Date of airing: November 11, 2004 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 8.08 million viewers, 5.1/8 in Households, 3.6/9 with Adults 18-49
written by: Allan Heinberg
directed by: Michael Lange
The episode title is very much correct on all levels, and not just for the premise of this hour itself. Two episodes into the season and THE O.C. is back to being the first season, in which things were always about Ryan and Marissa, things were always about Seth and Summer, and in-between those couplings, there was always a problem that involved Caleb, which will then come and go haunt Sandy, causing trouble in his marriage with Kirsten. All while Sandy somehow could get over the fact that he hates his father-in-law, yet always helps him when the crap really hits the fan. That was pretty much to go-to plot for most of the season-one episodes, and now 50 percent of the second season so far is built on the same pathway, making these few episodes of the show’s second round kind of an extension to the first season. And I am not so sure that was such a great idea. Yes, parts of the first season were pretty great, but that was because things were still fresh and unique (and parts of the characters' expositional nature), and the couplings have never annoyed me.
Except for Caleb – he always annoyed me, and yet this story is
continuing and I will have to continue suffering through it. I did
however mentioned that his legal drama made him a bit of an interesting
character, but it still does not mean that I will suddenly appreciate him
as a character on a weekly primetime soap opera. Although I would still love to
see him in an orange overall though, even if just for the fact that the fictional character of Caleb Nichol is the only filthy rich white guy who cheated his way to the top gets to smell the inside of a jail cell, while real-life rich white guys breaking even bigger and more laws are allowed to just fly into the police precinct, have their mugshot and fingerprints taken, and are then allowed to walk out of the precinct again to go to your previously scheduled rally.
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| Enjoy your summer romance, because it will not last for much longer. |
Zach has pretty much been the only worthy new character introduced to the pool of characters in this episode, and even he feels like he is not worthy enough for the show, and is just a plot device for the old and now standard Seth and Summer drama. It looks like Zach is a very nice character who happens to have budding potential for Seth, bringing in some awkwardness and real promise into the Seth/Summer saga, but this episode did not do the job of giving the new kid some colors and depth, making me believe that he is indeed Summer’s wannabe boyfriend, or is at least interested in her and seeing competition in Seth. I do have to say though, the fact that Zach started as Seth’s friend before becoming Summer’s boyfriend is intriguing – it is certainly one way to ship around the genre cliches from the treasure box of television tropes, and it gives the Seth/Summer story a new angle to work with.
In the meantime, DJ the gardener was super boring as the new hot love interest for the depressed teenage character who likes to get drunk during school hours. He is ripped (and he does not hesitate to show off that fact with his shirt off), he looks freaking attractive even by my straight white male standards, he is the type of guy every rich woman likes to get laid with at night, right after his job is finished, or in the middle of the day, right in-between his sessions of cleaning the pool. That would have been enough for me, and he could have been a wonderful and hilarious soap opera cliche. But no, he has to witness Marissa and Ryan making out, and he needs to be jealous about it, and he must fight with Marissa about another guy, and all this has to look like he thinks this is a real relationship, and when you cheat, you are a bad person.
DJ, here are two things I would like to say to you: One, there is something that is called polygamy, look it up, it is apparently wonderful (although illegal if you are married). Two, you are an asshole for playing the jealous type when you did not even have grounds to believe that you had Marissa and will be her boyfriend for the rest of eternity. Sorry, but you are the "yard guy" and she obviously made it clear that this was never really a relationship. Or maybe she did and you just did not notice? I do not know, because the writers never developed you as a character, let alone focused on the relationship.
All this is bringing me to say that I do not quite like what is going on right now, because it is season-one material being reused to fire up the second season, and that shows the kind of laziness this season might produce over the course of the next couple of episodes, before the writers’ room would figure out what to do with the show during its second year. Because really, if you start the new season with the same set of problems, what exactly did go wrong during the first few meetings of the writing staff? I yawned when Marissa and DJ kissed and Ryan was there to witness it all, because it was also a super predictable moment right out of the playbook of soap operas. And Seth doing his "Best Of" by humping a hot dog stand before attempting to confess his love yet again to the same woman makes me think that he has not learned anything from recent events. And so the writers have not either.
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| The richest man in town gets arrested and handcuffed – an experience not all rich men learn. |
So, was there anything in this episode I liked? Maybe Amanda Righetti, who looked super attractive with her strawberry blond hair, and I kind of got sad that the writers made Hailey disappear, because there cannot be an episode of THE O.C. with Jimmy being happy with another woman right now. And this after it became normal for him and Hailey to be together and dating, with no one throwing side eyes at them, especially not Kirsten.
Also, I got jealous that the two love birds were living on a yacht. I would love that, too, but first I have to either win the lottery, rob a bank, or marry a rich woman who dies after a couple of months and I inherit all her money. Or get a girl who is into boats as much as I think I am. I did get to think a lot lately that I would buy a boat if I get my hands on a lot of money. MAIDENTRIP and the story of Laura Dekker did that – I might not have the guts to sail around the world, but living on a boat? That has been sounding awfully awesome these past few years, ever since I had to suffer my way through a pandemic with no one giving a crap about the health of the people you are surrounding yourself with.
