The O.C. "The Graduates" 05/18/06 (aka who's gonna die)

[sureAV421]

Spoiler:

Julie and Marissa have a huge disagreement. After having a heart attack, Sandy is rushed to the hospital. Kirsten and Seth are devastated. Taylor and Summer spy on Dr. Roberts. Ryan drops by Theresa's apartment to talk but she is not alone, Eddie and another man are there. Volchok also appears.

[Doughboy]

The actor(actress) who plays the soon-to-be-dead person has already spilled the beans. I don't think it's gonna shock anybody.

[MFRONE]

Hmmm...they seemed to have changed the promo, I thought they said someone "might not make it through the night."

[Nick Martin]

Spoiler:

I know many people hated her, but I wasn't one of them.

I'm sorry to see her go - especially like that, at the very end of the episode. It's going to be a hell of a difficult wait to see what happens next season, which will hopefully open with Ryan killing that bastard Volchok once and for all.

One more thing - that synopsis was completely wrong.

[GizmoDVD]

Ugh. I didn't know Nick already saw the episode (Since its only NOW airing on the east coast). Oh well. Kinda figured anyway. If one had to go...I'd rather it be that person...if it is infact the one who 'spilled the beans'. If its Sandy, I'll never watch again.

Ok...cya all in 4 hours!

[PopPit]

Is that synopsis suppossed to be a joke?

[Nick Martin]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

Ugh. I didn't know Nick already saw the episode (Since its only NOW airing on the east coast).

It airs here at 8PM EST because the canadian channel that airs it - CTV - airs CSI alongside the CBS broadcast...so it airs here twice, just like LOST.

And yes, that synopsis must be a joke, or false rumors thought of as fact.

[GizmoDVD]

Ugh. I hate you. I dont want to know!

[PopPit]

That was messed up.

[dashiet]

I'm sad to see her die since she's been there since the beginning. It's not gonna be the same without her. It doesn't matter to me anyway, I rarely even watch the show.

[Nick Martin]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

Ugh. I hate you. I dont want to know!

What? Saying that synopsis is false isn't revealing what's true at all.

[monkey42]

So now Ryan has to face being charged with vehicular homicide, or telling the cops about Volchek and getting busted for grand theft auto.

[sureAV421]

someone should have told him his car has brakes on it. Its obvious though that they didn't want to destroy one of their expensive cars so they made his mom get a junker for a present.

[Doughboy]

A weak ending to a terrible season. Killing Marissa is fine by me. I never liked the bitch. But is that really the best Josh Schwartz(who wrote this episode) can come up with? Voltron going Grand Theft Auto on Ryan's car? And what exactly was his motivation? There are easier ways to get someone to pull over, I don't care how drunk you are. Christ, Johnny's death was done better than this.

About the only highlight for me was the Oliver reference. That's two season finales in a row they've made light of that horrible plotline. Although honestly, I almost long for the days of those episodes. At least there were other things going on in the show that kept it watchable.

What really worries me is that as I stated earlier, Schwartz scripted this dreck. I realize he didn't have much to work with thanks to the Season 3 writing staff, but there was hardly any of the wit or energy of Season 1. And he's supposed to be the show's savior this fall when he returns to producing it full-time.

On a side note, did Upchuck vs. Ryan take place near the same tunnel where Marty McFly got the almanac back from Biff? It sure looked like it.

[sureAV421]

anyone notice they used "hallelujah" as the ending song, ala the end of season 1? season 1 was jeff buckley, tonights was by imogen heap.

[MFRONE]

This whole episode was used to setup next season, I'm not worried about how he wrote this one.

[MFRONE]

Originally Posted by sureAV421

anyone notice they used "hallelujah" as the ending song, ala the end of season 1? season 1 was jeff buckley, tonights was by imogen heap.

They should have stuck to Buckley's version. I also though they used another Imogen Heap song during the begining of the episode as well.

[dashiet]

I prefer Jeff's version, and I like imogen heap's other song from last season's finale better.

