TV Review: The OC Episode 3.05

Thursday, November 03, 2005

From FOX: Ryan decides to make a life-changing decision that Sandy surprisingly supports, and Marissa turns to her new public school friends for help with Ryan. Meanwhile, Harbor High’s Dean of Discipline, Dean Hess, continues his crusade to ruin Ryan’s future, and Summer and Seth go on their own crusade to reveal Dean Hess’s secret. Meanwhile, Charlotte makes Julie an offer she cannot refuse on The Perfect Storm episode of THE OC.

My Rating:

The OC has returned to FOX after a brief hiatus to allow the FOX network to show the Major League Baseball play offs last month. When we last saw our cast of characters living in Newport, things were just getting interesting. Ryan and Marissa had both been kicked out of Harbor, which left the other half of the foursome to deal with the Dean Hess, the new Dean of Discipline, and Taylor Townsend, the girl that wants to take Marissa's place at the top of the social ladder at Harbor.

We also had some interesting happenings with the adults. Kristen seemed to come out of rehab with a growth attached to her, a fellow rehab resident, Charlotte Morgan. Appears Charlotte has a bit of devious side to her, but her original plans to swindle money out of Kristen have seemed to fizzle out when she discovers Caleb died without leaving Kristen a penny.

This week's episode titled 'The Perfect Storm' picks up right where we left off. With Julie looking for a new place to live. Marissa staying with Summer and attending public school, while Summer tries to figure out how to use the little tidbit of information she discovered the night of the school dance - the affair between Taylor and Hess.

College preparation is in full swing for this year's seniors, and for the students on this show this is no exception. Harbor is hosting a college fair for all the surrounding schools, and Sandy checks with Principal Kim about Ryan attending. She gives him the go ahead, but he finds out that Dean Hess has included a letter about Ryan's violent temper into his file. This will raise a red flag with almost any college, and it almost assures the chance of Ryan going to a decent school post graduation as a non possibility.

When Hess approaches Sandy at the college fair after seeing Ryan, Ryan is upset, and he decides at that point to drop out school entirely and look for a job. Most of his family never finished high school, so why should he? He meets up with one of Marissa's new classmates, Johnny, and he mentions a job that might work for Ryan. Johnny's uncle owns a fishing company, and Ryan goes to apply for a full time job on a boat. This would mean weeks away from home at a time. He takes the permission slip home, and Sandy tries to play a reverse psychology trick and signs the slip. this means Ryan can go.

So not only has Ryan dropped out of school, now he is leaving Newport for weeks at a time to go out fishing. This leaves his family and his girlfriend without him. This upsets Marissa a great deal, and just before Ryan sails off to work, she comes to him and explains why she is so upset. Her father left, sailed off on a boat, just like Ryan was about to do. When things got too hard for her father, that is what he always did. The fact that Ryan is doing the same exact thing is what upsets her because once again she is left alone. By the end of the episode, Ryan hasn't left and all is well.

However, that isn't the whole story. What about Summer and her trying to expose Hess and Taylor? At first Seth doesn't believe her, but he soon joins in her plans to expose Hess because it could give them the leverage they need to have their friend return to Harbor. They decide to capture Taylor somehow, and by the end of the episode they have tricked Taylor into going to a hotel room thinking she is about to meet Hess. Hess doesn't open the door, but Summer and Seth do.

The two get Taylor to spill to Sandy, and Sandy goes to Dean Hess with what he knows about him and his little affair. Dean Hess needs to let Ryan back into Harbor, withdraw the letter from his file, and find a nice job as far away as possible from Newport. The east coast sounds nice actually. Ryan does get to return to Harbor, but Marissa does not. She's okay with it though because there was more of a backlash when it came to her than Ryan in the first place.

Another plot presented in this episode is the on-going story line with Charlotte Morgan. Now that her one plan has failed, it looks like she is working on another way to milk Kristen for money, and it appears she is going to use Julie in some way to do it. While Julie is out looking for a new home, Charlotte meets up with her, and then ends up buying Julie a condo. Now, we all remember what happened a few weeks ago when Charlotte has to skip out on paying a house rental fee. I hate seeing what will happen here if she doesn't pay up for the condo. Julie seems to be headed for trouble once again, and I actually am starting to feel bad for her now. Never thought I'd say that.

Now it is wonderful to see this show back. I had really missed it while it was off air for the play offs, but I do have a small problem with this episode, and it is a similar problem to what has already happened this season. That problem is the quick wrap-up. Instead of having Summer trying to expose Hess and Taylor over the course of a few episodes, the writer's have made it so that it has to happen now or Ryan will end up leaving. We all know there is no way in hell Ryan would actually go through with leaving. That would make a major problem with the show as it is.

I would have rather seen some more development of Summer exposing the affair, and some other way of dealing with Ryan and the college fair incident, instead of him trying to run. That is just my opinion though. Looks like things are only getting started. It might be heading into winter soon, but things are only starting to heat up in The OC. Check back next week for my next review. If you want to discuss this episode with other viewers drop in over at my OC forum on MediaVillage.com.