Previously: Seth set Sandy’s office on fire and Ryan was near or around some auto theft.
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The Graduates
Marines: Ryan broodily channel surfs. Kirsten sadly folds laundry. It’s a difficult day at the Cohen house.
Kirsten hears a door. Seth goes directly to the pool house and Sandy meets Kirsten in the main house. We cut between Seth and Sandy telling the story that Seth denied all fire-setting charges. Sandy isn’t sure he believes that, especially since he saw the confession napkin. Seth tells Ryan that it was totally a mistake. Ryan tells him to tell The Eyebrows the truth, but lol, no. Meanwhile, the Cohen parents worry about what would happen if they accuse Seth of lying and he isn’t.
Sweeney: I watched this episode when it aired, but today I had flashbacks to every, “what is this show?” post I ever edited/commented on in the first two seasons as I watched this opening scene and tried to figure out what had happened. I’ve been away from The O.C. for too long. Turns out it was another accidental fire by a member of the core cast. They have a real accidental arson problem, these kids.
Mari: That’s a real bad problem to have.
Seth wants to go grab his iPod from the car and listen to sad music. Ryan totally suspiciously jumps up and offers to grab it because he parked the car on the street and meant to move it. Where is the car really, I wonder? I HOPE he didn’t leave it in front of the house where James/Volcheck (we call him The Plot That Walked Out of the Forest over on the Twilight recaps…) robbed a car. RYAN. I don’t want you to be better at crime, but you are better than this.
Sweeney: Scratch that, it’s a more general “accidental crime” problem. And with an Accidental Criminal career as long and storied as Ryan Atwood’s, you’d think he’d maybe be a little better at it by now?
Mari: You’re bound to pick things up, even by accident.
Ryan goes to fetch the car and James Volcheck walks out of the forest (seriously, that’s almost true) and scares Ryan. Turns out, J. Volcheck jumped out of the stolen car and ran away. Now he wants to skip town, but he needs money to do it. Ryan tells him he’s on his own, but J. Volcheck threatens to take him down too if he gets caught by the cops. J. Volcheck runs back into the forest and Ryan lets us know how he feels about this: brood..ily.
CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME!
After the establishing shots, we’re at Rich People High. Summer, Marissa and Taylor are setting up for graduation by putting a lei on every seat. They also give us some exposition about Seth burning things down, but we got that already. Then, there’s an obvious joke about being “leid.” Julie comes to save us all. She’s got an envelope from Jimmy and it might be a graduation gift. Julie figured Marissa might want it right away. Julie Cooper has come a long way from sleeping with Marissa’s boyfriend.
Sweeney: But also good to not lose sight of the fact that Julie Cooper slept with her teenage daughter’s teenage boyfriend.
Mari: Never forget.
Casa Cohen. Dawn arrives. She makes a joke about being drunk within 5 seconds, but she seems to be doing okay otherwise. Ryan gives his mom a hug.
At the Robert’s house, Willa Holland/Kaitlin arrives. Dr. Roberts wasn’t expecting to see her and she makes a joke about getting him to give her a boob job. Dr. Roberts is uncomfortable. Julie is shocked to see Kaitlin too. No one believes she’s here for Marissa.
Sweeney: Not so much to support her, but to replace her, which is being “here for Marissa” in some sort of way. Also what is this family where 15 year old girls coming home is a surprise to their parents? Or the fact that it’s even an open question whether a 15 year old girl would be attending her sister’s graduation? Who are these people?
Mari: I think we may be to poor to understand.
Sandy is getting ready and Seth comes to visit him. Seth gives him graduation instructions: charge the camera and maybe don’t cheer for him with that special cheer. Sandy pretends not to know what he means, but he knows. “Check out my boy Cohen/ Can you believe how he’s growin’/The competition away he’s blowin’.” The last line is my favorite.
Sweeney: Quality parental cheer.
Mari: Sandy follows this all up with a little squeeze and a heartfelt, “we’re proud of you.” It’s too much for Seth, who confesses that he smoked a joint and forgot to put it out. The Eyebrows are so disappointed. Seth keeps lying. Seth says he was embarrassed. And he tried to talk to his dad, but Sandy was too busy with work. Plus, he didn’t want to upset his mom. Sandy understands that and apologizes. There is still a lot to deal with because of the fire, but today they are going to focus on graduation and hugs.
Mari: Summer finds Marissa.. Marissa asks Summer to sit. Turns out that Jimmy Cooper is sailing boats for rich people and also not being beat up or stealing people’s money. He’s invited Marissa to come work on one of his boats and she’s considering it. College isn’t for her and everyone is leaving. This way, she gets a year away and some time with her dad. Summer doesn’t look super thrilled about this plan, but she’s supportive of Marissa and also gives her a hug.
J. Volcheck is hiding in a skeevy van. A girl I don’t know (IMDB calls her Heather and says she’s been in 5 episodes WTF) brings him a change of clothes. He claims to be waiting for money before he leaves town, but Heather calls him out on waiting for Marissa because he messed up a good thing. Heather’s all, “what, now you’re going to convince her to go to Mexico?” and J. Volcheck looks at the camera like this is a great plan he hadn’t previously thought of.
