Spoilers for the latest episode beyond the cut.

Things that happened

Veronica solves the self-proclaimed Mystery of the Missing Monkey. After wandering around a bit and actually doing very little detective work, she decides the monkey in question — a laboratory monkey capable of curing diseases and such — was actually stolen by one of the lab techs. And, lucky for her, it was. You see, apparently working with monkeys for the purposes of science leads to close friendship with the simian which, in turn, leads to kidnapping.

The mystery is really just a front for the other plot lines this week, though! Keith is all about trying to figure out who killed Ed Begley Junior. In a neat twist, it looks like the killer took some hints from Veronica’s “How to Plan a Perfect Murder” term paper from a few episodes back. Keith fingers Veronica’s professor, the hunky one who taught ethics on Saved by the Bell: The College Years, but he’s wise to Keith’s sly attempt to get him to confess, and Keith isn’t able to confirm anything.

But check this: Mac is in this episode. And she’s charming and delightful as always, even as she pursues romantic relations with a crazy animal rights-obsessed guy A bad move, in my opinion, especially considering her last relationship resulted in the death of a Beaver.

Things that were good

• The Dean O’Dell set up! I am liking this mystery, especially how it connects to previous episodes of this season. Once again, I have no idea who could possibly be the killer, but I have yet to be let down by a big mystery resolution for this show, so I am looking forward to the eventual reveal.
• Mac being in this episode. I know this show juggles their regular cast for budgetary reasons, but they were really light on the Mac for the first arc. It is cool that she is back because she makes me happy.
• Logan and Veronica getting back together — their being apart felt totally unnatural and I was so afraid they were going to have Veronica kiss Piz at the end of this episode and, while I like Piz and his hilarious asides, that just wouldn’t have been right.

Things that were not so good

• The main mystery was boring and predictable. This show’s done way better than missing monkeys. At least they didn’t spend a lot of time on it.
• When was the last time Mac and Wallace appeared in the same episode? Why must I be forced to choose only one or the other?
• Look, this is going to sound lewd and chauvanistic, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the opportunity they had and then wasted for Veronica and Mac to take their clothes off and pose for pictures.

Worth watching if…

You love mysteries! And jokes! Mysteries and jokes co-mingling together in layer after layer of plot tangled together with great characters and writing that, I would say, crackles. This wasn’t their strongest episode by a longshot, but I am happy to have this show back.

In Five Words

Mystery of the Missing Monkey

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