so, was Mercer in Mexico or doing his show when Parker got raped?

Doing the show... I think that's the first date VM investigated when looking at the logs.

Oooh. OK, now it makes sense in my head. So Mercer had a double-alibi -- in Mexico with Logan when Nancy faked her rape, and allegedly doing the show when Parker got raped.

I thought Veronica realized that Mercer's show was on and taking callers literally moments after speaking to him, and thus his radio show wasn't necessarily an alibi-- but I am a little confused still.

As soon as Mercer walked off to do his show, I knew he was the rapist (before the tape audio glitch tipped off Veronica). I'd always wondered why Veronica was so quick to listen to Piz when he so quickly dismissed the idea that Mercer would have taped a call-in request show, so I've been suspicious, but his alibis were always sort of botched, and that distracted me from judging whether or not they were legit.

What didn't work was more to do with the August 13th/Tijuana alibi. I mean, clearly, the rape reported on that date was one of the faked ones. That resonates well with the charge Veronica levied at Nish, Claire and Fern, last week, but it was still messy, for me.

Why August, first of all? We had no indication that any of our returning characters would have been on campus much before the show premiered, since Piz was moving his stuff in, in episode 3.1, and Veronica was calling it her first day. Yet here we have Logan, a commuting freshman, who just happens to know a returning student -- Mercer -- and knows him well enough to be in Tijuana with him, before he (Logan) even started attending Hearst? Okay, there can be explanations for that. It's not like it's impossible, it's just cheap, imo.

Then, we don't even find out who faked the rape on August 13. Did we? I mean, we're assuming it's Nancy, but did we ever get a name of which woman reported a rape on August 13th? I mean, that's a pretty big ass deal, not only faking a rape, but faking the rape that ended up giving the actual rapist an alibi Veronica Mars would accept, in an episode where her trust was at an all-time low.

I just sort of feel like they decided to give Mercer a fake alibi, without doing the work of constructing one we could scrutinize. It was like ::hand wave hand wave August off screen rape and fake, to boot::

On top of that, having the 11:00pm show/11:45 rape confusion, which I still think must have been a continuity error (otherwise either Veronica, or certainly Lamb should have noticed the time, and not believed the radio gig as an alibi) just left a bland taste in my mouth, even though it was a pretty exciting episode, and arc.

eta...

t ranty pants Who makes a continuity error on the damned timing of the actual culprit's second fake alibi?

Why August, first of all? We had no indication that any of our returning characters would have been on campus much before the show premiered, since Piz was moving his stuff in, in episode 3.1, and Veronica was calling it her first day. Yet here we have Logan, a commuting freshman, who just happens to know a returning student -- Mercer -- and knows him well enough to be in Tijuana with him, before he (Logan) even started attending Hearst?

This bothered me too, but I was unsure at my memory of it being in August.

It's a small thing, but I can actually believe that about Logan and Mercer because the world of rich kids tends to be a small one.

Anyhoo, I'm reading back through older posts, and I'm glad the SPE had consequences (which someone else on TWoP predicted) even though I was oddly certain that it was too obvious to have been Moe at the time.

Then, we don't even find out who faked the rape on August 13. Did we? I mean, we're assuming it's Nancy, but did we ever get a name of which woman reported a rape on August 13th?

Er, yes. It was Nancy, the woman in the premiere yelling at the TBTN rally. There were five rapes/"rapes": Dawn, Stacy, Nancy, Parker, Claire. You can tell this because when they protest in front of the Pi Sigs, they number the victims on their posters. Veronica checked the dates for Stacy, Nancy, and Parker. Nancy was August 13, the Mexico alibi, and thus had to be faked.

I just sort of feel like they decided to give Mercer a fake alibi, without doing the work of constructing one we could scrutinize.

I disagree, as his alibi has been scrutinized multiple times and held up, despite suspicions. I love the layers of his fake alibi. I love that he was both arrested and cleared. I love that I said, "So we know Mercer's not the rapist, right?" when all the fingers were pointing to him so early.

Is GHB illegal? Ownership of it, I mean? Mercer had all that GHB when Lamb held him, but whatever happened with that? Does GHB have any legitimate uses? Shouldn't there have been charges against him for that reason alone?

I think they could have made more of Mercer's Mexican alibi. Since none of the girls who were raped knew who the culprit was, faking a rape was really dangerous -- the one suspect with the most evidence against him was cleared because his alibi proved that he wasn't responsible for one of the rapes. Of course, that was a rape that never happened. I would have liked (or would still like) the women responsible for the faking idea to understand how much harder they made it to actually catch Mercer (and, um, Moe).

I would have liked (or would still like) the women responsible for the faking idea to understand how much harder they made it to actually catch Mercer (and, um, Moe).

Oh, yeah. I don't think there was enough time to address that in the finale, although I do hope Veronica yells at them some more about that.

Is it general knowledge that those rapes were faked? If not - will that come out before the trial? Or will Mercer's defense attornery want to use those rapes as a reason to show that he isn't the serial rapist because he didn't commit all the rapes?

although I do hope Veronica yells at them some more about that.

I could see that subplot coming up again since they will probably be a suspect in the murder. Another prediction: Weevil will be arrested in the cold open.