Episode
4.08: Years, Continents, Bloodshed. Original Airdate 7.19.19.
“Veronica and Keith follow a new lead, and discover another victim. Matty follows her own instincts, landing herself dangerously close to a killer. Veronica has a tragic epiphany as the clock is ticking.”
Daniel's
Thoughts:
- Final episode!
- We start where we left off. Patton is begging Veronica & Keith to prove his innocence.
- So now the suspect field has opened up to ….pretty much everyone.
- Matty is snooping around the Casablancas house. She plants a bug. She copies files. She does all the things a Mars does.
- BD comes home and he’s not exactly stealthy. Matty has time to hide.
- He stops the file transfer and destroys Matty’s phone.
- Instead of calling the police, he calls JK. But JK dismisses him. He’s actually already at the house watching all this unfold. Which is pretty awesome.
- I wonder how he knew.
- BD goes from using a golf club to a katana to getting out a gun. It’s kinda hilarious.
- Alonzo distracts him while Dodie gets in the house. He’s got a machete….and he tosses it for the Katana. This is so funny.
- BD thinks Alonzo is the one who was copying his hard drive.
- Whoa. And the Cartels kill BD. Katana through the stomach…and then head chop. Wow, Dick has lost a lot of family.
- Veronica Echolls sounds good. Logan Mars also sounds good.
- Veronica has gone so far in the other direction she wants to get married tomorrow.
- Keith tells Veronica about what happened to Big Dick. Matty, who is present, acts like she didn’t know.
- It seems Veronica convinced Keith to come along on her interrogation of Blake, the fratboy.
- Frat boy Blake tells a sob story about accidentally drowning a pizza guy…and the fourth frat guy who seemingly got killed because he was going to tell. This, they believe, was Patton Oswalt but I refuse to believe they didn’t recognize Patton Oswalt since he’s been all over the news.
- Ok, so it wasn’t Penn who delivered the pizza. It turned out to be Don – one of the murderheads who has been skyping in to the meetings. He’s supposed to be in DC but it turns out he’s in San Diego.
- OMG, it’s Parker!!! She’s brunette and divorced and works for the county clerk’s office.
- So Don is the bomber, for now. We shall see.
- Keith & Veronica pick up Patton to try to get in touch with Don.
- Wallace is at Kane High School. There’s a high school named after Jake Kane? I hope that’s not where the bomb is going to go off.
- At the abandoned factory, Keith waits in the car because he can’t go up the steps. I hope that’s not where the bomb is.
- But Matty is on her way to Kane High school too.
- Uh oh. Penn is a suspect after all.
- Don is dead. Bullet through the brain and seemingly a suicide note.
- It’s typed, of course. We’ve done this before. An entire third of a seasonal plot depended on that.
- Keith & Veronica are sure now that it’s Patton Oswalt. And Veronica thinks the bomb will go off at the Kane High dedication. As do I.
- V & K speed up and tell everyone to leave because there’s a bomb.
- Patton maintains his innocence.
- Keith stays with Patton while he convinces Veronica to get out of the bomb radius.
- Patton admits where the bomb is and tries to disarm it.
- We all hold our breaths. The bomb is disarmed. Veronica can finally exhale.
- So it was Patton all along. He thinks this is going to make him more famous. And Big Dick is dead, so we have all our bombers in jail or dead.
- Except for JK – who pays a visit to Keith. He says he had nothing to do with the bombing. Until after the fact, I suppose.
- He makes a play for friendship, which is weird. But it's a weird kind of common thread this season.
- Jane, Logan’s psychologist is finally revealed. And Logan seems like he might not…want to get married…like it was always about the chase which doesn’t feel right to me.
- But Logan isn’t at the court where Veronica & Keith are waiting.
- And good news: Keith doesn’t have a brain injury. It was the combination of the meds he was taking that was making him forgetful.
- Logan texts ‘sorry’ to Veronica. They all think he’s not coming.
- The text was supposed to say, sorry, I’m running late. Logan blames Siri.
- And they’re married!
- The feeling of dread is on me. Because Veronica can never be happy. Logan goes to move the car.
- AND KABOOM. I saw it coming. Veronica saw it coming, way too late. Her prophecy came true. She got married and then something terrible happened.
- One year later: Spring break again. Daniel Maloof running for Senate. JK sells old cars with the girl he was chasing. Hu’s grocery is gone. Chattanooga Charlie’s is gone. Neptune has been fully gentrified except for the Sea Sprite. Matty did have that ring and she sold it to pay for the motel. Keith’s had his hip replacement. Keith & Veronica watch their reenactments.
- So this whole narration was Veronica talking to Logan’s therapist, Jane.
- Wow, so I knew there was a big spoiler but I didn’t know what it was. I assumed it was a big death. My suspects were Weevil, (because I saw some weird buzzfeed article that had him in the title), Keith (because of his illness) & Logan (to a lesser extent). And then later Wallace (when it was revealed he was at the bomb site).
