"My Mother, the Fiend" is the ninth episode of the second season of the American mystery television series Veronica Mars, and the thirty-first episode overall. Directed by Nick Marck, the episode was co-written by Phil Klemmer and Dayna Lynne North. The episode was first shown on November 30, 2005, on UPN. The series depicts the adventures of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) as she deals with life as a high school student while moonlighting as a private detective. In this episode, Veronica finds her mother's old high school records and starts digging into her mother's past, discovering information about the Kane family in the process. Meanwhile, Beaver (Kyle Gallner) proposes a business plan to help Kendall (Charisma Carpenter). "My Mother, the Fiend" features the third and final appearance by Alyson Hannigan on the show. The show's crew found it difficult to work an episode into Hannigan's schedule because of other projects. The episode was accompanied by an alternate ending, a publicity move made by executive producer Joel Silver and the UPN promotions department. The episode was initially viewed by 2.82 million viewers and received mostly positive reviews. For example, Rowan Kaiser, of The A.V. Club, wrote "I am intrigued by the decisions to make Veronica less than pure, but this time, I'm not as disappointed by the followthrough." Synopsis In health class, the students are assigned to take care of fake babies. Vice-Principal Clemmons (Duane Daniels) calls Veronica into his office and gives her detention for having keys to his file cabinet. Beaver walks up to Mac (Tina Majorino) and asks to hire her to register a company named Phoenix Land Trust and build the company a website. For Veronica's detention, she has to alphabetize and organize old student files. Veronica finds her mother's permanent file and reads that she was frequently in trouble in high school, including being suspended for spreading rumors. While Weevil (Francis Capra) is in the auto shop he is ambushed by Logan (Jason Dohring) and his cronies. Veronica talks to Deborah Hauser, a teacher who was in the same class as Lianne. Mrs. Hauser confirms they were suspended, and that she regrets spreading Lianne's gossip. Weevil gets duct-taped to the flagpole. Veronica asks Vice Principal Clemmons about who else might have known her mom in high school, and he tells her to talk to Principal Moorhead and Mary Mooney. Veronica approaches Mary while she is cleaning