Veronica Mars, S4E01, "Cross Jurisdiction"

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:42:39 GMT

Veronica Mars, S4E01

Episode Title: “Cross-Jurisdiction”

Spoilers: Widow's Son in the Windshield(301)

Disclaimer: “Veronica Mars” belong to CW and Rob Thomas. “Bones” belong to FOX, Hart Hanson, and Kathy Reichs.

A/N: Cross-over Season 4 pilot episode. There will be flashbacks and some of them I will leave very open-ended. The mind can come up with the resolution to the problems.
Progress: 7pg./?? pg.
Plot: The serial killing spree from "Bones" has traveled to hot, sunny, and sexy California. The question remains, is it related to Gormogon? Has the apprentice finally master the craft of cannibalism? Has the apprentice turn on the master? Will the crime-fighting trio be able to figure out the identities of the killers before another murder strike?

Scene One

(Scene fades in from black. Insert night-filter on the camera. Over-view of the busy L.A. highway. Close-up on Veronica’s black mustang. The mustang was a gift from Logan. In the background noise, the radio is playing:

This is DJ-Katz signing off on 92.3 KROCK FM, voted the best in L.A. on variety. Don’t turn that dial, we’ll be running a list of the hottest songs from the 90s. The song “Hold Her Closer” by Blessid Union of Souls starts playing.

Thoughts are racing through Veronica’s mind. Insert Narration.)

Veronica: It’s been less than a year since I’ve been out of the academy and now I’m being assigned a case every rookie dreams of having, a serial killer. Not only do I have every rookie giving me a cold look, but the media is breathing down on my neck. To make matters even worst, Seth Coulter is working this case with me and I’m the lead. Seth Coulter, my ex-boyfriend after my falling out with Piz. He’s a highly obnoxious, stubborn, hot-shot agent and not to mention, another competition in advancement. The FBI is a whole different playing field compared to the Neptune’s Sheriff Department. To stay alive in the program, you got to be able to play with the best.

(Veronica’s sidekick phone rings.)

Veronica: Mars.

Seth: Earth to Mars. Where are you?

Veronica: I’m almost home. Why?

Seth: There’s been another.

Veronica: I’ll be right there.

(Veronica curses under her breath)

Veronica: Logan is going to kill me

(Veronica dials Logan’s cell phone)

Logan: You’ve reached the Echolls’s residence.

(Insert background noise. Brian Mcknight’s song “You’re The Only One” is playing from a nearby stereo. Insert narration.)

Veronica: Either Logan gone nuts or He seriously stayed up and made a late-night dinner for us; which is not good. Knowing that your boy-friend cooked and set-up everything for hours and having to tell him that you won’t be coming home, this is officially the worst day ever.

Veronica: Logan, it’s me.

Logan: Veronica, what’s wrong? You sound shaken up.

Veronica: Rain-check on the dinner?

Logan: Another one?

Veronica: Yes. I’m sorry, Logan.

(Logan unsatisfied with the answer. He barely sees Veronica anymore.)

Logan: It’s fine. Do what you have to do.

(Drops knife into the kitchen sink. Logan hangs up. Insert Narration.)

Veronica: Things are certainly not going well at home.

(Flashback to a year ago. Insert scene of Logan’s apartment. There is no sign of a woman living there. Cut to the bedroom. Madison moans in the distance.)

Madison: Harder.

Logan: Hmmfft.

Madison: Take it things aren’t going well with FBI Barbie?

(Madison slowly sits up. Her hand moving closer to Logan. Their desires becoming one.)

Madison: That’s alright with me. You deserve better.

(Madison slowly kisses Logan’s lips and then parts her lips slowly away from him. Madison whispers to Logan’s ears.)

Madison (giggling): She always was a slut, gold-digging, bitch anyway.

(Logan outraged by Madison’s comments. He pushes Madison very hard, away from him.)

Logan (infuriated): Don’t you ever talk about Veronica like that again!

