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I've never been on this side of things before. Usually I'm the one rolling my eyes at or clicking away quickly from the few dissenters. It's lonely over here.

But honestly, it's the rape retcon. If it weren't for that, I'd have been on board, I think. I was on board. I've wanted Beaver to have something to do with it all season, though in the beginning I only thought he'd lead us there; it wasn't until recently that I figured it would have to be him. And I was thoroughly enjoying the episode all the way up until Veronica said those fateful words for the second time.

It's just, the whole thing didn't blow me away, instead all it did was remind of how lackluster the season was overall, how disappointing it was. And I can't get over how much I used to love A Trip to the Dentist, which now means nothing. Absolutely nothing. Everything that was good about that episode is just gone. And I'm pissed that the writer's backed themselves into a corner with the whole Duncan thing, so they figured retconning the rape was the only way to make things work next year. It's just bad storytelling. And it's exasperating that the writers could set up so many awesome themes and not follow through on anything. Bad. Storytelling. And because of that one thing, I couldn't forgive all the other minor squabbles I had, which I totally would have overlooked otherwise. (Like what? Like, oh, the pointlessness of Aaron getting off if we still don't get much emotional ANYTHING out of these people. Among other things.)

And okay, the thing is, too, the acting was awesome all the way around. All the way around. (I'm even including the Donut in this, you guys. All the way around.) And it pisses me off more that one thing can color so completely my feelings for the episode. Because I could have absolutely adored the scenes with Logan and Veronica (and even feeling as angry as I did as it was happening, I still melted just a little when he wrapped her up in his arms like that), and Mac could have broken my heart, and Keith's face when he realizes Veronica spent the whole night thinking he was dead--all of it would have absolutely been wonderful. But, I just don't get it. Why turn Beaver into an all out sociopath, when he could just be a crazy guy with a fucked up life who took it out on innocent people? Wouldn't he have made a fantastic mirror for Logan? I guess he still does, but it just doesn't carry the same weight in my mind. He could have still been waving the gun around and frightening Veronica, he could have still been tackled by Logan, and he could have still killed himself--but I'd have cared. How much better would it have been if we actually sympathized with the killer? And it's not like they would have had to fuck so royally with canon to make that happen. A lot of people liked him as it was, it really wouldn't have been hard to make the reveal hurt.

And you know, it does bother me a little that our title character keeps needing someone to swoop in and save her at moments like these. I mean, yes, call someone to come help you, obviously, but does the big strong man really have to save the day every time? I don't know, it just irks me. I miss Buffy. The girl, not the show. :p

At least there was Lilly. I may go back and just rewatch Lilly over and over again. I really liked the dream sequence. I find it amusing, reading reactions, that all these people who loved the episode hated the dream, and well, yeah. I loved it. So nyeh. Minority opinions, woooo!

That's all for now, I guess. Maybe I'll rewatch and then change my mind? Maybe? :p

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I'm willing to take the ATttD retcon for two reasons.

1. we have to. :P
2. Hey, it'll give V more angst next year when they inevitably deal with the Hearst rapist.

But yeah, it wasnt the best storytelling.

Yeah, I know. It's sad, Laura! I want to be squealing and fangirling with everyone else, and I just can't. I don't like it over here. I want to love my show! :p

I completely agree with your fourth paragraph. I still don't think Beaver was a villain. He was a disturbed kid. But it just felt like too much. In 5 minutes, they managed to blame everything on him. I'm surprised they didn't find ways to fit the shotgun and whatever else in the list. If his main motive is being a disturbed kid, it would have helped to make him less of an evil genius. It kinda sucks.

I can see why they had to retcon the rape now, for next season, but they wouldn't have to do it if the first half of the season hadn't been so screwed.

I don't know, I can't say how I felt about this episode. I didn't hate it at all, I didn't love it either, but I'm not feeling meh. It's very confusing.

