Veronica Mars (character)

Veronica Mars
First appearance	Pilot
Last appearance	The Bitch Is Back
Created by	Rob Thomas
Portrayed by	Kristen Bell
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Student Journalist for the Hearst Free Press Private Detective FBI Intern
Family	Keith Mars (father) Lianne Mars (mother)
Spouse	Stosh "Piz" Piznarski (boyfriend) Logan Echolls (ex-boyfriend) Duncan Kane (ex-boyfriend) Troy Vandegraff (ex-boyfriend) Leo D'Amato (ex-boyfriend)

Veronica Mars is a fictional character in The CW television series, Veronica Mars, which debuted on UPN. She is portrayed by Kristen Bell.

Character history

Background and details of plot

Veronica is a 17-year-old girl from Neptune, California and is a Junior at Neptune High School during Season One of the show Veronica Mars. She is characterized by her acerbic wit and investigative skill. Daughter of the former sheriff of Balboa County, California, Veronica Mars lived a carefree life as one of the popular teens at Neptune High. Her best friend was popular senior Lilly Kane, whose brother Duncan was Veronica's boyfriend. Along with Lilly's boyfriend Logan Echolls, the four were at the forefront of the school's wealthy and popular "09er" clique (named after the 90909 zip code where the richer part of Neptune lives) that ruled Neptune High's social scene. Though Veronica did not fit in with the wealth and privilege of the other 09ers, she was part of the clique because she dated Duncan. Also, her father's position held some influence.

Sadly, this carefree world would not last for Veronica. One day, out of the blue, Duncan stopped talking to Veronica and made his sister tell Veronica that their relationship was over. Lilly sought to console her friend but days after Veronica was dumped, Lilly was brutally murdered at her wealthy family's home. Veronica's father, Sheriff Keith Mars, accused Lilly's father, software mogul Jake Kane, of the murder of his daughter. The town was horrified at the fact that Keith would accuse the wealthy Jake Kane of murder and Keith quickly found himself voted out of office in an emergency recall election and turned into a pariah by the wealthy 09er community. Keith's credibility took another blow when his replacement as Sheriff, former Deputy Sheriff Don Lamb arrested disgruntled former Kane employee Abel Koontz, who confessed to Lilly's murder.

The shock destroyed the Mars family as Veronica's mother abandoned the family several months later. Veronica further sealed her fate as an outsider when she refused to denounce her father. Logan denounced Veronica as the enemy and Veronica found herself banished from the exclusive 09er social scene and all of her former friends.

Two months after Lilly's death, Veronica crashed an 09er party in order to defy Logan and his friends' blackballing her and show that she did not care what her former friends said about her. Veronica was given a drink made of "rum, coke and roofie" (later learned to be laced with GHB) by longtime enemy Madison Sinclair (she did not know it contained GHB; the drugged drink was meant for her but she unknowingly gave it to Veronica after spitting in it).

Veronica woke up in bed with her underwear removed and no memory of the night before. A heartbroken Veronica realized she had been raped when she saw her white underwear on the floor. She went to the Sheriff's Department to report her rape. When she visited Sheriff Lamb and told him her story, Lamb called her a liar and forced her out of his office. Veronica later discovered that it had been Duncan who "raped" her, but Logan later revealed to Veronica that Duncan was under the influence of the same drug given to Veronica when he had sex with her. Duncan told Veronica that she had consented under her influenced state, so Duncan had truly not done it with malice. At the end of Season Two, Veronica found out that Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas had actually raped her that same night, and gave her chlamydia.

These events left Veronica changed forever; she became a cynic, filled with contempt and disgust towards her classmates and the elitist class system of Neptune. A pariah like her father, she funneled her time and energy into helping her father form his own detective agency. But when a chance encounter with a new transfer student Wallace Fennel led to her gaining a new friend, she began to use her investigation talents and energy to help her fellow students and to go head to head with her former friends and their corrupt ways.

