A complete rewatch: One Tree Hill.

Truth Doesn't Make A Sound is the second episode of the second series of One Tree Hill. The plot centres around Lucas, Brooke, and Peyton organising a party to celebrate Haley and Nathan's wedding. Deb is still struggling to come to terms with his son getting married. Dan experiences the Phoenix effect and seems to have become a different man.

BEHIND THE TITLE.

The title of this episode, Truth Doesn't Make A Sound, comes from a song by American rock band The White Stripes. It was released on their 2000 record De Stijl. The majority of the lyrics are about a woman who appears frail and fragile. Through being treated with disrespect, she grows tougher than her exterior suggests. ("Can't you people just leave her alone?") Her stare is piercing and the only thing she needs. ("Truth doesn't make a sound.") Sometimes, silence is louder than words and actions. If we connect the episode and the song, it is easy to associate the frail woman with Haley. She still looks young and small, fragile and quiet on the outside, but she grows to stand up for herself.

GENERAL OPINION.

As we have discussed plenty of times during the first season, I love a party episode! (And I have no doubt this will come back later during the series.) This one acts as a wedding reception for Nathan and Haley. I don't always agree with the idea of two kids being married in high school, and I wish Deb were not the bad guy for not agreeing to it. However, I always get swept up by the joyfulness and the way Nathan and Haley's love shines. Most teen soaps have carefree episodes to open the seasons, and it fits the bill for One Tree Hill.

SOUNDTRACK.

- My Heart by The Perishers.

- Float On by Modest Mouse

- Life Is Good by Junk.

- Make It Up To You by Bosshouse.

- Art by Lounge

- Cooper Moon by Tom Freund

- Watching Rainbows by The Badge

- Headsprung by LL Cool J

- Hip Hop Don't Stop by Cobalt Party Revolution.

- Mirror by Erica C.

- Real Love by Toby Lightman.

- The Distance by Coby Brown.

- Everybody's Changing by Keane.

Seeing The Perishers on any soundtrack takes me back to my teenage years. Their song Sway featured on Veronica Mars, another one of my all-time favourite shows, and the band will always be associated with it for me. Everybody's Changing by Keane is also a fantastic song and, though I have not followed what they have done after Hopes & Fears, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the track. The way it is associated with the Polaroid pictures taken at the party, paralleled with the characters' lives, is a beautiful scene.

THE BEST BITS: KAREN AND THE UNIVERSITY.

The topic of Karen wanting to sign up for classes at the local university comes up in the episode a few times, when she throws a brochure in the recycling bin and when Lucas mentions it to her. I find the idea lovely. Karen discussed figuring herself out outside of her identity as Lucas' mother a few times already. I suppose that in most shows, books, too, maybe, they would be concluded by either a single mother meeting men or changing physical appearances. One Tree Hill gives us the gift of Karen wanting to find herself and who she is through education, and I love this so much. I wish the idea of going back to school at a later age were more normalised.

QUOTES.

The opening voiceover reads: "T.H. White said: Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically to those who hardly think about us in return." The quote originates from White's novel The Once And Future King.

THE LITTLE THINGS.

There is a tiny continuity mistake as Keith hands Karen Lucas' iPod, telling her he has left it behind in the truck. However, the opening scene showed us Lucas, listening to music on his iPod, at the Rivercourt.

In last week's episode, we discussed Huey Lewis, who portrays Haley's father, Jimmy. Today, let's talk about the actress behind Linda James, Bess Armstrong. In the nineties, she famously played another TV mom, Patty Chase, in My So-Called Life. It has always been a show I loved, and seeing the crossover between the two makes my Angela Chase-obsessed heart very happy.

"Keane, Modest Mouse, Pilot To Gunner." Those are the bands Peyton chooses as current music favourites when Brooke asks. Two of them (Keane and Modest Mouse) appear in the episode soundtrack. Those were current picks in the alternative world. Keane were rising to fame with their 2003 album, Hopes And Fears. So did Modest Mouse, whose 2004 album Good News For People Who Love Bad News got nominated for a Grammy Award. Pilot To Gunner is the least known band on the list, but their sophomore record, Get Saved, also came out in 2004.

Lust Factor, the website Brooke submits Peyton's pictures to, never existed. It seems to have been inspired by a similar website of the times, Hot Or Not, which allowed users to rate the attractiveness of other members. (Needless to say, this is gross.)

When Haley and Nathan arrive at school together, Brooke greets them with: "It's our very own Britney Spears and whoever she married this week." The line references the singer getting married twice in 2004, including a 55-hour-long union with childhood friend Jason Alexander.

So. Not that I know the first thing about enrolling children in schools in the United States, but logistically, if Lucas were moving to Charleston, he would have enrolled in a high school there. But he never went and moved back to Tree Hill instead, where he (or his mother) would have told the administration at Tree Hill High he would not be coming back for the rest of the year. And maybe, since he was a former student, re-enrolling him was super quick, but it was confusing to see Lucas go to school with everyone else as if he did not almost just move to Charleston.

When Peyton deletes the Lust Factor profile Brooke has created for her, you can see the phrase "Boys named Lucas" in the dislike section.

