A Complete Rewatch : One Tree Hill

What Is And What Should Never Be is the twentieth episode of the first season of One Tree Hill. The episode largely focuses on Nathan getting the hang of living by himself, and him and Haley organising a party for their friends- a party that grows too big for quiet Haley and holds its lot of secrets spilt. Nathan gets a job to pay for his bills, and Keith makes a move outside of Tree Hill.

BEHIND THE TITLE.

The episode is entitled What Is And What Should Never Be after a song by Led Zeppelin, released on their Led Zeppelin II album in 1969. The song lyrics mostly carry a wistful sort of longing, someone wondering what could stop them from being with the person they love and believing they will end up together by taking our time. It can somewhat be applied to this episode as the slow burn romance between Lucas and Peyton takes a bit of a tumble after one of Nicki's revelations, and they are stopped by what is and what should never have been.

GENERAL OPINION.

As we have discussed at the start of the season, I love party-centred episodes and the idea that everything can change in the space of just one night. And how have things changed since the first party episodes, since Brooke pretending to be casual about sex and relationships, since Lucas reluctantly hanging out with Nathan, since Peyton being closed off and permanently angry. I love this one because, sue me, but I love the "house party that grows too big for its boots and ends up with someone in jail" trope in TV shows and films, and I just think it's an overall fun episode (though we could do without the slight slut-shaming in calling Nicki a skank, but it was 2003, and I choose to accept it for what it was.)

SOUNDTRACK

- Get Your Soul Freak On by Bosshouse.

- Throw My Heart Away by Black Toast.

- Tested by History by Hoy.

- Luzer by Super Bright Lights.

- Coming Back To You by Black Toast.

- Yo Money by Bosshouse.

- Party All Night by Menotti.

- Fire In The Pouring Rain by The Blackouts.

- Bring It On by Master Source.

- I Believe In A Thing Called Love by The Darkness

- What's Your Number by Cypress Hill

- Apart by The Cure

- The Wish by Josh Canova.

We have a good mix here of bands and companies previously used in the show soundtrack (namely Bosshouse and Black Toast) and much more famous artists such as The Darkness, Cypress Hill, and The Cure. To me, I Believe In A Thing Called Love is the kind of song that's timeless, as in, I only just found out when it was released, but most importantly, it's the kind of song that's tastefully everywhere, from films (Bridget Jones 2: The Edge Of Reason, for example) to alternative club nights, and it's always fun to hear it. I had forgotten it was in One Tree Hill, and it was such a joy to remember.

QUOTES

Tim is quite a central part of the episode, and I had missed his absurd, American Pie sense of humour. He is present during Haley and Nathan's conversation about throwing a party, and his answer about alcohol, "Make it BYOB. Or BYOT. Get it, Tim? T." is hilarious. It's also the episode where we see him being something more than just the comic relief. Just before he opens the door during the party, he squeezes Haley's shoulder and reassures her about people turning up, and I love the first sight of a possible friendship between the two of them.

Brooke's speech at the bar to the "guy in need of a clue" is pretty genius, all things considered. The confidence and sassiness with which she tells him to get lost and go back to his mates to get drunk, and the eloquence with which she does so, is inspiring to say the least. I, too, want to grow the balls to tell someone "Even your fantasy of me isn't interested in you."

And I love her sass when she says "Lucas Scott Betrayal Train, all aboard" upon finding out he has slept with Nicki.

For the lovely, inspiring quote of the episode, we have Nathan telling Lucas, at practice, "Keep shooting, man. It'll come." Maybe that's the way we should all be responding to struggles. Keep trying, keep practising, and we'll get there eventually.

THE BEST BITS: NATHAN VERSUS DAN.

