Diary of a One Tree Hill Virgin – If that’s not a finale, then I don’t know what is

What can I possibly say about the Season 3 finale of One Tree Hill?

Let me rephrase that: how can I limit what I can possibly say about the Season 3 finale of One Tree Hill that a) does it justice; b) also reflects on the season as a whole; and c) accurately expresses how much I enjoyed it?

Now, before you say, “Wait, that image above isn’t from the finale, it’s from the school shooting episode,” I want to say “Yes, you’re right.” In fact, when I had visions of writing this week’s Virgin Diary, I had considered stopping after that very episode (“With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept”) to write my entry.

If I had done so, it probably would have been called “OMFGGGGGGGGGGGGG!” Ooh, that was such a good episode, and so very clever the way they had Dan kill his brother so that nobody would know it was him. And I’d spent the entire last post lamenting over Peyton’s bad luck — well, now she goes and gets shot! What is that? I was actually surprised that she and Lucas shared the moment they did in the library. I didn’t expect that to go there, and I especially didn’t expect her to develop feelings for him again especially after they made such a big deal about Jake (and then Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy, and then Jake again).

But the shooting episode changed my tune a little bit about who has it the worst. At this very moment, it’s Karen. Not only was her best friend and fiance killed — by his own brother, the father of her child (not that she knows this) — but she then finds out (in the episode hilariously titled “I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me”) that Lucas has HCM and was lying to her about it. (By the way, did you know that Moira Kelly directed that episode?)

(This next part is a little off-topic, but I just thought of another reason that Karen was angry with Lucas, which is because he went to Jimmy Edwards’ funeral. I’m glad he and his friends went, however; not only is it “what Keith would have wanted,” but it is also appropriate that they mourn him respectfully considering he was not the one responsible for Keith’s death.) One more chilling note about Karen’s grief: something she said to Lucas really stood out to me, because of its (possibly intended?) double-meaning. She said something to the effect of Lucas being responsible for Keith’s death because “if he didn’t go in there, Keith would still be alive.” She meant the school, where Keith went to protect Lucas. But I was thinking the dealership too, which Karen had just finished chastising Lucas for. If Lucas hadn’t “gone in there,” to save Dan, then Keith would still be alive too.

Alright. Now that proper attention has been paid to Keith’s death, we can move on to the season finale.

First off — why is it that Season 3 dipped in ratings from Season 2? I thought personally that Season 3 was the best yet. Anyway, despite all my Haley-bashing and annoyance at her and Nathan’s marriage, I found their wedding/vow renewal to be incredibly sweet. And what better place for a wedding than during a season finale?

I knew, as soon as I saw the words “One Tree Hill” appear silently at the beginning of “The Show Must Go On,” with no opening song, that this was going to be an intense episode with at least one tragedy. Let’s review the various things that happen in this episode:

1. Peyton and Brooke fight over Peyton’s feelings for Lucas; when Lucas inadvertently confesses that he and Peyton kissed in the library, all hell breaks loose and Brooke ends their relationship. (At the wedding, of course)
2. Rachel makes a fool out of herself and tries to humiliate Cooper via drunken toast, as Mouth looks on with a huge pout on his face. (At the wedding, of course)
3. Karen reveals that she is pregnant after Lucas inquires. (At the wedding, of course)
4. It looks like at least one other girl is pregnant as well but we don’t know who, because Brooke made everyone the same bag and who knows whose has the positive pregnancy test?
5. Deb admits to Dan that it was she who tried to kill him, not Keith. Dan visits Keith’s grave and weeps. After the wedding, he finds that someone has painted “Murderer” on his wall.
6. Nathan has nightmares about something happening to Haley at the wedding, involving a drowning of some kind. At the end of the episode, Rachel takes the wheel of the limo Cooper is driving and, in a rage, spins them off a bridge where the limo flips over and lands in the water. Nathan swerves to avoid getting hit, sees who it is, and jumps into the water to try and save Cooper and Rachel. Haley screams for Nathan as he becomes trapped and yells for help. (All of this occurs as Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” which is apparently the first time the band gave permission to a network show to use their music.

So, yeah. That was one of the best season finales I’ve ever seen.

Now onto Season 4!

Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose
on Jul 13, 2012 @ 10:00 EST5EDT