I knew this would be a good episode of The OC, because we got a little bit of a viewer discretion warning at the before everything started. Part of the reason The OC has lost it's way is that it started to fashion itself as the show for the US Weekly crowd and consequently devoted its time to sill dramas attract your attention for one week. The problem was, there is only so many times you can put Nick and Jessica (or Ryan and Marissa!) break up before people start to look right past it on their way through the checkout.

As the show opened, the person who should have been given and advisory was Summer. The poor thing had to sit through Ryan and Seth playing Playstation, which isn't exactly new, but she doesn't have Coop to help her waste the time away. In fact, Sadie is nothing like Marissa, because Sadie knows how to play video games, and she really knows her way around a joystick (not that Ryan has had the pleasure). I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Sadie is great at Playstation; after all, she is poor, and if there is anything that you can learn from the OC, it's that poor kids will usually outshine their wealthy counterparts in many practical ways like home improvement and Ratchet: Deadlocked.

Summer is trying her best to work with the new group dynamic, but it is sort of hard to go without your best friend. Sadie is nice enough, but Summer doesn't like poor people the way Ryan does, so she has to keep her distance. Still, everything is going peacefully until we hear a knock on the door. Who could it be? Why it's Jess, the girl who nearly died at Marissa's house last year during a party. Trey took the fall for the party, and later, he and Jess hooked up. After the whole mess with the botched drug deal at the Bait Shop and Trey's shooting, the two of them decided to try things for themselves in Vegas. Jess got sick of that life, found herself a new boyfriend, and is trying to start her life back in Newport.

Ryan doesn't want anything to do with Jess, and doesn't care what happened to his brother. Jess does give Ryan a little present Trey bought for him, and then leaves, but you know that this won't be the last time that we see this stupid bitch. Sadie and Ryan are just getting to know each other, so I bet that Jess somehow tries to ruin everything for the two of them. It's already sort of happened, since Sadie caught Ryan talking to Jess and wondered what was going on. They haven't really put any labels on their relationship, but if Ryan was looking to make things last, he didn't get off to a good start by not telling her the truth about Jess. Later, when Ryan opens his gift to discover it is some Hot Wheel car, Sadie asks what it means, and Ryan tells her it is an inside story. Listen I wasn't expecting Sadie to stick around that long, but I was expecting her to last more than a week. If Ryan ruins their relationship because of dishonesty after one week, well I will have to shove one big boot of viewer angst up his ass.

There were other reminders of past episodes this week, like the return of Seth's interview. We thought he may have ruined his chances at Brown by skipping the first interview, but let's be honest, most of these interviews are done by alumni, and it's likely that you already know them. Having actual college staff do the interview is so, well probably around the time the writers went to college. Anyway, Seth's interview went really well, thanks in no small part to the fact that the interviewer was really into anime and so the two of them spent most of their time debating the old Akira vs. Ghost in the Shell debate. They're both idiots, I say, Vision of Escaflowne owns them both!

Anyway, Seth is so stoked that he did well that he says that his bags are already packed. If they don't pick up the show for a fourth season, maybe the kids are going to go to colleges far and away. If there is a fourth season, they are going to have to find a way to keep everybody in Los Angeles. Luckily for the writers of the OC, I have done my research and come up with a plan. OK, that is a lie; the plan actually comes from my good friend Margot, perhaps the most rabid OC fan on the isle of Manhattan. You have to keep everybody in Los Angeles, so why not take advantage of some of the best education Los Angeles has to offer? I give you the The OC plan for the Claremont Colleges.

Posted by J-Unit on March 27, 2006 6:29 PM