Line #79 Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E18IAmGod


1	Veronica is on the bus as it's in free-fall. She's drawn a picture of a scythe being held by a dark figure, and that figure is standing over nine tombstones. Behind her, Betina, Meg and Peter (Luke Fryden) are sitting in a row, all dead...
2
3	...and then Veronica wakes up in class. A teacher gives her a note telling her to go see the guidance counselor...
4
5	...[[DescriptionCut and in Miss James' office]], she says Veronica has been sleeping in class, wearing headphones and ripped down a student's poster. When Miss James asks Veronica if there's anything she'd like to talk about, Veronica snarks that Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt's ''Series/GhostWhisperer'' character would be better qualified. When Rebecca doesn't get it, Veronica admits she's been dreaming about the bus crash whenever she tries to sleep, and she's being haunted by the kids who died. She looks through photos and names them: Betina ([[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E01NormalIsTheWatchword whom Dick tried to hit on]]), Cervando ([[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E02DriverEd the [=PCHer=] whom Weevil thought was the target at first]]), Marcos ([[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E08AhoyMateys alias "Cap'n Krunk"]]), Peter ([[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E14VersatileToppings whom Veronica initially thought was a blackmailer]]), Rhonda ([[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E05BlastFromThePast who left a voicemail message for her friend right before the bus blew up]]) and, of course, Meg. This reminds her that in the dreams, Meg keeps talking about a janitor named "Lucky"...
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7	...and in the dream, the bus is still in free-fall, but the passengers are all awake. Meg, who's wearing a T-shirt that reads "Baby on Board", mentions how Lucky fought in Iraq for four months before getting shot, and how her parents loved him because he quoted the Bible all of the time, so they wanted to set her up with him. Veronica points out Meg thought he was creepy; Meg gets upset at first that Veronica [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E04GreenEyedMonster read Meg's e-mails, that were only meant for Lizzie]], but sarcastically realizes that wouldn't matter to Veronica. As Veronica protests she's trying to help, Meg points out Lucky may act nice with her parents, but is just a high school janitor who likes to drink beer with Logan.
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9	Back in the present, Miss James asks Veronica when she started having the dreams, and Veronica brings up Rhonda's friend Michelle, whom Rhonda left the voicemail for. Michelle is raising money for a yearbook spread for the students who died in the bus crash, and Veronica learns Rhonda also left a message on Michelle's home phone. On the message, Veronica hears everyone laughing, but she also hears Dick's voice, which disturbs her. Miss James asks if Veronica told Keith about it...
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11	...and we're back in another dream sequence, as Rhonda makes her call to Michelle's voicemail, right before the explosion. Veronica freezes in terror...and then cries out in her bedroom as she wakes up suddenly. Keith comes in to try and soothe her. He notices she has files of all the kids who died on the bus, as well as a CD Betina made of the messages Dick left for her. Keith is upset to find out Veronica was sneaking around on the bus, but [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E06RatSawGod Veronica points out he did the same thing]]. She also brings up the drawing, which was on the back of one of the bus seats, and it's identical to the one in the opening scene, except this on has "[[TitleDrop I Am God]]" written over it. Keith doesn't think this was the work of the killer, since the drawing had nine tombstones and only eight people died, but Veronica thinks it's possible.
12
13	Back in the present, Veronica shows Miss James the drawing, and says she wants to find out who the artist was.
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15	In the hallway, Veronica sees Logan and asks him about Lucky, who's real name is Tommy Dohanic (James Jordan). Logan explains the nickname is ironic; his parents went bankrupt, which forced him to drop out of college, and he got shot four months into his service in Iraq. He points out Veronica's met him...
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17	...which leads to a flashback of Veronica and Logan making out in Logan's car until Lucky and Dick knock on the car door and tell Logan they're ready to play. Logan says he'll be with him in a second...
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19	...and back in the present, Veronica sardonically wonders how they could have gone out in the first place, while Logan jokes she was "too much man" for him. Veronica stomps off.