Madison: oooo, touchy. I can work with that.

(Madison wraps her arm around Logan’s neck and slowly kisses him with her luscious lip. Her buxom bosoms touches Logan’s bare-naked chest.)

Madison: There’s plenty more where that came from.

(Logan and Madison make-out. Slowly cut to the outside of the pent-house. Veronica is wondering whether or not to knock on the door or surprise Logan. Veronica looks at the time on her watch.)

Veronica: 2:30 a.m., Logan is probably asleep anyway.

(Veronica comes into the apartment, carrying her heavy PT training gear in the duffel bag marked the property of the FBI. She checks the mail on the kitchen counter. She slowly takes off her leather jacket and tosses it on a couch. Camera side-view angle shots of her moving towards the bedroom. She opens the door hoping to find Logan asleep. What she sees next is unimaginable.)

Veronica (shock): Madison

Logan looks at Veronica in those sad eyes of his. His face clearly expresses how ashamed he is in what he has done.

Logan: Veronica

Veronica (infuriated): How long has this been going on?

Logan: You don’t need to know that. Just, I love you very much.

Veronica (infuriated): I’ll ask again. How long, Logan?!

Logan (hesitant): A year after you left for the academy…..

(Madison knows what Veronica is capable. Especially after Veronica solved the mystery of who drugged her in high-school. Madison quickly gathered her clothes and starts to leave.)

Veronica: Don’t move a muscle, bitch.

Madison (condescending): I have every right to leave, officer. Just because you’re with the FBI now, Veronica, doesn’t give you the right to boss me around.

(Madison whispers to her ear.)

Madison: My daddy happens to know some very good lawyers and I can still make your life miserable.

(Madison leaves the bedroom and starts to head out of the apartment.)

Veronica (yells): Don’t get run over with karma.

(Door slams. All of Veronica’s five-feet, two-inch body wanted to go after Madison, but she had bigger problems to deal with Logan. Veronica looks at Logan.)

Veronica: If you love me so much…as you say you do, then why would you do such a thing, Logan?

(Veronica storms out. Logan follows.)

Logan: Veronica…..

(Door slams. Logan curses under his breath. He decides to chase after her down the stairs. Cut to the lobby of the building complex. Veronica is getting off the elevator and heads for the door. Over-view shot of the outside of the building complex. Insert background noises of cars and distant sirens. Veronica starts to cry, but decides against it.)

Veronica: Wallace was right. You’re a marshmallow, Veronica. God! Where’s Wallace when you need him?

(Camera-shot of the night-sky that Veronica’s been glancing at. Cut to Logan running up to her)

Logan: Veronica!

Veronica: Stay away from me, Logan!

Logan: You asked me why I did this….

(Logan catching up his breath.)

Logan: To give you a straight answer, I don’t know.

(Logan starts to stand next to her.)

Logan: I don’t know, Veronica.

(Cross-fade blur back to the present. Veronica arrives at the crime scene. She steps over the yellow crime-scene tape and past the two policemen.)

Policeman #1: Watch out now! Homicide Barbie on the scene and heading towards her boy-friend Ken.

Policemen #2: I’d be glad to tap that bitch.

(The two policemen slowly walk out of the crime scene, laughing and joking. Veronica heard their remarks, but she has bigger problems to deal with. Seth walks up to her and as they’re walking towards the body, he briefs her on the latest victim.)

Seth: Vic’s name is Andrew Linux.

Veronica: Linux…isn’t he the computer mogul of processors?

Seth: Yep, like all the other victims in California, they all have pretty successful careers.

Veronica: Coroner arriving when?

Seth: She said soon, but you know how chicks are at driving.

(Veronica gives him a quick glare, but is more focused on the case.)

Veronica: Killer leave behind another playing card?

(Seth holds up an evidence bag.)

Seth: Ace of Spades. Everything is pretty consistent with the killer’s signature.

Veronica: Victim got a family?

