the o.c.: the aftermath

1. One thing I had forgotten that I like about this show is the fast pace. It feels great to get rid of Trey (for awhile, anyway) after one episode. Sure, real criminal cases might take longer to resolve, and real coma victims might take longer to recover, but that would be boring. We hate boring.

2. Seth and Summer were nothing but sidekicks in this episode. It was necessary this time, but will it be that way all season? Can they give S and S a storyline that doesn't involve them breaking up again?

3. Summer looked so pretty though. Even Marissa looked less skeletal. The boating scene made me really want to start wearing headbands again.

4. Julie Cooper! Her ponytail in this episode was kind of weird. Her trying to pay Trey off makes sense though, but you think she would be a little less confident about not getting caught after the whole porn scandal. Though maybe Caleb dying was the lucky break that made her into her old self. Sadly we might never hear about the porn again, since Marissa still doesn't know. I would have liked Marissa to have been able to throw that one in Julie's face. (Does Jimmy know? I can't remember.) They're laying it on a little thick with the will stuff, though. It's pretty obvious Caleb cut her out of the will--if she was ever even in it! I'm sure it all goes to Kirsten. It would be awesome if Caleb had put everyone--Kirsten, Hailey, Seth, Sandy, Marissa, and even Ryan--in the will except for Julie.

5. Speaking of laying it on thick, okay, we get it, Jeri Ryan is EEEEEvil. I know it's early, but I am calling it--she is this year's Oliver. My co-worker thinks that Jeri will try to steal Kirsten's life, and I think she might be right. I do like that they at least made Kirsten slightly skeptical of her--she didn't seem all that thrilled when Jeri asked her to get coffee sometime.

6. I think it's a mistake--both a writerly mistake and a mistake if it were in real life--to not tell Kirsten about the shooting. Especially now that everyone is okay and no one is going to jail.

7. I'm sad that Jimmy has ulterior motives. But it will be awesome when Julie finds out.


8. I thought the scene at the end with Ryan and his brother as the bus drove away was very poignant, and exactly what the show had been trying to do ever since Trey got there--to portray Ryan and Trey's relationship as both good and bad, and to show why it was so easy for Ryan to believe Trey would do horrible things but so hard for him to let go. I think the problem was always Logan Marshall-Green, the actor who plays Trey. It's not that he's a bad actor, but Ryan is such a silent character. For Trey they needed someone charismatic, someone who could draw everyone in--and I did not see that. They should have gone for charming fuckup instead of brooding half-wit.

9. All in all, a good episode that resolved what I wanted it to resolve. Except for the Jeri Ryan thing, I liked it very much.