Veronica Mars/Recap/S02/E22 Not Pictured
Veronica and Keith stand outside the courthouse, watching Aaron go free. Aaron says how relieved he is to have his name "cleared" of this "horrible crime." Veronica voice-overs about how it doesn't make sense.
Back at the office, Keith tells Veronica that they cannot obsess about Aaron's acquittal. She then brings to his attention the bounty on Woody Goodman, but he says he can't go after Woody because of Veronica's graduation.
Then they get a phone call, from Vinnie Van Lowe, who thinks he and Keith should team up to catch Woody Goodman. Vinnie was caught breaking into Woody's house, but now has all his records, tax, medical, etc. Keith agrees, but says they can't moved until after Veronica's graduation.
At the dot, Veronica gives Wallace free cake, to comfort him after Jackie left. She then goes to a guy she asked to show up, promising free gelato - she then checks he was on Woody's Little League team.
Back at the office, Keith and Veronica go over Woody's medical records, where they find something disturbing - Woody had chlamydia, like Veronica has. They also find Woody has a heart condition, so he has to take a pill every day. Keith devises a plan for Veronica to impersonate Gia, make a phone call to Woody's lawyer/old college buddy, who will give the message to Woody, and then Keith will track the call.
We enter Veronica's dream-land, where a happy and sober Lianne wakes her up, and makes them all pancakes. Keith is still sheriff, and he and Lianne are very much in love. Lianne tells Veronica not to run off with "that boy" after graduation, because she and Keith want to take pictures.
At school, Veronica tells Logan and Duncan she has the wrong cap and gown, and Dick shows up to say "Guess who's going commando?" Veronica asks if anyone knows "Wallace Fennel" and Duncan says Wallace was in his PE class. Dick and Duncan play a stupid joke where they say Wallace was forced into the walk-in cooler at Sac-n-Pac when it was held it, got frostbite and lost 3 fingers. Veronica completely falls for it, at Logan says he loves her, but she's the most gullible girl he's ever met.
Duncan points out Wallace, and he and Veronica switch caps and gowns. He asks if she's looking forward to getting out this place, to which she responds "I don't know... high school was a blast." He calls her "one of those," but then tells her to forget it, and tells tells her "have a good life... I'm sure you will."
Wallace walks off, and Veronica sees Lilly - who talks a little about her college life at Vassar (including fooling around with her boyfriend's ex). Then Lilly calls attention to the Lilly Kane Memorial Fountain, and asks Veronica if she smells bacon. Veronica awakens.
Back in reality, Keith's plan works perfectly, and Keith finds Woody is at a hunting lodge in Reno. At graduation, Keith says he'll call as soon as he catches Woody. Mac tells Veronica that Beaver got them a room at the Neptune Grand for tonight. Then the actual graduation starts, and just before Weevil is called, the sheriff appears to arrest him in connection with Thumper's murder. He is lead out in cuffs, and Veronica herself is called - to a standing ovation. After graduation, Keith appears to present to tickets to New York, then runs off to catch Woody. Dick appears to slap Veronica and the ass and reference a party. Veronica walks to her car, but is approached by Alicia - according to a note he left on Alicia's windshield, Wallace is going to Paris to try and track down Jackie.
Cut to Brooklyn, where Jackie and her "little brother" enter somewhere where Jackie and her mother work as waitresses. They get a call, which is for Jackie - it's from Veronica, who tells Jackie she figured out she wasn't who she said she was a while ago, and about Wallace going to Paris. There's a 4-hour layover at JFK, so Jackie can stop him going to Paris.
At the Neptune Grand, Logan sees Aaron, who is staying there now. Logan asks "Just because you beat a murder rap, you're suddenly my father again?" To which Aaron responds he never stops being Logan's father, and he never will. But he has the purse strings back.
At the Reno Hunting Lodge, Keith catches Woody, and calls the local sheriff. Woody tells Keith he didn't crash the bus. Keith brings up his abuse of children, and Woody tries to defend himself: "That's not how it was! If you knew those boys, knew their fathers... how they ignored them, mistreated them... I listened to them, I cared about them..." Keith tells Woody just to stop.
Keith calls Veronica, saying they're loading Woody onto his own plane. Veronica decides she has to track down the 3rd boy on the tape, as there is only one kid on the photo she hasn't identified, and goes to Woody's Burgers, where the photo will have names. She sees the name of the unidentified boy, but is quickly distracted by the words down the bottom:
"Not Pictured: Cassidy Casablancas."
