2.) A Trip to the dentist. – I found it very heart warming when Logan and Veronica stepped inside the lions den and he held out his hand to her, letting her know he was beside her and they would face it together.

3.Ahoy Mateys.- There were 4 things I loved about this episode. 1 we found out that when V loses her mind over the gun Logan has, regardless of Duncan, she was scared for Logan and still loved him 2. Despite the sarcastic wit coming out of Logans mouth, he would always protect Veronica. 3.)They have a deep sense of loyalty to each other regardless of their relationship status. 4.) the scene where the PCHers have Logan tied up and are threatening to shoot him. That scene was awesome and well acted by Jason Dohring.

4.) Ruskie Business. – It showed us that Logan does have feelings and he can be hurt. Watching him breakdown and cry, he LET Veronica hold him and console him That was a huge step for Logan. You can kinda see that he’s falling for Veronica in the scene at the dance when he’s drunk and Trina shows up.

5.) Hot Dogs- The scene where Aaron beats the snot out of Trinas bf is priceless. And logan lets loose and tells Veronica how he feels about Lilly and her. Great episode

I love this show. Still several years after it’s been cancelled. I can’t help it. The characters were unique and deeper than most. There are a couple things we the audience never got to see that really bug me. 1 we never got to see Logan and Veronica have FUN! I mean where Veronica wasn’t being untrusting or accusing Logan of something. Don’t get me wrong I loved Veronica and Logan together, but in season 3 she was constantly bitchy to him. Even when he wasn’t being snarky to her. Drove me nuts. 2. I don’t think Rob Thomas utilized the chemistry between Logan and Veronica to it’s fullest. I mean outside of the kissy faced twirling around they did, we never saw the raw passion we know they had. We saw hotter sex between Logan and Kendall!

I definitely would have had A Trip To The Dentist on my list – likely #1 – and your #1 of Not Pictured as probably my #2. After that I’m not sure which I’d have included, but I think I’d have had The Pilot episode in my top 5.

A little off topic, but 3 of my favourite scenes over the course of the show (not sure the eps they were in off the top of my head) were:

1) the scene in which Keith is giving Veronica a present and it’s an envelope. Veronica playing with the envelope then asks with outright joy and excitement: “Is it a pony?” Easily my favourite scene in the history of the show. I love scenes like that when earlier little inside jokes are called back upon later on in a show (I think that a reason why VM is so fondly remembered and same with a show like Arrested Development);

2) the scene where Keith and Veronica talk about the paternity test results – one of the best parent/child relationships in the history of TV; and

3) when Veronica tells her dad about her results for the P.I. licensing exam and she’s bragging about how she outdid him, but he had in fact tricked her about his score so that he still had a higher result and called her a “slacker” (or something – sorry can’t remember exact wording) even though she had something like a 95 (and he was a 97 or something along those lines).

As you can tell my the above list, I was a huge fan of the Keith/Veronica relationship part of the show. I confess that normally I’m not a fan of parent/children relationships on “HS shows” but this is one my few exceptions (along with Lorelai/Rory on Gilmore Girls – probably the 2 best ever on tv).

First, the (insanely long) Honourable Mentions:
~ Pilot (1×01) – Epicest. Backstory. Ever
~ Clash of the Tritons (1×12) – the Lilly interviews, Lynn’s death, “Veronica Mars is smarter than me.”
~ Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner (2×07) – massive insight into the twistedness of Neptune, fascinating spin on Meg’s family, Lamb’s moment of decency.
~ Donut Run (2×11) – MASSIVE plotting, love the conclusion to Duncan’s story.
~ I Am God (2×18) – pivotal episode in the arc, beautiful dream sequences.
~ Happy Go Lucky (2×21) – insanely adrenaline-filled, massive pity for Lucky the Unlucky Psycho, love the Mac/Cassidy/Weevil comic subplot.
~ Spit & Eggs (3×09) – Breakneck pace and constant drama – and I found much love for Parker. Also: Logan. Crowbar. Police Car.
~ The Bitch Is Back (3×20) – Epic finale, VERY noir.

And now, the top 5:

5 – An Echolls Family Christmas (1×10)
One of the most vital clues – Aaron’s cheating – is smuggled into this awesomely ironic “so-not-your-average-Christmas-episode” tale. The poker case is fantastic to watch, and the final scene has one of the best VMVOs ever: “No, Veronica, there is not a Santa Claus.”

4 – Plan B (2×17)
Season 2′s B mystery is brought to a close, and for a rat, Thumper got the awesomest death ever – death by exploding stadium? You’re special. Again the vital clue is hidden where you don’t expect it, and the final scene with Weevil in the confessional is one of the best VM moments: “Forgive me father, for I have sinned.”

3 – A Trip To The Dentist (1×21)
Veronica investigates a very painful case – her rape – and finds out a lot, yet nothing at all. The differing perspectives create an interesting and slightly unstable narrative of what happened at Shelley’s, especially given hindsight, and KB and TD act the hell out of their confrontation at the house: “I loved you! And tried to shut you out of my life but it won’t go away!”

2 – Not Pictured (2×22)
You know, I’ve never actually been on a rollercoaster, but I think it may be a little like this. The action is utterly gutwrenching, the twist is both unexpected yet makes such perfect sense, and Kyle Gallner proves himself an actor for the ages. What he says before his death breaks my heart: “Why not?”

1 – Leave It To Beaver (1×22)
Damn. The Lily Kane murder case is wrapped up, the scary psychosis of Aaron Echolls in full view – the fridge scene was damn near terrifying – and massive pity for both Logan and Duncan – TD and JD both do great jobs; especially Duncan panicking after finding Veronica, and Logan on the beach. The scene with Veronica and the Lilly on the pool is probably my favourite VM moment ever: “You know how things are going to be now, right?”

