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.
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