Veronica Mars/The Bitch Is Back

The Bitch Is Back
Season 3, Episode 20
Airdate	May 22, 2007
Production Number	3T5820
Written by	Rob Thomas & Diane Ruggiero
Directed by	Michael Fields
Stream
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Veronica Mars — Season Three

The Bitch Is Back is the twentieth episode of the third season of Veronica Mars, is the sixty-fourth episode overall, and is the third season's finale. Veronica tracks the video tape of her having sex with Piz back to the secret society based out of Hearst and decides to make them pay dearly.

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

and Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars)

Special Guest Star: Kyle Secor (Jake Kane)

Guest Starring: Max Greenfield (Deputy Leo D'Amato), Matthew Alan (Gorya "Gory" Sorokin), Joaquin Perez Campbell (Domonick Desante), David Tom (Chip Diller), Chastity Dotson (Nish Sweeney), Christopher B. Duncan (Clarence Wiedman), KC Clyde (Gills)

Co-Starring: Gary Ballard (Professor), Tracey Rooney (Jill Hooks), Jim Jansen (Walt Harvey), Kevin Symons (Prosecutor Mitch Redding), Brian Norris (Lout 1)

Plot Overview

Picking up directly after Logan's fight with Piz in the previous episode, Logan informs Veronica that there's a video of her and Piz having sex on the internet. Veronica vehemently denies having sex with Piz and launches into a string of denial ending with a question about how this would be any of his business. He hands her a CD with the video in question and leaves her to view it herself. It is, indeed, a video of her and Piz from earlier in the week.

Veronica goes to see Piz, who is fairing poorly after his fight with Logan. Piz assures Veronica that he has nothing to do with any kind of video. Wallace attempts to get out of the room to have words with Logan, but Veronica can stop him before he can do anything. Someone does drop in on Logan, however; Parker stops by his suite to dump him over his extreme reaction to something that doesn't involve him. Parker passes Veronica on the way to the elevator on the verge of tears and Veronica also lets him have it by cutting him out of her life entirely for good. After giving him the axe, she makes Dick show her the original e-mail (which he forwarded to his entire address book) which was originated from Chip Diller.

She heads to campus on the warpath and finds Chip at a table in the food court. She vows revenge on him when he won't tell her who sent him the original e-mail and storms off. Chip chases her down, clearly terrified of what could happen to him, and tells her that Domonick Desante sent him the e-mail. He's less forthcoming with information, so she goes to work on her revenge. That night he finds his credit cards drained, his car on blocks (thanks to Weevil) and Veronica in his room kicking him when he's down. He finally bends under her will and gives up Gorya Sorokin, who also isn't impressed by her badass routine. He won't admit to planting the camera but she plants a bug in his room before she leaves.

That night, she hears him barking orders to some "mystery pledges" although there aren't any fraternities that do late Spring rushes. She catches several of them picking up their instructions the next day from a Hearst Free-Press newspaper machine, including Wallace. He runs to class, claiming innocence, and is given an envelope with his name on it by one of his professors. He meets with Veronica at her home to tell her what the deal is; he's being inducted into the "Skull & Bones" of Hearst, known as "The Castle." The letter proves to him that the Castle hid a camera in his room and has been keeping him under surveillance. He agrees to keep going with the rush process and to carry a special camera-pen to take photos of the secret society members' faces when he can. He also hands over an expose on the group written by an old campus enemy of Veronica's: Nish.

Nish explains to Veronica that the group was started by William Randolph Hearst, who was a Yale Skull & Bones member himself. Those who are admitted are up and coming freshmen who are making a mark on campus. Nish puts it as "wealthy men making other like minded men wealthy," with particular emphasis on "men." No one knows who the members are and no one knows exactly what they do.

