BuzzSugar

"The OC" Recap: Episode 16, "The End's Not Near, It's Here"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:57:13 -0800

So the series finale of the "The OC" has come and gone, with an hour of television that was at once wonderful and terrible. For the first 20 minutes or so, I found myself wanting to tap the actors on the shoulders and remind them that this was, in fact, the final episode ever and could they please stop wasting time on silly trivialities, such as exposition and Taylor's blog?

Fortunately, about halfway through the episode, they seemed to get the message, delivering plenty of juicy details and referencing everything from The Graduate and "Six Feet Under" to "Deal or No Deal" and "The OC's" own demise. To find out what happened, read more

So Julie is knocked up and marrying Bullitt, which seems unusually responsible until we learn she's pregnant with Frank's son. As she plans their nuptials, Sandy and Kirsten, who are crashing at the Coopers, find out their house is beyond repair. So Ryan and Seth - who has spent the past six months in a La-Z-Boy watching "Briefcase or No Briefcase" with Summer - head up to Berkeley to see about buying the Cohens' old house.

Billionaire Bullitt gets wind of this and jets up to Berkeley with the Cohens to put an offer on the house. But the guys living there, Todd and Patrick, aren't interested in selling. Oh well, Kirsten asks: "Is the bathroom still in the same place?" and hurries off to pee. When her water breaks, she's forced to - as Bullitt so eloquently puts it - drop child in San Fran.

With a few fairly ridiculous plot twists, everyone ends up in Berkeley, and they decide to have the wedding there. One of the gay guys is a wedding planner, natch, and the couple later agrees to sell the house back to the Cohens. "It's your house. We just live in it." Oh yeah, that's a realistic snapshot of the Bay Area real-estate market.

Meanwhile, all this wedding nonsense has the other couples pondering their futures. Seth thinks he and Summer are stuck in a rut and that she needs to go off to save otters and fulfill her destiny. Ryan and Taylor decide they can just be friends, until they collapse in a lustful pre-marital heap on the bed.

Back in Newport, Frank runs to the church attempting to stop the wedding with an impassioned shout of "Juuuuulie!!!" - only to realize the wedding has been relocated. He calls Kaitlin's cell phone and begs for Julie back. Julie runs inside, Kaitlin follows, and Julie pauses to think: "Not now honey! Mom's try to decide who to marry."

Everyone bids farewell to Summer as she boards the bus for GEORGE then sets about getting on with their lives; Seth and Ryan go to college, Sandy teaches at Berkeley.

Then comes the moment we've all been waiting for: the what-happens-next montage! In a gimmick ripped straight from "Six Feet Under" (except not nearly as good), we fast-forward to see what happens in each character's life. In conclusion:

Julie graduates from college. Both Frank and Bullitt are in the audience, so I'm assuming she ends up with Frank, but it's not entirely clear. Thoughts?
Seth and Summer get married. Ryan and Taylor are best man and maid of honor and exchange knowing glances.
Ryan grows up to be a construction foreman with the exact same hairdo. In a very melodramatic moment, he leaves work one day and encounters a brooding punk kid in Vans. "Do you need help?" Ryan asks.
Hello, spinoff!

Photos courtesy of Fox

"The OC" Recap: Episode 15, "The Night Moves"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 14:39:17 -0800

Maybe it's because last week's episode of "The OC" ended in what looked to be the worst earthquake since the great San Francisco shake-up in 1906, but I was expecting something a little more earth-shattering on last night's show, "The Night Moves." (And for those of you wondering, yes, the title is a reference to the Bob Seger song of the same name. Oddly.)

Fittingly, almost all of this episode takes place over the course of one night in the hours following the earthquake. Given that next week is the series finale, "The OC" really didn't pull out all the stops like I expected. To find out how everyone fared in the disaster, read more

So with Kirsten pregnant, Taylor and Ryan professing their love for one another, and Kaitlin and Julie trying to be mother and daughter for real, I thought for sure some tragedy would befall the people of Newport at this critical juncture. But no, everyone is fine. And surprisingly calm, except for Ryan, who is secretly bleeding from a shard of glass in his back. (Shhh! Don't tell Taylor!)

