Episode 2x19 Cheat Sheet
These are all the important characters shown and/or mentioned in this episode and all the backstory you need to know about them. Of course, a lot of important character development is not included here, so for a full understanding of the characters, we recommend finding the Season 1 DVDs at your local video store. You can also legally watch clips from S2 episodes here.
Keith Mars used to be sheriff and is now a private investigator.
Last season, Veronica Mars learned that her best friend Lilly Kane had been murdered by movie star Aaron Echolls. He is now in jail awaiting trial, and Veronica is a key witness. One thing she saw was a tape of Lilly (who was under 18) having sex with Aaron, which provides motive for the murder. Unfortunately, that tape has now been erased, so the only evidence for the affair is witness testimony.
At the beginning of the school year, Veronica went on a field trip with her journalism class. Since the bus smelled bad on the way there (caused by a dead rat taped to a seat bottom), the rich kids had a limo take them back to school and left the poor kids alone on the bus. On the way back, an explosion caused the bus to go off a cliff, killing everyone on board. Since, for the bus to go off the cliff, the bomb had to explode at exactly the right place, the current theory is that whoever set off the bomb had to be in visual range of the bus at the time of the explosion.
Cliff McCormack is a lawyer and a friend of the Mars family.
Duncan Kane (not pictured in this episode) is brother of the murdered Lilly. He and Veronica dated earlier this season, until extreme circumstances led him to illegally flee the country, with Veronica's help.
Richard "Big Dick" Casablancas (not pictured in this episode), has two sons, Dick and Cassidy ("Beaver"), and a young trophy wife, Kendall Casablancas. Three days after he married Kendall, Richard took out a life insurance policy on his sons that made them worth more dead than alive. Based on new evidence, the bomb on the bus seems to have been in a bag that belonged to his son Dick, until Dick gave the bag to a girl on the bus named Bettina*.
Kendall Casablancas is stepmother to Dick and Beaver Casablancas. Earlier this year, she had an affair with Logan Echolls. More recently, in need of money, she went to visit Aaron Echolls in jail. He agreed to help her if she did him a favor in exchange. The favor involved tweezing hairs out of Duncan Kane's shower, but we don't yet know what she plans to do with them.
Logan Echolls is the son of Aaron Echolls. He and Veronica had a brief relationship last summer that ended badly.
Gia Goodman is the daughter of the mayor. She was in the limo the day of the bus crash.
Liam Fitzpatrick is a member (possibly the head) of an Irish crime family, the Fitzpatricks. They have a reputation for being extremely dangerous and violent.
Eli "Weevil" Navarro used to be leader of the PCH motorcycle gang. He was following the bus in his motorcycle the day of the crash, an act which turned out to save Veronica's life. She ran into him when the bus stopped for gas and while they were talking the bus left without her. He then gave her a ride home on his motorcycle, putting him possibly in visual range of the bus around the time it crashed.
Weevil's close friend Felix was killed at the beginning of the summer. The original suspect was Logan Echolls, but eventually Weevil found out that the murderer was Thumper, the new leader of the PCHers (they kicked Weevil out when he didn't approve of them dealing drugs for the Fitzpatricks). Weevil got his revenge on Thumper by making it look as if he tried to steal money from his dealers. The Fitzpatricks responded by having Thumper killed (they handcuffed him inside a stadium that was about to be demolished, and he was crushed to death).
Hector is a PCHer.
Cervando (not pictured in this episode) was a PCHer who died in the bus crash.
Mac is skilled with electronics and sometimes helps Veronica with her cases. Until recently she was dating Beaver Casablancas, but he broke up with her in a seeming overreaction to her questions about why they weren't taking their relationship farther sexually.
Vincent ("Butters") Clemmons is the son of the principal.
Jackie Cook lived with her mother in New York until this year, when she moved to Neptune to live with her baseball star father. Her father has been accused by the Sheriff of causing the bus crash, and most of the town believes he is guilty. One result is that Jackie has been ostracized at school.
Wallace Fennel is Veronica's best friend. He used to date Jackie and then tried to get back together with her at a recent school dance, although he was dating another girl, Jane, at the time. She refused, and continued to refuse after he broke up with Jane, because she didn't want to make her reputation worse than it already was.
