“A Fifties Vacuum Ad”

Disguises on Veronica Mars . . . and a Poll!

Originally published on Letterdrop 12/1/2021

[Before we dive into the last Veronica Mars post, let me know what you’d like me to cover in future volumes! And would you be interested in reading about costume design outside of teen soaps? I’ve provided some ideas in the poll, but take advantage of the fill-in options. As always, I appreciate your feedback!]

Like any good TV detective, Veronica Mars keeps quite a few disguises in her closet—but as I rewatched, I realized that she employs those disguises in a specific way. Whether she’s dressed as a sorority pledge or a new student named Betty, Veronica uses her disguises to play up her youth and femininity, to perform the role of a ditzy teenage girl or young woman. What others might perceive as her weaknesses (her gender, her age, her small size) are actually her strengths in disguise; she weaponizes her targets’ stereotypes against them.

Veronica as “Amber” (1.4)

I first noticed this technique in episode 1.4: One of Veronica’s fellow students, Georgia, has fallen victim to an email scam, and Veronica disguises herself to entrap the perpetrator. As “Amber,” Veronica wears a pinky-red cardigan—a few buttons undone—with a pink pleated skirt and heels, her hair crowned with a flower and curled to soften the sharpness of her razored cut. A little pink purse, heart-shaped earrings, and a breathy voice complete the effect: she’s playing the victim that the scammer expects—a dumb, sexy blonde who will eagerly and unquestioningly hand over her money to a stranger. Not only that but she’s dressed in pieces that likely came from her own closet, from the Old Veronica’s life, just assembled to create the maximum impression of oblivious femininity.

Veronica as a gamer girl (1.4)

Once Veronica learns that the scammer frequents a video game club, she infiltrates it in a full schoolgirl costume: a white short-sleeved blouse, matching plaid tie and kilt, white knee socks, black fingerless fishnet gloves, and a black wig. She pretends to be bad at the game; her feigned ignorance infuriates her target and draws him out.

Maybe he should’ve taken a closer look at her username: “Gamegirl.” By donning a schoolgirl costume and faking incompetence, Veronica is simulating the male gamers’ idea of a female gamer: sexy but dumb, desirable but useless. She easily disguises herself by playing into these preformed ideas; the scammer never suspects that such a girl is capable of taking him down.

Wallace and Veronica attend a college party (1.4).

I should pause to say that the show’s central male characters also use disguises, but their costumes feign authority rather than incompetence. For example, in this same episode, Veronica’s friend Wallace Fennel disguises himself as a prospective math major, playing up his nerdiness with an E = mc2 shirt, fake glasses, and a shirt pocket full of pens. That’s not to say that Wallace isn’t smart or good at math (hell, he goes on to become an engineering major), but that he needs the enforcement of a disguise to convince the white scammer and his stooge that he, a Black boy, could be a math prodigy.

Keith throws a DEA jacket over his usual polo shirt and jeans (1.4).

Veronica’s father, Keith Mars, favors uniforms for his disguises—perhaps because of his background in law enforcement. (In season three, he even impersonates a sheriff while wearing his old uniform.) In episode 1.4, Keith gets into the scammer’s dorm room by masquerading as a DEA agent.

Keith in his county uniform (and a couple of nasty bruises) (1.9)

A few episodes later, he accesses a commune by pretending to be a county water department employee (1.9). His navy-blue cap, jacket, shirt, and pants pop against the earthy, mismatched hippiness of the Moon Calf Collective, his disguise easily accepted by the trusting commune members. As a middle-aged man, Keith can project authority in a way Veronica can’t—and so she must get more creative.

Veronica flips through her wedding binder while her “fiancé,” Logan, looks on (1.15).

In episode 1.15, Veronica wrangles information out of the Neptune Grand front desk by playing a bridezilla interested in a honeymoon suite. Veronica uses more mature pieces—a burgundy velvet blazer and a gray turtleneck sweater—to present as older than seventeen.

A big old diamond ring and a wedding binder (1.15)

Still, the most important parts of her disguise are a massive diamond ring and a bow-topped white binder full of wedding inspiration. She wields these two items like weapons, flashing the diamond and slamming the binder on the front desk. Veronica knows she can’t believably disguise herself as a sheriff or an agent, so she chooses a different kind of authority, one that’s respected at a fancy hotel like the Grand—the authority of a wealthy white bride-to-be with particular tastes.

“Betty” sits at the popular table (1.16).

Veronica’s disguises change with her environment, but they always carry this current of hyperfemininity: When Veronica goes undercover at a rival high school (1.16), she pretends to be a new student named “Betty.” (Ah, to live in a pre-Riverdale world.) Betty dresses a lot like “Amber,” like the Old Veronica: a pink hoodie, white tank top, pink plaid skirt, little pink backpack, and wavy hair. Veronica even takes off her black leather choker, leaving behind only her silver star pendant.

Betty quickly infiltrates the popular kids’ table because Veronica knows just what kind of girl will appeal to them—one who looks soft and girly and unthreatening.

