Veronica Mars/Recap/S01/E01 Pilot

This is the town of Neptune, as seen by Veronica Mars, a cynical high school student and private detective. Neptune is a â€œtown without a middle class, if you live here, your parents are either millionaires, or work for millionaires.â€\x9D She sees the new kid Wallace, taped to the flagpole, out there by the PCH bike club. She cuts him down, goes to sleep, gets woken up, effortlessly recites Pope, then surmises it as â€œlife's a bitch, then you die.â€\x9D

At lunch, Veronica looks across at the popular table â€“ she used to sit there. She wasn't rich enough, but her father was Sheriff â€“ and Duncan Kane, son of billionaire Jake Kane, was her boyfriend, until he dumped her for no reason. She is snapped out of her reverie by the appearance of Wallace, and then by the appearance of Weevil, leader of the PCH bike club, who tells Wallace he's a â€œdead man walking.â€\x9D The PCH bike club leaves, and Veronica interrogates why Wallace is in so much trouble â€“ two of the PCH members stole some stuff from Sac-N-Pac, where he works â€“ he pressed the silent alarm. He also denied it when the police (or, Sheriff's department) got there, pissing the Sheriff off too.

Veronica goes home, and has a flashback â€“ Duncan, when he was her boyfriend, in a pool, telling her â€œit's our song.â€\x9D Then it's her mother, and a group of friends, bringing out a cake for Veronica's birthday.

She takes her dog out for a run on the beach, and sees Wallace. He waves, and she hesitantly waves back.

She then sees Celeste Kane's car parked outside her dad's office â€“ something which surprises her. She goes inside, and talks with sleazy lawyer Cliff McCormack, who says â€œher dadâ€\x9D should investigate the claim of one of Cliff's clients â€“ that the seventh veil, where she â€œdancesâ€\x9D, has in â€œinterestingâ€\x9D way of keeping their liquor license. Cliff leaves, and Celeste walks out to where Veronica can hear her, saying, â€œI don't like you, Mr Mars... I hate the fact I'm here. But if anyone will be dogged and resourceful in this matter, it will be you.â€\x9D Celeste leaves, and Veronica thinks about her: â€œYeah, she's a bitch, but can you blame her? Dad did try and have her husband sent away for life.â€\x9D

Veronica and Keith (her Dad's name) discuss being hired by Celeste Kane over dinner (much to Keith's reluctance) â€“ Celeste thinks Jake is seeing someone else. Keith then gets a call, a bail-jumper on the move. He has to go, and tells Veronica not to do anything about the Kane case, but then tells her â€œwhen you after Jake Kane â€“ take backup.â€\x9D

Veronica follows Jake Kane, and reflects on the family â€“ not only had their son, Duncan been her boyfriend, but their daughter, Lilly, had been her best friend. The day of a pep squad carwash, Lilly told Veronica â€œI've got a secret. A good one.â€\x9D Later that night, Keith, then Sheriff, was called to a disturbance at the Kane household â€“ he told Veronica to stay the car, but then she saw Duncan, near catatonic. She ran out of the car, asking Duncan what happened, getting no answer â€“ then asking him where Lilly was â€“ the answer? Dead by the side of the pool, with her head bashed in. Present Veronica takes back the voiceover, saying â€œeverybody knows this story, the murder of Lilly Kane ... and everybody remembers the bungling local sheriff, who went after the wrong man.â€\x9D

Back in the present, Veronica sees Jake enter a room at the Camelot.

Back in flashback-land, two boys are at a computer â€“ and say it's the Lilly Kane video. It is indeed, and a teary-eyed Veronica starts to walk out â€“ but is intercepted by Logan, one of the rich kids. He asks her if her Dad still thinks Lilly's father did this, telling Veronica â€œThat's my girlfriend. Your friend. Duncan's sister.â€\x9D He then asks her â€œwhat's wrong with you people?â€\x9D In the Mars house, Keith and Lianne (Veronica's mom) fight, while the VMVO tells us Kieth was removed from office by an emergency recall election. Lianne wanted to leave Neptune, but Keith wouldn't be run out of town. On the TV, we see footage of Abel Koontz, a former Kane Software employee, being arrested for Lilly's murder.

Back in the present, where Veronica is still observing the Camelot, the PCHers pull up. Her dog, named â€œBackupâ€\x9D attacks one of the bikers, and Veronica tells the dog to chill. She tells the PCHers to leave Wallace alone for a week, and Weevil responds by implying she's a slut. He agrees to leave Wallace alone for a week, the PCHers leave, and Veronica thinks about his remarks: â€œYou wanna know how I lost my virginity? ...So do I.â€\x9D

Another flashback shows the story: Veronica went to a party at Shelley Pomroy's, just to show up the people who had turned against her. Someone (she doesn't know who) passed her a drink â€“ your basic mixture of rum, coke, and roofie. Veronica passed out, and woke up the next morning, strap on her dress broken and underwear missing. She starts to cry, and walks out of the house, seeing â€œSLUTâ€\x9D and â€œAbel it should have been herâ€\x9D written on her windshield.

