Date of airing: February 25, 2004 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.56 million viewers, 6.2/9 in Households, 4.6/11 with Adults 18-49
It is noticeable that the writers wanted to get deep into the world of Spanish-language soap operas for this hour. Threeway relationships, fourway relationships, a mature woman doing it with a teenager in a shady motel, an attorney being threatened by a client of sorts (with the addition of a father-in-law blackmailing his daughter’s husband), and a potential clash between the good boy who is now living in the upper class and the potential bad boy who comes from the working middle class – I have never seen a telenovela (I want to though, I tried watching a German telenovela once, managed to only go through a week or two weeks’ worth of episodes because the writing was driving me up a wall), but I can imagine that is how one would feel and sound like, since this episode was attempting to become a telenovela. Unfortunately for this hour, however, it was not a particularly good one – still alright in my books, but not a lot of intriguing things have been happening, despite the fact that Seth and Summer are finally together in an official capacity, and Eddie did not turn out to be the villain I thought he would be, all while Julie and Luke are doing it like they were the current central couple of the telenovela’s storyline.
In fact, Eddie was a nice character with emotions and some depth, or at least this is what I got out of him when he and Ryan talked at the chop shop. It felt like Eddie was truly in love with Theresa and did not want to lose her, yet he also realized that he might have competition, but could not just get into an aggressive mode because he knows he will lose Theresa for sure if he starts swinging his fists. Still, the writers did not hold back from potentially turning Eddie into a villain of sorts (having Seth mention Eddie’s threatening voice, or his “aggressive-ish” face when Ryan came to visit him at his job), because this is what the kid from Chino apparently needs. He had a villain in Luke when Ryan was closing in on Marissa. He had a villain in Oliver when Marissa was getting closer to the crazy motherlover from another reality.
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| The teenager gets to have fun with the mother he'd like to... |
And now the game is all about Theresa, and it turns out the woman has more than one guy in her pocket as well, even though she is only seventeen years old. Besides that, it is the perfect obstacle course for Ryan and Marissa who probably are not allowed to get back together until maybe the season finale, but then I remember that the writers have circumvented the tropes of teen soap operas multiple times already, since Ryan and Marissa were smooching after ten episodes already, and Seth and Summer already have a sex life. Dammit, life in California is a mess for all the people involved – I wish I would have had such a life, but then again, maybe I had it good not having had to deal with two women, or a woman and her wannabe boyfriend.
I found it nice that Marissa got involved in Theresa’s story as well. The dinner scene in the Cohen house was great to watch, which is why it was a shame that it came out so short and was quickly over and done with as soon as Marissa showed up and joined the eating folks. I also liked that Marissa showed up at Theresa’s motel room (of course, the writer also did not hold back teasing that Marissa might catch her mother and Luke in the act, because coincidences like to ruin lives), but other than that it was not a story I had the hots for, even though some friendship-y things were going on between the two women, which means the show is circumventing the genre cliches once more. Some things were nice, some things were okay, but at the end of the day, I did not consider Theresa much of a story magnet and just as the aforementioned obstacle in the Ryan/Marissa saga. She came from Chino to cause problems for Ryan because Ryan needs problems to deal with. Because in a scripted world that looks like a telenovela, characters simply cannot have a wonderful life. It is almost a surprise Ryan and Marissa made it through a handful of episodes as the perfect couple before Oliver showed up.
Seth and Summer’s story was okay as well. I appreciated Summer’s fear that she thinks her reputation is going to be shattered when someone like Seth breaks up with her, but I never believed in the first place that Summer has a reputation here. Something was teased about that during the first few episodes of the series when Holly was still around, but it is not like Summer is the guaranteed prom queen or cheerleading captain here. She does not have a posse following her, and she never seems as popular as she thinks she might be, considering who she hangs out with after school. I did have to chuckle about the reactions to Seth and Summer’s kiss though – the boys were creeped out because they had to watch this public display of romance for a second and walked away immediately, but the girls were happy to witness this because they got to see a romance blossoming in front of their eyes. In the end, Seth and Summer’s relationship is boring for all the high school students though, because who cares?
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| Happy moments before the drama returns. |
And finally, the adult storylines, which I once again did not care for. Sandy’s story might have a bit of an aftermath later on because it felt unresolved here, but it is not like his potential clash with the riches is going to lead to anything. Heck, in a way Sandy has three jobs, and when he loses one of them, he can jump to one of the other two: He has the restaurant with Jimmy, he has his corporate lawyer job, and he can easily go back to being a public defender. The guy is made for life, so he can go get into a fight with an asshole from the family. But why exactly am I supposed to care about that? Am I supposed to care about the fact that Caleb might manipulate Sandy into owing Caleb something in the future? Is this just a continuation of Caleb being a hard-ass to Sandy for being Jewish and his daughter’s wife?