DON’T GO TO MEXICO, MARISSA.
Sweeney: MARISSA COOPER, YOU ARE THE ACTUAL POSTER CHILD FOR WHY RICH WHITE GIRLS SHOULDN’T GO TO MEXICO.
Mari: School. Seth is going on about how he’s not going to miss high school and this was honestly me. I never got my graduation goggles. (S: Saaame. I had to make our senior video and it was #awkward because it was all nostalgia-filled but in my head I was all, “BYE SUCKERS!” I have a 10 year reunion this summer that I won’t be attending because why?) A jock bumps into him and makes a “queer” joke just so we know why Seth won’t miss high school. Summer and Marissa find the boys just as Dr. Kim asks everyone to start getting ready for the ceremony. Marissa wants to talk to Ryan first, though.
Out in the hall, Marissa’s told Ryan of her plans. He takes a deep breath but says it sounds like a good plan. They exchange a lot of long looks between saying that everyone is doing what they need to do and Ryan offering to take Marissa to the airport. She was the first person he met in the O.C. and he’d like to be the last to say goodbye.
Graduation time! And we get a montage! I LOVE MONTAGES. This one is composed of: cuts of Taylor’s valedictorian speech and the increasingly confused reactions of the audience as she uses more and more Latin; each of the core four being called and their parents cheering for them; Dr. Kim proclaiming them the class of 2006; a bunch of pictures of all the families and finally the core four, happy as can be.
Marissa sees her mom at the bar and approaches her cautiously. Julie asks what’s wrong and Marissa tells her she’s got big news. But Julie already knows! Jimmy called her first to run the idea by her. Julie is going to miss Marissa, but if she wants to leave, Julie has to let her go. Kaitlin joins them and says she knew too. Jimmy called to run the idea by her and also suggest that she go back home permanently so that Julie will still have a daughter to worry about. Julie gives Marissa her graduation present: a pearl necklace. Julie makes a crack about using it to barter with pirates and they all… HUG.
Sweeney: This is a very functional seeming family and I am confused. Did we watch the right thing?
Mari: There was hugging involved so it must be.
Dawn takes Ryan outside to show him a surprise: A NEEEW CAR.
Dawn explains how she saved money for the car. Ryan is excited. They HUG.
Summer and Seth are playing a hand game. Taylor comes over to say her final goodbyes and Seth says she can be in the inner circle. Taylor squees. There is more hugging.
Sweeney: INTERNET GROUP HUG TIME
Mari: J. Volchock calls Marissa. She doesn’t ever want to see him again. J. Volchock says if she doesn’t, though, he’s going to make life bad for Ryan. He tells her to ask Ryan about the car they stole.
Ryan is outside in his new car, probably being happy for entire seconds. Marissa shows up to ask about the stolen car and instead of being like, “I did not steal a car at all,” Ryan hedges. Marissa wants to help get J. Volchock out of town, for old times sake, I guess.
The next morning, Dawn is leaving. She gets a round of hugs from everyone. Ryan insist that they’ll see each other soon. He thanks her again for the car, and Seth is shocked and jealous. I would say you get a car if you don’t burn things down, but model home. Sorry, Seth. Your accidental arson was more recent?
I get a lot of feelings as Sandy and Kirsten, the best substitute parents in the world, stand with Ryan outside and watch Dawn ride away in the cab.
Kaitlin is already redecorating Marissa’s room. Julie comes in to see who is blasting all that bad girl music. They chat about how cool it is that Julie is letting Marissa go sail and how nice it was that Kaitlin came back. Kaitlin says that she didn’t come back only for Marissa. Now that the older kids have all graduated, she can rule Harbor.
Sweeney: That was a really excellent Bad Girl establishing scene, but it was seriously lacking on the styling front. Where were the leather pants? Why was her hair not crimped? What do you mean this is 2006 and not 1999 and nobody owned a crimping iron?
Mari: Um, Ebay? They could’ve made it happen.
Ryan picks Marissa up. She’s got her graduation gift and they are going to pawn it. Ryan wants to go alone, but Marissa isn’t having that. He says she has to stay in the car, though. She jokes that she’s going to miss him bossing her around.
Seth is reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Kristen comes in to talk about how Seth isn’t a little kid anymore and the fire he set wasn’t that bad because it gave their family quality hugs. Seth says all that he has to do now is wait to hear an answer from Rhode Island School of Design. Kirsten says she’s actually got some mail he may be interested in. She drops a letter off on his bed and leaves.
Sweeney: A real thin letter. Real thin acceptance letters might be much more common now that so much is likely to be emailed and such, but as a fellow member of the high school class of 2006, this is a thing that irks me to an irrational degree.
Mari: I didn’t even comment on it because I was 100% sure you would.
Ryan meets J. Volchock, gives him the necklace money and says they are done. J. Volchock wants to talk to Marissa. She drives up and Ryan jumps in the car and tells her to drive away quickly. J. Volchock bangs on the car as they leave. He’s really pissed.