In a parking lot across town, a car drives up to Wallace and pops its trunk. He gets in and Veronica tails the mystery mobile to the place where he's dropped off at. Wallace is administered instructions to go to storage unit 499, strip to his underwear, put on a collar and sit in the chair in front of a video camera. The disembodied voice tells him that if he lies to them, then one of his "brothers" will "pay the price." It then tells him to explain what happened to Rashard Rucker. He's also asked what he was carrying in his pocket. He said it was a pen and heard a scream when the voice recognized his lie. He clammed up after that and was told to go, Veronica picked him up and they went back to her home where he informed her that the voice called him "2400" once. Wallace tells her that the pledge is probably Josh Groban.

Veronica follows Josh, who was picked up in a limo and driven to a mansion that has the curtains obscuring the front windows. She hops a fence to get into the back and take pictures of those in the meeting place. She crawls through a dog door to get inside the mansion and finds herself face to face with a massive painting of her murdered best friend, Lily Kane. She hears voices and ducks behind a curtain, just in time to witness two men (including Jake Kane) burning a CD with what appears to be the confessions from the pledges. They leave and Veronica examines the laptop, but not before seeing a big portrait of former boyfriend Duncan Kane.

The next morning, Keith investigates the crime scene Veronica left behind. She stole the hard drive out of the laptop, which was made easy due to the lack of security in the home. He sees the thread caught from Veronica's dog door entrance and asks the neighbors about if he can take a look at his backyard security footage. This camera footage clearly captures a petite girl hopping his fence to gain access to the Kane estate. The security for Pemberton Estates, the gated community, consists of a former deputy fired in the underage drinking sting who is unwilling to cooperate.

While Keith investigates, Veronica meets with Mac to try and crack the encryption on Jake Kane's hard drive. She explains that using her computer, it would take 20 years to crack the password but does have the idea of using a more powerful computer at Hearst. Veronica, Weevil and Mac gain access to the physics supercomputer after everything is locked up at night. The three start cracking the drive and Veronica goes home to find her room in shambles and her very upset father. She contemplates telling him what happened, but doesn't want to confess to what happened to her. She leaves to spend the night with Mac.

The next morning, while Keith is being interviewed, Jake Kane storms the building shouting about how Veronica is the culprit in the crime. The county prosecutor is also with him, asking for the DVR which he confiscated for evidence. Keith tells him to come back with a judge's order and erases the hard drive using a magnetized speaker from another piece of evidence. While he makes desperate measures to help his daughter, Veronica and Mac finally crack the hard drive and discover every member of The Castle since it was created, plus transcribed confessions, including video and audio from up to 30 years.

In Mac's dorm room, Veronica listens to Gorya Sorokin's confession, which involves his father and uncle coming up to a house in the mountains to hack up corpses and dispose of the evidence. She decides to let him keep his secret, but hands over names of every Castle member to Nish. In the food court, Logan sees Gorya disrespect Veronica and admit to planting the camera and takes him out, even though he's connected to the mob.

Now that she has all of the secrets she needs from the drive, Veronica returns it to Jake Kane and proves that she knows what's on it by rattling off a few confessions. She asks that he leave her father out of this, but it's too late. Charges are being filed against him for destruction of evidence.

Arc Advancement

Referbacks

• 2x12 - Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle: Rashard Rucker, a star basketball player, accidentally ran over a homeless man while driving in his car one night. Rashard realized what he did and quickly sped away to avoid charges against him. Wallace was nearly framed for this crime by Rashard's uncle, but the truth came out from the testimony of a guy who worked at the White Castle they went to.

Voice: Tell us what happened to Rashard Rucker.

Trivia

The Show

• Credits: Because this episode was broadcast as part of a two-hour finale on The CW, it forgoes the typical opening credit sequence in favor of flashing the final title card with the show name and Rob Thomas' creator credit briefly.

Quotes

• Veronica: It's like you're this giant jackass piñata, begging for someone to beat the candy out of you.

• Veronica: After all these years, do you not instinctively fear me?

• Veronica: You forwarded it to your whole address book?

Dick: It was instinct. I always forward porn. When it's good.

Veronica: You are going to be so popular in hell.

• Piz: You know, you are adorable when you surveil.