After a fast paced season premiere which tried to get the show back on track we open up on Seth and Ryan arguing about not going to the first day of school. First day of school, Aww”¦isn’t that cute? I wonder if mommy picks out their clothes for them and takes a picture of them?
Seth is putting comics in plastic, he is the modern Brody (Jason Lee) from Mallrats. He has decided not to go to school, fearing he will run into Summer. Ryan asks if he has called Summer, which he has not. Ryan believes that Summer has probably forgotten about him and moved on. Overdramatic Seth thinks Summer will kill him. Ryan thinks she will ignore him. Seth then asks Ryan about how he will handle seeing Marissa again. Ryan has also failed to talk to Marissa since his return to the O.C. Ryan then agrees that “they are not going to school.”
Following the intro, which shows some great weather and nice beaches which are really getting to this Canadian getting a taste of November weather, we are back in the Cohen house for some breakfast and some more male bonding
Seth is trying to pump up Ryan and claims now that they are both back in the O.C., “The Ryan-Seth thing is back in action.” Ok”¦yeah I am happy they are friends and close but aren’t these two boys getting a little too close? Seth seems to be more into Ryan then Summer. Now wouldn’t that be an interesting plot turn. Seth and Ryan shack up and move to San Francisco together.
Well the Cohen house is still undergoing repairs and they are forced to have breakfast amongst the construction crew. Sandy and Kirsten argue about who is going to take the boys to school. The construction dude, Archie, offers to take them to school.
Upon arrival at school the boys immediately see the girls. Ryan and Marissa embrace in a hug and she seems generally happy to see him. Summe’s reaction is quite the opposite; she ignores Seth and after he persists tells him she is going to meet her boyfriend. Seth is heart-broken.
More wealth and opulence as we get to see Hailey and Jimmy chilling on a yacht. Jimmy is sporting a nice beard and is drinking at 9am, ahh”¦father like daughter. They do say alcoholism is hereditary.
Ryan goes for a visit with the school counsellor. It turns out under his rough exterior he has brains as the counsellor mentions that he has a good GPA last year. She asks him about colleges and mentions with his great test scores he could get into schools without having the Cohen’s pay for it. She asks him, “what do you want?” Ryan is given an assignment from counsellor to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life.
Seth decides that since he is back to being single he might as well go all the way to super geekdom. He starts a comic book club, claiming that with the success of Spiderman 2 “We (comic book fans) are not outcasts anymore.”
Back to the girls and Summer driving her BMW with Marissa in shot gun. The girls discuss the not-so triumphant return of Ryan and Seth. Marissa wants to get back together with Ryan. They get to Marissa’s house and the yard guy, D.J, is blocking Marissa’s car. Do any manual labourers wear shirts in this show? Marissa goes into the house and runs into D.J. which results in a kiss. Uh oh, and on that note we leave for commercial.
Back at school Marissa is relaxing in the fancy school lounge. She has spiked her coffee. Oh Marissa aren’t you headed down a dark dreary road which I have no doubt Ryan will be the one to save you from. She tells Summer that she has been fooling around with D.J. for the whole summer and is wondering if she should tell Ryan. Does Marissa enjoy “slumming” it or something? Then again the rich boys she has gone for haven’t exactly been to great. One slept with her mother, the other was a stalker/kidnapper.
From Marissa drinking at school we go to Caleb drinking scotch. Sandy shows up and Caleb lets Sandy know that he has been officially indicted for bribery of city officials.
Caleb claims he didn’t do it, but says the D.A’s office has evidence. He asks for Sandy’s help.
Back at school and Seth is holding a comic book meeting. Only Seth and Ryan are in attendance. Seth insists on taking minutes with a reluctant Ryan trying to convince Seth to hold the meeting at home out of the eyes of the student body. Some water polo jock shows up to join the comic book league. Seth decides that to join the club he must pass a test of geekiness. This new guy passes with flying colours and Seth now has a new geeky friend to bond with. The topic of the first comic book league, “Why doesn’t the Hulk’s pants rip off when all his other clothes rip off?” Yeah so that prediction about the San Francisco spin off is looking better and better.
Seth and Ryan are leaving school and happen upon Set’s new comic book boyfriend (Zach) making out with summer. Seth description of Zach is that, “he is the w.a.s.p. version of me.”
Ryan decides to go by and visit Marissa at her new mansion. Ryan tells Marissa that him and Teresa were not really a couple. He asks if she is dating anyone. She lies and says no. Ryan asks her to go to kickoff carnival, she accepts. Oh how 1950’s, I wonder if she will wear his letter jacket? Ryan kisses Marissa with yard-boy DJ looming over head not looking too pleased.
Back to the yacht. Kirsten and Hailey are catching up and Hailey mentions she got a job offer in Japan doing fashion and sales. Kirsten asks what Jimmy’s reaction is to this news and Hailey admits she hasn’t told him.
Off to the mansion and a drunk Caleb whom Sandy is bringing home. Julie runs into them. She calls Sandy Sanford. Oh man that’s just great. They should rename the show Sanford and Sons, oh wait that would be copyright infringement. Sandy tells Julie about the indictment. She is pissed that Caleb knew of the D.A’s investigation before wedding.
Julie turns into uber bitch and says, “If Caleb is going down Kirsten is going down with him.” Well on that dramatic note we head off to get a word from our sponsors.
