Mark Watches ‘Veronica Mars’: S02E22 – Not Pictured

In the twenty-second and final episode of the second season of Veronica Mars, I’m so terribly, horribly wrong. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Veronica Mars.

Well, that was just exhausting.

Trigger Warning: We have to talk about child molestation, rape, and suicide to discuss this episode.

• I have complicated feelings about the resolution of season, but seriously, let me just say that GODDAMN, THIS WAS UNREAL. I think I still prefer season one’s finale over this, but it’s not like this episode is far behind. My god, I WASN’T RIGHT ABOUT ANYTHING AT ALL. Which is just goddamn fun, y’all. It’s fun to be entertained by such a compelling set of mysteries, and it’s nice to watch a show that’s so cleverly (and lovingly) made. Justice is a strange thing in Neptune, and despite that there’s closure offered by “Not Pictured,” it’s not the kind of closure that leaves smiles and good feelings in its wake. This is still bleak at times (horribly so in the case of Cassidy), and there’s always going to be that air of cynicism to this sunny noir. But there are endings here in this finale, and many of them complete stories introduced ages ago.
• Initially, though, Rob Thomas chooses to dwell in the tragedy of Aaron Echolls’ acquittal. And goddamn it, it’s the worst kind of tragedy. He’s standing on the steps of the courthouse, that smug, piece-of-shit smile on his face, and I just wanted a giant boulder to fall from space and crush him. He didn’t deserve to smile ever again, but there he was, a free man, beloved for dodging a murder rap by most of Neptune, and Keith and Veronica had to return to work, knowing that their efforts to get justice for Lilly Kane were for… nothing, really. Aaron got away with everything, even the attempted murder of Veronica.
• And so they have to move on. What else is there to do? The case is over, and the privileged have maintained the status quo.
• So Veronica urges her father to at least give some justice to Woody Goodman’s victims by seeking him out and claiming the $20,000 reward.
• (Which leads me to wonder: I still don’t understand Mr. Manning’s connection to any of this. Why bail out Lucky? Why offer the $20,000 to find Woody Goodman? I have a hard time believing Meg’s dad is some bastion of charity because he’s an abuser, though I could maybe believe that he was doing this to distract others from suspecting him of… something no one knew in the first place? Yeah, I’m confused.)
• WHICH MEANS WE GET MORE OF VINNIE. YES. THIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING. God bless that slow pan to reveal that Vinnie was in lock-up. I LOVE IT.
• What I do not love: the slow, cruel experience that was Veronica’s dream of how life should have turned out. I mean, it’s brilliant writing and acting, but I don’t love it because I don’t appreciate my heart being shredded. As amazing as it might have seemed to Veronica to have the life she wanted, the truly devastating part of the dream lay in the fact that without the tragedy and the heartbreak, Veronica never would have become friends with Wallace. She never would have saved him from that first day of bullying because she wouldn’t have possessed the same kind of empathy that she came to have because of her experience as one of the less affluent kids. In this alternate version of the world, Wallace doesn’t enjoy high school, which is why he makes that comment about Veronica being “one of those” people. The ones who will actually miss high school.
• THEN LILLY KANE. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD THIS ISN’T OKAY AT ALL.
• But that’s the point: It all feels so wrong and off. Even Logan’s behavior is strange when he’s affectionate towards Veronica.
• This isn’t reality, though, and no matter how much Veronica wished things had turned out differently, she is the woman she is today because of the experiences she’s had. So it’s fitting that her graduation happens not long after this, since it’s a sign that she’s moving on to an unknown future. We don’t find out if she won the Kane Scholarship, nor do we get any confirmation that she’s going to Stanford or Hearst. That’s okay, though, because I appreciate what Veronica’s graduation was like. It reminded me a lot of Buffy’s prom in season three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she gets the Class Protector award. While there were probably a lot of Veronica’s mortal enemies in that room, I think that at one point or another, Veronica also helped a lot of those kids, too.
• And it’s why I’m so upset that Lamb chooses to arrest Weevil DURING HIS GRADUATION. Look, I’m not here to say that Lamb shouldn’t pursue Weevil because we all know he was instrumental in Thumper’s death. But good god, MUST YOU ALWAYS BE SO CRUEL? Can’t you let him just graduate? Bah, Sheriff Lamb just keeps giving me reasons to not like him ever.
• I AM SERIOUSLY GOING TO MISS PRINCIPAL CLEMMONS. A LOT. What a surprisingly charming character, y’all. I didn’t expect to like him so much!
