Season 1 Episode 6: "Every Night Is Another Story"

*Gavin DeGraw theme song plays, we sing along*

We're thrown directly into the action in this episode, and we're completely confused on what the hell is happening, because Quirky Best Friend Haley is in the car with Peyton driving, and we can't even focus on wondering what's going on because Quirky Haley is doing the air guitar to Peyton's angsty music and it's painful.  Meanwhile, Lucas and Nathan are running to a parked car in the woods.  Back in the first car, Peyton reaches to the back to get music (even though they had some playing seconds before) and almost goes off the road, waking up Brooke when she swerves.  For someone who spends all her time in her car, Peyton's a really shitty driver.  Brooke asks Peyton what Quirky Haley is doing there (valid) and Peyton tells her that she, Brooke, invited her.  Are all cliques coming together?  Are the social barriers being broken down?  Can we look forward to a rendition of Stick to the Status Quo in the cafeteria on Monday?  Lucas and Nathan can't get the parked car to start because it's stuck in mud, so they just leave it there.  As the girls are driving, they are stunned to see Nathan and Lucas walking together, and the boys are just as stunned to see Haley and Peyton together.

We are glad to see a "12 Hours Earlier" caption come up on the screen, meaning we are going to get some answers to this weirdness.  Starting the episode with a glimpse of the future before flashing back to earlier in order to fully explain will become a habit on One Tree Hill, and, though it's used a lot, it really does work to get me hooked.  It's especially interesting when they go back and forth to the different time periods a few times throughout the episode, but we'll see that later on in the show.  Now, twelve hours earlier, Haley tries to confirm with Lucas that he's okay with her tutoring Nathan, and he just says he really doesn't trust Nathan.  Valid, but Quirky Haley can look out for herself.  Peyton interrupts the conversation to ask Lucas to talk for a moment, which means that Lucas's new rule of not being friends with bitchy Popular kids only applies to Haley.  Peyton makes a fantastic face when Haley walks away that really captures our emotions every time Quirky Haley is around.

Peyton gives Lucas a mixed CD to thank him for being there for her the week before when she went completely nutso on all her other friends out of grief during the anniversary of her mother's death.  Lucas responds with, "Does this mean we're dating?"  Subtle.  Peyton tells Lucas not to read so much into it, so she must not know yet how much Lucas loves to read.  Nathan and Quirky Tutor Haley are talking a little ways away, and Nathan mentions that they're playing a team from a town of hicks (possibly explaining the road in the middle of nowhere and the forest from the beginning).  He wants her to come to the game, because inviting her to his basketball games seems to be his only move so far.

Dan is super pissed that he has to go pretend to be an adult at a dinner instead of the high school basketball game.  The dinner is for the Small Business League, so Karen is going too, and naturally she's bringing along Good Friend Keith.  Emphasis on Good Friend.  Lucas asks her why they aren't dating.  Once again, subtle.  Lucas is really going for it today.  Our girl Karen plays it cool as always.

Brooke and Peyton make up, that's all you need to know about the next scene.  Lucas plays the CD Peyton made for him on the way to the game.  This seemed significant to include because it's meant to remind you that he loves her, but that actually makes it insignificant because his behavior never lets us forget it.  During warm-ups Mouth is announcing for his Ravens basketball website and Quirky Haley is reading a magazine because she's so above it all.  Peyton and Brooke enter in their cropped and tiny cheerleading uniforms, so we had to pause the episode to go order a juice cleanse and a Pilates mat.  Brooke allows Peyton the weekend to get with Lucas, but after that she gets to go for him.  She also asks about Haley, and ends up giving a great summary of who likes who (her version: Nathan likes "Tutor Girl," "Tutor Girl" likes Lucas, Brooke likes Lucas, and who the hell knows who Peyton likes), which once again is why Brooke is an extremely helpful character.  

At first you think this game is gonna be another boring basketball sequence, but not the case.  Nathan ends up making a comment during the game to Lucas about how he wants to get with Haley, and Lucas responds by telling Peyton on the sidelines, "I saw Nathan in the shower - no wonder you broke up with him" which is truly fabulous in all ways.  A fight breaks out, and knocks Brooke over, and Nathan and Lucas, the star players, are both ejected from the game.  I don't think I need to describe Whitey's reaction.

But I will describe it anyway, because it's the major move that makes the episode's plot.  After waiting until the bus home is in the middle of nowhere, Whitey makes the driver pull over and kicks them both right off of it.  So they have to walk home together and work it out.  For thirty miles.  In a town they don't know.  At night.  Without phones.  This is actually brilliant when you think of it as the classic shit that wise characters pull to teach the young heroes a lesson and stuff, but if you think of it in Real Life Terms, that's two dead boys and a lawsuit.  

Brooke is getting her ankle wrapped because it was hurt when Lucas and Nathan's WWE careers took off.  In true Brooke form, she flirts with the other school's college-aged trainer and gets him to give him a bunch of painkillers that she promptly pops.  So she's about to be high as a kite.

On the way home, Nathan and Lucas are just fighting.  About basketball and Haley and Peyton and all that crap.  A car pulls up and offers them a ride.  Nathan takes it, and they pull them both in.  Turns out it's kids from the other team.  Promising.

Haley misses the fan buses home because she was "thinking of transferring" but it sounds like she's joking when she says this, and we never really find out why she hung around for so long after the game ended.  But the point is that Peyton and an insanely loony Brooke (who names Haley Brooke because she doesn't like the name Haley) let Haley ride home with them in Brooke's car.  These dumbass kids from the other school make Lucas and Nathan take all their clothes off and go into the gas station convenience store with an embarrassing grocery list.  This is product placement for Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty's abs.  When they turn around they have "Ravens Suck" written on their backs.  

Back at the Small Business League dinner, which we forgot about because we don't care, Dan and Deb are seated at the same table as Karen and Good Friend Keith.  Deb is nice.  Dan is not.  Are you surprised?

Brooke goes ahead and asks Haley and Peyton about how they both like the same guys.  I kind of love her at this point.  Peyton once again tells Haley to be careful with Nathan.  A lot of girls would mean this threateningly, since they broke up about a week and a half ago, but Peyton really gives no shits about Nathan, which Haley seems to understand.  Haley also brings up how perfect Peyton and Lucas would be, and we really need her to pipe down because they are not yet friends which means she should mind her own.  Aaand, Brooke's car is completely out of gas.  Haley and Peyton walk to get gas and leave Brooke in the car because she's high on painkillers, completely useless, and making things awkward with her honesty.

The boys who kidnapped Lucas and Nathan make up a great game where Lucas and Nathan have to beat the shit out of each other for their entertainment and then the winner gets a ride.  Good Guy Lucas steps up and says it's not happening, until Nathan goes and punches him in the back of the head.  Lucas fights back obviously, because he's a Good Guy but not a pacifist, and Nathan pushes him into the hood of the car, so the hick kids have to scatter.  Nathan takes the opportunity to grab the keys from the ignition, and we see his plan all along.  CLEVER. POINTS.  He tells them that he'll give them a key for every piece of clothing they give back to the two brothers.  They agree because he threatens to throw the keys way into the woods.  He is gaining major points this episode.  