The story mainly hinges on Seth, who switches place with Ryan for the evening and becomes the pillar of strength in the pair. At the hospital, Seth ends up giving Ryan some of his blood, and Ryan gets the best line: "All of a sudden, I have an urge to listen to Death Cab and read comic books."

Everyone else is busy coping with their own various aftermaths. Julie and Kaitlin get stuck in the ice-cream stand with a dorky food-service employee who fakes an asthma attack and tells them they are stranded because the pier washed away. But really, he's just lying because he has a crush on Kaitlin. Charming. Eventually, Frank Atwood finds them, and Kaitlin gives her mom permission to date him.

Summer and Taylor try to distract themselves from the guys' absence by looking for Pancakes. Taylor shoots an intruder with a flare gun, and it turns out to be her evil mom, Veronica, who whines that she will need plastic surgery, stat.

Meanwhile, the hospital is packed with people in need of real medical care, including Kirsten, who took a nasty fall. Yet somehow, Summer convinces a doctor to treat her bunny's broken paw first. Thankfully, Kirsten and the baby are both fine, and though it's only been a month or so, we find out the baby is a girl.

Everyone ends up back at the Cohens' house, which - unlike its residents - is in pretty bad shape. Given the lack of drama this week, I started to worry that the finale would simply follow the Cohens as they cleaned up the mess. Fortunately, the promos are promising "a baby, a wedding, memories, surprises, and tears." This better be good! Tune in next Thursday to see how it all ends.

Photos courtesy of Fox

"The OC" Recap: Episode 14, "The Shake Up"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:34:10 -0800

In this week's episode of "The OC", Ryan worries that his relationship with Taylor is suddenly moving into "mach 5," and thankfully, that's precisely what the writers seem to be doing with the show. We begin as Taylor is discussing plans for her first-ever birthday party with Summer, and she confesses that the ideal present would be Ryan asking her to go to Berkeley with him. Oh, and an "I love you" wouldn't hurt either. Next we're treated to some very heavy-handed foreshadowing, so if you don't mind some spoilers, read more

Seeing an earthquake story in the LA Times, the girls point out that, no matter how many times the experts predict "the big one," it never happens. Subtle, right? Almost as subtle as Taylor's "hints" to Ryan that he should say "I love you." Her best moment is probably when she and Ryan are watching a movie, and she observes how tragic it is that the two characters can't express their love for one another. Ryan says the chances of it working are pretty slim: "She’s a beautiful woman. He’s a hunchback working in a bell tower."

Kaitlin is annoyed at how much Frank is staying over, and Frank confronts her about it. The problem isn't that he went to prison, Kaitlin says, but that Frank is boring. Kaitlin then attempts to solve the problem by planting clown porn in Frank's duffel bag; Julie realizes what's going on and is, understandably, troubled that her 15-year-old managed to get her hands on clown porn.

Meanwhile, Kirsten sees a darker side of Newport, and it's called prenatal yoga, where the bitchy young moms invite her to join the "six-pack pack." She asks Sandy: How can she raise a baby in such a shallow place? To renew her hope, he invites her out to dinner with a "normal" couple, Spitz and his wife. Bad idea, seeing as how the wife is about 20 years younger and unbelievably obnoxious, shouting across the restaurant at a nanny to shut that thing up. Turns out it's her nanny, and the "thing" is her kid. Lovely.

Summer, meanwhile, is dragging Seth to an art opening sponsored by GEORGE. When Seth ridicules an experimental film, Summer challenges him to make his own, so he films an inflatable whale floating in a pool for six hours. Summer is not amused, but I thought it was pretty funny. In an attempt to redeem himself, he spends the rest of the episode filming documentary footage of Ryan, Summer, and the gang.

Trying to loosen Ryan up, Taylor invites him over for dinner and wine. She gets sloshed instead and admits that she just wants to hear that he loves her. When she seems to pass out on the bed, Ryan asks: "Taylor, are you just pretending to be unconscious so I’ll tell you that I love you?" A drunken Taylor replies: "Maybe..."

