Date of airing: November 19, 2003 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.03 million viewers, 5.8/9 in Households, 4.2/10 with Adults 18-49
The writers were having real fun playing out the “Seth never had a girlfriend for 16 years, now he has two” idea, and I’m kind of glad it blew up in his face in this episode, adding hilarity to the show. It was fun while it lasted, but it couldn’t have gone on for longer than that, because after a short while it was simply ridiculous and almost too unbelievable for it to be real in this fictional Newport Beach universe. The kid has no experience with girls and women before Ryan came to Newport Beach, and all of a sudden the summer is over and he is making out with two girls at the same time, finding himself in a situation he probably had wet dreams about before. With Ryan as his adopted brother, he has two girls in his life who are mysteriously and unquestionably interested in him, and both are actually interested in making out with him without asking questions first.
That goes especially in Summer’s case, because I still don’t know what she is seeing in Seth and why she thinks she can fire up a relationship with him or why she thinks Seth is the boy in her life, instead of one of the hot athlete hunks from Harbor School she should be concerned about at this point of her teenage life. Yes, her school status is kind of unknown (is she the Queen Bee, or is she just a lonely attractive girl in the background not interested in hanging with the main “It” crowd?), but I can’t get over her sorta-Cordelia Chase standing from the first couple of episodes, and the Cordelias of Newport Beach don’t date the comic-reading Xanders of Newport Beach.
 |
| There's an attractive girl in your bed. What do you do? |
That reminds me, how did Cordelia and Xander ever ended up together on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER? They were bitching at each other for episodes and then kissed after verbally fighting once more, but in the case of Seth and Summer, that element of their relationship was missing. They only bickered at each other during the trip to Tijuana, even though they behaved like a married couple the following morning, reading the paper and having breakfast together, but that should have gone on for a few more episodes to make it clear that the two have something for each other. Is this proof that THE O.C. is not concerned with the speed limit of how to develop soap opera storylines?
Thanks to Seth’s weird late-bloomer story, this was an entertaining episode. I was certainly smiling my cheeks off, seeing Seth having to deal with two girls at opposite ends of the house. Or when Summer and Sandy were standing eye-to-eye, with Summer humiliating herself in a scene-stealing moment. Or when Summer and Anna finally discovered each other and immediately knew what was going on, much to the delight of everyone else in the kitchen (Caleb almost couldn’t hold himself back smiling, being such a proud grandfather). Just look at this: The adults were fighting in the kitchen over random crap, but here comes Seth who is being blown up by the two girls he has been hiding around the house, and the fighting adults suddenly find smiles on their faces and forget what they were just fighting about. It’s almost like Seth’s actions brought those adults together for a split second and realized everything in their lives is worthless. This is probably why the three couples (Sandy/Kirsten, Jimmy/Rachel, Julie/Caleb) were depicted individually having their share of “fun” and understanding – even though Kirsten’s fun was all in sleeping off the alcohol consumption. If you ever planned to make a character an alcoholic, this was probably it. After all, Kirsten has been making jokes about how talented she is in opening wine bottles, which is a sign of her drinking too much every once in a while.
Ryan’s trip back to Chino seemed like an entirely different episode in comparison. I didn’t mind, but it did pull down the mood of the hilarity in the Cohen house majorly, and I felt weirded out and confused by it. I liked the idea of Marissa visiting Ryan’s old hood though, realizing for the first time that he had a life before he came to Newport Beach (weirdly, she couldn’t think of that when she met Ryan and realized he has come from a different place in life). The premise of boyfriend and girlfriend learning about each other’s unknown past is always an intriguing one, and one that can easily fill an entire episode and serve as a backdrop and character depth delivery, but I would have liked it more if it had been the A story, but without the stupid “hot car” premise running concurrently. I get the feeling though that the writers just wanted Ryan to get into trouble again, or at least have him fight someone, because the James Dean persona hasn’t been shining through ever since Luke became a secondary character without screentime. Dammit, if he wants to fight, create a boxing club at Harbor School and be done with it.
 |
| The drive back home is going to be more chill than the moments of crime previously. |
Meanwhile, for some reason, the writers decided to couple up Jimmy and Rachel and have it work out. I don’t think that makes Rachel look very good in the show – in the previous episode she and her well-oiled and incredibly lit body were throwing themselves at the hotness that is Sanford Cohen, but in this episode, she seemed perfectly fine with the idea of her colleague fixing her up with a white-collar criminal he happened to defend one time. Well, as long as Jimmy and Rachel have a working relationship for a handful of episodes or so, it wouldn’t have been a waste of time here (especially since it would give Jimmy some deserved attention outside his family drama life), but that doesn’t mean I’m a shipper now. It kind of is a way to keep Jimmy busy in the show without breaking too many thumbs in the process. Now if the writers could only have found a way to keep Luke busy in this series...
