This story contains major spoilers for the new season of Veronica Mars.
While previewing Hulu’s revival of Veronica Mars, the noir drama about the titular, once-teenage sleuth, the show’s star, Kristen Bell, dropped a grim clue. “This will be a controversial season, let me just say that,” she hesitantly told E! “I’m also going to probably stay off the internet once it airs … There’s some stuff that happens that people will have strong feelings about.”
She’s right. The fourth season, which arrived on the streaming platform in a surprise drop Friday afternoon, is a grittier, moodier take on Veronica Mars. The hero, now an adult, is investigating a series of bombings in her hometown of Neptune, California, and struggling to find fulfillment in her life as a PI. One of Veronica’s few pleasures comes from her romance with Logan (played by Jason Dohring), her on-again, off-again boyfriend since high school, who encourages her to imagine a life not mired in darkness and trauma. But the season ends their arc with a cruel twist when, just before the newly wedded couple leave for their honeymoon, Logan is killed by a bomb planted inside Veronica’s car. His death is a deeply cynical way to end a season that—unlike the fan-service-inundated film revival from 2014—was largely a return to form for the series. What’s more, it’s a curveball that cheapens the evolution of one of the show’s most fascinating characters.