Boy, am I chatty tonight.

The Dean is the rapist.

He's resisted the feminists increased security demands.

He's around the campus at odd hours.

It's established he eats in the food court.

He's got romantic dysfunction at home (ie, his wife is sleeping with the crim prof.) and sexual dysfunction is a BIG tell in Thomas-land.

Consider my bets placed.

I'm with victor. Plus, Veronica has become somewhat sympathetic toward him.

I'm with victor. Plus, Veronica has become somewhat sympathetic toward him.

Always a bad sign.

TCG said he saw one of the rape victims sitting next to Veronica in the cafteria. I don't know if that means anything or not. I keep coming back to the line last week about how there was no hair or semen evidence on any of the rapes. Given how extremely unlikely that is, I'm not sure that there was any rapes, perhaps just the drugging and shaving, which would also explain shaving Veronica first. Which means I am not ruling out women as suspects.

I can't get behind the dean as the rapist. I *could* see him covering something up or ignoring something, but the actual rapist? With the head shaving and all of that? It doesn't feel right to me. The vibe I get from him is burned out, bored, selfish, and not really emotionally involved with anyone too heavily -- his wife and kids included.

I don't get weird compulsions or unchecked rage in him at all -- and if the rapes are indeed rapes, the head shaving part of it elevates to a much creepier level. Like, the kind of level where the rapist would eventually turn to killing his victims.

I was assuming the cutter and the roofie-er were the same person, but it could be a team, definitely

I read this and thought, "yes! we know it's two people from the picture of Jac--- oh yeah. this isn't that fic i was reading the other day." this is why you shouldn't read fic for a show currently on air. canon gets jumbled.

The vibe I get from him is burned out, bored, selfish, and not really emotionally involved with anyone too heavily -- his wife and kids included

See, that's why I'm looking at him. I'm afraid I missed the episode where he kidnapped his stepson's father, but we keep learning odd things about him: the weird detachment ... His wife's adultery ... the fact that he hides from his domestic life in his office at night ... the allegation that he's run up gambling debts. There's a sense that he's really a wreck of a man. Would that express itself like this? Well, it's the sort of character flaws that Rob Thomas has imbued his other villains with.

I also keep thinking Occam's Razor being mentioned tonight was important and how it was wrong in tonight's mystery.

I also keep thinking Occam's Razor being mentioned tonight was important and how it was wrong in tonight's mystery.

I think that a lot of that had to do with what Veronica learned tonight -- that her first instinct is often to believe the simplest explanation, and that the simplest explanation usually involves someone lying, cheating, betraying, exhibiting base human impulses. Of course, humans aren't always that simple.

I think it may have to do with the rape issue, too. To me, the simple explanation would be that a psycho is serially raping girls on campus. That's why I think it's either a) not really rape, but some kind of bizarre statement (or possibly something with a reward attached), or b) not one lone rapist.

Who would benefit from the idea of rapes, and the suspicion and unrest on campus?

There's a sense that he's really a wreck of a man.

I think so, too. I think he's just a kind of blah, enervated wreck instead of a ticking time bomb. But I could be wrong -- RT has certainly surprised me before.

Edited to clarify.