It’s not entirely for certain. Particularly, I’m not entirely sure if I really prefer Not Pictured or A Trip To The Dentist, but for now I’m going with NP.

2. Not Pictured: she finds out Beaver killed all the people on the bus, raped her, killed her father, but didn’t really kill her father. plus, she graduates from high school! and logan comes to her rescue. those lines “you’re not a killer veronica, give me the gun” and “he killed my father, he killed everyone on the bus, he raped me” just make my heart fall. besides you see wallace “as nostalgic as he gets” when he said it was worth getting taped to a pole </3

3. The Bitch is Back: enough said
4. Leave it to Beaver: amazing acting as always by kristen bell and the rest of the cast. every role played to perfection. i totally believed the fire scene, the fight between keith and aaron, everything. it was all totally amazing.
5. A Trip to the Dentist: kept me intrigued and i really felt for her. just soo amazing….

I MISS VM AND THERE BETTER BE A MOVIE!!!!

I must own this series and quit renting it from Netflix. This waiting game is way too rough!!

My favorite episode is A Trip to the Dentist.

5. THE BITCH IS BACK
4. THE WRATH OF CON
3. A TRIP TO THE DENTIST
2. NOT PICTURED
1. LEAVE IT TO BEAVER/PILOT

Honorable mentions: LOOK WHO’S STALKING, M.A.D., SPIT & EGGS, RAT SAW GOD.

This actually should be a TAKE 10. This show is just too good to choose only 5

I have to agree with #1. It’s one of the episodes that gets me teary just thinking about the last 15 minutes.

I wouldn’t be able to pick just 5. But – I loved Mars Bars for the scenes with Veronica in jail, some great quotes – the Keith/Veronica dynamic at it’s best! Not much mention about Piz up there, but he was an amazing addition to S3, and started a whole new set of problems for Logan and Veronica.

I think everyone has to love Weapons of Class Destruction…I’ll never forget how shocked/hooked/slack jawed I was watching that Camelot Motel scene…I had no idea they were going to be together – and it was awesome.

It’s hard to find a show that is intriguing, makes you laugh and cry, and makes you care about the characters so much. And I cared, big time. I’m keeping my hopes up for a movie – if anyone can do it Rob Thomas can.

I also love the scene at the party in ATttD but I hate the ending of the episode- that’s why it didn’t make the top 5!

Looks like I need to go back and brush up on VM eps. ha ha

Your scene with Logan and Veronica at the party is actually from ATttD not MAD. In MAD she stands him up because she finds out he’s one of the people who had drugs at the party. (Love that last scene with Logan waiting on the boat all alone.)

I feel like Donut Run is a controversial pick! Especially with those who never liked Duncan. Not that you shouldn’t pick it, by any means, just that it should be interesting to see how many people agree or disagree. My issue with that episode is that I always felt like it broke the rules of the show by having Veronica tricking even us, the audience, with her narration. Even though I know surprising the audience with what was really happening would have been impossible if she had narrated it like

That said… I do love Not Pictured, Weapons of Class Destruction, The Bitch is Back, and Leave It To Beaver. Ack. Can my Top 5 be more than 5?

One of my all time faves is Clash of the Tritons. For one thing, it gave us, “Veronica Mars is smarter than me.” But it is also where we find out why Logan really turned on Veronica after Lilly’s death (sorry, John, I don’t think he’s truly a psychotic a**!) and we get to see Veronica’s reaction to it. I think it’s an important turning point for them even though I’m pretty sure they don’t interact at all in the episode.

I also really love You Think You Know Somebody. It was the episode that finally hooked me on the series so I think it deserves to be in my TOp 5.

But then An Echolls Family Christmas is great too. I like a lot scenes from season 2 but have a harder time picking entire episodes that I love but I have some strange love for Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough and I can’t really explain why. (I probably could but I’ve rambled on enough.)

Thanks for giving me a reason to think about VM today.

“Not Pictured” would def be on the list. Every time I hear Veronica yell “he killed my father”, I just get the shivers. And the music in the rooftop scene is so haunting – just perfect.

“A Trip to the Dentist” is perhaps on of my faves. Again, Kristen Bell was perfection in the scene where Duncan tells Veronica that she is his sister. So much happened in that one episode. I’ve watched that one so many times I’ve lost count.

“M.A.D.” I love the scene where Logan and Veronica walk into the party and he stands up for his lady with all his classmates. This is also one of the first eps where we get a taste of not quite right Duncan.

“An Echolls Family Christmas” – The boys in their matching boxers? Enough said.

One of my favorite through away scenes is when Veronica is at a frat party and a guy hits on her to get points for a frat contest. She dumps beer on him and then a few minutes later she sees him hitting on another girls and casually tasers him has she walks by.

However, your selections seem to highlight my only two problems with the series.

One is I hated LoVe. Logan was good as the psycho a******, but I could never believe that Veronica would fall for him – he was too good at being a psycho a*.

Second, Veronica was being rescued all the time. In season one it was only twice (if I recall) and one by Keith in the finale and once by Weevil from Logan (in the pilot I think). In seasons 2 and 3 it was common and Logan was the normal rescuer. Now I understand that VM is not the reincarnation of Buffy, but she is very smart. She would not continually get herself into these situations where she needed saving. They sometimes had to write her dumb (like in your choice #1) to put her in jeopardy. I am guessing the season 2 and 3 rescues were to give her reasons to reconnect with Logan, since otherwise she would be too smart to stay with him.