Your "O.C." Catchup...
I’ve been telling people for weeks that they need to get back into “The O.C.” But people keep telling me that they haven’t watched it in so long, they don’t know what’s happening.
Allow me to catch you up…
Drama queen Marissa was killed in a car accident when her sleaze of an ex-boyfriend, Volchak,, ran her and Ryan off the road. This season began five months later with Ryan living in a nasty apartment in the back of a bar and exercising his demons by getting the crap knocked out of him in a fight club. When Julie Cooper, Marissa’s mom, told Ryan where to find Volchak so he could kill him, Ryan went to Mexico to find him, but Seth found Volchak first and told him to leave—even letting him know his dad would help him. Volchak did end up calling Sandy, who negotiated his surrender to the police—but not before Ryan showed up. However, Ryan realized that death was what Volchak wanted and he walked away, allowing him just to go to jail. Ryan then moved back in with the Cohens and got a job at the Mexican restaurant in the mall to try and put himself back together…
Julie wasn’t dealing with Marissa’s death very well herself, driving her fiancé Neil (Summer’s dad) back into the arms of his ex-wife. Neil transferred to a hospital in Seattle, but left Julie the house for her and Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn has brought her bad girl ways to Harbor and has teamed up with the younger twin brothers of Luke, who was Marissa’s boyfriend when the show began. Julie and Kirsten put more of their efforts into NuMatch, their dating service, until Julie started getting an interest in younger men. But when she and Kaitlyn ended up dating the same guy—who turned out to be the son of the man Julie was trying to get to invest in NuMatch—Julie decided to be a little more adult…
Summer and Seth were not handling the long distance relationship (Summer is at Brown, while Seth won’t join her until January to go to art school.) very well since anything about Newport only reminded Summer of Marissa. In fact, she couldn’t even stay in her own house since that’s where Marissa last lived. To fight her grief, Summer became an environmental activist and a bit of a hippy. After seeing a psychiatrist, Summer tried to go back to her old ways, only to realize that she truly had changed. But Summer found herself in trouble when she and her friend Che were caught releasing rabbits from a lab. Summer refused to rat Che out, but he did not do the same for her and even accused her of things he had done so that the “movement could survive”…
Summer saw Taylor Townsend hiding from her mother in Newport, when she was supposed to be in Paris. Taylor later revealed that she had married a man in Paris, and was now trying to get away from him. After her mother kicked her out, Taylor moved in with Julie and Kaitlyn. Her husband’s lawyer came to town to take Taylor back to France saying he would only grant the divorce if she had been unfaithful. Taylor told the lawyer that she and Ryan were lovers, but when Ryan balked at the charade, Taylor looked to be headed back to France. However, Ryan showed up at the last minute and gave Taylor a kiss that convinced the lawyer, and totally swept Taylor off her feet.
Setting her sights on Ryan, Taylor pretended to be a sleep therapist in order to seduce him. It didn’t work, but she managed to figure out that Ryan’s insomnia was due to the fact that he had nothing to look forward to since Volchak went to jail, since getting revenge was no longer something to shoot for. When Ryan figured out what was going on (Thanks to Seth.), Taylor lied and said she didn’t have feelings for him, then tried to blow his mind with her outfit at Sandy’s benefit. When she overheard Ryan tell Seth he was not going to date Taylor, she decided to give up. But for some reason, Seth practically dared her to keep trying and after bringing Ryan some tea to put him to sleep, she talked Ryan into a kiss. Taylor ran out, leaving Ryan only to say, “Whoa.” When Seth came to the poolhouse, Ryan was actually asleep, but the tea was untouched.
And now, you’re caught up. No more excuses!
“The O.C.” airs tonight at 9 on FOX…
