Veronica Mars: Worst To Best Episodes, Ranked

WORST: "The Girl Next Door"

Season 1, Episode 7

NOTABLE FOR... | The reveal of Weevil's "Lilly" tattoo; Veronica learning that her mom and Jake Kane dated in high school; future Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain as Veronica and Keith's expectant neighbor

"Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle"

Season 2, Episode 12

NOTABLE FOR... | Keith overhearing Gia say that she didn't take the ill-fated bus because her dad told her not to; the drug-dealing PCHers turning against Weevil; Veronica clearing Wallace of a hit-and-run from his time in Chicago

"Ain't No Magic Mountain High Enough"

Season 2, Episode 13

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica spending most of the episode looking for the missing Winter Carnival money; lots of grief for Jackie and her dad, who admits to Keith that he has a gambling problem and once threw a major-league game; icy Ms. Hauser being forced to apologize to Jackie for falsely accusing her of the theft

"Meet John Smith"

Season 1, Episode 3

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica owning the Ladies' Room as her private consultation space; Duncan off his meds, which makes him 80 percent more interesting; Keith meeting Wallace for the first time

"Charlie Don't Surf"

Season 3, Episode 4

NOTABLE FOR... | Logan suddenly having a half-brother (played by The Good Wife's Matt Czuchry), who's actually a reporter, but wait, there actually is a half-brother out there... who doesn't want anything to do with Logan 

"Green-Eyed Monster"

Season 2, Episode 4

NOTABLE FOR... | Meg's sister handing over her laptop to Duncan and Veronica; Veronica finally giving up on trying to be a normal kid and reinstating herself as a full member of Mars Investigations; Veronica heroically tackling a psycho client (Laura Bell Bundy, Hart of Dixie); Keith and Alicia thinking they'd snowed the kids with the fake morning donut run

"Drinking the Kool-Aid"

Season 1, Episode 9

NOTABLE FOR... | Minimal mystery-forwarding, coupled with the episode's uplifting vibe — Moon Calf Collective is a good place, after all! — doesn't jive with the suspicious, snarky girl we know; Veronica shreds the test results she doesn't want her father to learn about in his bedroom while he's sleeping. Huh?

"I Am God"

Season 2, Episode 18

NOTABLE FOR... | The dead kids from the school bus haunting Veronica's dreams; Keith taking a dig at Season 1 guest star Paris Hilton's House of Wax; despite learning interesting facts about her deceased classmates, a very tired Veronica being no closer to a solution at the end of the hour than she is at the beginning

"President Evil"

Season 3, Episode 5

NOTABLE FOR... | Glee's Dianna Agron's first appearance as one of Veronica's criminology classmates; Dean O'Dell and his wife, Mindy, hiring Keith to find her dying son's father; Veronica having Lily's necklace yanked off her during the robbery of an illegal on-campus casino

"Mars, Bars"

Season 3, Episode 14

NOTABLE FOR... | Lamb dying; Keith becoming Neptune's new sheriff; Veronica and the coach's son realizing that the coach was dying of a terminal disease and had killed himself (Side note: Is anyone else growing tired of the dean-death plot?)

"Postgame Mortem"

Season 3, Episode 13
 
NOTABLE FOR... | Dick getting married in Vegas; Logan moping in his hotel suite; Veronica getting arrested for helping dead basketball coach's son escape from lock-up; lots of back-and-forth about who might've killed the dean

"There's Got to Be a Morning After Pill"

Season 3, Episode 12

NOTABLE FOR... | Keith inching along on the O'Dell case; Veronica getting to the bottom of who slipped Bonnie the morning-after pill; Logan and Veronica on another break

"Show Me the Monkey"

Season 3, Episode 10

NOTABLE FOR... | Mindy O'Dell hiring Keith to prove that her husband's death wasn't a suicide; Veronica thinking that she accidentally planned the dean's "perfect murder" via her criminology paper; Logan and Veronica reuniting

"Lord of the Bling"

Season 1, Episode 13

NOTABLE FOR... | A pre-Law & Order Anthony Anderson as a hip-hop producer; Logan's denial over Lynn's disappearance driving him to request Veronica's services; Veronica's lyric-inspired toss to the opening credits; the quaint way Keith explains the webcam's location to Bone and his wife

"Credit Where Credit's Due"

