Wow. I am blown away by this episode. Lately, I’ve been on the fence about the new direction of the show. It’s been very dark lately, but this episode is one of the best we’ve seen in a long time. It was dark and it was sad, but it was great. I haven’t teared up this much since the school shooting episode or Keith’s death back in Season 3.
The entire episode revolved around Quentin’s death. It’s interesting to note that unlike Keith’s death, the focus was much more on grieving and less on who was responsible. I guess I am OK with that. I always thought Keith’s death was handled a little too lightly, so this was done a lot better.
Brooke is still in a very dark place. She has written all these words on her mirror like “justice” and “revenge.” I am now almost 100 percent sure she was raped. The bruises on her are definitely finger marks, and while everyone is sitting around talking about Q’s murder, she starts rambling off violence and rape statistics. “Life sucks then you die,” she says. Woah, Brooke. Next thing we know, she’s throwing all her clothes out the store onto the street.
Nathan and Haley try to explain everything to Jamie who doesn’t understand at first. Nathan clears out Q’s locker and Jamie asks to keep his jersey. So sad. At the same time, Haley is trying to get through to her students about Quentin. She has a bit of trouble with this new girl Sam who turns out to be the one who tried to shoplift Brooke’s clothes. “Nice shirt, Clothes Over Bro’s, right?” Haley says. Sam ends up writing a nice essay about Q even though she didn’t know him. Here it is revealed that she is the one narrating the episode. A nice break from Lucas actually…
I know there will be more to Sam’s story in the future, I just haven’t figured out what that is yet.
Dan is still stuck in Nanny Carrie’s house. Her new plan is to have Jamie come to her and have Dan kill whoever brings him over (she prefers Haley). Dan tries escaping again but ends up falling on the ground right in front of a grave in Carrie’s backyard–the grave of her son! Well, that explains a lot. The music here was loud and quite frankly, scary. In fact, the entire episode was packed with great music that really built up the scenes (especially the ending montage). Anyway, Dan tries to talk some sense into Carrie and tell her that Jamie will never replace the son she lost. But from the looks of next week’s episode, it doesn’t work.
Everyone goes to visit Q’s mom and Jamie bonds with his little brother. In a touching moment, Jamie gives him Q’s jersey. While at the funeral, he puts on the jersey and stands next to the team who are also wearing their jerseys. Again, so sad.
In a subtle, but funny moment, Deb walks over to Skillz at the funeral to comfort him and we see Nathan’s face. His mom is dating his friend! He knows! He looks confused, then shakes his head and looks down. Of course, we have to wait until next week to see the aftermath!
In my favorite scene, we see Nathan go and talk to Brooke. Finally! These two never have scenes together. Besides the little sex tape incident in Season 4, they’ve had the least interaction of all the characters on the show. It really was a great scene. He tells Brooke that they have the same history, both growing up rich with bad parents. He knows something more is up with her and he’s been there. “I’m going to be pissed off if you don’t come and talk to me about it,” he tells her. So sweet. I really hope Brooke confides in him. Not only because he can relate, but because Lucas and Peyton are too busy in their own little world.
As for those two, they didn’t have many scenes together and I didn’t mind it. They thankfully let up on the corniness a little bit and in a sweet moment, Lucas tells Peyton she helps him without even saying anything. Cute and not overbearing. Thank you!
In a sad ending scene at the funeral, Jamie puts the cape he made onto Q’s casket and Brooke breaks down crying. Jamie holds her hand. And…cue more tears.
I give credit to anyone who got through the episode without getting choked up. Whew! I can’t wait until next week!
Sharon Tharp is a freelance writer who has contributed to a variety of publications including HotIndieNews.com and the Web sites of both Marie Claire and CosmoGIRL! magazines.
