Veronica's Adventures in Babysitting! Plus, the Tale of the Tailies and Your Requests Answered!

Buckle your seatbelts and hold on tight because this edition of Pass the Remote is fully loaded and revved up with plenty of extras! I've even got a section devoted to your requests! But before we get to those, let's talk about last night's awesome display of television. Do you ever watch Veronica Mars and just sit there and marvel at the way it can cover so much ground and so many different, important things in a single hour without cheating anything? Usually, when a show jams that much stuff into an episode, it ends up never fully developing any of the plots and the viewers are left feeling a little cheated and empty. I paid special attention to Veronica's fantastic ability to avoid this pitfall last night so I could try and figure out how this show covers so many storylines so well, but I couldn't figure it out no matter how hard I tried. The show is just a freak of television, and I mean that in the best way. How funny was Kendall's reaction to being cheated out of Dick senior's money? I loved how she tried to play nice with Logan just so he would be her sugar daddy. When that didn't work, she moved on to Duncan. Okay, time for a poll. How many of you think Duncan behaved himself and sent Kendall and her "hot" (his word) naked self out of his room? How many of you think something happened? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Speaking of Duncan, I'm dying to know what was in that envelope that he pulled out of Meg's vent! Anyway, on to the Veronica-helps-Logan storyline. So, shady plastic surgeon man is posing as the eye witness to Logan's mishap with Weevil's gang, but why? Veronica thought she had followed said plastic surgeon to a normal cigar shop, but later found out through good old dad that the shop was a front for a drug ring. Is shady plastic surgeon a part of it? Maybe Weevil's gang found out and decided to black mail the not-so-good doctor. Or, maybe he was legitimately buying some cigars. Logan's mystery deepens. How creepy were all the families that Veronica babysat for? That one father and his weird comments after seeing Veronica out was just bizarre. Turns out, Meg's abuse investigation hit closer to home, like the room next store. Her younger sister Grace was forced to live in a small room adjacent to her closet and write "righteous" statements in composition books. I'm glad Lamb seems to be on the case. Hopefully, he'll do more with this than the little to no effort he has put into the bus investigation. Man, this show is so good, it boggles the mind!

Was anyone else slightly disappointed in the tale of the tailies last night on Lost? The previews made this look really interesting, but I didn't realize that all the interesting scenes were in the previews. I found it a little slow. I don't know, maybe it was that extra four minutes of commercials, I mean, show. The days flew by, but there were some days that they showed us where nothing really happened. Well, let's not dwell on the negative and move on to the positive instead. So, Ethan wasn't the only imposter, as we learned last night that the tailies had Goodwin. Ana-Lucia jumped to the wrong conclusion when she assumed the imposter was Nathan, but she did get some interesting information from Goodwin. He suggested that "The Others" may not be taking survivors to do them harm. He also told her that they are only taking the "good" people, hence the reason for the children. Have we been wrong about "The Others" all along? Probably not after seeing Goodwin snap Nathan's neck without blinking an eye. We also learned that one of "them" was carrying a U.S. Army knife that was at least twenty years old. If you think back to the Dharma Initiative, you'll remember that it started in 1980, twenty-five years ago. Coincidence? Probably not on this show. Oh, and remember Boone's cryptic message when he used the radio he found on a crashed plane? Well, now we know where that came from! Interesting forethought on the writers' part. I thought this episode added some more insight into Ana-Lucia's character, whom I know a lot of you are hating. She has been through a lot, and that's just from what we know about her life on the island. The producers are promising us an upcoming Ana-Lucia episode, so I'm sure we'll learn even more in the coming weeks.

I've gotten some requests from you, the readers, lately, and as a full service blog, Pass the Remote feels that it is only right that it fulfills said requests. Think of it as the NBC heart warmer Three Wishes in blog form. Anywho, some of you wanted to see recaps of Gilmore Girls episodes, and since I don't usually get a chance to catch this show, I've decided to provide you with an easy link to TV Guide's Watercooler page. This is what they had to say about this week's episode (it goes without saying, but skip this recap if you haven't seen the episode and don't want to know what happens):

In many ways, this homecoming ep was hardly a surprise. If you paid attention to the teasers, you knew Rory would be coming back home. And if you read any of the spoilers, you knew Luke would find out he has a daughter. But you know what? It really doesn't matter. It's the way these stories unfold and reveal themselves that has us totally addicted. Who would ever guess that April would seek out Luke not for a relationship but for a middle-school science experiment about DNA? (In true hangdog fashion, Luke looked completely blindsided when he saw his mug circled on her poster board. Helluva way to find out you're the daddy of a brainy 12-year-old.) And while we knew Rory was tip-toeing closer and closer back to Lorelai and Stars Hollow, I loved the confidence and the poise of her final leap. Who else but Rory Gilmore could land a great job because she patiently sat in the lobby every day with her gigantic portfolio (all three of them), and worked it every time the editor-in-chief walked by? And they weren't even hiring! Her confidence has returned, she's enrolled at Yale and she's mended her relationship with her mother. Everything is right with the world. Sort of. There's this matter with Luke and the kid. (Nothing says "let's get married" quite like "hey, I have a child I didn't know about!") And then there's Emily. During my favorite scene of the hour, she confessed to pushing both Lorelai and Rory away. (A confession that occurred mid-purchase of a private jet, mind you. But I'll take it.) Instead of telling her that she deserved it, that she was a horrible mother for throwing her out of the house when she got pregnant, leaving her to raise Rory alone, then snatching her away the first chance she got, Lorelai paused. Turned around. And quietly said, "You haven't lost me." Totally unexpected. Totally surprising. Wow, what a great show. — Robin Honig

