Veronica Mars Reviews: Season 1, Episode 14

Veronica Mars S01 titleEpisode 14: Mars vs. Mars

This one starts right where last episode left off, with Logan asking Veronica to find his mother, who he’s sure faked her death. Veronica points out that some woman has been giving TV interviews saying she saw Lynn jump off the bridge, but Logan says just because someone spews some crap on TV it doesn’t mean it’s true. He says his mother’s credit cards are missing, her body hasn’t been found, and she’d never jump off a bridge and risk leaving an ugly bloated corpse.Rooks gets the class interested Logan wants to know if she’s all right, so Veronica promises to look into it. At school the next day, Veronica’s in history class, where her teacher (Mr. Rooks) has everyone participating in a trivia showdown. Rooks is one of those teachers that students love because he bends the curriculum and generally acts like a goofball. The fun comes grinding to a halt when a student (Carrie Bishop, played by Leighton Meester) tells Rooks that her pregnancy test was negative and tosses back the key to his place. Awwwkwaaard.

Veronica talks to Rooks later and he swears he’s never seen Carrie outside of class, but the way the rumour-mill works, the truth may not matter. Don't Stand So Close to MeVeronica believes him completely and says she do whatever she can to clear his name. At lunch, Carrie gets treated to a rousing chorus of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by the Police. Veronica shows no sympathy and tells Wallace that Carrie is the gossip queen of Neptune High. She asks Wallace to “borrow” Carrie’s file from the office. Veronica gives Duncan some line about her family changing doctors and asks for the name of his GP. She’s trying to find out what mystery illness Duncan has that necessitates him taking meds.

Wallace gets Carrie’s file, which has some interesting info inside. Logan asks Veronica how her hunt for his mom is coming and she says she’s put flags on her credit cards and bank card, so they’ll know if anyone uses them. She also says the “eyewitness” will be giving a statement to the cops laterLogan asking about his mom and that she’ll check it out. Logan insists on going, saying he’ll know if the woman is lying or not. Veronica sees Carrie and tells her she’s going to prove she’s lying about Rooks. Carrie wonders why Veronica cares and Veronica says Rooks is one of the few really good teachers at the school. Veronica then mentions Rooks calling Carrie and her parents in for an interview a few months back, which hardly seems like something he’d do if he were banging her.

When Veronica gets to her dad’s office after school, she finds out Carrie’s parents have hired Keith to check into Rooks’s background. Veronica gets pissed off and says she believes Rooks is innocent and won’t help her father flashback to bathroom gossiprailroad him. Keith says Carrie at least deserves to be heard and wonders why Veronica doesn’t believe her. Veronica thinks back to when she and Duncan were dating and she overheard Carrie trash-talking her in the bathroom. Carrie also talked about how Duncan was taken to the hospital, having some kind of freak-out, foaming at the mouth and screaming Veronica’s name. Supposedly it took three orderlies to get him into a strait-jacket. So, I guess Veronica hates Carrie not because she’s a gossip in general, but because she was talking shit about Duncan (which Veronica apparently doesn’t believe).

At the police station, Veronica and Logan listen in as Cliff (Veronica’s lawyer friend) gets the “witness” to admit she’s willing to change her story for money. Logan freaks out, but it does confirm that this particular woman didn’t actually see Lynn jump off the bridge. Veronica runs into Leo and apologizes for using him to get evidence in the Lilly Kane murder. Leo’s notLogan mad at opportunistic tabloid woman too forgiving until Veronica lays out all the contradictory evidence … and admits she’s falling for him. Later, Veronica stops by Rooks’s place, where he’s got his daughter for the weekend. She asks about the parent-teacher conference with Carrie’s parents and Rooks says it was about her grades; he gave her a C on a test and Carrie was mad it might keep her out of Cornell. Rooks says he’ll be representing himself at the school hearing over Carrie’s accusations.

At the office, Keith warns Veronica not to get too invested in Rooks being innocent. He says Carrie kept a detailed diary about their encounters and mentions a tryst in a San Diego hotel after Carrie won a debate trophy. fan's obsessionVeronica points out that anyone an write a bunch of lies, but Keith says Rooks’s credit card records match Carrie’s details perfectly. Veronica says Carrie could’ve followed Rooks, but she looks like she might be starting to have doubts. Logan comes in later to show her a tabloid story about another “witness” who saw Lynn getting into a van instead of jumping off the bridge. Veronica tracks her down in record time and arranges an interview, but it turns out the woman is an obsessed fan who keeps a scrapbook full of crap relating to Lynn. Logan walks out, convinced his mother might actually be dead. Even Weevil feels bad for him.

