100th episode premiere: "One Tree Hill"

In a season full of shows in perpetual re-runs, One Tree Hill is going strong with new drama. The CW show, in its fifth season, has come a long way. The season began by jumping four years ahead from the previous one, bringing all the characters into post-college-age adulthood. The cast also celebrated its 100th show, a milestone marked by new beginnings, endings and a returning.

The show centered on pretty boy and author, Lucas and his editor, Lindsey getting married. Karen, Lucas’ mom and her daughter Lily returned to America from France for the occasion while a suspenseful scene plays out with the psycho nanny, Carrie and the newly out of prison Dan, Lucas’ biological father. Are you following? It was an overload of drama for one hour.

While we waited for Lucas and Lindsey to get married, aspiring record executive, Peyton, who is still in love with Lucas (even after denying his proposal years earlier) questioned whether or not to proclaim her feelings for him at the ceremony. Her eventual decision not to was completely overshadowed by Lindsey abruptly leaving Lucas at the altar. Her reason for the exit? Lucas is clearly still in love with Peyton. His new book is even a testament to how much he still cares for her, disguised as a boy waiting for a comet to return. What tipped Lindsey off? Peyton’s car, the one that broke down the first time she met Lucas, is a Comet. Lindsey saw it parked outside the church that day. What a coincidence that she never saw it before the wedding.

In other news, married high school sweethearts Nathan and Haley find that reconciliation is harder than it seems. After Haley caught the now ex-nanny Carrie in the shower with Nathan, her whole world was shaken. Though Nathan was innocent in the matter, she cannot find the nerve to trust him. All she has is her son, Jamie.

Jamie, the show’s cutest star and by far one of the best actors (yes, he is four) leaves the church sanctuary for a bathroom break. While he is gone, he stumbles into Nanny Carrie, as he calls her, in the lobby. She tricks him into leaving and kidnaps him. The whole cast is frantically sent looking for him. This twist brings Nathan and Haley closer than ever. The good news? Jamie returns home safely, but only because of Dan, the most hated man in Tree Hill.

After killing his brother and going to prison, Dan is a free man. It is still unclear if his motives were pure, but bringing Jamie back was no less than noble. The look on everyone’s face when he showed up with Jamie was a priceless, shocked look of fear, anger and confusion all rolled into one.

What will become of all of this? The ending of Lucas and Lindsey clearly leaves room for a love between him and Peyton, but is somehow seems wrong now. He said “I do,” but she left. Why was he going to marry Lindsey when his heart was so conflicted? Even if Lucas and Peyton are meant to be and it is what everyone wants, it still feels too soon.

As for Dan returning, there is much to be explained. He is far too hated to be a good guy again, but his safe-keeping of Jamie can’t be overlooked. Haley and Nathan seem to be on the road to a happy marriage, thankfully, because they are a constant in a batch of unstable relationships. For the 100th episode, much was revealed and still much to be explained. Would it be so interesting without a dozen or so story lines? I think not. Read more!

"One Tree Hill": an old favorite never dies

It’s kind of embarrassing to admit that, after five years, I still tune in once a week to a teen drama driven by love triangles, psycho killers and sibling rivalry. However, having been a devoted fan since high school, the characters of One Tree Hill have become part of my life. I have and will follow brooding writer Lucas (Chad Michael Murray), his cocky half-brother Nathan (James Laferty), promiscuous fashionista Brooke (Sophia Bush), troubled artist Peyton (Hilarie Burton) and good-girl Haley (Bethany Joe Galeotti) anywhere from the WB network to the CW—being a voyeur of their lives will always be a guilty pleasure of mine.

In its golden years (if you can call them that) the show, which first aired in 2003, was about a group of high school kids growing up in the small town of Tree Hill, N.C. Their lives revolved around Raven’s basketball and the latest gossip of who was sleeping with whom. Now, four years has fast-forwarded past college and instead of the pains of growing up, the plot of One Tree Hill is driven by the bends in the road, the highs and lows of being an adult.

Tuesday marked One Tree Hill’s 100th episode, and, to be perfectly honest, if it weren’t because Felicity and Gilmore Girls are off the air and that I have become entangled in the young soap, I probably would have given up watching by now.

Without any transition between seasons four and five, I felt betrayed by the fast-forward mode of the show. I guess everyone else felt the same because recently, creator Mark Schwahn (Coach Carter) started incorporating past incidents and characters to present shows. Even though the 100th episode provides a progressive storyline, it looks like Schwahn is trying to revive the old feel because the new one isn’t getting good ratings—the show lost 550,000 viewers reaching a season low of 2.45 million viewers according to TV Guide’s reports.

Tuesday’s episode revolved around the wedding of Lucas and his annoyingly perfect editor fiancée Lindsay (Michaela McManus). Peyton is forced to choose between intervening or losing Lucas, her true love, forever. In the meantime, Nathan tries to win Haley back after a misunderstanding and Brooke discovers that she needs more than money to fill her void—she needs a family.

Filled with flashbacks and daydreams, the show’s creator does nothing but pack this episode with confusing moments. When Peyton stood up before the “I do’s” and proclaimed her love to Lucas reminding him of the first time they met, I thought she was actually speaking up, but I was wrong. With one daydream after another, I’m still not sure what was fantasy and what was reality, which gives the writer an easy out if he plans on re-writing the outcome of Lucas’s wedding for the next episode.

I had expected something catalytic to happen especially in the centennial episode, but nobody chases Lindsay down the aisle when she leaves Lucas at the altar, Peyton doesn’t have a heart to heart with Lucas and Brooke doesn’t sleep with anyone to fulfill her dream of having a baby.

All these conflicts are merely secondary to the reemergence of Dan, Lucas’ and Nathan’s convict father. I’m tired of all cliff hangers ending with: what did Dan do this time? Which was the cop-out cliff hanger this episode. Hero or villain, after five years of him lingering, his devious character has been exhausted. At this point, I say, put him to sleep, literally—he killed his brother in cold blood, give him the death penalty.

Let’s face it, though, no matter how annoying I find Dan, April 14 (the start of six brand-new episodes) is too long to wait for my next fix. Plus, one thing’s for sure: One Tree Hill always manages to have great music—the kind that is solemn and sentimental and makes you smile while you are crying. The writing used to make me feel this way, but now I rely solely on the music because the plot this season is weaker than ever.

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