The first season of "Veronica Mars" features a different "case of the week" each episode, and the season-long mystery of Lilly Kane's murder. In addition to developing a separate mystery for each episode, the writers also had to provide clues that would lead to the murder's resolution in the season finale. The murder mystery plot was planned from the beginning of the season and the killer's identity remained the same throughout production. Thomas said that at the beginning of the season, "I know the broad strokes, I know who did it, I know how it was done, I know the big arcs, but we're always filling in the details. Those are week to week. It's a week to week challenge in the writers room figuring out how much information we want to dole out to the audience."