Season 1, Episode 2
 
NOTABLE FOR... | The exploration of Veronica's socioeconomic fall – and how she doesn't fit in with the '09ers or Weevil's crew; our heroine's introduction to newspaper class, which provides her with a cover she'll use throughout her time in high school; Paris Hilton as the snotty, spoiled Caitlin

"You Think You Know Somebody"

Season 1, Episode 5

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica figuring out Troy's game – he's a drug dealer with a girlfriend – before he knows she's onto him; seeing once again, in real time, why Veronica has a hard time trusting guys; Veronica's mom making contact for the first time

"Cheatty Cheatty Bang Bang"

Season 2, Episode 3

NOTABLE FOR... | Big Dick Casablancas freaking out when he realizes his business scheme is going down; Duncan and Logan trying to bash each other's faces in, then emotionally processing in the nurse's office ("I hate him too, you know"); Veronica fearing that the bus crash was planned to kill her

"Clash of the Tritons"

Season 1, Episode 12

NOTABLE FOR... |  Veronica improvising an "office" in her tarp-covered car; Jason Dohring packing so much feeling into Logan's, "And what is so great about living?"; Duncan (once again) singing both badly and loudly; Veronica nailing "One Way or the Other" at Triton karaoke night; Lynn's disappearing act at the end of the episode

"Blast From the Past"

Season 2, Episode 5

NOTABLE FOR... |Wallace having a rough time upon learning that his real father is not the man who raised him; Wallace fighting with Veronica about Jackie's bitchiness; Veronica bugging Lamb with an actual bug; Veronica learning that an explosion happened Wallace ultimately leaving town with his biological dad

"Driver Ed"

Season 2, Episode 3

NOTABLE FOR... | Meg surviving the bus crash; Wallace and Jackie's first interaction; Kendall and Logan nearly getting caught by Dick Sr. and the boys; Kevin Smith (Clerks) as the dim convenience-store clerk who last spoke with the dead bus driver; Veronica and Duncan having some very bland sex (FYI, Veronica, Logan's not wrong: If the cuddling is the best part, you didn't do it right)

"The Bitch Is Back"

Season 3, Episode 20
 
NOTABLE FOR... | Being the series finale; Veronica stealing a hard drive from Castle member Jake Kane's house to find out who taped her and Piz fooling around; Parker dumping Logan because he's still in love with Veronica; Keith erasing security footage from the Kane home getting him arrested on Election Day; Veronica voting for her dad

"Ahoy, Mateys!"

Season 2, Episode 8

NOTABLE FOR... | The introduction of the Fighting Fitzpatricks; Duncan's guilt dreams about Meg; Logan rescuing Veronica with a gun, and her subsequently unleashing on him about how he's going to get himself killed

"Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner"

Season 2, Episode 7

NOTABLE FOR... | Kendall's naked gold-digging as she bed-hops (a huge improvement on that Bedazzled sweater); Veronica and Duncan realizing that the abused kid Meg was worried about was her youngest sister; Lamb actually acting like a human (and empathizing with the kid in danger) – who knew he had it in him?

"One Angry Veronica"

Season 2, Episode 10

NOTABLE FOR... | Meg waking up, making Veronica promise that her baby — a girl, who is born later in the episode — won't be raised by her parents, then dying; Veronica serving as foreman during jury duty; Leo stealing the Aaron-Lilly sex tapes from the sheriff's department, then selling them to Logan, who destroys them; A newly returned Wallace and Veronica watching the ball drop together on New Year's Eve

"Donut Run"

Season 2, Episode 11

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica faking out everyone – even Keith! – to help Duncan go on the lam with his baby girl; Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) as an FBI agent searching for Duncan; Keith covering for Veronica even though he's seriously mad at her

"The Quick and the Wed"

Season 2, Episode 15

NOTABLE FOR... | TVLine's Michael Ausiello making a cameo as a Java the Hut patron; Kendall and Cassidy moving ahead with their real estate plan; Kendall conspiring with Aaron to get him free; Logan succeeding in his campaign to get Hannah's dad to withdraw his testimony; recurring guest star (and future Following Carroller Valorie Curry front-and-center in the case of the week

"Versatile Toppings"

Season 2, Episode 14

NOTABLE FOR... | Hills denizen Kristin Cavallari as a gay cheerleader; Dick making the astute observation, "You're like rich dude kryptonite, Veronica;" Logan playing Hannah to get at her eye-witness dad