It falls into place for Veronica; how she got chlamydia, and she begins to suspect Cassidy for the crash. She calls Mac with a warning, but she and Beaver are walking through a party and the music drowns Mac's phone out. Veronica also calls Hart Hanson, who she saw with Beaver last week, who confirms her suspicions - Cassidy blew up the bus.
Back at the party, Dick encourages Cassidy to "chug", and then Cassidy asks Mac if she wants to go check out the room. She teases him about his "liquid courage", but he responds there is nothing up there he's afraid of.
On their way to their room, Corny interrupts Beaver and Mac to tell them that Keith caught Woody. Beaver looks uncomfortable.
In Beaver and Mac's room, Mac's phone buzzes uselessly, against the backdrop of activity in the bed.
At the party, Veronica walks in and asks Logan where Beaver and Mac are. She starts to explain, but they are interrupted by Dick, who tells her Beaver took Mac up to his room.
In Mac and Beaver room, she tells him "Don't worry about it... I'm having a good time and we've got all night." She goes to take a shower.
In the lobby, Veronica tries to find out what room Mac and Beaver are in, but the hotel can't tell her. She keeps calling Mac, and sends a text message. In the room, Cassidy sees the text while Mac is showering: "Get away from Beaver. Now. He's a killer. I'm in the lobby." Cassidy's face changes, and he pulls out a gun.
Veronica gets a text message, allegedly from Mac: "Meet me on the roof. Now." While in the elevator, she sees Aaron, who taunts her about Lilly's murder. He leaves.
Veronica arrives at the roof, and calls out for Mac - instead she sees Cassidy, pointing the gun at her, who tells her Mac is in "a better place." He screams at her to through him her bag, which she does. He takes the taser out of it, then pulls out Mac's phone with the "Beaver's a killer" message. He asks her what exactly she thinks she knows.
Veronica tells him he was on Woody's little league teams, with Marcos and Peter - the all fell victim to Woody's abuse, Marcos and Peter wanted to come forward. In flashback, we see Cassidy plead with them to leave him out of it, but they won't listen.
Veronica tells him what Hart told her: Cassidy worked on Hart's war movies, being in charge of blowing things up, which he had been taught to do by Curly Moran, his Dad's mechanic.
In flashback, we see the rich kids in the limo, behind the bus. Nobody notices when Beaver presses send, and an explosion sounds.
Veronica talks about Curly's murder: Curly figured it out, so Cassidy called the PCHers to convince them Curly blew up the bus, so they would kill him. The didn't finish the job, so Cassidy ran him down with his car. He wrote "Veronica Mars" on Curly's hand to focus investigation in a new direction.
Then Veronica asks Cassidy a question: how'd she get chlamydia? She yells that he raped her, but he laughs it off. She tells him that she's told her Dad everything, but he points out Keith's on Woody's plane - which Beaver has a bomb on.
Cassidy lets Veronica call her Dad before he blows it up, but Keith doesn't pick up. Beaver presses send and the plane explodes.
Veronica collapses with grief, and Cassidy tries to convince her to jump off the roof, including "persuading" her by torturing her with her own taser. She manages to forward the message "Meet me on the roof now" to Logan, who arrives just as Cassidy's about to shoot Veronica. A massive gun-taser-brawl breaks out, which ends when Veronica gets the gun. She shoots it in the air, then points it at Cassidy.
Logan tells her not to shoot him, at which Veronica screams: "He killed my father! He killed everyone on the bus! He raped me!" Logan tells her she's not a killer, and a sobbing Veronica gives him the gun, and collapses in his arms. Cassidy realizes it's over - he hoists himself over the small barrier between the most of the roof, and the edge.
Logan looks up to see Cassidy about to jump, and tells him "Beaver, don't!" Prompting this exchange.
Cassidy: My name is Cassidy!
Logan: Cassidy don't.
Cassidy: Why not?
[Veronica just stares at him. Logan struggles, but cannot find any reason to live, to give Cassidy]
Cassidy: That's what I thought.
And with a calm bravado, Cassidy steps off the roof. Veronica remembers Mac, and they go into her hotel roof - she is crying, wrapped in what appears to be a shower curatin, and slumped against the wall. Cassidy stole everything from the room, including Mac's clothes. Mac asks why, and Veronica hugs her.
