Driver Ed (Veronica Mars)

"Driver Ed" is episode 2 of season 2 of the television show Veronica Mars. It had an estimated audience size of 3.07 million US viewers on its first airing.^[1]

Plot

The repercussions of the bus crash arrive with Jessie Doyle, the daughter of Ed Doyle, the bus driver. She wants Veronica to prove her father did not commit suicide by driving off the cliff deliberately in order to clear his name, and receive his life insurance. Wallace also meets Jackie Cook, the spoiled new girl, whose father is Terrence Cook. After someone hits Jackie's father's car in the school parking lot, Wallace discovers that the perpetrator was a journalist going undercover as a student in order to get information about the crash.

Arc significance

• The only survivor of the bus crash is Meg, but she's in a coma.
• Ed, the bus driver, had a history of depression and Sheriff Lamb finds what appears to be a suicide note. Veronica tries to prove that he was leaving his wife, however, but Lamb doesn't listen and closes the bus crash case.
• Baseball coach Woody Goodman is running for the position of Balboa County Supervisor - a position more commonly known as 'Mayor of Neptune' - and he wants Keith to run for Sheriff. After seeing Lamb refuse Jessie Doyle's pleas to reopen the bus crash case, Keith accepts.
• A dead body washes up on the shore. Sheriff Lamb searches it and finds written on its hand is the name "Veronica Mars."

Music

• "The Minor Waltz" - Asylum Street Spankers
• "Magic Bus" - The Who
• "On Your Porch" - The Format
• "Little Miss Get Around" - Lukewarm Freeda
• "Where Is My Mind?" - Pixies

Writing and acting

• This episode guest stars noted Hollywood director Kevin Smith, who plays a convenience store clerk. Kevin Smith became famous for his 1994 film Clerks. He was also an outspoken fan of the series when it originally aired.
• Tessa Thompson joins the cast as a series regular in this episode, though she was in the credits in the previous one.

References

External links

• "Driver Ed" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Driver Ed" at TV.com
• "Driver Ed" at Mars Investigations
• "Driver Ed" at Television Without Pity