"Hi, Infidelity"

Season 3, Episode 6
 
NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica learning her favorite professor is actually a sleaze who's having an affair with Mindy; the dean expelling a student who faked her own rape; Veronica totally shutting Piz down when she brings Logan to a bowling night; Logan vouching for accused rapist Mercer... but being unable to tell Veronica exactly what they were doing that night; Keith getting his swerve on (you go, Papa Mars!) with Harmony

"Nevermind the Buttocks"

Season 2, Episode 19

NOTABLE FOR... | Finding out that Kendall has an assumed identity, has done jail time, would stand to benefit financially from Dick and Beaver's deaths and is in partnership with the Fitzpatricks; Logan's "As a rule, I like to start every school day with a hot blonde waiting for me in the parking lot"; the people who move into the Kane house finding Duncan's hair and Lily's blood all over Aaron's Oscar, which looks like it's Lilly's murder weapon

"Plan B"

Season 2, Episode 17

NOTABLE FOR... | The resolution (finally!) of the "Who killed Felix?" mystery – psst: It was Thumper, who gets his during the demolition of Shark Stadium; Mac wondering why Beaver isn't more interested in fooling around; Wallace re-hooking-up with Jackie and breaking up with Jane

"My Big, Fat, Greek Rush Week"

Season 3, Episode 2
 
NOTABLE FOR... | Keith wandering in the desert but finally making it out alive; Veronica going undercover at a sorority; Wallace and Logan taking part in a sociology experiment; Under the Dome's Rachelle Lefevre, Boy Meets World's Rider Strong and Freaks and Geeks' Samm Levine guest-starring as Hearst students

"Of Vice and Men"

Season 3, Episode 7

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica mulling Landry's offer of nabbing an FBI internship; Logan confessing that he and Mercer accidentally set a Tijuana hotel on fire over the summer but left without seeing if everyone was OK; Veronica seemingly getting drugged and attacked by the Hearst rapist, but Logan stepping in in time to save her

"Poughkeepsie, Tramps and Thieves"

Season 3, Episode 11

NOTABLE FOR... | The Hearst Lampoon referring to a campus egging as "Huevosnacht"; the show throwing Comic-Con some love; Logan admitting that he'd hooked up with someone he didn't like... and Veronica later learning that woman was Madison Sinclair

"Un-American Graffiti"

Season 3, Episode 16

NOTABLE FOR... | Keith cracking skulls as acting sheriff; Wallace calling Veronica out for acting like she doesn't know Piz likes her; Piz kissing... and Logan witnessing it

"I Know What You'll Do Next Summer"

Season 3, Episode 18

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica acing her P.I. exam; Keith discovering that the Fitzpatricks and Vinnie are in cahoots; Dick's human side showing when his dad arrives in town; Veronica bruising Piz's heart a little when she talks about leaving town for the FBI internship; Piz realizing that Keith liking him means he's probably romantic roadkill

"Kanes and Abel's"

Season 1, Episode 17

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica rejecting Logan's payment, despite a need for cash; Abel's daughter, Amelia, watching Harry Hamlin's Clash of the Titans in her motel room; the first appearance of Vinny Van Lowe; Keith finally giving in and working on Lilly's case with Veronica

"Rat Saw God"

Season 2, Episode 6

NOTABLE FOR... | Dick and Logan having a cute/gross conversation about being hot for each other's mothers; Keith losing the sheriff's race; Veronica and Kane heavy Clarence Wiedman teaming up to find Abel Koontz's daughter's killer; Logan and Aaron temporarily sharing a cell; Geek god Joss Whedon's cameo as a rental car agent

"Debasement Tapes"

Season 3, Episode 17
 
NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica pulling the "let's just be friends" thing with Piz, then waffling yet again; the reappearance of former Deputy Leo, who becomes reinstated Deputy Leo; Vinnie deciding to run against Keith in the special election for sheriff; Mac and Max becoming a thing; Paul Rudd (the Anchorman films) as Piz's visiting rock idol

"Weevils Wobble But They Don't Go Down"

Season 3, Episode 19
 
NOTABLE FOR... | Logan and Dick having a heart-to-heart about the night Beaver died; Wallace being invited to a secret society called The Castle; Veronica helping Weevil once more clear his name; the resurgence of Wallace's model plane hobby; Logan interrupting Piz's radio show to beat the snot out of him after a sex tape with Veronica surfaces

