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?
No comments:
Post a Comment