Case closed?

This past episode of Veronica Mars ended with Veronica accusing the rape victims on campus of completely fabricating the entire thing to get the fraternities kicked off campus. The girls didn't exactly deny it, either. So while I really do like the idea that the girls completely made up the rapes -- it sounds logical enough and I was legitimately surprised -- there's a few tricky little points in here:

-Their motivation was to get back at the frat for humiliating their overweight friend? It was a horrible story, but to construct such an elaborate ruse lasting months seems a little like overkill.

-Was Mac's roommate in on it? Or did they drug her, cut off her hair, and make her think she was raped? If so, that's sick, sick, sick. Meaning, really cool and interesting.

-No physical evidence of any of the rapes????? Did they mention that before? Seems a little important, no?

-If all this is true, then who attacked Veronica in the parking lot?

That last point is the clincher for me that the case is far from closed, not least of which because if this episode really meant to wrap up the rape case, there would've been a payoff, not justthe discovery. I have a feeling there's still very much a Secret Bad Guy in the picture who will reveal himself shortly, and he's the one to attack Veronica (and maybe rape Mac's roommate, although I still like the other solution, too).

Whoa -- brand-spanking new theory. Piz is the rapist. The reason he wasn't interested in Mac's roommate isn't because he's in love with Veronica -- it was because he already raped her and felt weird/guilty.

I'll momentarily stop with the random conjecture and come out and say I liked the implications of this episode. It made me legitimately interested in the rape mystery. However, the episode still contained two of my biggest beefs with Season 3:

1. No Mac, Mac's roommate, Weevil, or Piz. If the actress playing Mac isn't off doing a movie or something, I feel really bad for her. Dick reappeared and was actually pseudo-useful, while Wallace got a pity scene in which he literally does nothing. Veronica asks him for help with the numbers and then she figures it out. And while hot, it's a little telling that not only can't I remember Mac's roommate's name, I'm not even bothering to spend the extra thirty seconds to look it up.

2. For the first time, the Veronica/Logan relationship has become boring. Why? Because the show tells the exact same story in every single episode: Veronica and Logan grow distant from each other, they don't trust each other, then by the end things are patched up -- but only temporarily. It's part of the show's attempt to make more self-contained episodes, but if you're just going to open the same wounds over and over again, it's lame. And Veronica isn't exactly coming out of it smelling like a rose, either: Logan loves her and cares about her and she's tossing him aside like he's nothing. The writers need to split them up for good for a little while, make Logan regain some of his edginess (glimpses of vulnerability is cool, but the oh-so-puppy-dog look we got from him at the end was too much of an increasing trend), and reignite the spark further down the road.

Overall though, I actually find myself getting drawn into the politics of the Hearst campus. If the second big mystery arc after the rapes is able to utilize all the characters in interesting ways, give Logan back his edge (or at least get them out of their endlessly circular fighting routine), and get a lot more personal for Veronica, we'll be looking at an improved show.

To end, some random notes:

-Great reference to The Big Lebowski. I wish they had thrown a Lebowski line in there somewhere when Veronica was talking to Brandt or the dude in the wheelchair, but as it was, it was great.

-Could you believe the absolutely incredibly awful acting by Patty Hearst? I don't really have any idea who she is, but she was a "special guest star", and I get the irony of her actually being a Hearst and playing one on the show. But wow...terrible, terrible actress.