One of the most important plot points of the episode is Nathan having to get a job to support himself and his new, independent lifestyle. Whether he will be able to do that while working at a pretzel place is uncertain, but that's not where I am going with that one. During one of his shifts, Dan turns up and, in true Dan Scott fashion, rips him a new one and humiliates him, calls him embarrassing. Instead of quietly taking it the way he has done for most of his life, Nathan stands up for himself, refuses to follow, and even throws him a pretzel that has fallen to the floor. There is something beautiful, though heartbreaking, about watching Nathan developing such an "I'll prove you wrong" attitude, which is often the biggest motivator in life. One should never have to act this way in front of their parents because the people who gave birth to you should support you and not drive you to emancipate yourself and get a job at seventeen. But the confidence Nathan has grown in the past twenty episodes or so is wonderful to watch, still. He's not going to let anyone walk over him anymore- especially not his father.

THE LITTLE THINGS.

- Charleston, South Carolina, where Keith is applying for a teaching position, is a three and a half-hour drive away from Wilmington, North Carolina.

- You're telling me that Nathan, a seventeen-year-old kid who works, just like every other seventeen-year-old kid, at the pretzel shop, not only has an apartment, a credit score, but also a chequebook?

- When Lucas turns up at Peyton's house to give her the CD he has borrowed, she crosses it off a list written on the back of her door. First, I love the continuity of her using those closet doors as sketchbooks and Post-It notes, and I love even more the fact that she is so known for her music taste that she has a list long like an arm of CDs people need to give back to her. We can also see that the nail polish heart she drew with Nathan and Haley's initials is still here.

- Speaking of continuity, at the party, Mouth is called Nose. Him never being called the correct body part is becoming a running joke as his popularity grows.

- I was about to question the fact that, in 2003, kids were named Gary and Jerry (Nathan's workmates at the pretzel shop), but Gary makes sense for the era, as Gary and Garrett were both reasonably popular kids' names in the late eighties. Jerry, however...I found strange spellings of Jonathan and names like Maurice or Clinton before I could find a Jerry, and I gave up when I reached two hundred. Our elusive boy Jerry who called in sick on a Saturday night might be of different age.

- Why is Lucas playing the Game Boy at a party? And why is someone setting fire to a toaster?

FASHION REVIEW

In this episode, we don't have a 00s moment, nor do we have a USA moment, but we do have a strong fashion choice, again in the person of Peyton. When she confronts Lucas at the end of the episode, she is wearing a Tegan And Sara shirt, a red denim miniskirt, low Converse and a leather jacket. Fifteen-year-old me was lusting over the outfit, and thirty-one-year-old me still is.

THE CONCEPT OF POPULARITY.

We have been aware of the concept of popularity since the dawn of the show, particularly because it is an American TV show of the mid-2000s, and being popular still seemed like the be-all and end-all of many a teenager. However, this episode is the first time we see it as a fluctuating entity, sometimes on the up, sometimes on the down. At the end of the episode, Nathan tells Haley this was just her "coming out party," which implies Haley has become popular and liked since she started dating a basketball player. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Brooke, who doesn't get invited to the cool party when she would usually always be. When speaking to Nikki at the bar, she says: "I got removed from the A-list." She acts like she doesn't care about people inviting her to things and whatnot, but since her first reaction to not being invited is to get drunk and crash the party, we can safely assume she cares a lot about her social image and fears being replaced by others, new shiny toys.

NOT ENEMIES ANYMORE.

After a quite dramatic party, Brooke turns up at Peyton's house and lies down in bed with her. They talk about their feelings, what just happened, and Peyton thanks Brooke for defending her. They discuss their friendship and the future ahead in a conversation that is very feeling-orientated. Coupled with the music and the lighting, both soft, the scene reminded me of one of my favourite teen shows: My So-Called Life. In it, the feelings were prominent, a time where teenagers were finally allowed to publicly feel and ask questions and wonder about the future and let go of what was in their head. The lighting always felt natural, just like in this scene, and the music for such moments was always so quiet. It's a beautiful parallel.

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

- Keith got the job in Charleston...Things are going to change in Tree Hill without him around.

- We watched Dan and Deb rekindle their romance, ever so briefly...What's in store for them?