- And I don't get it. I really don't. I don't get the need to kill off one of your lead characters at the end of a season/series. You don't always have to Kill Your Darlings. Sometimes, your protagonist needs to be happy. For once. Misery doesn't always make for better TV.
- Matty is working for Keith which is cool. I guess.
- “It’s
less of a money thing and more of a we-think-you’re-the-Neptune-bomber thing.”
- Ugh I
don’t want Matty in a room with Big Dick when he’s enough in his rights that he
could “accidentally” kill her. Please don’t hurt Matty, show. We like Matty.
- Welp,
and he found the file copying drive at work.
- He
swaps out the golf club for the decorative samurai sword. I want this to be a
running joke of he keeps swapping weapons as he walks through his house.
- Clyde
won’t help him. Partly because he assumes the intruder is Alonzo. Shouldn’t
have crossed Clyde, you idiot.
- Oh I
was right. Big Dick has traded up for a gun now.
- Oh haha
there’s more than one intruder. Here’s Alonzo in the pool, which gives Matty
the chance she needs to escape.
- Nope,
Dodie is preventing that.
- And
Dodie dumps his machete for the samurai sword.
- And Big
Dick goes down. And the last thing he sees is Matty watching. I think we’re too
late to save her from hardening, Veronica.
 |
| Rest in pieces, Big Dick. |
- “Let’s
go home.” // “You think?”
- I suppose this farewell moment is as good a time as any to complain that Alonzo Lozano's names are anagrams of each other.
- A dead
body by the pool. That’s how this show started.
- Aw V
wants to marry Logan tomorrow. My sweet maybe-could-be-healthy ship.
- The
frat boys dunking the pizza guy in the surf … sounds like we just found Penn’s
motive for spring break hate.
- Oh.
Except it was someone named Don, not Penn. Oh dang, it’s obnoxious Don of the
Murderheads.
- His
last name is McNotten, and that’s a pretty on-the-nose name for a red herring shaped suspect.
- HOLY
SHIT GUYS IT’S PARKER LEE WITH PRETTY BROWN HAIR.
- I’m
glad they used her this way instead of what they had planned for the film (the shooting script has her as one of the ones on the boat when Susan Knight died, as Dick Casablancas's hook up of the moment).
- Um. He
left without getting the marriage license.
- Shit,
so Don is the bomber? I thought the spoiler I read was that Penn did it? Or did
he frame Don?
- I guess
this counts as another shoe dropping. Except for the other one that’s shaped
like a falling piano.
- Stop
talking about pee funnels.
- Oh no.
Matty’s diligence shows that the Don pizza ticket was planted there. Okay so
Penn DID do it.
- Fuck,
Don is dead dead deadski.
- With a
shit-ass limerick attached.
- Aw
there’s Clemmons. Set to take over Jake Kane’s new fancy school?
- I
actually have no idea who the lady is that my elementary school was named
after.
 |
Jake Kane's inner monologue: Why does Veronica Mars have to spoil every
nice thing I plan for myself? |
- Oh,
shit, Keith thinks he has football injury brain. ☹
- And
there’s the bomb. Veronica was right.
- And
thank god, they defused it in time.
- “Face it
Mars. I’m always a few steps ahead. My contingencies have contingencies.” I hate knowing the spoiler I know.
- Wow,
he’s even evil cackling in the back of the police car. “You threw me in the
briar patch, Mars!”
- Guys,
did we ever find the missing Maloof ring? Does Matty have it?
- Oh good,
Veronica finally told Keith she’s getting married. I was getting worried.
- Aw Clyde
was hoping he’d get to stay friends with Keith now that Big Dumbass Dick is
gone. But Keith knows better. He can’t casually be friends with accessory to
murder, to assault and conniving shell company schemes. But he’s a bit sad,
because he liked Clyde too. He liked his intelligence and quiet confidence.
There’s only so much of that in Neptune.
- Damn,
Logan’s therapist is President Roslin. He has good taste.
- KEITH’S
BRAIN IS FINE AND I’M CRYING QUIETLY.
- He’s not
gonna retire. They’re gonna fix his meds and he’s gonna be fine.
- Aw
Wallace came to the wedding. Good man.
- The
fuck.
- “Sorry.”
- YOU
GOTTA BE MORE SPECIFIC WITH YOUR SORRY TEXTS MY DUDE.
- Aw the
judge is marrying them outdoors. That’s sweet.
- THEIR
FACES. EVERYTHING IS SWEET.
- I hate
that I know this is gonna be ruined soon. Bastard writers.
- I guess
I’ll spend tomorrow tracking down and reading all the thinkpieces about this.
- Street
Cleaning Alert on Logan's phone. I guess that’s how he knew to remind her on their skype call.
