Entertainment

Every Law Broken In The 'Veronica Mars' Finale Alone

by Amy Roberts
Warner Bros. Television

So, here's the thing. Everything I know about law I learned from repeated viewings of police procedural shows on TV. That might not make me as much of an expert as I think I am, but I do know that there were a lot of illegal activities featured in Veronica Mars. And I say that with love. For the most part, Veronica and her friends didn't use their criminal misdeeds to outright hurt anyone. Instead, they fought for their friends and for justice. And if you want a concise overview of that fact, you need only take a look at all the laws the Veronica Mars characters break in the finale alone, because they're representative of the crimes committed on a regular basis in the show.

It's perhaps one of the things that was so refreshing about the show when it first came out. It was obvious, for instance, that Veronica had a somewhat shadier moral compass than your average TV female lead. But it was also obvious that she used that moral compass to help save and protect the sort of people whom the corrupt authorities of Neptune had in some way failed. She was smart, ferocious, and knew how to exploit and evade the law for the better.

Here are 16 examples of Veronica and her friends doing exactly that in the finale. (By the way, the entire seasons and movie are available to stream on go90 now. Just sayin'.)

1

Veronica Takes Justice Into Her Own Hands (As Usual)

First and foremost, there's the fact that Veronica responds to the illegally obtained video of her and Piz fooling around together the way that she responds to just about every crime throughout the show: With some good old fashioned, and less than legal, vigilante justice.

2

Veronica Does Something Incriminating To Dominic's Credit Cards

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OK, I'm not entirely clear what she does to Dominic's credit cards that makes them unsuitable for use during his date, but what I am clear about is the fact that whatever she did likely required some kind of private account access that could not have possibly been legal.

3

Weevil Removes The Wheels From Dominic's Car

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Weevil doesn't formally confess to stealing the wheels off Dominic's car, but come on, it's basically his signature at this stage in the show. I'm also pretty certain that the classic crime of wheel removal isn't legal in the least bit.

4

Veronica Breaks Into Dominic's Dorm Room

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Not only does she break in, but she also greets him with her trusty taser in hand. Which, is a bit more of a complicated crime...

5

Veronica Carries A Taser At All Times

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OK, so here's the thing. Tasers can be legally used by the public in most U.S states, including California where Veronica is based. However, she's also clearly going to use the weapon (which might not be even be a legal model) to attack Gorey, rather than in defense of Gorey physically attacking her. This is enough to serve some jail time, if you get caught.

6

Logan Physically Assaults Piz

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Part 1 of a series of violent events that I like to call, "I'm expressing my love for Veronica by pummeling whatever man I think poses a threat to her, or to our relationship."

7

Logan Physically Assaults Gorey

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...Part 2 of said series. This time with added curly fries. Physical assault is a straight up crime, you guys. No matter how dreamy the person committing it may be.

8

Veronica Bugs Gorey's Dorm Room & Listens In To His Conversations

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Yeah, I mean, surveillance is a key part of being a private eye, but I'm absolutely certain that a Private Investigator badge gives you legal access to listen to private conversations without consent.

9

Veronica Breaks Into Jake Kane's Mansion

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Through the doggy door, no less. I find this especially odd since we never actually get to meet Jake Kane's canine friend for which the easily accessible flap exists.

10

She Also Steals The Hard Drive From His Computer

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Breaking and entering is one thing, but theft is another. Those broken laws are really piling up here, Ronnie.

11

She Hacks Into Jake's Hard Drive With Help From Mack

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Sorry, make that: Breaking and entering, theft, and then the addition of some of good fashioned, very illegal computer hacking.

12

They Also Use The Campus Super Computer To Crack Open His Hard Drive

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Now, I'm not certain on this considering how blasé Weevil is about providing access to the computer room, and the super computer in question, but I'm almost certain that this would be frowned upon by the authorities of Hearst College. And by, "frowned upon," I obviously mean "we'll call the cops on anyone who breaks in and uses the damn thing."

13

Dick Casablancas Forwarded The Video Of Veronica & Piz To His Whole Address Book

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Recording two people fooling around without their consent is illegal in and of itself, but distributing that footage is a pretty bad crime, too. No matter how much of dude-bro hero Dick thinks is he for doing it.

14

Keith Mars Destroys Evidence Of Veronica Committing A Crime

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I mean, destruction of evidence is a major criminal no-no whether you're a civilian, basic officer of the law, or otherwise. But when you're the Sheriff pulling that stunt? Damn, Keith, you're in trouble.

15

Veronica Passes On Stolen Information To A Secondary Source

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OK, here's the thing: The information that Veronica is passing over here is a list of names of all the people who have been members of Hearst's version of Skull And Bones, The Castle. That list probably includes some very powerful, rich, and well connected people. Considering that Veronica stole this information, and then passed it on to a newspaper editor knowing full well that it would be published is a cyber crime waiting to happen — and then some.

16

Veronica Discovers A Filmed Confession Of Some Truly Ghastly Crimes & Willingly Ignores It

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I mean, I would have definitely chosen to have ignored it, too, because being a grass on gangsters? We've all seen enough episodes of The Sopranos to know how that works out for people. But yeah, knowingly keeping the knowledge of crimes from the police is an actual offense in the U.S., no matter what the intention was.

So much crime breaking, you guys — and this was just the finale. But I'll be honest, I wouldn't have them any other way.