Veronica Mars S01 E01 – Flailtroductions

A long time ago, we used to be friends.

—

Pilot

Sweeney: IT’S NEW SERIES TIME! New series and a new recapper. We’ve wanted to add Veronica Mars to our repertoire for a while, but we also needed a Snow (and like 19 more hours in the week, but we settled for having half of our demands met).  Much like our Buffy recaps we have three different experiences. I haven’t marathoned any other show half as many times as I’ve seen this one. (Which is to say that I’ve seen it all-the-way-through 5 or 6 times. I really don’t repeat-marathon most shows.) Lor has only seen it once, though we share the belief that the first season of this show is one of the best seasons of TV ever. (We’ll see how blogging changes things.) Meanwhile, a dear friend of the blog (and also my lifeself), The Democracy Diva will be joining us as the resident Snow. Diva Snow, if you please. It’s been a while since either of our repeat watchers have seen it, so we’re all prepared to make a fun little ride out of this experience. As always, no spoilers in order to protect the Snow.

Pilot episodes require us to tell you ALL THE THINGS and this one, in particular, is an infodump of epic proportions, so LET’S GET TO IT:

The series begins at The Camelot, Neptune’s seedy motel. Our unseen heroine monologues, “I’m never getting married. You want an absolute? Well, there it is. Veronica Mars: Spinster.” She insists that “the people you love will inevitably let you down,” and the story winds itself here with cheap motels and private investigators. This is where she comes in, and we cut to her old convertible LeBaron, and her calculus book. She grabs some coffee as she monologues that if you’re the one in the affair, you should really be considerate of the person watching who might have to take a calculus exam in a few hours and can’t leave without the money shot.

This is interrupted by the arrival of a biker gang. The leader of this biker gang encourages her to roll down her window. “Car trouble, miss?” he asks.

ROLL CREDITS WHICH ARE FAVORITE CREDITS. On my second marathon of the show I watched with my best friend and we had a well-synchronized dance to this, by which I mean that we mostly just looked like we were having seizures, but, like, in unision. A LONG TIME AGO, WE USED TO BE FRIENDS…DA NA COME ON NOW SUGAAAARR DA NA BRING IT ON BRING IT ON YEAAAH…

OK. I’m done now. (Also, this show has some really fantastic music, the theme song being no exception.)

Lorraine: I’m a little bit reluctant to proclaim my love for these credits because you do not share love for my other favorite credits. BUT OKAY. FINE. THESE ARE GREAT TOO. Also, in case you are new here, we’ve referenced Veronica Mars a time or ten on this site, and the tag is “a long time ago we used to be friends.” SEE WHAT WE DID THERE?

Democracy Diva: I have loved jamming out to “We Used to Be Friends” since it was on The O.C. It’s. So. Danceable. But I concur with Lor; I don’t care, I’m still free, since I found the Firefly theme.

Sweeney: After those AMAZING credits, the high school imagery of notebooks is reinforced by cheerleaders running across the parking lot. Veronica informs us that anyone who goes to Neptune High is either the child of a millionaire or the help because Neptune has no middle class. Needless to say, class divides, being introduced this early, are a significant part of this show. Veronica then informs us that she’s going to explain how she ended up surrounded by the local biker gang at 4am by rewinding to the previous day.

She arrives at school and finds a crowd surrounding the flag pole. A kid has been duct taped to the pole, naked with the word “snich” (SPELLING. LEARN ABOUT IT.) painted across his chest.

Lor: I’d like to say “snich” takes the sting out of the prank, but the dude taped to the flag pole probably wouldn’t thinks so. Also, we can perhaps already hate most of everyone at this high school for standing there and looking.

Sweeney: Veronica moves through the crowd and tells some dick taking a selfie with the poor kid to move. He starts to protest by she pulls a knife because V’s a bad ass. She cuts him down, mumbling, “Welcome to Neptune High.” (Diva: Missed opportunity for a “Welcome to the O.C., bitch.”) The bell rings and the crowd groans as it disperses. She cuts him down she sarcastically shouts, “Go Pirates!” after them. An accurate representation of my own sense high school spirit.

