Date of airing: January 13, 2005 (FOX)
Nielsen ratings information: 7.46 million viewers, 4.6/7 in Households, 3.2/9 with Adults 18-49
written by: John Stephens
directed by: Michael Lange
Please, more of Sandy Cohen singing! Make an entire musical episode of THE O.C. in which Sandy relives his days as a wannabe Broadway actor. Turns out that Peter Gallagher, if it was actually him singing (and I do believe it was him, but sometimes you simply cannot be sure whether or not a voiceover was used), had a pretty rockin’ voice and should have tried out for AMERICAN IDOL, if that show would allow people of his age to compete.
The twentieth anniversary party, as predictable as it was when the two cops showed up at the restaurant (predictable, as in: I knew they were part of the plan to lead Kirsten to some evening happiness after days of agony, anger, and disappointment), was still nice to look at and listen to, including a nice visual of the Cohen family and their friends hanging out and celebrating a 20-year love, like they all have not had any problem to deal with lately. Ryan was standing between Kirsten and Lindsay, putting a visual image of the women's conflict with each other in this episode; Summer stood between Marissa and Zach, which said absolutely nothing; and Seth was smack in the middle – it was pretty cute, and it showed that the characters in this show can be friends, if they just want to, instead of talking about their troubles all the time and seeing enemies in each other who cannot deal with problems. Not to mention that almost the entire cast of important people stood in line, arms in arms, watching Sandy give his best on stage.
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| Busted! |
It was to be expected that DJ would be the first of the new love interests out of
the show, considering he had the least amount of screentime of the four
recurring characters, and was generally used as a plot device to
further the conflict between Marissa and Julie. I did not even mind that
DJ was used for that, but I am a little surprised that he made
it to the eighth episode in the first place, which means the guy was around for a third of a
season while causing the same endless trouble between Marissa and
Julie. The writers must have come to realize that at this point as well,
which is why they were probably figuring out another way for Marissa
and Julie to feud, or maybe even try to find a way to keep DJ in
Newport without having it look ridiculous. Anyway, either Marissa
or Julie can start drinking hard liquor now – probably Marissa, because
she is already on an ongoing date with her alcoholic beverage of choice.
Meanwhile, Zach, Alex, and Lindsay all went to the next level with their romantic interests who happened to be central characters of the show, and only one of them does not fit. I still believe Alex is way out of Seth’s league, but for some reason, she likes him (okay, that reason being she is a fictional character, and the writers want her to like the nerd in a romantic way) and he hangs out with her, and the two seem to have fun, and now she is meeting his parents. I cannot believe there is an option for a bad girl to even date the good and sweet and nerdy guy of the bunch, because in reality, Alex would have done well for people like Luke, yet she likes Seth and is somewhat fascinated with and drawn to his parents – granted, that part is legit logical and brought her some character depth in this episode, but I still think that Seth should have realized long ago that he is dating a girl who should not even be on his radar, because she is so “out there.” A club manager, a bartender, some tattoos (small ones, and I am shocked Sandy and Kirsten seem to have problems with it – are they in actuality conservative parents dressed in liberal writing?), and maybe even capable of entering naughty foursomes of some kind, considering the moment Seth saw two guys and another girl walking out of her apartment after the Christmas episode.
Anyway, Zach and Lindsay are still in the game for Summer and Ryan,
and I continue to like those two pairings and stories. Zach is wonderful
as a recurring romantic love interest, thanks to his budding friendships with Seth and Ryan, and I like that he can actually be
considered part of the hangout group here, maybe even part of the main
character pool (I wonder if the writers were thinking of the character
to become a central character at one point). And Lindsay is just cute, even
if her story turned out to be a little more soap opera-ish in this
episode, as she was talking to her sister, who wants to be her friend,
followed by talking to her boyfriend, who wants to be her friend... It
must be hard to be part of the Cohens. But let's not forget that the folks behind the camera *really* wanted the male audience to get hooked on Lindsay as a sexy character – she was essentially walking around with her bra out in the open for the entire first third of the episode. She was dressed to be the honeytrap for the male viewers.
By the way, I found some inconsistency in this episode: Previously, Summer mentioned that Zach spent his winter break with his family, but this episode established he has not seen his sister for a year. Do I win a prize now? No television show is ever going to find an antidote against inconsistencies, but since Zach has not been part of the show for that long, I would have figured the writers knew his story.
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| These are one of the very few happy times of the Cohen family. |
There is one thing I would like to talk about though: Kirsten
considered Ryan as her (adopted) son when she talked to Lindsay in the
office, and Sandy said “my kids” on stage. I know that Ryan has been
adopted, even if I still cannot believe it and am unable to see past the
notion of Sandy and Kirsten just being Ryan’s legal guardians (since adoption is a much bigger topic that should have taken some more screentime), but here
is an episode that fully acknowledged the fact that both Sandy and
Kirsten see Ryan as their son now. That is something that has not
happened before, if I remember correctly. On the other side of the
medallion, does Ryan accept them as his parents? Because that has for
sure not been part of the story yet. Sandy and Kirsten have called Ryan their son, but so far, Ryan has not called them his parents yet.
