Lianne Mars

Lianne Mars abandoned her husband and daughter in the midst of the storm that raged around them, following the death of Lilly Kane. Sheriff Keith Mars was stripped of office and disgraced by his attempts to solve the crime. Her daughter Veronica Mars was made a pariah. Lianne's timing sucked.

Her actions could have been explained by her being a weak alcoholic who was unprepared to suffer loss of status and income to stand by her family. Or perhaps it was the threats on Veronica's life that did it, chasing Lianne out of town to protect false alibis. Veronica chose to believe the latter and tried to contact her mother by sending cell phones through the mail. Lianne responded and called, just as Veronica was plugged into her headphones and missed the call. Have we mentioned that Lianne's timing sucked?

Lianne's past is a murky thing, for she never let go of her feelings for high school sweetheart Jake Kane and continued an affair after marrying Keith. Around the time of Veronica's conception, she was sleeping with both men, leaving Veronica and everyone else in the dark about the identity of Veronica's father. Lianne's timing really sucked.

Veronica found her alcoholic mother and used her life savings to put her through rehab. Veronica rejoiced when her mother came home sober and cured, just as Keith and girlfriend Alicia were finding happiness in each other. Keith, being decent, broke off that relationship in an effort to make his family work. For Alicia, Lianne's timing sucked.

And Lianne wasn't sober. She'd squandered Veronica's future by checking out of rehab and checking back in to secret drinking. Veronica finally saw the truth. Her mother was a weak alcoholic who was not prepared to stand by her family. So Lianne left again, at Veronica's insistence, taking with her Keith's reward money from the Kanes, his contribution to Veronica's now-empty college fund.

Lianne sucks.