Only four episodes this week, partly because I’m a little behind, and partly to even out the posts. This season has 18 episodes, so, 4 this week, and 4 next week!
Season 5: Episode 11: “You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side”
Lindsey and Lucas spring a Parent Trap for Haley and Nathan. Also Chace comes back! YAY Chace! And Rachel and Mouth interact. But we’ll get to that. First Lucas and Lindsey’s parent trap. They decide to have a big party for both of their bachelor and bachelorette, thus forcing the estranged couple to talk.
Jamie sees a family in a store playing rock band and fixates on it as something he wants to do as a family. I love this, because even though it’s a clear product placement, that kind of fixation is so something that little kids do that it really works. They also get a bounce house, because Skills is emotionally about the same age as Jamie.
Meanwhile, Brooke, Owen, Lucas and Lindsey go to Macy’s as Brooke prepares for a meeting. But Victoria took the meeting without her. Because EVIL. Brooke winds up firing Victoria, who also goes to Brooke and Peyton’s house where Rachel is detoxing and breaks down her already fragile self esteem. Ugh, Victoria is just the absolute worst.
Also, Dan is out of prison, and he had sex with a random girl he met at a sporting goods store. Also, he seems determined to meet Jamie.
This is when this is creepy, before Dan and Jamie’s relationship became one of the biggest hearts of the show.
Season 5: Episode 12: “Hundred”
It’s Lucas and Lindsey’s wedding day and every one is daydreaming. Nathan is daydreaming about coming home to his family. Peyton is daydreaming about interrupting the wedding. Brooke is daydreaming about becoming a mom.
Also, Karen is back! With Lily! And she’s with Andy! It’s all awesome. Andy now looks exactly the same age as the kids, which is completely hilarious. But I always loved that they ended up together.
Dan shows up at the wedding and Haley tells him off. It’s a great Haley moment. Also, Nathan is trying really hard to talk to her and it’s terribly sweet. Lindsey leaves Lucas at the altar, because she realizes that Lucas is still in love with Peyton from his second book.
And then the crazy explodes. After going to the bathroom, Jamie is snatched by Carrie, who then takes him to a motel and tells him that he’s going to be her son now. She tries to die his hair. Then Dan breaks in and puts her into a wall and returns him to the house, where Nathan and Haley and everyone are being very worried and Skills is feeling guilty, because he didn’t go with Jamie to the bathroom.
Season 5: Episode 13: “Echoes, Silence, Patience And Grace”
It’s the look at the camera and talk about their feelings episode. And it’s a good one. Nathan and Haley are in couples counseling. Brooke is being interviewed by an adoption agency. Peyton is talking to Max who used to own the record store. Lucas is talking to Andy and then Lindsey. Dan is talking to his Parole Officer. Jamie is in show and tell at school.
Haley and Nathan are trying to fix their marriage and it’s not going super well. They are talking and Nathan is back in the house. They talk a lot about losing their identities as a basketball player and a musician respectively. They talk about giving up their youth to raise their son. They reconnect. It’s quite lovely.
Brooke describes wanting to be a parent to save a child from having the kinds of neglected love starved childhood she had. It’s really touching. But in the end we learn that Victoria torpedoed her chances by disclosing every dirty secret of Brooke’s life.
Peyton talks about Lucas, and loving Lucas and how she feels awful for how heartbroken he is at the moment. It’s actually really nice and heartfelt. Max also tells her not to give up on music, since her opening the label changed Mia’s life and will change other people’s lives.
Jamie talks about how his bunny is his best friend. And his grandpa Dan. Speaking of Dan, he’s so into getting his family back together that it’s deluded and sad. He also pays his PO to talk to him. This is remarkably sad, but then again, even when he was super powerful, no one actually liked Dan, so I’m guessing he didn’t have a lot of friends.
Lucas talks to Andy about how he wants Lindsey back. Literally no one believes this is the case. Especially Lindsey. He says he’ll only publish the new book if she edits it. She’s kind of “whatever” about that.
Season 5: Episode 14: “What Do You Come Home To?”
Brooke’s getting a baby! Temporarily, but it’s meant to be a test run with the adoption agency. She’s fostering baby Angie while she is in the country to get a surgery. Brooke is over the moon about it, but as it turns out, Owen is not into the idea of having a family. He doesn’t even have the guts to tell her this himself, Chace has to do it.
I love Chace.
Anyway, Lucas is back and he and Peyton basically forgive each other, but she still feels bad. He’s annoyed though, because Q is refusing to admit the extent of his injury. Q told Skill about it but asked him to keep it from Lucas. Obviously, Skills does not keep it from Lucas. (Obviously.) Q gets really mad about this and calls Skills an Uncle Tom.
This righteously pisses Skills off, and there is no resolution. One Tree Hill does not often tackle race. And when they do it feels pretty on, because it just sort of hangs there.
Mouth asks Millie to move in with him and she accepts but also tells him that she’s a virgin. He doesn’t care. It’s adorable. Peyton and Haley decide to record an album together. Everyone debates whether to tell Jamie that Dan is a murderer…AND Deb comes back to be Jamie’s new nanny and it’s really exciting, because I mean, DEB!
Overall Analysis Of This Arc
Because it’s a short one, and we’re again dealing with moves that need to happen to get to end game, which is Peyton and Lucas reunited, there’s not a whole lot to say. But there’s good stuff here. It’s the deepest we’ve gotten into Nathan and Haley’s fundamental differences in a while, and it’s nice to be reminded that their love didn’t completely erase who they are. The kidnapping plot and Carrie Single White Female stuff is really the show at it’s soapy best. As is Lindsey leaving Lucas at the altar.
And at that, we’re nearing the goodbye to Lindsey, who, I know I keep saying it, is a character I really, really like. But you know, as a Team Jacob, “On My Own” singing, Galinda-phile, this makes perfect sense. I feel for the spare in a love triangle. (Brooke long transcended that role.) And I think Lindsey is good at that.
I’m looking forward to “Brooke as Mom,” and really, the Peyton and Lucas reunion is pretty epic.
The Fangirl's Dilemma 