TV: The OC, S1 Disc 6

Welcome to disc six, wherein the series' already-rapid dispensation of plotlines accelerates further.  With seven episodes left, we'll see four characters exit, three relationships end, AND a wedding.

Episode 21: The Goodbye Girl

More factually, it's Goodbye Girls, as we bid farewell to the love triangles of the Cohen boys, and we close out the Sandy-Cal corruption.  Everything's wrapped in the formula OC structure where things climax in a posh affair at the Cohen home, as Widmore is feted as Newport's Rich Guy of the year.  Can a posh poolside event end without someone being knocked into the drink?




Speaking of knocked, Theresa's decided to leave the OC, apparently to keep Eddie from killing Ryan. Future complications are sowed by a Ryan-Theresa one-nighter, and given the number of storylines the writers burn through in the first season, I suspect they kicked themselves for not allowing a pregnancy scare even earlier.

Anna has reached the end of her contract, and will be moving back to Pittsburgh.  Her decision leads Seth to thirty or so minutes of self-absorbed angst, concerned that it's all about him: even at his last-minute airport attempt to reconcile with Anna, he can only cop to the old "if I did something to hurt your feelings..."  Anna gets a moment of dignity by cutting Seth off, and by the next scene he's reverted to his usual self.

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Pros: Ryan defending Journey.
Cons: How did Eddie even know where to look for Ryan?

Then: C
Now: C

Episode 22: The L.A.

Fanservice is front and center in The L.A, when everyone, including an on-another-break Atwood-Cooper,  having been urged into committed bachelorhood by their respective superegos, cross paths with the cast of the series' play-within-a-play, The Valley.  Unlike say, Invitation to Love, The Valley is rarely referenced before now, so the value of it as a parallel is a little weak as everyone too pointedly makes comparisons.  

I haven't spent a lot of time discussing Jimmy and Sandy's "buy the restaurant" subplot that's been running for the last few episodes, because I know it's going to end with yet another whimper. This is where it begins whimpering, as the the suddenly-broke duo take Cal on as a silent partner.  This is so distressing for Jimmy that he'd rather rescue Haley from stripping than lock up Cal's financing.  Given Haley's poor-little-rich-girl past, stripping is likely the least unsavory thing she's been doing for money...

Also ending with a whimper is Luke/Julie, good for only another brief Marissa freakout, run-away before it, too, is forgotten by everyone after next week.

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Pros: The first attempt at public rehab of Paris Hilton's image?
Cons: Check out the cliche strip-club manager!

Then: C-
Now: C-


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Episode 23: The Nana

Marissa's runaway status lends a little weight to the mostly-comedic opening half; given her dearth of runaway options, she heads for an engagement-party-bound Theresa...  Certainly the last place Ryan would look... for the first act, anyhow.  Once Luke inexplicably arrives ("for Marissa"), what began as tragedy becomes farce.  Perhaps feeling the whole Telanovela angle of Theresa's time in Newport was a mistake, this reverses the field, showing one-dimensional, cliche Newport soap-opera angst (face slap! mental hospital! cougars!) spilled onto the salt-of-the-earth family event in Chino.   Even Marissa has the grace to be embarrassed by that.

Seth reacts with his usual aplomb.

The A-plot has  Sandy's mother (a where-has-she-been-lately Linda Lavin), unexpectedly deciding to have Passover with her son, which can only mean one thing: Judaism played for laughs!  Sandy's guilt for straying from his hardscrabble roots has him in a complete froth, de-leavening the kitchen and ripping the 700-thread sheets from his bed, lest his mother disapprove of anything she finds.  You'd think adopting Ryan would salve his conscience, but no.

Then everyone's shocked by the Nana's beatifically kind behavior, which in a so-bombshell-it's-predictable manner, is naturally is a cover for her advanced lung cancer.  Once revealed (half-way!) she reverts to her chainsmoking, harridan ways, allowing the writers to have dessert and keep the cake. 


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Pros: The nana is never seen again.
Cons: It's a very-OC-passover.

Then: C-
Now: D

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Episode 24: The Proposal

Even an Atwood can feel contempt!

The first season -- finally -- begins its wind-up by clearing the decks of subplots, with the fabled Fast Newport Divorce as the common thread between plotlines.  First up:  having mined Luke for all the immediate drama he can supply, the series prepares to jettison him to Portland with his disgraced, divorced dad. And who's the first person he chooses to tell this news? Julie Cooper. In public.  Where they can be seen, judged,  by everyone.  With Ryan walling him off from telling Marissa the news, Luke is called upon to brood and drink until the third act...


Next, Cal reveals his plan to spice up this week's gala social event: a proposal to our other gay divorcee, Julie at the opening of the Cohen-Cooper restaurant venture.  Simmering in on the back-burner is Jimmy's long-buried past, as one of his former clients can now deny a liquor license. Widmore can make the problem go away with a buyout, but uses the opportunity of a good deed to reestablish his bastard bonafides: extorting (not blackmailing..) Marissa to be a good daughter in exchange for helping Jimmy out with a several-million-dollar ticket out of town.

Much as last week, the humorous responses to the proposal are cut against tragedy, this week being Luke's drunken single-car accident and teary farewell speeches.

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Pros:"Marissa, your mother is a wonderful woman." "She is?"   Mischa Barton's second-finest line reading.

Cons: Really a strain to build an entire episode around Luke (Luke!) exiting the show. 

Then: B
Now: B