At the dinner with the adults, which apparently lasts about seven hours, the poor people who are at a table with Karen, Keith, Dan, and Deb are feeling incredibly awkward and basically wishing they were anywhere but right there.  I'm sure they can't even enjoy their basic Caesar salads that come with any type of banquet event.  Nathan and Lucas have just about all their clothes back, and Nathan throws the rest of the keys into the woods before running away.  

Haley and Peyton talk about all sorts of boring stuff, mostly Nathan and Lucas.  You can definitely see how the writers are working to show Peyton's hidden kind side after viewers disliked her in the first few episodes.  She's genuinely nice to Haley, and all but admits that she's interested in Lucas.  She also encourages Haley to go for it with Nathan if she wants to, and that she doesn't need Lucas's permission.  But then Haley has to do that Breakfast Club shit where she goes and brings up how it's weird that they're talking like friends but they never would be that way in school.  The hilarious part is that Peyton's basically like, "Yeah," confirming that she would never talk to Haley in front of people.

Former alcoholic Keith is drinking because Dan got to him.  We think having Dan as a brother pretty much warrants being an alcoholic.  Deb decides to get completely nosy and talk to Keith about his feelings for Karen.  Keith responds with his own amount of shameless meddling and asks why Deb puts up with Dan's shit. She doesn't really give an answer, other than they have a son together.

Nathan and Lucas are bonding, no doubt about it.  And Nathan totally gets all the clever points for this episode when he pulls out the car key from his pocket, meaning he threw the keychain with nothing on it and left the hick kids to look for it.  So they go to steal the car, yell rude things to the bullies, and then, as we saw, they realize the car is completely stuck in the mud.  So they run off.

Haley siphons gas from a parked car because the gas station is closed (gas stations close?) and Peyton makes a fantastic blow job joke.  Lucas and Nathan bond again.  Nathan tells Lucas to consider himself lucky that Dan didn't raise him.  He tells sad stories about how hard Dan was on him, and how he kicked him in the ass in front of everyone during a Little League baseball game because he didn't agree with Nathan walking one of the batters.  No wonder Nathan grew up to be the worst.  Meanwhile, Keith is hammered at this dinner thing, so Karen decides to leave and bring him home.  Dan keeps making the most terrible comments, and Keith goes ahead and tries to punch him in the face, but he's drunk as hell, so Dan just moves aside and Keith goes flying.  It's pretty embarrassing.  The comical thing is how completely unperturbed Dan is.

Lucas and Nathan decide to "take these fools on" whatever the hell that means, and we really can't imagine why, because it now has to be about one in the morning, and why don't they just want to go home?  Deb gets pissed at Dan for only worrying about how the fight with Lucas will affect Nathan getting scouted.  Now continuing home, Haley tells Peyton, "He cares about you, you know," which is when Peyton decides they really need music, because she can't listen to this girl act like she knows her for a second longer.  And cue the whole deal where she swerves, Brooke wakes up, and doesn't remember inviting Haley to ride home with them.

Keith is literally a drunk fool talking to Karen at home about how he wants to be a good guy for Karen.  Keith!!! You are the ultimate Good Guy!  You are the OG Good Guy of Tree Hill!  What are you talking about?!  And then he goes and says, "I love you" to Karen, but everyone knows that if you're drunk as hell you can say anything you want and you can't be held responsible for it.  So we'll see how that works out when he wakes up.

And cue the aforementioned terrible air instruments on Haley's part.  Brooke does that other Brooke thing where she says really awful things that everyone is thinking and goes, "This is so tragic.  You two don't actually think you're gonna be friends tomorrow, do you?" completing the Breakfast Club effect.  While Lucas and Nathan are continuing to bond, they hear a car approaching and assume it's the kids from the other school, so they square up, but it's really just the girls in Brooke's little bug car.  They all stare at each other in astonishment, wondering how the other group possibly ended up together.  

So the car ride home ends up being Peyton, Haley, Brooke, Nathan, and Lucas.  Can we just take a moment please?  This may well be the most awkward situation ever (or at least so far, because this show has a tendency to make you squirm).  Nathan and Peyton just broke up, Nathan and Lucas hated each other until five minutes ago because they have the same dad and Lucas has been in love with Nathan's girlfriend for years, Nathan and Haley have a weird thing going on that only started because Nathan was trying to mess with Lucas, Brooke just said something incredibly rude to Haley and Peyton who now both have somewhat acknowledged sadly that they won't be friends tomorrow, Nathan and Lucas are wondering if they'll be friends tomorrow, Brooke has to sit in between the two other girls weird boy situations when she's been shamelessly going after Lucas for weeks now to no avail because he loves Peyton.  Can you imagine?  

But here's the strangest part: the tone right now is not awkward.  A voiceover by Lucas begins, about fleeting moments that don't last.  Somehow it feels incredibly right to have these five people in the car together, because these are the characters we actually care about so far.  We like their stories, we want to know more, we feel for them and the relationships they have with each other.  There's so much tension there, but it's for good reasons, it's due to feelings of friendship and protection and love that's accompanied by a little fear.  So even though it's a terribly awkward situation on all accounts for a hundred different reasons, and every character is a little bit weirded out, they're also a little bit sad and a little bit scared and a little bit reflective, and that's the mood you feel instead.  And that, my friends, is the absolute genius of One Tree Hill.  

Times I Cried: 0.

Feelings Level: 8, since I became way more emotionally invested in all of the characters during this episode.

Plotline Believability: 7.  Painkillers?  Bullies from another school going that far to keep some rival players captive?  How terrible everything that Dan says is?

Season 1 Episode 5: "

The light is green, but Peyton is just sitting in her car, staring at it.  It's a dark, overcast day, and she looks both extremely angry, and extremely focused.  In Karen's Cafe, Lucas is admiring her newest comic in Thud magazine, one of changing street lights with the caption, "People always leave."  Back outside, a car pulls up and starts yelling at Peyton to move, as the light is still green.  Quirky Best Friend Haley comes into Karen's Cafe, and then leaves when she sees Lucas, but he follows her out.  It seems they've been avoiding each other since Nathan's party, and in an effort to put their fight behind them, Haley admits that she agreed to tutor Nathan if he would leave Lucas alone.  When the light turns red, Peyton immediately hits the gas as hard as she can.  The screech makes Lucas turn around outside the cafe to see her purposely run every red light on the main street.

*Gavin DeGraw theme song plays, we sing along*

Nathan and Needy Tim are shooting around, and Nathan seems to think that Peyton's dumping him was once again a temporary act.  Dan runs and shoots to score, claiming that he'll crush them at the Father Son game that week.  Oh, this should be good.  As if Dan reliving his high school basketball glory days wasn't bad enough when he was doing it through his son, now he has a "charity" event designed to give him the chance to pretend he's still seventeen, a star, and hasn't yet accidentally fathered two children.

