Penning an “in memoriam” of my favorite show of the past three years (and, ultimately, one that will likely remain in my top five forever) is not an easy task. Nor is it one I was I really thought I’d have to write until just this last week. But last night’s episode was sadly Veronica Mars‘ last, though you’d never know from watching it.
Bloggers and critics billed last night as the show’s two-hour series finale, and the semi-functioning retards at The CW would have had us believe it was just another season finale through the last promo. In reality, it was neither. Two distinctly separate episodes glued together to send the show unceremoniously off into the sunset – that latter, as good as it was, giving the viewers absolutely nothing that they deserve from a swan song.
Having spent the last month solving some of the least dire mysteries of her brief stint in sleuthing, last night Veronica was thrown a curve ball in the form of a sex tape, featuring herself, leaked to the internet and emailed around campus. True to form, Veronica takes lemons and squeezes the juice into the eyes of her would-be oppressors.
A flawed heroine till the bitter end, Veronica’s underhanded tactics in her quest for justice cause the most pain to the people closest to her. Files in long-exiled Jake Kane’s hard drive give Veronica enough fodder to blackmail all of the secret society members who we learn were responsible for the tape and open a veritable Pandora’s box of potential mysteries for the upcoming season. Too bad her father loses his chance at being Sheriff, yet again, covering all of the tracks Veronica left while stealing them.
Saying last night’s episode was the season’s finest is an understatement. Though it’s nice to see a show go out on a creative high, it most definitely not nice to have our last shared moments with our girl find her plagued by melancholy yet again. This is the Veronica from first season. This is the Veronica we fell in love with. But this isn’t the way we were supposed to leave her. “The Bitch is Back” makes for spectacular lead-in to another season. It’s such a shame that it’s a season we’ll never get.
How “Bon Voyage” could ever have been billed as anything but a swan song is beyond me. Everything that could have – came full circle, and each moment of the episode dripped with finality. In the opening scene Rory meets her long-forgotten idol, Christiana Amanpour in the last of Gilmore Girls’ awesomely random cameos. Lorelai and her mother share a moment that could have easily been schmaltzy but was instead exactly what it needed to be. Luke and Lorelai, though far from married, are back on the right track and share a heart-melting smooch. And in an almost unprecedented move, everyone in Stars Hollow got some screen time, with Mrs. Kim and the town troubadour the only notable exceptions.
Apparently I was 
The strangest and most annoying facet of the show comes from host, and former Sugar Ray front man, Mark McGrath. In his seemingly endless fall to the bottom of the low culture barrel, the heir to Pat O’Brien’s syndicated throne clearly took this job just to be surrounded by the last breed of women who actually want to have sex with him.