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21	A little later, in Mr. Wu's science class, which Dick, Logan and Wallace are in, Mr. Wu tells them about their upcoming experiment, which involves creating a device which allows an egg, when placed inside, to be dropped from a great distance and yet doesn't break the egg. He also says whoever wins will be exempt from taking the final exam and score an A. He further announces he's going to assign partners alphabetically. Dick is unfazed when he finds out his new partner is Angie Dahl (Creator/KaylaEwell), and [[AllMenArePerverts leers at her]]. Angie isn't happy, and neither is Wallace when Mr. Wu pairs him up with Logan. Wallace tells Logan he only wants to make sure he keeps his Hearst scholarship, and Logan's happy to do that as long as it doesn't involve extra work for him.
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23	Outside, in the lunch area, Veronica, who's got her laptop open, motions for Dick to join her, but he refuses. He complies, though, when she turns her laptop towards him and it reads, "[[Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer I Know Who You Did Last Summer]]". Veronica plays some of the messages Dick left for Betina, and Dick finally admits Betina was someone he went out with but wished he didn't. Veronica points out Betina played Dick's messages for her purely to rag on him, but Dick points out he gave her Shark baseball tickets that Peter threw out.
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25	In the hallway, Veronica sees Keith and calls out to him, but he ignores her. Veronica then sees Maureen (Vanessa Lee Chester), Betina's friend, and asks Maureen if she has anything else of Betina's that Michelle can use for the yearbook tribute, clearing fishing to see if Betina made the drawing. Maureen says no, though when Veronica brings up Dick, she calls him the "bastard child of Satan", and Veronica agrees. Maureen mentions Betina lost her mind over Dick and was even willing to have his baby.
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27	We then return to a dream sequence where Veronica is trying to re-create the drawing. Betina and Peter mock her, and Meg says she has important information...
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29	...and Veronica wakes up suddenly in a classroom, listening to an episode of "Ahoy, Mateys!"
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31	That night, in Logan's hotel suite, he and Logan drop their box from four feet high - which is a passing grade - and when Wallace checks the result, the egg is fine. Room service knocks on the door, and Logan invites him in and hands him a tip. Logan notes that Wallace doesn't really like him, and Wallace says the last time he saw Logan was [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS01E01Pilot when Logan broke the headlights off of Veronica's car]], so he has no reason to like him. A maid comes in, and Logan smirks.
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33	Meanwhile, at the Mars apartment, Veronica asks Keith if he was in school, but Keith plays dumb. He hands Veronica an envelope from Stanford; Veronica is nervous because it feels thin for an acceptance letter, and Keith says he'll be proud of her no matter what. Veronica opens the letter, and it is an acceptance letter. She squeals in excitement and hugs Keith.
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35	The next day, in Principal Clemmons' office, he tells Veronica and Angie there's been an error in the class rankings; Angie should have been awarded an extra grade point for her college-level summer course ("Summer at Sea"), so she's ahead of Veronica for the Kane Scholarship. Veronica can't believe it, and [[RichBitch Angie looks on, smug]].
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37	In Miss James' office, Veronica is still seething, even though Miss James doesn't think Angie's that bad of a person. Miss James asks about the dreams, and Veronica admits she's still living ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'', and hasn't found out who drew the tombstones. Assuming [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS01E05YouThinkYouKnowSomebody she's back with Keith again]], Veronica says Keith seems happy, but Miss James doesn't know what she's talking about.
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39	In the hallway, Veronica's still upset about Angie, and Wallace assures her there's nothing second place about her. They come across a picture of the bus crash victims, and Wallace says Rhonda (Audra J. Morgan) and her sister Natalie were poor white trash, and constantly in Clemmons' office. Veronica asks Wallace to point Natalie out to him later.
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41	Inside Java the Hut, Keith is having a blind date, who talks about all of the dating services she's been through.
