Date of airing: February 11, 2004 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 11.42 million viewers, 7.2/11 in Households, 5.0/12 with Adults 18-49
Thank the heavens that Oliver was only part of a six-episode arc. In a normal show, that’s almost a quarter of an entire season, filling my brain with this horrendous story of a mentally ill boy who thinks that he can get the girl by manipulating her boyfriend out of her life, and putting that into a six-episode arc is generally a little dangerous, even if six episodes are a perfect amount to develop a story and the characters involved in said story. In a normal show, Oliver would have been an even worse and utterly evil character though, because THE O.C. attempted to get into the premise of mental illness, although that part of the story never jumped over to the audience at all, thanks to the fact that he was being written as the villain Ryan needed to overcome to save the girl in distress, and for Ryan and Marissa’s romance to end up in shambles by the end of it all.
The other fact is that Marissa wasn’t the smartest girl in town when it comes to Oliver being the villain – Ryan knew what was up, even Luke was smelling the rotten fish, and both were trying their hardest to talk to Marissa about it and she would not listen. Summer had the thought of Oliver being a little too weird and definitely in love with Marissa. Still, at the end of the day, she was unable to coherently move it up her brain cells, thanks to the fact that she was too busy to figure out ways how to be close to Seth and Anna. Seth was unable to connect the dots because he was busy with his women. In a normal show, everyone would have gotten the gist, yet the writers of THE O.C. extended this storyline to six episodes, because maybe, just maybe, FOX ordered a few too many additional scripts and the writers had to fill 27 episodes, which is a monstrous task for any broadcast network television drama. Is Oliver that bad a character because he was the victim of an extended season?
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| Surprised Julie face! |
With that in mind, it’s kind of shocking that the episode managed to
eat the conflict between Oliver and the rest of the cast for breakfast.
For once, Marissa opens her eyes and realizes the truth, and one scene later Oliver has a pistol in his hand which
looked very much like a Hollywood production prop, more necessary these
days than ever. Three minutes later, Ryan comes to the rescue and the
story is over. If the writers could have done something with the story
at the end, it’s when they could have made the situation in the hotel
suite more thrilling or more emotional. Oliver could have ... I don’t
know, taken Marissa hostage for more than a scene. He could have seriously contemplated
suicide, by pulling the trigger and realizing there wasn’t a bullet in
the chamber. He could have driven his head or fists into walls, smashed
the windows, or something to freak the hell out of Marissa, make her
more scared, not just for her life, but for his life as well. This is a
soap opera, after all, so the writers could have pulled all the enormous
strings to make this episode look like a true soap opera. Taking
Marissa hostage would not even have been over the top. Seeing punched-up
holes in walls and doors and glass tables (and maybe even the windows)
would also not have been too much, since Oliver almost always seemed
like he was ready to take down an entire hotel suite with his fists.
Instead, the only soap opera element that was in this episode found itself in Marissa’s bedroom, as Luke and Julie were locking eyes and most likely undressing each other in their minds. That kiss was screaming to be executed, and now that the writers teased this little romance, it’s almost guaranteed it will come, and not just because it’s a soap opera, but also because Luke needs a story at this moment. Right now he is just a friend and buddy, but doesn’t have a lot of main character material. Six episodes ago he found out that his father is gay, and since then the writers haven’t managed to include Luke in something that would expand his character or make him part of everyone’s lives. This needs to be changed, especially after the writers made clear that nothing is going to happen between Summer and Luke, which would have been obvious after Seth and Summer, and Ryan and Marissa had each other. The writers killed the one story after the Palm Springs trip that could have kept Luke busy in the show, just so they could try and figure out how to throw Luke and Julie together.
Leading Julie into the hot water polo captain’s arms through a break-up with Caleb facilitated by Kirsten is a little ridiculous in hindsight. I cannot understand why Kirsten would even accept doing the deed for her father in the first place and why she always gets involved in his life when she could have easily told him off to do his own biddings if he wants them done. The fact that he can’t even break up with Julie is not really because of his hatred for confrontations, it’s because he can’t look a woman in the eyes. It’s kind of like Orange Hitler Donald Trump’s inability to look the people in the eye when he fires them, which is why Twitter was a godsend for him. Maybe that’s a result of Caleb’s wife’s death, so he has trust and intimacy issues now, but maybe it’s the Californian sun that fried some of Caleb’s brain cells in addition to the skin cells that made him look like a tanned West Coast admirer.
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| Of course, the kid who is not well carries a pistol with him. |
And then there is the Seth drama, which finally boiled over, thankfully. I was starting to hate the whole Seth/Anna relationship because I could see it was leading back to Summer, and that Anna would be the one heartbroken, thanks to Seth’s inexperience with women and inability to talk to them. The thing is just, I didn’t even care for Anna here – her sad face while looking at Seth and Summer spending comic-reading time together didn’t do much for me, especially since she just let those faces happen and didn’t even confront either Seth or Summer about it. She could have lambasted Seth. She could have chased a stake into Summer for flirting with her boyfriend. Anything. But no, Anna was the most passive character in this episode, letting her own romance run into the sand, even though she had all the opportunities to prevent that from happening. Anna turned into a plot device, as the writers were preparing to couple up Seth and Summer.