Detective

Since her dad became a private investigator, Veronica has had an after-school job as a secretary at Mars Investigations, her father's PI business. Though she is often forbidden to handle certain cases, she often oversteps her boundaries and sometimes even completely solves the case before her father. On top of that, she is the small-time private investigator for Neptune High, uncovering anything from tracking down computer hackers and digging up dirt on parents, to finding out who stole the school's mascot. While Veronica's activities have put her at odds with the 09er social clique, it has helped Veronica make new friends and allies at Neptune High. She has also undeniably committed many illegal and duplicitous acts in the course of doing her detective work, leading many to openly question the moral consequences of her vendetta against the Neptune High status quo.

She manages to keep one step ahead of her father and Vice-Principal Clemmons through the occasional help of her best friend Wallace —(Watson to her Holmes)—and fellow classmate Eli “Weevil” Navarro, the leader of the PCH Biker Gang.

Veronica has also helped her sometimes-friend, sometimes-enemy Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring). Once a close friend, Logan helped organize the blacklisting of Veronica from the 09er clique. The two crossed swords on several occasions before Logan came to Veronica for help in order to find out if his mother, Lynn Echolls, might have faked her death when she jumped into the ocean. Still reeling from the abandonment of her own mother shortly after Lilly's death, Veronica empathized with Logan's pain, and the two reconciled their differences.

Toward the close of the third season of the series, Veronica successfully completes her California state examination to receive official licensure as a detective in her own right, though her score on the exam is slightly lower than her father's score had been.

Love life

Duncan Kane

Veronica dated Duncan Kane until approximately September 2003. Both Veronica’s mother Lianne Mars and Duncan’s mother Celeste Kane were against their relationship, though Veronica never knew why. Celeste revealed to Duncan that his father Jake had had an affair with Lianne, and that Veronica may in fact be his half-sister. Duncan broke up with Veronica because of this, not telling her his reasons for doing so. Keith Mars had a paternity test done near the end of season one which proved without a doubt that he is her father, not Jake Kane.

In the summer between the first and second seasons Veronica and Duncan got back together on her 18th birthday. They stayed together until roughly the middle of the second season. Unbeknownst to Duncan, his previous girlfriend Meg Manning was pregnant before they broke up. Meg was on the bus that crashed at the beginning of the season and she died of her injuries shortly after coming out of a coma. Duncan’s daughter was born just before she died. In order to prevent Meg’s abusive parents from getting custody of his baby, Duncan decided to leave the country with her. Veronica helped him to do so, bidding him a tearful farewell before he left.

Troy Vandegraff

Troy Vandegraff was a childhood friend of Duncan Kane who attended Neptune High for a short period early in the first season. Despite the bad rumors about Veronica circulating around the school, Troy took a liking to her. Veronica was reluctant to date him at first, but warmed to him when she realized his good intentions toward her. In the fifth episode though, Troy deceives her into unwittingly helping him escape being sent to boarding school so he can run away with an old girlfriend. Veronica realizes his plan and double-crosses him.

Veronica does not meet Troy again until the second season episode "The Rapes of Graff" when they both go to visit Hearst College. Though she is at first cold toward him, Troy insists that he's changed. He also tells her that his feelings toward her were real when they dated and that he’s sorry for how he treated her. When he is suspected of raping and shaving a girl’s head after a party, Veronica helps to prove his innocence and they part amicably afterward.

Leo D'Amato

Leo D’Amato is a deputy at the Neptune Sheriff Department whom Veronica dated for a short time in the middle of the first season. At first, Veronica merely went to him for help in getting access to classified evidence or files in the police station, but Leo soon fell for her and asked her out. Veronica broke up with Leo after she and Logan Echolls kissed and she realized that she had stronger feelings for Logan than she did for Leo, and she felt that that was unfair to Leo.

Logan Echolls

Veronica began to date Logan Echolls at the end of the first season. While she was going out with Leo D’Amato, she kissed Logan in thanks for saving her from a would-be kidnapper, who actually turned out to be an ATF agent. Their kiss turned into something more when Logan pulled her into a passionate embrace. Neither could ignore their undeniable chemistry and they began to secretly date under the noses of Logan’s 09er friends.