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43	Meanwhile, in Mr. Wu's science class, Angie gets a letter messengered over from her mother. As she goes into the hallway to read it, Logan and Wallace drop their device, but before they can find out their result, Angie comes in shrieking, carrying balloons, because she got into Stanford. She's less enthused when Dick mentions Veronica did as well, and snarks that someone has to do the football team. Wallace, of course, is offended on her behalf, and so is Logan. Mr. Wu tells Logan and Wallace they passed, and they can try for a better grade the next day, though he doesn't count on it. Dick continues to try and come on to Angie, who asks Mr. Wu if she can work alone. When Dick is unable to pick out their project, Mr. Wu agrees to let Angie work alone. As the bell rings, [[SnarkToSnarkCombat Logan says Angie will fulfill Stanford's bitch quotient, and she snarks in return that he should enjoy trade school]]. In the hallway, Wallace tells Logan he wants to keep working on the project; to Wallace's shock, Logan says he's in, and invites him to come by the hotel later.
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45	Later, in the parking lot, Wallace points out Natalie (Skyler Shaye), who's driving a spiffy Corvette. Veronica pretends to admire it, and Natalie dismissively tells her it's better than the bus before driving off. Veronica gets a thought, and calls Keith...
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47	...who's in Java the Hut on another blind date. She asks Keith to run the financial records of the families of the kids who died on the bus, and he agrees before hanging up. His date thinks Keith has unrealized potential and should make more of an effort; Keith pretends to take this advice and writes it down.
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49	That night, in Logan's hotel suite, he and Wallace are working on the egg-drop box, except it's more elaborate this time. Wallace, who's a bit hyper, says his reason for doing this is to help Veronica get into Stanford, but he doesn't know Logan's reason. Logan, trying to act casual, says he's doing it in the spirit of competition. He tells Wallace to check out what's on TV while they wait for the glue to dry and Logan sees "a man about a horse". Wallace turns on the TV and channel surfs until he gets to ''Tinseltown Diaries'', which is running the special on Aaron again. Logan, who has reappeared behind Wallace, mentions they run it twice a day. He heads into Duncan's old bedroom and Wallace looks at him with a new respect.
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51	Meanwhile, at the Mars apartment, Keith tells Veronica he has the financial records. Turns out none of the crash victims' families made money on the insurance - they only received enough to cover funeral costs - but Rhonda's family won a $2 million separate lawsuit from Woody Goodman after a bad experience at one of his burger joints.
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53	The next day, during lunch break, Veronica sneaks into Clemmons' office to see what the bus crash victims had in their school records. Fortunately, they're all together, and she pulls the files out. Just as she's about to look, she hears voices on the other side of the door, so she closes the file drawer, takes the files, and ducks into a closet. Clemmons and Keith come inside the office, and Clemmons asks him how the case is going. It turns out several [=09er=] students are using something called "General Anxiety Disorder" to get out of taking tests or turning their papers in on time, they've all been "diagnosed" by the same doctor, and the faculty is getting ready to revolt. Keith says he hopes to have something for Clemmons soon, and then asks for his coat, which is in the closet. Keith opens the closet and sees Veronica there; she sheepishly hands him his coat, and he doesn't give her presence away.
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55	Later, at Java the Hut, Keith's on his third blind date. This one confesses [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS01E01Pilot she wanted Keith run out of town on a rail after he accused Jake Kane]], but when the truth came out, [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E06RatSawGod she voted for Keith in the recent election for sheriff]]. Keith admits he carried the "pity" vote, then asks about the women. Turns out she works for a doctor.
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57	Meanwhile, in the hallway of Neptune High, Veronica [[InnerMonologue muses at how Peter said he had "yellow fever", and was "hot for teacher"]]. She noticed in Peter's file there was an incident involving Mr. Wu, but there was no explanation, so she decides to ask Mr. Wu himself. She finds him in his classroom and asks for a donation for the yearbook spread for the bus crash victims, which he's more than happy to do. He's less enthused, however, when Veronica wonders if he missed Peter other than as a bright and talented student, as well as when Veronica wonders if Peter was going to out him. Veronica guesses he knew Peter had feelings for him, and Mr. Wu admits Peter confessed them when he happened to be at a cousin's birthday party in a gay bar and Peter ran into him there, but that was as far as it went, and he explained the whole thing to Mr. Clemmons. Veronica tries to ask about Peter's drawing ability, but Mr. Wu gets suspicious about Veronica asking questions about someone she claimed was her "friend", so she takes off.