Eventually, he says he loves her back but then panics when he realizes Taylor is planning to go to Berkeley. Taylor decides she'll say "I love you" when she opens Ryan's romantic birthday gift, a bound book of French love poems. But when she opens the gift, she realizes Ryan has gift-wrapped a dictionary instead. I think the French call that "sabotage."

Speaking of sabotage, Julie finds Kaitlin with more clown porn and confronts her; Kaitlin says she doesn't mind Frank, she just doesn't want another "instant family." Why can't she and her mom just be family for a while?

Taylor asks Ryan: Would you have said you loved me if you knew I'd gotten into Berkeley? Ryan's relative silence comes across as a "no," and Taylor can't muster the enthusiasm to blow out her birthday candles.

Later, Ryan finds her and gives her his real gift, while also expressing his utter devotion and love. Then, guess what? There is an earthquake! A really, really long earthquake with lots of graphic footage of horrible things tumbling everywhere. Did someone die? Has Newport been destroyed? We'll have to wait until next week to find out.

Photos courtesy of Fox

"The OC" Recap: Episode 13, "The Case of the Franks"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:03:23 -0800

I rushed home from the Sugar Publishing happy hour to catch last night's episode of "The OC." By the time the show ended at 10 p.m., I was feeling a little nauseated - and it wasn't from the cocktails. So just how sappy and ridiculous and flashback-filled was "The Case the Franks"? Let me just say: Had I spent the week eating only conversation hearts and clothing myself in rose petals, I don't think I could have written a more sickeningly sweet Valentine's Day episode than this one.

Taylor and Ryan are trying to decide how not to mess up the big day, when Taylor finds a mysterious address in Ryan's stuff. Turns out, it's the address of Frank Atwood, who Taylor agrees to help reconnect with Ryan. Meanwhile, Summer is troubled when a psychic says her soul mate is named George, so she goes to talk to Kirsten. Then, the episode basically becomes one giant big-hair flashback, so read more

Kirsten is remembering her Jimmy Cooper days, telling Summer: “I loved Jimmy a lot when I was your age, but I changed.” The man for her was really Sandy Cohen. At the same time, Seth is sitting with Ryan and having flashbacks to elementary school, remember that he first fell for Summer when she read a poem in class. In one funny meta moment, Seth shakes out of his flashback and finds Ryan has gotten up to do something: "Dude," Seth says, "the flashback did not take THAT long." Summer later confesses that Taylor actually wrote the poem. As a result, Summer and Seth start to wonder if they are one another's Jimmy Coopers or Sandy Cohens.

Because Julie is less concerned with destiny than with dollars, she has conditionally accepted Bullit's engagement. But over dinner with Frank and Ryan, Taylor asks: "Frank, are you in love with Julie Cooper?" and sets out to get the two of them back together, later telling Julie that she has "a case of the Franks." Ryan thinks she deserves better, until Julie reassures Ryan that she's known a lot of bad men, and Frank Atwood is not one of them.

Then, the episode devolves into a pair of competing, ridiculous schemes, wherein Kaitlin (wearing a "Team Bullit" t-shirt) tries to get her mom to spend Valentine's Day with the billionaire, while Taylor and Ryan are batting for Frank. Along the way, we're treated to a car chase, a romantic dinner at a hot dog stand with Frank, and a scene between Bullit and Kaitlin on an airplane tarmac that pays homage to Casablanca. If I may, I'm just gonna skip ahead here: Julie ultimately comes back to Frank, and Bullit and Kaitlin decide to be friends.

I'll spare you the other hokey flashbacks to Kirsten's college life, since they don't really add up to much. But in case you're wondering about Summer's soul mate George, it turns out that GEORGE actually stands for the Global Environmental Organization Regarding Greenhouse Emissions. The non-profit has been reading Summer's blog about sea otters, and so it sends a representative to her house to offer her a job. (Oh sure, that happens.)

The job will require her to travel and and be away from Seth though, but Summer thinks she can endure. She even gives him a photo collage of great couples through time and says that maybe one day, they can put their own photo in the middle. And with that, I made a retching noise turned off the TV.