THE MOST 00s MOMENT.

The first oh-so-noughties moment of the episode lies in the opening scene. You guessed it: Lucas' iPod. He's listening to music on one hell of an old iPod classic. I never had the early ones, as those were quite expensive, and I wouldn't even have had a computer to transfer the music anyway, but it is the last iPod I have ever owned. It had so much storage, and I consider it the superior iPod. Do you remember when we had to carry several devices to listen to music and telephone people? How times have changed!

Lucas and Haley's text exchange is also an incredible snapshot of the times. Back in the day, unlimited texts on telephones were not a thing, and you had to cram as much information as you possibly could in the smallest amount of characters, which led to things such as "gr8" for "great" and "xclnt" for "excellent."

Peyton asks Brooke to move away from the computer because she needs to burn CDs for Haley and Nathan's party. Could it get any more early-00s? Back in the day, if you wanted to rock someone else's party, you had very few choices. Either you turned up with every single CD you owned, running the risk of losing one or having someone steal one from you, or you transferred the music from your computer into a blank CD. Do kids still know what burning CDs mean?

Can we talk about Deb's hairstyle at the wedding party? Her messy, spikey hair bun with straight strands framing her face was THE haircut of the decade. It was all over red carpets (Kristen Dunst) and TV shows (Hilary Duff in Lizzie McGuire) and conveyed that "casual but cute" style that rocked the decade.

Finally, we HAVE to address the "inside of the camera" effect used when Lucas is going around the warehouse, taking Polaroid photographs of everyone. The chunky computer design is so passé and wonderful at the same time.

I have been abundantly clear: in the event of my teenager wanting to get married in high school, my response would be Deb's, not Lydia's. (Though I would not choose anger, violence, and misplaced guilt to convey my point.) The clear message of the episode is "love trumps all", and its portrayal is spectacular. However, it is hard not to feel heartbroken watching Deb's loneliness.

It truly is her against the world.

Everyone in her universe celebrates her teenage son getting married at sixteen, even Haley's parents. When she tells Karen: "you didn't get married in high school," you can see she is not trying to be mean. She is trying to find support in her closest friend and only states that Karen lacks the experience to view the facts from her perspective. (Her delivery is all wrong, therein lies the issue.) It's disheartening witnessing Deb fall back into old patterns and run to Dan for comfort, even though they are on the edge of divorce. He emotionally abused her for years, but in her current state of heartbreak and loneliness, she does not know anyone else who could be on her side.

Speaking of the parents in this episode, I think we need to talk about Lydia and Jimmy, and I would like to argue that they are among the worst sets of parents in this show. After a violent argument with Deb, Haley runs back to her parents' home to cry it all out with her teddy bear, and the first thing they do is to tell her: "You wanted this, Haley. Time to grow up." She might have got married, but she's still a kid, and she's still your kid. The way they treat her like a full-on adult who should know better when she's still a child who has zero experience of in-laws is infuriating. Later on, at the party, they inform her that they have bought an RV and are planning on travelling around the country, and all they were waiting for was their youngest child flying off the nest. Again, that youngest child is just that. This child has no adult world experience and will now have no grown-up to rely on when she needs advice or when times get tough. Lydia and Jimmy acting like children stop needing support, love, affection, or their parents when they move out is nothing but terrible parenting. Fight me on that one.

Though I love watching Peyton and Brooke be fully friends again, be kids again, and be so comfortable around each other again, I have to say the Lust Factor plot aged quite poorly. Whatever my age, if a friend of mine acted as Brooke did with Peyton in this episode, we would be calling it quits. If someone created a profile on an online dating website on my behalf without my consent and added risqué, naked pictures of me on it, that would be the end. The intentions were lovely, but the execution, not so much.

For the most fun part of the episode, let's talk about Brooke's party planning skills and see what she has cooked up for the bash. First, she has Polaroid pictures free to use for everyone, and the photographs will go up on the wedding board, designed by Peyton, which is a super lovely idea. Temporary henna tattoos are also a super cute and fun activity. Spin the Body, a less traditional take on Spin the Bottle, is a little more confusing, but since wedding receptions have the reputation of being a breeding ground for one-night stands, I'll allow it. It's a sweet reminder that they are still children after all. Five minutes in the elevator is a crossover between the elevator list and another party game, Seven Minutes In Heaven. The elevator list immediately reminded me of the "Freebie list" in Friends, where everyone decides on five celebrities they would be allowed to sleep with without anyone being offended. (And I'm not even a Friends fan.) The show took the celebrity part out of it, and, again, I can put it down as a fun idea. The last part was the fake ID maker. As we have seen a few episodes ago, laws in the USA about carrying fake paperwork are more lenient than in Europe, so I am not surprised they would be so common and readily available. (Should I be concerned by how easy they are to make?) It's also safe to assume Haley and Nathan got several hundred dollars out of it, as it cost twenty dollars, and the money was going to them. Again, it's a teen-friendly way of collecting funds for the newlyweds, as is traditional at weddings.

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

After Dan calls Lucas "son," is their relationship going to evolve? And how is holding the fort at the dealership going to go for Keith?