About:
The O.C. S4.E12 “The Groundhog Day”
Drinks Taken: 19
Welcome back to The O.C. Rewatch Project! Last week, Meredith asked me to make a Sophie’s Choice decision – if I were forced at gunpoint (GAH WHY) to choose to be BFFs with either Summer or Taylor, who would I choose? This is like FMK but actually hard because I just can’t decide. I love Summer, who has become very thoughtful and laid-back and cool to be around, plus she has Princess Sparkles and Seth Cohen. Taylor is very worldly and sex positive and hilarious and also has fierce pop culture knowledge. But Taylor also likes anime, and I don’t get it, so my answer is Summer because Summer is friends with Taylor, and if I became Summer’s friend then I would be Taylor’s friend, too. A HA. I WIN.
Let’s drink to fun and friendship!
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
Kaitlin is a stone-cold badass
4.11 “The Dream Lover”
We’ve moved on from engagement chicken to phone call chicken, as both Seth and Ryan are too nervous to contact Summer and Taylor so everyone can move forward. Even after Summer plans the BEST Seth-centric date (video games and Thai takeout in her twinkly light-lit bedroom), Seth is still troubled by something he cannot define and refuses to acknowledge it:
So Che comes to his rescue, taking Seth on a magical forest journey to build a sweat lodge in the middle of nowhere and get in touch with his sickly spirit animal. I could watch Seth and Che commune in the wilderness all day. It’s the best mismatched buddy adventure.
Meanwhile, Taylor is cautiously clinging to Henri-Michel, who has offered to buy a house for the two of them and has a lot of #opinions about America – like, why are we so obsessed with closets? And also our coffee tastes like urine but it’s OK enough to drink or whatever. I am actually quite fond of Henri-Michel, who has a very romantic and wholly self-assured way of looking at relationships. He encourages Taylor to accept and embrace Ryan’s Kwik-E-Mart gift of a teddy bear holding a mug of gummy bears, and feels no sense of jealousy toward Ryan or his relationship with Taylor. In fact, he’s quite inspired by it:
While Henri-Michel is busy writing his love poem for Taylor, Ryan is struggling with the key relationship ingredient: communication. He’s not the best at using his words or telling people he loves them, and after one failed attempt at expressing his feelings, he stumbles into Henri-Michel’s poetry reading to read his own poem for Taylor – he can’t make it all the way through, but Taylor finishes for him and it’s heartfelt enough to send Henri-Michel packing back to France out of respect for Ryan and Taylor’s relationship. It’s quite sweet.
Unfortunately, this whole situation has made Taylor realize that she’s too in love with the idea of love, and too reliant on hearing it. In the short time we’ve known Taylor, she’s become so well-developed as a character – although she doesn’t explain it when she breaks up with Ryan, we know (and so he must know, too) that Taylor’s need for affection and hearing “I love you” probably has a lot to do with her cold, unfeeling mother. Poor Taylor. So she decides to take some time away from Ryan to learn how to love herself and be alone – it is the smartest decision she can make, and it further proves just how mature Taylor Townsend is.
Feeling bored and lonely and desperate to reunite with Kirsten, Julie concocts a plan to have one of her man-whores tell Kirsten that her clients were exposed to chlamydia, forcing Kiki to team up with Julie for the day to deliver a bunch of bad news. Kirsten discovers the ruse and is furious, but realizes she loves Julie just the same, and the two have a nice dinner with a special phone call cameo from Sandy Cohen’s Eyebrows.
And while Summer is trying to figure out which non-profit cause to devote her life to, Seth eats some berries out in the forest (oops) and his sweat lodge journey is enhanced by nature’s psychedelic influence. He discovers his spirit animal, and it is the cutest thing to happen this week:
Following their sweat lodge experience, Seth feels refreshed and confident, but Che also had an interesting experience: in his vision, Che’s spirit animal is a frog, and it encountered and bonded with an otter. Yep. Che is in love with Seth – or so he thinks. Hilarity ensues!
How many times did I have to drink?
12 (Kaitlin was a stone cold badass a whole bunch this week – skateboarding! Giving Ryan amazing relationship advice! Being a total mean girl to the band dorks! DUMPING THAT DUMMY CHRIS BROWN.)
This explains everything
Taylor makes a shocking revelation about our dear Ryan Atwood, and it explains a lot.
