Posted by: haro1d
Tonight’s OTH was what you might call a lot for a little. Not much really happened, but like Samuel Beckett once suggested, doing nothing sometimes takes a lot of doing.
A lot of time in tonight’s OTH episode was spent on both the Deb/Skills relationship as well as the ongoing mourning for Quentin. Deb and Skills broke up initially, as Nathan just couldn’t handle her living in the house while she was mackin’ on his best friend. (Of course, Jamie was cool with it all, giving his dad the “What’s your beef, Dad?” speech.) Brooke entered therapy to deal with the many issues brought on by her recent trauma. In confronting Victoria, her mother, she exposed that her mom never wanted her and has been bitter and resentful of her all her life. (You think?) In the end, Brooke determines to divest her interest in her company and leave the entire kit ‘n’ kaboodle to her mom. The mourning for Q culminated in the Ravens’ first game since his death, in which they decided to play as a four-man team. They lost, but gave the opposing team a major struggle. At game’s end, they decided to play the remainder of the season one man down. Nanny Carrie is prepping for the big kidnap caper and clouds of suspicion are forming at Chez Nathan and Haley about the disappearance of Dan Scott. Sam, the shoplifting girl, told off Haley and called her “Hannah Montana,” (which was pretty funny, actually). And tucked into all of this, Peyton gets a visit at her studio and around town from Mick Wolf, legendary musician and the guy who MIGHT be her dad, played by — are you ready for this? — John Doe.
And still: Only OTH could introduce John Doe to the series and still manage to make it a filler episode. (A quick aside: Yes, I’m sure there are some kids out there who know John Doe’s significance, but for those not in the know, Doe is the lead singer/songwriter for seminal L.A. punk band X.) As someone who sits slightly uncomfortably outside the target demo for OTH — meaning I’m probably a little old and non-female — I was a little surprised to see him, except that Doe has kids of his own who probably are couched firmly inside the show’s core audience.
Talking about OTH with my wife (who also is part of the OTH demographic and the reason I see this show every week in the first place), a pretty interesting point emerged: The show has a tendency to kill off some of its more compelling characters. Keith, the flawed father figure for Lucas, the most notable case, and now Quentin, the would-be insufferable basketball star who ended up having the proverbial heart of gold. (We lost Jimmy, the kid with the gun at the center of the school-shooting episode, but he was a bit of a diablo ex machina as far as the show is concerned. Still — I loved that he wasn’t one of “the beautiful people” so populous on OTH.)
Next week looks like it’s going to take us closer to Nanny Carrie’s meltdown and here, we just can’t wait. Well … yes we can. Wonder if John Doe will be involved in the search when it happens. Or maybe he’ll write a song about it. Or about Quentin. And maybe he and Chris Keller will get a duet going …