Production on the Veronica Mars Movie wrapped last week which gives you about six to nine months until the movie hits theaters or Netflix. That is plenty of time to watch or re-watch the series which only ran for three seasons and sixty-four episodes (watching one a day will get you close to finish before the fall television season kicks into high gear). But if you do not have the time for the entire series but want to see what the hoopla around the show is and get the gist of the series before the movie comes out, here are the ten best episodes you definitely check out. But just jot down the episode titles (and rearrange them chronologically), because my descriptions will get a little spoilery.
1. Pilot (Season 1, Episode 1): Who would have guessed a show about a teenage detective would be so good? Luckily the buzz around the show was so great that I had to check it out and the premiere lived up to the hype. When we meet Veronica Mars, she is the disgraced daughter of the disgraced sheriff who bundled the murder of her best friend, bumping her down from the upper echelon of the social hierarchy to the very bottom. And to add insult to injury, she was roofied and raped on her way to the bottom. This is the start of her road to redemption and what a trip it ended up being.
2. A Trip to the Dentist (Season 1, Episode 21): Usually a show leaves its best for last, but the show has so much to wrap up they had plenty to fill the penultimate episode of the season which ended up being slightly better than the finale. After learning Logan was the one supplying the Rohypnol at Shelly Pomroy’s End of the World Party, Ronnie was slowly able to piece together what happened that night with the help of many retuning Neptune students from throughout the first season until she leaned that Madison Sinclaire gave her a “trip to the dentist” with a cup Dick meant to loosen up his girlfriend at the time. The episode even left us with one more suspect in the Lily Kane murder list when Vee discovered the Echoll’s video room and the episode ended for the second straight time with Veronica standing Logan up.
3. Donut Run (Season 2, Episode 11): The fond (almost) farewell of Duncan Kane. I have to admit Duncan and Ronnie had me fooled, but in the end they came up with an ingenuous plan to get Duncan out of the country with the aid of Vinnie and VanLowe (and unwillingly Sheriff Lamb). The episode capped with one of the best musical moments on the show with Adelaide playing by The Old 97’s playing as Vee starred at her fortune cookie complete with the Lost numbers (mmm, I just may have to do The Greatest Musical Moment on Veronica Mars around the time the movie is released).
4. The Bitch Is Back (Season 3, Episode 20): If you are going out, might as well go out with a bang. After being publically humiliated and ostracized after a video of her just as the way God made her hit the internets, we saw the return of season one Ronnie as she went on the warpath to find those responsible which even involved a run in from Jake Kane, not seen since the first season.
5. Leave It to Beaver (Season 1, Episode 22): Talk about hiding in plain sight. Despite being a violent psychopath, it never dawned on me that Aaron was the one that killed Lily leading the climactic scene with the action star stalking Veronica in her car and the subsequent showdown with Keith in a fiery back yard.
6. Normal Is the Watchword (Season 2, Episode 1): After a near perfect first season, the show could have easily fallen into a sophomore slump, but over the course of an hour, the show nicely wrapped up the burning questions from last season, solved a case of false positive drug test, and set up two season long mysteries masterfully with who killed Felix and why did the bus which included Meg Manning fall off a cliff. The season also promoted the Casablancas boys to cast members and introduced us to the Goodman family (Steve Guttenberg and Krystan Ritter) and Vice President Clemmons’s son Butters.
7. Spit & Eggs (Season 3, Episode 9): We got condensed mysteries in the third season, but the conclusion of the Heart Rapist storyline was just as epic with Ronnie having a showdown with the evil perp. And how apropos was it that it was Parker who was the one that saved Veronica (which begs the question, was does she always needing saving by the Big Bad’s).
8. Not Pictured (Season 2, Episode 22): Okay, the reveal was a bit over the top, Cassidy blew up the bus just to shut up the two other ball boys who wanted to go public about Woody Goodman’s extracurricular activities, that killed Woody (and to Veronica’s knowledge) her father right in front of her just so no one would find out that Woody also molested him. Oh yeah, and it turned out that Beaver actually did rape her at Shelly Pomroy’s party. Alrighty. Once you get past Beaver’s mustache twirling, still a solid finale to the second season. Plus the writers may have tipped their cap with the possible third season with the Duncan Clarence Weidman conversation, “CW?” “It’s a done deal.”
9. Welcome Wagon (Season 3, Episode 1): Transition to college can be tricky for television shows (and real life) but Veronica Mars made the change smoothly mostly because it was always more than a high school show. Ronnie quickly took up the case to find Wallace’s new roommate’s stolen stuff and, well, boom goes the dynamite.
10. Silence of the Lambs (Season 1, Episode 11): Mac and Madison Sinclaire return for a second episode and who would have guessed that they were switched at birth? Ironically the episode featured a blink and you will miss it cameo from Katie LeClerc who would go on to star in Switched at Birth in her first profession role. The episode also featured future Emmy winner Aaron Paul as a Girl Gone Bad wannabe cameraman. We also get our first look at the latest addition to the Neptune sheriff’s office: Deputy Leo, the Ronnie suitor I would most like to see her end up with in the movie.
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