Exploding Marshmallows: Destroying Veronica Mars
Spoilers for season four of the series are beyond this point. I am finally ready to talk about the night my soul died. The night I completed season four of Veronica Mars. If you are ready to talk about it, then join me. Perhaps, it will be healing. (Or maybe there will be more tears. So. Many. Tears.)
THE EARLY YEARS:
I was a late bloomer to the series. I tend to run a couple years behind pop culture. Veronica Mars premiered in 2004 when I was in the middle of college. At that time, I was lucky to keep up with MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge. (A show I still watch today.)
After I graduated, I managed to catch an episode of season three while it was on the air. It was on the new channel CW with Gilmore Girls, so I gave it a shot. (Speaking of bad reboots, ahem Gilmore Girls, ahem.) It became clear after a few minutes of Veronica Mars season three, that this was a show I would have to watch from the beginning because there was a LOT going on. Maybe, I would give it a try someday. (This was before you could just binge something on Netlfix or Hulu.)
I finally gave it a whirl in 2010. I told you, late bloomer. I borrowed the seasons from a friend and I fell in love. They only had season one and two, so it was a little while before I managed to see season three. I watched season one and two over and over and over. I cried for Lilly. I was petrified everytime Harry Hamlin’s head appeared in the rearview mirror. Mostly, I was inspired by how powerful Veronica was. Of course, I loved LoVe. Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring’s chemistry is electric. However, my love for the series didn’t live and die by whether or not they were together. (Perhaps, it DOES live and die by whether they are both ALIVE.)
I went on to make spotify playlists of all of my favorite songs from the show. “I Hear the Bells” by Mike Doughty, anyone? I didn’t rewatch season three as much, it felt like it ended so abruptly and wasn’t satisfying, but that was okay. Season one and two were enough. It became one of my depression series. Anyone who has depression knows what I’m talking about. The show you can rewatch to keep you going when you probably SHOULD be making another appointment with your therapist, but TV is cheaper. (See: Doctor Who, New Girl, Parks and Rec, The Good Place, The entire station known as Bravo, etc.)
THE MOVIE:
Fast forward to 2013, I’m on a children’s theatre tour in the middle of Nebraska and the kickstarter goes live. I’ve never had less money to give and been more happy to give it! I couldn’t imagine how the fans felt who had been waiting since 2007. This was our chance to see these incredible actors again. We were all getting a chance to go home again.
It was kismet that the tour took me BACK to Nebraska when the movie came out. I was like a kid at Disney World and I loved every minute of the movie, even the silly parts. (There is no adult who sleeps through Logan Echolls picking them up out of a car.) I felt satisfied. I felt so lucky. I was sad to have missed nearly a decade of their lives, but it was enough. At that point, I didn’t think we would ever see a reboot, but at least we got a better ending.
Famous last words.
THE BETRAYAL:
Hulu brought Veronica Mars back. Kristen Bell had been working her ass off for the last fifteen years and her star power alone is probably what did it. I had been petrified to even start the new season because I knew Rob Thomas had pandered to me/us for the movie. I kind of felt like he resented that in a way. What would that mean for a reboot? So, my friend and I made ourselves start ALL the way at the beginning again before we would start the new season. (Sure, we skipped some of season three. Sorry Parker and Piz.) I did not re-read the books, because Rob Thomas said they were only mostly canon. It was different watching it all again at 35 comparatively to my twenties, but I still loved it. I even liked the movie more than I remembered.
Finally, I was at season four. By then, I was apoplectic because I had accidentally seen a little hashtag on the twittersphere that said #burntmarshmallow.
Oh no…….. Deep down, I knew that could only mean one of two things. Dead Keith or dead Logan. Maaaaaybe, dead Wallace? My optimistic side was hoping beyond hope that it just meant Logan and Veronica broke up or something. But, as fans we’ve been through that 800 times, we all know THAT’S survivable. The first episode wasn’t my favorite, but I started to enjoy it despite my growing terror. (Aside from Veronica doing DRUGS and being an immature WEIRDO) Then, I accidentally read a headline that said Veronica Mars fans were devastated at “that twist.”
That TWIST? What twist. When’s the twist. Oh god, help me.
I watched every episode like a Game of Throne’s episode before my friend’s finally let me know that my two favorite characters survive the finale. There were so many Keith fake outs, my heart couldn’t take it. Then it seemed like he was going to leave her at the alter, so to speak. AND I GOT RELIEVED! Yes! Please fans, be petty enough to freak out over him abandoning her and us not seeing him again the rest of the finale. However, mystery wise I had a nagging feeling that there was another bomb. Something was off, the whole “hero” thing had been bugging me for awhile at that point. Well, you all know what happened.
Rob Thomas blew up Logan Echolls at the end of season four.
Rob. Thomas. Blew. Up. Logan. Echolls.
