Veronica Mars S1 Ep8: Like a Virgin

Original airdate: Nov. 23rd, 2004

Rewatched: Nov. 23rd, 2024

All heck breaks loose at Neptune High when everyone is sent a purity test and then everyone is offered the chance to buy anyone’s results. At the beginning of this episode, we meet Meg, who will, like many other characters we meet, be important later on. In this episode, she’s an important reminder to Veronica that she still has friends. Meg helps out Veronica when her clothes are thrown in the toilets during PE. Meg needs Veronica’s help when her purity test results are being shared at school. Both Meg and Veronica never took the test, but both had shockingly low purity test results. It turns out Meg’s jealous friend was in a relationship with the district’s IT guy and was able to have him give her passwords to take the tests. She took Meg’s to get her out of the way, and her friend, who had a crush on Duncan, took one for Veronica. It’s a teen drama mystery. What’s important is the message. When Meg is ostracized by her friends for not being a good girl like she claims to be she asks Veronica if the gossip about her bothers her. Veronica says not really, and that she learned to get tough and get even. At the end of the episode, Meg says it was good advice to get tough, but not good advice to get even. She then reminds Veronica that she still has friends, but if people are too afraid of her to get close, she’ll lose them, too. One of Veronica’s biggest flaws is her desire for revenge, and while it’s often shown neutrally (maybe even positively), this is a reminder that in some ways, Veronica is not a true hero and the showrunners know that.

Another important story line is Wallace’s. We finally meet his mother and his younger brother in this episode. Veronica is hanging out at his place, and it is clear that Mrs. Fennel is not a fan. She works for Kane Software and has heard a lot of rumors. Veronica had told Meg she didn’t care about the rumors about her, but later she revised it. She does care depending on who’s listening.  Mrs. Fennel is also having issues with her tenant. Keith offers to help, but Mrs. Fennel turns him down. Later, he goes back without asking and gets the tenant to move out. Keith and Mrs. Fennel share a moment of friendship at the end of the episode, and all is well with Veronica and Wallace continuing to hang out together.

The two main storylines are really about friendship. What does it mean to be a true friend? To be there when the other is in need, like Meg and Veronica are for each other. And sometimes, to be there when no one asks you to be, like Keith for the Fennel family. Like on Buffy it often feels like Veronica Mars gives a lot of power to platonic friendship, foregrounding it as more important than romantic interest. The friendship between Wallace and Veronica is definitely a powerful force on this series.

Next, there are the developments in the Lilly Kane case. Veronica writes to Koontz and asks to visit, claiming to be a criminology student from his hometown. Koontz agrees to the visit and Veronica shows him the pictures of the shoes at the crime scene, claiming this may be enough for a retrial. Koontz is not interested. He also knows who Veronica is. He insists he killed Lilly. He also implies that Jake Kane is Veronica’s father. It’s an exciting end to the episode.

Finally, we meet another character who will gain importance as the series continues. Mac is a computer geek who helps out Veronica. It also turns out she’s the one who sent the purity test (and made the money from selling it). Veronica decides this was a justified move (she didn’t fake the tests or give away passwords), so lets her get away with it. Mac uses the money to buy herself a new car. Mac is a bit like Willow from Buffy, a quirky computer geek with the power to do amazing things for friends in need. A big difference is time. The in world of Veronica Mars, tech is a bit more ubiquitous than in the world of Buffy. Nearly everyone has a cellphone, laptops and computers abound, and every student at Neptune has their own e-mail address. It’s no longer the mid-90s, it’s the aughts and everyone is online. And, as a final bit of nostalgia, this episode harks back to my last year in high school, first year in college (1999/2000) when a 100-question purity test was all the rage. We did it and compared answers, but it was not quite as drama filled as on the series. Life rarely ever is quite as eventful as a teen drama.