A complete rewatch: One Tree Hill

With Arms Outstretched is the ninth episode of the first season of One Tree Hill as well as the mid-season finale. In this one, Nathan gives in to the pressure his father puts on him about basketball and takes performance-enhancing drugs to dramatically improve his game against Cove City. His relationship with Haley seems to be blossoming. Lucas discovers freedom as his mother is in Italy and he is under Keith's care, and he goes on a wild night out with fun-loving Brooke. Finally, things seem to be taking a shocking turn for Dan and Deb's marriage.

BEHIND THE TITLE

This episode is entitled With Arms Outstretched after a song by Rilo Kiley. After reading a little about the track, I can see how it relates to the episode in places. "Now don't fool yourself // In thinking you're more than a man // 'Cause you'll probably end up dead" can be linked to the ending of the episode and the argument between Dan and Deb, when she tells him "Or so help me God, I will stab you in your sleep." He cannot be fooled into thinking he is above everything and every rule, because things will not end well for him if he does. "And if you want me // You better speak up // I won't wait // So you better move fast" can be about the start of the love triangle between Lucas, Brooke, and Peyton. Peyton got burnt when she pretended she only wanted her and Lucas to be friends, and now, he is with someone else, someone who didn't wait for her to speak up. Thus far, every song that gave its title to an episode matched it in some way, and it's impressive- I never thought it would be so.

GENERAL OPINION.

As stated above, this is the mid-season finale, the first one of the show, and it is fantastic, to say the least. After every episode, I can say "things are moving, put into motion, changing," but these changes, right here, in With Arms Outstretched, are transforming everything beyond recognition. Nathan taking drugs, Deb kicking Dan out of their marital home, Peyton and Brooke both having romantic feelings for the same boy: these events are going to have long-lasting consequences for the characters and the plots and adventures they experience. The way it is shown is wonderful and leaves you wanting so much more.

SOUNDTRACK

- Hanging On For Hope by The New Amsterdams

- Push It Up by Cham Pain

- Rain King by Counting Crows

- Shabby Girl by The Electric Farm

- Yesterdays by Pennywise

- Fallen by Sarah McLachlan

- Re-Offender by Travis

QUOTES

The funniest quote of the episode to me and the one that makes me chuckle with every rewatch happens during a conversation between Nathan and Tim:

- What up, baller?

- You do know you're white, Tim.

In this episode, Tim is very much established as the comic relief in the Tree Hill universe, bringing some light-heartedness to an otherwise dark plot. Even when he shows care towards Nathan, his best friend by all accounts, when he warns him to be careful with the amphetamines, he makes a joke right after. I always get surprised about how there are more layers to his character than I originally think.

There is a voiceover, pronounced by Lucas: "What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately." How fitting for the episode, where everyone turns out to be more complex than what everyone thought! This quote comes from The Winter Of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck, which is the book Lucas gives Brooke to read.

THE BEST BITS: PEYTON & HALEY.

We had started seeing Peyton and Haley bond in Every Night Is Another Story (1x06), and after being led to believe this was not going to last, their friendship was just a short moment suspended in time, we see them talking again at school. Their bond seems to go deeper than we think it does. They aren't speaking about surface-level things, they go personal, and they touch upon Haley's virginity and her feelings towards Nathan. They are much closer than the show led us to believe so far.

I love the contrast between their budding friendship and the one Peyton is said to be sharing with Brooke. Brooke is the one who we think is Peyton's best and closest friend, but we have rarely seen them talk about deep and personal things. They almost seem to be tiptoeing around each other, trying hard not to hurt each other's feelings, and their friendship seems to be told and talked about rather than shown. Haley and Peyton's friendship is shown, we can watch it, we have real and tangible proof of it, and I adore that.

THE LITTLE THINGS

During the bar and pool scene, we see Brooke, only sixteen or seventeen years old, order beers at a bar, when the legal drinking age is twenty-one across the United States. She then explains to Lucas that she had fake IDs (under the names Gretchen and Henry), but while she says so and tells him she used his yearbook photograph, the waitress has only just left, and chances are, she could have still heard her and realised she had served alcohol to underage people.

When Brooke shows Lucas her hip tattoo, and then, when Lucas shows Keith his brand new shoulder tattoo, it's worth noting that both of them look amazingly fake, as if they were drawn on with a Sharpie.

For once, the other team the Ravens are playing in the league is from a real place. Cove City is a two-hour drive away from Wilmington, North Carolina.

THE MOST 2000s MOMENT

I have to mention Peyton sporting low-rise, bell-bottomed jeans in the opening scene. Just seeing them gives me anxiety. I am so relieved we got rid of low-rise everything. I want my hips inside of my clothing, thank you very much.

