Veronica Mars/Mars, Bars

Mars, Bars
Season 3, Episode 14
Airdate	February 20, 2007
Production Number	3T5814
Teleplay by	Phil Klemmer & John Enbom
Story by	Phil Klemmer & John Enbom & Joe Voci
Directed by	Harry Winer
Stream
← 3x13 Postgame Mortem	3x15 → Papa's Cabin
Veronica Mars — Season Three

Mars, Bars is the fourteenth episode of the third season of Veronica Mars, and the fifty-eighth episode overall. Veronica is locked up in county jail for allegedly aiding and abetting the escape of Josh Barry and the case for who killed the dean builds to a peak when Keith continues investigating despite the wishes of both Mindy and Hank Landry.

Starring: Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls), Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel), Ryan Hansen (Richard "Dick" Casablancas) (credit only), Julie Gonzalo (Parker Lee), Chris Lowell (Stosh "Piz" Piznarski) (credit only), Tina Majorino (Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie), Michael Muhney (Sheriff Don Lamb), Francis Capra (Eli "Weevil" Navarro)

and Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars)

Guest Starring: Jonathan Chase (Josh Barry), Matt McKenzie (Coach Tom Barry), Tracey Needham (Kathleen Barry), Robert Ri'chard (Mason), Patrick Fabian (Prof. Hank Landry), Jaime Ray Newman (Mindy O'Dell), Ken Marino (Vinnie Van Lowe), Michael Mitchell (Bronson Pope), Daran Norris (Cliff McCormack)

and Richard Grieco (Steve Batando)

Co-Starring: Brandon Hillock (Deputy Sacks), Samantha Brown (Cora), Brian Ritter (Danny Barry), Helen Eigenberg (Dr. Andriotti), Matthew Barker (Sid the Organizer), Wendy Worthington (Drugstore Clerk), Todd Christian Hunter (Assistant Coach), Marcy Goldman (Bank Teller), Ralph P. Martin (Weevil's Boss), David Merheb (Food Court Employee)

Plot Overview

Veronica has been arrested by the sheriff in connection with his escape. When she delivered him peanut butter cookies, she wasn't aware that Josh was allergic to them. He was rushed out of his cell and revived with an epinephrine shot by a paramedic in the back of an ambulance. Josh overpowered the paramedic and escaped out the back of the car. She refuses to answer the sheriff's questions and winds up locked in a holding cell until her father and Cliff show up. Unfortunately, they can't get her out because Lamb is exploiting the situation as much as possible by keeping her locked up as long as he can.

While Veronica rots in jail, Keith questions the dean's secretary about what happened on the day of his death. She mentions that Mel Stoltz came in without an appointment and agitated Cyrus. He also ran out of Xanax, an anti-depressant, that day and didn't pick up the prescription himself. Upon returning to his office, Keith is confronted by Hank Landry, who discovered a bug on his phone and demands that both he and Veronica stop investigating the case because they're starting to piss him off. Keith, undeterred, comes back to the sheriff's department and brings what information that he managed to pick up to Lamb, including the fact that Mindy O'Dell picked up the anti-depressants and must have delivered them. Surprisingly, Lamb actually follows up on Keith's information.

While at the sheriff's office, Keith stops by Veronica's cell and she assures him that she wasn't the one who planted the bug. Keith leaves and passes Logan in the hall, who's going to see his jailbird ex-girlfriend. She asks him to deliver a wireless card to Mac if he's on his way back to campus. Back at Hearst, Weevil points a deputy towards the dean's old computer in storage and Logan delivers the card. He tries to get out quickly, but is roped into some unnamed scheme involving Mac and her boyfriend.

Eventually, Veronica is let out of prison and dropped off at her apartment, but is intercepted by the fugitive Josh, who knocked out Mason and stuffed him in the trunk of his own car. Josh shows her the gun that he believes Mason used to kill his dad, but she informs him that the gun is a 22 caliber pistol and his dad was shot by a 45. He demands that she help him get out of the country by making him a fake ID and she agrees. He runs off and she lets Mason go, but he still insists that he saw Josh with his father at the place where the coach was killed. Back at home, Veronica informs her father on what happened and he shows her pictures of the coach apparently having an affair, which were taken by Vinnie Van Lowe. His new theory about the case is that the husband of the woman the coach was with is the actual killer.

Meanwhile, the task that Logan has been set to with Mac and Parker is a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt. Their first task involves demonstrating a page out of the Kama Sutra called "Congress of the Cow." The four also wind up having to buy "Super Titan" condoms and making balloon animals out of them. Their final clue lies in the middle of the ocean, but because Bronson can't swim Parker and Logan are forced to swim out to the clue. When they bring it back to food court at Hearst, they're declared third place, much to their chagrin.