Lucas apologies to Quirky Best Friend Haley, and asks her to let him handle Nathan and his cronies from now on, which means she can stop tutoring Nathan, but she refuses to break her promise to Nathan.  Cue the old eyebrow raise.  Some flannel-clad nobody in Karen's Cafe comes up to Lucas and shows him an article about the Scotts, and how both of Dan Scott's sons are now living up to his legacy.  He goes so far to refer to Dan as "your pop" and we really want to try whatever drug he might be on to forget that everyone has been pretending for seventeen years that Lucas appeared out of nowhere and has no relation to Dan.  Nathan and Dan aren't happy about the article either.  Deb mentions that maybe Nathan and Lucas could get along if Dan encourages it, so we assume that she's either on drugs as well or has no idea who she is married to.

Nathan asks Peyton if she's still mad, and she says no, they're just done.  Nathan has trouble comprehending this, and decides to ask Quirky Tutor Haley to help him.  Brooke approaches Lucas and does that flirting-bordering-on-sexual-harassment thing that she does so well, and when she walks away a few minutes later, he sees Nathan and Quirky Best Friend Haley walking into the Tutor Center together.  His Adam's apple is bobbing up and down, so we know he is angry.

Whitey asks Lucas who he might want to play in the Father Son game with, and encourages Lucas to participate.  Maybe it's because Whitey is old with a big belly and a gentle, deep voice, but everything he says just makes us like him more and more.  He seems to have a genuine concern for Lucas, one of the few characters in this show who have shown any care for another person so far.  It seems like Whitey is just psyched to have another person who hates Dan just as much as he does, so he encourages Lucas to play just to beat him.  During cheerleading practice on the other side of the gym, Peyton throws a bitch fit so huge that the whole team and Whitey stare.  Brooke assumes it's because she and Nathan broke up, but Peyton just yells that it's about how pointless the entire Popular-cheerleading-basketball routine is.  

In the auto shop that night, Lucas asks Good Guy Uncle Keith to play in the Father Son basketball game, a move that solidifies his intended surrogate father role.  You can tell how touched Good Guy Uncle Keith is, so it's actually a nice moment, until Dan comes in on some jank bicycle and asks Keith to oil it up for him, completely ignoring Lucas's presence, something he is well practiced at.  When Keith tells him he's playing with Lucas in the Father Son game, he tells Lucas that he has a responsibility to the family name now on the basketball court.  Lucas tells him he isn't his father, and Dan responds that he agrees that Lucas never should have had the family name.  The writers of this show really do a fantastic job in making sure that there is no possible way to like Dan, yet it's almost comical how truly awful he is.  There is no redemption for this character so far; the audience is forced to despise him.  Lucas tells Uncle Keith that he's changing his last name, so as to truly be free from Dan.

Dan goes to talk to Whitey.  If I were Whitey, I would have figured out a way by now to get a shock collar locked around Dan's neck and set the boundaries in front of my office.  He comes around far too much for someone who seems to hate the coach.  Dan asks Whitey if he thinks it's wise that Keith play with Lucas, and Whitey tells him he has to acknowledge his mistakes, because it's Dan who should be embarrassed that his son is playing with someone else.  

There's a super boring scene of Karen and Lucas playing mini golf on the course he built with Quirky Best Friend Haley.  She tells him that she gave him the Scott name because Dan briefly wanted to get married to Karen, but then never showed up when Lucas was born.  She reminds Lucas that Good Guy Uncle Keith (Good Friend Keith to her) is a Scott as well.  

Peyton is sitting in the cemetery, struggling to light a cigarette.  Whitey finds her, and begins to talk to her about her mother, who used to be a cheerleader for his team as well.  As soon as Peyton's eyes well up, ours do too.  He explains to Peyton that he came to the cemetery to visit his wife.  Cue the waterworks.  Whitey assures Peyton that when they speak to the people they lost, they are definitely listening.  It is the most heartwarming, yet heart-wrenching scene of the show so far.  It is revealed that this week is the anniversary of both Peyton's mother's death, and Whitey's wife, Camilla's, death.  Something about Whitey's soft demeanor and a vulnerability we haven't quite seen in Peyton before now makes this episode's Feelings Level go right up.  This friendship is unexpectedly perfect.  

Mark Schwahn and the other writers of the show realized that they needed to reveal more of what made Peyton who she is after the first few episodes aired.  The audiences watching the show at the time seemed to absolutely hate the character, after she was so bitchy to Lucas most of the time.  The writers knew there was so much more to Peyton that they were going to work towards, but when the audiences failed to relate to her, they brought out her past tragedies, starting in this episode.

Nathan talks to Quirky Tutor Haley about how he's worried about how hard Peyton seems to be taking the breakup, and then gets mad when she tries to tell him what he did wrong.  We have to agree with Nathan here, because Haley has demonstrated a certain need to tell other people exactly what they've done wrong in the most condescending tone.  

Later, Peyton is back in her car, sitting again at a green light.  This time, Lucas jumps in the car at the last minute, worried about her, right before she speeds through five or six red lights all in a row, causing other cars to lay on their horns or swerve around.  Peyton explains that she lost her mother when she ran a red light on the way to pick a young Peyton up from school.  She dismisses Lucas from the car, even when he offers to stay with her.  

Dan visits the auto shop.  He gets in a fight with Good Guy Uncle Keith over how Keith apparently has no right to be playing in the Father Son game, and says once again that Lucas does not deserve the Scott name.  Good Guy Uncle Keith comes up with a fantastic line assuring Dan that he and Lucas are just as ashamed of Dan as he is of them.

Aaand, Peyton is walking through a crowded boys' locker room as they are all showering.  Nathan obviously assumes she is there for him, because apparently she used to join him in showers all the time, and even Lucas looks like he's about to say something, but she goes into Whitey's office and asks him to talk.  Nathan is back with Quirky Tutor Haley, and she encourages him to talk about Peyton.  He admits that he treated her badly, and that the breakup was his fault.  He notes that he's talked more to Quirky Tutor Haley than he ever did to Peyton, then invites Haley to come to the Father Son game.  Raised eyebrows.  Haley tells Nathan that she'll come to the game if he gets higher than an 81 on his exam, because the best motivation is a girl in a poncho coming to watch you play a charity game against your washed-up dad.

Peyton and Whitey are chatting again, so this time we got tissues ready.  Whitey tells her that the only time he comes close to regretting all his years of coaching is when he thinks of all the more time he could have spent with his wife before she died.  He tells Peyton that he knows her mother is proud of her.  And so Whitey is the best, especially in episodes not featuring Perfect Jake.

We were a little distracted during this next scene because Haley is still wearing her hideous poncho, but we're pretty sure that she is trying to impress upon Lucas that she loves tutoring and helping people and she doesn't want to give up being able to do that for Nathan, but she also would put her friendship with Lucas above almost anything else.  Most importantly, she promises that she is just tutoring Nathan, nothing more.  Later, after practicing for the Father Son game, Keith urges Lucas to think carefully before he changes his name.  At home, Nathan is lifting weights as usual, and he complains to his mom about how much pressure Dan puts on him, but how he has to continue to play for his father.  This is hard for me to understand, because I was one of those kids who were less inclined to do something the more my parents wanted me to do it.  I thought everyone was like that.

