'One Tree Hill': Nightmares and dreamscapes

Nightmares dominated this week's episode and I can only say one thing: the image of Dan as a vampire is going to give me a few bad dreams of my own. Luckily this episode had enough humorous moments to offset any permanent damage to my psyche.

(Beware, blood sucking spoilers below...)

I'm pretty sure the nightmares only existed to give the CW promo department something to put in the previews, because the Nathan/Carrie kiss we saw at the end of last week's episode was nothing more than Haley's paranoid nightmare. Haley must have a little bit of motherly intuition, however, because as soon as we think she's being unreasonable for being suspicious of Carrie we see Carrie's true colors when she makes a suggestive remark to Nathan about his hot body. Real Carrie agrees with fictional Carrie that Nathan is a fine specimen of manhood, but fictional Carrie needs to step away from the married man. As Haley has shown in the past, she will throw down when necessary. They are going for a bit of a slow burn with this storyline which I appreciate, but I'm ready for some psycho Carrie action next week. Bring on the crazy! The crazy has been sorely lacking in this season thus far.

Now that Victoria has fully entrenched herself in Tree Hill, she seems to have decided to spend her free time getting rid of what she perceives to be Brooke's "free loaders," which are actually Brooke's friends who Brooke generously offered to help out of the kindness of her heart. She starts with Peyton's record label, showing up for Mia's first recording session demanding to hear what Brooke is paying for and generally being a rude person. She is a complete monster and scares Mia so much that she cannot perform properly, and Victoria storms off to tell Brooke they should pull their money out of Peyton's business. Brooke thankfully refuses, but Victoria just becomes more and more hateful until she finally calls Brooke stupid.  When Peyton stands up to Victoria and warns her not to put Brooke down, Victoria again calls Peyton a hanger-on. I'm not sure if Victoria realizes this, but Brooke's friends were there for her for years when Victoria was completely out of the picture, so she needs to shut it. Now.

Later on, Brooke has a wonderful dream where she spills her feelings to Victoria and Victoria responds with unwavering support and affection. Buoyed by the dream, Brooke goes to tell her mother her feelings for real, and Victoria coldly brushes her off. Poor Brooke. She is by far my favorite character this season. She's mature, kind, wise, smart, beautiful - the complete package. Hopefully the (very) cute bartender Owen that she met this week will turn out to be something good for Ms. Davis, because she certainly deserves it.

In addition to her label drama, Peyton is also still fully involved with Lucas drama. She goes to visit her old house and sees a drawing she did on her closet door that says "Lucas + Peyton True Love Always" and gets nostalgic, and angry.  Also, Lindsey accidentally overhears Peyton saying she doesn't like her very much, which causes Lindsey to rightfully call Peyton a bitch. Things really hit the fan, however, when Lucas shows up at her office to find out what is going on with her and they finally have it out over the proposal. It's a knock down drag out fight, and both blame the other for giving up on the relationship three years ago when Lucas proposed. Lucas insists Peyton said "no," and Peyton insists she said "not right now." It's a fantastic scene, and if we had to go through the tedious flashback episode last week it was completely worth it to get to this. It's the first time I've believed in their relationship since probably season one, and I hope this intensity level increases because Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton were really bringing out the best in each other during this scene. More, please! (Side note, though: shouldn't Lucas get rid of that ring he has in his drawer? He's just asking for trouble there!)

Skills was super cute this week, getting confused over what he should and shouldn't tell Jamie and playing Rock Band with him. One quibble, though. If a four-year-old can play guitar on Rock Band and get 100%, does that mean I'm hopeless? If I get half the notes right I'm happy.

Mouth was quite the afterthought this week, but it looks like things are heating up at work as he realizes just how deep the hole he's digging with his boss is about to get. They're obviously spinning this as a sexual harassment-type situation, but seeing as Mouth kissed her first and crossed the line, I'm calling shenanigans. Can't he just hook up with Millicent already?

The Quentin story is also chugging along, with Haley agreeing to let Quentin do some independent study work in order to maintain his grade and be allowed to play basketball. I'm not a huge fan of this story but it does give Nathan some nice moments and brings basketball to the show, and that makes me happy.

There were a number of hilarious lines this week, but for some reason the only thing I can remember is "Bitchtoria."  Hee.

What were your favorite lines this week? Also, will Nathan be tempted by Carrie? Are you excited about the prospect of a Lucas/Peyton reunion? Oh, and how about those previews for next week?

E-mail

• Digg
• Facebook
• Fark
• Yahoo Buzz
• Stumbleupon