One donut, one fritter, one twist

Well, can't say I saw that one coming. It's kind of the opposite of dramatic irony, though, when the audience knows less than the characters, and that's a situation where just about any twist is a surprise. There's a balancing act between showing too much and keeping too much offscreen. It's like when you are trying to play a trick on someone by sending them a fake memo or something (which, naturally, is not something I would know anything about)--there has to be something in the memo that should have tipped off the victim, or the entertainment and fair-play value is much less. Overall, I'm happy with how they played tonight's twist, and it was fun to be surprised. But where was the detail that should have let us know the memo was not to be believed?

Cool . . . now we don't have to be annoyed by what a bystander Veronica was at the end of her relationship with Duncan, because it was all a ruse. Indeed, it will be fun to think about how long she and Duncan had been planning their escapade, and how long before that Veronica understood what we the viewing audience could plainly see: that it just wasn't there between her and Duncan. Hard to say. Was the first Kendall/Duncan interlude/whatever part of the setup, or only the second.

Lots of other questions come up, such as "was Celeste in on it?" If not, we must explain why she would hire someone like Vanlowe and why her personal-assistant-slash-whatever would be willing to jeopardize her tuition deal (perhaps). There's little to suggest that Duncan would walk away from his parents, and the earring "theft" could just have been to establish plausible deniability for the Kanes. What did Duncan and Celestse discuss at that dinner? On the other hand, what would have been the point of the note if Celeste (and thus Vanlowe from the start) were in on it. But perhaps I'm lost on a tangent.

Maybe the note was to give Vinny the final bit of info, like which ATM to use in Mexico or some other little detail. Who took the boat out?

Many good lines, as usual when it's the first show back after a hiatus, and some great sight gags. I laughed at Backup just sitting there next to Keith for what seemed like forever with that wide-eyed look, and again when he was licking V's too-emo'd-out-to-care face. Dick's scene at the beginning kind of stole the show for good lines, but Logan had a few too (including that charming double-entendre that perhaps should have been a clue that DuKe was a fiction). Loved the Looney Tunes wolf and sheepdog reference. The Lucy Lawless FBI agent was cute but kind of a one-joke character. The entire FBI presence would have been justified if it was only to set up Veronica's "use of the word 'we'" comment. Classic.

And they leave the whole VD relationship open to be revisited. I guess that's pretty smart. Still waiting for Duncan to come screaming out of the closet, but I suppose that's just wishful thinking about his character arc.

Fashion notes. I think we used to wear vests like Logan's round about sixth grade (ca. 1979). On the subject of things I couldn't pull off, I suppose a deep bottle green leather jacket is probably one of them . . . but if there were any chance at all . . . . I guess that's what small leather goods are for.

And we are all thankful that you haven't decided to dress like Logan. I'm not sure orange is your color.

Just reading TWoP. "Lost" numbers on the fortune. Missed that. Actually, I have not committed the "Lost" numbers to memory, but they usually look familiar.

Ah, so that's what those numbers were! Funny. Interesting to see that Logan and Weevil are making headway in their investigation. Nice use of Sean - apparently, having the school find out your dad is a butler means that your hair becomes ratty. All in all, a good episode. Let's hope that baby Lilly will be more like her mother than her aunt.