About:
The O.C. S3.E01 “The Aftermath”
Drinks Taken: All of the times. All of them.
Welcome back to The O.C. Rewatch Project! Since we’re wrapping up Season Two this week (man alive), Meredith asked me which episode is my favorite. I do love “The Mallpisode” because it’s such a bright spot in an otherwise downer season, especially the back-half of this season, which has gone off the dang downer rails. BUT. I also love the Season Two finale, for reasons you will see/I will tell you below. Seriously, it’s intense but it’s also, like, laughable in a totally WTF way. It is the absolute best.
Let’s drink to the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three!
The O.C. Drinking Game
Drink once every time:
The ladies have a convo while primping in front of a mirror
Seth makes a nerdy reference
Ryan wears a white tank top
Anyone plays a video game
Summer says “ew”
Anyone eats a bagel
Anyone references The Valley
Drink twice every time:
Someone says “Newpsie”
Fisticuffs occur (three times for pool fights!)
Someone grabs a cup of coffee
Ryan and Seth read comic books
Someone reminds us that Kaitlin Cooper exists
2.24 “The Dearly Beloved”
Holy shit, this episode, you guys. “The Dearly Beloved” is so heartbreaking, so intense, so totally insane – I mean, this is The O.C., a soapy teen dramedy, and this season ends with Trey getting shot, which I guess is pretty soapy, but it’s also like WHAT.
So before we get to that. Kirsten is totally gone. She’s succumbed to alcoholism whole-heartedly, stumbling around Caleb’s funeral, getting more and more drunk until she’s just drinking vodka straight out of the bottle. Sandy tries. Julie tries. Even Summer tries to help, but Kiki is so far gone down the spiral that all she cares about is drinking. To hell with everyone else.
Seth finds a brochure for a recovery center in Sandy’s office, which is confusing since Sandy’s been hiding Kirsten’s alcoholism from everyone and trying to deal with it by himself.
But Sandy can’t deal with this by himself anymore. Kirsten’s addiction is so terribly heartbreaking and depressing that I can barely handle it. Seth doesn’t want to ship her off – he just now found out about her problem, and believes they can just ask her to stop and she will, because it’s her family, so she has to. But the reason Sandy hasn’t told Seth until now is because this is the last straw – there is nothing that can be done unless she agrees to go get help. Seth feels like it’s a betrayal and doesn’t think he can participate in her intervention, but Ryan knows it’s the right thing to do. He knows all too well what it’s like to have an alcoholic mother, and it’s so unfair for him to have to go through this again. When he speaks up during the intervention, Kirsten stops him: “Oh don’t you dare. I let you into this house.” And Ryan tells her that he can’t watch someone else he loves destroy their life. Kirsten is still fighting it, but then:
GUYS I CANNOT HANDLE HOW MUCH I AM CRYING AT THIS.
So Kirsten finally relents, and off she goes to the beautiful Suriak facility – whenever I see rehab facilities like this, I seriously consider checking myself in. I don’t have an addiction, but damn, this place looks mad relaxing and comfy. We could all use a three-month break from life, right? They should make Life Rehab centers.
Now that this whole thing is out of the way, let’s get back to everyone else. Jimmy returns and thinks he would like to stay and give his relationship with Julie another shot, especially now that Julie and Marissa are bonding a bit. Even though Caleb JUST died, things are approaching something resembling normalcy in the Cooper household.
Seth and Ryan are having a hard time relaxing, and with all the drama this year alone, Seth assumes the worst when the doorbell rings:
Amen, Seth. But it’s Summer, who just found out what really happened between Marissa and Trey. Trey has been acting increasingly erratic and violent, participating in a drug deal at the Bait Shop (I mean, come on – this is so white of everyone) with Jess, which leads to a gun fight with some shady dealers. It’s all too much. Trey needs to get out of town, which is what he’s planning to do (with Jess in tow, ugh), but then Seth tells Ryan about Trey and Marissa – he kind of has to because it’s just too serious to ignore, although I am uncomfortable with the idea that Summer and Seth have taken it upon themselves to talk about what happened to Marissa, when it’s her right and her choice when and how to share that information. But these kids are not hip to victim rights, so here we are.
OF COURSE Ryan runs over to end things with Trey the only way he knows how: with his fists. Seth and Summer probably aren’t going to make it in time to stop him, but Marissa lives closer so she runs off to intervene. This poor girl has been through too much this year. I wish I could say it gets better, but SPOILER you’re all about to dislike her again in Season Three.
Trey threatens Ryan with a gun, which is so horrible and sad – how could he? Ryan did everything he could to help Trey, and Trey has done nothing but push Ryan away so he can keep digging his own hole until it’s the size of a crater. Ryan attacks Trey and the two of them tumble around until Trey is strangling Ryan and about to bash his head in with a phone, which is when this happens:
Drink. It. Up. Just as the gun goes off, Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” comes in right at the “MMMM WHAT YA SAY” part, and I mean, this whole thing is super intense and shocking. It’s that kind of bonkers, surprising moment that makes you laugh because you don’t know how else to react. Choosing that particular part of the song to use just as the gun goes off is exceptionally nuts, and I love the way Trey looks back at Marissa with his bloody face and a knowing smirk, like, “Of course it would be you.”