"Return of the Kane"

Season 1, Episode 6

NOTABLE FOR... | Anti-'09er Wanda Varner hinting that Lilly and Weevil had a thing; us getting our first real clues that Logan's home life is less than ideal; Glee's Jane Lynch as student-council advisor Mrs. Donaldson

"The Wrath of Con"

Season 1, Episode 4

NOTABLE FOR... | Logan's "real" tribute video to Lily, Weevil crying after watching the memorial montage (what's that all about?), Veronica baring all in remembrance of her wildchild pal

"Like a Virgin"

Season 1, Episode 8

NOTABLE FOR... | The introduction of Meg, as a purity-test victim, and Mac, as the computer brain who helps Veronica figure out who's behind the cyber scam; Abel hissing that Jake Kane very well may be Veronica's dad

"Betty and Veronica"

Season 1, Episode 16

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica getting her mother to confess that Jake Kane – and not Keith – might be her father; Lianne leaving for rehab; Veronica going on a Clemmons-sanctioned undercover mission to find missing mascot Polly the Parrot; Veronica's tearful, "I want you to come home" to her alcoholic mom

"Mars vs. Mars"

Season 1, Episode 14

NOTABLE FOR... | Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester and Parks and Recreation's Adam Scott as two players in a teacher-student sex scandal; Carrie Bishop getting taunted via Police lyrics; Veronica and Logan edging ever closer together as they track clues about Lynn's disappearance; Veronica telling a dying Abel Koontz, "You're just somebody's patsy."

"Silence of the Lamb"

Season 1, Episode 11

NOTABLE FOR... | Mac's face upon realizing she as switched at birth with Madison Sinclair; Sheriff Lamb being made to work alongside Keith again; the introduction of Deputy Leo; future Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul as an E-string strangler suspect

"My Mother, the Fiend"

Season 2, Episode 9

NOTABLE FOR... | Beaver and Mac being cute (danger, Mac!); Weevil getting the same duct-tape treatment the PCHers bestowed upon Wallace in the pilot; Veronica learning that her mom was a mean girl; Trina and Kendall's catfight at the hotel suite; Trina is really Principal Moorehead's kid; Meg is pregnant (but still comatose)

"Normal is the Watchword"

Season 2, Episode 1

NOTABLE FOR... | The introduction of Gia (a pre-Apartment 23 Krysten Ritter) and her mayoral candidate dad (Police Academy's Steve Gutenberg); the resurgence of the '09er-vs.-PCHers war, spiked by Logan's alleged (yet unpunished) murder of Felix; Veronica dumping a volatile Logan and reuniting with Duncan; a vision of Lilly causing Veronica to miss the school bus that eventually crashes and kills several of her classmates

"Happy Go Lucky"

Season 2, Episode 21

NOTABLE FOR... | Aaron dotting his murder testimony with references to when he was People's Sexiest Man Alive; Lucky terrorizing Neptune High at gunpoint; Keith and Veronica putting together that Woody molested kids from his youth baseball team; that look that Aaron gives Veronica moments after a jury finds him not guilty of Lilly's murder

"The Rapes of Graff"

Season 2, Episode 16

NOTABLE FOR... | Logan breaking up with Hannah, then later realizing he really likes her and confessing all; an Arrested Development reunion with Michael Cera (as college tour guide) and Alia Shawkat (as a rape victim); the reappearance of Troy Vandergraff, whom Veronica helps escape the aforementioned rape accusation; Lamb hooking up with Madison Sinclair; Wallace nabbing a Heart scholarship

"Welcome Wagon"

Season 3, Episode 1
 
NOTABLE FOR... | New, smooth jazz intro; Veronica starting college with Logan, Mac, Wallace and Dick; the introduction of Piz, who's crushy about Veronica, and Parker, who becomes another victim of the head-shaving Hearst rapist; Keith getting shot as he tries to help Kendall, who is killed by a Fitzgerald

"Wichita Linebacker"

Season 3, Episode 3
 
NOTABLE FOR... | The reappearance of Weevil, who gets a temporary stint at Mars Investigations; Veronica and Logan starting to grow apart again; Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as a freaked-out football player missing his playbook; Veronica meeting Dean O'Dell (Also, is it just us, or is V a bit nastier this season?)

"M.A.D."