And it was all because of street cleaning. I lived in Chicago for awhile, so street cleaning is my mortal enemy and if I ever die in mysterious circumstances, it is safe to assume Rob Thomas and street cleaning probably had something to do with it.
So, why did Rob do it? First, I am going to discuss the possibilities of why and then I am going to get into the nitty gritty of why fans are NOT overreacting. We deserved better. Logan deserved better. Most of all, JASON DOHRING deserved better.
WHY? ROB?
I’m a playwright. I mostly write about dead women forgotten from the history books. Giving them a voice and putting them back into the canon brings me peace. Did blowing up one of the most beloved television characters of all time bring Rob Thomas peace? I have tried to look at what Rob Thomas did to Logan from a completely unbiased writer’s perspective and this is what I came up with.
- Rob Thomas is an idiot. I’m talking, full on, did not realize what he was destroying, idiot. Perhaps, he thought the show truly was so much bigger than Veronica and Logan’s relationship. I think the show is bigger than Veronica and Logan being together. However, I do not think it is big enough as it has been written by Rob, to be bigger than having the core surviving characters involved. If Rob, thinks that he can just blow Logan up and this fanbase will follow him into the night, than he is an idiot. He said in interviews that he has planned this death for years. That this death was a bridge to this new Sherlock/Fargo show of the future. Anybody gonna watch that?
2. Rob Thomas doesn’t like working with Jason Dohring. I have absolutely no proof that is the case, but usually when fan favorite characters get written off it is because behind the scenes people are not getting along anymore. Hell, he put a bad wig on James Jordan and had him play another role. If he does LOVE Jason Dohring SO much, will he pop up with a bad wig and play a beat cop in some town angry Veronica ends up in? Jason says he loves working with Rob, so I would assume this is not it.
3. Rob Thomas hates the character Logan. Logan was never originally supposed to be a main character. Logan and Veronica were never supposed to be a couple. Logan wasn’t meant to become so intensely a part of the heart of the show. (Granted, neither was Keith the way Rob originally intended for him to be.) Kristen has expressed that she is Team Piz and has always found LoVe to be toxic. It’s not Jason they wanted gone, they just didn’t want Veronica to have to be with Logan. (Again, that does not mean you have to blow him up.)
4. Rob Thomas is a whiny, egotistical, asshole. Waaaaah the studio wouldn’t let me do this. Waaaaah the higher ups wanted the opening to be like THAT. Waaaaaah they won’t let me kill ALL the kids on the bus. Waaaaaah I’m gonna have to pander to the fans for this movie. Waaaaaaah LOVE has to be end game. Waaaaaaah they won’t let me say the F word. That’s it! I AM GOING TO DO EXACTLY WHAT I WANT! Forget the fans. Forget the actors who helped launch my entire career. Forget the integrity of the story. I’m gonna do what I WANT! Because I am a genius and I am the reason Veronica Mars exists at all!
5. Rob Thomas truly thinks that married women can’t be badass. By now, many of you have probably read the interviews Rob has done where he talks about Veronica having a husband or a boyfriend and it just killing her ability to be a badass boss.
(Mind you, he had already given Logan a career that could take him away in an instant for GIANT chunks of time, and he could have just, I don’t know, HAD HIM GO MISSING IN ACTION and had Veronica search CONTINENTS for him AND MAC COULD HELP IN Istanbul AND IT WOULD BE EPIC? NO? NOBODY? SORRY I AM YELLING.)
Rob felt like, Veronica has to go on mystery adventures and we would all just go on the road with her. He’s betting we choose mystery over the relationships, when the only truly captivating mystery he ever wrote was, who killed Lilly Kane. Therefore, he must have wanted to break up Logan and Veronica for good in highschool and he’s been pissy about it ever since. Fucking fine then, don’t start season four with them even together. Not only did you start it with them together, you HAD HIM PROPOSE. You evil, vindictive man.
6. Rob Thomas doesn’t want to do Veronica Mars anymore. Even if he’s a giant idiot, super egotistical, or misogynistic enough to think married women can’t have fun, he HAD TO KNOW this would be the end. Right? So, maybe he’s over it. Maybe, he felt like he couldn’t truly move on with his life unless he blew this up? Maybe, he realized there’s better Veronica Mars fanfic out there than anything he’s written since season 2?
#WeUsedToBeFans
Finally, I want to talk about how the season setup from start to finish was unnecessarily cruel, how we are not your average fan base, and how Veronica Mars is not your average show.
SEASON FOUR SET UP:
Here are all the ways Rob tortured us in season four before twisting the knife until we died. It all felt like a giant FU to us and it was unnecessary.
*Logan proposing
*Veronica turning him down and continually acting the most immature she’s ever acted since Keith started dating people when she was a teenager.
*Veronica refusing therapy. (Cough. She has a Psych degree. Cough)
*Veronica acting like normal, healthy, happy adults are THE WORST.
*Veronica acting disgusted by Logan’s personal growth and acting like she wants highschool Logan back, when she has ALWAYS begged him to change.