[JacksModernLife]

I enjoyed Marissa this episode; I like her when shes not so dramatic. The writers should have utilized her innocence instead of exploiting it. I also think the OC is going to spin this "death" as she died for a minute or something, which makes her re-evaluate her leaving and she decides to go to college and such.

Or she really is dead because Mischa wanted to leave.

I knew the minute she said she was gonna leave for a year, it was her "death" sentence tonight.

Very nostalgic episode though, made me feel all high school again; back to season 1.

[Doughboy]

Originally Posted by MFRONE

This whole episode was used to setup next season, I'm not worried about how he wrote this one.

I am. If this is a sign of things to come, then why should I bother tuning in next season? Storywise, it appears that Taylor is going off to France, Summer is going off to Rhode Island, Seth will join her eventually, Kaitlin will get to repeat Marissa's Season 1 arc of constantly getting into trouble and driving her mom nutz, Sandy will go back to being a public defender, Kirstin.....she'll do nothing just like this entire past season, Julie's suddenly a warm-hearted, respectable member of the community(unless she kills Voltron), and speaking of which, Voltron is still around! Only Ryan's fate is up in the air. Will he go to Berkeley or hunt down Coldshank and kill him?

This is not the type of season finale that has me waiting eagerly for next September to roll around. If you want an example of how to do a season finale as a way to launch a show in a whole new direction, Angel Season 4's finale "Home" is how you do it.

[MFRONE]

Taylor is in the "circle" she'll be back as a main character. Everyone is not going to go running off now with the death, I don't know why you would think that 3 of the main characters are just going to be gone next season. Everything Swartz said about next season: Mini Cooper coming back, Taylor becoming a main character looks to be true. He said he's going to focus on the characters out of college and Kaitlin in high school, so people are not going to be leaving.

[Doughboy]

Originally Posted by MFRONE

Taylor is in the "circle" she'll be back as a main character. Everyone is not going to go running off now with the death, I don't know why you would think that 3 of the main characters are just going to be gone next season. Everything Swartz said about next season: Mini Cooper coming back, Taylor becoming a main character looks to be true. He said he's going to focus on the characters out of college and Kaitlin in high school, so people are not going to be leaving.

I'll give him 3 episodes to show some progress. But even last year's finale(which also brought to a close a mediocre season) was better than this.

I can't wait to see how he explains Taylor abandoning her education(or at least severely altering her plans) because a girl she was never that close to died in a car accident.

[DVD Josh]

Thank you Josh Schwartz. I can now leave this show full circle. Rarely do you ever get the chance for that.

[meritocracy]

Even though this episode was simply setting events up for the well publicized retooling, it came off as an atrociously lazy and all-around uninspired finale. A fitting end to a supremely subpar season.

Schwartz's return may be nothing more than an attempt to move the deck chairs around. This boat's been sinking for quite some time.

Didn't care for Imogen's Buckley tribute, and I've been a fan of Imogen's long before this show gave her any exposure.

On a positive note, thank God the rumours were true. Ding dong, the witch is dead!

[Rocketdog2000]

Originally Posted by dashiet

I prefer Jeff's version, and I like imogen heap's other song from last season's finale better.

I think Buckley's version - of the many out there - is THE best one! He may not have written it (that was Leonard Cohen), but he certainly owned that song after his breathtaking perfomance of it. When that song played at the end of Season 1 - pretty much in it's entirety, no less - it was a moment of pure perfection in the history of popular music being used on TV.

So now we've got ...Song used at end of Season 1 + singer used at end of Season 2 = singer at end of Season 2 covering song from end of Season 1 = end of Season 3 (?)

Not surprised by who died, or who was responisble for it, just in how it happened. And yeah, she's dead, or they would have just let her take off sailing for the year - and then she could have turned up for a visit for time to time. But in TV, having someone die just gives it more "impact".

Of course it is TV, so you can never count on the people (characters) invovled to do the easy/obvious thing to prevent it from happening in the first place. That's what makes for "drama".

But damn if they didn't hook me into seeing how this turns out at the start of next season - at least for a little while.