“A casual relationship with reality”
Categories: Television
OK, I don't know how many of you watch Veronica Mars, not too many, if ratings mean anything. Anyhow, VM employs the "Buffy Model" of television, where there is a season-long storyline that is resolved by the season finale. Basically, each season has a central mystery that drives the plot, along with the mystery of the week of each individual episode.
The cool thing is that means viewers get a very complex, twisty and involving mystery to sink their teeth into. Tomorrow night is the season finale where we're going to learn who finally caused the bus crash that killed eight students way back in September.
My friend Jason and I have been watching this all season and in case either (actually both, our theories are extremely close together) of us have gotten it right, I wanted to post it tonight, so that I can say "Ha ha! Figured it out!".
Of course, if I'm wrong, well... public humiliation and proof that it's good I didn't become a private investigator.
Anyhow, I'd summarize the season, but it's way too complicated. Jason's insanely detailed notes run 22 pages long. But here's a super-brief thumbnail: At the beginning of the season, a bus returning from a high school field trip ran off a cliff into the ocean. Forensics showed that the crash was caused by an explosive onboard that killed the bus driver right before a bend in the road, sending the bus over a cliff. Most of the rich kids that would have been on board were taking a limo home because of a foul smell that had been on the bus, which appears to be caused by a dead rat someone hid on the bus (presumably intentionally).
There's several other plot threads, including a mayoral race, freaky-ass parents, a pregnancy or two, kidnapping, a failed bid to incorporate the upscale portions of the town, a big bald guy named Curly who washed up on shore with Veronica's name written on his palm (and has a connection with last season's killer), a gold-digging grifter, a pro baseball player with a gambling problem, "the outing of all outings", rival biker gangs mysteriously cooperating and an unexpected case of the clap. Hence the 22 pages of notes.
Anyhow, in the interest of not putting spoilers on the front page of the website, I'll have my and Jason's predictions after the jump. If you haven't been watching the show, there's really no point in reading on, none of this will make any sense whatsoever.
Predictions here, but DON'T READ THEM UNLESS YOU'VE BEEN WATCHING!!!
Quick Summary: Mr. Casablancas, aided by the Fitzpatricks, engineered the bus crash. Curly Moran was killed because he knew about it. Casablancas' son Beaver figures most of this out and embarks on a scheme of financial punishment against his dad, becoming a bit of a Robin Hood in the process.
OK, here's the basis of my overall theory: everything revolves around the Casablancas family, their connections to various power players in the town of Neptune and the plan to incorporate the town of Neptune. Richard Casablancas is a shady real-estate developer who fled the country a few episodes into the season after Veronica uncovered his REIT scam. He has two high-school aged sons, Richard Jr. ("Dick") and Cassidey ("Beaver")*, and a hot trophy wife named Kendall, though that turns out to be a fake name, because she's the aforementioned gold-digging grifter.
Shortly after Mr. Casablancas flees, Beaver, who turns out to be a very savvy entrepreneur, starts up some sort of real estate investment scheme of his own, using Kendall as front man (front person?). When a town is planning to incorporate, the prices of the land inside the incorporated areas tends to rise in value, and the outlying land decreases, yet Beaver appears to be buying up the real estate outside the incorporation boundaries.
The incorporation effort was spearheaded by the town's new mayor, Woody, who ran unopposed in the first half of the season. Later, as incorporation is coming up for a vote, someone begins stalking his family and (we learn) someone else is blackmailing him with recordings that indicate that he is a child molester.
So my theory is this: Mr. Casablancas, possibly in collusion with other powerful Neptune townspeople hatched a plan to incorporate the town so that his real estate holdings would rise in value. This may have been necessary because many of his other investments were scams, and the money that incorporation would bring him was necessary to cover that shortfall, or perhaps he just likes working the system to get money. Anyhow, he learns that his hand-picked mayoral candidate Woody is a child molester and that at least two victims are planning to either confront him or come forward. Either way, Woody's not getting elected should this come out. I have a suspicion that Mr. Casablancas learned about Woody's activities from one of his sons, probably Beaver, though either or both of them may have been a victim of Woody in the past. Either way, Casablancas needs some way to silence these two students without anyone drawing a connection between the two. Conveniently they will both be on the journalism field trip to Shark Stadium. If he can get rid of the bus, no one will suspect that these two are the targets.