Lucas finds Peyton drawing sketches while leaning on a bridge (?).  We find out that Peyton's father is the captain of a dredging boat, and is therefore almost completely absent.  TV shows always find the most creative ways to keep parents out of the picture so that teenagers can do reckless things and they don't have to pay an extra actor, but in this case, it's actually important to Peyton's character that she really doesn't have anyone around.  Good Guy Lucas as usual has kind words, and she thanks him before walking away.  He tries to call her back but she turns and says, "Don't ruin it, okay?"  Unexpectedly cute.

To make a long story short, Deb tries to tell Dan that he is pushing Nathan too hard.  Dan disagrees.  Are you surprised?  He even goes so far to basically tell her that the days he spent playing basketball were better than having Deb and Nathan, but we're paraphrasing.  Speaking of asshole Scott men, Nathan comes to visit Peyton in her room.  He tries to tell her that he wants to get back to the good times they used to have.  When she tells him she's been dealing with stuff, he says that he has too, and starts complaining that his mom wants him to hang out with her.  Needless to say, this is completely infuriating and therefore genius on the writers' part.  Even if Nathan had no idea what time of the year Peyton's mother died, what type of person complains about their mother to someone who doesn't have one?  Every time we see a glimmer of hope for Nathan when he's briefly nice to Quirky Tutor Haley or even his mom for a moment, he ruins it when he talks to Peyton.  And the best part is he's completely oblivious to how terrible he sounds.  He asks her to come to the game and hang out with him after.  

Nathan shows Haley his 84 on his test, and looks smugly over at Lucas when she hugs him.  Nathan, you suck, but well played.  Dan mocks Keith in the locker room, but Keith comes in hot with a great line to another father about how he's just standing in because one of the players doesn't have a father.  The boring basketball stuff begins.  Dan is taking everything extremely seriously.  Peyton isn't at the game, but instead running through all the red lights once more.  The important thing to gather from the game is that the Sons are killing the Fathers, and the game turns into a huge joke, with the kids just mocking the adults and having fun.  Since it's a charity game, this is presumably what it's supposed to be like, but Dan goes ahead and ruins everything as usual by taking it way too seriously.  At halftime, he goes into the players' locker room and threatens Nathan that he better bring his best game.  Good Guy Uncle Keith comes in to diffuse the situation.  

Peyton finally almost gets hit, and she slams on the brakes.  She sits in the middle of the intersection crying.  This scene is so brief that it takes a moment to sink in, but the image of her sitting alone in the car crying is resonant.  

Back at the game, Lucas is angry at Haley for talking to Nathan, and says that he doesn't believe that there's nothing going on.  The announcers decide to make things fun and make the score 0-0, so the next basket wins the game.  I didn't know the announcers had the power to do this, but I guess when it's for charity, nobody gives a shit.  Dan gets competitive, and knocks Nathan to the floor to keep him from scoring the winning basket.

Lucas comes in to help Nathan to his feet, and Nathan decides he's going to beat Dan.  He turns the ball over on purpose, and Dan scores.  He tells Dan that he simply does not deserve Nathan's best game, and that Dan didn't beat him at all.  It's a twist, and most definitely the best way to put Dan Scott to shame.  Lucas and Good Guy Uncle Keith have a nice moment where Lucas says that he's proud to have had Keith as a father, and that he's going to keep the Scott name for him.  

Nathan sees Peyton after the game.  Apparently he believes that she's been there the entire time, because he was playing basketball and therefore had no regard for anything around him, just himself, and, this time, his horrible father.  She abruptly asks him if he knew that her mother died on that day seven years ago.  Nathan seems genuinely regretful that he didn't, and he asks her why she came, if not for him.  She walks towards Lucas, but then walks past both of them.  She goes back to the street with all the red lights while Lucas gives a voiceover of a fantastic John Steinbeck quote, but this time she waits for the green as she drives through.  

Times I Cried: 3.  First Whitey and Peyton conversation in the cemetery, second Whitey and Peyton conversation on the bridge, and at the end when Peyton is crying in her car.

Feelings Level: 8.

Plotline Believability: 9.  Nothing that couldn't easily happen in reality, though we hate believing that there are people like Dan Scott out there.

Season 1 Episode 4: "Crash Into You"

We're eased into this episode with a nice view of Chad Michael Murray's arm muscles as he washes his hair in the shower, but soon, the water is shut off, because Karen forgot to pay the water bill.  This is the type of thing that often happens in single-parent households on TV shows, and is something the characters always take in stride.  It provides a nice added view of Lucas and Karen as characters - neither are surprised that Karen forgot to pay the water bill, and both are easygoing about the mistake - as well as a contrast to Nathan's home, where this never would have happened, and if it had, he probably would have been a disrespectful, whiny jerk to his father about it.

Speaking of Nathan's home, the next scene introduces Deb.  She's immediately explaining a savvy business deal that enabled her to come home from her trip early.  She has a put-together, suburban mom haircut and a demeanor that has us convinced she pays someone else to pay her water bill for her.  Nathan immediately blows her off for warm-ups, and nas he leaves, Dan reminds him that Lucas can't score if he doesn't have the ball, which is really the writers reminding us that Dan is a jerk and a selfish player, and is basically training Nathan to be the same.

Whitey notices this behavior right away and calls them out; he has no patience for their hatred of each other showing in the game.  He's a no-nonsense kind of coach, probably one of the most relateable characters, because he often voices all of the frustrated thoughts we have towards the Scott brothers and Dan.  On the sidelines, Brooke mentions a party Nathan is having after the game, and makes a few comments about Peyton being into Lucas, because they're both so Broody and could therefore Brood together (Broody Lucas and Angsty Peyton, it's like Brooke's reading our mind).  Nathan can't get open, so his needy best friend Tim is forced to pass to Lucas.  Nathan is furious at Needy Tim for passing his brother the ball, and Dan isn't even talking to Nathan because of it (really?!).  

Nathan tells Lucas he's invited to his party, because he's part of the team and that it will be a long season if they don't deal with that.  He's acting genuine, but we've seen enough of Nathan (three episodes) to suspect it's not that simple.  

*Gavin DeGraw theme song plays, we sing along*

Lucas brings Quirky Best Friend Haley, who is forced to introduce herself to Nathan so that Lucas doesn't catch on that know each other through tutoring.  Needy Tim begs Peyton to convince Nathan not to be mad at him, and when Peyton sees Lucas pull up to the party, she's immediately worried for him.  So are we, Peyton, so are we.

