One Tree Hill: The Slippery Slope NEVER ENDS 18

by haro1d

Yes, this week’s episode of OTH is now last week’s, but better bloggers than this one get a week off now and then. But to compensate, here’s the OTH synopsis for March 30 in absolute detail:

Lucas wakes up after having vivid dreams about Peyton and their shared anxiety over the imminent baby and its threat to Peyton’s life. He wakes up and Nathan is standing by his bedside with a basketball, inviting him to come outside and play at the river court with him and Jamie, since it’s a perfect morning.

Skills is still mooning over the loss of Deb, looking at a picture of the two of them stuck to his refrigerator with a heart-shaped magnet with “Always” written on it. (Which brings up the question of what that magnet is doing in a bachelor’s apartment, of course. And by the way, the whole Skills/Deb thing is STILL weird, kids. That was a beaut of a plot variation that was a little hard to take seriously in the first place, and it’s been fun laughing about it, but it’s time to shut it down already.)

Haley is at the studio, working on Mia’s new record, but as Peyton comes in and tells her that the label really loves the new song that Haley wrote for her, Haley expresses that she’s struggling with letting go of her teaching career, concerned as she is for her former students … who are failing now that the principal has taken over the class. Jack protests that it’s SHE who has failed, and tells her to “bring back Ms. Scott.” Principal Rimkus tells him she’ll meet him in detention, but he humiliates her by telling her that he’s not even in the class — and that she shouldn’t be, either. Sam backs him up and suggests that either the whole class got instantly dumb, or that she, the principal, should have been a little bit smarter. Then she walks out, following Jack, and says that they need to teach the Principal a lesson.

Skills wakes up Mouth and tells him to pack a bag — they’re going on a road trip “to fix his broken heart.” Skills pulls back Mouth’s comforter, and he’s wearing kind of funny pajama bottoms that look like they might be Millie’s.

Out on the river court, the weather suddenly isn’t so nice, but Lucas and Nathan are watching Jamie play basketball, and Nathan tells Lucas that Jamie’s been asking tough questions about Keith, and asks Lucas to talk to Jamie about Keith. Lucas says he has a better idea, and they take Jamie to Keith’s garage.

Julian, with plane tix in hand, puts the pressure on Brooke to come to Malibu with him, and to bring Sam along. Brooke isn’t sure, and goes to talk to Peyton about it, saying that she needs more time to figure out what she wants. Peyton advises her to go for it.

Skills and Mouth are on their way to a college party. Without Mouth’s knowing it, Skills texted Gigi from Mouth’s phone to tell her she has a nice @#$%. Mouth tells Skills to turn the car around, but Skills tells him that he needs to have some wild, liberated sex, and that Gigi is the one for that.

Sam and Jack break into Haley and Nathan’s house via a window and let Haley’s whole class in to meet with her to try to persuade her to come back. Haley explains that they have to learn to get along with Principal Rimkus, but Sam counters that they’re not leaving until Haley teaches them something, and throws a copy of Catch 22 her way. She teaches them the ropes about Yossarian and the rest of Heller’s crew, and Sam remarks that if they’d learned all of this before the test, they wouldn’t have failed. Then Principal Rimkus walks in and says, “You think?”

Mouth and Skills go to a frat party during the day, and they find Gigi doing a kegstand. She tells Mouth that she loved his text, and manages to get Mouth turned upside down for a kegstand as well, which he’s probably going to regret. Playing drinking games, he starts to have visions of Millie looking disapproving at him, or dancing with frat guys. Skills tells Mouth he’s disappointed in him, and asks him where his head is, and Mouth tells him, “New York,” and takes off.

Back at the garage, Nathan and Lucas are working on Keith’s old Mercury with Jamie. They explain to him that when guys work on cars, they tease each other about girls, so Jamie starts in on Lucas about “Aunt Lindsey,” and Lucas tells him to put the spark plug back in.

Peyton goes to see Julian to talk to him about his invitation to Brooke, telling him he’d better be serious, because Brooke hasn’t been serious about anyone for a very long time. Julian tells Peyton he loves Brooke and wants Sam to come along so that they can be a family. Peyton tells him she believes him and that she hopes it works out for them. He asks if Brooke has told her anything about which way she’s leaning, and Peyton doesn’t know — but reiterates that Brooke is afraid of being hurt, and walks out.