Cut to Aaron's room. We see him and Kendall post-coital, but she wanders off. He puts on the TV, and sees one of his old movies on. What he doesn't see is Clarence Weidman standing behind him with a gun. Clarence fires two bullets into Aaron's head, then calls Duncan - who is on a beach with Baby Lilly. Clarence tells Duncan "it's a done deal."
Cut to JFK, where Wallace and Jackie see each other. She gives him her real life story: she was never going to the Sorbonne. Her Mom's not a model, she's a waitress. Jackie tells him the real reason she had to come back - she has a son. Her Mom agreed to raise him, and Jackie was sent to Neptune to try and get a fresh start. When Terrence shut her out, she realized her hypocrisy, expecting to be the center of her Dad's world and making her mom raise her kid. She has to stay in New York, and Wallace has to back to Neptune.
At Veronica's house, she is slumped over Logan's lap, Pietà Plagiarism parallel to "Normal Is The Watchword." In her dream, we see Keith entertain child!Veronica with sockpuppets. Child!Veronica points out the smell of bacon, and wakes up screaming for her Dad. He's not there, though, and Logan hugs her. Then Keith enters.
Veronica hugs him with joy, and tells him she thought he was dead. She tells him Cassidy blew the plane up, and Keith responds Lamb had them take Keith off the plane at the last minute, because he didn't want that press. Keith then asks "What is that about the Casablancas boy?"
Cut to Kendall talking to her lawyer. She can't get the insurance money on Beaver, since it was suicide, but they did find the documents for the Phoenix Land Trust - which has given Kendall 8 million. She grins.
Veronica and Keith prepare to go to New York, but they're not driving together - Logan's giving her a ride, so they can "talk." Keith asks how Logan took Aaron's death, and Veronica says "shrugs it off... which I think means, badly." Logan arrives, he and Veronica go outside, where they start to kiss - they're obviously back together now. Kendall arrives and razzes them about their "young love." They ask why she's even there, and she says she has a business proposition for Keith.
Talking to Keith, she tells him she needs him to do something "really important" "right now." He brushes her off until she opens a briefcase, the contents of which we can't see. Whatever it is, Keith is gobsmacked.
At the airport, Veronica waits for Keith, as the "Now Boarding" sign flashes. She tries to call him, but can't get a signal. We end on her standing there, waiting.
- Accidental Innuendo - A serious example; after this episode, a lot of people thought Cassidy had raped Mac. The writers never meant to imply that, but her naked and crying and saying "he took everything"... could throw people off.
- Actor Allusion - “I thought [Kendall] couldn't come out during daylight hours.â€\x9D
- Alas, Poor Villain
- Arc Welding - To Veronica's rape.
- Ax Crazy - Cassidy
- Bittersweet Ending - So, yes, the good guys all lived and the bad guys all died. But the bad guy was someone they used to like and trust, and his death is going to hurt.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome - Duncan's hit on Aaron. Even those who hated Duncan loved it.
- Crowning Moment of Funny - “A PONY?â€\x9D
- Also; "They're probably up there making love. Or playing Dungeons and Dragons. Or both. At the same time."
- Disney Death - Keith and Mac.
- Driven to Suicide - Cassidy
- Emotional Torque
- Even Evil Has Standards - Woody confesses to molesting children, but says he could never kill the people on the bus. Subverted in that fans generally find Woody FAR more reprehensible than Cassidy.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo - Jackie's brother.
- HSQ - the episode's known for an massive HSQ.
- Ironic Echo - a few:
- In both dream sequences, the smell of bacon.
- From An Echolls Family Christmas - "There is no Santa Claus."
- A visual echo - the reversal of the premiere's Pietà Plagiarism.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight
- Pietà Plagiarism
- Shirtless Scene - Cassidy gets one.
- So Happy Together - Mac and Cassidy
- Unfortunate Implications - being molested will make you gay and/or evil.
- Tear Jerker
- Wham! Episode - whatever you thought of the episode, nothing would be the same after this.
- Xanatos Roulette - how did Cassidy do all that?
- You Killed My Father - well, we all thought you did - thank goodness he didn't get on that plane!
- Your Mileage May Vary - It's a... polarizing episode, for fans.