Donut Run

"Donut Run"
Veronica Mars episode

After successfully escaping the country with his baby daughter, Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn) drives off into the distance with Vinnie Van Lowe (Ken Marino) and his mother's assistant, Astrid.
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 11
Directed by Rob Thomas
Written by Rob Thomas
Production code 2T7211
Original air date January 25, 2006
Guest actors

"Donut Run" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars, and the thirty-third episode overall. Written and directed by series creator Rob Thomas, "Donut Run" premiered on January 25, 2006 on UPN.

The series depicts the adventures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) as she deals with life as a high school student while moonlighting as a private detective. In this episode, after Meg's death, Duncan (Teddy Dunn) steals his baby daughter and runs away with her. Meanwhile, Logan (Jason Dohring) and Weevil (Francis Capra) work together on solving Felix Toombs's murder.

Synopsis

Veronica gets into an elevator with Logan. They banter before Logan and Veronica walk into the apartment and find Kendall (Charisma Carpenter), indicating that Duncan was sleeping with her. Veronica confronts Duncan, who abruptly breaks up with her in the middle of the fight. After their breakup, Veronica slips into a depression before Keith (Enrico Colantoni) attempts to console her to no avail. Logan and Weevil discuss who killed Felix, and they deduce that whoever it was in cahoots with the Fitzpatricks. Sheriff Lamb (Michael Muhney) comes in and informs Veronica that Duncan has disappeared and kidnapped his daughter, Faith. He arrests Veronica as a supposed accomplice. At the police station, Keith pressures Veronica to tell the truth about her partial unknowing involvement in supplying the finances for the kidnapping. Afterwards, Sheriff Lamb requires her to write down everything she knows on a notepad. Logan asks Dick (Ryan Hansen) to get some drugs for the PCHers. Vinnie Van Lowe (Ken Marino) talks to Veronica and says that he’ll find Duncan before she does.

Veronica learns that Wallace didn’t come back to Neptune to play basketball, as he originally said. Dick delivers the drugs, and Logan learns that Hector is now the prime suspect. Two FBI agents talk to Sheriff Lamb, intent on getting the baby back. Veronica shows some information about Duncan’s computer. Weevil talks to Hector, who denies the accusation. The FBI agents and Sheriff Lamb learn that Duncan stole a boat. However, the boat is searched, but they find no people—just evidence that people were there. Veronica thinks that Duncan has been picked up by someone. Veronica asks Vinnie Van Lowe to give a letter to Duncan. Weevil talks to Sean Friedrich (Kevin Sheridan), a drug dealer, but he wasn’t working for the Fitzpatricks. Veronica talks to Wallace (Percy Daggs III), who says that a teammate got in a car crash while he was in the car. He felt incredibly guilty and decided to come back.

Veronica receives a short call from Duncan just as the FBI agents track Duncan’s location. Veronica goes into an abandoned apartment, where she meets Duncan. It turns out that the set of events that seemed to point towards Duncan having stolen the baby was a scam so that Veronica and Duncan could accomplish an unknown other purpose. Sheriff Lamb learns this fact, just as Keith finds diapers in the apartment. A reporter contacts Wallace. Sheriff Lamb goes down to Mexico and asks around for Duncan Kane. Keith angrily confronts Veronica about her actions regarding the baby. The FBI agents search Veronica’s apartment. Weevil learns that Felix was dating Molly Fitzpatrick. Sheriff Lamb continues his search before finding his trunk unloaded. Duncan, disguised as a hitchhiker, gets picked up by Vinnie Van Lowe and Astrid (Celeste’s assistant), and they drive off into the distance.

Cultural references

The following cultural references are made in the episode:[1]

Arc significance

Music

The following music can be heard in the episode:[2]

Production

Series creator Rob Thomas (pictured) wrote and directed the episode.

The episode was written and directed by series creator Rob Thomas. Although Thomas had previously written "Pilot", "Credit Where Credit's Due", "Leave It to Beaver", and "Normal Is the Watchword", this is his first directing credit for the show and his first professional directing credit.[3][4] In an interview, Thomas expressed nervousness around the shoot, especially when to call "Action."[4] Thomas also made sure that he directed an episode that he'd written.[4] When asked about how it came to be that Thomas directed an episode, he replied:

[I]t could not have made less sense, for me to direct an episode right smack in the middle of the season. And it about killed me. For a month there, I was doing two jobs, and they're both very full time, directing an episode and still running the show and looking at cuts of the show, looking at scripts, doing casting — all of that had to keep going while I was directing, and it was really difficult. I think if I direct in the future, it'll be episode 20, 21, or 22, so all the scripts are in, and I don't have both hats on at the same time.