When Lucas is at the bar with Brooke, Peyton calls him on his cellphone, and he is shown to own a Nokia 3310. The flashbacks from middle school were real. Those were THE phone to own. My brother was lent one as a replacement phone when I was a teenager, I think, and I spent hours playing Snake to make up for the years I didn't have one. The Nokia 3310 was an unbreakable legend.

BROOKE AND LUCAS. AND PEYTON.

At the start of the episode, Peyton walks up to Lucas and asks him if he is okay with them being "just friends," which he is. Then, shortly after, we see him lend Brooke a book he had mentioned to her, and she bargains with him. If she reads the book he has given her, in return, he'll do something fun with her. They end up going on their first date shortly after, at a bar downtown. They play pool, and Brooke playfully opens up in ways she hasn't before. "I love it in the summer when there's heat lightning at night. And up until fourth grade, I called squirrels "squillers." And I love beating boys at pool." I adore this line. I love the mixture of mundane (describing her favourite type of weather), childhood memories that could have been seen as embarrassing, and flirting. She sounds fun, honest, and poetic all at once, and this is an example of the great, stroke-of-lightning genius writing of the show. Later during their date, Brooke and Lucas make out, and he gets a tattoo, under her influence.

The next day at school, Brooke tells Peyton she has been out with Lucas, and she says: "You didn't tell me he was such a great kisser." You can see the pain plastered all over Peyton's face, but somehow, everyone chooses to ignore it. At the end of the episode, after the game and Nathan's collapse on the court, Peyton heads to Lucas' house and reveals her true feelings. She doesn't want to be "just friends." She likes him, for real, and everything else was a mistake. She wants the same thing he told her he did, and she wants to make things right. Out of the bedroom, seemingly, comes Brooke, not wearing much more than Lucas' hoodie, and nothing else is said- but there is no need. Everyone understands what just happened. Brooke and Lucas are more than a one-date pairing, Peyton is not okay being just friends, and Lucas doesn't look like he wants to react in any way, shape, or form.

Objectively, maybe turning up unannounced at Lucas' house to confess her feelings when she knew he had gone out and made out with her best friend that week was not Peyton's smartest move. However, a lot of this is on Lucas. In the space of maybe a week or two, he has told Peyton he wanted "everything with her," he told her he had feelings for her, and then, he started seeing and making out with her best friend. It's not just that he is dating an unknown girl who isn't linked to any of them. He's seeing the best friend of the girl he had feelings for two weeks ago. Throughout the almost two decades of endless fan conversations about One Tree Hill, there has been a lot said about the "love triangle" and about "two girls fighting over a boy," but it is time we, as a fandom, admit that the boy in question was to blame, at least as much as the girls were.

"HAVE YOU MET MY DAD?"

Nathan originally goes into the Cove City game with high spirits and ambitions. Around burgers and soft drinks, he tells his father he intends on breaking his scoring records, and there is no malice whatsoever behind his claim, only the unabashed confidence of a teenage boy who knows he's good at sports. He knows what the record is, and he wants to push himself to do better. In hindsight, it almost feels like the last time we see this child excited to accomplish something brilliant at a game he truly loves. Dan's response, had he been a good father, should have been something along the lines of: "Good on you, kid. I'll be rooting for you from the bleachers. I'm proud of you and how ambitious you are." Instead, Dan tells him, straight away, that he cannot. He doesn't believe his son has the drive, the skills, or the talent to beat this record. Dan evidently shows an inflated sense of himself and thinks he is on top of the world, even compared to who he was a decade and a half ago. Added to his negative remarks, the "belittling and humiliation" pointed out by Whitey, Dan puts some of Deb's recent behaviour on Nathan. "It might help her if you tell her you're happy." What an awful move from a father, telling his son he doesn't have the ability to reach his goals, and that his mother's attitude is down to him not appearing happy enough.

Nathan grows desperate and contacts Tim, whose brother deals drugs of all kinds, to get a hold of some performance enhancers. He takes them all through the week and essentially becomes a pressure cooker. He is jumpy and cannot take a joke, appears to constantly be on edge, and takes it out on the person closest to him, Haley. At the game, just as he was about to beat Dan's old record, Nathan collapses on the court and has to be transported to the hospital. When he wakes up, his father is looking over him, and his reaction should be, again, something along the lines of: "I'm glad you're awake, son. We're going to talk to the doctor to see what he thinks, and then, we'll go from there." Instead, his first thoughts go towards Nathan being "as good as new" for the scouts who will not even remember his collapse when scouting season rolls around. Dan's only focus is his son's basketball career as opposed to his son's wellbeing, as if the two cannot coexist. He never expresses concern for Nathan's health. He expresses concern for his athletic future. See, I don't know much about performance-enhancing drugs, especially when you are biologically still a child, but I imagine a collapse such as Nathan's could have been fatal. Even in the face of almost losing his son, Dan's perspective and priorities did not change. What matters the most is basketball.

