Veronica Mars S1 Ep3: Meet John Smith

Original airdate: Oct.12th, 2004

Rewatched: Oct. 12th, 2024

This episode’s case of the week is complex. A boy at school, Justin, hires Veronica to find his father, a man named John Smith. Veronica hatches a plan to find the father by mailing every John Smith she can find a letter about a scholarship for his son, assuming that even a dead-beat dad will send the letter on to his son. While waiting for an answer, Veronica gets Wallace to get her some permanent records, including the record of the kid who hired her. While reading, Veronica discovers that John Smith is dead. She’s not happy Justin used her, even though he only did it to spend time with her. However, the case takes a turn when one of the scholarship letters is sent to Justin via the school. Is John Smith still alive? Veronica is able to narrow it down to three possible John Smiths and sets out to get pictures. With Justin’s help, they think they have it narrowed down to one man. The two drive up to his hometown, hoping to confirm his identity. Only it turns out the man is not John Smith, his wife is. Justin finally learns the truth. His parent is now Julia, and she may have been cut out of Justin’s life, but she’s been making the drive to video store where Justin works to rent movies from him. She hasn’t completely abandoned him. Although Justin is upset about finding out the truth, on the drive home Veronica shares her feelings. Her mom abandoned her completely, and here is a woman driving far out of her way to rent movies for a moment with Justin. At the end of the episode, Justin is seen calling his parent and telling her that the movie he ordered for her has come in. He’s willing to give his parent another chance.

Before looking at the other important developments this episode, I’d like to briefly look at trans representation in this episode. Transgender characters have increased enormously in series since about 2010, which depictions being more realistic, and criticism raised for casting non-trans actors for roles. 2004 was far before this explosion, with few appearances of transgender characters in series, and these often being handled poorly (e.g. Chandler Bing’s father on Friends). Which is to say that while the casting of a female actor, Melissa Leo, for the role can be criticized, I think the overall portrayal should not be. This episode shows Julia to be a normal woman, living with her husband in a nice house in a nice neighbor and driving a very nice muscle car (which had always been her passion). While Julia and Justin only feature in one episode (unlike Buffy’s three-season lesbian relationship), I think Veronica Mars made an important step in queer representation in teen shows as well.

In terms of other story lines, Veronica is struggling with how her break-up with Duncan and Lilly’s death overshadow her life. She’s still stuck in school with Duncan, and that is a relationship with a lot of baggage. Plus, Troy Vandegraff seems to be interested in her, which raises the question of whether Veronica is ready to date her ex’s friend and be pulled back into the 09er group. In the end, Veronica decides to go on a date with Troy, even though she may still have (conflicted) feelings for Duncan. It’s a sordid teen soap opera, really. We also learn that Lilly’s death is still impacting Duncan. He's been taking antidepressants, although in this episode, he decides to stop taking them cold turkey, until he is visited by a hallucination of his dead sister. The kid is not okay.

Then, there’s Lilly’s case. Veronica is still trying to figure out why her mother met with Jake Kane at the motel, and she does track her mother down in Arizona, sort of. Veronica is too late. Her mother had been staying with a college friend but has since moved on.

Finally, I generally like Veronica’s father. I think they represent a positive father-daughter relationship and he is not as nearly as absent as many other TV parents (e.g. on Buffy) and he is much more aware of what his daughter does, like many good parents. But in this episode, Keith meets Veronica guidance counselor and while he does ask her for help with helping Veronica, he also decides to date her, which is not the best route to go, in my opinion. Dating her means she will never be able to help Veronica as a guidance counselor should. It brings a lot of family life into the school. Not every parent has good judgment all the time, I guess.

In the end, this episode revolves around relationships and the question of who we let in to our lives. I think this theme is often a key one in teen series (it often was on Buffy) because our teenage years are a time when we really begin to make these decisions, and they help us shape who we will later become.