 

In an actual class, which is a thing that actually happens here at Neptune High (crazy, right?) a teacher is asking if anyone did the reading and can say what Pope meant by the thing they were all supposed to have read. She calls on Veronica, who is sleeping on her desk. Veronica recites the passage from memory and says it means, “Life’s a bitch until you die,” which the teacher accepts and moves on so that she can go back to her nap.

In the empty hallway, she’s telling us that the administration has been doing random locker searches, which are not actually random and Veronica, in all her sneaky wisdom, knows when they’re going to happen before Vice Principal Clemmons does. At her locker said VP and Deputy Sacks are waiting to open her locker. Deputy Sacks knows her and smarms that the contents of locker will be good. The drug dog barks as she enters the combination and Veronica sternly says, “Buster!” which makes the dog stop. Her locker is empty save for a heart-shaped picture of Clemmons taped to the door. “Wow…this is a little embarrassing.”

Lor: Let’s just pause and marvel at what a wonderful job the opening scenes have done at introducing us to Veronica. For all the exposition that is required of a pilot, we’re at least shown more than told what kind of girl Veronica is. I love her all over again already.

Sweeney: At lunch, she pokes at her school lunch while the camera does a fast-spinny thing to indicate ambiguous passage of time. (Diva: Veronica should check her sweater for teeny tiny magic devices that speed up time!) (S: A+) We see her watching the popular table, which she said she used to belong to, because in spite of being a lowly poor person, her dad was sheriff and that was worth something. Mostly, though, it’s because she was dating Duncan Kane, whose father is a BFD. We get a quick dreamy flashback to them dating. Flashback Veronica has much longer hair. One day Duncan dumped her without warning. She also introduces Duncan’s BFF Logan Echolls, whose father is a movie star. He mocks Veronica because he sees her watching Duncan. V refers to him as the school’s “obligatory psychotic jackass.”

Lor: Veronica was intensely staring for a REALLY long time. Those darn flashbacks will leave you looking a fool.

Sweeney: We come out of this reverie to see that Flagpole Kid is sitting with Veronica. I can’t keep referring to him that way; his name is Wallace Fennel. He asks if she’s OK and she rudely responds, “Did I say you could sit here?” He starts to go but she feels bad and takes it back, saying he can sit wherever he wants. Just as he is thanking her for cutting him down, the biker we saw earlier strolls up, telling Wallace that he was supposed to wait for him at the flagpole. Biker Guy (Weevil) gets in Wallace’s face and Veronica tells Weevil to leave Wallace alone.

Weevil and Veronica start exchanging dick jokes, and when one of his sidekicks tells him not to let her talk to him that way, she jokes that he must want to see Biker Guy’s dick too. Sidekick starts to undo his belt just as Clemmons appears to introduce him as Felix Tombs (which is the best biker surname ever) and shut this down. He asks Veronica why trouble follows her around as he’s escorting the boys elsewhere.

 

Once they go, she asks Wallace to explain why he’s “a dead man walking.” He says he has a job at the Sack N Pack and while he was working some dudes came in and stuffed things into their pockets so he pushed the silent alarm. They threw a $1 bill at him and walked, just as the cops arrived. Veronica rudely interrupts his story to be a sassy know-it-all and inform him that Neptune has a sheriff’s department and not police. Stand by as we learn if a sheriff’s department is any more effective at solving/preventing crimes than the assorted police departments of Traumaland.

Wallace continues his story. Sheriff Don Lamb makes him come outside because the two handcuffed guys say they paid. Sheriff Lamb is a bit of a dick to Wallace and with the whole biker gang present and so little support, he caves and agrees that they did, in fact, pay. Lamb goes inside and grabs the security tape and tells Sacks to take the guys downtown. He sniffs at Wallace before saying, “You need to go see the wizard; ask him for some guts.“

Diva: As far as I can tell, the sheriff’s job is to harass innocent people and make The Wizard of Oz references. You know, like manly men do.

