision was rational.

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Didn’t need the fake airborne explosion

The whole plane thing bugged. I can't believe that any police force in the country would transport a fugitive back to the jurisdiction that wants him in his own plane. It's be like taking him back in his own car. They'd take him back either in a police car, or via some sort of commercial transportation. The plane should've been impounded.

There was no urgent need to return him to Neptune that quickly. In fact, since they were in Nevada, shouldn't there have been an extradition hearing of some sort?

The explosion was just icing on the cake. What are the odds the plane would be within viewing range of the hotel at that exact moment?

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Am I the only person who was certain, beyond any doubt, that Keith was alive? Maybe I've watched too much 24, but unless they show you the dismembered head, I assume that the character survived. If Keith were going to die, they wouldn't have shown it from miles away; he'd have gotten a proper send off.

That said, I was still affected by KB's performance. She really knocked it out of the park.

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