TV Review: The O.C. Episode 3.13

Thursday, January 26, 2006

From FOX: While Marissa does all she can to get to know her sister, Kaitlin just stirs up trouble for the gang as she prepares to celebrate her birthday. Sandy encourages Seth about college, but Seth finds a better alternative. Sandy and Matt work together to secure a contract for the new hospital. And Julie continues her quest to put her family back together again.

My Ratings: 3 out of 4


This week's episode of The O.C. titled The Pot Stirrer definitely shows how new arrival Kaitlin Cooper is going to be stirring up the pot when it comes to The O.C. She has her hand in everything this week, and she us definitely causing trouble for all involved. She is no longer the sweet and innocent Mini Cooper that left the series back when it starter. Let's talk about tonight's episode.

This week, it is Kaitlin's fifteenth birthday. A fact that her older sister remembers, but her mother somehow forgets. She even had a date with Mr. Roberts set for that night, but once Marissa mentions it is Kaitlin's birthday, Julie immediately promises to cancel her plans. When she goes to Summer's dad to cancel the date, he offers her his house for a birthday party for Kaitlin. The damage is already done however. Kaitlin is upset over the fact her mother didn't even remember her birthday. She has left the house, and is off walking alone with Seth approaches her.

Seth has his own nerves to deal with because an interviewer from Brown has requested an interview with him. We also learn he wants to interview Summer that same day. It is finally hitting Seth that he could be going away from home for good, and this is unsettling him. Kaitlin can see his nerves, and she offers him some pot. An offer he doesn't take her up on then, but as his nerves grow he finally goes to her for some pot.

He smokes some the day of his interview, and it hits him very hard. Not sue how someone can be that high from their first time with pot, but he was pretty bad. Luckily, Ryan is the one to find him, and when he finds the pot in Seth's room, he works to sober him up and get him to his interview on time. He even has Summer stall the interviewer as long as she can. However, once Seth is standing out there alone waiting to go in, he decides to not go in. He misses the interview.

Meanwhile, back at Summer's house, the party is in full swing for Kaitlin's birthday. Johnny is even in attendance. these two have been hanging out a lot, and they were even caught by Marissa and Ryan at The Bait Shop the night before. Kaitlin tells Johnny and Ryan in her own way that Marissa was jealous of seeing her with Johnny. Johnny keeps denying he has feelings for Marissa, and he even says he likes Kaitlin, but even with her turning fifteen, she is too young for him. This doesn't stop her from getting her birthday kiss from Johnny in one of the bedrooms upstairs.

By this point, Ryan has told Marissa about the pot because Seth told him he had gotten it from Kaitlin. This angers Marissa. She feels like she doesn't even know her little sister anymore with the events that have occurred since her return. She approaches Kaitlin as she comes down from upstairs with Johnny. Kaitlin leaves angry, and Marissa has to go tell Julie her younger daughter left her own birthday party. She doesn't say why the two argued because Summer's dad is standing right there, so Julie blames Kaitlin leaving on Marissa. This leads Mr. Roberts to tell Julie they should reevaluate where they are going as far as they are concerned, and I really feel bad for Julie here. She appeared to really have feelings for him, even if she did have some dollar signs in her eyes too. Hopefully, these two can talk and repair things. I really do hope the two younger Cooper's don't ruin this for their mother.

By the end of the episode, we see all the Coopers, Ryan and Seth in their own places alone. Seth is smoking pot again, and this concerns me. Also it feels a bit of place. If anyone on this series would have a drug problem, Seth seems to me to be the least likely candidate.

A smaller sub plot on this episode had to do with Sandy and Matt trying to land a bid on a new hospital. They are competing with another group, and they seem to be falling behind. The other group takes the high end by wining and dining the customer, but Sandy believes on using his business sense to win the client. It looks like he fails, so he tries another tact - taking the client on a walking tour of the area affected by the new hospital. When this doesn't appear to work, he decides to play hardball and take the client out to a fancy dinner, as Matt suggested he do in the first place. This doesn't set well with Sandy because by the end of the episode, he is in his office drinking alone. Furthermore, I'm not really all too sure why we have Matt around. He doesn't do much, if anything, and he feels a bit of waste.

This episode felt a bit slow to me, but it did show that their are things to come. It is leading to what looks to be a powerful episode next week from the previews shown. I actually have spoilers up on my forum here that could definitely relate to what happens next week. I'm hoping things heat up soon because this episode, while in some ways good, left me a bit cold.