Date of airing: January 21, 2004 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 12.72 million viewers, 7.7/12 in Households, 5.6/13 with Adults 18-49
This episode had a neat cliffhanger. Even though it’s obvious that Ryan won’t get kicked out of the Cohen house, let alone the Harbor school, and won’t be leaving Newport Beach either (after all, there are still ten episodes left this season and there is no chance that Ryan leaving will be a plot point midway through the season), the fact that Ryan went all in on smashing Oliver in the face had something thrilling to it, due to Ryan’s standing in the community and with the law presently. Ryan beating up Oliver and risking his status at Harbor and with the Cohens could lead to some trouble for him and anyone who trusted him to do the right thing, maybe even in a legal sense if not through his friends distancing themselves from him.
After all, Ryan is still on probation, and if Oliver doesn’t use this opportunity to have Ryan charged with an assault, just so Ryan is far away when Oliver plans to get closer to Marissa and win her for himself, then Oliver is not only stupid, but Ryan also kind of found his match, since Oliver not selling out Ryan would only mean that Oliver sees another match-up between the two. It would be all about Oliver versus Ryan, instead of Oliver manipulating his way into Marissa’s heart. Oliver still is a terrible character, since he continued to turn into a plot device for both Ryan and Marissa, but at least he has become a terrifying threat for the two. Okay, mostly Ryan, because Marissa probably can’t even swing her fist fast or hard enough to hit a face. While Oliver is a terrible character, he is at least an intriguing villain at this point, making THE O.C. a true primetime soap opera, as characters like Oliver are probably found only in daily soap operas.
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The episode was okay. Seth and Anna’s story annoyed me a little, but not as much as it did in the previous episode, because this time around the two seemed anything but oblivious to the fact that all their similarities kill the mood of their relationship and could maybe even threaten it. They didn’t have fun in this episode, and they were sort of criticizing each other for liking the same things, dressing the same, eating the same food, and even having the same plans for the rest of the day. All the excitement in their relationship has pretty much gone to the wind, which is usually the first step towards a slow-burning separation. Seth and Anna realized that their actual disconnections through their many connections and similarities could pave the way for the two to become single again, which would most likely make Summer a happy person in the long run. Considering how much Seth hated Summer’s episodic boyfriend of the week, Danny, it’s obvious the writers were still going for that Seth/Summer romance, not forgetting anything about it and planting the seeds for it yet again. And that kind of makes Summer a plot device, too, although she is written as part of the main character pool. I don’t think that serves Summer very well as a main character.
Plus, here is another question: Why was Bret Harrison attributed with his character name during the opening credits? Yes, the guy has a name and face I recognize (although I wonder if that was the case in 2004 as well), but it seems weird that producers would give Harrison this kind of recognition when his character wasn’t at all special. In fact, he was not funny. He was a plot device.
Ryan doing his best to break his friendships and make it as a one-time criminal in Newport Beach by breaking into a file storage room was weird as well, because it turned him into a wholly different character for a moment. Yes, he could have talked to someone about his suspicions, and yes, maybe he shouldn’t have read the letter he stole from Marissa’s locker, considering he already had suspicions about Oliver and what he might be able to do when it comes to Marissa. The letter became yet another plot device in this episode, and all of a sudden Ryan completely changes into a madman and goes for the jugular. Granted, he previously went for it for just not liking anything about rich people, but back then he had nothing to lose. Now he is here, having assimilated into Newport, having a family that won’t kick him out after he has made a mistake, and Ryan is working hard on making his life even more difficult. Then again, Oliver might have known Ryan a lot and knew where to hit him emotionally. As I said before, they both have found their match.
Meanwhile, the adult storylines continue to be hit and miss. I liked that Julie became a little friendlier and approachable as a human and is now a co-worker of Kirsten. The writers have concluded the character reboot of Julie, and now she can become more of a less-evil woman (who, by the way, is in her mid-30s? I don’t think that’s true, she looks like she partied a little too much during her college days), which made me happy since her evil persona during the first couple of episodes was getting old pretty quickly.
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But I didn’t like that Jimmy decided to be a chicken and talk around the hot bowl of oatmeal and not take the risk of starting a new business in town, especially since all he wanted was to stay in Newport Beach. What was Jimmy thinking would happen if he decided not to go into the restaurant business with Sandy? Did he believe he would find another job that most likely would have paid less? That was just a story carrying the two characters through the episode, because for obvious reasons they were unable to get stuck in other stories just yet. We’re just out of Jimmy being the villain in Newport and Sandy being critical towards his work and his extended family, so before the writers went into the final stage of the season, they needed to run on empty for an episode or two with the characters, and this certainly is such an episode. Then again, maybe the business idea for the two could have legs, although when would the writers even want to focus on a business storyline involving some of the adult characters? THE O.C. is still a primetime teen soap opera and the adult storylines were mostly second-rank.