Photos courtesy of Fox

"The OC" Recap: Episode 12, "The Groundhog Day"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:04:36 -0800

You know a show is desperate for ideas when it's building plot lines around Groundhog Day, and that's precisely what happened on last night's episode of "The OC." Che is still in Newport and struggling with the revelation that his soul mate is a sea otter and, therefore, probably Seth. His other major concern: liberating the groundhog that is Newport's version of Punxsutawney Phil. He enlists Seth's help in freeing the critter, and thank goodness, because otherwise, we'd miss out on a number of old-fashioned Seth one-liners, which keep the episode from being a total waste.

Meanwhile, Kirsten is fretting about her health as her 40th birthday nears, and Kaitlin has been emailing Bullitt for about a month, pretending she is Julie. (Her latest message ends, "I miss your butt. Love, Julie." Classy.) To find out what happens, read more

Ryan tells Sandy he's coping well with Taylor's absence, but he's still staring longingly at the scrapbook she made him. Taylor is going to therapy to address her tendency to obsess over people: "I married a man I knew for two weeks just because he told me he loved me." As part of her treatment, the doctor goes with Taylor to drop off a box full of mementos at Ryan's.

Meanwhile, Kaitlin suspects Julie is seeing someone else when a mystery man delivers flowers to the house. Next thing we know, Kaitlin is accompanying Bullitt to buy Julie a ginormous diamond ring. When Kaitlin asks if it's the most expensive ring in the store, her potential stepdad replies: “Well, Bullitt bought it. Of course it is.”

Dressed in ski masks, Che and Seth prepare to liberate the groundhog, but when they get stuck on a roof during their escape, the two are thrown in jail. Now, it's up to Summer to do the deed, so she poses as a reporter for a newspaper called - get this - Groundhog’s Day Weekly. In custody, Che finally tells Seth about his vision, wherein he realized that his animal self is a bullfrog and in love with an otter.

But wait! Maybe it wasn't an otter after all! In walks a young female revolutionary, dressed in a plush groundhog costume. She's also been arrested while trying to free Newport's mascot. Che realizes that the animal in his vision was actually a groundhog, not an otter, and hence, he has found his soulmate. When Sandy comes to bail Seth out of prison, Che insists on staying behind until both he and his lady friend are freed. "Works for me," Seth says as he hurries off.

Julie comes home to Bullitt on one knee offering a proposal of marriage. (What is it with the TV marriage proposals this week?) When Julie realizes what's happening, she scolds Kaitlin for emailing Bullitt. In a moment of Cooper-style tenderness, Kaitlin apologizes and says she just wishes things would work out with Bullitt, because not only is he a billionaire, but he would also make an amazing stepdad.

Later, the three meet over dinner, and Julie says her answer is "no," because she doesn't know Bullitt well enough yet. But, if she can grow to love him, she would be proud to be his wife someday. Hugging ensues.

Finally, we get to Kirsten's 40th birthday dinner at the Yacht Club, where Sandy arrives driving a mail truck, a reminder of their early days at Berkeley and - I must admit - pretty cute. With Seth and Ryan standing by, Sandy hands over her gift: around-the-world first-class air tickets. "I think I can top it," Kirsten says, then pulls Sandy aside to tell him she's pregnant. A rather desperate dramatic twist, I must say. Thankfully, with only four episodes left, we won't have to see the resolution.

In the final scene, we see Julie on the phone with her mystery man, saying she can't see him anymore because she's going to start dating Bullitt. And the mystery man is ... Kevin Sorbo of TV's "Hercules"! (You might remember him as Ryan's dad.) Funny, he's holding a diamond ring too, though it's considerably smaller than the one from Bullitt. Is Julie a heartbreaker or what?

"The OC" Recap: Episode 11, "The Dream Lover"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:56:41 -0800

I'm really hoping the "The OC" will pull out all the stops now that the show is going off the air, and last night's over-the-top episode, "The Dream Lover," was a promising start. We've got two interlopers in Newport, including Che, who is getting weird Seth vibes, and Henri-Michel, who wants to rent a house in California and invites Taylor to move in.

