Paul1984

Thanks for the thread Amelia

This episode was pretty good for me. Some of it was disjointed and there felt like there was a lot going on all over the place, but it was intense and certainly furthered some stories along.

NH were intense and amazing, but I still hate this storyline. It really is taken from one of these bad lifetime movies where someone poisons the kid against his/her own parents. I really have a hard time blaming either of them in this scenario.

Nathan has been an idiot, that’s true, but he wasn’t meaning to have any bad intent. He has handled this so wrong, but he did plan on telling Haley about the kiss and then everything just went nuts when Carrie got in the shower with him (something bad needs to happen to her). Nathan has never been good in these situations, but I can understand his point of view and that he never meant for any of this to hurt Haley.

Haley’s point of view I also totally understand, she’s hurt and all she sees is her husband in the shower with another woman, seemingly out of the blue and then hears about a kiss, which it seems to her like he was planning on hiding. She’s seen this kind of thing happen before where Nathan seems to let someone come onto him and maybe this was the last straw (seemingly anyway). The divorce thing was just a heat of the moment thing that happened in a bad moment, it’ll be hard to take back now that it’s out there. Once you’ve said something, sometimes you start to believe that gut reaction is the right one, but I think eventually they’ll work it out.

I know Haley kissed Chris and that was similar in the way that she let him kiss her. The fact its a few years ago doesn’t make it any less wrong. However Haley had to pay a lot for that mistake, so now perhaps now it’s Nathan’s turn to show her how much she means to him again. Since what he’s done, the way he’s acted, intentionally or not have created a bad situation, which could have been easily avoided, if he’d just fired the nanny like he should have.

Carrie I just hate with a passion, she needs to be carted off in chains. Here we are again with another ridiculous soap character that seems to have no heart and a random evil vendetta after a few months. The way she spoke to Haley, it’s like she really believed Nathan was in love with her, she’s as wacko as psycho Derek was last year. It’s absolutely a bad old horror movie/lifetime movie style situation. I hate that she managed to poison Jamie’s mind so thoroughly in such a short time, but then she has been allowed to spend a lot of time with him. I really hope that NH spend some quality time with him soon, because he needs it.

I liked Nathan’s moments with Q and how they’re starting to have a little understanding. It’s the first time we’ve really seen Q let his guard down and show that he’s insecure and scared. I actually really felt for him for the first time.

I absolutely loved having Rachel back and thought Danneel was fantastic. I really bought into her depression and sadness. I’m looking forward to having her back on the show. She’s very flawed and she’s such a trainwreck, but I love her relationship with Brooke and I really hope that good things can come of that storyline.

Brooke and Owen’s relationship was a bright highlight in this episode for me. I’m really enjoying Owen’s character. He seems sharp witted and someone who can challenge Brooke, in a way I’m not sure anyone has dared to challenge her before. He isn’t interested in anything other than the person she is. I also loved the way he stepped up to the plate in helping Rachel for Brooke. He seems like the kind of guy who’ll be there when the going gets tough. So I hope that ex junkie thing wasn’t introduced so that they could ruin him at some point down the line, even if so far I think it does add a little depth to his story.

Brooke was great with Rachel and I think she realises that firing Rachel on her mom’s demand basically forced her to not be the friend she needed to be for her. I think she’ll put that right now and I look forward to seeing that. The moment with the hug with Owen was cute too. I’m really enjoying seeing that develop a lot more than I ever thought I would.

I loved seeing Peyton happy in this episode. I really feel like she’s been through the ringer emotionally this year and it was nice to see her in a different light, showing that she isn’t just unhappy for the sake of it, she really has had a lot to deal with. When the situation is right and she gets a little luck, she’ll be happy just like all the other characters have had a chance to be at some point this season, guess we just had to wait a while longer to see her happiness, because the career storylines have been so slow. I quite like the music storyline and think it sent some truthful messages, which I was ok with. Just like with every career storyline on the show, it just feels plonked in there as an afterthought around all the more serious relationship drama going on.

I did love that they managed to trick John and got a good deal. It didn’t feel like Mia oversold it too much either, which I liked. It seemed like John was just so desperate to find a success after his recent failure that he needed to offer them a good deal, which I thought played quite well. The music stuff is a touchy storyline for me, but I like that it played truthfully. Small labels are amazing and they’ve offered so much to some up and coming artists that otherwise would never have been noticed at all. They get their stuff released and if they’re really good they get noticed anyway and build the label with their success. However it doesn’t always happen and there is more failure than success in the business. Most of the big bands out there that people love have ended up having to be signed to a big label to make it big in the business. So that being said I’m pleased Peyton got the best of both worlds, allowing her label to build up, getting the best deal for Mia, whilst also allowing them to remain a team. Again it was just great seeing Peyton genuinely smile again.

Mia was cool and all, but I think it was time for her to be gone. She sang her songs and I liked her relationship with Peyton. Sometimes her acting was good, other times not, but now her storyline really has served it’s purpose, so I’m happy to leave it there, since like I said I feel like this storyline like all the career storylines is just kind of there in amongst the relationship drama. So to me I enjoyed her, but I’m pleased they’re not overusing her.

Lucas wasn’t in the episode much, but his scene at the parole hearing was great. I really felt every word he said. It’s something Lucas feels very deeply about and he isn’t going to let it go, just as he never should. I liked the scene where he asked Nathan to be his best man, that was a nice brotherly moment for the two of them. It’s nice to see them trying to have the kind of relationship that Dan and Keith never could, even if they have friction sometimes, they work it out. That is what separates Lucas and Nathan from Dan in my opinion. They make mistakes and they do stupid things, but they actually feel remorse and they try to fix their mistakes. I feel like Dan has always felt bad for the way things turned out, but it was more out of guilt at his own situation than caring about the effect it had on others. Dan has never tried to fix a mistake yet, unless he thought it would help him in some way. Any moment you get suckered in and start to believe him, there’s a moment down the line you know that will all be proved false. He’s had his chances and blew them all, he doesn’t deserve any more, so I’m very glad that Lucas spoke the way he did at the hearing.

All that being said, it’s so great to have Dan back and he’s been sorely missed on the show. Paul Johannsen is great and the character of Dan has always helped to drive the storylines on the show so well. He makes a great villain and while Victoria has provided some sharpness, she just isn’t the very multi-dimensional character that Dan is. I look forward to seeing what evil Dan could plan now that he’s back . With me I’ve always hated Dan the person, but loved the character. He’s the villain the show couldn’t have done without.

There were some other plus points in the episode for me, namely no Mouth or Lindsey. I don’t dislike either of them as people, but their characters bore me. I just have little or no reaction to seeing them on screen one way or the other. This episode, even if all the main characters were spread out, really focused on the core 5 characters lives and that meant I cared about most of the scenes. Overall the episode was dramatic and entertaining, if at the same time feeling choppy and a bit rushed in pacing. It left me feeling satisfied in some ways, but like the main substance to all the drama is still to come. I’d say it was probably about a 7/10, based on the fact I enjoyed it, but was still annoyed by the contrivance of the storyline points. E.g. Dan getting out of jail after 4 years, or the Nanny Carrie situation. Chad and Joy really stole the show in terms of the acting in their big scenes, particularly Joy who could really make anyone feel the emotion in the last scene. I hope Joy gets some more material like this to work with soon, because she’s been a little bit wasted that way this season up to now.