Dick Casablancas

Richard Casablancas, Jr.
Ryan Hansen as Dick Casablancas
First appearance	"Credit Where Credit's Due"
Last appearance	"The Bitch Is Back"
Created by	Rob Thomas
Portrayed by	Ryan Hansen
Information
Nickname(s)	Dick
Gender	Male
Occupation	Student
Family	Richard Casablancas, Sr. (Father) Betina Casablancas (Mother) Kendall Casablancas (Stepmother, deceased) Cassidy Casablancas (Brother, deceased)
Spouse(s)	Melinda Button (divorced/annulled)
Significant other(s)	Madison Sinclair Gia Goodman

Richard "Dick" Casablancas, Jr. is a fictional character on the UPN/The CW television series Veronica Mars, which debuted during the fall 2004 season on UPN. He is portrayed by Ryan Hansen. He is a series regular from season two forward.

Background story

Dick is the eldest son of one of Neptune, California's wealthiest men, Richard Casablancas. He is part of the in-crowd at Neptune High, and is good friends with Logan Echolls. Though he doesn't have a very large role for most of the first season, it is learned that Dick only loves three things in life: women, sex and surfing. He spends most of his time at school bullying kids without money, and tries to find as many ways as possible to make Veronica's life miserable. He has a younger brother named Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas, to whom Dick is painfully cruel to throughout the series. He and his father see him as weak and bully him mercilessly when they aren't ignoring him. Veronica later finds out that Dick encouraged his brother to have sex with her while she was unconscious, having been drugged with GHB.

Dick is more prominently featured towards the end of the first season, and becomes a regular in season two. He is still shallow and horny as ever, although he tries to be on good terms with Veronica, who, now that she's dating Duncan Kane again, is a part of their crowd. Over the summer, Dick and Logan are heavily involved in a battle with the PCH after one of their gang members is murdered and they hold Logan (falsely) responsible. When Logan is cleared of all charges, the PCH decide to take matters into their own hands and begin stalking and harassing the 09'er crowd. Dick and Logan then burn down the county pool so that the PCH can't go for a swim during hot days. Dick is somewhat of a douche on the show.

He dates Madison Sinclair for over two years, but she leaves him for an older man, who is later revealed to be Sheriff Don Lamb. Dick then takes an interest in Gia Goodman, a fellow student at Neptune High and the daughter of Mayor Woody Goodman. They date for a while, until they break up for an unexplained reason, and Dick begins pursuing Madison again, as well as some other girls at Neptune High. When his father flees the country to avoid going to prison for real estate fraud, Dick and Cassidy stay behind with their gold-digging stepmother Kendall Casablancas, who is horrified to learn that Dick and Cassidy now have a huge trust fund that is owned by their mother until the boys turn 21. Dick also finds out that Logan has been sleeping with Kendall for the larger part of her marriage to Richard Casablancas, but he seems to accept it, stating he had been attracted to Logan's mother ever since he met her.

When Dick finds out that Cassidy is dating Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie, a shy computer expert and one of Veronica's best friends, he takes it upon himself to ruin every moment they have together. He embarrasses Cassidy several times in front of his friends and Mac by announcing that Cassidy is still a virgin, and how Mac should be gentle with him once they have sex. Cassidy is humiliated and begins to retreat from Mac, eventually breaking up with her when she brings up having sex. Dick remains oblivious to Cassidy's vulnerability, but also grows angry at him, even going as far as threatening him.

Season three starts off with Dick attending Hearst College like his friends, after his mother has pulled strings to allow him to attend, and he becomes a member of the Pi Sigma Sigma fraternity. Dick struggles with his brother's terrible crimes — in the episode "Not Pictured", Cassidy is revealed to have been responsible for a bus crash that killed dozens of people — and his suicide, and falls into a deep depression, finally feeling guilty for terrorizing his brother for all those years. After rejecting Logan and Veronica's help a few times, he ultimately shows up at Logan's doorstep, beaten up and completely lost, stating "I have nowhere else to go. I messed up", before breaking down in Logan's arms. He eventually returns to his old self, even ends up going to Las Vegas, where he meets and marries Melinda Button (Lisa Jay); the marriage is dissolved within hours.

Although he now has a somewhat stable place to live, Dick is still unable to cope with what happened to his brother. When he unexpectedly runs into Mac, he's visibly shocked to see her, implying the two haven't seen each other since Cassidy committed suicide, and Dick takes his pain and anger out on her, stating that Cassidy never loved her, and she was just his beard. When his father returns to face criminal charges, Dick lashes out at his father for the way they treated Cassidy, and how he feels ashamed of the abuse they inflicted on him. He says he still struggles to walk past the spot where Cassidy committed suicide, and dares his father to go to the roof and see it for himself. After the confrontation, Dick starts drinking and partying harder than ever.

Although Dick refuses to speak to his father, Richard decides he should stay and try to support his son, and help the two of them heal. After he forces Dick to spend time with him, Dick slowly begins to come to terms with everything that has happened, as well as his own actions over the past few years. He decides to try to change for the better, and become a man someone could be proud of. Dick sincerely apologizes to Mac, telling her how sorry he is for the way he treated her and Cassidy, and that can see why his brother liked her so much. She forgives him, but, in typical fashion, he jokingly tries to kiss her seconds later.