Henri, after all, is willing to do anything to win his Peaches back. Taylor doesn't seem crazy about this idea but gives him credit for "really taking an emotional risk, unlike some people.” Meanwhile, Summer reassures Seth that "I still really love you. I hope we marry some day.” Soon, Seth sets off on a spiritual journey/camping trip with Che, while the rest of Newport's denizens embark on their own strange trips, so read more

Kaitlin's personal journey involves going without lip gloss and venturing into the band room, after spending a few evenings "studying" with Will. "I guess you can learn chemistry from just making out," she says. Their budding relationship, however, draws the ire of the band geeks, who think Kaitlin doesn't appreciate what's so great about Will.

Meanwhile, Julie is trying to make amends with Kirsten, but she's not having it: "You turn our business into a male prostitution ring, you get hung up on. Company policy." She doesn't hang up, however, when she gets a call from Spencer, who says that one of the call boys has chlamydia and every woman he slept with needs to be notified. Enraged, Kirsten calls Julie, who reminds Kirsten that it's her company, so she's liable too. Julie offers to notify the women if Kirsten will ferry her around, and Kirsten reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, Ryan goes to the Cooper house to talk to Taylor, but instead, he runs into Kaitlin, who says that if he wants to win her back, he'd better bring a gift. "I can’t believe I’m getting advice from a 15-year-old," he says, but he takes it. When he arrives at Henri's hotel room, Ryan is holding a tiny teddy bear, complete with a tiny bouquet of balloons. "What is in his mug?" Henri asks, dripping with smart-ass-ness. Gummi bears, Ryan says, and Henri-Michele offers to deliver the cannibalistic bear to Taylor. After all, if she choose Henri over Ryan, Henri will know that she truly loves him.

Ryan tries to tell Taylor how he really feels, but he fumbles big time, failing to say those three little words that matter so much. "That stuffed animal you bought me is more expressive," she says dismissively. Henri-Michele, on the other hand, has written a long love poem that he'll be reading publicly later.

Meanwhile, Seth and Che are hiking through the forest, and we can tell Seth hates it because his hair is mussed. Che tells him that Seth's "spirit animal" is trapped, and they must spend the night in the forest to find the little critter. Che fashions a tent filled with heated, steaming rocks, and in a vision, Seth confronts his spirit animal, which turns out to be an otter. Che seems to find this revelation somewhat vexing.

Meanwhile, Kirsten learns that Julie made up the whole chlamydia story just so she could hang out with Kirsten all day. Seriously, does this woman have any shame? Kirsten considers Julie's desperation and realizes that while she can't be her business partner anymore, she can still be Julie's friend, male-prostitution carnage and all. Aww!

Kaitlin, however, is realizing that she and Will probably can't be friends, or anything else. "We’re not a good fit," she tells him. "We’re like oil and that other thing."

After Ryan reads his own love poem for Taylor, Henri-Michele leaves them alone, explaining that while he loves Taylor, he "loves love more." When the two reunite, Taylor explains that she was seduced by the fact that Henri said he loved her and needs to hear it from Ryan. Knowing he's not ready, however, she says she needs to learn to be on her own before she can realy be with anyone - which is pretty much exactly what Summer said last week.

But the biggest "relationship" shocker comes when Che and Seth return from their forest jaunt. Seth tells summer about his sea otter self, which Summer finds adorable, and Julie asks Che what's vexing him. Seems Che has a vision of his spirit animal, too: It is a toad, who found his spirit mate in ... an otter! As the show comes to a close, we see Che staring longingly at a photo of Seth.

Photos courtesy of Fox

"The O.C." Recap, Episode 10: "The French Connection"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 11:24:59 -0800

Thursday night's episode of "The OC" focused mostly on Taylor and her French ex-husband, Henri-Michel, who makes Ryan feel threatened despite being a pretentious weenie. The episode starts as Taylor realizes that the hottest new erotic novel on the market, A Season for Peaches, is a thinly veiled account of their affair written by Herni. (Apparently, page 47 is where it gets really hot.) She begs Ryan not to read it, and he agrees - until he runs into the ex-hubby signing copies at a bookstore and breaks down.

Speaking of breakdowns, over at NewMatch, Julie is having a hard time hiding the male prostitution ring from Kirsten, who is getting suspicious. It certainly doesn't help when Kirsten overhears Julie promising a client that "this one will have his back waxed," which prompts Kirsten to steal Julie's cell phone to snoop.