Though the four are pursuing their complicated scavenger hunt, Veronica is still at work on the Dean's case. She realizes that everything in the time frame shifts an hour because of a Clippers game. When they bring this information to Lamb, he dismisses it entirely although it clears Mindy. Sachs informs him that the prints they lifted off the computer belong to Steve Batando, Mindy's ex-husband. Veronica assumes that the second man who as arguing in Landry's hotel suite must have been Batando. They bring Batando in for questioning, but he lawyers up quickly. Cliff winds up being the public defender of choice and, in a bigger turn of events, Batando was arrested outside of Neptune jurisdiction so any information given is inadmissible.

Across town, Keith talks with the woman who was supposedly having an affair with him. She explains that she's a neurologist and Coach Barry was afflicted with a terminal disease which would have caused a great deal of suffering. He looks into Barry's life insurance policy and discovers that if the coach were to die in an accident, the family would have been paid $5 million. Keith believes that Mrs. Barry may have hired someone to kill her. Keith confronts Barry's wife while Josh gets into his safe deposit box at the bank with the aid of Veronica's fake ID. Faced with being discovered, Kathleen takes a Colt 45 pistol out of a hiding place with the apparent intent to shoot Keith, but he quickly gains the upper hand and brings her in for arrest. At the bank, Josh discovers a CD hidden with the coins in the safe deposit box. Kathleen explains that she just wanted to give him the gun so that they could test for gunpowder residue.

The sheriff gets another call from the O'Dell house about a breaking and entering in progress. He and Sachs arrive on the scene, hoping that they can catch Batando in the act and take him in for questioning again. Lamb enters the house, and sneaks up the stairs where he heard shouting. He continues sweeping through the house while Keith drives up to the house and opens fire on a mirror positioned across form him in the hall, thinking that it's Batando with a gun. Batando hits Lamb from behind with a baseball bat twice before being shot by Sachs. Keith comes upstairs and tells Sachs to call for an ambulance, but the sheriff and Batando are already badly wounded by the time he gets there.

During the siege on the O'Dell house, Veronica and Josh are inspecting the CD that he found in his safe deposit box. Coach Barry explains that he was responsible for his death and the life insurance policy. They see Coach Yeager in the background and realize that he's the one who Mason saw that night and the one who killed the coach. Josh flees to Mexico after hearing this, with the intention of staying away until the life insurance claim statute of limitations runs out. Veronica shows Keith the CD when he gets home to quell his rage over her helping Josh flee the country.

After watching the CD, Keith gets a call from the county commissioner, who informs him that Lamb died and he's been appointed as the new sheriff. He brings Mindy O'Dell back in for questioning now that they have the evidence that Weevil and his boss found in the boiler room that's splattered with the dean's blood. The shirt found is monogrammed with Hank Landry's initials.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Lamb: Lamb is killed in an altercation with Steve Batando, who was apparently hopped up on meth at the time that he broke into Mindy's house. Batando clubbed him hard over the head several times with an aluminum baseball bat and Lamb died in intensive care.
• Keith: After Lamb's death, Keith is appointed by the county commissioner as acting sheriff.

Referbacks

• 3x09 - Spit & Eggs: Veronica gave Mac and Wallace fake IDs for helping her identify drinks that were spiked with GHB at a frat party, which eventually led her to the Hearst Rapist.

Josh: Wallace showed me the fake ID you made for him.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• Friends of Dorothy: A "friend of Dorothy" is slang for a gay man. In the early 20th century, homosexuality was illegal in both the United States and the United Kingdom. During social gatherings, it became common for gay men to call each other "friends of Dorothy" to indicate their homosexuality. This is a reference to Judy Garland, who was an icon in the gay community.

Wallace: He said to let you know that you're the only sheriff in America that he considers a true friend of Dorothy.

• All Tomorrow's Parties: Although it isn't clear, it seems that the scavenger hunt grand prize is for backstage passes to the music festival "All Tomorrow's Parties." The festival takes place annually in Britain and is curated by a different artist each year. The festival swings heavily towards indie rock and underground hip-hop and is considered to be an alternative to the bigger festivals like Reading.

Man: First team that finishes wins backstage passes to All Tomorrow's Parties.

• Creutzfeldt-Jakob's Disease: The disease that the coach was diagnosed with is Creutzfeldt-Jakob's Disease, an obscure degenerative neurological disorder which causes dementia, memory loss, hallucinations and dysfunction in speech and balance. The disease is caused by the progressive death of the brain's nerve cells due to the build up of abnormal protein cells known as prions. In most cases, the disease is fatal within months or sometimes weeks.