M.A.D. (Veronica Mars)

The series depicts the adventures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) as she deals with life as a high school student while moonlighting as a private detective.

In this episode, Veronica investigates a situation involving a girl, Carmen (Natalia Barron), who is being blackmailed by her boyfriend with an explicit and revealing video.

At the boardwalk, Carmen asks Tad to talk to Seth, an openly gay student, while Veronica takes pictures.

Veronica talks to Mac (Tina Majorino) and asks her to create a "sexually explicit website" involving Tad.

Veronica takes a look at a screenshot from the video and notices the same lanterns as Shelly Pomroy's house, where she was drugged and raped a year earlier.

Mac talks to Veronica about a passport she found of Roberto Nalbandion, who lives in Argentina and is likely an alias for Duncan.

Clarence Wiedman (Christopher B. Duncan) confronts Alicia Fennel (Erica Gimpel) about her relationship with Keith, who tells her about Wallace's (Percy Daggs III) bugging of his office.

Veronica gets Weevil and the biker gang to tie Tad to the flagpole, and she tells him that she knows about the roofies the night of Shelly Pomroy's party, where she was raped.

)[7] Among the episode's many guest stars are several of the important recurring characters of the season, including Mac (Tina Majorino), Clarence Wiedman (Christopher B. Duncan), Alicia Fennel (Erica Gimpel), and Aaron Echolls (Harry Hamlin).

Going into the show, I figured that Veronica would be fairly active as a character—you'd have to be to investigate mysteries—but I am a bit surprised by how much she is the driving force of the main plot."

"[9] Television Without Pity gave the episode an "A+", its third such rating for the series (after "An Echolls Family Christmas" and "Clash of the Tritons").

[…] Honestly, this was irresponsible writing and I hope credited writers Phil Klemmer and John Enbom are embarrassed about it.