Questions About the Ending of 'Veronica Mars' Season 4

Hey! So! We all got a new season of Veronica Mars several years after the film and MANY years after the last televised season! That was pretty cool, we all liked the cynical, precocious teenager, right? And it’s nice to see that they were kind of honest about how cynical, precocious teenagers with a BOATLOAD of PTSD and very few healthy relationships actually end up! I’m not qualified to actually diagnose anyone, but Veronica’s possible depression seemed like a logical endpoint for a very smart young woman who felt deeply betrayed and mistrustful of the world and also like that world would keep beating her down no matter what she did so she might as well self-sabotage. It was, at times, alarmingly relatable. That said, I DID have a few problems with the last episode. In no particular order:

- We all know that Fiji is like a full day ahead of California, not behind, right? 5pm in California is noon in Fiji, but it’s noon in Fiji THE NEXT DAY so “three laps around the sun” doesn’t work.

- How did Penn know that none of the frat boys would recognize him and they’d have to dig through the receipts?

- Far enough in advance to plant a fake receipt BEFORE he was arrested?

- If Penn knew that Don was not in DC working for the government, why did he play along like he was even when there was no one else around?

- Seriously, none of the other MurderHeads investigated each other? Not even like a little bit? Don’s whole deal seems like it was ready to fall apart at any gentle nudge of “Hey, how can you make morning Skype calls on California time if you’re working for Congress in DC?”

- How could Penn have been sure that the Marses would pick him up after he was released?

- And like, what’s the timeline on Don being killed? Because Penn was in police custody pretty soon after the last time we saw him on Skype and there was no way Penn could have known WHEN he was being arrested?

- Hell, what’s the timeline on any of this? When did he plant the bomb at the school because see above re: taken into police custody for a significant amount of time before it went off.

- I get that Penn knew where Veronica lived so would know when she had to move her car for street sweeping, but how did he know she’d be parked at home at 5pm and need to move her car? Seems like she’s constantly prowling around Neptune, P.Is don’t hold regular office hours.

- Sidebar; if the characters had done a totally normal thing like go out to dinner after the city hall wedding they would all still be alive! Keith really didn’t want to take his daughter out for at least a toast? She just got married AND they just got a quarter million dollar reward!

- Why wouldn’t the police have taken Penn’s bag when he was taken into custody?

- Given how many unknowns were involved in the final denouement, that limerick was WAY overconfident.

- If Penn’s game was playing the “Maybe he’s NOT the bomber!” game then it seems foolish to make sure the last bomb is the only one that could be DEFINITIVELY tied to him since there were witnesses to him placing it and assuming a bomb left in a car several hours earlier that he had no control over would take out both Keith and Veronica is… sloppy.

- “Sloppy” is actually a good word for a lot of this. It feels sloppy and like it was done more for getting to stack up twists than because it was carefully plotted and logical within the context of the show’s world.

- I had generally mixed feelings about Logan Echolls but man, he did not deserve that shit.

- OK BUT SERIOUSLY WE SAW PENN DOING SO MANY OTHER THINGS IN THE TIME BEFORE HE WAS ARRESTED WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN CONSUMED WITH SETTING UP ALL THE DOMINOS THAT FELL IN THE LAST ACT, DOES THE MAN NOT SLEEP?!? THIS IS ALL SUPPOSED TO BE TAKING PLACE DURING ‘SPRING BREAK’ WHICH IS A WEEK AND KICKED OFF WITH HIM IN THE FIRST EXPLOSION. IN THE REST OF THE WEEK HE HAD TIME TO COLLECT MATERIALS FOR AND BUILD FIVE SOPHISTICATED BOMBS, DEVISE A PLAN OF ATTACK, FOLLOW THE MARSES AROUND, CONTINUE HIS JOB AS A PIZZA DELIVERY GUY, APPEARS ON MULTIPLE NEWS PROGRAMS, BOTHER THE POLICE, FRAME HIS FRIEND, KILL HIS FRIEND, GET ARRESTED, HOLD MULTIPLE MURDER CLUB MEETINGS, HOW LONG WAS THIS SEASON?!? WHAT IS TIME???

*Ahem* I mostly enjoyed the fourth season of Veronica Mars. That said, unless the fifth season is Veronica and Dick finding comfort in their shared trauma and building a relationship from his ability to let her digs slide off him like teflon and her need to have someone to take care of, I am not interested.