Date of airing: November 12, 2003 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.28 million viewers, 5.4/8 in Households, 3.8/9 with Adults 18-49
If you consider laying in bed and making out all night long the best date ever, then I have news for you: You’re right! Not spending any money and staying home (or at your significant other’s place) to just fool around a little is definitely a good idea for a date. I wouldn’t know because I never had that kind of date. Pity me! But it’s what I would consider a good date because it deals with all the stuff you really want to do with your new partner: Be intimate and alone and exchange as much saliva as possible while you still have money in your wallet which you could spend on a nice breakfast or delicious Starbucks coffee the next morning while having a first real conversation with your romantic partner that is not being defined by pre-date jitters.
This was a good-enough episode, but it was wasting some time in the middle by waiting until close to the end for the characters to make important revelations, and therefore killing the time during which the characters could have dealt with those truths a little longer than just one scene. In a way, only three things were accomplished here, which is actually a good number for a primetime teen soap opera: Ryan and Marissa were established as boyfriend and girlfriend (kind of surprising that the show needed just ten episodes to accomplish this feat), Seth and his girls turned out to be a much more complicated matter than expected, and Julie Cooper decided to exchange more than just pleasantries with Caleb Nichol, probably the richest man in Newport Beach currently being sued and dated at the same time (lucky for him, by two different people). Yes, those were facts that moved a few stories forward, so why would I spill BS for you to read and say that this was a time-wasting episode?
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| Let's make a legal deal! |
Well, for one, the drama wasn’t really that major. I couldn’t understand why Julie making out with Caleb was such a majorly murderous deal for Marissa – I thought she hated her mother and needed to stay away from her. I get that she wants to see her parents back together, so that her own life isn’t a mess, but if Julie and Jimmy happened to get back together, that doesn’t just stop the fact that Marissa hates Julie. Number two is the court case, which turned out to be a settlement meeting, and was surprisingly boring, since it didn’t move forward Sandy’s hatred towards his father-in-law, although one can argue that their conflict having moved into the legal realm can be called plot development. But here I was, hoping that it might more than just disrupt the Cohen marriage for a hot minute, and yet, Kirsten realized she has been duped by her father and Sandy is a perfect gentleman of a husband and did not go into lip-lock mode with Rachel. It’s almost like the writers did everything to derail the Cohen family life with Sandy, Kirsten, and Caleb front and center, feuding like this is a civil war, but then backed out of it. By the way, did the producers put some olive oil on Bonnie Somerville before the shooting of her scenes, just so her skin can pop out a little more and be as lucrative and shiny as possible for Sandy, the married man?
I’m still questioning what Summer sees in Seth and why she suddenly likes him. I’m also questioning why Summer likes Seth after that impromptu I-need-to-find-out kiss, because the two have absolutely nothing in common and they didn’t even know each other three months ago. They only started to connect because of the cotillion, and even back then she didn’t like him. But here she is, realizing her feelings for the nerd who talks too much while he is hanging out with another girl. Okay, maybe Anna’s existence right beside Seth is a reason she suddenly found her feelings for him (because someone is vying for Seth’s heart, which means competition), but I still see Summer as the cheerleader, the Cordelia Chase-type girl in high school who has her own minions and wins beauty pageants and homecoming queen competitions. I still see Summer as someone who should have her MEAN GIRLS-type friends around to gossip with her, so that Summer can go back home at night to do girl stuff. But I know that she doesn’t seem to have any minions, since she isn’t hanging out with any of them in recent episodes, yet Summer and Seth are as much in different worlds as Marissa and Ryan were at the beginning of the show, right before the model home started erupting in flames. And for some reason, they managed to find themselves as Ryan and Marissa did, although those two were in a very conflicting life that needed an escape hatch which they happen to find at about the same time. Seth has two girls at his side now and he can practically choose whose heart to break and whom to make happy with his awesome boyfriend skills, all of them unproven. Damn, what would have happened to Seth if Ryan hadn’t come to Newport Beach?
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| Introducing: Shailene Woodley |
Rachel and Julie continued to be villains in this show, which I sort of like, and then sort of didn’t care about. Rachel was not the smartest person in this episode, because she knew that she would ruin a marriage by moving in on Sandy like she wants the sexual docking procedure to happen smoothly and immediately, and Julie’s face after she realized that Ryan witnessed her smoocher with Caleb was kind of the face every villain makes when something happened against their expectations. Rachel turned out to be a terrible character with her move toward Sandy, and Julie is still an unlikable character after she forced Ryan to lie. That reminds me of an incident in my life as a brat of a kid, after somebody my sister knew told me not to tell my mother that I caught my sister smoking for the first time, or else (needless to say I didn’t listen and told my mother the next morning – damn you for trying to threaten me!). I simply hate that kind of people, and Julie is that kind of person, making her a villain. And I have no idea why she is vilified like that, because the writers knew at this point already that she would turn into a main character in a few episodes’ time. Did THE O.C. just need a real soap opera villain?