A bunch of the Popular kids are looking at Peyton's anonymous comic and are extremely offended by it.  They start criticizing it, at which point Peyton heads for the keg.  The thing that struck me with this episode is how realistic the party was portrayed.  There was no Glee-like pretense that drinking was new to the kids, and there was no Gossip Girl-esque theatricality full of strippers, Scotch, and white collar drugs.  It's just a regular party at Nathan's beach house with a normal amount and type of alcohol for high school kids.  Nobody's doing table dances (looking at you, 10 Things I Hate About You), or trashing the entire house (every teen movie).  Like my high school experience, people are just thankful to have a place to get hammered, providing a level of believability that is hard to come by in a lot of episodes of this show.

At the Scotts' main house, Deb is frustrated by how much she's fallen out of touch with Nathan.  She brings up Lucas being on the team, and she really presents like someone who has her head screwed on straight.  She doesn't seem to hate Karen, and she seems more annoyed with Dan's obsession with basketball and pretending Lucas doesn't exist.

When Lucas walks by a group of Popular kids, they invite him to play "I Never" which in the real world is more commonly known as "Never Have I Ever."  Lucas needs this game explained to him, because prior to this point, he has never hung out with anyone besides his mother, Good Guy Uncle Keith, and Quirky Best Friend Haley, and it's hard to picture the Fantastic Four sitting around playing a drinking game usually based on sexual experiences.  Actually, it's not hard to picture.  It's actually kind of amusing to picture.  Try it.

Brooke is terrible at this game, because she is a caricature of a party girl.  Her character was originally created because the writers believed that the show needed someone for a little comic relief, what with Broody Lucas, Angsty Peyton, Asshole Nathan, and Holier Than Thou Haley, and she demonstrates that here.  She can't even think of anything she hasn't done for her turn, so Nathan takes over, and states, "I've never had a dad that wished I was a stain on the bed sheets."  This statement is a little odd, because Nathan was conceived when Dan and Deb were freshmen in college, so we're quite sure that Dan did in fact wish he were a stain on the bed sheets, he just stepped up the second time.  Lucas handles it well, and Peyton makes that face she makes when she remembers what a terrible person she is having sex with.

And that's why Peyton confronts Haley with the knowledge that she's tutoring Nathan and asks her to teach him "how to stop being such a jackass."  Haley agrees to this, because she is holier than thou, so she knows that if anyone can teach him this, she can.  And Peyton responds by telling Haley to be careful.  She's strangely nice to Haley, but also extremely above her at the same time, a classic case of Peyton being deep and reflective but with a constant bitchy undertone.  Haley tries to tell Lucas to consider talking honestly with Nathan, as she thinks that they just aren't communicating, and Lucas becomes understandably angry, because it's hard to believe that Lucas better communicating his feelings would have prevented Nathan from ordering Needy Tim to toss him in a lake.  So, on her way out, Quirky Tutor Haley reminds Nathan that he agreed to be nicer in exchange for her tutoring.

Lucas and a tipsy Peyton are chatting on the deck.  Nathan sees this and is not happy, probably because he knows Lucas has better skin than him and so is threatened by him.  He hands Needy Tim a videotape to play.  Lucas emotionally analyzes Peyton out on the deck, and she tells him that she doesn't need him.  Mark Schwahn, the creator and writer of the show, once said that he chose Hilarie Burton to play Peyton because he saw a lot of pain in her eyes that Peyton needed to have, and this is the first time you see it there.  Every episode seems to add another layer to Peyton over her initial bitchy, popular facade.  But their chat is cut short when Lucas hears his mother's voice coming from the video tape.  Nathan has put on an interview with Dan and Karen after they won Snow King and Queen in high school, in which Karen is talking about how they'll get married and have a happy family together.  So apparently Nathan's deal with Haley to be nicer to Lucas only applies when Lucas isn't trying to make Nathan's girlfriend fall in love with him.

Haley's been waiting for a cab this whole time, so Nathan goes and talks to her.  He tells her he thinks it would be easier if he weren't even on the team.  It's hard to miss that he is far more honest and genuine with Quirky Tutor Haley than he has been with any other character so far.  He offers her a ride home in Peyton's car.

Deb goes to talk to Dan about how unhappy she is with Nathan's behavior and the pressure Dan puts on him, but Dan immediately turns it around to say Nathan's problems are because she is always away on business.  Deb argues that she only does that because Dan always shuts her out when he makes everything in their house about basketball, and we believe her, because it's easy to believe that everything is Dan's fault.  

Brooke is drunk.  Peyton admits to Brooke that she's worried that they'll end up like Karen, Popular but eventually screwed because they let boys treat them like crap, but drunk Brooke helpfully points out that Peyton is the only one doing that.  Points to Brooke for calling her friend out, because someone has to do it.  Part of Brooke's intended comic relief seems to be saying things that no one else is saying, sometimes as a catalyst to the plot.  She's helpful in that way.

In the car with Quirky Tutor Haley, Nathan explains that he can't mess up his basketball career, because it will destroy Dan, who in turn will destroy him.  He begs Haley to continue to tutor him, because it's the only way he will pass.  We hate the dumb jock routine, but Nathan's potential ulterior motives make this way more interesting than that archetype usually is.  Nathan drops Haley off, and as Lucas is driving home, he sees Peyton's car swerving and speeding past him.  As a Good Guy, he follows out of concern, to see Nathan crash it into a parked car, and then into a light post.  Right in front of Lucas, he leaves the car there, daring him to call the cops, because he knows the blame will either go on Peyton, as the car's owner, or on Lucas, since he's the only one near the car.  Nathan is not only an asshole, but also a mastermind for how he is going to get away with his asshole tendencies - a young Dan.  

Good Guy Uncle Keith is furious when Good Guy Lucas brings Peyton's car into the auto shop, essentially breaking the law for a girl, but Good Guy Uncle Keith fails to realize that he is the one who taught Lucas to be such a Good Guy.  Lucas says he will do the work himself and pay for the materials himself (and he still claims not to be in love with Peyton?  What?).  But to top off a terrible night for Lucas, he finds Quirky Haley's hideous hat in the back of the car Nathan was driving.

Deb inexplicably wants coffee at about one in the morning, and goes to Karen's Cafe to get it.  Karen accuses her of spying for Dan (spying on what, Karen?  Your biscotti?), but Deb insists that she just wanted Karen to know that she thinks she did a great job with Lucas, and that she wishes she could have that with Nathan.  She acknowledges the awkwardness, but says that it doesn't have to be awkward between herself and Karen.  Deb seems like a class act, but we're reserving judgment.  

Peyton and Nathan get in another one of their little spats over the tape he played and her comic strip, and about the fact that he took her car and she's been waiting around to go home.  He lies and says that he let Tim take it to drive some girl home, because he knew Peyton was just going to sleep in his bed anyway.  But Peyton sleeps on the couch, because when your boyfriend is a jerk, winning an argument is worth having a terrible night's sleep on a couch in a miniskirt.

