'One Tree Hill': Haley's downward spiral

Haley is obviously still struggling with her mother's death and has almost completely checked out of her life in the process. She's not sleeping, she's either ignoring Jamie's needs or yelling at him and she completely blows off the shoot for her new music video. Oh, Hales. She admits to Nathan that she is sad, and he encourages her to use her music to sort through her pain. She instead chooses the musician combo of drinking, music, and fire (?), and sets her entire piano keyboard aflame and just watches it burn until Nathan comes in to put it out. She then says she has to go call her mother. Whoa. Is Haley going off the deep end here?

Alex sees Josh making out with another guy, and suddenly his whole plot to release a sex tape of them together makes sense: He's trying to prove his masculinity (or disprove any rumors out there about him being gay). Wouldn't it just be easier if everyone in Hollywood who was gay could come out and didn't have to worry about nonsense like this? Unfortunately, that is still not the case. And so we get this storyline. Anywhoodle, Josh begs her not to tell anyone what she saw -- so she immediately tells Julian and his father. Ha! He totally deserved that. After learning Josh is gay, Julian's father and Alex then allow the sex tape to be released because their film can't afford to have a gay leading man. SIGH. I hate that this story is realistic. Alex decides to combat the rumors in the press of her being a slut by officially making Josh her "boyfriend." Hee.

Mouth tries to make things right with Skills, but Skills wants nothing to do with him. All Skills wants is to get Lauren back, but Lauren has already moved on. Honestly, I don't blame Skills for being angry. Friends don't date friends' exes. (Except on soap operas. Oh, wait...) Like the boys they are, they sort of make up while playing video games with each other online over those headset thingies. Isn't modern technology grand? Mouth even tells Lauren he can't date her because he hates what it is doing to Skills. Aw. Boy love is cute.

Brooke is still horrified over her mother's relationship with Alexander. Somehow the story gets turned around in the press that she is the one having an affair with him, which only makes Brooke more angry. Alexander and Victoria agree to out their relationship in order to help save Brooke's reputation.

Miranda refuses to marry Grubbs, which gets him down in the dumps. He confides in Nathan, and then Nathan compares Grubbs' relationship with Miranda to his own early relationship with Haley, and that's when I completely check out. No way, show. NO WAY are you at all comparing those two relationships and getting away with it from long-time viewers. In the end, he writes her a song and she is like putty in his hands. It was a pretty song, but I still don't buy it.

Katie maintains her menacing nature by showing up at Quinn's gallery, breaking one of Clay's portraits and threatening Quinn with the glass shards. Her roommate also confirms she is on lithium but not taking her pills. She has also started watching Clay and Sarah's wedding video and really believing it is her on the tape. Get ready for "One Tree Hill's" Crazy Psycho plotline No. 433 to come to a head in 3...2...1...

Random thoughts:

• I know I give Mouth a hard time around these parts, but after enduring scenes from pointless new characters like Grubbs and Miranda, it was kind of a breath of fresh air to see a scene between Mouth and Millie. I know, I know ... who am I and what have I done with your regular recapper?
  
• So Millie is missing Mouth and Skills is missing Lauren. Do I sense a Millie/Skills hookup coming on? I don't really see it, but those two need something to do. So why not?
  
• My favorite shot of the episode (and perhaps the season) was when Haley yelled at Jamie in the kitchen and then the camera panned up to show Nathan standing as still as a statue and menacingly observing the scene like some sort of disapproving serial killer.
• Sophia Bush looks good in a bow. Julian is one lucky dude.
  

Favorite quotes:

• "I mean, it's like you said. She's probably just harmless, right?" - Quinn, on Katie
  
• "Either that or completely psychotic." - Clay, in response

[Disclaimer & apology: I live in Nashville, and our CW feed was acting wacky tonight (possibly due to the flooding somehow?), so I missed some dialogue. Let me know in the comments if I missed anything important.]

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Photo credit: The CW