Veronica Mars (character)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Veronica Mars

Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars
First appearance Pilot
Statistics
Gender Female
Age 19
Occupation Student, journalist for the Hearst Free Press
Family Keith Mars (Father)
Lianne Mars (Mother)
Portrayed by Kristen Bell
Created by Rob Thomas

Veronica Mars is the fictional lead character on The CW television series, Veronica Mars, which debuted on UPN during the fall 2004 season. She is portrayed by Kristen Bell.

Contents

[edit] Character history

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Background

Veronica is 19, a Leo and her hometown is in Neptune, California [1]. 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 junior 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 pariahdom was increased when his replacement as Sheriff, former Deputy Sheriff Don Lamb arrested disgruntled former Kane employee Abel Koontz for Lilly's murder.

The shock destroyed the Mars family as Veronica's mother abandoned the family several months later. Veronica further sealed her fate regarding joining her father as a pariah 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.

These events left Veronica changed forever; she became a cynic and filled with contempt and disgust towards her classmates and the elitist class system of Neptune. A pariah like her father, she funnelled 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.

[edit] 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, 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 Weevil, 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.

[edit] Love life

[edit] 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. Her and 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.

[edit] 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 rumours 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 realised his good intentions toward her. In the fifth episode though, Troy deceives her into unwittingly helping him to escape having to go to boarding school so he can run away with an old girlfriend. Veronica realises his plan and double-crosses him.

Veronica does not meet Troy again until the second season epsiode The Rapes of Graff when they both go to visit Heart 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.

[edit] Leo D'Amato

Leo D’Amato is a deputy at the Neptune Sherrif 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 classfied 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 realised that she couldn’t lead Leo on anymore.

[edit] 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 FBI 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 took tapes 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 aqcuitted, Logan’s behaviour 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 harboured 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 realises 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 "bad boy" ways) 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. They are currently still broken up.

[edit] Notable skills

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

  • Expert liar
  • Photography
  • Computer savvy (mainly tracking through the Internet)
  • Proficient Adobe Photoshop editor
  • Tailing cars
  • Operating bugging/surveillance equipment
  • Creating false documents

[edit] Trivia

[edit] References

  • Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season, Warner Home Video, 2005, UPC 01256972774.


Veronica Mars
Episode List | Official Website
Current Main Characters Veronica Mars | Logan Echolls | Wallace Fennel | Dick Casablancas
Parker Lee | Stosh "Piz" Piznarski | Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie
Don Lamb | Eli “Weevil” Navarro | Keith Mars
Former Main Characters Duncan Kane | Cassidy Casablancas | Jackie Cook | Mallory Dent
Family Kendall Casablancas | Terrence Cook | Aaron Echolls | Lynn Echolls | Trina Echolls
Alicia Fennel | Celeste Kane | Jake Kane | Lilly Kane | Lianne Mars | Charlie Stone
Neptune High Van Clemmons | Vincent Clemmons | Corny | Gia Goodman | Hannah Griffith
Rebecca James | Meg Manning | Madison Sinclair | Felix Toombs | Troy Vandegraff
Hearst College Chip Diller | Moe Flater | Tim Foyle | Mercer Hayes | Hank Landry | Cyrus O'Dell
Residents of Neptune Leo D'Amato | Woody Goodman | Abel Koontz | Vinnie Van Lowe
Liam Fitzpatrick | Cliff McCormack | Clarence Wiedman
Places Neptune, California | Neptune Grand | Camelot Motel
Neptune High | Hearst College
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../v/e/r/Veronica_Mars_%28character%29_2b0d.html"