Don Lamb - Relationship With Veronica Mars

Relationship With Veronica Mars

Out of all of the characters of the series, Sheriff Lamb is one of the few characters whose relationship with Veronica Mars is firmly planted on the side of rivalry. Lamb's public displays of contempt for her father and his treatment of her when she tried to report being raped has resulted in Veronica hating Lamb with a passion unmatched by any of her other enemies on the show. Sheriff Lamb meanwhile sees Veronica as a troublemaker of the highest order and while he won't openly admit to it, is one of the few people in Neptune who recognizes the depth of her skill as an investigator. Indeed, Lamb considers Veronica to be a continuous threat towards him and his standing as Sheriff of Balboa County though he is not above taking credit for Veronica's investigation work if he can.

In spite of their hatred for each other, their sparring is kept on a strictly verbal level. Veronica often taunts Lamb by mocking his inability to close big cases and the foolish way that he jumps upon the first suspect he sees in an investigation as the guilty party. Lamb meanwhile often responds by verbally attacking Veronica's father or Veronica's friends (all of which Lamb has had run-ins with in his capacity as Sheriff).

However, their rivalry does serve its purpose, as it was Sheriff Lamb who was responsible for saving Veronica's beloved father from a violent death at the hands of Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas. In the season 2 finale, Beaver blew up the plane containing Keith Mars and the pedophilic Woody Goodman as it flew over Neptune during his final confrontation with Veronica. It wasn't until the next morning, when Veronica awoke to find her father alive and well in their home that she learned how he was alive. Before take-off, Sheriff Lamb had arranged for Keith Mars to be taken off the plane transporting Woody Goodman back to Neptune, so as to keep the media from giving full credit for the arrest to Keith. As a result, Lamb's act of pettiness towards his rival inadvertently saved Keith's life.

Also in the second season when, at one point, Lamb had Veronica in custody for a very serious charge of breaking and entering and was clearly looking forward to booking her for it, he came to the realization that to pursue it would serve the purposes of a pair of child abusers. At which point he very grudgingly released her and her companion so that he could return to deal with the child abusers off the record, so to speak (at which point it was revealed that in his youth he, perhaps unsurprisingly, had also been a victim of child abuse).

Ironically, the central issue of why the two characters hate each other (Lamb's refusal to believe Veronica when she attempted to report being raped) has generally been sidestepped in their verbal sparring. During seasons one and two, Lamb does not bring up Veronica's sexual assault claims in attacking her, but, with season three, Lamb cruelly mocked Veronica when she called the police when a new friend of hers from college fell victim to the serial rapist that was terrorizing Hearst College. Lamb villainously asked if Veronica was the rape victim in question and further twisted the knife by implying Veronica "cried wolf" when she told Lamb that she had been raped in the pilot. While Veronica showed no visible reaction to Lamb's taunting, she did break down in front of Lamb when she confessed that she had walked in on her friend while she was being raped and could have stopped the rapist had she fully realized what was happening inside the darkened room.