Back in Casa Cohen, Kirsten comes into the kitchen area with some groceries. Archie (construction foreman) and Sandy are fighting. It seems there was a wrong piece ordered and this is delaying the renovations. Ryan suggests an alternative to solve the problem. This leads to Archie yelling at Ryan, “Hey you an architect kid?” Hmm”¦foreshadow. Sandy blows a gasket at Archie who then quits. Sandy then loses it and refuses to apologize. Later Sandy and Kirsten have a heart to heart. Kirsten apologizes for being a bitch to Sandy for the whole summer.
Down the hall, Ryan is in Set’s room. He invites Seth to hang out with him and Marissa at the Kickoff Carnival. Seth declines as this would mean hanging out with Summer and Zack. Seth is wallowing in self-pity about this whole Zach thing and calls it a Zach Attack. Another Saved by the Bell reference. I have a great idea. I think the “gang” should start a band in some sort of dream episode. Marissa will be a singer and keyboardist, Ryan lead vocalist and on guitar, Seth on the drums (cool guys are always drummers), and Summer on bass guitar. Sandy can be the band manager. Maybe we can even get Casey Kasem for a guest role, heck he can’t be busy.
Off to the yacht. Hailey gets the wine out and Jimmy is all drunk. She tells Jimmy that a friend offered her a job in Japan. Jimmy does not want to lose her so he asks her to marry him.
Before we get her response we happen upon Summer doing yoga in her room. There is a knock at door. It happens to be Ryan. He apologizes to Summer for Seth bailing on her during the summer saying it’s all his fault. Summer tells Ryan that Zach is not her boyfriend because she doesn’t want a boyfriend. Ryan tells Summer that Seth cares about her and they just want things to go back the way they were. Summer says that her and Marissa have moved on and things can’t go back to the way things were. Summer made a big slip up saying Marissa moved on and Ryan sure is curious as to what she meant by it.
Off to dumb and dumber, D.J. is looking mad. Quick poll who is the worse actor of Marissa and DJ? This boy seems to have no emotions. DJ asks about Ryan. Marissa explains their past and how they were bf-gf before the summer started. DJ is not too impressed with playing second fiddle and quits his job and walks away. Marissa turns on the waterworks. DJ falls for this, comes back to Marissa and kisses her. Ryan shows up to see Marissa, obviously trying to figure out about this whole “moving on thing” and he sees the two kiss. He drives away without confronting her.
Now with both boys in dating purgatory we go to commercials.
Ryan tells Seth about seeing Marissa making out. Seth is self involved and more interested about what Summer said and is happy Ryan went to talk to her. Seth wants Ryan to help get her back. He thinks he needs to make another grand gesture.
Downstairs in the Cohen home Kirsten, Caleb and Sandy are having breakfast. It seems Julie has gone for a spa weekend, leaving Caleb alone. He has come to apologize to his daughter for making things a mess. Sandy invites him to dinner and now has another stray-dog to take care of.
Ryan goes to see his school counsellor. They discuss his career options and he informs her that words are not his thing. The counsellor sees the blue prints of the Cohen home Ryan was using to tell Archie how to fix the problem he was having. She then decides she needs to book him into calculus and physics. Ryan is unclear where she is going with this. To which she responds, “You’ll need them if you want to become an architect.” Wow I am psychic. Oh and want another prediction. Somehow Ryan ends up working with Kirsten and builds some great project that totally saves the family company.
Jimmy runs into Kirsten. He tells her that Hailey is gone. So I guess she shot down our loveable drunk, unshaven, independently wealthy bachelor. So Hailey is gone from the show, how long until Jimmy bids adieu?
The boys are the entrance of the kickoff carnival. Ryan sees Marissa by the Ferris Wheel. Ryan goes to talk to her. She denies lying to him about not having a boyfriend. Ryan tells her that, “for right now we should just be friends.” Good call Ryan. She is a drunk, hey isn’t your mother a drunk? No more Oedipus complex for you young man! By far the best moment of the show.
Then we get to see Zach and Summer having a good time together. This can’t last long if Seth has anything to say about it. Summer catches Seth, “humping a hot dog stand.” The signs are really adding up. There would be SO many North American females that would cry if Seth came out of the closet. Seth gets on top of the hot dog stand to make his “grand gesture” and professes his love for Summer. Summer is not impressed, neither is Zach. Seth apologizes to Zach and says, “I hope this doesn’t affect the league.”
Zach is driving away with Summer in tow. Seth stands in front of car and almost gets hit. Summer gets out of the car and shows her concern for his well being and then she smacks him for being an idiot. She then tears into Seth and tells him that he only wants her when he can’t have her. She brings up the whole choosing Anna over her. So can we now bring Anna back into the show? Sadly she has gone on to bigger and better things in HBO’s Entourage. Great show if you get a chance to see it.
The boys, still single, come home to a Chinese take-out dinner. Before they can finish the cops come to arrest Caleb at Cohen house. Sandy declares that he is Caleb’s lawyer.
Dramatic ending to an otherwise average episode.
Next week on the O.C.:
Seth: “I don’t even want summer back, “¦.unless she wants me back.”
The boys meet two new girls. Ryan’s is a cute redhead; Set’s is a bad-ass looking blonde in the Angelina Jolie mold. From the clips both have awkward first meetings. I have big hope for this redhead, she looks cute (ok I have a thing for redheads). I am hoping she can be like the girl from the movie Orange County. We are also shown a clip of Caleb announcing he is going to appoint a new CEO. Who will that be? Kirsten? Julie in a shocker maybe?
Predictions for upcoming episodes:
-Ryan will fall for the cute redhead which will result in Marissa drinking more and becoming self-destructive. She will then have a breakdown, Ryan will come to save the day and he will have to choose between redhead and Marissa.