Kaitlin, NO
You do not even want to know what else you can catch from Chris Brown.
Where’s Sandy?
Sandy Cohen and his eyebrows did not show up for a full 24 minutes this week, and then promptly vanished as mysteriously as they arrived. Unacceptable.
Best Julie Cooper bitchery
When Kirsten demands that she call all the women to tell them the chlamydia thing was a lie, Julie whines, “Okay, but not Linda. Please let Linda think she has an STD.” Yeah, fuck Linda.
4.12 “The Groundhog Day”
Previously, on The O.C., Che thought he was maybe-possibly-kinda in love with Seth, and in “The Groundhog Day” he endeavors to spend a little extra bonding time with the young Cohen to see if perhaps they are meant to be together. Che invites Seth on a special mission to free Newport Chuck, the town’s groundhog who, as Summer notes, is sort of useless because they don’t even really have winter in Newport.
It’s much ado about soulmates this week, as Kaitlin has been sending Bullit emails pretending to be Julie in an effort to sort of force her mom into this relationship – to be fair, Bullit is the best and Julie is nuts for dating Frank Atwood on the DL. So on a very special episode of Catfish: The TV Show:
But (ha, butt) when Bullit returns to town and decides to propose to Julie, things don’t immediately go his way. After a little contemplation and a heart-to-heart with Kaitlin, Julie realizes that she really should give Bullit a chance – it’s not about his money (though yeah, it helps), but how much Kaitlin adores him, and if Kaitlin adores Bullit, then maybe Julie could adore him too.
Meanwhile, Taylor has enlisted the help of a very strict therapist to try and distance herself from Ryan – which isn’t working because:
Taylor spends most of the episode going against her therapist’s advice to avoid contact with Ryan for a whole week, and instead opts to stalk him around town. To Ryan’s credit, he actually finds the stalking shenanigans quite endearing and I love them both more for it.
While Taylor and Ryan are fumbling through their adorably nebulous dating situation, Che and Seth are trying to rescue Newport Chuck, but thanks to Che’s poor planning they get arrested and wind up in a holding cell, where they witness someone in a groundhog costume (the same one Taylor was wearing to stalk Ryan) successfully rescuing Newport Chuck. And just as Che is about to confess to Seth about his otter dream, a beautiful girl in a groundhog costume winds up in the women’s cell next door – and Che realizes the otter in his dream was not an otter after all, but a groundhog. LOVE! SOULMATES! FATE! Man, Chris Pratt is so good at soulfully gazing into someone’s eyes.
Back in Adult World, Kirsten’s 40th birthday is nigh but she hasn’t been feeling too well – after two trips to the doctor, she discovers… SHE’S PREGNANT! And just in time for the big party Sandy planned for her, where he shows up in that ol’ mail truck. Inside, Julie tells Bullit that she isn’t ready to say yes to his proposal, but she’s willing to spend more time with him to get to know him better and to see if they’re right for each other. And on the other side of town, Ryan shows up to see Taylor and it’s like they never broke up at all, and Che and his new lady love take Newport Chuck and wander off to wherever it is chill hippie types wander. Seth thinks Chicago, maybe.
Happy endings for all! Except for Frank Atwood but no one cares about Frank Atwood/Sad Hercules.
How many times did I have to drink?
7
CHE!
Best pop culture reference
Kirsten is not interested in seeing Oldboy, k thanks. But Seth is right, it does have one of the greatest fight sequences ever.
Other best pop culture reference
Taylor admits to stalking Ryan, but “not, in like, a scary Star 80 way.”
Nobody plans a surprise party like Sandy Cohen
Most recognizable song
“Lazy Eye” by the Silversun Pickups plays over a real nice beachy montage in the opening.
Best Taylor Townsendism
Taylor: “My mom is sort of like Idi Amin with fake boobs.”
Guess who!
That’s Alison La Placa as Taylor’s therapist – Friends fans will remember her as Joanna, Rachel’s terrible boss.
That’s it for this week’s episodes! We only have four left, so here’s my question for Meredith to answer next week, which will be her last on the Rewatch Project! Mere, now that we’re coming to an end in Californiaaaaa, who is your absolute favorite character and what is your favorite season?
Be sure to check back in next week when Meredith covers “The Case of the Franks” and “The Shake Up”! We’re almost at the end!!! AHHHHH!
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.
