Week 12: Veronica Mars 6; Lost 6.

Late last week, UPN announced that Veronica Mars would be airing on Wednesdays for only two more weeks. After that, it's returning to the Tuesday time slot it held in its first season. Which means tonight was the penultimate Veronica Mars vs. Lost contest. How fitting then that Lost should pull out a win tonight to tie the series. (Heh... double meaning, there.) It will all come down to next week's showdown.

But for now, let's consider what we had tonight.

I was ambivalent about the flashback elements of tonight's Lost. They sort of told a new story, in which Locke's father faked his own death to escape some mobster-esque thugs. And yet at the same time, the story was essentially a restatement of all the themes and story points of the last Locke episode. Locke still hasn't gotten over being duped by his father; Helen delivers an ultimatum to let it go, or let her go.

Fortunately, the island material this week was far more compelling. The "blast doors" discovered in the hatch many episodes ago by Michael (whom I'm still not missing) finally came into play this week. The Henry Gale storyline took an exciting turn. A new hatch mystery literally revealed itself, under the strange black lights that kicked in. And the good folks at Dharma apparently air-dropped in supplies to the island.

The causal relationship of all these events is what's intriguing. What made the blast doors come down? Was it because the air-drop was imminent? And did they then retract after the air-drop was complete?

Or did someone do something to trigger the air-drop?

Or is there no relationship between the two things?

Did "Henry Gale" really input the numbers as he said? He seemed to memorize them pretty quickly when Locke told him about them, implying he was already familiar with them. So was he bringing some belief of his own that compelled him to input the numbers even as he was lying about everything else? Or did he simply lie and do nothing? And if he did nothing, is that what triggered the black lights? Is that all that happens if you let the countdown expire?

All that, and fun poker action too between Sawyer and Jack. Good episode.

Veronica Mars was fun as well, offering drama in the Logan storyline, humor in the Keith Mars storyline, and our usually plucky gumshoe-ing starring Veronica herself. The featured roles for the two kids from Arrested Development was fun. (Particularly considering that their Arrested Development characters mentioned in one of that show's final episodes that they watched "[name of off-network teen private eye drama withheld by FOX].")

In some ways, this episode offered a possible hint of what might come should Veronica Mars get to the third season it deserves to on the new CW (Crack Whore?) network. And since this week's announcement from Arrested Development's creator pretty much kills the dim hope of it continuing on Showtime, it would be kinda cool to see those two find a home as regulars on Veronica Mars next year. If the "all the gang conveniently goes to college right there in the same city" thing was good enough for Buffy, it's certainly good enough for the show so many people call its heir. And I truly hope we get to find out how VM will address the "high school graduation problem."

But, despite the interest this episode triggered about the future, it simply didn't go as far as other episodes of the show have gone. It was indeed funny, emotional, and entertaining. But the show has set standards of being funnier, more emotional, and even more entertaining. A victim of its own success. (Well, critical success... sadly, ratings success still not so much there.)

So I kicked tonight's contest in Lost's direction. See you back here next week for the final, deciding matchup.