*Veronica saying she doesn’t like this new supportive Logan, when he has been a supportive friend to her on and off since MIDDLE SCHOOL.
*Veronica suddenly partying hard and doing drugs
*18 different Keith is about to die fakeouts
*Veronica almost cheating and then dream cheating with Leo
*Making us think Logan was standing her up
*Only letting them be happily married for two minutes
*HAVING STREET CLEANING be the “someday” that blows up Logan Echolls
* The episode title, “Years, Continents, Bloodshed.” That title was a slap in the face to loyal fans. We didn’t get those years. We never saw them on another continent. All we ever really got, was the bloodshed.
*Skipping ALL of the grieving. That fast forward was as brutal as the bomb. We literally spent more time watching her grieve a fake Duncan break up.
*Logan leaving an absurdly poorly written voicemail with his therapist who saves it for a year and Veronica has to pay her for an appointment to even find out it exists.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE FAN BASE & NOT YOUR AVERAGE SHOW:
As I have spent way too many hours and a couple sleepless nights trying to figure out why a television show could cause me this much pain, I kept going back to Grey’s Anatomy. (For more on my obsessive Meredith/Veronica comparison head to: Veronica Mars and Meredith Grey Go For a Drink.)
The average successful television show with a loyal fan base has at least five seasons, hell Lassie had NINETEEN seasons. And those seasons usually happen consecutively for those years. As in, fans get to spend cozy amounts of time with the characters without constant fear of cancellation. With Veronica Mars, I always felt like we were on borrowed time. Lucky, to just get to spend a little extra with them.
I’ve watched eleven seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, though I have taken breaks because Grey’s takes a toll. They put Meredith Grey through SO MUCH SHIT. (Sound familiar.) I kept going back to it because SPOILER, they kill Derek. Now, there are obvious differences in the fact that MerDer were seemingly end game from the first episode. Fans were definitely upset when he got in that stupid car wreck and died at the hands of idiot surgeons. However, they had spent OVER a decade watching them EVERY SINGLE week for months at a time.
They had also heard McDreamy was not so dreamy on set. They got over it. You know why? Because they had gotten EONS of time with them together and living their lives. The ups. The downs. They got those moments. They did not miss TEN YEARS of their lives apart, only to have them get back together at the end of a movie. Then miss SIX YEAR of their lives together, only to have one of them blow up at the end of a short 8 episode run. And you know what, Mickey Mouse never had to crowdfund to keep them on the air. This has not been the average television viewer experience.
Marshmallows have gone ABOVE and BEYOND any fanbase in history. Rob Thomas took that for granted. That is something I will never forgive him for. Him acting like we’ve gotten sooooo much time with Logan and Veronica happy together that it is just so boring is preposterous. (It’s borderline gaslighting us.)
If we went back through and added up all the screen time that LoVe were together and HAPPY the entire run of this show, we might be lucky if we got ten whole minutes. (It doesn’t count if Veronica still thought he murdered Lilly.) That is why I don’t think we are overreacting that he murdered a beloved character in the cruelest timing possible. I don’t think we are crazy when we realize we don’t want to watch a second of a season five. We’ve overlooked a LOT and stayed loyal because it felt like we were all a family. I trusted that the core family of actors would be there and that if Rob Thomas did decide to kill one of them off, that it would be done with care.
Do you feel cared for, Marshmallows? Does it still feel like deep down, Veronica Mars is a marshmallow? I guess we all got burnt. I am incredibly thankful to the fans (or exfans) on twitter who have been so supportive. I was a couple months behind and they still greeted me with open arms when I was at my darkest about the show. I am no longer mad at Kristen. I do feel betrayed that she went along with this vision, but ultimately, this is all on Rob Thomas. I can’t get back the iZombie hours I wasted just to watch Jason Dohring die ANOTHER TIME. But, I can make a wise choice about watching anything of his in the future. Will we feel differently in a year if it comes back and there are Logan flashbacks? I have a feeling we aren’t going to have to worry about it. From here on out I am looking at the end of season four as a choose your own adventure….
ADVENTURE 1: stop directly after the wedding
ADVENTURE 2: stop directly after the bomb goes off and leave yourself wondering
ADVENTURE 3: go through to the end if that’s your thang
After being a destroyed Dexter fan, I also like to make up my own ending.
ADVENTURE 4: Alternate ending- Veronica realizes there must be another bomb from the clue. Little does she realize, there are TWO bombs. One in her car, and one in Mars Investigations. Logan is headed to the car and we flash to the office and Keith and Maddy are there. The timers are ticking….. Will she be able to save them in time? CREDITS
Did any of this help you? I think it helped me a little to write it. I managed to watch the new episode of The Good Place. I may be just a little bit sad forever. It makes me feel a bit better that we can be sad together. Thanks for being there. My hope is that, by the time my three year old is twelve, my anger will have dissipated enough for me to share our show with her. Until then…