- Daniel
didn’t know but he’s guessed at this point. He’s just saying “oh no” quietly as
Logan goes out to the car.
- By the way, I had been doing so well at keeping spoiler free, until midway through our watch (between episodes 5 and 6, I think) when I found myself trying to explain the concept of Fridging to a friend, and went to the TV Tropes page on it. When I saw Veronica Mars had an entry, I assumed it was about Lilly Kane dying as the impetus for the show. Nope, it was about the rare occurrence of a male character dying to further a female character's plot/growth (the entry also spoiled that Penn was the bomber). But also I would that's not what happened here. Fridging is usually about sacrificing a woman, or sometimes a person of color, with the killing of said character coming not from plot necessity, but functioning as a plot device to further the male main character's story or character growth. To put it another way, it's not pinch-ouch, but ouch-pinch. Writers being lazy and having a bad thing happen to cause another thing, rather than everything coming from character and narrative. ANYWAY. I don't think it's actually what happened here. Veronica grew. She had grown. She was working on growing, at least. Before Logan went boom. They killed Logan anyway, for no flipping real reason as far as I can tell, except that they're deathly afraid of having Veronica be in any shape contented with her lot. It's annoying. I'm not as worked up as a lot of the fan community seems to be, maybe because of the way I found out, or because I didn't binge the whole season in one day, but I'm annoyed. It's dumb. /rant
- I guess, even if we hadn't been spoiled, we should have known from the title that something big was gonna happen regarding LoVe, and the fact that Bloodshed is part of that title would be significant. But they did give us what Logan prophesied: Years. Continents. Bloodshed. They're just being stupid about it.
- One year
later, spring break again, Veronica now driving a red car past a Maloof for
Senate sign.
- But
apparently even though Big Dick is super dead, he still won. Spring Break Land is gone from
Neptune. I wonder what Max is up to if How High Are You is gone.
- Ah,
Matty did find the ring. So that’s wrapped up, too.
- Veronica
lost her apartment and is back with Keith.
- Wow, the
re-enactment actors … that’s a thing.
- But at
least Veronica’s in therapy?
- I
assumed V’s voiceover was to Logan’s gravestone, but it’s to Jane the therapist.
- “What do
you think Logan would think about you coming to see me?” // “I think he’d be pissed
it took me this long.”
- She’s
heading out on another case, this one out of town. Is that the plan for
Season Five, if there is one? Finally leaving Neptune?
- KEITH
WALKING WITHOUT A CANE. That’s good to see.
- Aw and
Matty is helping around the office, fully becoming Veronica 2.0.
- At least
the episode didn’t end with the boom. They’re trying to send us more gently
off.
- “I want to marry Veronica cuz she’s the toughest human being I’ve ever met. Blows that
would destroy most people, she always picks herself back up.” I take back my gentle, that was harsh, man. It's like a challenge to Veronica that she's not allowed to let herself break down.
- And
that’s what she’s done: picked herself back up. Again. For better or worse.
- At least
she’s in therapy this time.
Therapist Jane:
IS REVEALED
Z: Hey.
D: Is
that what’s-her-face?
Z:
Yeah.
Favorite
Lines:
Daniel: “Is it weird to want to marry someone because you respect her? Because you want to be like her? Because you want children who will inherit her qualities?" - Daniel
Zelda: Veronica: “Wallace is at the Kane High dedication.” // Keith, to his cane: “You
hear that, pal? They named a school after you.” // Veronica: “No, this Kane.” // Keith, still to his cane: “You was robbed.” It’s so stupid but
I keep laughing.
Recurring: Alonzo Lozano, Wallace Fennel, Dodie Mendoza, Police Chief Marcia Langdon, Penn Epner, Richard Casablancas, Matty Ross, Clyde Pickett, Cliff McCormack, Don, Jake Kane, Principal Van Clemmons, Parker Lee, Reporter 3 (Tim Davids), Cho's Pizza Manager Kelly, Bob Sargent, Blake Long,
Already
Famous Person: Mary McDonnell
Logan's Last Inspirational Message: “Is it weird to want to marry someone because you respect her? Because you want to be like her? Because you want children who will inherit her qualities? I want to marry Veronica cuz she's the toughest human being I've ever met. Blows that would destroy most people, she always picks herself back up.” - Logan Echolls, on Jane's voicemail
Dead
Humans - 3
Pony Sighting - 1
Veronica
Breaks In - 0
Veronica
Tases Someone - 0
Mac
Hacks - 0
Who's
Your Daddy? - 0
Wallace
Does Veronica a Favor - 0
Logan
Punches Someone - 0
Dick's
Single Entendres - 0
Shenanigans
Called - 0
VERONICA
WAS RIGHT - 2 (Penn did it, and there was a bomb at Kane High)
VERONICA
WAS WRONG - 1 (but the limerick was about the bomb he left in her car)