Jake Kane exits the Camelot, and Veronica tries to get a look at the woman â€“ but she doesn't step outside. Veronica does snap the woman's license plates, however.

At school the next day, Logan taunts Veronica about the breakup with Duncan, and her mother, which angers Duncan. The ride off, and Veronica thinks about her mother â€“ who walked out 8 months ago, leaving only a unicorn music box, and note saying she'd be back for Veronica someday.

At lunch, Wallace sits with her again, who mentions â€œthe things people say about [Veronica].â€\x9D She asks why he's sitting with her if people say such awful things, and he responds that she's still the girl who cut him off that flagpole when everyone else stood around and laughed. Veronica starts to plan how to get the PCHers off Wallace's ass.

This plan features the work of Corny, who calls the plan â€œtwisted.â€\x9D

At home, Veronica downloads the pictures from the Camelot. Keith enters, with $2,500 from catching the bail jumper. They eats steaks that night, and Veronica shows him the license plates from the Camelot â€“ which noticeably disturb Keith, who tells Veronica to drop the Kane case.

Veronica follows up on the Seventh Veil's â€œinterestingâ€\x9D way of keeping their liquor license. She calls this â€œstage one of my plan to save Wallace.â€\x9D

Stage two is the next day: Logan is getting a random locker search for drugs, and they find a bong in his locker. Wallace and Veronica watch and laugh, and Logan tells Veronica â€œI know it was you!â€\x9D

Stage three: Wallace and Veronica go to the Sheriff 's department, and â€œset offâ€\x9D the bong â€“ causing it to spark and smoke. Inga, the receptionist, calls the fire brigade â€“ who Veronica goes to see later, asking one of them if he â€œmade the switchâ€\x9D - he hands her an envelope.

At home, Veronica impersonates Inga, saying the Sheriff's department computer froze, and they need someone to run the plates for a hit and run â€“ actually, the plates from the woman in the Camelot. The man runs the plates, and tells her: the car is registered to one Lianne Mars.

Keith enters, and Veronica asks again why they're dropping the Kane case â€“ Kieth lies and says it's â€œcorporate espionage stuff.â€\x9D He then asks her is she wants to watch a movie, and Veronica says she can't â€“ she exits.

She then goes to the Sheriff's department and talks to Inga, who says â€œI haven't seen you since... since...â€\x9D she stammers off. Veronica asks where the Cortez-Wn prelim is, and Inga tells her Courtroom 3. As Veronica walks away, she thinks â€œCome on, Inga? The last time we saw each other? That's easy.â€\x9D

Flashback to the morning after Veronica was raped, she entered the police station. Inga asked her what happened, and Veronica said she needed to report a crime. Cut to her discussion with the Sheriff, who laughs and clearly doesn't believe her. â€œIs there anyone you'd like me to arrest, or should I just round up the sons of the most important families in town? I've got not a shred of evidence to go on, but that really doesn't matter to you people.â€\x9D

Back to the present day, the Cortez-Wn preliminary. The sheriff is testifying â€“ the court is shown a video, which is meant to be the Sac-N-Pac security tape â€“ what it actually is, however, is a dancer from the Seventh Veil performing a certain act on one of the Sheriff's deputies. Cliff asks if this is an appropriate time to ask for a dismissal, and Veronica does the finger-gun thing at Sheriff Lamb.

Veronica and Wallace meet again on the beach, and she gives him the actual Sac-N-Pac video. He thanks her, and she claims her own selfish reasons â€“ he doesn't buy it, calling her â€œa marshmellow.â€\x9D She tries to use his model plane, until Wallace points something out: â€œVeronica â€“ your car.â€\x9D

Logan and his friends are all at her car, and Logan tells her that thanks to her, his Dad took his car away. He begins to smash in her headlights, but is interrupted by the appearance of the PCHers. They scare off the rich kids, and Weevil starts hitting Logan â€“ telling him apologize to Veronica. Veronica has Weevil to let Logan go, and then tells Weevil to apologize to Wallace â€“ who has the Sac-N-Pac video. Weevil apologizes, but Wallace doesn't give him the video.

Veronica breaks into her father's safe, investigating why he lied to her â€“ and she finds a recently updated Lilly Kane murder file, including Vereonica's file from the Camelot.

Keith enters after Veronica's shut everything away. He says he's rented the South Park movie, Veronica's favorite, for â€œfamily fun night.â€\x9D She says she has to make a stop, and then we see her driving to the Camelot, looking for her mother.

She summarizes thus: â€œOkay, itâ€™s a long shot but I canâ€™t help myself. I used to think I knew what tore our family apart. Now I'm sure I don't. But I promise this. I will find out what really happened and I will bring this family back together again. I'm sorry, is that mushy? Well, you know what they say. Veronica Mars, she's a marshmallow.â€\x9D


 * Break the Cutie: the flashbacks explore how exactly Veronica got broken
 * Expository Hairstyle Change
 * Ironic Echo: "Who's your daddy?"
 * Flash Backs: Many
 * Heel Face Turn: Weevil