I still don't think Beaver was a villain. He was a disturbed kid. But it just felt like too much. In 5 minutes, they managed to blame everything on him. I'm surprised they didn't find ways to fit the shotgun and whatever else in the list. If his main motive is being a disturbed kid, it would have helped to make him less of an evil genius.

Exactly. Exactly. Make him disturbed or evil, but both just doesn't work. And disturbed is so much more interesting. And they'd laid it all out that way, you know? I was all ready to accept something just completely snapping in his brain, something to do with the class war over the summer, something that harkened back to Beaver's being the face of truth during the whole setting a pool on fire thing. And then the molestation and the bad childhood and he'd just had it and boom, dead bus kids. Why was that not the obvious choice to make? It really sucks.

I can see why they had to retcon the rape now, for next season, but they wouldn't have to do it if the first half of the season hadn't been so screwed.

Oh, yeah, I get the reasoning behind it, and that might just be what pisses me off the most. If they'd just dealt with it the first time around, they wouldn't have had to retcon. And they'll never admit to it. They will never admit that this wasn't what they had in mind all season long.

I hate it less now than I did after viewing it last night. I might rewatch tonight and see what happens. Bleh. BLEH, I SAY!

Again, yes to everything, but especially Why turn Beaver into an all out sociopath, when he could just be a crazy guy with a fucked up life who took it out on innocent people?

God, can you imagine a desperate Beaver up there on the roof, just tired of hurting, tired of having to live with the memory of his own sexual assault? Can you imagine how gut wrenching that would have been for Veronica, who went a year believing she had been raped, seeing first hand the horror of an even more horrible sexual assault before her? And the abuse parallels that could have been drawn with Logan? Of having absolutely no one in your family give a crap about you? God, it would have been awesome.

Instead we get, like you said, the twisted sociopath and it sucked.

God, yes. That's exactly how it should have happened. I'm getting misty-eyed just thinking about it. And Logan rushes in on this and tackles him and gets the gun from him and hasn't heard all of it and Beaver kills himself in pretty much the same way. Only now everybody feels awful about it, rather than yay! Psycho boy's dead!

And the worst part is, that would have made so much sense, character-wise, plot-wise. It seems so obvious to me. That's pretty much what I thought was going to happen all the way up until the moment it was over and hadn't happened.

I'm just so disappointed and I hate it. I really, really want to love my show.

I agree with you about the rape retcon, but I think the reason I just decided to not care was the fact that this entire season has made me not care about the rape. Because Veronica didn't care about the rape. Which according to her wasn't a rape as long as it was Duncan. That whole characterization just killed it for me, and I don't care much about ATttD because of it. Except for the V/L parts. And the structure of the story. But the resolution? The big confrontation? Stopped caring about that around DE.

And I loved the episode AND the dream sequence. Both of them actually! =)

Well, I guess that's what bothers me, too. The audience should never have gotten to the point where we needed to do this to make us care again. It's all very deep-seated, residual anger over turning one of my favorite episodes into a joke.

But, on the upside, seeing everyone's happy posts is making me hate it much less. Or rather, making me remember the things I did like before I was blinded by retcon rage. :p

I agree with everything you just said, and also the REASON why they had to recton it. The whole first half of the season made me care for nothing relating to Veronica, and that recton did NOTHING to help. Maybe my heart is made of ice, but her yelling at Beaver for the rape only reminded me of how disturbing I found that certain scene in DE. (And it's not the DE scene itself, but everything that did NOT happen before it.) I just don't get why they couldn't have Veronica hesitate before getting in a relationship with him, he was a victum too and in the end the two of actually dating wasn't the problem, it was the way it happened. It still bothers me. (I know. I'm practically alone.)

Okay, I lied. I don't agree with evreything you said. I didn't care for the dream, but I didn't hate it. I was spoiled for it and was just... not expecting that. And no on the Duncan acting. Bleh. It was boring... but in character - at least we know that TD can stay in character. Yup.