Meanwhile, Seth is jetting up to Seattle to ask Dr. Roberts for Summer's hand in marriage, while Kaitlin Cooper has a romance of her own brewing, so read more

While Seth does his best to bumble his meeting with Dr. Roberts, Summer reconnects with Holly, a newlywed from high school who hangs with a group called "the newpsieweds." Soon, Summer slips into the persona we saw in the alternate-universe of the Chrismukk-huh? episode, punctuating her sentences with "totally, bitches!" and licking champagne off her glass over lunch. In a rather absurd development, Summer is soon visited by visions of Che, who is presumably acting as her conscience.

Kaitlin finds herself falling for her study partner, Will (Chris Brown), despite thinking he's a major dork. When she invites him over to watch TV, Julie kids her relentlessly: "You want his big dorky arms wrapped around you!" Kaitlin blows it, though, when she asks Will if he wants to smoke weed, and he realizes her bratty act at school isn't an act. (Later, she redeems herself, so expect more Will and Kaitlin action to come.)

Then there's the ridiculous Taylor-Henri plotline: Ryan agrees to have dinner with the ex but feels inferior when they start talking about Anais Nin. Plus, a highbrow French talk show has come to Newport with the hopes of landing Taylor as a guest. (The French equivalent of Charlie Rose just decides to transport its set to SoCal to film a single episode? Yeah, that seems totally plausible.) Ryan shows up to watch the filming, while a bystander relates the main talking points: Henri's novel, existentialism, and Johnny Depp.

When Ryan finds out that Taylor lied to Henri to make him look good - saying Ryan had penned a number of scholarly articles on skepticism - he goes home to mope over his Ryan and Taylor scrapbook. (That's right: They've been dating for approximately four episodes, and Ryan already has an entire schmoopy scrapbook devoted to her.) He begins to worry that they're just too different, as Taylor seems to be succumbing to Henri's charms on the TV set. At the end of the episode, we still don't know whether Taylor and Ryan are going to call the whole thing off or try to make it work.

As for the other storylines, Kirsten uses Julie's cell phone to find out about an upcoming appointment and shows up herself, confirming her suspicions. Rather than turn Julie into the police or get Sandy Cohen involved, she simply fires her and says good riddance.

Dr. Roberts, not surprisingly, rejects Seth's offer, telling Seth to come back when he's finished college. Seth tells Summer he thinks they should just stay engaged, but Summer has learned a lesson from her Che hallucinations. She has no idea who she really is, so how can she be with someone else? With every romance potentially on the rocks, here's hoping next week's episode will be a bit more exciting.

"The O.C." Recap: Episode 9, "The My Two Dads"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:40:28 -0800

On last night's episode of the soon-to-be-cancelled "The O.C.," we saw Ryan's two dads come to blows while Seth and Summer engaged in a sort of engagement detente. Meanwhile, a gratuitous guest appearance by Chris Brown proved that the teen should stick to hip-hop.

"The My Two Dads" had some truly excellent Seth material. Since neither he nor Summer is willing to admit that they got engaged because of the pregnancy scare, Ryan advises Seth to force Summer to make the first move. So Seth showers her with gifts - including the Torah and cooking classes so she can learn her way around the kitchen. Summer, in turn, pushes diamond brochures on Seth and puts him in charge of Pancakes. In one priceless scene, Seth has Pancakes in a baby sling, and when Ryan gives him a hard time, he deadpans: "Don't talk to your nephew that way." But the Seth-Summer antics were merely comic relief for the real drama, so read more

The main plot, of course, centered on Ryan's real dad, Frank Atwood (Kevin Sorbo), who is out of prison, sober, and taking correspondence courses. During a meeting with Sandy, Frank challenges him to believe that the system works, so Sandy says he'll leave the decision up to Ryan. When Sandy drops by Ryan's work to ask, Ryan says he just think it's too soon to have a reunion.

Frank isn't satisfied with that answer, so he pays a visit to NewMatch and tells them the real story: He is terminally ill with lung cancer and may not have much more time. Sandy doesn't buy it and decides to do some poking around into Frank's medical records, while Kirsten stealthily arranges a meeting between father and son. When Ryan hears about the illness, he decides to sit down with his dad for coffee.