Sweeney: Veronica confirms that he actually made that asshole comment – mostly to verify that it was Lamb – before informing him that he’s managed, in his short time in Neptune, to piss off the motorcycle gang and the local sheriff.

Lor: So, probably don’t call the sheriff’s department if you need help then. And with apologies to Veronica, we’re going to use the tag that says “police” just the same.

Sweeney: Back at Veronica’s apartment, she walks by the pool and it sends her into a flashback. Duncan is emerging from the pool at his own house, wishing her a happy birthday. She turns around to see her mother and friends with a giant cake. Someone saying her name calls her back to the present – a neighbor with an armful of groceries needs help with the gate.

Inside her apartment she is greeted by her dog. Fun thing that I once heard but can’t seem to make the internet confirm: the doggy actor (among other things) changes after this episode because Kristen Bell kept this one, since they obviously didn’t know if the show would get picked up after filming wrapped on the pilot. (Diva: SHUT UP I LOVE THIS SHOW ALREADY.) She takes the dog to run on the beach where she sees Wallace flying a remote controlled airplane.

A little later in the day she arrives outside her dad’s office where she is surprised to see the shiny red convertible of Celeste Kane parked out front. Celeste, Veronica says, hates her almost as much as she adores Duncan. She tries to listen at her dad’s office door, but is interrupted by the arrival of Cliff McCormack. Veronica tries to shoo him off by saying that her dad is with a client, but he mentions how well they handle their caseload as a way of subtly implying that the P. I.’s daughter is doing a little more work than just being an assistant. She insists that they’re efficient.

He says he’s just going to casually leave a file open on her desk in case she wants to glance at it. One of his clients, Loretta Cancun is a dancer at local strip club and got busted for taking a baseball bat to a machine that stole her quarters at the laundromat. Delightful. Cliff says he likes that this case is “tawdry.” He goes on to say the the club (The Seventh Veil) has an “interesting” way of keeping their liquor license in spite of a lax ID policy. He leaves after suggesting that her “DAD” should look into it if he has time.

Shortly after he exits, Celeste leaves Papa Mars’s office, saying that she hates coming to him due to their mutual dislike of one another, but she also knows he’ll get shit done. She needs him to do it ASAP and also just to wait for her call because she can’t be taking phone calls from the likes of him. KEITH MARS casually says, “Hi,” to Veronica before ducking back into his office. Veronica watches from her window as Celeste gets into her car as she drops the pre-commercial bombshell that Celeste’s evil isn’t entirely unwarranted, what with Papa Mars having tried to put her husband away for life.

Diva: Exactly one second after I wrote “Mrs. Kane is a total bitch” in my notes, Veronica voice-overs, “Sure, she’s a bitch.” Good. Glad we’re all on the same page here. 

Sweeney: I’m going to use this Not Break to give myself a hot second of flail. I know I can’t flailtroduce all the characters even though I want to. If I had to pick just one (other than Veronica herself) it’s Keith. It was a close call naming the Traumaland Gold Standard of Parenting after Sandy Cohen. I’m now making a fine line distinction here. I think Sandy is the better parent, but Keith Mars is my favorite TV parent. His relationship with Veronica is my favorite relationship on the show.

After the Not Break, the pair are eating macaroni and cheese and Keith is trying to talk about anything other than his business with Celeste, but Veronica’s not having it. He begrudgingly confirms that yes, it is their usual spouse-suspected-of-cheating job. Veronica asks the detective question about his sexual appetite and Keith smirks while stabbing his mac and cheese because obvs that’s the question you want your teenage daughter to know to ask. He says he did take the case because they need the money.