Lucas angrily yells to Karen about how awful Nathan and Dan just run around town, screwing over everyone in their path, and how he and his mother have to just take it.  The next morning, Peyton answers the door when Needy Tim comes by, and so figures out that Tim wasn't really the one who took her car.  Lucas apologizes to his mother for the night before, so in four episodes he has apologized to his mother more times than brattier kids do in their entire lives.  He explains again how he just hates that they get away with everything, including Dan not giving Karen any money, because Lucas is kind of tired of getting the water shut off in the middle of his showers (valid).  But they come to the agreement that it was better that Dan never gave them money, because then he never would have gotten the chance to ruin Lucas the way he ruined Nathan.  We agree, because Nathan is a hot mess of a man.

Turns out Keith called Deb and told her what Nathan did to Peyton's car the night before, and how he tried to frame Lucas.  Dan didn't hear the words "scoring average," so he blows it off with, "I'll talk to him."  Deb says she's going to work less, presumably to use the extra time to try to fix her awful son.  Nathan comes by the auto shop to offer to pay for all the work, but Lucas says he doesn't want their money, and to stay away from Quirky Best Friend Haley and her hideous hats.  

When Nathan goes to tell Peyton when her car will be ready, she breaks up with him.  She's about ready to write a five paragraph essay about what an ass he is, citing supporting evidence of how he treats Needy Tim, how he treats Lucas, and how he's about to play Haley.  Once again, he says about ten offensive things.  Since they've apparently broken up about forty-five times before the show started, he doesn't take it very seriously, but this time she says, "I mean it!" so it's probably different this time.

Little montage of Haley, Nathan, Peyton, and Lucas all doing some good self-reflection.  Lucas goes to make up with Haley, with a huge guilt routine about how they can always be honest with each other, and when she agrees, he hands her the hat she left in the car with Nathan.  Well played as always, Lucas!

Times I Cried: 0

Feelings Levels: 5

Plotline Believability: 9.  The party was realistic, and the believability rating was previously held back by the fact that Peyton basically hated her boyfriend but made no move to get away from him.

Season 1 Episode 3: "Are You True?"

Like the first two episodes, this one starts in the middle of basketball, this time in the main gym during a varsity game.  The Ravens are tied.  When Nathan gets the ball, he is double-teamed, so he sends off this awful shot, which Perfect Jake rebounds and passes to Lucas.  Lucas scores a three-point shot at the buzzer, keeping the Ravens undefeated.  A bunch of people Lucas has never spoken to congratulate him.  After the game, one of the other mothers, Sherry, approach Karen and Good Friend Keith and invites Karen to join the booster club, but implies that Karen wouldn't be able to since she runs her cafe by herself.  Karen says she will, and Sherry tells her they meet at 6.

When Nathan gets out of the locker room, it seems that Dan has waited around the whole time Nathan was showering and packing up his things just to make some nasty comment and then leave.  Lucas gets in his car to find Peyton's slutty, party girl best friend, Brooke, sitting in her underwear in his backseat.  Mental note made that this takes at least a point off of this episode's overall believability factor, but we get a good idea of Brooke's character as she continues to strip.  And we get a great moment of Whitey as he stops by to tell Lucas to get to the weight room after school, and then helpfully points out that he has a half-naked girl in his car.  Good Guy Lucas keeps averting his eyes from Brooke, and she asks him how it feels that everything has now changed for him, and he's now going to be popular. 

*Gavin DeGraw theme song plays, we sing along*

Nathan's laying on Peyton's bed, bitching about how everyone thinks Lucas is a big star and how his dad is going to get on his case.  He notices that something's different with her room, but when she tells him it's because she took her sketches down, he responds, "What sketches?" You almost have to laugh because it's astonishing that someone could actually give that few shits about his girlfriend.

Quirky Best Friend Haley, who had to work for Lucas's mom, waits in the cafe until Lucas comes to tell her his good news.  He asks if she wants to go see the Burning Boat, whatever the hell that means, and for some reason she answers in a British accent.  Karen is eating dinner with Good Friend Keith by the river court, angry about how Sherry made several underhanded digs while inviting her to join boosters.  Good Friend Keith, always wise, tells her to let it go.  

Peyton is in her room, listening to music and drawing, because that's what Peyton does.  She gets a message on her answering machine from Thud magazine, saying that they are interested in the sketches that Lucas dropped off.  

We find out that the Burning Boat is a big boat that you can put items in all week, and that is set on fire at the end of the week, to symbolize fresh beginnings and the burning of "bad karma, bad luck, or bad choices."  Seems like something a lot of people in this show could use.  A boy comes up to Quirky Best Friend Haley and thanks her for her help tutoring him because he got a B+.  He calls her a miracle worker.  After he walks away, Lucas tells Haley he's burning the "Scott" that he ripped off the back of his jersey.

In school, people keep congratulating Lucas on how great he was in the last game.  While Nathan is glaring at Lucas, he takes notice of how Quirky Best Friend Haley is always hanging around.  Peyton comes up and, in Full Bitchy Peyton Mode, yells at him for submitting her sketches to Thud Magazine without asking.  This seems pretty valid, but I think that the audience is supposed to think Good Guy Lucas did it for her own good.  Brooke comes up and asks Lucas for her bra, so when they walk away, Peyton asks Brooke about her being partially naked in Lucas's car.  Brooke explains to Peyton that Lucas is a Good Guy, and didn't do anything but drive her home.  

Later, after practice, Lucas is showering and someone steals his towel and all of his clothes.  He is forced to walk into the hallway with basketballs covering all that he prefers to keep concealed, and Whitey sees him, completely unperturbed.  Lucas talks to Good Guy Uncle Keith about how things are changing for him, and how the team is hazing him.  Good Guy Uncle Keith tells him they do it to everyone, and to show them he can take it, unless it gets "completely out of hand".  This is all well and good, except we're sure it's going to get completely out of hand.

Whitey tells Nathan he's changing his position.  Dan gets super pissed that Whitey gave Nathan's spot to Lucas, and we can tell how cut up he is about it because he's drinking a glass of Scotch alone in his living room.  Dan tells him that he wants better for him than just working for him at the car dealership he owns.  The next morning, he tells Nathan that Whitey is just doing this to Nathan to get back at Dan, convincing us that Dan is truly the most narcissistic man to ever be on TV.  He tells him to treat Lucas like competition for his spot, and to attack him.  He literally uses the word "attack" referring to his own son.

Nathan convinces a few of the other players that Lucas should be made to suffer, so that he can earn his spot on the team.  They've filled Lucas's locker with water, ruining all of his belongings.  Perfect Jake steps in to try to make Lucas feel better, and lend him extra practice clothes.  Nathan enters the Tutor Center and asks Haley for help, but she says no, because she's Quirky Best Friend Haley to Lucas, who hates Nathan.

Peyton is at Thud, discussing her work.  The editor tells her that she portrays high school as "tragic" and that it should be more cheerleader-happy-popular, essentially all the stuff Peyton secretly hates.  Brooke flirts outrageously with Lucas during class, and in the same class, Nathan receives his failing grade.  Peyton accompanies Brooke to get her legs waxed, and asks her why she's so persistent with her pursuit of Lucas, and Brooke admits she might want a real relationship.

