 = President Evil = 
 
 " President Evil " is the fifth episode of the third season of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars , and the forty @-@ ninth episode overall . Written by Jonathan Moskin and David Mulei and directed by Nick Marck , the episode premiered on The CW on October 31 , 2006 . 
 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 investigates when two masked men rob a Halloween party and steal Veronica 's necklace from Lilly Kane ( Amanda Seyfried ) . Meanwhile , Keith ( Enrico Colantoni ) helps Dean O 'Dell ( Ed Begley , Jr . ) find the biological father of his stepson , the only person who can give the stepson a life @-@ saving bone marrow transplant . 
 Dianna Agron , Richard Grieco , Ryan Pinkston , and Robert Ri 'chard guest star or make their first appearances as recurring characters in the episode . The episode received mixed reviews from television critics , with general praise towards Veronica and Weevil 's relationship and criticism for the case of the week and the episode 's ending . 
 
 = = Synopsis = = 
 
 Veronica shows one of the rape victims ( Krista Kalmus ) the photo of a suspect , but she doesn ’ t recognize him . In criminology class , Veronica does a case study of Weevil ( Francis Capra ) , and the class enjoys it . After the study , Veronica tells Weevil that she ’ s dating Logan ( Jason Dohring ) , and he reacts negatively . Veronica then walks into Mars Investigations and finds Cyrus O ’ Dell and his wife ( Jaime Ray Newman ) talking with Keith , while Veronica herself does some detective work . Keith informs Veronica that Dean O ’ Dell ’ s stepson is dying and that he wants Keith to find the boy ’ s biological father . At Mercer 's ( Ryan Devlin ) party , two masked men enter and steal everyone ’ s valuables , including the necklace that Lilly gave Veronica . Wallace ( Percy Daggs III ) is failing his mechanical engineering class , a subject in which he wanted to major . Meanwhile , Keith tracks down the husband , and Veronica accuses Weevil of robbing the party . 
 At the meeting , Dean O ’ Dell ’ s wife asks the ex @-@ husband to give their son a bone marrow transplant . Meanwhile , Sheriff Lamb ( Michael Muhney ) arrests Weevil for the robbery . Veronica visits Weevil in prison before she decides to look into a pizza delivered to Weevil ’ s house . Sheriff Lamb tells Keith that the ex @-@ husband has disappeared before accusing Keith in the ex @-@ husband ’ s disappearance . Keith thinks that Dean O ’ Dell was involved in the disappearance , but when he visits Dean , it turns out that Dean 's wife and stepson have disappeared to a hospital in Mexico , presumably taking the ex @-@ husband with them . Wallace visits a “ tutor ” , who gives him a mysterious “ study guide ” before going back to for the “ answers . ” Veronica notices the masks being used in a short film , but they were stolen . When they are in Mexico , Dean O ’ Dell reveals that he lied to Keith about their whereabouts . 
 Veronica tracks the casino robber down to a volunteer police officer . She has evidence , and the police comes to arrest him . However , they don ’ t find the necklace . At the hospital , Keith hesitates when O ’ Dell asks him what he would do if Veronica were in danger . Veronica gets her necklace back from the perpetrator ’ s daughter . Because he gave bone marrow , the ex @-@ husband now has a much more favorable divorce settlement . Veronica tracks down the suspect in the photo , Wang Yi , but his roommate tells Veronica that he is Claire ’ s boyfriend . 
 
 = = Production = = 
 
 " President Evil " was written by Jonathan Moskin and David Mulei and directed by Nick Marck , marking Moskin 's first writing credit , Mulei 's first writing credit for the show , and Marck 's eighth directing credit for Veronica Mars . Dianna Agron , famous for her role as Quinn Fabray on Glee , makes her first appearance on the series in this episode as Jenny , Veronica 's classmate . She would eventually appear on several episodes of the third season . 
 Richard Grieco , known for his role as Dennis Booker on the original 21 Jump Street TV series , appears for the first time as Steve Batando , Mindy O 'Dell 's ex @-@ husband . In 2012 , the New York Daily News called Grieco 's role on Veronica Mars " his last mainstream role " . Ryan Pinkston guest stars as Danny Rossow , a pizza shop employee . He would go on to make a guest appearance on series creator Rob Thomas 's later show Party Down . Robert Ri 'chard appears as Mason , Wallace 's friend . 
 
 = = Reception = = 
 
 
 = = = Ratings = = = 
 
 In its original broadcast , " President Evil " was viewed by 2 @.@ 70 million viewers , ranking 99th of 101 in the weekly rankings . This figure was a decrease in 630 @,@ 000 viewers from the previous episode , Charlie Don 't Surf . 
 
 = = = Reviews = = = 
 
 The episode received mixed reviews from television critics . Eric Goldman , writing for IGN , gave a mostly positive review , giving it a 7 @.@ 5 out of 10 , indicating that it was a " good " episode . He stated , " Things are still a bit wobbly on Veronica Mars this season , though this episode had some elements that hopefully herald a turn in the right direction . " While criticizing the case @-@ of @-@ the @-@ week , he was more laudatory to the subplots , calling Sheriff Lamb arresting Weevil " the most entertaining scene of the episode " and that " the episode definitely picked up in the last act . " Rowan Kaiser , writing for The A.V. Club , gave a very mixed review , commenting positively on Veronica and Weevil 's relationship while criticizing other aspects of the episode . " While ' President Evil ' was not a favorite , and has a few annoying moments , it was generally a perfectly adequate episode of Veronica Mars . That is , until the ending . [ … ] The implication here is one that I 've been dreading for a few episodes : that the radical feminist Lilith House has staged Claire 's rape , and possibly others . " Television Without Pity gave the episode a " B- " . 
 Reviewer Alan Sepinwall also had mixed comments , comparing the episode to House and stating , " And yet as much as Veronica was annoying me , as much as I wanted to yell at her for automatically jumping to conclusions with Weevil ( more on that in a minute ) , this was maybe my favorite episode of the season . [ … ] Hell , they even had a cliffhanger ending to the mystery arc for the first time in forever . I dug it . " Price Peterson of TV.com gave a mostly negative review , writing , " This episode was not the best ! Not terrible by any means , but it felt lacking in certain ways , particularly when it came to the total lack of Piz and Dick . Where were they ? Also this episode made it clear that Logan didn 't have all that much to do on the show anymore . " 
 
 