New Veronica Mars episode (Jan. 24)

S

P

A

C

E

hancock4...

I'm not a lawyer, but as I see it:

First, I'm not sure Duncan is 18, he was legally emancipated at a
younger age.

Second, while he is the father, he did not have legal custody. Indeed,
I understand most kidnappings and missing children are separated
parents stealing their own kid, not some stranger.

In any event and more important is that the grandparents had the baby
and obviously they had a legal interest in the child. You cannot
simply take a baby from someone else without due process. Simply
showing up and claiming to be the father does not get you the baby in
this situation. They mentioned that in the show, fearing correctly
that the parents would passionately fight Duncan for custody and Duncan
could lose in court.

Sean O'Hara...

And given Duncan's history of mental illness, the Mannings would
have a good chance of winning the battle, regardless how much money
Duncan threw at his lawyers.

I loved it, though it wasn't what I expected. From the description in
TVGuide, I thought Veronica and Duncan were going to break up for real,
and I wanted them to! I was a bit disappointed last night when I saw
that they were still In Wuv with each other. But I was pleased that
when I saw the break-up scene in front of the whole student body, I had
guessed correctly that it was a fake break-up, staged to convince
people they were really angry at each other.

exactly what V and Duncan were up to. I knew, for example, that the
abandoned boat at sea would be a red herring. The only thing I didn't
guess was the involvement of the blonde laundry-folding employee of
Celeste's. But it made sense. When Veronica found out the blonde was
mercenary enough to put up with Celeste for the sake of getting money
for grad school, I knew V and Duncan could offer the blonde enough
money to decamp from Celeste and help them instead.

I was a little uncertain of the setting of that last Duncan scene, in
which he's wearing a long blond wig and gets picked up by the car that
has the blonde girl and the baby in it. Was that down in Mexico? Was
the blonde able to drive the baby to Mexico without suspicion because
the border guards didn't question that it could be her baby? And did
Lamb drive right by the bewigged Duncan without recognizing him?

Sean O'Hara...

Okay, here's how Ronnie's plan worked:

- She gives Vinnie Van Lowe a note addressed to Duncan, knowing full
well he'll read it. The note offers him a significant amount of
money if he'll help smuggle the baby into Mexico.

- Veronica stages the call from Big Bear to get the Feds out of town.

- Vinnie and Astrid take the baby into Mexico.

- Duncan hides in the trunk of Lamb's car.

- The border guards see Astrid and the baby, think she looks like
Veronica, and call Lamb.

Sable Basilisk...

When I was watching, I assumed it was some sort of remote control
device, which was why it had to be left in the park. Are you saying
that Astrid accidentally left the tape player behind instead of taking
it with her or throwing it away or erasing the tape? Maybe, but it
seems to go against the high level of competence every other action in
the plan. I would have immediately yanked the battery out of the
cellphone to stop it from sending out its location and thrown it and
the tape away at a gas station 5 or 10 miles away.

shawn...

They could have taped it to the back of a truck that heading cross
country, or some tourists about to head home. That would keep the FBI
busy for quite a while.

- Lamb heads to Mexico. Since he's a cop, the guards wave him
through without checking his trunk.

- While Lamb is asking around about Duncan, Duncan gets out of the
trunk in disguise.

- The Feds return to Neptune to question Veronica.

- Duncan rendezvous with Vinnie and Astrid. Now that Vinnie's an
accomplice to the kidnapping, Duncan can pay him off without risking
a double cross.

- Lamb returns to Neptune too embarrassed about being outwitted by a
couple teenagers to tell the Feds what happened. (This last part is
conjecture, but it fits the facts.)