(who wrote the story) and Phil Klemmer (who wrote the teleplay). This episode is the first to be directed by a female director. The episode's title is a joking reference to The Return of the King, the third volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, or possibly the 2003 film adaption of it, which was relatively new in that time. Among the episode's many guest stars is a young Jane Lynch, who would eventually find fame on Glee. In addition, a character by the name of Wanda Varner—who appears in a guest starring role in "Return of the Kane"—was featured in Rob Thomas's 1996 young adult novel Rats Saw God. Krysten Ritter originally auditioned for the role of Wanda in the episode. She would later play recurring character Gia Goodman in season 2 and the film adaptation of the show. Reception Ratings In its original broadcast, the episode was watched by 2.86 million viewers, ranking 104 of 111 in the weekly rankings. This was a slight increase in rating from the previous week's episode, "You Think You Know Somebody". Reviews The episode received mostly positive reviews. Television Without Pity gave the episode a "B+". Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club wrote a positive review, stating that the twist involving Wanda at the episode's close did not fall flat because the show had built up enough "goodwill." In addition, the reviewer wrote that the episode "continues its blunt, but smart, take on class in America." Price Peterson of TV.com wrote in his episode verdict, "The twist that heroic outsider Wanda was not what she seemed was yet another turn I didn't see coming...Another fun and solid episode." IGN ranked the episode 7th on its list of the top ten Veronica Mars episodes, praising the characterization of Logan. "Up to this point, Logan was just a tool and you wanted him to get knocked down. But here, you get a peek at his troubled home life. [...] It was an unexpected layer of depth that helped pave the road towards Logan becoming an appealing character." References External links "Return of the Kane" at Mars Investigations 2004 American television episodes Veronica Mars (season 1) episodes