Veronica Mars
After 22 episodes, the mystery of who killed Lilly Kane is finally solved in the first season finale. We also learn more about what happened at Shelly Pomeroy's party. Let's get to it.
"A Trip to the Dentist"
Veronica Mars: "You wrote "slut" on my car last year at Shelly's party. Why?"
Madison Sinclair: "Because "whore" had too many letters."
After finding out that Logan was the one handing out GHB during Shelly Pomeroy's party, Veronica is hurt and is on a mission. She is determined to find out what happened to her that night which leads to a trip down memory lane with some of the classmates that she has helped throughout the year. And she isn't sure if her burgeoning relationship with Logan will recover from all this.
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| Breaking down. |
I should start this off by giving out a trigger warning. This episode features a lot of talk about sexual assault so we will be talking about a little bit in this blog post as well. So, if you have a history with that or it is something that bothers you, then I'd probably stop reading now.
For the penultimate episode of the first season, "Veronica Mars" gets back to a mystery that has hounded Veronica since the pilot. What happened to her at Shelly Pomeroy's party. Veronica woke up after being drugged without her panties. She went to Sheriff Lamb to file a report and the sheriff didn't believe her. Veronica has tried to deal with this, but she's clearly been struggling. And the revelation that it was Logan that had the GHB has broken her. Veronica is not a character that loves to be out of control and she definitely feels out of control due to all this. The way that she can regain that control is to figure out what happened to her that night.
This is a "Rashomon" style episode where Veronica tracks down various people who were at the party to try to get an idea of what happened to her. Every person that Veronica talks to has a slightly different take on the events of that night and what Veronica was doing. The kind of cool thing about this episode is that we get kind of a walk down memory lane. Lots of people that Veronica has helped and hindered pop up in this episode. Madison Sinclair, Carrie Bishop, Luke Haldeman, Casey Gant and Sean Freidrich all make return appearances to fill Veronica in on the humiliating things that she did while she was out of it that night.
This episode is extremely disturbing. Every time we moved to a flashback I got extremely queasy. I get that this is a television show and its not real, but it isn't difficult to see something like this happening in real life. In fact, I know that things like this happen in life. Veronica is clearly not herself in these flashbacks. Even if she was only drunk, the way that no one steps in and does anything to help her is extremely disgusting. The scenes with Veronica passed out in the bedroom and the conversations between Dick, Sean and Beaver aka Cassidy are so, so gross. Like, they turned my stomach. If you don't watch this scene and aren't like physically disgusted I don't even know what to say to you.
I know I've said it before but Kristen Bell is a force of nature in this show. And this episode is really a show case for her. She is a hurricane here. You see every facet of Veronica in this episode. There is the tough as nails, not to be fucked with Veronica, which is fully on display when she is threatening to run over Dick's surfboard. It was extremely satisfying to see and hear Dick's surfboard being splintered into tiny pieces when he fucks around and finds out. We also see an emotionally raw Veronica when she confronts Duncan about what happened that night and finds out that they actually had sex, consensually, or so Duncan thought. And that he left in a rush because he thought he had slept with his sister. That whole scene is just like an extended punch to the gut. I don't give many props to Teddy Dunn, but he really brings it in this scene. He almost meets Kristen Bell where she is.
Veronica Mars and Wallace Fennell are two of my favorite fictional BFF's. They shouldn't work, but they totally do. And this episode sees some major growth in their friendship. Veronica finally confides in Wallace and Wallace handles everything perfectly. He listens. He is there for her. It's really magical and wonderful and heartbreaking. She shows everything to Wallace in regards to the Lilly Kane murder investigation. She even stops in to apologize to Alicia for the plant bug and tries to nudge her and Keith back together.
I know you didn't think that the Veronica/Logan relationship was going to be smooth and man are there so many ups and downs here. The first scene between them where Veronica tells Logan about the GHB and his potential role in her possible assault is pretty gut wrenching. Veronica eventually forgives Logan and things seem to be looking up. Logan ends up inadvertently taking Veronica to a "sorry I forgot a lot of birthdays surprise party" thrown by a guilty Aaron. Logan takes up for Veronica in front of everyone and everyone seems to begrudgingly accept her except for Duncan. We also learn what the "trip to the dentist" is. It turns out that Madison spit in the drink that Dick gave her and handed it to Veronica which was how she got roofied in the first place. Keep being the fucking worst, Madison. It seems like Veronica and Logan are headed to make out city until Veronica finds a hidden camera in the ceiling fan above the bed in the pool house.
Oh and Duncan freaks out when he finds out Veronica and Logan are together and smashes up his car. This definitely feels like potential murderer behavior right? Definitely not a red herring.