THE CASE OF THE AWESOME HALEY JAMES.

In this episode, we watch Nathan and Haley's relationship grow and blossom, though they never call each other boyfriend and girlfriend and seem to be seeing each other on the down-low. Nathan is very focused on his physical attraction ("Kiss you later"), and Haley tells Peyton she doesn't know what they are. It is very obvious Nathan is Haley's first tangible crush and the first boy she gets involved with for real. She doesn't know what to expect from him, especially because of his reputation, she doesn't know if they are on the same wavelength, and she rightfully wants answers.

There is a scene where they are hanging out in Haley's bedroom, and they start making out on her bed instead of studying. Due to her saying "my parents might come home," it appears she has snuck him inside her house, where she might not be allowed boys under parental guidance. While they are making out, he unbuttons her shirt, and she asks him to leave because she isn't ready for anything physical. The subject of one's virginity, especially a teenage girl's virginity, was brought up often in teenage shows of the early-to-mid-2000s, and I love how Haley knows how to stand up for herself. She is not ready for something, and she is not afraid of telling Nathan about it, whether it means losing it or not. She doesn't want him to take her clothes off, she doesn't want him to touch her that way, and no matter his upset or bargains, she will not budge. I absolutely adore this about her.

When Haley and Peyton are talking, later on, Peyton asks her if she is a virgin, as if it is such a strange thing to be in high school, and Haley replies: "Yeah, I am. What about it?" The quiet confidence she exudes and the way she knows, in her core, that it is nothing wrong or to be ashamed of is everything to me. Fiction has often portrayed the idea one's virginity was a burden, something to get rid of as soon as possible, something wrong with an individual, and I love how One Tree Hill went against the grain in this episode.

UNFORGIVEN.

Ever seen Deb first appeared on the show, it was crystal clear that her marriage to Dan was on the rocks and had been for quite some time. She was unhappy with the way he ran the household in her absence, and he was always snapping at her and finding something wrong with her, despite her being the primary breadwinner and the reason why he had the financial backing to start his business.

Up until With Arms Outstretched, Dan's trajectory as a character could have gone many ways, but it is now obvious he is THE villain. Just as he was when Lucas first joined the Ravens, he is convinced everything everyone does that does not make sense with his fantasy of a perfect world is payback (for what, God knows), and, as such, his wife deciding to step up and help Karen with the café is payback for him abandoning her and Lucas. There is something delusional in him not wanting his past mistakes to be held against him forever. Yes, objectively, he was eighteen years old when he made the decision to abandon his pregnant girlfriend to play basketball at college, and eighteen-year-olds often make mistakes. This part is understandable. People are not holding against him the fact that he made a mistake when he was barely an adult. They are holding against him the fact that, during the following seventeen years, he took no steps to fix it and barely even recognised he was in the wrong. He could have reached out to Karen and make amends, he could have financially contributed to Lucas' upbringing and education, he could have raised Nathan without instilling in him hatred for a half-brother he didn't know. That's what people hold against him. His unwillingness to hold himself accountable for his past mistakes.

When Nathan collapses on the court at the end of the Cove City game, Dan rushes to the hospital to be with him, but it is Haley who informs Deb of the accident. She runs into the café to replace her so she can go see her son. After coming home from the hospital, sans Nathan who has gone missing, Deb and Dan get on a fight, and she decides to kick him out of their marital home. She is right to do so. Dan not informing his wife, his son's mother, of the state of his health, especially when it is as serious as what Nathan is going through, is unforgivable, no questions asked. I wouldn't stay with a man who tries to hide our child's health from me and refuses to see how wrong he is. After she has kicked him out and made it clear that she wanted to be Nathan's primary caretaker from then onwards, Dan's response was equally as unforgivable. "What makes you think he's going to choose you over me?" Dan feels some sort of need to control everything and everyone in his life, and, by telling his wife their son would never choose to stay with her if they were to divorce, he is attempting at making her believe she is the one in the wrong, by his standards. He wants her to change her mind to fit what he wants.

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

We have to briefly touch upon Nathan's attachment to Haley. They aren't officially in a relationship, though it is obvious they both deeply care about each other. But I cannot help but tick when Nathan drops such personal, deep information about his well-being in the middle of a fight ("If I'm not perfect, they'll eat me alive") while giving Haley no space to take it in or react. At the end of the episode, him telling her he "needs her" after he has spent a week being needlessly rude to her is strange to me.

One of the last shots we see is the gym door closing on a notice stating that "basketball is cancelled until further notice." Whitey evidently feels guilty about Nathan's situation and, contrary to Dan, he sees the error of his ways. This is going to turn Tree Hill upside down.