What do you get when you combine two fantastic subplots, significant movement on the main murder mystery, and the introduction of a new love interest for Veronica?

You get one of the best episodes of Veronica Mars ever, that’s what.

Seriously, guys, I love “Silence of the Lamb” so much and honestly believe it’s in the top 5 all-time greatest episodes of the series. Between the return of Mac (who is featured in a great case du jour) and the first appearance of Deputy Leo, I am all about this one.

Here’s what you missed on 1×10 “An Echolls Family Christmas”:

Aaron Echolls is the goddamn worst. That’s it.

No, I’m totally kidding, that’s not it.

Keith’s subplot here centered around Aaron’s stalker. Lynn came to Keith with evidence of stalking, leading Aaron to confess his indiscretions to Keith. In the end, the stalker was revealed as one of his scorned paramours when she stabbed him with a knife at Lynn’s super fancy holiday party, and I was all, “You go, lady!”

I always think about how awkward these roles must have been for Harry Hamlin (who plays Aaron Echolls) and Lisa Rinna (who plays Lynn). They’re married in real life and his character treats hers like absolute dirt. And hang onto your hat because it gets so much worse later this season, y’all.

Xmas subplot of this episode was enjoyable, too, and really showed off how clever Veronica is. During a poker game at Logan’s, Weevil (who’s invited himself) wins the pot, which ends up missing. Veronica, recruited to uncover the thief, found out it was one of the rich guys who was playing, and that he was secretly the son of a butler– not a rich kid at all.

Veronica took a sec and confronted Jake Kane while at the Echolls’ party, asking about the photos of herself in gun sights that were sent to her mother. Jake was shocked and asked his wife, Celeste, “What did you do?” Drama! Also, Celeste is the worst.

So, that’s that. Onto the main event– namely, the events of “Silence of the Lamb”!

Beware the Hash-Slinging Slasher E-String Strangler

There are two cases of the week at play during this episode. One is spearheaded by Keith, and that’s the case of the serial killer out and about in Neptune.

Good ol’ E-String’s M.O. involves kidnapping college girls, suffocating them in confined spaces, and finally dumping their bodies with his signature e-string tied around their necks.

I’ll just say it: the name given to the killer (“by the press,” an annoyed Keith clarifies) is just awful. Comically bad. Besides that bit, which momentarily pulled me out of the episode, this is a high-stakes subplot. It’s unusual for the show to go this dark with a one-off, since Veronica Mars typically reserves the heavy-hitting, actually-dangerous moments for those related to the larger Lilly Kane murder arc.

Keith teams up with Sheriff Lamb to catch the awkwardly-named murderer. Lamb is, predictably, awful and a generally incompetent cop. While Lamb is a one-note character (to a fault, IMO), the reluctant pairing of Keith with his nemesis/successor leads to a few very funny moments:

KEITH: “Spinal Tap.” LAMB: What? KEITH: The movie “Spinal Tap.” You’ve never seen “Spinal Tap”? LAMB: No. KEITH: That explains a lot.

KEITH: So how do you wanna play this? LAMB: I say we play to our strengths. KEITH: So I’m good cop?

Keith and Lamb chase down a few leads. Lamb, always eager to produce results fast rather than take his time and get the actual criminal in lock-up, insists that their first promising lead, weirdo pervert Eddie, is their guy. Creepy Eddie looks kind of familiar, no?

Oh, hey there, Aaron Paul! Awesome guest stars on this show continue to be awesome.

Eddie is a certifiable creeper, lurking around clubs and videotaping women (under the guise of sending the videos off to “Girls Gone Wild”) for his own “private collection.” Lamb is all set to lock Eddie up and throw away the key but Keith, committed to justice, has his doubts.

Keith is 100% right, of course. After initially figuring that another red herring (Vic Sciaraffa, a skeevy bartender man who leered at Veronica) is the killer, Keith finally determines that their perp is Gabe, the guitar playing poser who sneered at and ridiculed Keith and Lamb earlier in the episode, when they questioned him about the type of guitar string wrapped around the victims’ necks.

You may recognize Gabe as bit-player Steve Monroe, from such classic roles as “The Pig” in that “Animal Pragmatism” episode of Charmed that mentally scarred young Caralynn for years. Seriously, I’m not sure why this was so disturbing, but it really is.

Keith was in some hot water as he burst into the guitar store to save Gabe’s latest would-be victim. Luckily for him (and us), the cutest deputy in town makes his first appearance in this episode and saves Keith’s life.

