confronting." The reporter went on to praise the "expertly scripted" reveal and thought Diane Ruggiero's "command of the tightrope high-school milieu seems pretty much spot-on. It is Ruggiero's resolution of the mystery, however, that will keep fans talking. Like the best resolutions, I suppose, it raises more questions than it answers." Complex gave the episode a positive review, writing that it was overshadowed by "Leave It to Beaver", but that it was also a good episode by itself as well. "[The date rape mystery] all comes to a head in the penultimate episode, which puts Veronica on the emotional rollercoaster until she gets to the uncomfortable truth." The magazine also praised the reappearances of guest stars: "what really makes the episode special is the way it trots out every supporting player and case-of-the-week guest star." IGN ranked the episode 4th on its list of the top ten Veronica Mars episodes, saying that "'A Trip to the Dentist'" is a heavy episode that expertly shows how different people remember the same situation. The fact that Veronica has to threaten people who were at the party into telling her the truth is frakking painful. It's made even more sad when you realize that the version she believed to be the truth actually wasn't." Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club gave a positive review, stating that the reveal was "an effective narrative, and one which creates a "satisfying" resolution for the viewer as well as the character. Veronica Mars has done a good job of subverting expectations on a regular basis, but it's still a TV show, with requirements for satisfying resolutions. [...] Which is my roundabout way of saying that while I wasn't surprised by the reveal that it was Duncan Kane, I was impressed by how well it worked up to that point. It had to be Duncan or someone totally irrelevant and shocking." Television Without Pity gave the episode an "A+", its fourth such rating for the series, after "An Echolls Family Christmas", "Clash of the Tritons", and "M.A.D.". Conversely, Price Peterson, writing for TV.com, gave a more mixed review, heavily criticizing the resolution to Veronica's rape case. While calling it an "entertaining episode", he said that it had an "appalling message." He explained by writing that "[r]egardless of Duncan having been drugged, Veronica could not give consent to him any more than she could to the dudes who were