Veronica Mars/The Wrath of Con

The Wrath of Con
Season 1, Episode 4
Airdate	October 19, 2004
Production Number	2T5703
Written by	Diane Ruggiero
Directed by	Michael Fields
← 1x03 Meet John Smith	1x05 → You Think You Know Somebody
Veronica Mars — Season One

The Wrath of Con is the fourth episode of the first season of Veronica Mars. The episode centers on the memorial service held on the first anniversary of the murder of Lilly Kane, and serves to establish the character more fully to the audience. In the mystery of the week, Veronica traces an e-mail scam to a pair of college students trying to earn money to finance their personal project.

Starring: Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), Percy Daggs III (Wallace Fennel), Teddy Dunn (Duncan Kane), Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Mallory Dent) (credit only), Francis Capra (Eli "Weevil" Navarro])

and Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars)

Special Guest Star: Kyla Pratt (Georgia)

Guest Starring: Aaron Ashmore (Troy Vandergraff), Lisa Thornhill (Celeste Kane), Amanda Seyfried (Lilly Kane), Adam Wylie (Grant Winters), Robert Baker (Liam), Alexander Scarlis (Jimmy/Karl)

and Kyle Secor (Jake Kane)

Co-Starring: Brad Bufanda (Felix Toombs), Nat McCormick (Ted), Brennan Taylor (Gerry), Tracy Littlejohn (Student Announcer), Robert Gunton (Clerk), Phillip Andre Botello (Student #1), April Doctolero (Student #2)

Uncredited: Lefty (Backup)

Plot Overview

Troy and Veronica's relationship is going well; even Keith doesn't seem to dislike him, and they have plans to go to the Homecoming dance. Troy is even willing to go mini-golfing with the Marses (although this goes somewhat awkwardly when Keith discovers Troy's plans for the dance and cancels Troy's hotel reservation).

Wallace brings Veronica her latest school client, a student he has a crush on who works with him in the counselor's office named Georgia. Georgia has been taken in by an e-mail scam promising 200% interest on a loan to a (supposed) trust fund recipient with gambling debts, and is out a large sum of money. Veronica agrees to help... for ten percent of whatever she recovers. Wallace is just excited for an excuse to talk to his crush on a regular basis.

The Kane family is dedicating a memorial fountain to their murdered daughter, and the town is invited for the ceremony. Logan takes it upon himself to prepare the video tribute for his ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile, Veronica remembers last year's homecoming dance, with her, Lilly, Duncan and Logan renting a limo and avoiding the dance altogether to get drunk. Lilly proves to have been the leader of the group--the vivacious, adventurous type--and provides an evening memorable enough that nobody really minds when they get in trouble for showing up, hungover, the next day. Eventually, seeing Logan struggle with making a tribute video that captures Lilly's true spirit, she gives him the camcorder footage of the homecoming dance to use instead of Lilly's more generic childhood home movies.

Posing as a vacant student, Veronica sets up a sting on Carl, the supposed e-mail scammer. Georgia doesn't recognize the man who meets with Veronica, posing as the trust fund kid, but he is wearing the same clothes as the man she met. They track his car to a local theater, where "Carl" (actually an actor named Jimmy Spain, which now that I think of it probably isn't his real name either) is starring in a Beckett play and, upon confrontation, under the impression that the money transfers are part of a Punk'd-style reality show. Jimmy is horrified (mostly because he really needed the work), and gives up the number of his employer; it's a pay phone near a gaming club, which Veronica decides to check out. Despite a certain cultural mismatch between a bunch of gaming nerds and a girl, Veronica manages to find Grant, a gamer whose nickname matches Georgia's email, steal his ID, and track him and his friend to San Diego State.

Veronica and Wallace crash a party on campus in order to dig up more information. Veronica learns that Grant is a computer genius using his ill-gotten funds (along with his enforcer friend) to finance a computer game he is working on (and the impressive security system that foils her investigative attempts), while Wallace has a discussion about math with a man in a Viking helmet. Undaunted, Veronica enlists Keith to bug the dorm room. Veronica uses the bug to crack the security code, and the security code to get into the dorm room and steal Grant's files, which she exchanges in return for Gloria's money. For their hard work, Veronica gets a nice commission, Wallace gets a kiss from Georgia, and Grant gets a call from the FBI's anti-fraud division.

At the memorial service, Celeste gives the dedication speech for the fountain and introduces Logan's memorial video. The unexpectedly raunchy video still manages to win over the crowd, including the Kanes (even Celeste, eventually), Veronica, and a surprisingly emotional Weevil. Later, on the way to the homecoming dance, Veronica passes the beach she spent last year's dance at, and memorializes Lilly in her own way.

Notes

Lilly Kane's Murder

• While Lilly Kane herself figures heavily in the episode, the details of her murder are not touched upon in this episode.

Lianne Mars's Disappearance

• No new information about Lianne Mars's is revealed in this episode.

Veronica's Rape

• No new information about Veronica's rape is revealed in this episode.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Veronica's Romance: Veronica attends the Homecoming Dance with Troy Vandergraff, and even introduces him to her father. Troy supposedly had plans to take her to a hotel after the dance, but Keith's cop/paternal instincts put a stop to the plan.

Characters

• Logan: Logan appears significantly less obnoxious in the flashbacks, indicating he was either nicer before Lilly's murder, or just nicer to Veronica. This episode is probably the first time since the murder that they have been able to interact civilly.
• Weevil: Weevil only appears at the end of the episode at the fountain dedication, where Lilly's memorial video brings him to tears.
• Georgia: Despite Wallace's alleged adoration of Georgia, the actress never returned to the show in the first season.
• Keith: Keith was, prior to the Lilly Kane murder, on very good terms with the Kanes, so personal disagreements seem unlikely as a reason for him suspecting Jake Kane.

Trivia

The Show

• Memorial Music: The music that plays during the second half of Lilly's memorial video is a previously unreleased song by Damone called "Now is the Time."

Allusions and References

• The Matrix Online: The Matrix Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released on January 18, 2005. The game is set after the Matrix trilogy of movies and was initially hyped to an incredible extreme. Unfortunately for Sony, the game was met with an extremely underwhelming desire with less than 50,000 copies sold six months after its release.

• Wrath of Khan: The titled of the episode is a play off of the movie "Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan," a film about Captain Kirk's encounter with an old enemy who vowed revenge. The movie is the most often parodied of the Star Trek films, mostly due to William Shatner's overacting.

Worldwide airdates

First runs of Veronica Mars: The Wrath of Con around the world:

• Sweden: SVT2, February 2, 2006, 8PM (CET)