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

In this episode, Veronica and her father Keith (Enrico Colantoni) investigate more suspects in the murder of Dean O'Dell (Ed Begley, Jr.), particularly his wife Mindy (Jaime Ray Newman) and her lover Hank Landry (Patrick Fabian).

Series creator Rob Thomas enjoyed Fabian and Jordan's performances in the episode, while filming of scenes on the ocean contained some production troubles.

Club believed that the episode was intellectually satisfying,[1] while Jon Lachonis of BuddyTV opined that the decision to make Tim the murderer was not appropriate.

Wallace (Percy Daggs III) sees Logan (Jason Dohring) and Parker (Julie Gonzalo) having lunch together and tells Veronica, but she doesn't seem upset.

While listening to the phone calls, Veronica notices Mindy and Hank talking about a place named "Papa's cabin".

They investigate the most recent phone calls made by Hank, and find that his alibi was faked—he was helping the witness's son escape foster care.

Veronica suddenly connects the dots and says that Tim committed the murder in order to frame Hank, who denied him a job opportunity.

[4] "Papa's Cabin" features the final appearance of Hank Landry, played by Patrick Fabian, making it the closing installment of an eight-episode arc.

[7] The episode was the final installment of the series to air before a two-month hiatus, temporarily losing its time slot to Pussycat Dolls Present.

[8] Ain't It Cool News considered the CW's description of the episode to be evidence that Veronica and Keith would continue working together, despite the fact that he recently became interim Sheriff.

However, they were unable to finish filming the scene within the course of one day, so the crew made a quick decision to place a makeshift blue screen as part of the background for the interior of the boat.

[7] Thomas was also laudatory towards Jordan's character's reactions towards Veronica about events he secretly already knew, such as when he hears a voicemail from Hank not recommending him for an internship.

She referred to the conclusion of the Dean O'Dell story arc as the closure to a conventional mystery in the sense that Veronica and Keith slowly built up evidence instead of stumbling on one incriminating object by chance.

Calling the Dean O'Dell storyline "Veronica Mars's weakest mystery,"[2] the reviewer thought that "Papa's Cabin" spent too much time on Mindy and Hank, arguing that it was obvious they were not the culprits.