More spoilery thoughts about VM finale
I'm with the A+ Amaaaazing finale team. Wow. Incredibly powerful stuff. Of course there were issues with pacing and cramming too much into the episode, but despite those flaws, it was so wrenching that it still makes an A+ in my book.
I fell basically in love with Cassidy's character over the season (identifying with Mac, and liking the shy geeky guys with all that angst). Didn't hurt that Kyle G is a really great actor for such a young guy. I had a tiny tiny -unspoiled- inkling that RT might make Cassidy end up as the killer, because of the molestation thing (which I guessed the very moment that Mac said that Cassidy didn't want to go any farther than over the bra). I was HOPING and PRAYING that it was Dick that was on the Little League team, or that somehow Dick was responsible for the bus. Even partway into the finale I was hoping that Veronica was wrong about C. too, and that somehow Dick would find out that she knew something, and then HE'd have the big crazy scary bad-guy scene. When I saw Mac consoling poor devastated Cassidy after their attempt at sex, I just ached for him and his seriously-messed up psyche, but even then, I was hoping RT wouldn't go there.
But, as soon as Cassidy's face just CHANGED (that moment that so many others have commented on) when he saw the (very stupid on V.'s part) text message on Mac's phone, I just knew it. His face went from adorably innocent and sad to powerfully enraged. Really fabulous acting. And at that instant, I was devastated and at the same time incredibly impressed with RT for choosing such a likeable character as the killer.
I have read some discussion about whether Cassidy was "pure sociopath evil" or "seriously screwed-up to the point of murdering/raping insanity" during the rooftop scene. I lean toward the latter. He had some good in him. (He didn't shoot Mac, for example, before going to the roof.) He just snapped when he learned that even after everything he'd done, all the horrible acts he'd done in order to -protect- himself, Veronica still knew. As far as I am concerned, I think he lost all control when he realized that Veronica, the person he LEAST wanted to know about his molestation and being a murderer, had found out everything. His manaical reaction to this seemed just intense enough to verify my theory that he just broke at that moment. Even tasering her and torturing her about her father seems to fit with the sudden, all-encompassing breakdown.
I thought the final parts of the rooftop scene were just perfect. When Cassidy climbed over the side toward the edge, the look on his face wasn't crazed rage anymore, it was just wrenching pain. Then he just stepped backward.... My first reaction was that he had realized how awful everything he had done really was -- (and my reaction was backed up further by fellow posters who thought he jumped because he saw that Veronica, his nemesis, had all that tragedy in her life, and hadn't blown people up, and had had normalish relationships with the opposite sex) and just couldn't take it anymore and leapt off the roof.
The music in that particular scene is perhaps the saddest and most beautiful scoring in VM history.
As for Mac saying "he took EVERYTHING", I think I may be the only one who has this particular idea.
I think that Mac and Cassidy did actually have sex (backed up by the darkened hotel room clip with shapes rolling around underneath the sheets). I think that maybe Cassidy then lost his "ability" halfway through, hence the comforting scene afterwards. So, while it wasn't rape at the time, they did have sex, and Mac lost her virginity. Upon coming out of the shower, she realizes that the guy she just gave her virginity to had stolen all the clothes and sheets and left her vulnerable and alone, and that is a MIGHTY big EVERYTHING that he took from her.
What do you guys think? Is this a likely explanation for her reaction?
Anyway. I thought the Cassidy and Mac and rooftop bits were incredible. Maybe more later.
I fell basically in love with Cassidy's character over the season (identifying with Mac, and liking the shy geeky guys with all that angst). Didn't hurt that Kyle G is a really great actor for such a young guy. I had a tiny tiny -unspoiled- inkling that RT might make Cassidy end up as the killer, because of the molestation thing (which I guessed the very moment that Mac said that Cassidy didn't want to go any farther than over the bra). I was HOPING and PRAYING that it was Dick that was on the Little League team, or that somehow Dick was responsible for the bus. Even partway into the finale I was hoping that Veronica was wrong about C. too, and that somehow Dick would find out that she knew something, and then HE'd have the big crazy scary bad-guy scene. When I saw Mac consoling poor devastated Cassidy after their attempt at sex, I just ached for him and his seriously-messed up psyche, but even then, I was hoping RT wouldn't go there.
But, as soon as Cassidy's face just CHANGED (that moment that so many others have commented on) when he saw the (very stupid on V.'s part) text message on Mac's phone, I just knew it. His face went from adorably innocent and sad to powerfully enraged. Really fabulous acting. And at that instant, I was devastated and at the same time incredibly impressed with RT for choosing such a likeable character as the killer.
I have read some discussion about whether Cassidy was "pure sociopath evil" or "seriously screwed-up to the point of murdering/raping insanity" during the rooftop scene. I lean toward the latter. He had some good in him. (He didn't shoot Mac, for example, before going to the roof.) He just snapped when he learned that even after everything he'd done, all the horrible acts he'd done in order to -protect- himself, Veronica still knew. As far as I am concerned, I think he lost all control when he realized that Veronica, the person he LEAST wanted to know about his molestation and being a murderer, had found out everything. His manaical reaction to this seemed just intense enough to verify my theory that he just broke at that moment. Even tasering her and torturing her about her father seems to fit with the sudden, all-encompassing breakdown.
I thought the final parts of the rooftop scene were just perfect. When Cassidy climbed over the side toward the edge, the look on his face wasn't crazed rage anymore, it was just wrenching pain. Then he just stepped backward.... My first reaction was that he had realized how awful everything he had done really was -- (and my reaction was backed up further by fellow posters who thought he jumped because he saw that Veronica, his nemesis, had all that tragedy in her life, and hadn't blown people up, and had had normalish relationships with the opposite sex) and just couldn't take it anymore and leapt off the roof.
The music in that particular scene is perhaps the saddest and most beautiful scoring in VM history.
As for Mac saying "he took EVERYTHING", I think I may be the only one who has this particular idea.
I think that Mac and Cassidy did actually have sex (backed up by the darkened hotel room clip with shapes rolling around underneath the sheets). I think that maybe Cassidy then lost his "ability" halfway through, hence the comforting scene afterwards. So, while it wasn't rape at the time, they did have sex, and Mac lost her virginity. Upon coming out of the shower, she realizes that the guy she just gave her virginity to had stolen all the clothes and sheets and left her vulnerable and alone, and that is a MIGHTY big EVERYTHING that he took from her.
What do you guys think? Is this a likely explanation for her reaction?
Anyway. I thought the Cassidy and Mac and rooftop bits were incredible. Maybe more later.