About:
The O.C. S3.E13 “The Pot Stirrer”
Drinks Taken: 15
Hello! And welcome back to The O.C. Rewatch Project! Last week, Meredith asked how I feel about Julie and Neil, aka Dr. Roberts, aka code name Silver Fox. I absolutely love this pairing – finally, Julie finds a real, responsible adult who is considerate and takes care of his family and doesn’t cover up all of his problems with money. Neil is so great! Also, he’s played by Michael Nouri, who stars in one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever, 1987’s The Hidden, in which he plays a cop and Kyle MacLachlan plays an alien and they team up to stop a really gnarly, parasitic alien. It’s so rad. You should def. check it out.
Anyway! Let’s drink to Michael Nouri, who rules!
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
3.12 “The Sister Act”
Hey, remember Kaitlin Cooper? She exists, and she is BACK! She’s also Trouble with a capital T, but that comes with the Cooper territory.
Kaitlin is also way more fashionable, fun, and interesting than broody Marissa. She’s the kind of trouble that’s delightful, not like, life-threatening and melodramatic and annoying. She is truly my favorite Cooper.
Anyway, so Kaitlin is back from boarding school, and she’s got a cutie named Justin (Jackson Rathbone, holla) on her trail. Kaitlin says he’s a stalker, but when Ryan goes to give him one of his patented Atwood “stay the hell away from her” talks, he discovers that not only has Justin been dating Kaitlin for a little while now, but she took off with a bunch of money from Justin’s brother. And when Ryan confronts Kaitlin about this, she has a crafty story about how Justin’s brother knocked up her friend and wouldn’t pay for the abortion. Those crafty Cooper girls.
Marissa finds out that Johnny lied about going off on his surfing tour because it was the only way to get her to go back to school and give him some space. Actually, he’d prefer to never see Marissa again – of course, he regrets saying this, but every time he turns up, Kaitlin is all up on him, eager to help him forget about her sister. Kaitlin has an understandable complex, and the show is pretty self-aware about how it’s dedicated so much time to building Marissa up as some troubled dream girl while poor Kaitlin has been ignored and forgotten about. Kaitlin doesn’t understand why everyone is so hot for her sister instead of her, and I feel you, Kaitlin. You’re way cooler.
Meanwhile, that awful Veronica Townsend really wants Kirsten to set her up on a date with Dr. Roberts, and threatens to make Marissa’s life at school total hell if Kirsten doesn’t agree. So she enlists the help of Sandy, and Veronica and Dr. Roberts go on a date, which actually – to the surprise of everyone – goes really well. Summer is predictably not pleased about it:
And neither am I. Ugh, Taylor’s mom is the worst. Julie is heartbroken, so Seth and Sandy cook up a little scheme to get Veronica away from Dr. Roberts – Seth does not take Summer’s advice, so instead of telling Taylor that Dr. Roberts voted for John Kerry, he tells her that Dr. Roberts has genital warts. That’ll do the trick!
Now Dr. Roberts is free to date Julie! Yay!
This is a pretty thin episode that mostly serves to reintroduce Kaitlin Cooper, played by the wonderful Willa Holland. I mean, not much happens this week – we learn that Kaitlin is a schemer, just like the other ladies in her family, and Julie and Dr. Roberts take a step toward being a real couple, and Taylor gets Summer to agree to being her honorary sister. It’s cute, but slight. Thank goodness the next episode is so, so delightful.
How many times did I have to drink?
8
Summer, no
Summer, what the F are you wearing this week? You are not a Lolita goth girl from Japan, nor are you one of those modest religious types who can’t show any skin lest they tempt devil men. Stop.
How we know it’s 2005
Julie tells Kaitlin that their trailer home is just like where Britney Spears is from. Remember when Britney was trashy? Those were the days.
Best pop culture reference
Taylor talks about how lonely Marissa was at her other school:
Truest thing anyone said all week
I FEEL YOU, DR. ROBERTS. Dating sucks.
Oh ha ha, very funny
Kaitlin needs to borrow something from Marissa to wear to the launch party, which is ridiculous because Kaitlin is so much more fashionable than, like, everyone else.