Introducing Deputy Leo D’Amato

I love Max Greenfield. I love Schmidt, the character he plays with oodles of buffoonish charm on New Girl. Somehow, though, Deputy Leo (Schmidt’s diametric opposite) is still my favorite Max Greenfield character of all time.

Leo is introduced as one of the deputies on the E-String Strangler case. He’s on desk duty when Veronica decides it’s time to steal an audio recording in the Lilly Kane file to figure out who called in the anonymous tip that led to Abel Koontz’s arrest.

Initially, he’s nothing more than a tool for Veronica, someone she can manipulate to get what she needs. She plies him with offerings of pizza and flirty banter, and then has Weevil arrive and distract him (“Well then, you leave the sheriff a note: he shouldn’t expect Eli Navarro Esquire’s vote this year!”).

Side note: it’s adorable and hilarious when Veronica recruits Weevil to do silly little one-offs like this, and Weevil so readily agrees.

Of course, Leo is an adorable twenty-year-old police officer in a band, with really nice biceps, so Veronica, being a hot-blooded typical teenager, quickly sees something more in him. And I mean, can you blame her?

Naturally, Veronica (with her fantastic luck) gets Leo suspended after she leaves the evidence room’s door unlocked after sneaking in to retrieve the tape. Leo, not being a moron, realizes what she did. Their parting is a little chilly, but not irrevocably so.

Veronica’s Side Hustle and Mac’s Lifetime Family Drama

OK, calling the larger Veronica subplot “Mac’s Lifetime family drama” may seem a bit derisive, but I actually think this is one of the best cases of the week of the season, if not the entire series.

It begins with Veronica picking up a slew of side jobs digging up dirt on her disgruntled/entitled classmates’ parents. Word spreads, and Mac offers to go into business with Veronica (who also acknowledges Mac’s part in the purity test debacle). Veronica declines, citing her busy schedule, but agrees to help Mac out with her own parental background check.

Mac, who explains to Veronica that she loves her parents but doesn’t quite fit in with her family, is wholly unprepared for what Veronica pulls up. Namely, that she was switched at birth with another Neptune family’s daughter– the one and only Madison Sinclair, chief insufferable blonde rich girl of Neptune High.

It’s an interesting choice to have the Sinclairs be clearly dissatisfied with the daughter they got stuck with. I expected the Sinclairs to have been snooty, rich jerks to have raised a snooty, rich jerk like Madison, but this outcome was much more dramatically interesting.

Instead, from our brief glimpse of that family when Mac goes to scope out the house, they are kindly people, and Mac’s biological mother and sister both immediately take to Mac, despite not knowing that she’s their kin.

There’s a whole slew of larger nature vs. nurture questions, here. It also doesn’t quite make sense that Madison is so awful while her family is not. And it’s not like she’s biologically awful, because the Mackenzies (her own birth family, Mac’s adoptive family) are perfectly sweet also. Madison just sucks for no reason, is what I’m saying.

In the end, though Mac still yearns a little bit for the life of privilege and refined taste that she missed out on, she accepts the non-biological family that loves her and raised her. Poor Mrs. Sinclair is stuck with teenage demon Barbie, and clearly not thrilled about it, based on that car scene.

The Murder File of Lilly Kane

Between romancing Leo and helping Mac out with her family drama, Veronica manages to uncover a huge lead in the Lilly Kane case. Calling upon Mac’s computer prowess, Veronica has her friend strip down the digitally altered voice of the anonymous informer who called in the Koontz tip (technologically unlikely, but whatever). In doing so, she discovers that the caller was none other than Clarence Weidman– head of security at Kane Software, chief good of Veronica’s maybe-bio-daddy Jake Kane, and the man who took the surveillance photos of her and scared off Lianne.

Veronica, inexplicably (she admits as much), delivers surveillance photos of her own to Clarence, wanting to spook him. It’s a terrible idea, but it makes her feel momentarily better and does succeed in spooking him, so that’s a win, I guess.

Other thoughts:

There’s no shortage of flat-out infuriating Lamb moments, but I think that his constant interruptions during Keith’s debriefing of the Strangler case takes the cake. He repeatedly clarifies that the victims were “hard partiers,” because, apropos of the man who laughed off Veronica’s attempt to report her date rape, he is the actual worst.

The casting for Mac’s and Madison’s families is a bit on the nose. The Mackenzies are all super blonde, like Madison, while the Sinclairs look exactly like older and younger version of Mac.

No Logan, no Duncan this time around. It’s odd how little Logan is in the early half of this season, given how important he becomes.

And with that, we’ve passed the half-way point of Veronica Mars Season 1. Tune in next time for our next foray into Neptune’s drama!