Season 1, Episode 20

NOTABLE FOR... | Logan and Veronica's girls'-room make-out; Carmen's naughty pictures blackmail setting up Veronica's "Trip to the Dentist" revelation; Veronica thinking that Logan Rufie'd – and likely raped? — her the night of Shelly Pomroy's party

"Lord of the Pis"

Season 3, Episode 8

NOTABLE FOR... | Pi Sig prez Chip winding up with his head shaved and a plastic egg in his tush; Patty Hearst appearing as a socialite hiding out from her scheming husband; Logan (?!) arguing that Veronica tell Keith everything about her attack ("You're not invincible and you're not always right!"); Veronica learning that the rapes may all have been faked by women trying to get revenge on the Pi Sigs for their role in a sorority girl's suicide 

"An Echolls Family Christmas"

Season 1, Episode 10

NOTABLE FOR... | Anytime Harry Hamlin hams it up on screen; Duncan rubbing Weevil's head while singing the Heat Miser song; Veronica losing her cool as she contemplates whether movie star Connor's abs are too shiny; Veronica angrily confronting Jake Kane about those photos of her; Aaron getting what's coming to him, courtesy of a cheesed-off pumpkin carver

"Papa's Cabin"

Season 3, Episode 15
 
NOTABLE FOR... | Prof. Landry and Mindy disappearing, but Landry later confessing that he accidentally knocked Mindy overboard and she's dead; Veronica later proving – in front of her whole class – that Landry's T.A. Tim really killed the dean; Logan telling Veronica he's interested in Parker

"Hot Dogs"

Season 1, Episode 19

NOTABLE FOR... | Weevil's continuing vulnerability when it comes to Lilly and her memory; Aaron's abusive tendencies getting put to good (?) use as he beats down Trina's violent boyfriend — to the ironic strains of "That's Amore."

"Spit & Eggs"

Season 3, Episode 9
 
NOTABLE FOR... | The Greeks getting banned from campus, then reinstated; Veronica and Logan breaking up ("I vote for the pain now"); Veronica, after a Pi Sig party (where kids rock out to a Neil Diamond cover band), realizing that Mercer and Moe are working in concert as the Hearst rapist; Weevil finding Dean O'Dell dead in his office

"Ruskie Business"

Season 1, Episode 15

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica learning, not for the last time, that true love isn't always what it seems; Logan breaking down upon learning that Lynn isn't hiding out in a hotel suite; Buffy alum/How I Met Your Mother actress Alyson Hannigan's first appearance as Logan's half-sister, Trina; Meg and Duncan starting to date; Logan's Risky Business-inspired entrance to the school's '80s dance; Veronica finding mom Lianne in a seedy bar

"Weapons of Class Destruction"

Season 1, Episode 18

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica and Logan kissing for the first time... we're sorry, did anything else happen in this episode?

"Look Who's Stalking"

Season 2, Episode 20

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica finding out she has chlamydia... but that gets lost in Logan's Alterna-Prom, "I thought our story was epic" monologue... and the tearful morning after

"Leave It to Beaver"

Season 1, Episode 22

NOTABLE FOR... | The resolution of Lilly's murder (Aaron did it after he realized she'd stolen tapes of them having sex in the poolhouse); Aaron creepily showing up in Veronica's backseat; Keith valiantly rushing in to save his daughter; Veronica booting a still-drinking Lianne out of the house and their lives... but not before she sneaks away with Keith's $50,000 Kane payoff

"Not Pictured"

Season 2, Episode 22

NOTABLE FOR... | Veronica dreaming of what graduation day might've looked like; Keith's proud clapping as Veronica gets her diploma; Veronica pointing Beaver's gun at him; "My NAME is CASSIDY!"; "CW?" "It's a done deal"; Veronica's reaction to Keith not dying in the plane crash

 "A Trip to the Dentist"

Season 1, Episode 21

NOTABLE FOR... | The intricate, fuzzy piecing together of exactly what happened to Veronica the night of Shelly Pomroy's party; Duncan and Veronica's painful confrontation ("Because you're my sister! And I knew it!"); the surprise party that outs Veronica and Logan as a couple... moments before she discovers a creepy hidden sex cam in his poolhouse

BEST: "Pilot"

Season 1, Episode 1

NOTABLE FOR... | Strong set-up, intriguing mystery, likable heroine, whip-smart writing – yeah, we're in. (Bonus points for holding up as a solid hour of TV all these years later.)