Being a first-time director, the network is, what's the word I'm looking for -- they don't want a first-time director directing one of their sweeps episodes, so it created a limited number of episodes that I could choose from.[4]

Series regular Teddy Dunn (pictured, who portrays Duncan Kane) made his final regular appearance in "Donut Run".

The episode features the final regular appearance by Duncan Kane (played by Teddy Dunn), after his character was written off the series.[5] Duncan would later cameo in the season two finale, "Not Pictured". Thomas attributed Duncan's departure to the lack of fan interest in Veronica and Duncan's relationship and the more enthusiastic reception to the Veronica-Logan relationship, stating that "You know, we had two romantic possibilities for Veronica. One sort of dominated the fans' interest. And it became clear that one suitor won out."[6]

From the very beginning of the series, fans had expressed dislike towards the character of Duncan. However, he decided to keep playing the character. In a later interview, he said, "Obviously, I acted because I wanted the fans to like the experience. You want your performance to be liked. You don't want to suck. You don't want people to think you suck. That wasn't the goal."[7] Before going into the filming of season two, Thomas had told Dunn that he was being written off the show, and Dunn did not react badly to the news, as by that point, it "was actually a decision" for him to return for the second season at all.[7] The episode features a special guest-starring appearance by actress Lucy Lawless as an FBI agent.[8] "Donut Run" marks the final appearance of recurring character Celeste Kane.

Reception

Ratings

In its original broadcast, "Donut Run" received 1.62 million viewers, becoming the lowest-rated episode of the series overall and marking a sharp decrease in 1.8 million viewers from the previous episode, "One Angry Veronica".[9]

Reviews

The episode received critical acclaim. Writing for The A.V. Club, Rowan Kaiser gave the episode a positive review, stating that the characters knowing facts that the audience doesn't worked. " 'Donut Run' actually does this well, in large part because the heist that we're seeing—Duncan and Veronica stealing the coma baby—requires that Duncan and Veronica stage a breakup, meaning that Veronica seems to be a free, bitter agent for the bulk of the episode."[10] Price Peterson of TV.com heavily praised what he called a "great episode" and "a fitting send-off for Duncan". He elaborated that "As much as he and Veronica were a good match, there's only so much you can do dramatically with a happy relationship, you know? I'm kind of glad she's back to being a free agent again."[11] Conversely, Television Without Pity gave a more mixed review, saying that there were "quite a few problems" with the episode and grading it a "B-".[12]

IGN called the episode the third best episode of the series, behind "Weapons of Class Destruction" and "Leave It to Beaver". The publication stated that "this fast-paced episode…had switches and secrets and is a tad reminiscent of Oceans 11" and that the characterization of Vinnie Van Lowe was "a pleasing little touch."[13] Vulture ranked the episode's use of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by Al Green and "Adelaide" by The Old 97's on its list of "16 Perfect Musical Moments from Veronica Mars".[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Donut Run Cultural References". Mars Investigations: The (In)Complete Guide to Veronica Mars. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  2. ↑ "The Music Of Veronica Mars: Episode 2-11: Donut Run". Mars Investigations: The (In)Complete Guide to Veronica Mars. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Rob Thomas (II)". TV.com. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Ryan, Maureen (January 20, 2006). "'Veronica Mars' scoop". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  5. ↑ McFarland, Melanie (July 17, 2006). "Kristen Bell, Rob Thomas hope The CW Switch Solves the Mystery of Why 'Veronica Mars' Hasn't Caught On". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  6. ↑ Goldman, Eric (July 18, 2006). "Veronica Mars Season 3: Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas Talk". IGN. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Gennis, Sadie (October 1, 2014). "Exclusive: Whatever Happened to Duncan Kane? Veronica Mars Star Teddy Dunn Speaks Out". TV Guide. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  8. ↑ Z., Brian (January 9, 2006). "Lawless to Guest Star on Veronica Mars". IGN. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. January 31, 2006. Retrieved July 29, 2008.
  10. ↑ Kaiser, Rowan (December 16, 2011). "Review: Veronica Mars: "One Angry Veronica" / "Donut Run"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  11. ↑ Peterson, Price (July 7, 2012). "The Veronica Mars Season 2 Dossier: Episodes 9-12". TV.com. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Veronica Mars Donut Run Recap". Television Without Pity. January 24, 2006. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  13. ↑ Ratcliffe, Amy (March 13, 2014). "The Top 10 Veronica Mars Episodes". IGN. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  14. ↑ Kreizman, Maris (September 26, 2014). "Veronica Mars' Best Musical Moments". Vulture. Retrieved April 17, 2015.

External links