The phone rings. Veronica answers and passes it to Keith. The result of the call is that he’ll be catching the 7:30 flight out of San Diego because a bail jumper they’ve been tracking was just spotted near El Paso, TX. Veronica tells him to go, promising to have his flight booked by the time he gets to the airport. He tells her not to do anything on the Kane case and she agrees. They chat about a few other be-good-take-care-of-yourself details. His last words before he leaves the office are, “When you go after Jake Kane, you take backup.” She always does.

Later that night she’s in her car watching Jake Kane pace around his office. It’s a convenient place for her to give us a little more back story: Kane Software invented/perfected streaming video. Got mega rich – and made everyone who worked for him rich – when the company went public. This makes him a pretty popular figure in Neptune. I’d like the guy who made me rich too. Veronica goes onto say that she knew the family well because not only was Duncan her love, but his sister Lilly was her best friend.

Flashback Magic! Long-haired Veronica is working a car wash with Lilly in matching Pirates gear. Veronica jokes that Lilly seems extra happy – “I see the Prozac’s working.” Lilly’s response is, for reasons I cannot explain, one of the things I quote most often: “High on life, Veronica Mars.” More importantly for the show, she adds: “I’ve got a secret. A good one.” Their teacher tells them to scrub more and chat less, so the secret will have to wait. Lilly’s going to spend the rest of the season showing Alison DiLaurentis how being the dead blonde it-girl BFF with a secret is really done. Suck it, Ali.

 

Lor: About 5 of those times we’ve previously mentioned Veronica Mars was to say, “YOU ARE NO LILLY KANE, ALISON DILAURENTIS.” So, yeah.

Diva: I got depressed because I thought Amanda Seyfried would only be in this episode, but I’m hoping this means that she’ll be back for more flashbacks! Or as a zombie. (I should probably confess now that I know so little about this show, I actually thought Veronica Mars was a superhero with magical crime-solving powers until, like, last week. Please feel free to mock me endlessly for this. It won’t stop me from assuming that supernatural things are happening to every single character.)

Sweeney: That’s the fun of having a Snow around!

Veronica says that those were the last words she heard Lilly say. That night she was riding with her dad when he got a call about a disturbance at the Kane estate. She was told to wait in the car, but went in anyway when she saw Duncan sitting there utterly catatonic. She asked him what happened, but he doesn’t answer. She followed voices to the backyard where her father was inspecting the bludgeoned head of her now deceased best friend. Veronica goes on to say that this is a well-known story, having been on the cover of People magazine and featured on Entertainment Tonight. The bungling local sheriff – her dad – who went after the wrong man is also a detail everyone knows.

Cut to Veronica following Jake Kane to the Camelot, saying that while her dad may have been wrong then, Celeste is apparently right now. “They say the divorce rate is twice as high for parents who lose a child. Lose a child – now there’s a euphemism for you.” Jake knocks on a motel room door which he enters and allows Veronica to keep getting her flashback on.

Two kids in the library are watching the very graphic leaked crime scene video. It was all over the internet – thanks to streaming video – and her dad got blamed for the leak. Veronica walks off, unable to handle the sight, and is stopped by Logan Echolls, who tells her that her father is destroying the Kane family. (In such a way that conveniently outlines all the links: Logan and Lilly were dating. Lilly and Duncan = siblings. Lilly and Veronica = besties. Everybody with us still?)

She continues VO about the emergency recall election that removed him from office and forced them to sell their house. He was convinced that Jake Kane was guilty and while her mom wanted to move out of Neptune, Keith refused to be run out of town and neither was she. The family flashback includes Veronica watching breaking news that Sheriff Lamb has arrested former Kane employee Abel Koontz because a pair of Lilly’s shoes were found on his houseboat.

Lor: And this is when I was truly sure Veronica was better than me. I would’ve been all, “yep! Let’s pack it up. Moving sounds great.”

