Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle

"Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle" is the twelfth episode of the second season of the American television series Veronica Mars, and the thirty-fourth episode overall. Written by John Enbom and directed by John T. Kretchmer, the episode premiered on UPN on February 1, 2006.

The series depicts the adventures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) as she deals with life as a high school student while moonlighting as a private detective. In this episode, Wallace (Percy Daggs III) tells a newspaper that his talented teammate, Rashard Rucker (B.J. Britt) was involved in a hit and run, and Veronica is called in to help. Meanwhile, Weevil (Francis Capra) and Logan (Jason Dohring) continue to work on the mystery of Felix Toombs's murder, eventually leading to a mutiny against Weevil.

Synopsis 

Veronica talks to Wallace at Java the Hut. Wallace is going to turn Rashard Rucker in for a hit-and-run. Keith (Enrico Colantoni) distracts Inga in order to break into the police station evidence room. The next day, Wallace has unexpectedly had no backlash from snitching on Rashard. Weevil talks to Molly Fitzpatrick, who admits to dating Felix but insists that he wasn’t working for the Fitzpatricks. Nathan Woods (Cress Williams) contacts Wallace to say that the newspaper says that Rashard came forward and told the press that Wallace was driving during the hit-and-run, indicating that the journalist from the last episode was not what he said he was. Veronica discusses the fallout with Wallace before Jackie (Tessa Thompson) comes up, and Wallace is dismissive. Veronica contacts Cliff (Daran Norris), who advocates for Wallace. In order to get Wallace to see Rashard, they decide to go to a dinner at UCLA, which Rashard will be attending. Veronica informs Keith about Terrence Cook’s gambling problem.

Weevil talks to Logan about a church at which one of the Fitzpatricks is a priest. As Weevil is leaving, another PCH biker sees him. Veronica picks up Rashard in a fake limousine, and Rashard’s uncle warns him about these sorts of situations. When they pull up to Wallace, Rashard’s uncle threatens Wallace and the limo driver. Later, Wallace remembers that a drive-through person saw Rashard at the wheel that night. At Java the Hut, Weevil and Logan ask Veronica to bug the confessional at the church. Veronica says she’ll bug video, but not sound. Keith listens to bus crash interrogation tapes. Referencing the dead rat on the bus, Keith offers that Veronica was not the target of the bus crash. Wallace fails to track down the drive-through guy, who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Veronica bugs the confessional before being questioned by Father Fitzpatrick. Wallace goes to a fraternity party and talks to Rashard, who threatens him abrasively. On his way out, Wallace sees Jackie talking to Rashard. In retaliation, Rashard gets some of his cronies to lock Wallace in a closet. Veronica waits in the car anxiously and sees Jackie driving off with Rashard.

After getting out of the closet, Wallace finds Rashard’s uncle, who didn’t know that Rashard left. Wallace directs the uncle to a club, which Veronica sneaks into and steals the uncle’s phone. Veronica watches the confessional tape and finds that Thumper snuck drugs out of the confessional. It turns out that Wallace and Veronica were actually using Jackie to catch Rashard off guard. That day, a girl walks up to Wallace and asks if their date is still on, which he accepts. Weevil confronts the bikers, and they were actually all working for the Fitzpatricks. Thumper reveals that Weevil was in cahoots with Logan, and the bikers mutiny against him, beat him up, and leave him. Nathan Woods goes to the home of the drive-through guy, Guy Abrutti, and confronts him about accepting money for his silence. Wallace has successfully subverted Rashard and his uncle. Keith listens to more tapes, and they learn from the news that Sheriff Lamb has taken Terrence Cook in for questioning related to the bus crash.

Cultural references 
The following cultural references are made in the episode:
Veronica compares Rashard to LeBron James.
Keith is reading Those Who Trespass and listening to a Bad Company album.
Veronica references Steve McQueen.
Veronica jokingly mentions A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Arc significance 
Keith steals the interrogation tapes from the bus crash investigation.
Dick and Cassidy reveal to Sheriff Lamb that their father knew "Curly" Moran as a mechanic. Dick also tells him that the bus smelled bad, which was why he got a limo.
Gia Goodman tells Lamb that her father, Woody, told her not to ride the bus.
Keith speculates to Veronica that the dead rat was there so that the 09ers wouldn't go back on the bus, thus the only casualties would be lower- and middle-class students. Veronica still thinks it was targeted to her.
Veronica bugs the confessional at Father Fitzpatrick's church and shows the video to Weevil. It shows Thumper, one of the PCHers, taking drugs that Liam Fitzpatrick left behind.
Weevil confronts Thumper, but Thumper has organized a coup against Weevil—Hector's brother works at the Neptune Grand and saw Weevil come out of Logan's room. The PCHers beat up Weevil and Thumper tells Hector to throw Weevil's motorcycle into the ocean.
Veronica finds a picture of Terrence Cook and Ms. Dumas (the late journalism teacher) are together.
Lamb questions Terrence Cook in relation to the bus crash.

Music 
The following songs can be heard in the episode:
"All Out of Love" by Air Supply
"Veronica" by Elvis Costello (sung by Britt Daniel of Spoon)
"Shine More" by Namie Amuro
"See The Sun" by Scavone
"Jump Around" by House of Pain
"I Summon You" by Spoon

Production 

The episode was written by John Enbom and directed by John T. Kretchmer, marking Enbom's seventh writing credit and Kretchmer's seventh directing credit. Teddy Dunn continues to be credited, despite his final regular appearance in "Donut Run". In this episode, Jackie Cook (Tessa Thompson) makes her reappearance after a seven-episode absence (her last previous appearance was in "Blast from the Past". The episode's title references Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The episode features a cameo appearance by Britt Daniel, the frontman of Spoon, who sings "Veronica" as a karaoke song. Several songs by Spoon had been featured on the show previously. Cress Williams returns as Nathan Woods in the episode as well.

Reception

Ratings 

In its original broadcast, the episode received 2.12 million viewers, marking an increase in 500,000 viewers from the previous episode.

Reviews 

Rowan Kaiser, writing for The A.V. Club gave a mostly positive review. While criticizing Jackie's role in the episode ("Jackie is still a problematic character, and suddenly having her be part of the crew, without any apologies, is a bit too far."), he lauded all other aspects of the episode, including the plot and character development of Weevil, Logan, and other. He also praised the technical aspects of the episode. "I thought this episode had a lot of the technical verve which had been missing from the second season. […] There were three scenes that seemed to add a little something extra with the directing and editing." Television Without Pity gave the episode a "B+".

Conversely, Price Peterson of TV.com gave the episode a more mixed review. He praised it as "a solid effort" while criticizing the B-plot involving Weevil and Logan. "You know, I'm not totally riveted by the Felix murder plot line. I'm just not. It's nowhere near as exciting as the bus-crash case, so I found myself getting kind of bored or impatient every time we curt back to Weevil's shenanigans."

References

External links 

"Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle" at Mars Investigations

Category:2006 American television episodes
Category:Veronica Mars (season 2) episodes