Structuring the Pilot: Veronica Mars
If you’ve ever read one of these Structuring the Pilot posts, you may have noticed that in the scene breakdown segments, I call out which of the episode’s plots each scene builds on (often denoted as A, B, or C). I don’t often address the reasoning behind each one, but feel it is a helpful thing to keep to in mind.
In television, the use of multiple plots in an episode can often be used to delineate the episodic story from the more serialized one, or simply to separate characters into their own stories to give focus to more than one.
Veronica Mars is a case where each one of the four plots is unquestionably about its title character. Not only that, but they intersect repeatedly throughout, to the point that it becomes difficult at times to narrow down what a scenes purpose is. This isn’t a bad thing; it’s like a complex braid, each strand wrapping together to create a more interesting, stronger whole.
So, let’s look at what’s going on.
Veronica Mars – “Pilot”
Written by Rob Thomas
Directed by Mark Piznarski
Teaser – Coming Soon
(A + B + C) Veronica is on a stake out; bikers arrive.
This teaser is just a short, single scene, and yet it manages to at least touch on nearly every plot of the episode. The scene itself is a jump to the future, showing us the start of a scene that we will see in full context about midway through the episode.
Without context, it becomes about the viewer asking questions about who this young woman is. What’s could possibly have her staying out all night to take pictures of cheating men in a sleezy hotel, especially when she has a calculus test in the morning. It works to build mystery right from the opening moments.
When we later get the context, we learn that this is her investigating Jake Kane (the A story), she’s approached by Weevil’s gang (the C story), and all of her cynical attitudes she preaches in the narration have come about because of events from a year ago (the B story).
Act One – The World of Veronica Mars
(A + C) Veronica cuts Wallace down from the flagpole.
(A) Veronica falls asleep in class; still knows the material.
(C) Veronica has her locker searched.
(B) Veronica thinks back to her relationship with Duncan.
(C) Veronica learns Weevil’s gang has it in for Wallace.
(C) FB Wallace hits silent alarm when bikers rob his work.
(C) FB Wallace intimidated by bikers; lies to Lamb.
(C) Veronica congratulates Wallace for making so many enemies.
(B) Veronica misses her mother.
(A) Veronica plays with her dog, Backup.
(A + C) Veronica takes Backup to the beach, sees Wallace there.
(A) Veronica sees Celeste Kane’s car outside the office.
(A + B + D) Veronica is given a case; reveals Keith tried to send Jake to jail.
With the start of act one, the episode takes us back 20 hours prior to when the teaser takes place. This act is all about learning the world of Veronica Mars, her place in it, and how only a year ago it was totally different.
Veronica’s narrations set the scene, telling us that this is Neptune, California, “a town without a middle class.” She sees Wallace, a new kid in school, taped naked to a flagpole. While everyone else just laughs or takes pictures, Veronica takes out her knife and cuts him down. It is a moment that uses an introduction of a major character (and the C story) to also reveal more about Veronica herself. We’re seeing that not only is she willing to go against a crowd to help someone, but she carries a knife.
In the very next scene, Veronica is falling asleep in her AP English class. She’s woken up with a question about Pope’s “An Essay on Man”. She recites it perfectly, but her cynicism comes out again, as Veronica translates the work to: “life’s a bitch until you die.”
While Veronica puts her head back down after she’s given her answer, the teacher continues to speak, though the sound is fading as Veronica closes her eyes. The teacher says, “I think what Pope is saying is that the thing that keeps us powering through life’s defeats is our faith in a better life yet to come.”
These two interpretations become almost the thesis of who Veronica is. While on the surface she portrays herself as this cynic, by the end of the episode we come to know that the teacher’s version hits closer to Veronica’s deeper feelings.
In the next scene Veronica shows off that she knows in advance about random locker searches. It’s a small moment played as a joke, but still has importance later on.
And then it’s lunch time. Veronica sits alone, looking over toward the table full of the popular kids. She’s sent into a flashback, remember the days when she was apart of their group, and Duncan was her boyfriend.
