About:

Title: Veronica Mars S3.E16 “Un-American Graffiti”
Veronica Mars S3.E17 “Debasement Tapes”
Released: 2007
Series:  Veronica Mars

Trips to the Dentist: 4 drinks, 2 shots
Most Marshmallow’s Valuable Players: Keith and Wallace

Previously, on Veronica Mars

The Official FYA Veronica Mars Season 3 Drinking Game

Take a drink every time:

  • Someone says “Veronica Mars”, even when they know full well who she is and there’s no other Veronica in all of Neptune
  • Veronica uses her camera
  • Mars family members hug (Backup counts!)
  • Backup appears
  • Someone mentions a fraternity or sorority
  • Veronica uses a college cliche as a disguise
  • A character, initially introduced as good, turns out to be a baddie (or vice versa)
  • Fisticuffs occur
  • Veronica gets some action (kissing or otherwise)
  • A Taser is used
  • Veronica mentions ponies, unicorns, kittens, or puppies
  • The communal argyle shirt appears

Take a shot every time:

  • Veronica solves a case
  • Logan calls Veronica “bobcat”

Onto the episodes!

MARS INVESTIGATIONS, CASE 3.16 “Un-American Graffiti”

Veronica and Keith’s favorite takeout place, Babylon Gardens, gets vandalized with “Terrorist” graffiti, so after the restaurant owner’s wife, Sabirah, pleads her case, Veronica agrees to investigate. There’s the usual round of false leads– a group of high school potheads who drive by and paintball the place (turns out, they paintball everything) and Jason Cohen, the Jewish boy dating Amira, Sabirah’s daughter (who also went to high school with Veronica). The two are caught in a compromising position on camera by Nasir, who works at Babylon Gardens and was supposedly engaged to Amira. In addition to being a pervy Peeping Tom, Nasir’s other hobbies include passing out anti-American flyers in public areas, and one of the recipients of those fliers is Derrick, a boy whose brother was wounded in Iraq. Derrick turns out to be the vandal, but Sabirah’s husband, Rashad, decides not to press charges after giving Derrick an impassioned speech about what makes America America.

This whole storyline tried just a leeeeeetle too hard.

Trips to the Dentist: 3 drinks, 1 shot

File Under Dean O’Dell’s Murder

Case closed! And the new Super Mystery hasn’t started yet!

Life on Mars

After an under-aged kid stumbles drunkenly out of a bar and gets hit by car, newly appointed Sheriff Mars makes it his mission to shut down bars who routinely serve to minors. The rest of the department doesn’t take him seriously, so when Keith discovers Piz and Wallace drinking at a local bar (with IDs Veronica made them), he uses them to test out the thoroughness of his deputies’ searches. None of them even notice that Wallace’s ID photo is the Notorious B.I.G., so Keith kicks those assholes to the curb. And it is AWESOME.

Meanwhile, Logan and Parker are a full-on item, so of course, Logan’s throwing her a birthday party. And he wants Veronica to come! OH JOY. Surprisingly, V does make a cameo at the Val Parker party, where she is forced to eat cake with Logan’s face on it (DEJA VU) and introduces our old friend Max to Mac. They hit it off famously, but wait, where’s Bronson? And then– AND THEN– Piz decides to go all in and KISSES VERONICA!!! STOP THE PRESSES! And then she decides to KISS HIM BACK! And then the elevator opens and LOGAN IS INSIDE. Depending on your team allegiance, you either find these scene super frustrating or super cathartic.

Consider me catharted!

MVP (Most Marshmallow’s Valuable Player): Keith

Keith as Sheriff is the BOMB DOT COM.

And the Snark Award Goes To…

Mac, for an exchange with Logan that is so good, I have to include the entire thing.

Mac: “It just takes me back to high school. Remember, Logan? We stood at the same lunch table and made fun of all the fat kids.”


Logan: “I’m sorry. We went to the same high school?”


Mac: “Uh, yeah. We ran over that fisherman and promised to take the secret to our graves.


Logan: “I remember the fisherman.”


Mac: “Remember? You bet your friends you could turn me into a super hot prom date as a joke, but you ended up falling in love with me?”


Logan: “Nope. Lost it.”

Neptune Cameos

  • Jack McGee as Murphy. McGee plays the owner of the bar that specializes in serving under-aged drinkers. This guy is in EVERYTHING.

