What Ever Became of Duncan?

Remember that guy? Veronica's first love, brother of her murdered best friend, son and heir to Kane Software billionaire Jake Kane...it's coming back to you, right?

When last we saw Duncan, he was on a beach in Australia with his baby.

He had his sister's murderer killed, rescued Lily (fka Faith Manning) from Meg's psychotic parents and appeared to be making a nice life for his child. That was probably a fair wrap-up to his story, but an odd thing happened back in Neptune.

Veronica--his loving girlfriend until the moment of his escape and the closest friend of his murdered sister--basically never mentioned him again. Logan, his apparent best friend, basically never mentioned him again.

I was hoping for some kind of passing mention in the movie, even if Duncan couldn't pop back into the country for his high school reunion. Even if no one had heard from him in that ensuing decade (and, do we really believe that?), it would have been nice to see someone acknowledge that he'd been an important part of the crowd's high school life.

Vote Veronica Mars NOW

This is a departure from the usual focus of this blog, but I think anyone reading here will be interested in helping make this happen.

The Veronica Mars movie is in the final four for MTV's Most Anticipated Movie of 2014--and it beat out Mockingjay (the final installment in the Hunger Games trilogy) to get there.

You can vote as often as you like, but only until Monday morning, so get to work! Let's put Veronica back in the news.

http://www.mtv.com/content/movies/movie_brawl/matches/mb2014_rnd4_mtch01.jhtml

Did Meg's Parents Kill Her?

Sounds a little crazy, I know, but let's be honest: we were kicking this one around before we ever found out about the alternate ending for "My Mother the Fiend."

Meg's medical saga was a bit far-fetched from the beginning. First, she (and her unborn child) survived a bus explosion.  Then, she (and her unborn baby) survived the same bus plunging over a cliff and falling a very, very long way.

You may recall that everyone else on the bus died. But not Meg--she not only survived, but managed not to miscarry. Eventually, she even woke up from her coma.  And then...boom.  Dead.

Keith told Veronica that a blood clot broke loose.  But remember how just after she woke up, Meg pleaded with Veronica not to let her parents keep the baby if "anything happened" to her? And remember how Meg had survived the explosion, bus crash and months in a coma apparently without a hitch?

When Duncan and Veronica left the hospital room after talking briefly with Meg, I had what I can only describe as a Lemony Snicket moment.  You know, the reaction you have when someone says, "I'll tell you when I see you," and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the speaker isn't going to live to see that next meeting? And, just as I expected, we never saw Meg again.

(Plus, remember how they keep Meg's little sister in the closet?)

We were suspicious, but we figured a blood clot wouldn't be easy to fake. And then, long after we'd watched the series for the first third time, we ran across the alternate ending. Turns out we weren't alone.

Jake Kane?

Early in the series, we thought Jake Kane seemed like a pretty decent guy.  He was certainly nicer to his children and generally everyone around him than that heinous bitch of a wife he had, and even when he dabbled in crime or sent CW off to do some dirty work, it all seemed to be in the interest of protecting his family.

His physical appearance suited this persona. He was a clean-cut, reasonably attractive guy of the variety that you might find in any suburban country club.

Now, we understand that his daughter was murdered and his epileptic son kidnapped his own child and disappeared. And we mentioned the heinous bitch of a wife, right? Still, Jake Kane's transformation was so dramatic that we don't know what to make of it: by the end of the third season his look was more "serial killer during the disintegration phase" than suburban country club.

Was a previously stable family man breaking down before our eyes, or was his mask slipping?

Enter the Castle, and we begin to wonder whether just maybe he's a serial killer in the disintegration phase.

After all, his involvement with the secret society clearly long pre-dates the death of his daughter, his son's disappearance and those creepy portraits of his lost children on the walls. These new revelations, not to mention Kane's new look, cast a new light on his previous demeanor and the motivations behind the power plays and secrecy.

Did Kane have us fooled in the early days, is he breaking down after the tragic destruction of his family, or has he reverted to his wild hacker days now that the tragedies that befell his family have freed him from the responsibilities of a middle-class father?

Did Veronica Out the Castle?

The Castle, described as Hearst's version of the infamous Skull & Bones, had apparently been operating in secret for decades: a network of powerful men (and men only), made more powerful by their alliances and held captive by their secrets.

Enter Veronica.

After a little undercover work by the long-suffering Wallace, a little theft, a little impossible hacking by the ever-impressive Mac and a side dish of destruction of evidence from dear old dad, Veronica unearthed those secrets and a comprehensive list of the Castle's membership.

But then what?

We know that Veronica gave the membership list to Nish, and that Nish warned that she was going to make some very powerful men very unhappy...but unhappy how? Was she going to pursue the sex discrimination lawsuit she'd mentioned earlier, or blackmail members to get what she wanted? Would the lawsuit have brought the Castle into the public eye and started others peeling away the layers of secrecy?

The information in Veronica's hands could have destroyed the organization; it could also have ended in criminal charges for more than one member we know about (and presumably many others we don't). So, what happened? Did Nish sue? Did Veronica share the information with authorities? Or did the whole secret society get swept back under the rug as the Mars family attempted to recover from the fallout of Keith's cover-up of Veronica's B & E?

What Happened to Meg's Sister?

While most of the questions we ask here are a bit tongue-in-cheek or involve events that would have taken place after the series ended, this one was a real hole in the story line that bothered us from the beginning. Perhaps the whole story of the way Meg's parents treated Grace was simply foundation to ensure that we were 100% on Duncan's side when he "kidnapped" his child and left the country...but what about the victim?

For a moment, Sheriff Lam gave us the impression that he was going to do something to help Grace. We learned that he'd been an abused child himself, he discovered the secret closet in which Grace had been kept and he had his eye on the house.  But then...nothing. By the time Duncan disappeared with Faith/Lily, Lam appeared to be back in the Mannings' pocket and to have forgotten all about the haunted child they kept locked up in the dark.

So Duncan rescued his child and ran away to Australia, and that was great.  But so far as we know, Grace is still locked in the closet.  Lam knew about it. Duncan knew about it. Veronica knew about it. Veronica belatedly told her father about it. And, it appears, they all left her there and went on with their lives.

Maybe the title of this post should have been "What the hell is wrong with the people of Neptune?"

I kind of hope Grace comes back and kills everyone at the reunion or something.

Did Keith Go to Jail?

When we left the Mars family, they'd been through a rough few days. During those few days, while Veronica was trying to take on the Russian mafia and a secret society led by Jake Kane alone so that her father wouldn't find out she'd made out with (but not had sex with) Piz, Keith popped into the evidence room and saved Veronica by destroying the only evidence that she'd broken into Kane's house.

The only problem was that he wasn't exactly the only person who knew about the evidence.  For example, Jake Kane knew. And the prosecuting attorney who'd come to Keith's office looking for that very evidence earlier the same day knew. And the local reporter who just happened to have been in Keith's office when he refused to turn the evidence over to the prosecutor knew.

In short, Veronica's dad appeared to have committed a felony in full view of pretty much everyone in town, in hopes of getting his little girl off the hook for burglary. Presumably, it worked, since he erased the only hard evidence.  However, he didn't exactly do it surreptitiously.  So, what came next? In the real world, it would undoubtedly have been an indictment--particularly in view of the fact that he was going toe to toe with some very powerful men.

The information that's been released about the movie suggests that Veronica hasn't played detective since the case that created all this trouble, and having caused life-altering trouble for her father would certainly explain that change.