TV Review: The O.C Episode 3.06

Thursday, November 10, 2005

From FOX: Taylor Townsend locks up Seth’s night when she throws a Harbor School event that keeps Summer at a distance. Meanwhile, Marissa’s new friendships at public school worry Summer and she enlists Ryan’s help. Meanwhile, Sandy works on a plan for the Newport Group and forms a new partnership. And Charlotte convinces Julie and Kirsten to edge back into Newport society on The Swells episode of THE O.C.

My Rating:

Tonight The O.C. packed another episode with all the major characters having something going in around Newport. A good portion of this episode did focus on Marissa and her new friendship with the boy she now goes to school with, Johnny. Turns out she is spending an awful lot of time with her friends and with Johnny in particular. Marissa is even ditching out on events with her boyfriend, and this is really starting to raise a red flag to those around the two of both sides.

Ryan tries to ignore it because he knows Marissa wants to fit in with her new friends at Newport Union, but Summer is also starting to wonder if there is a bit more than friendship brewing between the two, especially when she finds a jacket belonging to Johnny in Marissa's bed. That would definitely raise a red flag to anyone, and Summer does ask Marissa about it. Marissa tells Summer that she would never cheat on Ryan, and I actually believe she wouldn't. Marissa even asks Summer to tag along to a Newport Union function so she can see the two in action so to speak. When she does, Summer grows even more concerned and calls in Ryan to come to where they are immediately.

I am thinking the situation here is that Marissa is blind to what everyone else around her is seeing, including Johnny's girlfriend. Johnny is falling in love with Marissa, and Johnny's girlfriend even tells Marissa that. This is after she cheats on Johnny before he can cheat on her. Johnny and Marissa walk into a bedroom to catch Johnny's girlfriend in bed with his biggest surf competition. Definitely doesn't help matters here because the first one Johnny turns to is Marissa. This is also with Summer and Ryan now there at the party. Johnny is understandably upset, and he goes after the other guy, but he is definitely no match for him. Ryan jumps into the fray and flattens with the guy with just one punch. Ryan is definitely not working on his temper issues here is he?

The Newport Union antics aren't all that happens in this episode. Let's move the focus over to Harbor. At the private school, Taylor Townsend has set up an event for the seniors that has a mandatory attendance for all seniors. This is Ryan's first week back at school, and he has been warned to not make any mistakes now or he'd be kicked right back out of school by Principal Kim. Taylor even makes it so that Ryan and Seth have to help her out. However, Summer and Ryan are over at the party with Marissa, and they never back to Harbor in time before Taylor has the seniors set in lock down.

This makes it so that Seth is stuck in a room full of people and Taylor without his two best friends. However, Seth ends up coming to the rescue when the rest of the class doesn't want to cooperate with Taylor. He had seen her with her mother earlier in the day, and you can see Seth kind of felt bad for the girl, and I did too. It appears Taylor is working so hard to earn the attention at Harbor because she doesn't get any at home. At least not position attention. Her mother was just horrid to her.

Summer does eventually make it to the school, but Taylor sees an opportunity to get closer to Seth so she fakes not hearing her. Taylor now has Seth all to herself, and Seth had already made it so that Taylor added his two friends to the sign in list for the lock in, so neither of them should get in any trouble for not showing up. Ryan never makes it to lock in because he is off with Johnny after the little fight on the beach.

The teen set isn't the only ones with happenings on this week's episode. All the adults had plenty to do as well. Charlotte is still figuring out a way to get money out of Kirsten and using Julie to do it. This week's scheme is to throw a huge party with a high buy in for charity. She gets Julie to go along with it, and then guilts Kirsten into joining as well. However, at dinner one night Julie has a reason to go through Charlotte's purse in order to pay for dinner, and she finds out all about Charlotte and her other identities when she finds credit cards and identification for several identities in Charlotte's wallet.

Julie doesn't play around, and she quickly confronts Charlotte about what she is up to. Charlotte knows she is caught, so she does tell Julie of her plans. She even asks Julie to go through it, but Julie doesn't really want to do anything that would break the law. I still think the Charlotte plot line is one of the weakest of the season. It's now being stretched out way too long for my tastes, and it should be put out of its misery as soon as possible.

Sandy is also working on things with the Caleb's company. Kirsten still wants to sell it, and this week Sandy has found a buyer, but he is concerned the buyer will tear down one of his pet projects. He confronts the man working with the man he is selling too, and the younger man wants to work out a deal that will keep the company in Sandy's hands as the young man joins forces with him. Sandy is intrigued by the idea, but first he must go to Kirsten for her approval. She supports him, and now Sandy has a new partnership, and a new job. However, something is definitely fishy here, especially with all the recent happenings with Charlotte. Is it possible this is the new way she found to get a Kirsten's money? Or is this a totally separate issue that we need to keep an eye on. We will have to wait and see.

I think this episode was a good episode, but it ran just a bit slow to me. There is a lot going on here, which makes things interesting, but some of the plot lines are a bit predictable. I really figured that Julie would be the one to figure out Charlotte before long. Julie is no dummy. Things seem to be moving right along though, and next week looks to be exciting as well.

For some O.C. news check over at my media village blog, Thoughts from the couch, and don't forget you can come and discuss this episode of The O.C. with myself and others over at my forum here.