Karen and Good Friend Keith have another boring conversation.  Karen decides to go to the booster club meeting, and finds out that Sherry told her the wrong time.  So high school.  It's super awkward because all the other mothers are trying to understand the Dan-Lucas-Nathan-Karen-Nathan's mother situation.  Karen is super classy about it until they start being assholes, so she decides to bring up that Lucas is being harassed by their sons.  And then she goes ahead and calls Sherry a bitch, so she's apparently not trying to make friends, since she has Good Friend Keith.

When Lucas arrives at the river court that day, it's been trashed.  So it just got personal.  While he's scrubbing the backboard that they spray-painted, Peyton shows up.  She tells him she's not doing the comic strip for Thud, and he accuses her of just being scared, but she explains that it's because the editor wanted her to change it, and she thanks Lucas anyway.  He asks why she stays with Nathan, and she says it's because sometimes it's good, and sometimes there's no one else.  Eyebrow raise from us.  

Nathan calls Haley at the cafe to ask for help again and she blows him off. Not knowing that it was Nathan on the phone, Karen tells her to look for the best in a person, give people the benefit of the doubt, and all that.  Perfect Jake comes into Good Guy Uncle Keith's auto shop while Lucas is working with him on a car.  He says he wasn't there when the team trashed the river court, but apologizes anyway.  He asks Lucas to take the high road, and tells him he has Lucas's back.  Ugh, so perfect.  Lucas complains to Haley about how nothing is going to make Nathan back off from him, and Haley gets that face that tells you she's considering something important.  

Montage of Peyton thinking about the comic strip, Haley wondering if she should help Nathan, the other women glaring at Karen, Lucas cleaning up the river court, and Nathan looking at Lucas during practice for some reason.  Haley is waiting for Lucas outside a movie theater, but about a block away, he's kidnapped by a bunch of boys on the team.   After tying him up, they toss him in the shallow, muddy part of the lake.  He gets untied easily, so they weren't actually trying to kill him or anything.  That's a relief.  Nathan gets out of the car like a mob boss after the other boys did the dirty work, and tells him if he doesn't quit the team, it'll "get ugly."  Because being thrown in mud isn't considered ugly in Tree Hill, just like stealing a school bus and driving it drunk gets you no more than a warning.

When he gets home, still muddy as hell, he talks to his mom, even before he changes out of the soaked jeans that just can't be comfortable.  She tells him she hasn't really been taking the high road with the other mothers, and he says he's going to start fighting back against the team.  He fights with the team during practice, to Whitey's displeasure.  Lucas talks to Quirky Best Friend Haley about it, but what I mainly got from this scene is that Quirky Best Friend Haley is wearing quirky pigtails.  She goes to Nathan's house and says she will tutor him if he agrees not to tell Lucas ever, and if he agrees to leave Lucas alone. 

The next morning, Nathan shows up to tutoring at the dock with coffee and Cracker Jacks.  He finds a plastic bracelet in the Cracker Jacks box and gives it to Quirky Tutor Haley.  She shuts him down and tells him not to bother trying to charm her because she doesn't trust him.  

Peyton gives the editor her sketches, and says to take it or leave it, how it is.  Later, the Burning Boat festival is finally happening.  Whitey is doing the announcing of it, probably because everyone loves him.  Karen apologizes to Sherry and the other mothers, and basically asks for a fresh start.  Whitey talks about how great it is to have a chance to start over, after the boat is set on fire.  Brooke starts hitting on Lucas once again, and Good Guy Lucas tells her she doesn't have to act "like this," I guess meaning she doesn't have to be so damn shameless.  She wishes him luck "trying to resist."  Lucas also approached Nathan and tells him he's not going anywhere.  

At the end, Lucas quotes e. e. Cummings, because he is so well-read.  He goes to talk to Quirky Best Friend Haley and compliments the Cracker Jack bracelet.  The editor of Thud leaves a message for Peyton that they are running her comic strip.  Haley lies to him about where she was that morning, and who she was tutoring.

Times I Cried: 0

Feelings Level: 5.

Plotline Believability: 7.  Brooke is insane, and I'm not sure how common it is in real life for kids to gladly throw other kids, tied up, into water, but this is North Carolina, so who knows.

Season 1 Episode 2: "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most"

We're back at the river court.  Lucas tells his friends there that they don't have to come to his first real high school basketball game, and after the group conversationally works in a nice little recap of everything that happened in the first episode, it's decided that they're definitely coming to the game.  On the other hand, Karen decides not to go, presumably so she doesn't have to see Dan, but Good Guy Keith and Quirky Haley go to support Lucas because they love him and everything.

After yet another awkward moment when Whitey calls out "Scott!" and then has to clarify that he means Lucas (are first names really that horrendous?), he gives Lucas his uniform and tells him he'll be fine.  Mouth and Jimmy show up and decide that they're going to be sports announcers on a new website to broadcast during Ravens games.  During warm-ups, there's a truly awful moment where Dan says, "Son!" and Lucas actually turns around.  

And here, we meet Brooke, Peyton's sultry fellow cheerleader and best friend, who makes a comment about Lucas being hot.  Whitey tells Lucas, "Destiny has a way of finding you," which is weird, because I thought that was pretty much the definition of destiny, but I don't mind, because Whitey's clearly on Lucas's side, so we like him.  In the first play of the game, Lucas misses a pass, and it almost hits Peyton, so we're also treated to the great exchange of Peyton nastily saying, "Nice hands," to which Lucas responds, "Nice legs."  More clever points for Broody Lucas.  To make a long story short, Lucas continues to suck throughout the game, until Whitey pulls him.  

*Gavin Degraw theme song plays, we sing along*

Nathan and Peyton are making out in Nathan's car really close to the river court.  There are no people at the court, but we wonder if Nathan purposely parked there to get busy with his girlfriend in case Lucas showed up after the game.  It seems like something he would do.  But while they're making out, Nathan keeps laughing, because, while feeling up a girl, he is thinking about how badly Lucas played in the game (???).  Peyton seems surprised at how happy Nathan is about Lucas sucking, and then Nathan gets all mad back, asking if she likes Lucas or something.  She says no, but we're forced to raise our eyebrows there.  So then Nathan says rude things, Peyton gets out of the car, and Nathan asks her to get back in.  We immediately assume it's going to be one of those scenes that shows up in many TV shows and movies where the boy has to drive slowly down the street next to the girl while she's walking, begging her to get in the car, but then we remember it's Nathan, so he just throws her pom-poms and "lame" music out the window and peaces out.  Class act.

Karen admits to Good Friend Keith that she wishes she had come to the game, but she couldn't go back to that gym.  Lucas is playing at the river court now - yes, this is still the same night - and Peyton shows up and says some really Angsty shit.  She tells him he's just a game, but still manages to be bitchy.  He offers her a ride home.

