Veronica Mars: Thank (Little Girl) God

"Veronica Mars" spoilers coming up just as soon as I come to terms with having actually heard a Nick Lachey song for the first time ever...

A two-part Mystery of the Week(s)? Can they do that? Very cool, not just because it was unexpected, but because it gave the episode room to significantly advance the Dean O'Dell mystery, give Logan a decent character subplot, and not have to rush to wrap up Veronica's case all neat and tidy.

The LoVe stuff rarely does anything for me, but Juliette Goglia (aka Little Girl God from "Joan of Arcadia") was wonderful as Logan's pint-sized new BFF. With most kid actresses, the character would have been insufferably cute and wise, but Goglia played her as a real girl who just happened to have a few useful insights. The elevator scene was a scream, what with Heather's star-struck reaction to Veronica and Veronica trying to make some sense of why some little girl was wearing her clothes and palling around with Logan. Also, any episode in which Dick repeatedly outsmarts Logan gets bonus points from me.

I don't want to comment too much on the coach murder until it's resolved, but a few brief thoughts on it:

• If they're going to keep doing Wallace on the basketball team stories, the coach had to go, because that actor was terrible. I was embarrassed watching the locker room scene.
  
• Okay, so they've got money in the budget for Percy Daggs in this episode, and the case involves Veronica investigating the murder of Wallace's coach. So why did Wallace get only a token cameo at the beginning? It's better than nothing, but still feels like a waste.
• Loved the direction and photography of the scene on the cliff. Not only did it seem for a second like Veronica was about to join Meredith Grey by going into the water, but it evoked memories of the bus crash. (The bus crash mystery was problematic, but I always loved that shot of Veronica standing at cliff's edge staring down at the wreck.)
• Speaking of cliffs... Cliff! I love that guy.
• I appreciate any efforts to get people to watch this show, but can someone please explain to the CW promo department that putting the final scene of an episode prominently into all the ads kind of ruins all the fun?

As for the O'Dell murder, I'm glad they spent so much time on the case, as I was starting to lose interest. In particular, Cyrus' recommendation letter from beyond the grave was a nice touch; I had already liked the dean, but it was good to get a reminder that Veronica should care about what happened to him. (Season two's "I Am God" tried to accomplish the same thing, but came way too late in that story.)

What did everybody else think?