Let's Refresh Veronica Mars' Tense History With The Fitzpatricks Ahead Of Season 4

As much as people love to call on Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) when they're in a jam, the girl knows how to make lifelong enemies, too. Although, in the case of the "Fighting" Fitzpatricks, she kind of inherited the beef. As you might recall, the first time Veronica truly got herself in a dangerous jam on the original series was when she accidentally entered the local hangout of the Neptune criminal organization. Well, the trouble didn't stop there.

Now that the Neptune crime family are back on the scene for the season 4 revival, we all probably need a refresher of what went down between the Fitzpatricks and the Marses all those years ago. (And yes, you can safely read this without spoiling Veronica Mars season 4.)

This was before the action of the original series, but we first learn of them in season In the politically correct words of Weevil (Francis Capra), "They're Irish Catholic; for every five you put away there's 10 more at home."

Veronica's first encounter with the family happened when she was trying to find out who framed Logan (Jason Dohring) for the murder of PCH biker Felix (Brad Bufanda). She discovered that Dr. Tom Griffith, a plastic surgeon who says he saw Logan stab Felix, was in league with the Fitzpatricks. Unfortunately, this investigation leads her into the family's bar, the River Styx, where her classmate Molly Fitzpatrick (Annie Campbell) outed her to her uncle Liam (Rod Rowland). He grabbed a tattoo gun and threatened to ink a shamrock on Veronica’s face if she didn't tell him why she was there.

Though Father Patrick Fitzpatrick (really?) was the one clean son in the family, his brother Liam used the confessional to stash drugs for PCH member Thumper (James Molina) to retrieve.

After they met and fell in love at church, Felix had dreams of becoming a trucker, marrying Molly, and having kids with her. But he knew enough not to tell his fellow PCH-ers he was dating a member of a rival gang. Thumper found out, though, and told the Fitzpatricks that Felix was bragging about taking advantage of Molly. This was his excuse for killing Felix, cementing his ties with the Fitzpatricks and weakening Weevil's leadership of the PCH gang. Realizing he wouldn't get the law to resolve this situation, Weevil framed Thumper for stealing cash from the Fitzpatricks, and they tied him up to a urinal in the stadium just before it was demolished.

While looking into the bus crash mystery from season 2 (and the mystery of a hit-and-run on a dog), the Mars family discovered that Kendall Casablancas (Charisma Carpenter) was actually Priscilla Banks. She used to run cons with Cormac Fitzpatrick (Jason Beghe), Liam's imprisoned brother. While searching her house, Keith had a run-in with Liam, who would have killed him had Veronica not removed the bullets from his gun.

After helping Kendall get out of town to escape Liam, Keith reunited her with a newly released Cormac, who promptly shot her. Keith got away, and when Cormac literally got caught in a bear trap, Liam killed him.

We're not sure how the Fitzpatricks do the math on this, but it seems like they should feel like they're even with Keith and Veronica at this point. Then again, we know Neptune, and no detente lasts long in that town.