Rob Thomas Won't Let Us Have Nice Things

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.

Zelda’s Thoughts:

• “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.

Crossfire!

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.

Arc/Continuity:

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

Stats:

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)