Did that really just happen?! What the final (heartbreaking) 10 minutes of the season means for the show moving forward.
Warning: Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched all eight episodes of Veronica Mars season four on Hulu. This story contains massive spoilers from the final hour.
Are you sitting down, Marshmallows, because that just happened.
Veronica Mars pulled one over on everyone in the final minutes of the season four finale, when Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), the arrogant rich kid-turned-responsible military man, met his unexpected end in explosive fashion, dying as a result of a detonated bomb inconspicuously placed in the backseat of Veronica's car by bombing culprit Penn Epner (Patton Oswalt). If only Veronica had remembered it was street cleaning day and moved her car (a running joke all season that tragically paid off in the final episode), maybe this would've never happened.
Logan's death -- and yes, he's very much dead; sorry LoVe fans, we're grieving over here too -- is a stunning creative gamble by creator Rob Thomas, whose intention behind killing the beloved character off was to introduce a potential new direction for Veronica Mars should the franchise be so lucky to get another season. Basically more noir, less white picket fence.
But how did Logan meet his end? Let's recap the last few minutes...
After a failed proposal, baby talk and discussions about their future, Veronica (Kristen Bell) and Logan finally took their roller-coaster romance to the next level, getting married at the Neptune, California, courthouse with only Veronica's best friend, Wallace (Percy Daggs III), and her dad, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni), as witnesses to their union. The moment was a long time coming for the couple, who began as enemies, but quickly became something more, their spicy love/hate relationship keeping everyone on their toes.
There were several red herrings along the way that threatened Veronica and Logan's future, from an ill-timed reunion between Logan and his college ex, Parker (Julie Gonzalo), to a text from Logan that simply read "Sorry," to Veronica having cold feet about taking the plunge. But in the end, love found LoVe (see what we did there?) as they adorably said their "I do's" -- in Veronica's case, a "Yeah, why not," to spending their lives together and sealing it all with a sweet kiss.
It all seemed like Veronica and Logan were on their way to a lifetime filled with happiness and wedded bliss, but, of course, it's Veronica Mars. Nothing can ever be too rosy for the eponymous P.I. Though the season-long mystery of the Neptune bombings had long been solved -- the guilty party, the limerick-loving Penn Epner, headed to jail -- Veronica was about to get hit with another level of devastation.
After making plans to road trip to Sedona, Arizona, for their honeymoon to see the red sandstone formations, Veronica and Logan's romantic bliss was only temporary, as a text reminder reminding them to move Veronica's car for street cleaning brought Logan outside. It was then that it dawned on Veronica that Penn Epner may have had the last laugh, after all, a hint in his final limerick about "midday around Fiji," him calling Veronica "hero" and putting the backpack bomb in her car bringing the final pieces of the puzzle together -- only, it was too late.
As the clock struck 5 p.m. (it would be noon in Fiji) and a ghost-white Veronica ran to her bedroom window to warn her new husband about impending danger -- "Logan!!" she screamed out -- the bomb detonated, her future happiness in literal shambles as a fiery ball exploded into the sky. What just happened? Did Logan just... die?
But viewers had no time to grieve Logan's death as the finale jumped forward one year in time. Neptune is in the middle of gentrification, Veronica -- still working with her pops at Mars Investigations -- is now living with her dad following his hip replacement surgery and going to therapy. Finally. After Logan pushed her to talk out her problems before he died.
"I think he'd be pissed it took me this long," Veronica says to therapist Jane (Mary McDonnell) when she's asked how Logan would feel about her going to therapy. Jane, though, has another take: "I think he'd be impressed. Reaching out shows me you are on your way." "To what?" Veronica asks, to which Jane responds, "To well being." But Veronica won't be staying put in Neptune for long. She has a case outside of town; perfect timing, since she wants to be "anywhere but here."
On her way up the PCH to her new case and a new chapter, Veronica plays a recorded message from Logan during a therapy session about why he's ready to take the next step with her. Bittersweet to be sure, but also serves as permission for Veronica to carry on. "Is it weird to want to marry someone because you respect her? Because you want to be like her? Because you want children who will inherit her qualities?" Logan says lovingly. "I want to marry Veronica because she's the toughest human being I've ever met. Blows that would destroy most people, she always picks herself back up."
The loss of Logan, who has been a crucial ingredient to the success of Veronica Mars since the 2004 debut of the series, is a massive one for the series if it aims to move forward. While the original plan didn't begin with him as Veronica's eventual love, his pithy dynamic with the heroine was one of the backbones of the franchise, providing romance, drama and scandal to a show that began as an exploration into a town with a deteriorating middle class.
What will this mean for Veronica Mars moving forward? Come back here to ETonline on Monday morning for exclusive spoiler-filled postmortem interviews with creator Rob Thomas and star Jason Dohring on what Logan's death means for the show.
All eight episodes of Veronica Mars are now streaming on Hulu.
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