Sweeney: We leave the flashback at the beginning of the episode – with the arrival of the PCH bike gang. One of the bikers get a little too close to the car and Veronica’s dog jumps out and mauls him. Felix Tombs gets up in her face and she tazes him, before telling Backup – her dog – to chill.

Lor: THIS was the moment I remember being all, “I’m in.” HER DOG’S NAME IS BACKUP. It’s the little things.

Diva: Weevil actually tells Veronica that he’ll get her “and your little dog, too.” So all of the thugs in this town make Wizard of Oz references? This is the kind of gang I could totally join, you guys.

Sweeney: Veronica makes a deal with Weevil: if he lays off Wallace for a week, he’ll make sure the arrested PCHers walk. Weevil jokes about Veronica’s slutty reputation before agreeing to the deal and riding off.

 

The slut jokes are yet another opportunity for Veronica to get her flashback on. I told you this episode was heavy on the infodump, but forgot to mention that it’s because 75% of it takes place before the show properly begins. We’re only halfway done. “You want to know how I lost my virginity? So do I.” Flashback Veronica is at a party at Shelly Pomeroy’s (wearing a pretty white virginal dress!) trying to show everyone she didn’t care about the gossip, but it turned out to be a bad idea. We see her receive a drink from an unknown hand which turned out to be “your basic rum, coke, and roofie.” A very disoriented Veronica stumbles to a lawn chair and passes out. She wakes up the morning in a bed and tears up and she grabs her underwear off the floor. As she walks to her car the voiceover tells us that she never told her dad because no good would have come of it. “And what does it matter? I’m no longer that girl.“

Diva: When Veronica wakes up and realizes what happened, she does that kind of crying where the rest of your face looks completely normal but there are tears streaming down your cheeks. It broke my fucking heart. I’d care no matter who this happened to, but this show has made me so emotionally invested in Veronica in the span of half an episode. 

Sweeney: Present!Veronica takes pictures of Jake standing in the motel doorway. She can see a hand on the door, but the woman it belongs to never appears.

At school the next day, Logan pulls up beside Veronica to harass her. He says she’s invited to skip school with them and Duncan promises to take his shirt off. Duncan looks out his window the entire time, but angrily tells Logan to STFU. Logan offers her some booze and jokes that her mother sure was a woman who can drink and oh-by-the-way-do-you-know-where she is?

Flashback again! It has been 8 months since she last saw her mother, who split a month after the recall. All she left for Veronica was a unicorn music box and a note promising to return for her someday. Flashback Veronica throws them both away.

Present Veronica is wearing a really tragic pair of flannel pants as she sits at her lunch table. Wallace says she should hear the things people say about her. They banter a bit, but Wallace says that if he can either sit with the people who laughed at him and took pictures or the chick who cut him down, it’s an easy choice. With that, she excitedly tells him she’s got a plan to get the PCHers off his back.

Lor: Wallace has such an adorable smile. Thought I should mention. 

Sweeney: In the art room, she’s showing a sketch book to a stoner kid named Corny who is way excited to help them execute this plan. While that was going on, Veronica goes through the photos from the Camelot. We see she has a wall of similar security photos which is a slightly creepy thing to hold onto. (Just in case you doubt that we’ve called 90% of Traumaland’s featured faces creepy at some time or another.) She prints off a few photos.

That night Keith returns as Veronica does her homework in a kitchen that will also change in the post-pilot set.

 

He says he used to be cool, and begins to reminisce, but realizes it’s just a Springsteen song and he was never actually cool. (Diva: Doesn’t everyone confuse Springsteen songs with their actual youth? I grew up a few towns over from The Boss and am literally “sprung from cages on Highway 9,” so perhaps I’m biased.) He does a little dance as he hands her the check for returning the bail jumper and says they’re skipping the sack dinners that night – “Tonight we eat like the lower middle class to which we aspire!“

Later, he’s grilling steaks on a communal grill in their apartment complex. Veronica mentions the Kane case and he says he thought he told her to stay away. “I remember you saying something about taking Backup.” She adds that there wasn’t a money shot, but she got pictures of license plates. Keith looks at them and his mood changes. He tells her to stay away because they’re actually just going to drop the case. Veronica’s pissed and confused, asking him to just tell her, but he goes into srsbsns dad mode and tells her to stay away from him.