Technically, I did care for the episode more than I thought I would. I had no expectations and that helped, but the evil!beaver and the recton kind of killed that.

I also find it hard to believe that Veronica NEVER went to get tested for an STD. I can understand her not going right after, she was alone and scared, but she's also a smart girl and she HAS to know that there might not be symptoms. I could imagine her going to get tested months (!) after it happened. She went well over a year and a half before sleeping with someone else. If she got tested between then, she would have known. I can't believe that Veronica wouldn't be afraid of getting HIV or something else.

Ack, my first sentence isn't complete:

I agree with everything you just said, and also the REASON why they had to recton it bothers me.

and

he was a victim too and in the end the two of them actually dating wasn't the problem

*if you get this post twice, it's because I'm a dumbass* :P

You know, the end of DE was the moment my obsessive love for this show disappeared. I mean, I still followed it like crazy, hoping something would change, but that's when it all went downhill. But in hindsight, that's when it should have been obvious that I was being set up for a huge disappointment. :( And that's the thing that upsets me the most--that the writers don't seem to get where we're coming from. Which I don't understand, because did they see S1? It sure seemed like the understood then.

Anyway. Yeah. I get what you're saying about the dream seeming random, but I really liked it. Though, I do agree that it was spliced in kinda weirdly. But I like Veronica's whole idea that things would be better, but maybe not really, if Lilly hadn't died. It's true to her psyche, anyway. And heh, the reason I gave points to TD for acting this episode were because he only had four lines. Go TD!

And also. Word to the testing. Veronica would have gotten tested at some point in that almost a year between cutting her hair off and the pilot. But I think I'm gonna stop dwelling on that, lest my retcon rage rear its ugly head again. :p

Ah, hindsight. It's so depressing sometimes. . . For me, my obsessive love died down during the PREVIEW for the fourth episode.

The TD thing. Hee. I totally forgot about him being in the dream! I was only thinking about the end. Maybe I will change my mind when/if I watch again. I probably wont change it much, but I'll give it a shot. :P

I've never been on this side of things before. Usually I'm the one rolling my eyes at or clicking away quickly from the few dissenters. It's lonely over here.

Dude, I so know what you mean! I had the same thing happen with Dr. Who this week. It IS lonelier on the other side!

But I honestly see all your complaints. I think I've mostly chosen to not let them bother me in light of how emotionally effected I was by the episode. But the problems are all still there. I hated that they made Beaver out to be a socio path. It would have been so much more intersting if he hadn't wanted things to turn out the way they did. I have no idea what was going through the minds of the folks who made THAT decision.

It's sad! All day yesterday I wanted to be part of the broken mess of fangirling, and you know, I just couldn't.

But! I rewatched last night, and while I still mostly don't like the episode, and I still think there are a lot of weird editing problems, I was able to appreciate some stuff more. Like the dream, which I liked a lot both times, and I was able to focus on Logan and Veronica more, and that's always nice. ;) Maybe I'll just have selective finale memory once it comes time for S3 to start up (because it will start up. it will.). Heh, I do that all the time anyway. Donut Run? What Donut Run?

However, I will always pine over my poor little Beaver and the storyline he should have gotten. Guilt, people! Guilt is where this should have gone, not crazypsycho!Beaver!

You and I agree on every point and I'm going to link your post because I think you're spot on and, of course, brilliant!! *hugs* I feel a lot less lonely now.

Heh, I just commented on that post. ;) *hugs back* I feel less lonely now, too, so thank you. Although, with almost a week's worth of distance, I'm feeling better about it. I'm just about ready to go back and watch the kissing now, I think. ;)

Although, with almost a week's worth of distance, I'm feeling better about it. I'm just about ready to go back and watch the kissing now, I think. ;)
I've sort of come to that place too. I might just need to pop that tape in tonight and enjoy the good parts. Oh, and the icon the hell out of the dream sequence. :D

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