  • Duane Daniels as Mr. Clemmons. Veronica catches a brief glimpse of Van Clemmons in the video footage of the paintball crew’s carnage. And it is GLORIOUS.

Song for a Spy’s Soundtrack: “Rally” by Phoenix

In true Piz form, a great song from a new (at the time) band is playing when he finally makes a move on Veronica.

MARS INVESTIGATIONS, CASE 3.17 “Debasement Tapes”

Piz has the pleasure of escorting Desmond Fellows, former lead singer of My Pretty Pony, on the Hearst campus before his show to raise money for the college radio station, which is in danger of being fined into oblivion after a DJ cursed on air. The problem is that Desmond only performs with tapes of his now deceased bandmate, and those tapes have gone missing. Oh yeah, and the other problem is that Desmond is a washed up douche canoe.

Veronica, being a smartie, determines that it’s a simple case of baggage claim switcheroo, and she and Piz retrieve the missing tapes, which are actually DVDs, because THIS ISN’T 1989, SHOW. On the road back, they listen to Desmond’s new stuff and, finding it to be pretty great, they fake a delay so that he’s forced to go on stage and perform his new material, which goes over well with the crowd. Awww, you guys!

Also, I feel like we need a drinking rule for every Austin reference made in the script. A few episodes back, it was Amy’s Ice Cream, and now it’s Liberty Lunch! What’s next, Emo’s? Keep Neptune Weird?

Trips to the Dentist: 1 drink, 1 shot (Thank god the band was named My Pretty Pony)

Life on Mars

Logan hires Mac to help him with the noble cause of creating an Ass Rating website for a business class project, and she ends up calling Max to flirt with help her. They have obvious chemistry, although HELLO, Bronson is SO much cuter. I guess Mac is way less shallow than me, because at the end of the episode, she breaks up with Bronson. Mac, I don’t understand your taste in men, but I respect your ethics.

A man comes into the police station to report a suspected robbery and THAT MAN IS LEO! Looking FOINE, I might add. Keith goes with him to stake out the joint, and guess who’s already on the case? Vinnie Van Lowe! Keith gets the perps in jail and hires Leo back on the force, so all’s well that ends well. Except for the fact that Vinnie is now running for Sheriff against Keith. But who would vote for Sarah Palin Rick Perry a total moron? Oh wait.

So, after kissing Piz in the last episode, Veronica is being THE WORST and now just wants to be “friends.” But by the end of the episode, she’s telling him he’s a good man and grabbing his friend. Veronica Mars, Queen of Mixed Signals.

MVP (Most Marshmallow’s Valuable Player): Wallace

Wallace, who gave Veronica the hard time she deserved. Gah, this exchange was SO GOOD.

Wallace: “So, you surviving?”


Veronica: “Surviving what?”


Wallace: “Helping Piz. You know, his puppy-dog eyes on you all the time.”


Veronica: “It’s weird. Like you said, normal Piz. Like…nothing ever happened.”


Wallace: “Which bothers you because making out with you is supposed to be some life-changing experience.”


Veronica: “I don’t know. I just… Why are we talking about this?”


Wallace: “I thought you loved these kind of conversations.”


Veronica: “No.”


Wallace: “I was hoping we could follow it up with a cuteness countdown of the Baldwin brothers.”


Veronica: “I hope we’re still friends after I taser you.”

And the Snark Award Goes To…

Paul Rudd, for being g-d hilarious. I wish I had a gif of every time he called Piz by the wrong name, but this will have to do:

Neptune Cameos

  • Paul Rudd as Desmond Fellows. PAUL RUDD! BEST. CAMEO. EVER.

  • Also, Desmond’s My Pretty Pony band member is Rob Thomas. Wearing a terribad wig.

Song for a Spy’s Soundtrack: “My Before and After” by Cotton Mather

Paul Rudd performs this Cotton Mather track as one of Desmond’s new songs.

Peter (I Love You Man): “Slappa da bass!”

So, what are y’all enjoying more: Veronica starting up something with Piz, or Logan being jealous?

Next week, I’ll finish off Season 3 and begin the impatient countdown for the Veronica Mars movie!

Shop Our Veronica Mars Themed Merch

Sarah lives in Austin, and believes there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure, which is part of why she started FYA in 2009. Growing up, she thought she was a Mary Anne, but she's finally starting to accept the fact that she's actually a Kristy.