Grade: A
"Leave it to Beaver"
Veronica Mars: "Isn't it better, like this?"
Lilly Kane: "So much better."
Veronica Mars: "This is how it's supposed to be."
Lilly Kane: "Totally."
Veronica Mars: "This is how it's gonna be. From now on. Right? Lilly?"
Veronica finally solves the mystery of who murdered her best friend. But when she finds herself in the clutches of the killer, will Veronica be their next victim?
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| Who's your daddy? |
I'm not going to bury the lede here. Aaron Echolls is the killer of Lilly Kane. I remember when I first watched this season I was kind of shook. I didn't see it coming. I knew it couldn't be Duncan because they were pushing it too hard. And it felt really unlikely that one of the two potential romantic interests for Veronica would end up being the killer. Also, someone killing their sister felt a little too dark. But Aaron makes total sense. Veronica pieces it together when she finds the tapes hidden in the vent and sees the footage of Lilly and Aaron having sex. She also sees Lilly finding the camera. She deduces that the secret that Lilly eluded to at the car wash was her affair with the big movie star. Veronica figures out that Lilly took the tapes and when Aaron confronted her about it, Lilly was her typical sassy self. Aaron flew into a rage and bashed Lilly's brains in near the pool.
Again, this makes total sense. It's been established that Aaron is extremely volatile and abusive. We know he's beaten Logan his whole life and we watched him beat the ever loving dog shit out of Trina's boyfriend when he found out said boyfriend hit Trina. We also know that Aaron was a serial adulterer and would bone anyone who looked sideways at him. It's not a shock that he would go after his son's flirty, beautiful, busty and underage girlfriend. It's the last part that Aaron was most worried about. A statutory rape charge would bring his entire career and empire crumbling to the ground.
Before the Aaron revelation, there is a push that perhaps Logan is the killer. We find out that Dick and Cassidy covered for Logan when he left Tijuana early to confront Lilly about her cheating on him. The shot glass that he bought for her was found with her things but not the letter that he left her. This is maybe the weakest portion of the episode. I find it extremely difficult to believe that Veronica would seriously think that Logan killed Lilly. It doesn't make a ton of sense. It feels like a really extreme roadblock to their potential relationship. Weevil overhears Veronica talking about how Logan is the killer so he and the PCH'ers confront Logan who is drinking and teetering on the railing of the overpass where Lynn killed herself.
There is also the Duncan of it all. When the article comes out about Abel Koontz being with Cheyenne at the time of Lilly's death, Jake and Celeste reveal that Duncan killed Lilly during one of his fits. And that they orchestrated the whole Abel Koontz thing to protect him. That is kind of wild to me too, but it makes more sense than the Logan red herring. It's been established that Jake and Celeste would do anything for their children so why wouldn't they try to save their kid by framing an innocent man.
The climax of the episode is kind of like the climax of a thriller or a slasher movie. Aaron is hiding out in the backseat of Veronica's car. Veronica crashes into a tree to get away and she runs to a seemingly abandoned house for help. It's legit scary and I love how the show can play with these different genres. There is a lot of tension when Aaron has Veronica locked in the old fridge and is threatening to set it on fire. Aaron is fully unhinged and I think he isn't thinking that he is past the point of no return. Even if he gets the tapes and kills Veronica there is no way that he is getting away with this.
Keith is the hero of the episode. He shows up in the nick of time and has a knock down drag out, brutal fight with Aaron. They really go hard on one other. I was wincing. I always forget about this part of the episode and each time I watch it I am shocked about how hard they go. This was network television and they got away with some shit.
There are some other loose ends that are tied up in this finale. Lianne Mars solidifies her place as one of the worst mothers in television history. She's still drinking. She bailed on rehab early basically squandering her daughter's college savings. And on her way out the door she steals the Kane settlement check. What a piece of shit. On the bright side, it looks like Alicia and Keith are back together. It is confirmed through the paternity test that Veronica is Keith's daughter. The cliffhanger of the episode and for the summer hiatus is who showed up at Veronica's door at 3 am? Was it Logan? Or was it Duncan?
All in all this is a great finale that caps off a really solid first season. I am excited to dive in to season 2.
Grade: A
Season Grade: B+
Next up, we begin season two. Veronica is trying to get back to normal but it's not too long before she's pulled into a tragic mystery that will define the rest of the season and she helps a grieving family figure out if one of their members truly died by suicide.
What did you all think? Were these two great episodes to end the season? Did the Aaron reveal shock you? What did you think of the season as a whole? Let me know in the comments.
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