Veronica as sorority girl (luckily, this dude is not into it) (2.4)

In episode 2.4, Veronica acts as a “temptation” for a paranoid client’s boyfriend. As she did with her schoolgirl costume, Veronica plays into a fantasy, this time a sexy sorority girl. (To quote Wallace: “Do you own those clothes or did you just make a stop at Dirty Co-Eds ’R’ Us?”)

Veronica wears an embellished orange shrug, a white Henley with a few buttons undone, dangly earrings, a denim mini with a brown ribbon belt, purse, and leather boots. She’s playing with her youth, with the space between girlhood and womanhood—her hair in pigtails but her legs in fishnets—to appeal to this client’s boyfriend. Veronica’s gotten enough creepy comments from older men to know that her age is fetishized.

Veronica removes photos from frames (2.11).

Later that season (2.11), Veronica helps her own boyfriend, Duncan Kane, run away with his infant daughter—but for their plan to work, she must convince the authorities, and even her father, that Duncan acted alone. She and Duncan stage an ugly public breakup, and Veronica goes into mourning: removing his pictures from her frames, eating cereal alone in her room, all while wearing the same pair of blue plaid pajama pants (blue, of course, is Duncan’s signature color). She even plays the Virgin Suicides soundtrack—the go-to album of every depressive teenage girl in the aughts—on repeat.

When FBI agents first question her, Veronica is reading a magazine, bemoaning the end of “Nick and Jessica.” To the agents, to her father, to everyone but Sheriff Lamb (who’s been played by Veronica enough times in his career), Veronica appears to be a harmless teenage girl, too heartbroken over her breakup and a celebrity divorce to mastermind Duncan’s escape. That she’s wearing her own clothes—her disguise emotional, not physical—only enforces the reality that she’s constructed.

Veronica (center) and the Theta Beta sisters (3.2)

College opens up even more opportunities for Veronica to play “sorority girl.” In episode 3.2, Veronica investigates a rumored “secret room” at the Zeta Theta Beta sorority house. Theta Beta’s rush uniform? A “tasteful floral dress” or, as Veronica deems it, “a fifties vacuum ad.” 

Again, Veronica must perform femininity through disguise: a white-and-red-floral dress, a white headband, and a red woven purse. Like “Betty,” Theta Beta Veronica wears only her star pendant—no hard leather chokers or cargo jackets here. She fits in perfectly with the other floral-dressed girls, her red heart-shaped nametag and the red punch even picking up the red of her floral print.

Veronica tries to shield her face with a tray of appetizers (1.22).

Unsurprisingly, Veronica’s least successful disguises are those that don’t perform youth and femininity. In 1.22, she dresses up as a cater waiter—a black bow tie, white button-down, black vest and pants—to infiltrate the Kane family’s party. Even in a curly brown wig and glasses, she’s quickly recognized by people she knows—first by Duncan and then by Lilly Kane’s real killer, who almost kills Veronica, too.

Veronica wears the same outfit as “Ellen White” (1.8).

Earlier in the season, Veronica sends a note to Lilly’s accused murderer, Abel Koontz, requesting to visit him on death row (1.8). Though Veronica gives a fake name and Abel’s hometown, she does little to disguise her appearance in the photo she sends him. She wears the same clothes and hairstyle that she wore to school that day: a denim jacket, teal shirt, striped teal scarf, and brown plaid skirt. The scarf masks her signature choker, but “Ellen White” otherwise looks like Veronica Mars.

Veronica visits Abel as “Ellen” (1.8).

Abel accepts her request, and Veronica visits the prison in a black cardigan, burgundy camisole, and another plaid skirt, a fake southern accent on her lips. She’s removed her necklaces, but again, she’s done little not to look like Veronica. Perhaps she expects Abel to see through her disguise, to recognize her—after all, she’s the daughter of the sheriff who thought Abel was innocent, the best friend of Abel’s alleged victim. Perhaps she thinks Abel wants her help.

Abel and Veronica dance a little around her disguise, her fake hometown—he baits her with the town’s annual “pear blossom festival,” and she corrects him: “You mean ‘apple blossom.’” But when Veronica begins asking questions about the murder case, Abel quickly tears into her disguise. He knows exactly who Veronica is and how to shut her down—first, he maintains that he killed Lilly, and second, he claims that Veronica’s “real father” is Jake Kane, not Keith Mars.

Veronica visits Abel as herself (1.14).

A disguise was never going to work on Abel because Abel himself is a master of disguise—his unstable, violent persona and talk of “bash[ing Lilly’s] brains in” all just a performance to earn Jake Kane’s payout. Only once Veronica understands this can she visit Abel as herself (1.14)—that striped scarf from 1.8 no longer covering her choker—and shake him in the same way he shook her.

[On 12/16, I’ll announce the topic of volume three. Until then, you can like, comment on, or share this post, and take the poll! The Google form will close end of day on Thursday, 12/9.]