This scene, along with its collection of flashbacks, sets up nearly everything that will be going on for the whole episode. Veronica’s isolation, her past with Duncan, Logan’s dickishness, Wallace’s troubles, Weevil’s P.C.H. Bike Club, Sheriff Lamb… It’s pretty jam packed.
After school, more flashbacks hint that Veronica’s mom has disappeared since the events of a year ago, but we’re only given enough to say Veronica seems to miss her. She takes her dog to the beach to play, but she’s keeps her distance from people. When Wallace is there and waves to her, she waves back shyly, like she doesn’t know how to behave when someone is being nice. It’s all building out more of how Veronica feels she doesn’t fit into this world.
We end at the Mars Investigation office. Outside, Veronica is thrown off by the sight of Celeste Kane’s car. She goes inside to try to listen in to what is going on, but is interrupted by Cliff, a lawyer. Veronica says her dad is busy, but the way Cliff talks makes it clear to us that the way this detective agency works is that Veronica takes on cases herself, and he knows it.
Cliff gives Veronica a case involving a strip club that serves minors, which becomes the minor D plot of the episode.
When Cliff leaves, Celeste comes out, telling Keith that she doesn’t like him, but needs to know something. Keith disappears back into his office right away, leaving Veronica to wonder what Celeste could want, and narrating that her dad tried to send Jake Kane to jail for life.
In this opening act, every single plot that will be happening in this episode, including the main mystery for the season, have all been brought up or hinted at to some degree. Even the character who ends up being behind the big mystery’s murder has already had their name mentioned.
Act Two – The Kane Cases
(A) Veronica learns about Celeste’s case; Keith goes after a bail jumper.
(A) Veronica watches Jake.
(B) FB Veronica told that Lilly has a secret.
(B) FB Veronica sees Lilly’s dead body.
(A) Veronica follows Jake to motel.
(B) FB Veronica learns the crime scene video has leaked.
(B) FB Veronica and Keith see Abel Koontz getting arrested on the news.
(A + C) Veronica makes a deal with Weevil.
(B) FB Veronica goes to a party; gets roofied. (From teaser)
(B) FB Veronica discovers she was raped.
(A) Veronica gets pictures of Jake; can’t see the woman.
Act two zeros in on the Kane family more than anything else, both in the present day and in the past. Veronica learns that Celeste has hired Keith to find out if her husband in cheating, leading to Veronica tailing him that night. Meanwhile, the time spent watching Jake leads to her thinking back to when she was close to the Kane family, especially Lilly.
It’s in this act we learn both who Lilly is and that she died. Lilly’s death becomes the catalyst to all the changes in Veronica’s life from the flashbacks to the present.
The investigation of Jake Kane in the present, while it leads to more later on, acts almost more like a framing device in this act. It’s in spending an entire night watching Jake that Veronica is forced to sit back and reflect, thinking about how she’s gotten here, and in doing so, informing us.
This also works as the set up for the season’s mystery of who killed Lilly Kane, making this possibly the most important act in the episode when looking at the series as a whole.
Keith believed it was Jake who killed Lilly, costing him his job, and his wife. When Veronica sided with him, it cost her all her friends. A turning point in this act comes with the two of them learn that Abel Koontz has been arrested for the murder, seemingly proving that Keith had been wrong.
It is after this turning point that the act switches gears, slightly, and connects to the scene from the teaser. This scene has Weevil and his gang surround Veronica, but she makes a deal with them to keep them from going after Wallace. This is the only moment in the act that mentions to the C plot at all, but is enough to keep moving it forward.
There is a final set of flashbacks, a nail in the coffin of who Veronica used to be. She tried to fight the isolation that was forced on her after the events of Lilly’s death, and went to a party with all the people she used to think of as her friends. At this party she is roofied and raped, leading to her giving up entirely on trying to keep her old life.
In the present, Jake finally comes out of his motel room, but Veronica never does get a picture of the woman who was inside, all she ever sees is the woman’s hand. The mystery of who Jake was with is left to hang in the air as the act comes to an end.
Act Three – School Mischief
(A + B + C + D) Veronica is harassed by Logan.
(B) FB Veronica finds a note from her mom.
(A + C) Veronica and Wallace team up.
(C + D) Veronica asks Corny to make something.
