'One Tree Hill': Blasts from the past

The funniest thing about One Tree Hill's flash forward this season has been the way it messes with our minds. Suddenly, characters who have really only been gone for six months seem to have been off of our TV set for years, so when they return it causes creepily unearned celebration. At least, that's the excuse I'm using to explain why I screamed out loud at least two times in this episode when old friends from last season returned.

Beware: Spoilers below!

Now that we're in the spoiler zone, allow me to elaborate on the screaming sessions I referenced above...because BEVIN! And CHASE! Were on the show! And I was irrationally excited to see them both! Throw in a healthy dose of Rachel and it felt eerily like high school again. The best part about these blasts from the past (besides seeing Chase again, who, I must tell you in the interest of full disclosure, I have a highly inappropriate crush on) was seeing how their lives have evolved being apart from the regular Tree Hill gang. Bevin works at the local Macy's and is married and has a kid...named Nathan. Could it be that Dim Tim and Bevin are married? I think it's far too big of a coincidence to not be the case. Dim Tim and Bevin. That's a lot of stupid in one room. A lot of entertaining stupid, mind you, but still a lot of stupid. I fear for young Nathan. Chase, on the other hand, is a carpet salesman taking flying lessons to fulfill his high school dream of being a pilot. Did anyone from Tree Hill High go to college? The guidance counselors there are really dropping the ball if a smart kid like Chase is a carpet salesman. But he could sell me carpet any day. (Too much information? Sorry about that.)

OK, let me stop drooling over Chase, back up and explain everything that happened around these cameos because although seeing some welcome old faces was a treat, this was a very entertaining episode on its own. Lucas and Lindsey are preparing to get married by doing the time honored tradition of having bachelor and bachelorette parties. Since Nathan is currently on the outs with Haley and residing miserably on their couch, Lucas and Lindsey cook up a plan to get Nathan and Haley to speak by throwing their parties together and forcing Nathan and Haley to be in the same room. The party they end up throwing (at Nathan and Haley's ridiculously nice house) was planned by Skills and Jamie and sounds like the most fun party ever, if not the most traditionally hedonistic. Unless bachelor parties these days include moon bounces, silly string and Rock Band. I'm not quite on the up and up these days, this might be the newest craze. 

Jamie cutely and sadly spends the whole party trying to get Nathan and Haley to act like a family again by trying to compel them all to play Rock Band together, but Haley just isn't having it. Skills also gives her a stern talking to, and is all around awesome throughout the entire episode. He's more of a parent to Jamie than anyone else on the show, most days. In the end, Haley seems to have given up on their marriage completely because when Nathan tries to apologize again she doesn't even want to hear it and apologizes to him for ever trying to change him from the person she knew he was when they got married. Well, Nathan was a bad guy towards women before they got married, but since he put that ring on he's been pretty darn committed, if I remember correctly. He didn't go and, you know, kiss Chris Keller and run away to be on tour with him or anything. Not that I'm saying Haley doesn't have the right to be angry at Nathan for keeping Nanny Carrie's craziness from her, but Nathan hasn't really been unfaithful in their marriage. He's been a lot of other things, so if she wants to get mad at him for those things (like being lazy and not having a job) then fine, but this just seems unbelievable and unmotivated right now.

As for Brooke, she's busy helping Rachel settle into life in Tree Hill again and setting Peyton up on a blind date with Owen's friend. Owen's friend who turns out to be Chase. Hee. The amusement Peyton and Rachel get out of the situation is priceless, as is the scene in the car when Chase and Brooke explain to Owen how they know each other. Everyone seems quite relaxed with the whole situation, and Peyton and Chase have a friendly date where they exchange kisses two times in order to catch the attention of Lucas and Brooke, respectively. Brooke seems a bit flustered by Chase's presence but still committed to her relationship with Owen, which is highly mature and evolved of her. I didn't know people on this show were allowed to forget about their high school relationships.

After Victoria visits Rachel and basically shames her into leaving town and taking a large wad of Brooke's money with her, Brooke FINALLY calls Victoria out on her shameful behavior and the fact that she was never around for her until Brooke had something Victoria wanted, like a successful company. Victoria is so heartless and cold in these scenes, it's almost impossible to see her as a real person. Brooke gets her revenge by firing Victoria's icy butt and kicking her out of the store and her life. I'm sure this will come back to haunt Brooke somehow because God forbid someone get a true victory on this show, but it was really nice to see her finally standing up for herself. Yay, maturity!

And for the really big news of the night, Dan is free! And buying basketballs for Jamie! And sleeping with unsuspecting sporting good store employees! Oh, I can't wait for the moment he surprises everyone and shows his face in Tree Hill again. That is going to be glorious.

(There was also some nonsense about Mouth and Rachel and Millicent, but I fell asleep. But not before I saw Rachel hit on Mouth and reference their past at the motel in Honey Grove, implying they slept together back then. Is this new information? Did Rachel and Mouth really do the deed? Interesting.)

The episode ends on a montage perfectly set to the tune of Ryan Adams' "I Taught Myself How to Grow Old," and I must take a moment to apologize for giving the show such a hard time about Ryan Adams last week, because the use of this song in this moment is divine. All is forgiven, show. Just as the episode ends, we see Haley call Lucas and plaintively tell him he cannot marry Lindsey. What's that all about? I guess we'll have to tune in next week for One Tree Hills 100th episode to find out. I sort of can't wait.

What did you guys think? Wasn't it great to see some familiar faces? What do you think of Haley's decision to give up on Nathan? And how about Brooke finally taking a stand against awful Victoria?

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