Diva: Is the woman in the picture Veronica’s mom?! 

Sweeney: Later, she’s looking into the Loretta Cancun case, which is actually now part of her Save Wallace case. She’s in her car filming outside the Seventh Veil.

At school the next day, she and Wallace hide in the halls as Logan gets his locker searched. Inside the find a very weird, ornate bong. The bell rings and students enter the halls as he’s being carted away. He spots Veronica and says he knows it was her and he’ll get her for it. She fake-yawns. She turns to Wallace and tells her to meet after school to see if he’s done his part.

Later, they sit in her car, just outside the sheriff’s department. Wallace has another remote control and is anxious, but grips tight when Veronica tries to grab it from him. He flips a switch and we see the bong ignite inside the evidence room. Smoke pours out of the evidence room and the receptionist (Inga!) exclaims something in German. Cut to the arrival of the fire department. Veronica and Wallace grin because this clearly means their plan worked.

Diva: YEAH, BITCH! REMOTE CONTROLLED EXPLOSIVES AND THE DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE! I can’t believe I never knew that Breaking Bad used Veronica Mars as its source material.

Sweeney: Later, Veronica goes to the fire station where it seems she has another accomplice. She asks a firefighter if he made the switch. He did and hands her the envelope he retrieved from the room. That night she’s sitting at her desk at Mars Investigations noting that there are still plenty of people in this town who love her father and that’s occasionally useful. Sometimes, though, Veronicas have to get shit done themselves. She’s enhances one of the license plate photos she grabbed before calling someone. She lays on a thick accent saying that it’s Inga and the computers are down again (the guy on the other line indicates that Veronica does this often). She asks him to run a plate for her. He does and it turns out that the car is registered to one Lianne Mars. (Diva: It was the mom! Hah! And they say the Snow knows nothing.)

After a Not Commercial Break Veronica is hanging up the phone as Keith comes out of his office, suggesting they call it a day early and go see a movie. She asks him to explain again why they aren’t taking the Kane case. He takes a big sip off coffee and busies himself with pouring a new one while he lies that he ran the plates and confirmed that it’s dangerous corporate espionage stuff that they don’t get paid enough for. With that, Veronica hastily leaves, declining his invitation without explanation.

Lor: Keith Mars, I love you, but you’ve got to know that your P.I. daughter is going to know you are lying. Bad move.

Sweeney: Veronica arrives at the sheriff’s department, greeting Inga and asking about a courtroom. Inga is eager to see her, but gets awkward about the last time she saw her. Why, yes, that is a flashback you hear coming around the corner!

The other feature of the flashbacks, in addition to Veronica’s long hair, is their blueness. We’re not talking Twilight level blue filters, but a definite blue tint. Flashback Veronica tells Inga that she needs to report a crime before we cut to her sitting in Lamb’s office. He asks if there’s anyone in particular she’d like to arrest or if he should just round up the sons of the most important families in town, what with her and her dad not caring much for evidence. She starts to cry, and he tells her to go see the wizard to ask for a little backbone. Unfortunately, there is no crossover demon I can summon to rip his balls out for mocking the 16 year old girl who is crying in his office about her recent rape. HULKSMASH EVERYTHING.

Diva: +1. AND HE’S STILL REFERENCING THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Sweeney: Present!Veronica, however, gets a tiny sliver of vindication. She enters the courtroom just as Lamb is giving his damning testimony. He looks a little anxious about her arrival, but the prosecutor asks them to roll the tape. The tape turns out to be a tape of one of Lamb’s deputies in uniform, on the job, getting a blowjob in his car outside the Seventh Veil. Defendant Cliff McCormack asks if this might also be an appropriate time to ask for dismissal in The People v. Loretta Cancun. Lamb is distressed and Veronica gives him a quick finger-gun-gotcha and walks out.