And that’s where Season Two ends. I wish we could go into Season Three a little more drama-free, but things are going to get even more crazy from here. Buckle up.
How many times did I have to drink?
All of the times. All of them. This episode is too nuts.
Truest thing anyone said this week
“I’ve been really self-involved this year,” says Seth, and nothing could be more true, except…
Second truest thing anyone said this week
Trey didn’t know Jess was going to be such a handful, to which Ryan replies, “Really? That’s a surprise considering you met her face down in a pool.” BOOM. SICK BURN.
Most recognizable song
OBVIOUSLY, it’s Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek,” used during Caleb’s funeral, and again, of course, during that totally bonkers ending with Marissa and Trey.
Related entertainment
Please enjoy this amazing, hilarious SNL spoof of Marissa shooting Trey:
Best pop culture reference
Summer: “I mean, problems with Ryan, a weird tension with Trey. One girl, two brothers — it’s all a little
Legends of the Fall.”
Onto Season 3!
3.1 “The Aftermath”
What a great episode. There’s some lingering drama to wrap up from Season Two before Season Three can really get going, and “The Aftermath” does that pretty well. Trey is still in a coma at the beginning of the episode, and the DA is more interested in going after Ryan than Marissa, given his shady, punchy past. Since only Trey and Ryan were there when the gun went off, they’ll have a pretty easy time making a case, and no amount of Sandy Cohen is going to stop them.
Everyone’s brooding and miserable, so Summer very maturely reasons with them: why worry about what they can’t control? Instead, she insists that they have some fun before everything comes crashing down, so they all head off in a boat for a little summer fun. And we get a peek at what life would be like for them sans-drama. It is much more delightful.
Julie is up to her old scheming, and since it’s going to be a while before she receives any money from Caleb’s death, and since the defense attorney is quite pricey, she pays a little visit to Trey (who is now awake) with one of her patented bribe offers. Either he takes $20k and tells the cops that Ryan shot him, or she’ll smother him with a pillow. Classy, classic Julie. You kind of want to feel bad for Trey, backed into a corner, but he made his own bed and now he’s literally lying in it (man, that joke works on a couple of levels). So Trey lies to the cops, and Ryan decides to leave town to escape prosecution, but Seth and Summer and Marissa vow that they’re all in this together.
Just as they’re about to jump town on Jimmy’s boat, the cops show up and Ryan goes off to jail. There’s not much Sandy can do, but Summer and Marissa come up with an adorable scheme to confront Trey, dressing up as candy stripers to get into his room at the hospital.
The sight of Marissa overwhelms Trey with guilt, and he agrees to confess to the cops that he would have killed Ryan if not for Marissa shooting him. And just as Sandy is confronting Jimmy about his crummy parenting, he receives the good news – which is bad news for Julie. Even worse for Julie, she’s lost Marissa’s trust again.
Ryan goes to visit Trey, but finds the hospital bed empty, so Sandy rushes him to the bus station just in time for Ryan to see Trey sitting on the bus. They exchange a meaningful look, loaded with years of baggage and history, and off Trey goes. It’s such a sad, powerful moment, and even though Trey was pretty terrible and willfully ruined every chance he had to turn his life around, they’re still brothers, and that’s a bond that really can’t be broken. Poor Ryan.
Meanwhile, Kirsten has been cleared to go home, but she’s not quite ready yet. She’s understandably terrified of returning home, worried that she might ruin everything – she doesn’t say this, but we can see it in her sorrowful looks and the way she lies to Sandy. She’s also made a new pal, Charlotte, who empathizes with Kirsten because she also had a hard time with her father. Or so she says. That Charlotte seems like she might be weaseling her way into Kiki’s life a little too hard.
How many times did I have to drink?
You can drink 8 times. As for me, I’m back on the wagon in solidarity with Kiki.
Best pop culture reference
Seth: “The dark lord Sauron, or whatever the DA’s name is.”
Also:
Seth: “OK, so I know Teen Wolf is not a realistic movie.”
Ryan: “Really going out on a limb there, but yeah.”
Seth: “Well, I mean, how does being a werewolf make you a better basketball player?”
Ryan: “Can’t argue with that one.”
Guess who?
Jeri Ryan plays Charlotte! You know her best as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager. She was also on Boston Public.
Best Julie Cooper gold-diggery
Julie: “I’m a grieving widow.”
That’s it for this week! I have a question for Meredith, or a couple, anyway: A. How hard was Sandy Cohen working those eyebrows this week? B. How do you feel about Trey’s departure? I kind of miss him – not like, Trey’s BS, but Logan Marshall-Green’s hotness.
About the Contributor:
Britt Hayes is a writer and sensible sweater enthusiast living in Austin, Texas. She loves movies, watches too much television, and her diet consists mostly of fruit snacks and revenge.