Meanwhile, after a chat with Julie - after all, who knows more about manipulating men than Julie? - Summer springs another whopper on Seth. She doesn't want a big wedding; instead, she wants them to elope in Vegas, right now, and so the two set off on another road trip.

Back at Harbor, Kaitlin is supposed to give a speech from the point of view of Buck, the dog in The Call of the Wild. Her 500 words consist only of the word "ruff," and her teacher thinks she should redo the speech with help from a tutor, new student, Will (Chris Brown). Kaitlin finds him in the band room (when she calls out "hey band geek," the whole room looks up) and basically asks Will to do the work for her. His payback: rewriting her speech using only the word "woof." You'd think if the writers wanted a guest appearance by Brown, they could have at least come up with something less lame.

Later, Frank is invited to dinner at the Cohens' house, and he, Ryan, and Taylor engage in somewhat awkward but relatively normal conversation. As dinner is winding down, however, Sandy gets a call informing him that Frank is actually healthy as a horse. When Sandy asks Frank if he is going to tell Ryan the truth and Frank won't, Sandy ends up punching him in the face, and Frank goes home in a cab. Julie sees him off, and he says he just wanted to lie in order to buy some time. Then, the very honest and rehabilitated Frank hands over Julie's doctored books for the male prostitution ring, just in case she needs them.

As for Seth and Summer, Seth pulls over on the way to Vegas and says he just can't do this! That is, without asking Dr. Roberts for her hand in marriage. So they turn around and head back to the O.C. To find out if they actually go through with it, tune in next week.

Photo courtesy of Fox

Season Recap: "The O.C."

BuzzSugar — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 10:01:01 -0800

Season four of Fox's "The O.C." got off to a rocky start. Given, a few hitches are expected when your main characters move into a new phase of their lives (e.g., graduating from high school), but the early part of the season was sorely lacking the campy melodrama we know and love. However, if you stopped watching after the first few episodes of Season 4, you should tune back in in January, because it's getting good again. (You can even sign a petition to save "The O.C.") Here's a recap of the season so far.

Just in case you missed it-maybe you live in Encino or something-Marissa Cooper died at the end of Season 3.
While Summer escapes to Brown University, Ryan defers college to take a job at a bar, Seth is working at the comic book store, and Taylor travels to France.

To see the rest, read more

In a particularly ridiculous plot twist, Ryan begins brawling in Fight Club-like matches hosted by his bar. Summer flies home to see if Ryan is ok, and she and the Cohens arrange a comic-book-themed intervention to show how he saved them all.
Seth and Ryan head down to Mexico to find Volchok and avenge Marissa's death, but Seth tells him to turn himself in. Back in Newport, Sandy negotiates with Volchok and lets Ryan have closure, which involves confronting and punching Volchok.
Taylor secretly returns to Newport to escape her misguided marriage to some French dude, but her mom kicks her out of the house and she goes to live with the Coopers. In helping her through her divorce, Ryan ends up planting a passionate kiss on Taylor, which later leads to them becoming an item.
Julie returns to NewMatch to work with Kirsten, and the two soon get funding from an oil tycoon named Bullitt, who brings a lot of hot new male clients to the business. Next thing Julie knows, Bullitt is pursuing her, and the hot male clients have turned NewMatch into a male prostitution ring, a fact that Kirsten still isn't privy to.

At college, Summer poses as a tree-hugging liberal after meeting a "revolutionary" "hippie" named Che. She's torn between the new Summer and the old summer who loves Seth. Later, Che encourages her to free some bunnies from a lab and ultimately gets her kicked out of school, so Summer returns to Newport and to Seth.
Ryan finally admits he wants to date Taylor, and so he plans a New Year's trip to Las Vegas that Seth and Summer tag along on. Summer has a pregnancy scare, which turns out to be false, but which still prompts Seth to ask her to marry him. She awkwardly accepts.
Bullitt hires a mystery man named Frank to put NewMatch's books in order, and Sandy thinks he looks vexingly familiar. At the end of the last episode, we learned that Frank is actually Ryan's real dad.

To find out what happens next, tune in when "The O.C." returns on Thursday, Jan. 4!