Dan's reviewing the game tape, and when Nathan finally gets home after abandoning his girlfriend, it's to his father criticizing everything he did in the game.  We find out Nathan's mother is away on business a lot.  

Lucas pulls up to Peyton's house, and she turns and asks if she can ask him something, so we have to wonder why she just spent the whole ride in silence and NOW wants to talk, but we're more relieved that Lucas isn't the type to respond with, "You just did."  After she asks why he left the river court, he says it's because he wants to know if he's good.  Peyton says the whole thing is a waste of time, and goes on with Angsty stuff about how she kind of hates cheerleading but doesn't want to be a fraud.  She asks, "Do you want to come in?" and when he comes up to her door, she clarifies that she wasn't inviting him in, she was just asking if he wanted to.  Raise eyebrows, Peyton's super bitchy.

Nathan calls Peyton and gives a pretty decent apology for leaving her stranded.  She forgives him reluctantly, but writes, "It's not ok" on her drawing.

The next day, the English teacher is trying to teach Hemingway's use of few words in his writing, so he asks Peyton to describe Lucas in one word.  Nathan and the Popular kids are there, so she does her bitchy thing and says, "Choke."  GIggles in the classroom.  The English teacher decides that he doesn't give a shit that his lesson plan is poorly conceived and now hurting the feelings of his students, so he invites Lucas to respond.  Lucas describes Peyton as, "Lonely," so the class has to go, "Oooh."  Nathan, even though no one asked him, describes Lucas as, "Bastard," so Lucas has to dive on him and they get in a fistfight in the middle of English class.

Whitey is pissed, obviously.  Lucas says he doesn't think he should be on the team anymore.  In the locker room, Jake Jagielski is sticking up for Lucas to Nathan.  We immediately love him.  After practice, Lucas goes to see Quirky Best Friend Haley on this real quirky mini golf course  they built together, and says he wishes things would go back how they were.

Brooke and Peyton are hanging out.  The whole scene is just to characterize Brooke as silly and a bit conceited with a basic taste in music, because she likes Beyonce and thinks Gwen Stefani is a badass, which Peyton corrects, because Peyton is Angsty and therefore listens to REAL badass musicians.  It's also meant to show that Peyton is deeper than thou, because she once again brings up that she's not sure how much the cheerleading-basketball-Popular bit matters to her.

Lucas tells Good Guy Keith that he's not into playing on the varsity team anymore, because he doesn't fit in.  They're working on Peyton's busted car.  Lucas finds Peyton's sketches with a query letter she wrote to a magazine called Thud.  She finds him looking at them, and goes into full Bitchy Peyton Mode, but he's just impressed by how deep she really is, since he's Broody himself.

Dan yells at Nathan for getting in a fight, tells him that his girlfriend is unimportant, and only really cares that he isn't hurt.  Nathan tells Dan that Lucas was really swinging at Dan, not him.  Karen gets upset with Lucas too, but only because she raised Lucas to be a Good Guy, not someone who fights, and he retaliates with the fact that she didn't even show up to his game.  Out the window, he sees Peyton throw her sketches in the trash.  He apologizes to his mom, being a Good Guy, and they have a nice talk about how she was scared to go back to that gym, which is where Dan had told her he was leaving for college even though she was pregnant with Lucas.  

Dan tells Nathan that when he played for Whitey and he didn't agree with one of Whitey's decisions, he just sat out of the state championship and let his team lose instead.  So we're reminded that Dan is a jerk.  We think about how we probably would have killed Dan if we had been his teammates, but then we figure that his teammates probably went on to live full, happy lives that are not centered around their past basketball careers or their sons' scoring averages.  The point of this is that Dan tells Nathan not to listen to Whitey either.

Perfect Jake Jagielski befriends Lucas, because he is perfect.  He tells Lucas not to let Nathan push him around, because he has Nathan scared.  Back in English class, the teacher is still going on about this Hemingway thing, despite the complete failure of his last lesson, so he tells them all to write one word on a paper to describe what they want most in their life right now.  

Nathan goes to antagonize Lucas for a little while on the river court.  He tells Lucas not to bother showing up anymore so he doesn't humiliate himself further.  To our disappointment, Lucas indeed does not show to the next practice.  Peyton is picking up her car from Lucas at Good Friend Keith's auto shop.  He returns to her the sketches that he pulled out of the trash can.  She gives this really awesome speech about all the emotions she wants to draw - "I wanna draw something that means something to someone" - and says that she doesn't want to submit her sketches to Thud because if she can't be great at it, she doesn't want to ruin it, since it means too much to her to lose it that way.  Lucas is, of course, touched.

Dan goes to bug Whitey once again.  He thinks that Whitey is punishing Nathan for Dan sitting out in the state championship.  The shitty English teacher is looking at all of the responses for what the students want most in their life right now.  Peyton wrote "Truth" and we see her ripping down a bunch of art from her walls.  Nathan wrote "Revenge" and we see him lifting weights, because he doesn't do much else in his spare time.  Lucas wrote "Answers" and we see him at the river court, where Whitey visits him.  He talks to him about missed opportunities, and figuring out what he is afraid of so he can beat it, or use it to his advantage.  

Nathan is painting Peyton's toenails, which is something that boyfriends do for their girlfriends in TV shows, but I'm pretty sure would never happen in real life.  He tells her he's going to quit the basketball team, and she gets really excited and tells him that's perfect, because then she can quit the cheerleading team and they'll be together and Unpopular.  He laughs because he was completely kidding, and we feel really bad for Peyton because Nathan sucks.  

Lucas and Quirky Haley have a really quirky conversation where she tells him to figure out his porn star name using the name of his first pet and his mother's maiden name.  After this, he says he's not playing anymore, because he doesn't want to be "that person" whatever that means.  Later, he's looking at Peyton's sketches, and Karen comes in to tell him that she's going to come to the game, and that he should play.  He says he quit because he didn't want Dan to have any part of him.  He starts crying, and looks back at Peyton's sketches.  On his way to the game, he stops by Thud Magazine and asks the editor to look at her sketches.  What a Good Guy.

Dan is on Nathan's case as he leaves for the game.  Terribly awkward moment as Dan calls out to Lucas's back, "Son!" because he thinks it's just another player, and when Lucas turns around, he just asks Lucas to give Nathan's bag to him.  After he walks away, Perfect Jake comes and reminds Lucas not to let him "take it," meaning his talent, but making a reference to an Ayn Rand novel he recommended earlier.  Jake is still perfect, but we question who would recommend an Ayn Rand novel.

Lucas gives a great voiceover about not letting the hero inside of you disappear, etc.  Karen enters the gym bravely.  Peyton clearly does not want to be there cheering.  The editor at Thud is looking at her sketches.  As Lucas walks out, he tells Peyton, "Your art matters.  It's what got me here."  This marks the first time we are really hit in the feels since we started watching.  When Lucas turns around, we see that he has ripped the name "Scott" from the back of his jersey.  You go, Lucas.

Times I Cried: 0.

Feelings Level: 7.

Plotline Believability: 9.  Nothing too far-fetched here.