At home, Keith tells Veronica that Rooks was fired from his last job after the parents of a couple of girls made some kind of complaint against him. Veronica asks to see Carrie’s diary, but Keith says he can’t let her, so she sneaks into his office and finds the safe combination. But Keith’s one stepVeronica gets a face full of dye ahead of her, so she gets a dye-pack in the face when she opens the evidence box. She gives her dad shit and says she’s absolutely certain Carrie is lying. Keith still won’t show her the diary, but agrees to give her the dates and times of Carrie and Rooks’s supposed trysts. At school the next day, Veronica checks the trophy case and finds a clue. Weevil stops by to tell her he heard a freshman has been bragging about having evidence that Lynn jumped and that he’s going to make millions off it. Veronica asks Weevil to find out more.

Veronica asks Rooks about his last job and he says the school was pretty conservative, so the parents (and school board) weren’t thrilled by his cowboy teaching methods. Veronica corners Carrie outside, giving her one hiding under the sinklast chance to come clean. Carrie gives Veronica a few sordid details, like Rooks has black silk sheets on his bed and uses side two of Tattoo You as seduction music. Veronica points out that Carrie’s San Diego romp with Rooks couldn’t have happened, because she was in Sacramento with the track team winning a gold medal that weekend. Veronica goes to see Duncan’s doctor on a pretext and hides (under the bathroom sink … yes, she’s petite) until everyone is gone. She copies Duncan’s file and when she’s putting it back, she sees Abel Koontz (Lilly’s supposed killer) was a patient there too. Probably not a coincidence.

At Rooks’s school hearing, Carrie testifies to all his depravity and shows the school board president (Ms. Fuller) some sexy texts he sent her. Ms. Fuller points out the texts are addressed to “SK”, which Carrie says stands for “sweet knees”, Rooks’s nickname for her. Carrie tells Ms. Fuller to hit theMs. Fuller gets some sexts Callback button and Rooks’s cell rings. Veronica gets an idea and borrows the vice principal’s phone, using it to send a few texts. She lets Rooks know what questions to ask and he gets Ms. Fuller to check her text messages. There are several saucy messages from the vice principal on her phone, and when she hits redial, his phone rings. Obviously, faking text messages isn’t all that hard. The committee ends up finding that Carrie doesn’t have enough substantial evidence, so Rooks is exonerated.

Later, Veronica stops by his place to congratulate him and he invites her in for pizza. She decides to get the hell out of there when she notices the black silk sheets on his bed and he busts out the Rolling Stones. At school, she Susan tells the truthchecks into Duncan’s condition, which turns out to be a type of epilepsy that causes violent seizures and out-of-control behaviour, plus blackouts. Veronica also researches who won the debate competition in San Diego and finds out it was someone named Susan Knight. So much for Sweet Knees. Susan also happens to be a close friend of Carrie’s (and the girl she was gossiping to about Duncan). Veronica goes to see Susan and lays it all out: Susan was the one Rooks banged (and got pregnant); Carrie just used Susan’s diary and cell to implicate Rooks, pretending everything had happened to her.

Susan admits it and says Rooks gave her $500 to “take care of” the pregnancy. She didn’t want to tell anyone about him because she didn’t want him to go to jail for statutory rape, but Veronica says Carrie’s been taking a lot of shit from everyone on Susan’s behalf. Carrie has been telling Susan that most people were supportive, but Veronica says that’s not trueLogan finds out his mom is really dead and admits she was one of the people giving Carrie a hard time. She says Susan can pay Carrie back and gives her Ms. Fuller’s number. At school, Veronica apologizes to Carrie, who isn’t too impressed. Weevil brings Veronica the kid who’s been talking about having proof of Lynn’s suicide. Veronica gets Logan and the kid plays some footage from an amateur movie he and his friends were shooting. In the background, right at the time Lynn supposedly killed herself, something can be seen falling from the bridge.

Logan is devastated and Weevil lets the kid know if the footage ever gets out, his ass will be grass. Right after Logan leaves, Veronica gets a text Carrie and Veronica happy with their resultstelling her that someone just used Lynn’s credit card. Later in class, the vice principal tells everyone Rooks has resigned and they’ll be getting a new teacher. When Rooks comes to take his stuff, Carrie gives Veronica a slight nod of gratitude. At the office, Keith and Veronica seem to be back on good terms. She goes to visit Abel Koontz in jail and lets him know she’s got dirt on him; he’s dying and his confession was bullshit. Someone’s using him as a willing patsy and she’s going to find out who.