The Bitch Is Back (Veronica Mars)
"The Bitch Is Back" is the series finale of the initial run of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars, the twentieth and final episode of the show's third season, and the 64th episode overall. Co-written by series creator Rob Thomas and executive producer Diane Ruggiero and directed by Michael Fields, the episode premiered on The CW on May 22, 2007, directly after the previous episode, "Weevils Wobble But They Don't Go Down". The series depicts the adventures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) as she navigates life as a college student while moonlighting as a private detective.
"The Bitch Is Back"
In this episode, Veronica investigates the origins of a sex tape of her and Stosh "Piz" Piznarski (Chris Lowell). Renouncing Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) because he assaulted Piz, Veronica eventually discovers that the perpetrators are a secret society at Hearst College known as the Castle, headed by Jake Kane (Kyle Secor). Meanwhile, Parker Lee (Julie Gonzalo) ends her relationship with Logan, and Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni) navigates the issues surrounding his candidacy in the upcoming sheriff's election.
Several days prior to airing "The Bitch Is Back", The CW announced that the series was cancelled. In an effort to prevent Veronica Mars from being cancelled, Thomas had filmed a twelve-minute pitch for a concept involving Veronica in the FBI Academy, but it was rejected. When writing the episode, Thomas and Ruggiero removed seven minutes of material from the original cut; they wanted to create an ambiguous finale that did not resolve everything neatly. At the time of its original broadcast, the episode was viewed by 2.15 million people and received mostly positive reviews from television critics.
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Plot[edit]
Logan regretfully informs Veronica that there is a sex video circulating of her and Piz, handing her a burned DVD; she berates him and denies the recording is authentic. After viewing the video, she goes to find Piz, who is badly bruised and bleeding, to confirm he was not involved in recording the footage, which he was not. Learning Logan attacked Piz due to mistakenly believing Piz made and released the video, Parker confronts Logan in his hotel room, tearfully breaking up with him because his actions show he still loves Veronica. Veronica arrives as Parker is leaving, and berates him for attacking Piz. She then confronts Dick about the origins of the sex tape, who reveals that he got it from Chip Diller. Veronica intimidates Chip and gets Domonick Desante's name, but Domonick steadfastly refuses to tell her anything. Veronica warns Domonick that he'll regret his refusal, and follows through by cancelling Domonick's credit cards and enlisting Weevil's help to remove Domonick's tires from his car. This leads him to name Gorya Sorokin, whom Veronica later wiretaps, looking for answers.
The wiretap leads her to a secret contact method, where she sets up surveillance and is shocked to catch Wallace (Percy Daggs III) as one of the participants. Veronica talks to Wallace and he realizes it's connected to the secret society, The Castle, for which he is being recruited. Wallace tells Veronica that he's out, but she asks him to continue in order to aid her in figuring out what's going on. Wallace discovers the equipment used to tape him in his initial initiation was similar to that which was used to film Veronica and Piz. The members make Wallace go into a room with a chair and a camera, strip down to his underwear and put on a shock collar, and proceed to ask him very personal questions. He hears random yelling, and is told that other recruits will be shocked if he answers untruthfully. He is shocked once when he tells the truth, and upon complaint, he is informed that someone else lied and he received the punishment. When they find Veronica's spy pen in Wallace's discarded clothes, they forcibly remove him, but he is able to figure out the identity of one of the other recruits. Veronica sneaks into the house of the recruit Wallace names, which is revealed to be the Kane residence first by a large portrait of Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried), and then by another of Duncan Kane. Approaching voices forces Veronica into hiding behind a curtain, where she observes two men, one of whom is Jake Kane, discussing The Castle. After they leave, Veronica steals Jake's hard drive.
Keith, as interim sheriff, investigates the robbery the following day, spotting Veronica on a surveillance camera belonging to Kane's neighbor; however, he does not initially report his daughter. Veronica brings the hard drive to Mac (Tina Majorino) for help, and Mac leads her to a campus supercomputer to crack Jake Kane's very secure password. The supercomputer finally cracks the password and they discover documents, audios, and videos, some dating back to the 1930s, incriminating The Castle members for various ill deeds and illegal activity, taken at the time of each individuals' initiation (similar to what they tried to do to Wallace). When Veronica arrives home, she finds her room tossed, and realizes it was Keith, who questions Veronica about whether or not she broke into the Kane house, despite already surmising her guilt from the evidence. Jake and a county prosecutor arrive at Keith's office the next day, indicating they will get a judge's order and return to prosecute Veronica. Keith hands over the surveillance evidence to the county prosecutor later, after he first visited the evidence room, removed a large magnet from a big speaker, and using it to erase it to hide Veronica's involvement. This leads to charges filed against Keith for tampering with evidence, likely meaning that he will lose the votes needed to win the sheriff's election, as it was printed in the newspaper.
Logan tries to apologize to Veronica, but is rebuffed. Moments later, Gorya brags to Veronica that the organization videotaped her, and Logan assaults him, despite Veronica's warning that Gorya is 'connected-connected'. Veronica later returns the hard drive to Jake Kane on the condition that he does not tell Keith about it. She goes into a voting booth and votes for Keith as sheriff, then walks away in pouring rain, leaving many open-ended questions.
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Production[edit]
Writing, filming, and promotion[edit]
"The Bitch Is Back" was co-written by series creator Rob Thomas and executive producer Diane Ruggiero and directed by Michael Fields. The episode marked Thomas's ninth writing credit,[2] Ruggiero's seventeenth installment of the series,[3] and Fields's eighth episode.[4] The scene in which Veronica rebukes Logan was included because the writers thought that it would be a good note on which to end a season, even though it would not be the two characters' final interaction in the series. Fields was heavily involved with the actors during filming of this scene.[5]
Thomas highlighted the scene in which Logan attacks the Castle member for showcasing the romantic ambiguity between Logan, Veronica, and Piz. Thomas counseled Lowell about his facial expression before filming, and he was pleased with the result, stating that "it breaks my heart".[5] While editing the final script, Thomas and Ruggiero had to remove roughly seven minutes from the original draft, including a scene featuring dialogue between Veronica and Leo. Later, Thomas thought that removing this scene made one voiceover by Veronica too sudden.[5]
Thomas called the scene in which Keith makes Veronica dinner "quintessential Keith" and indicative of his lasting commitment to his daughter.[5] Despite knowing that the episode could be the series finale, Thomas did not want it to completely resolve all plot lines; his intention was to keep viewers guessing and prevent the conclusion from being too bland or typical.[5] He ultimately felt that the final shot of Veronica walking away from the voting booth in the rain was "a pretty melancholy way to go out".[5] The song "It Never Rains in Southern California" by Albert Hammond plays during the final scene.[6] In promotional advertising for the episode, The CW billed it as a season finale, despite the fact that the series had already been cancelled.[7]
Reception[edit]
Ratings[edit]
On its initial showing, "The Bitch Is Back" was viewed by 2.15 million viewers, ranking 74th of 85 in the weekly rankings. This figure was an increase from the previous episode, "Weevils Wobble But They Don't Go Down", which aired immediately prior and garnered 1.78 million watchers.[28] However, this number was a ratings decrease from both the third season premiere, "Welcome Wagon", and the previous season finale, "Not Pictured", which received 3.36 and 2.42 million viewers, respectively.[29][30]
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