*Dick says that he gave Bettina "a Sharks premium ticket package, [and his] Sharks memorabilia gift bag." The tickets were won in a raffle by another boy who threw them away, and Dick took them out of the trash. It is unclear whether the bag was part of the raffle prize or something that Dick had before.
Keith Mars used to be sheriff and is now a private investigator.
Last season, Veronica Mars learned that her best friend Lilly Kane had been murdered by movie star Aaron Echolls. He is now in jail awaiting trial, and Veronica is a key witness. One thing she saw was a tape of Lilly (who was under 18) having sex with Aaron, which provides motive for the murder. Unfortunately, that tape has now been erased, so the only evidence for the affair is witness testimony.
At the beginning of the school year, Veronica went on a field trip with her journalism class. Since the bus smelled bad on the way there (caused by a dead rat taped to a seat bottom), the rich kids had a limo take them back to school and left the poor kids alone on the bus. On the way back, an explosion caused the bus to go off a cliff, killing everyone on board. Since, for the bus to go off the cliff, the bomb had to explode at exactly the right place, the current theory is that whoever set off the bomb had to be in visual range of the bus at the time of the explosion.
Cliff McCormack is a lawyer and a friend of the Mars family.
Duncan Kane (not pictured in this episode) is brother of the murdered Lilly. He and Veronica dated earlier this season, until extreme circumstances led him to illegally flee the country, with Veronica's help.
Richard "Big Dick" Casablancas (not pictured in this episode), has two sons, Dick and Cassidy ("Beaver"), and a young trophy wife, Kendall Casablancas. Three days after he married Kendall, Richard took out a life insurance policy on his sons that made them worth more dead than alive. Based on new evidence, the bomb on the bus seems to have been in a bag that belonged to his son Dick, until Dick gave the bag to a girl on the bus named Bettina*.
Kendall Casablancas is stepmother to Dick and Beaver Casablancas. Earlier this year, she had an affair with Logan Echolls. More recently, in need of money, she went to visit Aaron Echolls in jail. He agreed to help her if she did him a favor in exchange. The favor involved tweezing hairs out of Duncan Kane's shower, but we don't yet know what she plans to do with them.
Logan Echolls is the son of Aaron Echolls. He and Veronica had a brief relationship last summer that ended badly.
Gia Goodman is the daughter of the mayor. She was in the limo the day of the bus crash.
Liam Fitzpatrick is a member (possibly the head) of an Irish crime family, the Fitzpatricks. They have a reputation for being extremely dangerous and violent.
Eli "Weevil" Navarro used to be leader of the PCH motorcycle gang. He was following the bus in his motorcycle the day of the crash, an act which turned out to save Veronica's life. She ran into him when the bus stopped for gas and while they were talking the bus left without her. He then gave her a ride home on his motorcycle, putting him possibly in visual range of the bus around the time it crashed.
Weevil's close friend Felix was killed at the beginning of the summer. The original suspect was Logan Echolls, but eventually Weevil found out that the murderer was Thumper, the new leader of the PCHers (they kicked Weevil out when he didn't approve of them dealing drugs for the Fitzpatricks). Weevil got his revenge on Thumper by making it look as if he tried to steal money from his dealers. The Fitzpatricks responded by having Thumper killed (they handcuffed him inside a stadium that was about to be demolished, and he was crushed to death).
Hector is a PCHer.
Cervando (not pictured in this episode) was a PCHer who died in the bus crash.
Mac is skilled with electronics and sometimes helps Veronica with her cases. Until recently she was dating Beaver Casablancas, but he broke up with her in a seeming overreaction to her questions about why they weren't taking their relationship farther sexually.
Vincent ("Butters") Clemmons is the son of the principal.
Jackie Cook lived with her mother in New York until this year, when she moved to Neptune to live with her baseball star father. Her father has been accused by the Sheriff of causing the bus crash, and most of the town believes he is guilty. One result is that Jackie has been ostracized at school.
Wallace Fennel is Veronica's best friend. He used to date Jackie and then tried to get back together with her at a recent school dance, although he was dating another girl, Jane, at the time. She refused, and continued to refuse after he broke up with Jane, because she didn't want to make her reputation worse than it already was.
*Dick says that he gave Bettina "a Sharks premium ticket package, [and his] Sharks memorabilia gift bag." The tickets were won in a raffle by another boy who threw them away, and Dick took them out of the trash. It is unclear whether the bag was part of the raffle prize or something that Dick had before.