3.13 “The Pot Stirrer”
This is absolutely one of my favorite O.C. episodes – we learn more about the insecurities driving Kaitlin’s behavior, there’s so much sweetness between Julie and Neil, and there’s also some heartbreak there, too. Also: Our little Sethela starts smoking pot! There’s an amazing scene coming up this season involving Seth and pot and it is like, top 5 all-time favorite O.C. moments for me.
Anyway! So Seth and Summer both have interviews with the rep from Brown to determine whether they’ll be admitted. Summer is ready:
But Seth is… not so ready. As usual, our Seth is very neurotic and over-analyzing everything, and his answers in the practice interview with Ryan are… not good. During a nice evening stroll to clear his head, Seth runs into Kaitlin Cooper smoking pot on the pier. She offers to give him some whenever he’d like (because he so obviously could use it), and he ends up taking her up on that offer. It’s delightful:
Until it’s not – Seth freaks out and gets stoned before his interview, and we’re left with the impression that Summer’s approach (being herself) worked much better for her than Seth’s approach (being his stoned self).
Meanwhile, Kaitlin is busy doing the pot stirring of the episode’s title, flaunting her new friendship with Johnny to make Marissa jealous. Kaitlin has spent her whole life in the shadow of the melodramatic and attention-needy Marissa Cooper. She was so far hidden in that shadow that her parents shipped her off to boarding school – as if it was just easier to not have her around as a distraction from Marissa and their own issues. Gah. It’s awful.
So can anyone really be surprised that Kaitlin feels the need to one-up her sister? Or that she wants a little attention for herself? But Kaitlin isn’t just seeing Johnny to prove that she’s just as attractive as Marissa – she’s also seeing him to prove that Marissa has a crush on Johnny, which seems a bit selfish to Kaitlin. Marissa already has Ryan in her life, and it’s ridiculous for her to act possessive about Johnny when he’s not the boy she chose to be with. This is kind of a mess.
But as Kaitlin points out: just because Marissa is in love with Ryan, that doesn’t mean she can’t still have a crush on someone else.
Not helping matters: Julie forgot Kaitlin’s birthday and their post-b-day-party tradition of watching The Sound of Music together as a family. Thank goodness for that charming Neil, who offers his house up for Kaitlin’s party. He still hasn’t had a formal date with Julie yet because every time they try to get together, something comes up: his work, her work, her family, etc. But mostly it’s been Julie’s daughters, who are so wrapped up in their drama that they fail to realize how they’re standing in the way of their mom’s first chance at legit happiness. Poor Julie.
Even more poor Julie: when Marissa and Kaitlin get in a fight over Johnny and Kaitlin abandons her own birthday party, Neil tells Julie that maybe they shouldn’t try to see each other romantically because obviously there’s too much “complexity” in both of their lives. But we – and Julie – get the feeling that what he really means is that there’s too much drama in Julie’s life right now. UGH THIS IS SO SAD I HATE IT.
As for Sandy Cohen: he does his best with his hospital presentation to the board of fancy people in ties who make these decisions, but they’re not interested in facts and figures and a community hospital that will help both the franchised and disenfranchised alike. Nope. They care about expensive dinners and good booze and ladies who may or may not be paid for their time. Sandy tries things the Sandy Cohen way, taking the head of the board (Robert Picardo!) out on a walking tour of the community his hospital will be servicing – a community that needs it the most. But Mr. Fancy Pants isn’t impressed, so Sandy decides to put his morals aside for the sake of the community, wining and dining the guy until he agrees to approve their proposal.
Meanwhile, Seth is getting really fond of smoking pot. So we have that to look forward to.
How many times did I have to drink?
9
Sandy Cohen’s eyebrows say
Remember China?!
She had alopecia. No little girl should ever have a hairless pony.
Real talk
Johnny. I just don’t get it. Really? Him?
Cute Seth Cohen is cute
The cutest. Especially when he’s stoned out of his mind.
Well, that’s it for this week! I have a question for Meredith to answer next week: do you feel as though Kaitlin’s actions are somewhat justified? I’m enjoying the meta stuff about her invisibility – it’s as if she has to remind her own family that she exists.
We’ll see you guys back here next week when Meredith covers “The Cliffhanger” and “The Heavy Lifting.” Things are about to get a bit more dramatic, guys.
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.