Seth: Wife and two kids. The youngest is five and the oldest is thirteen. His secretary said that he was working late and left around 1:30 a.m.

Veronica: How was the body found this fast? It’s only 4:15 a.m.

Seth points to a man in shaggy old clothing under custody.

Seth: Said it’s his usual alley that he hangs out at. Found the body and got a bystander to call it in to L.A.P.D’s dispatch and here we are.

Veronica: Why don’t we get that man something warm to drink, like coffee? We need to find out everything he knows. Tell CSU that they need to get his fingerprints and DNA to exclude him as a murder suspect.

Seth: Time for knocking on some doors this late?

(Veronica gives him a quick obvious look.)

Veronica: Before you do that, what’s the bystander’s name?

Seth: Dr. Temperance Brennan, an Anthropologist from the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington D.C.

Veronica: Washington D.C.? That’s a long way from home.

Seth: Here for some kind of Forensic Anthropology lecture held by a Dr. Steven Chang.

Veronica: Shouldn’t she be able to help us out a little bit while we wait for our coroner to arrive?

Seth: Said flesh isn’t her thing and she has no jurisdiction anyway, but she does seem suspicious to me.

Veronica: Suspicious?

Seth: When I got here, she was ranting about some cannibalistic stuff to an officer. We never released any press release stating that our killer was a cannibal.

Veronica pushes Seth aside and head towards Dr. Brennan, who is arguing with a police officer.

Policeman #3 (to Brennan): I can’t let you in Ma’am.

Veronica: Let me take it from here.

Policeman #3: You sure? Special Agent….Mars.

Veronica: I’ve got to talk to her anyway.

Brennan: You don’t understand, there’s a cannibalistic serial killer out there.

Veronica: You seem very sure about that, Dr. Brennan. Why?

Brennan: I’m a Forensic Anthropologist and I work for the Jeffersonian Institute. My partner, Booth, works for the FBI. We’ve been investigating these type of cases in Washington D.C.

Veronica: What do you know about these killings of yours in D.C.?

Brennan: The killer is very organized and methodical. He follows the order of tarot cards and has constructed two skeletons. One fully made from bone and the other one incomplete, indicating that there are at least more than eighteen victims. He learned his craft from a master and has passed it onto his own apprentice. Assuming that your murders are the same to mine, they would have both belonged to a secret society thought to be extinct, the Gormogons.

Veronica: You said that your partner works for the FBI, call him in and then follow me.

(Cue the opening credits of “Veronica Mars”.)

Updated: November 27, 2007, 10:30 pm

Scene Two

(Scene fades in from black. Camera shot of the crime-scene. Detectives and FBI agents scouring every inch of the scene to find any evidence to convict the killer. Everyone busy with their own area of expertise that the scene becomes chaotic. Meanwhile, in a dark rusty corvette, the killer sits and watches every move like a predator towards a prey.)

Apprentice: Those insolent, incompetent fools! They think they can catch me.

(Gormogon’s apprentice laughs.)

Apprentice: They think my master did this?? It is an outrage to my work! My master is not capable of this. I have become the master. With each kill I learn and become better and better. No one can stop me. Not even that blonde dike, Veronica Mars, or that smart-ass scientist, Dr. Brennan. They shall both pay! I will make them regret for their mistake of assuming my master did this. No, I am better than my master, Gormogon.

(Lighting is very dark. Close-up on the scarred face. The apprentice laughs. Cut to a flashback.)

Gormogon approaches the apprentice at the River Styx, the only bar in a small town called Neptune, California.

Gormogon: You from out of town?

Apprentice: Yeah. You?

Gormogon: Yup, staying here for the night and then I’m going to do some hunting up in the woods.

Apprentice (intrigued): Hunting? You hunt?

Gormogon: Big game. Not for show, but to satisfy my hunger. Nothing better like a man hunting for his food. Just like the old days.

Apprentice: What do you hunt?

Gormogon (grins): Humans.

Apprentice (laughs): You’re kidding right?