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59	In another dream sequence, Peter asks Veronica if she believes Mr. Wu, and she admits she does, and it wouldn't be "the outing of all outings". She claims she knows Peter's web postings like the back of her hand, and then notices her name written on the back of her hand [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E02DriverEd just as it was written on Curly's]]. Peter then points out what she should be asking is why he was at the field trip in the first place.
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61	Later, in the lunch area, Veronica, who's still listening to old "Cap'n Krunk" podcasts, [[InnerMonologue muses that while Cervando had a high GPA, that didn't stop him from getting into trouble, including threatening Cassidy once during summer school]]. She finds Cassidy sitting at a table, surrounded by books, and asks him about it. In a {{Flashback}}, we see Cassidy sitting at a desk while Cervando (Max Arciniega) is with a couple of [=PCHers=], and he's bragging at how he hustled Liam Fitzpatrick at pool. That's when Dick shows up and shoots Cervando's $200 jeans with a water pistol. As Cassidy tells it, the water pistol was filled with bleach, which ruined the jeans, so Cervando took it out on Cassidy the next day until Clemmons intervened. Back in the present, Cassidy guesses Cervando picked on him because he was afraid of Dick.
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63	Meanwhile, in Clemmons' office, Keith gives Clemmons a tape of the office manager of the doctor in question (Dr. Burns) offering Veronica a diagnosis of "Generalized Anxiety Disorder" for $1000.
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65	Later, Mr. Wu's class is outside, and Angie has just completed a 12-foot egg drop, and the other students clap, except for Logan, who does a SlowClap, and Wallace, who smiles at Logan's sarcasm. Wallace drops his and Logan's egg container, but the egg breaks. The other students console him.
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67	In the hallway, one of Angie's friends congratulates her on winning the contest, and asks if she's studied for their English exam. Angie says she was up all night with the egg project, [[TemptingFate but she can use "Generalized Anxiety Disorder" to request an extension on the English exam]]. Behind them, Veronica, who's exhausted, is walking, still listening to "Cap'n Krunk", and she runs into Logan. As Wallace looks on, Veronica sarcastically wonders how Hannah could keep away from him; Logan, hurt, walks away. Wallace comes up to Veronica and says she should give Logan a break. Veronica is shocked to hear Wallace say this.
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69	Angie is reading a magazine in her English class while the other students take the exam until Clemmons announces Neptune will no longer allow "Generalized Anxiety Disorder" to be used as a medical excuse. Angie looks up, shocked, as Ms. Murphy gives her the exam.
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71	In physics class, Veronica is about to fall asleep when Mr. Wu wakes her up and reminds her to solve the problem on the blackboard. As Veronica walks up to the board...
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73	...we cut to another dream sequence in the bus. Cervando asks how Veronica got home that day, and she says [[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E01NormalIsTheWatchword Weevil drove her]]. Cervando points out the bomb only killed the driver, while the fall and crash killed the others (though he drowned), and to kill everyone else, whoever did it would have to know the bus route. He draws a circle and says, "He's bald." Veronica assumes he's talking about Weevil, but Cervando instead says, "[[TitleDrop I am God]]". Veronica is confused...
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75	...and back in physics class, Veronica has written, "I am God" on the blackboard, to the amusement of the other students...
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77	...and it turns out that was a dream as well, as Veronica wakes up for real in journalism class. She hears the end of the song "I am God" by the Wannabes on Cap'n Krunk's show. She looks up the song and the band on a music website and discovers the drawing on their website...
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79	...and in Miss James' office, Veronica admits [[ShaggyDogStory the drawing was just an album cover]]. She does admit she thinks she's done being haunted.
