relationship, stating that "You know, we had two romantic possibilities for Veronica. One sort of dominated the fans' interest. And it became clear that one suitor won out." From the very beginning of the series, fans had expressed dislike towards the character of Duncan. However, he decided to keep playing the character. In a later interview, he said, "Obviously, I acted because I wanted the fans to like the experience. You want your performance to be liked. You don't want to suck. You don't want people to think you suck. That wasn't the goal." Towards the end of the airing of the first season, he stated, "I'm going to be there in every episode next season if we get a second season. So people will either continue to hate me or things will change. Things are going to change for Duncan anyway, as the season resolves. There are going to be different sides of him that you're going to get to see." Before going into the filming of season two, Thomas had told Dunn that he was being written off the show, and Dunn did not react badly to the news, as by that point, it "was actually a decision" for him to return for the second season at all. The episode features a special guest-starring appearance by actress Lucy Lawless as an FBI agent. "Donut Run" marks the final appearance of recurring character Celeste Kane. Reception Ratings In its original broadcast, "Donut Run" received 1.62 million viewers, becoming the lowest-rated episode of the series overall and marking a sharp decrease in 1.8 million viewers from the previous episode, "One Angry Veronica" and ranking 118th of 121 in the weekly rankings. Reviews The episode received critical acclaim. Writing for The A.V. Club, Rowan Kaiser gave the episode a positive review, stating that the characters knowing facts that the audience doesn't worked. "'Donut Run' actually does this well, in large part because the heist that we're seeing—Duncan and Veronica stealing the coma baby—requires that Duncan and Veronica stage a breakup, meaning that Veronica seems to be a free, bitter agent for the bulk of the episode." Price Peterson of TV.com heavily praised what he called a "great episode" and "a fitting send-off for Duncan". He elaborated that "as much as he and Veronica were a good match, there's only so much you can do dramatically with a happy relationship, you know?