Their relationship quickly ran into trouble when it was revealed Logan was the one who supplied the GHB that would end up leading to Veronica being drugged and raped at Shelly Pomroy’s party. For a time, Veronica even suspected that Logan was her rapist. When she discovered that he wasn’t, she resolved everything with him. Their relationship was revealed to Logan’s 09er friends at a party. At the same party, Veronica discovered cameras trained on the bed in Logan’s pool house and stormed out. Soon after, Veronica found out that Logan had no alibi the day Lilly was murdered and feared that he had killed her.

Veronica found out that the cameras in the pool house had been set up by Logan’s father Aaron Echolls and discovered that he was the one who killed Lilly after she stole the tapes he made of them having sex. The night Aaron was arrested for Lilly’s murder, Logan turned up at Veronica’s house having been severely beaten by the PCHers. Veronica stood by him when he was accused of murdering one of them, Felix Toombs. Though he was acquitted, Logan’s behavior became erratic that summer, both because of his trial and because of the revelation that his father had been having an affair with Lilly and had killed her.

He and the 09ers began a vicious turf war with the PCHers, and Veronica feared for Logan’s life. She broke up with him in an effort to bring him to his senses, but Logan merely became violent and had to be physically removed from her house by her father. Logan harbored animosity toward Veronica for much of the second season, especially when she got back together with Duncan.

Late in the season though, he drunkenly revealed to Veronica that he still had deep feelings for her and thought that their love was ‘epic’. Veronica returned to him the next morning to tell him that she felt the same, only to find out that he had no memory of what he’d said and had in fact slept with old flame Kendall Casablancas the night before. During her stand-off with Cassidy Casablancas on the roof of the Neptune Grand, it is Logan that Veronica phones for help.

Afterwards, they resume their relationship and become closer over the summer. At the beginning of the third season, they attend Hearst College together. Their relationship is as heated and loving as before, but Veronica has developed severe trust issues over the last few years and finds she can’t bring herself to trust Logan. Though she spurns him when he reveals that he and Mercer left a motel in Tijuana in flames without helping people to escape, she realizes her feelings for him when he comes to her aid after she is drugged by the Hearst rapist.

Logan, unable to deal with Veronica being in constant danger, tries to convince her to drop her investigation into the rapes and even has a bodyguard tail her without her knowledge. Though they fight out their problems and both admit that they love one another, Logan breaks up with Veronica in the ninth episode. He says that they can both see that they aren’t working out because they both can't change their ways (Veronica with her trust issues and Logan with his need to protect her despite her wishes) and that he would rather a little pain now than a lot later. He tells her he will always be there for her. Veronica is deeply upset afterwards and breaks down when she gets home. However, when Logan learned that Mercer was the one that attacked Veronica, he purposely got himself in jail so that he could be in the same cell as him — most definitely for revenge.

They spent the next six weeks apart. During the break-up, Dick tried to help Logan move on by bringing him to the beach, later meeting up with a group of girls. Later, Veronica showed up at Logan's place and they shared a passionate kiss, realizing that they had missed each other, and became a couple again. In the next episode, Logan told Veronica that he had hooked up with someone else who "meant less than nothing to him" over their 6 week break, but didn't elaborate on who it was. It turns out that Logan had slept with Madison Sinclair in Aspen, which infuriated Veronica. This time, sexual jealousy and an unwillingness to forgive and forget ended their relationship.

Logan moved on to Parker Lee, while Veronica did the same with Stosh "Piz" Piznarski. However, the series ended with Logan and Veronica sharing one last ambiguous look, leaving their relationship unresolved.

Stosh "Piz" Piznarski

Veronica first met Piz on her first day of Hearst College when Wallace (Piz's roommate) requested her help to find Piz's missing things in 'Welcome Wagon." When they first meet Piz seems momentarily surprised of Veronica, and starts to like her which she doesn't return at the time because of her boyfriend Logan Echolls. Since then she has ignored his feelings but has made a steady friendship with him, sharing her thoughts with him during her problems with Logan, and has temporarily solved them after getting back together with Logan after Piz unknowingly gave her advice that you barely meet good people in life. After her breakup with Logan and him beginning to date her friend Parker she briefly messes with Piz's emotions at Parker's birthday party. Wallace tells Veronica he knows that she knows how Piz feels about her, although she tries to deny it. She later chats to Piz about their friendship, when he kisses her (on Wallace's advice). He walks away when Veronica's kisses him and the elevator doors open to find Logan staring momentarily surprised at them. However, the series finale ends with the status of their relationship still unclear, and leaves Logan and Veronica with the possibility of rekindling their relationship in the future.