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81	Later, at the Mars apartment, Keith tells Veronica the money wasn't on the bus, and that Richard Casablancas took out an insurance policy on Dick and Cassidy, which means they're worth more dead than alive. As Veronica ponders this...
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83	...we go back to one more dream sequence on the bus, and Marcos admits "I Am God" was just a song he liked. He asks if Veronica still thinks the crash was her fault. A cell phone in Marcos' hand rings, and he gives it to Veronica, saying it's for her. As we hear Rhonda leave her voicemail for Michelle, we see the C4 in a bag next to Veronica, and the phone in her hand rings again.
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85	----
86
87	!!This episode contains examples of:
88
89	* BowChickaWowWow: Dick says this on one of the messages he leaves for Betina.
90	* CallBack:
91	** Miss James.
92	** Also, Dick reminds Veronica about her dating Leo.
93	** "Ahoy, Mateys!", the radio show from episode 14, returns in this episode.
94	* ChekhovsGunman: Lucky the janitor becomes very important later.
95	* DreamEpisode: A variant. The whole episode doesn't take place in one, but Veronica spends most of the episode dreaming about the bus crash.
96	* DreamWithinADream: Veronica keeps having dreams in which her unconsciousness is processing clues about students killed in a bus crash, by talking to those students - often, in the middle of class. During one class, she drifts off, processes a clue about the meaning of the phrase "I AM GOD", wakes up and discovers that she's written "I AM GOD" all over a blackboard she was supposed to be solving a math problem on, and everyone is laughing at her. (Then she wakes up for real.)
97	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
98	** Peter wanted a TeacherStudentRomance with his biology teacher. [[spoiler:We later learn he has a traumatic reason to misinterpret kindness for sexual interest from older men.]]
99	** The cell phone ringing Veronica hears at the end.
100
101	* MistakenForGay: Mr. Wu.
102	-->''Veronica, I think that when you get out in the world a little more, you'll, you'll discover that not all well-dressed, articulate, detail-oriented men are gay. Many of them are just Asian.''
103	* MockGuffin / RedHerring: What the drawing turns out to be.
104	* MustHaveCaffeine: When they're working on their lab project for science class, Logan tells a clearly hyper Wallace, "Four is officially your espresso limit."
105	* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Or, in this case, Asian-American; Mr. Wu tries to act like a hip-hop artist when talking about his famous, "GPA-killing final exam", but fails miserably.
106	* ShellShockedVeteran: Lucky, though we don't realize just how shell-shocked until a later episode.
107	* ShoutOut: In addition to the ones listed above:
108	** When Dick finds out he can't be lab partners with Logan, he jokes, "[[Film/BrokebackMountain I don't know how I'm gonna quit you]]".
109	** One of Keith's "dates" compares him to [[Series/{{Seinfeld}} George]].
110	** When Veronica calls Keith, and he wonders why she isn't busy learning something in school, Veronica says, "[[Film/TheBigLebowski And a good day to you too, sir!]]". Also, in that same conversation, Veronica mentions Keith's advice to "[[Film/AllThePresidentsMen follow the money]]".
111	** Logan says a tired Veronica looks like Creator/SteveBuscemi.
112	** When Veronica tells Miss James the drawing was a red herring, she compares it to finding out the twist ending of ''Film/CitizenKane'' [[invoked]][[ItWasHisSled revealed "Rosebud" was his sled]].
113	* TeacherStudentRomance: Averted:
114	-->'''Veronica:''' Do you...miss (Peter)?
115	-->'''Mr. Wu:''' As a bright and dedicated student, yes. In the way I think you're implying, no.
116	* TeacherStudentRomance: Subverted. Peter wanted one with Mr Wu, but he responded appropriately.
117	* TooMuchInformation: As Keith is serving Veronica dinner - chili - he tells her Rhonda's family won a lawsuit against Woody Goodman's burger joint because they found a finger in their ribwich. Veronica, who's about to dig into her chili, pushes it aside.

Context Recap / VeronicaMarsS02E18IAmGod