Brooke goes to see Chase at the bar, and he gives her his sage wisdom copped from Bruce Springsteen to tell her that she’s always likely to be able to find somebody, but that she should simply figure out what she wants and go after it.

Back at Haley’s living room full of third-period English, Haley has it out with Principal Rimkus, who still shows nothing but disrespect. Haley tells her that the kids are young adults, not third-graders, and that if she respects them, the kids will come to her class. Principal lady is not impressed, and tells Haley that she wants the rest of her things Haley left behind out of her classroom as Haley calls class dismissed. Sam and Jack stay to clean up at Haley’s, and they have a “moment” as they thank each other for backing each other up.

Lucas pulls himself out from under the Mustang to see Jamie, made up to look like Uncle Keith. Lucas tells Jamie what a great guy Keith was, and Jamie tells Lucas that he sounds a lot like Lucas. So Lucas gives this precocious 6-year-old the keys to the Mustang and tells him to start it up.

Skills and Mouth talk briefly outside the frat house about Mouth’s aspirations and how he thought his future would have been, and how he just wanted to find a girl who loved him, blah, blah, blah … so Skills tells him they’re going, and they both know they’ve left their wanton college days behind. In the car on the way home, they talk about how they’re each coping with their respective miseries. Skills tells Mouth that he’s been behind the wheel too long and it’s Skills’ turn to drive. But unbeknownst to Mouth, Skills had been texting Brooke to get Millie’s address. They arrive in New York and Skills tells Mouth to go fix his broken heart. (Awwwwww …) He waits in the freezing cold on her stoop until she comes home and is shocked to see him. He tells her he can’t live without her and doesn’t want to. She kisses him, they embrace, and we’ll see if they can repair the damage.

At Brooke’s store, Haley shows up and Brooke expresses doubts about where she is in life, and how she should be proud — as she tells Brooke about Sam and her we-want-to-learn posse crashing the Nathan/Haley living room.

Sitting down next to Sam at the diner, Julian tells her that she has stories and all she needs to be a great writer — she’s just lacking structure. She asks if she can still call when he’s in L.A., and he looks puzzled, telling her that he meant it when he invited her along with Brooke to come back home with him. Of course, Sam didn’t know, and she’s crushed that Brooke didn’t tell her, or agree to go.

Over at the studio, Haley visits Peyton to talk about her realization that her love for teaching is eclipsing her work on music. Peyton reassures her and tells her that she’s still teaching, both onstage and in the studio with Mia.

Sam tells Jack that she and Brooke might be going to L.A. — tonight. She says she’s thinking of going, that she wants to do it for Brooke, since Brooke has done so much for her. Jack is a bit taken aback, but handles it OK until she gets up to pack, when he lays a big smooch on her, “just in case he never gets to.” She looks at him nonplussed, smiles uncomfortably and goes to pack.

As the episode winds down, Jamie tells Lucas and Nathan that he’s sorry he never got to meet Grandpa Keith, and asks if it’s OK to miss Grandpa Dan. They reassure him that it’s OK, and Jamie says that he likes the garage — “you bring something in that’s broken and you make it new again.”

Sam finishes packing bags for herself and for Brooke. When Sam gets all excited about going, Brooke puts on the brakes and tells Sam that she’s not dropping everything to run off to L.A. with a guy she’s known for a month, and that Sam has school, Jack, and a stable environment for the first time. Sam calls her crazy, that they should be out the door to chase the bluebird of happiness. Brooke looks conflicted between following logic or impulse. At the airport, Julian waits nervously for his would-be family. Brooke shows up, but to tell him that she and Sam are not coming. Julian is big about it, saying that if their relationship were a movie, it would end differently. Quoting Kermit the Frog, he says that life’s not a movie. (It ain’t easy being green, and Julian looks pretty green, here.)

Sam goes into the diner to find Jack, and she tells him that she’s not going to L.A. after all, and freaks him out by saying, ‘Now about that kiss …’ Then she sits down next to him full of smiles. Back at home, Brooke comes into her room, looks at the packed bags still sitting on her bed and collapses in tears.

Lucas comes home to Peyton, who’s completing the latest in an ongoing series of drawings featuring great moments in their relationship. This one’s about their engagement. As Lucas scuttles off to bed, she takes out an ornately decoupaged hatbox full of other drawings and items meaningful to their relationship, sifts through them all and puts her latest work — signed, “Love, Mom” — and puts it in on top. (Double “Awwwww …”)

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Photo: Fred Norris /The CW © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.