Trip to 'Mars' Cut Short

They say that there are several stages to grief, and I'm pretty sure that I have experienced 2 of them so far. First, I was angry that Veronica Mars was over. It seemed so unfair to see those closing credits for the last time, and even more so to think that we would never get the closure that the show deserved. Yup, I was hating the CW folks last night. Today, however, a sorta bummed acceptance has taken over. I'm bummed that it's over, but I'm beginning to think that last night's final hours were exactly how the show should take its swan song. Before you throw your tomatoes, think about other shows' cheesy closing episodes and how Veronica was so above that. When the series first began, we were thrust into the middle of Veronica's life after she had been date raped, dumped, cast down to the lowest of the high school lows and grieving over her best friend's murder. In fact, the first scene of the pilot opens in the middle of her on a stake out for Mars Investigations. So, why should the final episode provide any closure? This wasn't a show that liked to wrap everything up into pretty little packages. Sure, cases were solved, but Veronica Mars was about how these cases affected those involved and how class and society affected the cases.

So, we'll never know whether Logan and Veronica end up together, but putting them together last night would have felt fake and forced - something that this show was against. I'd like to think that they found each other in the future when the right person and the right time finally collided. Veronica and Keith came full circle and proved that their relationship is the best father/daughter one in prime time. The ending scene when she cast her vote for her father because she knew that he wanted to continue on as sheriff, even if it meant excruciating choices and painful headlines, was touching and emotional. Last night's second hour was stellar in that classic Veronica style anyway. She was back to her outcast self, a role that suits her better than any other she has played over the course of three seasons. Logan continued to break my heart while Jake Kane made a surprise appearance and proved that he's just as horrible as ever. Yes, it felt like the beginning all over again which is why last night's goodbye was even harder than I had expected.

Veronica Mars wasn't the type of show that you could easily classify. Perhaps, that's what kept it from being the big hit it deserved to be. Or maybe it was its image as a "teen girl detective" series - I guess we'll never know. One thing is for sure, those of us who were privileged enough to get 3 seasons on Mars, won't soon forget it. Quality television like this doesn't come around that often, and I feel like a smarter viewer for being one of the few who watched one of television's all-time best.

If you missed last night's excellent houPublish Postrs ("Weevils Wobble but They Don't Go Down" and "The Bitch is Back"), watch them for free at cwtv.com or download them for $1.99 from iTunes. The picture in this edition is courtesy of cwtv.com