Meg Manning

Meg Manning and Lilly Kane had a lot in common. They were both blonde. They were both cheerleaders. They were both friends of Veronica's. They were also both alive, but that changed on October 3, 2003. The fallout from the murder investigation caused an unexpected rift between Meg and Veronica, but the ghost of their friendship still remained, like the spectre of Lilly Kane. Meg still thought of Veronica as a friend. She just couldn't, you know, actually hang out with her because that would be uncool.

The ghost was resurrected when Veronica defended Meg's honor in the purity test scandal. She discovered that she did have a blonde cheerleader friend who wasn't dead. So pleased was she with this development that she voiced no objection to Meg's dating her former flame, Duncan Kane. Her objections came later on in the form of a wordless "Awkward!" or "Un! Comfortable!"

Meg and Duncan were a happy couple. He held her hand, and she looked really, really pretty. He paid attention to her babysitting gigs, and she looked really, really pretty. He took a shovel to his own car in a rage induced by a still-burning love for the girl he'd slept with despite believing her to be his sister, and — okay, maybe not so much with the happy. Especially since he broke up with Meg to pursue Veronica, whom Meg proceeded to regard with utter disdain...for reasons that only became crystal clear months later.

Meg spent those months in a coma, the sole survivor of a tragic bus accident. And like the wreckage of that doomed vehicle, the truth about Meg began to surface. The intensity of her relationship with Duncan, who visited her at the hospital every day. The religious zealotry of her parents, who keep their youngest daughter, Grace, locked in a closet and attempted to pair Meg off with a Bible-quoting, ex-soldiering janitor. The secrecy of Meg herself, who unwittingly took a cue from Lilly and hid incriminating evidence in an air vent. Meg tops Lilly, though: even the Kane wild child didn't go so far as to carry Duncan's baby (and we know the boy loves incest). Waking from her coma, she tells Veronica she intended to go live with her aunt in order to keep her child from suffering the same fate as her sisters. Her final request to Veronica is to ensure her baby doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Did I say "final request"? I did. Meg's dead, baby. Meg's dead.

(For real this time.)

Last year, the ghost of Lilly Kane haunted Veronica as she sought to uncover her killer. In the process, she learned some surprising things about her friend. This year, she's haunted by the memory of Meg and by the knowledge that her actions led to Meg's coma and eventual death. The spirit of guilt that fuels her investigation leads to more surprising revelations. Sometimes, you can only see a person's true nature when you take them out of the equation.

Who was Meg Manning?