She arrives at the beach to meet Wallace. She hands him the tape she got from her firefighting accomplice. He says he owes her, but she insists that she had her own reasons. “You really think I’m gonna let you get away with that? That might play with the masses, but underneath that angry young woman shell there’s a slightly less angry young woman whose just dying to bake me something. You’re a marshmallow Veronica Mars – a Twinkie!“

Lor: Aw, okay Veronica Mars! You have an adorable smile too.

Sweeney: Cut to a little bit later and she’s flying his remote control airplane when he sees someone at her car. That someone turns out to be Logan Echolls and some friends with a crowbar. He asks if she knows what her little stunt cost him and she snarks so he smashes a headlight. She snarks again and another headlight is smashed. “Correct answer is: my car. That’s right, my daddy took my T-bird away. And you know what I won’t be having? Fun, fun, fun.“

Diva: No high school psychopath in 2004 would make that reference, but alright, show. 

Sweeney: This is interrupted by the arrival of the PCH. Weevil says the only vandalism that happens in this town goes through him. Weevil takes the crowbar and smashes the hood of their SUV, which isn’t even Logan’s, but he smashes away and sends the others off. He starts to beat Logan up, trying to make him apologize, but after two punches Veronica says to let him go.

Diva: Wallace and Veronica have a really cute aside-conversation in which he thinks this is like The Outsiders and she calls him Soda Pop. I giggle and think about Rob Lowe’s baby face and how I totally need to watch that movie again right now.

Sweeney: Weevil offers to get Veronica’s car fixed up at his uncle’s body shop, but in skeevy way. Veronica orders him to apologize, clarifying that she means to Wallace. He resists, but Veronica turns to Wallace and says that they should go think about what to do with that tape he has. Weevil relents and gives an awkward apology, but Wallace won’t give him the tape.

That night Veronica is in her car, lamenting that she used to think she had one person in the world she can count on, even though the big lesson of their line of work is that the people you love let you down. She watches as he gets into his car and leaves before sneaking into his office and stealing the combination to his safe, which she’s always known about but never needed to use. Inside she finds a comprehensive Lilly Kane murder file including notes that are less than a month old and the photo of her mother’s license plate.

Veronica asks a number of questions about how all these things connect, before concluding with “the million dollar question: why did dad lie to me?” With that, he returns to find her sitting at her desk, insisting that she get home for family fun night because he rented the South Park movie. She says she has to make a stop but will meet him at home. Once she walks out of the office, he sees that she left the unicorn music box opened on her desk.

She voiceovers that while he lied to her, she believes he has his reasons, namely protecting her. That’s not enough to keep her from going after answers to all the questions she has. “These questions need answers. That’s what I do.” We see her knock on the door to the motel room Jake was in. Her voiceover says that she used to think she knew what tore her family apart but now she’s sure she doesn’t. She’s determined to figure it out and put her family back together. “Sorry, is that mushy? Well, you know what they say – Veronica Mars, she’s a marshmallow.“

Diva: What an awesome pilot! Pilots are always hard, because they require so much exposition and it’s really easy to get bogged down in all that crap. But the writing is super-tight and the cast is fantastic, so this episode actually breezed by for me. I love Veronica’s relationship with her father, and everything about Wallace, who I just find unstoppably adorable. I think Weevil is an incredibly enjoyable character to watch, even if he has one of the lamest gang names of all time. And I like the way the show handles serious issues like date rape in a decidedly non-afterschool special way, at least so far. Looking forward to lots more Wizard of Oz references!

 

Next time on Veronica Mars: Veronica once again works to prove a member of the PCH bike gang innocent after her father is hired essentially to prove his guilt on S01 E02 – Credit Where Credit’s Due.