Gormogon (smiles): Don’t believe me?

Apprentice: You know how many hunters have said that just to impress me?

Gormogon: You should come with me tomorrow then. Going to drive out of this little god-forsaken shit-hole they called the suburbs.

Apprentice: When you leaving?

Gormogon: When the sun rises.

Apprentice: I’ll come.

Gormogon: You will? Drinks are on me then.

Scene glows out onto the next scene. Camera shot of the sun rise, the road, and the trees. A blue broken-down Bronco is driving down the empty road and comes to a screeching halt at a dirt lot for hunters. Two people get out of the car with their faces turned away from the camera. Close-up of the man in a blue hat wearing aviator shades to cover his eyes.

Gormogon (to the Apprentice): We’ll go out to about 100 yards.

Apprentice: Fine with me.

Gormogon loads bullets into his polished Winchester rifle. The Apprentice grabs his AR-15 rifle and starts running.

Gormogon (yells): The hunt is on!

Apprentice: Whoooheeee!!

Gormogon follows his companion.

Cut to the two man stepping lightly on the twigs on the ground.

Apprentice (whispers): I see a big buck over there.

Gormogon: I’m not after no deer. See the orange in the distance.

Apprentice: Another hunter, so what?

Gormogon: I was talking about shooting humans.

Gormogon quickly lines up his shot and shoots the hunter with his rifle.

Apprentice: Are you freaking crazy man?

Gormogon (grins): This will be our little secret.

Apprentice: Don’t you think I would tell the authorities?

Gormogon: You don’t have the guts to. Besides, you would never tell on me. We’re family.

Apprentice: I don’t have any family. My family died….

Gormogon: in a fire. Your mother was hanged during the fire, with her bosoms cut off and sent to your father, who was working late on a case. Two weeks later, your father committed suicide and the police never solved the murder of your mother and brother.

Apprentice: How did you…..

Gormogon: I’m your brother. I made it out of the fire, but ran away from home because Dad was………and those scars you have on your face, they came from the fire.

(Cross-fade blur back to the present.)

Apprentice (whispers): I’ll never forget that first kill or what you taught me, Gormogon. Time to move onto the next step in my plan.

(The black rusty corvette drives off into the night. Scene fades out and in from black.. Camera-shot of the FBI’s field office in Los Angeles. Cut to Benjamin Bradley’s office. The man is an experienced field-officer that has been sitting behind the desk for ten years now and he is Veronica’s boss. He’s sitting at his desk and popping an aspirin to help ease the migraine. The press conference of the latest killing by the serial killer starts in two hours. Veronica rushes into the office and shuts the door. Dr. Brennan waits outside, while Veronica sorts things out with her boss. The boss closes the blinds.)

Bradley: Jesus, more than eighteen victims according to the doctor?

Veronica: Yes, eighteen that we know of on the eastern coast. Sir, her partner works with the FBI. Think this could be a joint investigation? The more people we have working on this, the faster we can get this guy.

Bradley: Are you sure it’s the same guy?

Veronica: I don’t know. She said her killer kills in the order of the tarot cards and that the recent murders are linked to a trip to Turkey. I’m not sure because our guy’s pattern seem pretty random so far.

Bradley: Find the link between the victims and our killer. For now, we work this as an individual killer.

Veronica: That’s just it. These aren’t individual killings. The doctor said that they belong to a secret society called the Gormogons.

Bradley: The Gormogons?

Veronica: We have some agents checking out on the history of the society.

Bradley: Find the answers quickly. I’ve got a god-damn press conference and I don’t need more questions than answers.

Veronica: Sir, what about her partner? Seeley Booth? She said he’s on a plane here.

Bradley: You look like you need all the help you can get, special agent. I handed this case to you over all the senior agents and the rookies because I trust you. I have faith in your abilities. Don’t let me down. This isn’t some case that you’re used to from your private investigating days in high school and college. This is an actual, real, adrenaline-pumping case. Don’t blow it. They don’t come around too often.