Again, that recap is from TVGuide.com. Another thing that you guys are buzzing about is this upcoming episode of Medium in 3-D. All of the TV Guide subscribers received one free pair of 3-D glasses with the latest issue, but what if you have more than one person in your house that enjoys Medium and doesn't want to miss out on the 3-D fun? Well, NBC's web site isn't much help I'm afraid. It instructs you to visit a special Sprint promotional event in your city for a free pair, but the list of cities is severely lacking! A visit to Sprint's web site doesn't provide any help.Unfortunately, TV Guide's web site isn't any help either. It appears that the only way to get another pair is to buy NBC merchandise and receive a free pair, but there's certainly no guaranteee you'll receive them in time, or you can run out to your local newsstand and purchase another copy of the November 21st edition of TV Guide. The best option might be to record the episode and take turns with the single pair TV Guide provided. I have to wonder what happens to all the people who don't subscribe to TV Guide and didn't want to buy an issue just for the glasses? And you guys wonder why I'm not the biggest fan of gimmicks.

About Last Night... CBS captured the first hour of the night with its special Johnny Cash tribute, I Walk the Line, followed by NBC's E-Ring and ABC comedies George Lopez and Freddie. At 9, ABC's Lost easily won, followed by CBS's Criminal Minds and Fox's Trading Spouses. UPN's Veronica Mars landed in fifth, in front of the WB. The final hour of the night went to CBS's CSI: NY, followed by Law & Order on NBC and Invasion on ABC. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Syd and the rest of APO work to uncover whom Gordon Dean works for while Sloane fights the group that claims to have the cure for Nadia on ABC's Alias. Over on UPN, Julius finds $200 worth of food stamps, but Rochelle is too embarrassedd to use them on Everybody Hates Chris. Taylor causes a major rift between Seth and Summer on Fox's The O.C.

@9 p.m. - CBS's CSI wraps up its excellent two-part episode involving a shoot out with cops and suspects. Tonight, the evidence points more and more toward a case of friendly fire. Over on the WB, Amy and Bright prepare for Hannah's impending departure, Jake takes a high-risk bike trip with a friend, Reid keeps his promise to Ephram, and Harold and Andy do something completely unexpected on Everwood.

@10 p.m. - The team searches for a missing 15 year old boy, but this episode of CBS's Without A Trace is different from others. Instead of the usual format where the episode is told through the perspective of the agents, this one is told through the parents of the missing boy. Over on NBC, it's the biggest stunt to ever stunt as the ER doctors find themselves dealing with the aftermath of a plane crash. John Stamos guest stars.


QUICK CUTS

*Neptunesite is reporting (via E! Online's Kristin Vietch) that former Xena actress Lucy Lawless is signed on for a guest appearance on Veronica Mars. She'll play an FBI agent that comes to Neptune to investigate a kidnapping case. The episode, entitled "Donut Run," is penned by none other than Veronica creator/executive producer himself, Rob Thomas. The episode is scheduled to air January 18th. If you want more information on the appearance and episode, click on either link above, but be warned you might be spoiled.

*ABC is shuffling its post Monday Night Football midseason schedule. The network will keep reality show Wife Swap at 8 p.m., followed by two comedies, and closing with the new season of The Bachelor. The two comedies include new show Emily's Reasons Why Not and the second season of John Stamos' Jake In Progress. The former stars Heather Graham as a self-help author who rarely takes her own advice. Missing from the schedule is the Barry Watson drama What About Ben, which also stars Rosanna Arquette. The show centers around a 30ish guy (Watson) who is the only remaining single among his group of friends. The network says the show is still in play for 2006, but it hasn't found a slot for it yet.

*And finally, actor Danny Devito is returning to television. He's joining the cast of the FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He'll play a successful contractor and father of Dennis and Sweet Dee who moves to the city to recapture his youth and spend more time with his children. Devito's last stint on the tube was 30 years ago when he played the legendary Louie DePlama on Taxi. Look for Devito to begin is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia role next season on the cable comedy.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for Alias (will APO discover who's above Dean and why they do what they do?), CSI part II (is Sofia guilty of friendly fire?), and Everwood (will we get all weepy when Bright and Amy say goodbye to Hannah? And what shocking thing are Andy and Harold up to?). Plus all the latest television news!