(A) Veronica finds a license plate in one of her motel pictures.
(A) Keith returns from a successful job.
(A) Veronica shows Keith the picture; is told to drop the case.
(D) Veronica stakes out the Seventh Veil.
(C + D) Veronica frames Logan with a bong in his locker.
(C + D) Veronica and Wallace cause smoke to fill the sheriff’s office.
(C) Veronica picks up an envelope from the Fire Chief.
(A) Veronica learns the license plate belongs to her mother.
After a full act dealing primarily with the Kane cases, act three puts the time into Veronica’s much more episodic cases. These kinds of serial episodic shows often have the pilot focused mostly on setting up the world, and so they create incredibly simple stories for things like these episodic cases. It is enough to show us what the show will be like, while not taking away too much time from the other things being set up.
Logan’s harassment of Veronica in the beginning of the act does a lot. On a basic level, in continues to show us what life is like for Veronica these days now that we have the context of what happened a year ago. It gives her a reason to flashback to when her mom left, eight months ago, leaving nothing but a music box and a note. And, most importantly to this act, it seems to give Veronica a plan for her other cases.
Veronica and Wallace team up to save him from Weevil and bikers. At first Veronica seems hesitant and defensive, as if she can’t let herself believe someone would possibly want her help. Wallace makes the point that Veronica is the only one who helped him when he was taped to the flagpole, so, regardless of reputations, she’s cooler to hang out with than anyone else.
The plan so far involves something being made in pottery, but we’re not told what.
Back at home, Veronica returns to the Kane case, searching through her pictures from the night before, printing out one with a license plate on it. When Keith arrives, he is unbelievably excited because he got paid, but that excitement disappears when Veronica shows him the picture. He bans her from the case, telling her that they’re dropping it, but gives no real explanation.
Not only does this help build mystery over what this license plate could mean, but it gives a real reason why Veronica would be work on the other cases over this bigger one.
The next few scenes are Veronica’s three phase plan to help Wallace. First, she records what goes on outside of the Seventh Veil strip club. Next, the random locker searches come back into play and Veronica gets her revenge on Logan all at once. Turns out, what she had made for her was a bong to put in Logan’s locker.
The final phase has her and Wallace sitting outside the sheriff’s office, using Wallace’s remote control for his plane to activate the bong, filling the office with smoke. The fire department is called, but more importantly, it is Inga who first notices the fire and yells about it. This will come into play almost immediately.
Veronica heads over to the fire station, and we learn that she had a deal with the chief to swap out an envelope in the evidence room. Narration tells us that some people still like Keith enough to be willing to perform illegal acts for his daughter.
At the end of the act, we get a chance to see how well Veronica listens when told to drop something. She makes a call to the San Juan Capistrano PD, doing her best impression of Inga to get the officer to run the license plate from her picture. Right here is why in the quick scene just moments ago Inga had a line, to connect to this moment where Veronica is using her distinct accent.
Given that this is the penultimate act of the episode, it stands to reason that the act out would be the biggest. The license plate is run, and Veronica learns it was her mother’s car. Her mother has something to do with Jake Kane.
Act Four – Friends and Enemies
(A) Veronica catches Keith in a lie.
(C + D) Veronica gets the location of a preliminary hearing.
(B) FB Veronica tries to report her rape.
(C + D) Veronica watches the results of the swapped evidence.
(C) Veronica gives Wallace the real evidence.
(C) Veronica is threatened by Logan but saved by Weevil.
(A) Veronica watches Keith leave the office.
(A) Veronica breaks into Keith’s safe.
(A) Veronica still believes in Keith.
(A) Veronica drives to get answers.
(A) Veronica knocks on her mom’s motel door, no answer.
We open the final act just moments after the previous ended, with Veronica hanging up the phone, no real time for her to have processed what she has just learned. Keith comes in, saying he’s bored and asks her if she wants to go to a movie, but Veronica isn’t in the headspace for that. She asks him again why they’re dropping the Kane case, and he claims that he recognized the plates and that it is dangerous corporate espionage stuff, not something they get paid enough for. Veronica heads out the door, needing time to work through what she’s learning, and, well, having so many other cases on the go.
