One Tree Hill (4.5): Oh the Meta…

I strongly considered not writing about this episode. It was entertaining, and the underlying assumption they are prosecuting ( the circumstances that develops our personality is based on those we love and who love us) rings true. As an episode, it just was not inspiring. I didn’t get that contact high of triviality that energizes me to write about One Tree Hill. I will soldier on, work through the pain.

Despite what I just said about “underlying assumption” one of the major joys of One Tree Hill is that everything is spelled out. I would be willing to apply the adjective anvilicious to this show, and I adore it. One Tree Hill does not force even a single brain cell to engage. So, I have been expecting Haley’s “this is how Lindsay and I became friends” speech. Of all the things they could have picked the whole school-shooting-chapter-of-the-book scenario is probably the least trite (if maybe the most sentimental). Haley would become attached to someone who wanted what was best for Keith. Haley may be blind to her own problems, but recounting to Peyton how she bonded with Lindsay reminds the audience why Haley is lovable, why she is the character we, and the other characters, listen to. Now if she would only turn all that insight onto herself.

I have to admit I am conflicted. I am starting to want to like Lindsay, but I have such a long-standing attachment to Peyton. It has been Peyton and Lucas for so long, and Peyton rocks so much on her own that I feel like I am cheating on her by even thinking that Lindsay may be growing on me. I am not completely sold on Lindsay, so I’m flirting at a bar, not having a nooner at a motel. While revealing Lindsay’s personal tragedy defines her as a character more than simply “Lucas’ girlfriend,” she is just too unknown/underdeveloped for me to sympathize with her particular pain. The death of a parent is a universal experience, and therefore we all naturally empathize, but Lindsay’s father had only been mentioned in two other sentences in the entire time she has been on the show. Unaware of the closeness of their relationship prevents me from feeling anything other than general connection to her situation. Finding out that her father is dead makes Lindsay sympathetic to Peyton; more important for future episodes than how I happen to feel about things. Despite all this, Peyton is Peyton, and I have been in her situation; heartbroken and daily facing the girl that got the life you wanted. It makes you say things that you never thought you were capable of, things you don’t want to say, but you cannot seem to stop yourself. You are so hurt that as hard as you try to do the right thing you always end up doing the wrong thing. My personal situation healed years ago, but watching Peyton try and fail, try and fail, and eventually lash out like a child I could not help remembering how crappy it is from that perspective. You see, I am conflicted: new acquaintance with the dead daddy or the old friend with the shattered heart?

And I do not seem to be the only one comparing the old and the new. Nathan isn’t so much comparing as caught, and I have to give him a high-five for recognizing that honesty with his wife will be better in the long run than evasion. I know that we have not seen the last of Nanny Carrie, but can we all just take a moment to congratulate a man who recognizes his own failings and determines to do better. With all this in mind, I have to ask seriously; are they hinting that Jamie is Lucas’ son? Making a point of saying Haley and Lucas never slept together? Making a point of saying that Jamie looks exactly like Lucas. It seems too obviously insinuated that the (utterly adorable) little kid may be mistaking daddy for uncle (how Arrested Development). There is very little this show won’t do, so let us all entertain the possibility that the nice Nathan/Lucas brotherhood may be soon ending over a paternity issue.

And in conclusion: Tim has always, always given me the creeps. Not because of his homoerotic crush on Nathan, but because of the stalker quality to it. Time has not changed my feelings about Tim. No more cameos.

The TV Girl