Episode 4: Charlie Don’t Surf
This one starts with Logan coming over for dinner with Veronica and her dad, which makes Veronica nervous as hell. She tries to control the conversation, keeping Keith from asking anything too serious, and keeping Logan from responding with his usual snark. Naturally, her tactics make everyone feel awkward. Later, Veronica goes to see Mac and has another awkward encounter, this time with Parker, who blames Veronica for assuming she was banging when she was actually being raped. Veronica tells Parker about her own rape, which calms Parker down a bit. Veronica promises she’ll find the rapist, but
their conversation is interrupted by Nish, who wants to interview Parker for the Hearst paper. Veronica warns Parker to be careful around Nish and leaves. Parker declines the interview, so Nish asks if any Pi Sigma guys were at the sorority party the night Parker was raped. Meanwhile, Logan’s accountant (Avi) tells him he’s burning through his trust fund too fast and Logan thinks there’s money missing. Avi offers to send over all the financial records and Logan asks Veronica for help finding out if Avi is skimming. Easier said than done, since there are a half dozen big boxes stuffed full of financial crap to sift through.
At the office, a woman named Harmony (played by Laura San Giacomo) comes by to ask Keith to check out her husband, Marvin. She thinks he’s having an affair and admits their marriage is basically loveless at this point, 
but their daughter is happy so if she’s going to get a divorce, she needs a real reason. At the Hearst library, Wallace drops by with the latest edition of the paper. Nish has written an article about how all the rapes seem to be connected with Pi Sigma fraternity. Veronica doesn’t trust Nish, but the Pi Sigmas are pretty sleazy, so she can’t discount the possibility they’re involved. That night, Dick drops by to ask Veronica to clear the Pi Sigmas of the rape allegations before they all get thrown off campus. Dick insists the Pi Sigmas are innocent (“Why rape the cow when you’re swimming in free milk?”), but Veronica isn’t eager to do them any favours. In the end, she figures this is a way to get unfettered access to the frat house to look for evidence … and make a little cash in the process.
Keith stakes out the office where Harmony’s husband Marvin works, but doesn’t see anything too suspicious. He takes a few pictures of Marvin and a woman, but it looks pretty businesslike. When talking to Harmony on the
phone, Keith has kind of a vibe with her. The next morning, Keith tells Veronica his accountant is almost done with Logan’s financials. Keith and Veronica are both dressed a little strangely: Keith is all dolled up (he’s even wearing new cologne), while Veronica looks very businesslike, to the point of severity. After making fun of each other, they go their separate ways. Keith meets Harmony at the office and tells her the woman Marvin met with is named Carly and she works for a company Marvin’s firm is doing business with. Keith says it looked like just business and Harmony is kinda relieved. Keith gives her a bug to plant on Marvin the next time she ties his tie.
Veronica drops by the Pi Sigma house to ask about the night the latest victim (Claire) was raped. Chip directs her to a dude named Charleston (last 
name Chu … yeah, I know), who was pouring drinks outside the frat’s haunted House. (I guess it was a Halloween party?) Charleston says he didn’t do anything to anyone’s drink, but he went to Chip’s room with the cash and found chip naked, sweating, and out of breath. Outside, a group of women show up to protest Pi Sigma’s continued existence and Parker is one of them. She’s not too happy when she realizes Veronica is working for the Pi Sigmas. At the office, Keith and Harmony are getting very comfortable when Veronica and Logan come in. Harmony leaves and Keith tells Logan his accountant found there’s $10,000 a month going to some charity.
Veronica does a little digging and finds out the charity is a front for Avi. At Hearst, Veronica talks to Chip about who he was banging that night. She notices a big bruise on his hand—which he says he got in the Haunted House when someone stepped on his hand—but he won’t tell her who he
was with that night … and says that the girl would never admit to it anyway. Veronica puts two and two together and figures Chip was banging Charleston’s girlfriend, but she denies it. Dick gives Veronica shit for asking so many questions about the frat boys and she notices the same bruise on his hand as Chip had. She wonders if Dick could be he rapist, since he showed up drunk at Logan’s that night saying he’d really screwed up.
Veronica checks out Avi’s fake charity and figures out where the money is going … to a dude named Charlie Stone, who turns out to be Logan’s half-
brother. Yeah, Aaron knocked up some stewardess and he’s been supporting Charlie secretly ever since. Charlie is a teacher in Capistrano and Veronica gives Logan his number. Logan calls and leaves a very awkward message. At Hearst, Veronica finds out from Parker that Dick was in the Haunted House the night of the rape and chased a girl named Nancy outside, calling her a bitch. Keith stakes out Marvin again, listening in on his conversation with Carly through the bug Harmony planted. Keith gets a great picture of Carly kissing Marvin.
At Hearst, Veronica talks to Nancy, who tells her she and Claire heard the Pi Sigmas were groping girls in the Haunted House the night of the party, so they put rat traps on all their “gropable parts”. That explains Chip and
Dick’s bruised hands and why Dick was so pissed off at Nancy. Nancy says she lost track of Claire after the Haunted House and thought she saw her later outside a convenience store, but she didn’t respond when Nancy called to her. Veronica checks out the store and finds out Claire was there (drunk off her ass) with some dude who was buying rubbers. Apparently, the dude had to get cash from an ATM right next door.
Logan meets Charlie and they get along pretty well. Charlie wonders if he’s inherited the asshole gene from Aaron, which is something Logan worries 
about too. Charlie says he’d like to hear more about Logan’s family sometime. Logan’s not keen on that, but when he finds out Charlie loves surfing, he’s thrilled. That makes Veronica suspicious, so she goes out to Capistrano to see where Charlie works … and meets the real Charlie Stone (though she doesn’t tell him why she’s there). Logan and “Charlie” go out surfing and Logan tells Charlie stories of how Aaron abused him as a kid. When they get back to shore, Veronica busts “Charlie”, who turns out to be a reporter for Vanity Fair named Norman Phipps. Naturally, Logan decks him.
At the office, Keith shows Harmony the photo of Carly kissing Marvin and she figures that’s it for her marriage. But Keith plays the audio recording and she hears Marvin telling Carly to back off and Keith tells her Marvin has
handed Carly’s account over to someone else at his firm. Harmony realizes her marriage might not be as bad as she thought and heads home. Later, Veronica asks Keith if he can get camera footage from the ATM for her. The ATM photos show Claire was there at two in the morning (two hours after the Haunted House closed) and she still had a full head of hair, so she hadn’t been raped yet. She was also with some Asian dude and it wasn’t Charleston (the only Asian in Pi Sigma), so it looks like the frat is in the clear. That doesn’t sit well with the women on campus who have been clamoring for the college to shut down Pi Sigma. Veronica tells Parker they need to get the right guy behind bars, not just a scapegoat.
Logan outs his half-brother Charlie on national TV (turning Charlie’s life 
into a media circus) because he figures Charlie sent Phipps after him. Logan says he gave Phipps a pocket watch that was his grandfather’s and wants it back, so Veronica tracks Phipps down. She gets the watch back and Phipps tells her Logan was wrong about one thing … the real Charlie didn’t send Phipps after Logan. Charlie wanted to stay anonymous after he found out Aaron was his father; Phipps tapped Charlie’s phone, that’s how he got onto Logan. Veronica tells Logan that and he calls Charlie and leaves a series of message, all much more awkward than the original.