'One Tree Hill': Something so strong
Strength is the watchword on this week's episode of One Tree Hill, with everyone either having it, talking about having it, or talking about someone else having it. Hey, it's no wonder these characters are strong! Look at everything they've been through in the last six years. If they weren't strong, they'd be dead.
Caution: world's strongest spoilers below!
The Scott family is front and center this week as Jamie deals with a bully at school who makes fun of his ever-present cape. This bully ends up mocking the cape (and in turn mocking who the cape pays tribute to, Quentin) and pushing Jamie over the edge until he gets physical, pushing the bully. Jamie's new best friend Dan is there to pick up the pieces in the only way Dan knows how (which is disturbingly) telling Jamie that "Scott men are inherently better than most people" and idly threatening the bully's mother by letting her know he was in prison for murder. Holy inappropriate! Also, hilarious. Haley and Nathan try the more sane approach, telling Jamie to walk away when he is being bullied because that's what strong men do instead of fighting. When Haley runs into the bully's mother and she turns out to be just as much of a bully as her son, Haley has trouble following her own advice and calls the mother a bitch and then shoves her. Ha! Don't mess with the mama bird, or you'll get the talons. Nathan decides to take things in his own hands and has Brooke whip up enough capes for Jamie's entire class, bringing them to recess and basically telling the kids they'll be able to fly if they wear them. A bit shortsighted, but effective, this move makes Jamie the coolest kid in class. Buying friends for your kid, huh? I guess Nathan has a little bit of Dan in him after all. (I kid. It's actually pretty cute.)
Haley and Nathan have a little bit of strength of their own this week as they deal with their personal lives, with Nathan getting comfortable on a SlamBall court and Haley contemplating what happened with her music career. A heart-to-heart with Brooke (where she and Brooke both say how the other is the strongest person they know) and an encounter with a very good street musician make Haley realize what she was really missing in the music was fun, so she decides to take to the streets as well to find that fun. In the process she sings a wonderful little duet with the street musician (a.k.a. Grace Potter) and the song they sing is pretty awesome. And, according to the end credits, available at a legal downloading site near you! Product placement can be a good thing.
Brooke's strength is all about being tested this week as she deals with her new ward Sam. Sam tests her patience immediately by stealing her things, sneaking out and using her I.D. to drink at local bars, and sleeping in the auto shop despite having a room of her own at Casa Davis. Brooke is basically at the end of her rope and gives up on Sam to save her own sanity, but Sam's confession that a waitress at a local diner is Sam's long lost mother (and doesn't know it) causes Brooke to give her one last chance, this time as a formal foster child and with house rules enforced. Brooke also needs to be strong this week because old flame Owen shows up at her doorstep and slowly starts to weave himself back into her life, apologizing for bailing when she talked about wanting to be a mother. You see, he hates responsibility because he had a crappy childhood (who on this show DIDN'T, besides Haley?) and doesn't think he would be a good father. Owen serves what purpose, now? Oh, the please-take-off-your-shirt-and-stop-talking purpose. Right. I suppose he can stay, then.
Peyton and Lucas are all about being strong in their relationship this week, which is seriously tested when Peyton reads an article in B. Davis magazine that predicts people who move in together usually don't know each other well at all. Lucas refutes this notion, but Peyton thinks she's proven right when she doesn't know that Luke prefers french toast to pancakes and learns that he hates The Cure. Well, obviously they're just like strangers then! This ridiculous storyline does lead to one of the best little exchanges in show history when Luke calls The Cure "depressing and whiny" and Peyton retorts with "Yeah, and if it could squint it would be you." In this moment, Peyton wins at life. Forget everything I've ever said about her in the past. C.R. + P.S. = 4 EVER. In the end, Peyton and Luke's little feud escalates until they're (jokingly) living on opposite sides of the house just to prove a point. In the end, they meet in the middle and decide on waffles as their breakfast of choice, finally moving Peyton into the house for good and proving the stupid article wrong. All this story did was make me want to eat waffles while listening to The Cure. Mmm, waffles.
Providing the role of comic relief this week is Mouth, who's back in Tree Hill and ready to go back to his old station and ask for his job back. Because this is Tree Hill and not real life, they practically beg him to come back before he can even ask and even give him his own office and an intern. This intern turns out to be none other than Gigi, Mouth's inappropriately forward girlfriend and sportscasting partner from high school. My friends, Gigi got pretty hot. Well, hotter, because she was already pretty cute in high school. She's even more inappropriate than ever, saying all sorts of sexual things to Mouth and basically implying that all she does in college is bang dudes. Oh, and chicks too. I cannot handle a "two girls fight over Mouth Freaking McFadden" storyline. I just cannot. Someone please hold me until the lambs stop screaming.
What did you guys think? Are you happy to hear Haley sing again? Will Brooke be able to tame Sam? How about Owen's return - should Brooke take him back? And what do you think of Gigi's return?
Agree that Peyton's line was the best!! (And also because I love The Cure and couldn't believe Lucas didn't).
I kinda understand Brook and Haley wanted to enjoy music and fashion, respectively, but c'mon -- "I quit because it wasn't fun." ?? These people are under the mistaken impression that your career, whatever it is, is 24/7 fun and games. I don't care how much you love what you do, some time it is just freaking work!! (and I know what of I speak -- I have a great career that I love and have been at it for 13 years, but sometimes, it is NOT fun. That's just life.)
And arrgh, don't even get me started on Mouth. An unattractive dude whose voice and speech mannerisms are not even that great, and whose employment history has been spotty at best, gets begged to come back to his old job?? With perks? Gaack! I wanted them to tell him that they would hire him back ... but as an intern or custodian or something. I liked Mouth okay back in the high school days, he had his purposes as a friend to Brooke, etc., but now he is just pointless!! Guess what, some times people go to college and then move away, for good. They don't ALL have to end up back in the same small town. Geez, right now besides the obvious 5, we've got Skills, Junk, Fergie, Mouth, and Gigi. And maybe Bevin and Tim. I actually like Millie, so let's let Mouth run off with Gigi and never be heard from again!