He first approaches Curly Moran, a mechanic/stunt driver, to help engineer the crash, though Curly declines to help. Plan B is getting the help of the Fitzpatricks, a clannish gang whose main rivals are the PCHers. The Fitzapatricks agree to help, especially because at least one PCHer they're after is going to be on the bus. He's able to get their help through Kendall, who has a connection to them. The hitch of the plan is that both of Casablancas' sons will be on the field trip as well. Knowing Dick's aversion to things like smelly school busses, Casablancas has the Fitzpatricks plant the bomb and the dead rat, expecting his Dick to call and ask for a limo for the ride home. The Fitzpatricks also have secondary duty to make sure that both sons are off the bus, as well as letting Casablancas know the instant the bus is in the correct position for the explosion to cause a crash. Casablancas calls the cell-phone based detonator that sets off the explosives, killing the bus driver and dooming everyone else on board.
The plan works, however there's two problems, only one of which Casablancas is aware of. The first is that Curly's conscience is killing him, because he knows who caused the bus crash and wants to tell. Casablancas first tries to get the PCHers to take him out, and when that plan (mostly) fails, he kills Curly himself with his car, and writes Veronica's name on Curly's palm to confuse the easily confused Sheriff Lamb (this part I'm not 100% on, but that's the gist).
In the meantime, Casablancas and Woody start attempting to frame Terrence Cook, a baseball player on Woody's pro team The Sharks.
The second problem is that his son Beaver, whom he has a pretty bad relationship with anyway, has figured everything out, and he's pissed off. So here's the thing about Beaver: He's a very nice, very very intelligent guy who can't stand what assholes the rest of his family is, though he probably excuses his brother because he knows Dick's attitude is the result of a spoiling dad and being one of Woody's victims. However, as nice as he is, Beaver is also a very smooth liar and scary good at manipulation.
He manipulates Veronica into telling uncovering his dad's real estate scam, forcing him to flee the country. He manipulates his mother into signing over the trust fund so that he can bankroll his own real estate deal. His plan is to start buying up land outside the incorporation area between the time Woody is elected and the special election regarding incorporation. He can get the land cheap because incorporation looks to be a done deal, and he knows he'll turn a huge profit on it because he has a plan to balckmail Woody into sinking the incorporation proposal. All this is done in Kendall's name, which is another part of his plan: Kendall's real name is Priscilla Banks. Her pseudonym is actually a girl Priscilla killed in an auto accident when they were in high school together. Beaver's intention is to expose fake Kendall and see that the money goes to the real Kendall's family.
There's a lot more, including stuff that must figure in, but I don't know how it does. Principally, what the hell Veronica having Chlamydia has to do with anything (I have suspicions), as well as why Meg's parents bailed out Lucky (who bailed-out who? That's why you have to watch!). Who's Amber and how will she know that she's a bitch? Who the hell is Sally?
And for Jason's predictions:
As I see it Big Dick planned the whole thing, maybe with help, but with the main intention of protecting the Incorporation plan by putting Woody into the Mayoral seat without any hiccups. He conspired with his son Dick to pull off the Bus Crash. Dick planted the Rat on the Bus, and then gave Betina the bag of explosives at the Ball Park knowing she was seated up front and close to the driver. The intention was to kill Marcos and Peter so that they could talk about Woody molesting them. It was Big Dick's plan, but Dick Jr. carried it out.
Upon further review, I believe that Beaver was also molested by Woody, and this is how Big Dick knew that Woody had molested kids. After the announcement of Incorporation, I believe that Beaver created the Phoenix Land Trust to purchase declining property, and then blackmail Woody to destroy incorporation. With Incorporation failing, the newly bought property would go back up.
Furthermore, I think that it is going to be revealed that Beaver did have Chlamydia, and did rape Veronica at the party giving it to her. (very sad, but I think it is there)
I am sure there is some kind of über-09er thing going on as well, but I have no solid connections.
I was hoping for a more epic descriptions, however, I think we are on the same page (generally) about what happened.
One final note: When you put it all down on paper (well, on a blog, anyway), it seems like a dark, boring show. It's not, it's really good. But then again, if you haven't been watching it all season, you really shouldn't be reading these predictions!
posted by Mark Kawakami at May 09, 2006, 02:05 AM // permalink // (198) Comments