(Veronica exits the office. Seth catches up with her. Brennan is talking on the cell phone.)

Seth: Looks like we’re going to be pulling an all-nighter shift.

Veronica: What do you got?

Seth: The secretary checks out and so does the homeless man. We have no suspects so far in this case.

Veronica (sarcasm): Really? I didn’t know that.

Veronica (to Brennan): You coming with us doctor?

(Cut to the dark and cold FBI Autopsy Room. Brennan looks at the lab with disdain. Veronica notices.)

Veronica: She may not be much, but not everyone can work in a billion-dollar lab.

Veronica (to Avery): Av, please tell me some good news.

Avery: There’s nothing new to tell. Our killer followed the same M.O., except the brain is missing and it looks like the UNSUB took out the brain through drilling process known as trepanation.

Veronica: Like Dahmer?

Avery: Very much. Except a cannibalistic version, I’m running tox screens now, but I doubt we find anything. I’ll know more later once I examine the body closely.

Avery (to Brennan): You must be Dr. Temperance Brennan. I’m a big fan of your work and your books.

(Avery shakes Dr. Brennan’s hand. Veronica’s cell phone rings.)

Veronica (to Brennan): Excuse me, I have to take this.

(Veronica walks out.)

Veronica: Mars

Mac: It’s Mac and we’ve got some very good news. You might want to come down here.

Veronica: We?

Mac: Yeah, Seth and I.

Veronica: Hold on, I’m coming.

Veronica (to Brennan): I’ve read about your team’s work on the Howard Epps case. Bring in whoever you want to help. The more information we have on the victims, the more closer we’ll be to finding a link.

(Veronica exits from the scene)

Avery: Want to help me with the body, doc?

(Avery starts sawing. Cut to a shot of Veronica walking to Mac’s computer room.)

Veronica: Hey, what do you got?

Mac (grins): Hey yourself.

Seth: Well, I dug deeper and I found a newspaper article about a cannibalistic killing spree. Turns out, this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened.

(Veronica looks closely at the computer screen.)

Veronica: 2002….Dr. Steven Niles, arrested for 46 murders.

Seth: His form of murdering was eating his victims. Cannibalism.

Veronica: Did you check who the lead agent on that was?

Seth: A Dr. Christian Valente.

Veronica: Where have I heard that name before……….?

Mac: Maybe, because I told you about him many times.

(Veronica looks at Mac.)

Veronica: Is he some computer guy?

Mac (annoyed): He isn’t just some computer guy. He’s the legend. He owns a company called Xtech, a leading company in nano and holographic technology. Valente owns several charities that help benefit Africans living in war-torn regions of Africa.

Seth: Right….He also used to work for the FBI. Raised and born in Vegas. Graduated from UNLV with a forensics degree and later got a doctorate degree. After college, he went to work for the FBI’s field office here.

Seth (scoffs): Became the head of the FBI’s CSU when he was only 30. High arrest record and was on his way to becoming the Deputy of the FBI. Close ties with the Chief of the FBI.

Mac: Wonder why he went into computers…..

Veronica: The case….

Seth: After he solved the case of the century, he committed to seeing his shrink for a year. Gotta have been something wrong with him after a case like that.

Veronica: Where is he now?

Seth: Still living in Los Angeles, California.

Veronica: Alright, we’ll pay him a visit tomorrow morning.

Seth: See you later, then.

(Veronica looks at him weirdly)

Veronica: Got a date?

Seth: With a hot-smoking blonde…no offense….

Veronica: None taken, she must be on drugs to accept a date from you…no offense.

Seth (sarcastically): Haha, you’ve got jokes now.

(Seth exits. Leaving Mac and Veronica in the room.)

Mac: You want to talk about it, V?

(Veronica shaken by this question.)

Veronica: About what?

Mac: Wallace.

annster459

Veronica Mars, S4E01, "Cross Jurisdiction"