'One Tree Hill': Nick Lachey drops by

"One Tree Hill" has always loved its stunt casting. Tonight, for example, Nick Lachey dropped by to flirt with Haley and sing what I presume is his latest single. This begs the question, however: is it really stunt casting when the person cast barely makes a blip on the celebrity radar these days?

Although not forced to interact with C-list celebrities this week, Peyton is nevertheless still going stir crazy on bed rest. Meanwhile, instead of keeping his pregnant girlfriend entertained Lucas is busy with a "mystery project," which is totally the Comet restoration we discussed last week. While Luke is cleaning out the car, he finds artifacts from throughout his relationship with Peyton and flashes back to her last night in Tree Hill before she left for L.A. Wow, Peyton really, really needs to clean her car out more often. That stuff under her seats is all from before the five year time jump! Gross. The flashbacks are a bit overly cute, but I'll take flashbacks any day over manufactured medical dramas and superfluous car crashes, so hooray!

Also free from the Nick Lachey whirlpool are Sam and Victoria, who are getting closer and Brooke doesn't like it. She thinks Victoria has an angle, but Victoria's only angle seems to be "conniving as usual," considering she intercepts a letter to Sam from Sam's birth mother and shreds it rather than do the human thing and give it to Sam. When shredding, though, she doesn't make sure the entire thing goes through and Brooke sees it. See, Victoria's not just bitchy! She's also apparently a complete idiot! Brooke takes Sam to see her birth mom but looks quite worried about what the outcome will be.

And now, to the stunt casting! Mia's label wants to buy one of Haley's songs for another artist to record. The artist? Nick Lachey of course, who shows up in person to plead his case to get it on his album. Hee. Nick Lachey. This whole subplot really tickles me for some reason. Haley says no at first, but in the end gives him the green light to record the tune as long as she produces.

Scouts are interested in Nathan and he assumes they're NBA scouts but it turns out they're actually from European teams. Nathan is disappointed, but his coach rightly points out that a lot of good players go to Europe. Don't be a snob, Nathan! If you live in Europe you can drink really, really good coffee and eat delicious bread! That alone would make it worth it for me. (And why is it that most European bread is so much better than ours?) Nathan turns down the offer to hold out hope for his NBA dream.

Also in this episode: Jamie loses and then regains the girl of his dreams, Mia stresses over the news (to her, at least) that CHASE! lost his virginity to Brooke, and Skills makes headway with Jamie's teacher.

Random thoughts:

• Jamie's subplot of asking Madison to the dance was strange. Do six-year-olds have dances? And worry about coupling up at them? I don't have kids, I don't know these things -  but it seemed creepy to me.
• Peyton's blond flashback wig was pretty terrible. Was her hair curly or straight senior year? Does anyone remember? Either way, I don't think it looked anything like that ugly wig.
• The "Right Stuff" slow walk is totally overused these days, but I loved it when Skills and Jamie walked into the dance. Very cute.
• "Pictures of You" = one of the best songs ever. Love the continuous Cure love on this show.

What did you guys think?

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