• Seriously, though, shit gets so real immediately after the graduation. I mean, we get like ten seconds to appreciate the fact that Keith bought Veronica tickets to NEW YORK before Alicia (OH MY GOD I MISSED YOU ALICIA) shows up to reveal that WALLACE IS FLYING TO PARIS TO GO CHASE DOWN JACKIE. Which is so impractical and stubborn of him but it’s just so very Wallace, you know? But also OH MY GOD WALLACE HOW WOULD YOU EVEN FIND JACKIE ONCE YOU GOT THERE????
• So yeah, I was a little confused when the episode appeared to jump ahead a week and we were in New York already. Oh! I didn’t expect that.
• OH
• OH
• WHAT THE FUCK IS JACKIE DOING IN NEW YORK
• THAT’S HER MOTHER???? SHE HAS A YOUNGER SISTER, TOO???
• OH MY GOD
• JACKIE WASN’T EVER GOING TO THE SORBONNE
• OH MY GOD NOW I KNOW WHY VERONICA KEPT GIVING JACKIE THAT LOOK WHENEVER JACKIE MENTIONED PARIS.
• !!!!!!!!!!
• I really wanted Logan to get out of the elevator and then the elevator would plunge a million feet to kill Aaron Echolls. I mean, I haven’t said anything like this before, but shit, Harry Hamlin IS Aaron Echolls, and I don’t know how that man finds the headspace to create a performance like this. He’s so creepy that I’m sure I’m going to have nightmares about Aaron Echolls.
• Let it also be known that this show just featured someone using an elk head as a weapon. Never thought I’d see that.
• And for what it’s worth, Steve Guttenberg gives Harry Hamlin a run for his money in terms of being able to portray an absolute waste of a human. Woody seriously believed he was helping those kids by molesting them. OH MY GOD YOU ARE THE WORST THING EVER. And it really cuts to the core of Woody’s egotistical style of abuse. He believes he is a blessing to others. He’s entitled to whatever he wants, and then he justifies it with a winning smile and emotional manipulation. UGH I HATE HIM.
• It’s at this point that “Not Pictured” reveals the reasoning behind the episode title and gives us the answer to the bus crash mystery in the same exact moment. This experience was nothing like the Aaron Echolls reveal in season one, however. The second Veronica read that Cassidy Casablancas was “not pictured” in the Little League photo, I understood simply that Woody had once molested Cassidy too, but nothing else made sense. WHY? WHY WOULD HE CRASH THE BUS? WHY WOULD HE KILL PEOPLE WHO WERE VICTIMS OF THE SAME MONSTER AS HIM????
• OH MY GOD I WASN’T EVEN CLOSE. I NEVER ONCE SUSPECTED CASSIDY AT ALL.
• TELL ME, VERONICA MARS. I DON’T GET IT.
• OH MY GOD, MAC. GET AWAY. NO OH MY GOD
• THIS IS THE WORST. And look, I have very complicated feelings about this reveal. Yeah, I feel a little embarrassed that Cassidy wasn’t ever on my radar, and I think it’s clear in the video that I was flat-out stunned that he was the one behind everything. His sexual dysfunction with Mac finally made sense, sure, but I couldn’t put the pieces together. It didn’t make sense to me. What did he stand to gain?
• UGH HE GOT VERONICA’S TEXT MESSAGE BEFORE MAC
• WHY THE FUCK DOES HE HAVE A GUN
• OH MY GOD, THIS WAS ALL BAD ENOUGH, AND THEN THE WRITERS HAVE TO STICK AARON ECHOLLS IN THE ELEVATOR WITH VERONICA, AND MY HATRED WAS SO VISCERAL DURING THAT SCENE. It’s cruelty, obviously, meant to highlight just how deeply tragic and unfair it was that Aaron Echolls was a free man. He could say that shit to Veronica, teasing her about her best friend’s murder, and he knew he’d never be held responsible for it.
• I’m just repeating myself at this point, but I don’t care. I hate that man so much.
• And then Veronica makes it to the roof, and the truth comes spilling out, and oh my god it was right there the whole time.
• I’m torn on this reveal. On the one hand, it was cleverly hidden from view the entire time. Again, I did not once suspect that Cassidy had done anything wrong at all. As Veronica vocalizes her theory – that Cassidy was the mastermind behind all the deaths as a way to keep his molestation a secret – it was clear that I had completely misread Cassidy as a character. Sort of. His mistreatment at the hands of his family was real, as was his awkward behavior. But he was always secretive. He was always keeping something from everyone around him, and in that sense, I can see why he’d be murderous in order to hide a traumatic secret. Marcos and Peter were going to publicly out Woody Goodman as the child molester he was – “The outing to end all outings” – and in doing so, they’d out Cassidy as a victim in the process.
• And Cassidy is clearly completely and utterly fucked up by his molestation. As we learn about what he’s done, it’s obvious that he never got any help. He kept that secret inside of him for so long that it ate away at his moral core. And it’s here that I feel weird about the re-contextualization of Cassidy. I don’t find a problem in the idea of showing us that molestation can ruin people. It’s just that there is a distinct lack of any sympathy for what happened to Cassidy, both in the writing and in his performance. I know I’m a little more sensitive than most about issues of consent and sexual abuse since I’m a rape victim, but I tend not to enjoy stories about people who were raped turning into monsters because of it. That’s not to suggest that this doesn’t happen, but it makes we wonder if someone else will feel even more broken than Cassidy by seeing this.