Notable skills

As a junior detective Veronica possesses certain sleuth skills which include:

• Expert liar and lie detector
• Photography
• Computer savvy (mainly tracking through the Internet)
• Proficient Adobe Photoshop editor
• Tailing cars
• Operating bugging/surveillance equipment
• Creating false documents
• Imitating the voices of others
• Counterfeiting

Trivia

• According to series creator Rob Thomas, Veronica's birthday is in August.
• Amanda Seyfried (Lilly Kane) and Alona Tal (Meg Manning) auditioned for the role of Veronica.
• Veronica's favorite movies are The Big Lebowski, The Virgin Suicides, The Outsiders, Say Anything, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Chinatown and Blazing Saddles. Her favorite TV shows are The Office, The Simpsons, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and Scooby Doo.
• At College, Veronica takes criminology and sociology classes.
• Veronica got a 95 on her private investigator test.
• Veronica regularly uses the word 'frak' taken from the show Battlestar Galactica though she doesn't actually know what it means.

Quotations

• "Ever hear of genetics, kid? Thanks to your grandma, I've got a 50-50 shot of becoming an alkie. Guess that makes your odds one in four, which isn't so bad". Referring to the fake baby in Veronica's car seat.

• "Not in front of the baby!"

• "I'm Veronica, I'm from Neptune, and I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."

• "I should really get home. I'd invite you over but it's a school night and my dad owns a handgun."

• "Have taser, will travel."

• "Be cool, Sodapop."

• "Life's a bitch, until you die".

• "Ass-slaps and high-fives to Logan for bangin' the hot chick. Maybe she'll buy us beer."

• "The problem with chasing the storm is that it wears you down, breaks your spirit. Even the experts agree. A girl needs closure."

• "You know those people who can predict when change is coming in their life? I'm not one of them. Change has a way of just walking up and punching me in the face."

• "Life is fundamentally unfair. It takes real talent to make unfair seem cool."

• "The hero is the one that stays. And the villain is the one that splits."

• "Including shrunken testicles and acne scars. Well, speaking for the women of America, good plan!" (on a classmate's steroid usage)

• "Oh, I am so sick of not having money. I'd be the best rich person. Seriously. I'd be the perfect combination of frivolous and sensible. Money is so wasted on the wealthy."

• "You lie down with dogs, you're gonna get fleas."

• "The downside to being an only child? You know all the scary handmade ornaments are yours."

• "...and boom goes the dynamite!"

• "If I die unexpectedly, do me a favor. Go on Oprah, and tell the world I loved kittens."

• "I'll run him over with my karma!"

• "Here's what you do... you get tough. You get even."

• "Hi, everyone! Say 'repressed homosexuality'!"

• "Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything. Creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. But if you're like me, you just keep chasing the storm."

• "So what would Stan Marsh say in a situation like this? I think we all learned a valuable lesson about faith. You give it to the people you love. But the people who really deserve it are the ones who come through, even when you don't love them enough."

• "It must be a liberating thing not to be cursed with a moral compass."

• "Nobody likes a blonde in a hamsterball."

• "The one big downside of justice: it feels good, but it doesn't change anything. The killer is in jail, but the Dean is still dead, which remains fundamentally unfair."

• ´[Veronica is trying to get a drunk Logan's keys] Veronica: Come on, Logan just give me your keys. Leo, can you follow us in your car?

Logan: [giggling] No. No. No. No. Let's not have a party like it's 1999. Logan: [points to Leo] Wait, who's this dude? Veronica: As I have told you now three times, this is the friendly officer of the law who is going to overlook your underage public drunkenness.

See also

• Supercouple

References

• Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season, Warner Home Video, 2005, UPC 01256972774.
• Official character MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/veronicamarscw