Sometime later, Marissa zips up her bag. Julie comes in to say a final goodbye. She tearily tells Marissa that everything she ever did, good, bad, or otherwise, was all for Marissa. She messed up with Luke and framing Ryan for homicide… Marissa cuts her off with an “I love you” and that’s all Julie wanted to hear. They hug.
Sweeney: LOLFOREVERANDEVER. “Everything I did was for you, like that time I slept with your one teenage boyfriend and that time I tried to frame your other teenage boyfriend for murder. And how I was a grown ass woman for all of that and also all the other terrible shit that I did to teenagers that ranged from childishly petty to legit criminal.” Good times. Never change, Julie Cooper.
Mari: She had tears in her eyes and all. I think Julie Cooper really believes she was sleeping with and terrorizing teens for the good of something.
Kaitlin announces that Seth and Ryan have arrived but they share another family hug first.
Downstairs, the Core Four decide to ditch the graduation party and just hang out together.
Sandy comes home with flowers for Kirsten. She thinks this means bad news, but actually, Seth will probably get away with burning the office down. Plus, Sandy is thinking of going back to the PD’s office. Sandy asks where the kids are. Kirsten tells them they are alone and the conciliatory and empty nest kissing commences.
The kids park outside a house and Ryan thinks it looks a little familiar. Marissa says it shouldn’t because they rebuilt it completely after Ryan burnt it down. It’s the model home. It’s brand new. It’s deserted. Ryan hops the fence and we cut to him jumping into the pool. MONTAGE TIME! Between the hugs and montages, it’s almost like this episode wants to build me up before, like, a big, bad ending or something.
Sweeney: You’re so good at TV!
Mari: Accidentally!
In this montage, the kids play in the pool and also hangout outside of it and talk. First they wonder what it would be like if Ryan never came. No one would’ve talked to Seth and Marissa would still be dating “that guy who shaves his chest.”
Ryan finds Marissa inside the model house crying. They talk about the last time they were here, when Ryan was the one leaving and Marissa staying. She asks if he ever thought they would end up together. Ryan says maybe they still might and she gives him a teary shrug. Marissa apologizes for all of the craziness, but Ryan says he wouldn’t do anything different. Except maybe Oliver. Thank you writers for acknowledging that hot mess. Man, this feels like a series finale.
Sweeney: I think the show was in bubble territory, so it was written to potentially be that, because often these bubble shows don’t know for sure until pretty late. But one actor definitely didn’t want to return either way. Ahem.
Mari: Ryan and Marissa leave the model home. J. Volchek and Heather are in the Skeezemobile outside, watching them. J. Volcheck is drinking. Heather offers to drive but he says no.
Seth and Summer get back to his room and he’s got a big box there. He says it’s Summer’s graduation present. She has to go headfirst into the empty box to find a letter saying Seth got into RISD for the Spring semester. Summer is happy about this. She’ll go to Rhode Island first, but they’ll spend their Thanksgiving and Christmas together. She kisses him and pulls him into the box. You can hear Adam Brody mumbling a few things and my Closed Captioning tells me its, “Summer, thanks for letting me into your box,” and “I have so many hormones.”
Ryan and Marissa are driving together still, promising to keep in touch. J. Volchok’s van pulls up behind them and starts ramming the back of Ryan’s new car. Marissa looks back and realizes who it is. Ryan tries to speed up, but Volchock pulls up beside them and starts trying to run them off the road. They reach a bend in the road and Volchock rams them again, so that they they crash through the wooded area and flip over multiple times, all the way to the other side of the road.
Inside the car, Ryan comes to first. He pulls himself out of the car and when he stands, he sees that the car has caught fire. He struggles to the other side to grab Marissa and pull her out too. He picks her up and walks away from the burning car and we get a bit of a overlaid flashback of the time Ryan carried a drunk Marissa back to his pool house. Imogen Heap’s version of Hallelujah starts playing so that we don’t hear the car as it explodes. Ryan lays Marissa down and tries to make her come to. She opens her eyes and Ryan wants to go get help, but she asks him to stay. Not to leave her. Ryan keeps repeating that she’s going to be okay, but Marissa dies in his arms.
I don’t know if knowing that she was going to die made her extra likable in this episode, but there you go. The rest of the episode was kind of a gratuitous feels fest, but I liked it. I didn’t watch this live and I’m not sure if this was a thing people knew was going to be happening, so I’m curious if any of you know/remember.
Sweeney: I remember it being known-ish that she was leaving the show, but that same end could have been achieved by her hanging out on boats for a year, so I think the death was a surprise. Or, at least, I think it was for me. Regardless, I also know that this is the last episode I watched because teenager me had a lot of feelings and really ~*got*~ Marissa Cooper and her many feelings, a position I decided was Objectively Wrong when blogging past episodes.
But watching this one I was like, “Wait, yeah, she’s not that bad! I get why an angsty teenager would be Team Marissa.” Maybe she just got a very nice sympathetic sendoff script. Show her at her best to add the emotional punch. It worked on me and I just watched this one episode. But I’m a known sucker, so.
Mari: Snark Ladies: Suckers, first and foremost.
Next time on The OC: Everyone tries to deal with Marissa’s death in S04 E01 – The Avengers.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