• It’s also due to the fact that in a lot of ways, Cassidy turns into a mustache-twirling villain in his final moments, and it’s jarring. Where was that confidence the rest of the season? Was he always hiding that certainty behind a mask of social awkwardness? Again, there’s no room for sympathy or empathy here, especially since Cassidy is so heinous in hindsight. He raped Veronica on the night of Shelly Pomroy’s party, giving her chlamydia. And then I watch in muted horror as he BLOWS UP THE PLANE THAT KEITH WAS ON. I mean, I was so emotionally exhausted from everything that had happened prior to this that I didn’t even know how to react. You can’t. You can’t fucking do that, Cassidy. You can’t do that.
• I was reminded of Wallace’s sacrifice in the previous episode once Logan arrived to take down Cassidy, and I don’t think that was an intentional parallel. But it was a nice touch, another physical reminder that Logan undoubtedly loves and cares for Veronica Mars.
• And let’s go back to being torn. Because while I’m a mess of opinions and emotions over Cassidy’s reveal, I cannot deny that without it, we would not get the scene of Veronica pointing a gun at Cassidy, wholly believing that he just killed her father, and Logan begging her not to shoot because she’s not a killer. It’s an emotionally raw and bitter scene because we know that without her father, Veronica is already lost. Look at her face, y’all. She wants nothing more than retribution. And that’s an important scene because so much of the end of this season has been about a lack of justice, a lack of closure. Veronica already experienced Aaron Echolls’s acquittal, Woody Goodman’s disappearance, Weevil’s arrest before his graduation, Wallace’s heartbreak… it’s too much. And in one moment, she could make something right by killing Cassidy on the spot.
• One of the most haunting moments of this whole draining finale is when Cassidy, standing on the edge of the roof of the Neptune Grand, asks why he shouldn’t jump. Veronica and Logan give him utter silence in response, and with that, he jumps.
• Jesus fucking christ, what the fuck is this episode.
• And it wasn’t outright confirmed in the dialogue, but I’m pretty sure that what Mac says to Veronica when she finds her later is her admission that Cassidy raped her, too. God. GOD WHAT THE FUCK CASSIDY YOU ARE SO FUCKING HORRIBLE.
• BUT IT DOESN’T STOP HERE. OH MY GOD. AARON AND KENDALL??? I suppose that makes sense, given that she helped him get out of prison by destroying evidence. BUT THEN SHE LEAVES AND THEN HIS BLOOD IS ALL OVER THE SCREEN AND CLARENCE WIEDMAN???
• OH MY FUCKING GOD DUNCAN HIRED CLARENCE TO KILL AARON ECHOLLS.
• I DO NOT FEEL EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT BAD ABOUT THIS.
• OH MY GOD, LOOK AT LILLY. NO MY GOD.
• Hey, were there enough plot twists at this point? Let’s give you a new one: That little girl in Jackie’s mom’s diner was Jackie’s daughter. I completely forgot that when Jackie was introduced, Terrence referenced an “agreement” AND I NEVER QUESTIONED IT. OH MY GOD.
• I’m so sad that Jackie and Wallace can’t be together, especially since this episode concludes an amazing character arc for Jackie. She grew to accept herself, to love herself and the world around her, and to take responsibility for what she’s done. Unfortunately, that means she must stay in Brooklyn, away from Wallace.
• I was so numb at this point that the whole bit with waking up to the smell of bacon was just like another slap in the face. LET US REMIND YOU THAT KEITH MARS IS DEAD.
• So yeah, all I could feel was just a rush of relief because this episode DRAINED ME OF ALL OF MY ENERGY FOREVER.
• Like season one, the cliffhanger we’re left on isn’t something that’s about a lack of closure. Most plotlines had been resolved at this point. Keith and Veronica are on their way to New York; Logan and Veronica have decided to rekindle their romance; and there’s a big, wide open future for all these characters. However, there’s still the issue of Kendall Casablancas. After inheriting nearly $8 million from Cassidy’s death, she comes to Keith with some sort of proposition, and whatever it is, it’s so big that Keith doesn’t meet Veronica at the airport. Was there money in that briefcase? Something else? I don’t know OH GOD. DON’T HOLD OUT ON ME.
• So, yes, I felt weird about this finale at times, but overall, I fucking loved it, and I loved season two. This has been one of the most consistently entertaining and thought-provoking shows I’ve ever covered, and I am so excited to start season three this Friday!

The commission for “Not Pictured” can be downloaded here for $0.99.