TV

Everybody Has Been Absolutely Destroyed By The ‘Veronica Mars’ Season Four Finale

Creator Rob Thomas has responded with an interview that's seemingly only made things worse.

by Joseph Earp  23 July 2019
Veronica Mars season 4 trailer

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Marshmallows, longtime fans of Veronica Mars, were blessed with something of a treat last week: the long-anticipated fourth season of the dramedic noir dropped in full, without warning.

But quite quickly, it became clear that treat was less like a surprise birthday party, and more like an unexpected and ominous call from your doctor asking you to pop back into her office for a quick chat.

This article contains extensive spoilers for Veronica Mars season four

The narrative arc of the new season hinged on Veronica’s frequently fraught relationship with Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), her deeply loveable Naval Intelligence Officer boyfriend. Opening with Logan requesting her hand in marriage, the season unpicked Veronica’s initially cold and cynical response, culminating in her change of heart and decision to accept his beautiful offer.

Then he got blown to smithereens in a car bomb.

On their wedding day.

Needless to say, episodic television has always hung on unexpected deaths — who could forget J.R. getting shot in Dallas, or Mr. Burns being undone by a lollipop, a pistol, and Maggie Simpson? But the severity of Logan’s demise has fans more upset than they might usually be. It’s one thing to dispatch a beloved character. It’s another thing entirely to dispatch that character in an unbelievably violent manner on the day the show’s heroine is at her most vulnerable and sensitive.

Anyway, understandably, fans are pretty pissed.

Indeed, fan reaction has been so strong that some of the cast and crew have even responded. The show’s creator Rob Thomas has told Rolling Stone that the shock twist was necessary to save the show’s life, and pointed to Logan as something of an albatross around Veronica’s neck.

“It’s just hard to imagine a detective show with a 35-year-old woman with a boyfriend,” he said. “I just don’t want to write that. I love Jason Dohring and I love everything he’s brought to the show … But I feel like for this show to work as a detective show, it has to be with Veronica as a single woman.”

Unsurprisingly, that interview has in turn been torn apart by the fans.

Meanwhile, Dohring himself has taken the whole thing with a pinch of good-natured humour.

“You found out that I’m dead,” the actor says at the beginning of a clip in which he offers his verdict on the ending. “I’m super sorry. I was crushed also. But for the good of the show I really understood where Rob was going.”

And then there’s Veronica herself, Kristen Bell, who is dealing with all of this by running away.

Good idea, I reckon.