Veronica gets to the sheriff’s office and talks to Inga. While on the surface it is a scene for Veronica to ask which courtroom a hearing is in, it is really a jumping off point for another flashback. This time we learn that Veronica tried to report her rape, but Sheriff Lamb practically laughed her out of the room. It is enough to understand why Veronica dislikes him so much, and possibly even reveals one reason she decided to help Wallace after hearing his story.
Inside the court, Sheriff Lamb is being boisterous and cocky and he talks about catching the two teens accused of theft. That is, until he sees Veronica walk in the door, and knows instantly that something is up. They go to play the footage from the store, but it’s been replaced with the footage Veronica shot outside of the strip club, revealing an officer getting a blowjob. Not only does this put an end to the case against the two bikers, but it gets Cliff’s case dismissed at the same time.
Veronica delivers the real evidence to Wallace, who tells her that she’s a marshmallow, and not nearly as angry as she wants everyone to believe (connecting back to the two interpretations from the English class). The two fly Wallace’s plane together, and it is the first time we see in the present where Veronica seems to really have a friend.
The nice moment comes to an end because Logan arrives, smashing up her car as revenge for the bong in his locker. He gets close to her, but Weevil arrives to threaten Logan and his friends. The work Veronica’s done in the episode has made a bigger enemy of Logan but seems to have turned Weevil into an ally.
Veronica drives around in the dark, narrating a similar sentiment to what she said in the teaser, that the people you love let you down. She stakes out Mars Investigations until she sees Keith leave, and heads in herself. She gets into his office and opens his safe, where she finds the Lilly Kane investigation. He never dropped the case, and Veronica’s photo of the license plate is now included with it. Her mind is reeling over what her mom has to do with the Kanes.
Keith comes back into the office, telling her that he’s ordered food and rented South Park, Veronica’s favourite. He asks, “who’s your daddy?” A moment repeated from earlier in the episode where Veronica said she hates when he asks that, but this time she raises her head with pride and simply says, “you are.” Even with all the lies, she forgives him in an instant.
Veronica says she’ll come home for the movie but just needs to make a quick stop first. When she leaves, Keith walks up to the music box that Veronica’s mom left, open and playing its tune. She didn’t really get rid of it.
Veronica narrates that sure, her dad lied, but he must be trying to protect her. She decides he isn’t bad, he’s doing what dads are supposed to do.
We end the episode where we began, back at the Camelot Motel. This time she isn’t watching from her car, she’s gone up to the door and knocks, hoping her mom will be there. No answer, she walks away, telling us that she’s no longer sure what tore her family apart, but now she promises to find out.
Conclusions
All the plots in this episode are connected in such ways that become difficult to fully separate them. There are moments like when Veronica narrates who Logan is, which on the surface feels like it is just set up for the world, but then comes back to be a major aspect of the C and D plot, going as far pitting Logan and Weevil each other at the end.
Lines can be drawn separating Veronica’s present with the Kanes as the A plot, her past as the B plot, her case from school as the C plot, and the minor detective case as a D plot, but it is never that simple. Each one compliments or intersects with the next, over and over.
Take for example when Veronica sets off the smoke to get evidence swapped. It is done to help Wallace (school life), using Cliff’s case for the swapped tape (detective case). It introduces Inga so that we know her accent when Veronica uses her impression to run the license plate (present), only to find out it belongs to her mother (past).
Looking at what each plot focuses on, each becomes integral to kicking off the series. The A and B plots work in tandem to put the Kanes central in the mystery, give Veronica a motivating backstory and fleshing out what her life is like in the present. They lay the groundwork for what the show is about on the serialized level.
The C and D plot set up where episodic plots can come from, sometimes called the series springboards or engines. They are the ways in which the series will create stories for individual episodes. Veronica can be investigating cases given to her from other students at her school, but she can also be doing the smaller detective cases that come by her father’s agency.
Each plot is weaved together in such a way where to remove one would disrupt the entire episode, leaving holes in all the rest. It creates a tightly constructed, succinct kind of story. While not being the only way it can be done, it is a great example of this way to do it.
