Veronica Mars: Cheatcakes

This week: everyone is a bunch of cheaters. Filthy, filthy cheaters. Including Wallace, who actually did cheat on his exam and admitted it, and now faces a choice: basketball or mechanical engineering? He chooses mechanical engineering. Which, good for him, if that's what he really wants to do. And if it is what he really wants to do, I just wish we had heard about it before now. Because springing "mechanical engineering is Wallace's dream" on us now seems like… well, a cheat.

Harmony's back (yay!) and goes on a couple of sorta-dates with Keith. When she tempts him with a room at the Neptune Grand, he respectfully declines, but then he gets broadsided by a truck. Which makes him realize that, like Paula Cole, he, too, does not want to wait. So he goes back and puts the moves on Harmony. They make a nice couple, so it's a shame that she's only on for a few episodes. Oh, and the being married part. That's a shame, too.

Veronica has a very personal case this week, as she's accused of plagiarizing a paper for Prof. Landry and has to find out who set her up. The trail leads her to "Rory Finch," which leads her to the Neptune Grand, which leads her to… Mrs. Dean Begley, Jr.? But then Landry appears and everything becomes clear – they're having an affair, and Tim the Creepy T.A. led her on this goose chase to show her what Landry's really like. Whatever. You just want Landry all to yourself, T.A. Smithers. At the end, Veronica can't bring herself to tell Dean Begley, Jr. about his wife, because you know what they say: Veronica Mars, she's a marshmallow. And I have to revise my statement about her relationship with the dean being similar to the relationship with the principal, because Dean Begley, Jr. has sort of adopted her as his little friend. It's both awkward and hilarious. I like it.

There are big developments in the rape saga. Thanks to Veronica's intel, Dean Begley, Jr. finds that Claire made up her rape and expels her, then fires Nish from the paper for lack of objectivity. Needless to say, both women blame Veronica. Also, Parker recognizes Mercer's cologne from the night of her rape. Veronica brings this information to Lamb, who, shockingly, does not make a snide comment and then dismiss her. Reason being, his deputies found vials of GHB in the cashbox from the Venetian. So Mercer is arrested, but not so fast – Logan comes to Veronica and tells her he has a seeeeecret alibi for Mercer. Which means that the feminists and Parker are going to be even angrier at Veronica when she defends Mercer. Greeeeat. You know, there really wasn't enough of that.

And MacWatch 2006 continues, because we didn't see hide nor blue hair of her in this episode. The show keeps making excuses for her, and this week's was that she was "working on a project." All right, show. If you want to play it like that, then I'm putting you on notice. You'll stay there until you admit what you've done with her.