The Girl Next Door (Veronica Mars)

"The Girl Next Door" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars.

Co-written by Jed Seidel and Diane Ruggiero and directed by Nick Marck, the episode premiered on UPN on November 9, 2004.

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.

Then, Veronica meets Sarah, a heavily pregnant neighbor, who asks her for help with a missing journal that she believes her boyfriend stole.

During a test, a teacher, Mr. Daniels (Steven Williams) fails both Logan and Weevil for talking.

Veronica returns home and views Sarah and her boyfriend, André (Adam Kaufman), arguing.

She doesn't believe him, and these suspicions are heightened when it turns out that André is painting a portrait of a female nude who is not Sarah.

In another flashback, Veronica asks Lilly Kane (Amanda Seyfried) why Duncan broke up with her, but she is vague and unspecific.

Over dinner, Keith muses that Andre must truly care for Sarah as a man who would help a mother raise a child who is not his own.

The comment makes Veronica suddenly wonder if this assessment might possibly describe Keith as well, given the recent revelation that her own mother had been deeply attached to Jake Kane decades before.

In addition, series regular Percy Daggs III, who portrays Wallace Fennel, is absent from "The Girl Next Door".

[1] Another one of the episode's guest stars is Adam Kaufman, whom series creator Rob Thomas later called on to play an unconnected FBI agent role in the unaired fourth season pilot of the show before Veronica Mars was cancelled altogether.

[2] In its original broadcast, "The Girl Next Door" was watched by 2.74 million viewers, marking a slight drop from the previous episode, "Return of the Kane".

Price Peterson of TV.com wrote in his episode verdict, "I gotta admit, I found the main plot more interesting than the case of the week.