A complete rewatch: One Tree Hill

The nineteenth episode of the first series of One Tree Hill, How Can You Be Sure?, starts with a bang: Brooke is convinced she is pregnant and is trying to deal with her fear. After she tells Lucas, he vows to help her out whatever her decision, and they both try to navigate their fears and ask their peers about what happened. Nathan is trying to figure things out when it comes to Haley and sex, and Keith makes plans to leave Tree Hill, and not just for a holiday.

BEHIND THE TITLE.

The episode title, How Can You Be Sure?, comes from a Radiohead song released in their 1995 album, Fake Plastic Trees. It is the second episode named after a song by the band, after 1x07, Life In A Glass House. As I am pretty sure I mentioned the last time, I am confused by all things Radiohead, with all due respect, but I can find the confusion in the song lyrics in the episode, and that's where I'll stay on the matter for this one.

GENERAL OPINION.

After the somewhat light-hearted previous episodes (the Secret Sparkle classic and the boy toy auction), we move towards something a lot heavier with talk of teenage pregnancy and pressure put on a significant other about sex. I love that we finally see the good side to Lucas again, as he immediately steps up to help Brooke and, despite what he says in anger, in passing, he responds the correct way and reacts the right way. It is, overall, a brilliant episode, dealing with a tough subject sensitively, without feeling like an afterschool programme. Season one of the show truly is superior.

SOUNDTRACK

- Someone Like You by Master Source

- Coming Undone by Highwater Rising

- Spitting Games by Snow Patrol

- Wrecking Ball by Viva Voce

- Broken by Hathaway

- Heaven by The Fire Theft

- Love In December by Club 8

- Everybody Hurts by R.E.M

Everybody Hurts by R.E.M makes everything much sadder. Scratch that, R.E.M make everything sadder in general.

After doing some research, I also found out that The Fire Theft, whose song Heaven is played when Nathan and Haley speak at the bus stop, is a band composed of members from classic emo band Sunny Day Real Estate. (Their album Diary is brilliant.)

QUOTES

Not to delve into my personal life too much but, when you are, like me, facing existential crisis after existential crisis, hearing the line "It feels really good to have options" in your favourite TV show makes your heart a little lighter.

THE BEST BITS: HALEY AND PEYTON.

Let it be clear: I adore Haley and Peyton's friendship. With Peyton, Haley finds a girl she can talk to, especially about things she can't necessarily mention to Lucas or Nathan. With Haley, Peyton has someone who keeps her grounded, and whose friendship doesn't revolve around a romantic past or doesn't involve boys. In Peyton's bedroom, they speak about sex, and Haley opens up about how she thought it was something far away, but then, someday, she woke up and it wasn't. And I love the easy conversation between the two of them, how truly comfortable they feel around each other. Being sixteen or seventeen and talking about sex is not easy, especially when, like Haley, you feel confused because you're still a virgin, and it seems like no one around you is one anymore. I love the sweetness and the vulnerability of the scene, and the truthfulness of their friendship. I feel like, when I was growing up and aspired to close female friendship, I aimed at something like what Haley and Peyton share in this episode.

THE LITTLE THINGS.

- We need to talk further about the scene between Haley and Peyton in the latter's bedroom, only because I love how spontaneous and casual Peyton is with her interior decor. Only a couple of episodes ago, she painted the walls. In this one, she paints on her closet door with nail polish. She was having a conversation with her friend and decided to paint her and her boyfriend's initials on the door, and I love that. Almost two decades down the line, I still aspire to this. Trust me, someday, I will have a wall dedicated to this in my lodgings.

- Dan tells Nathan he "had to run a credit check to get your address." A part of me would like to talk about how Dan needs to read the room and leave his son alone, there is a reason why he doesn't want his father to have his address, but also...I'm no money person, but how does a minor without a job have a credit score? Have I missed something here?

- When we see Brooke's bedroom again, we can see a shelf-full of stuffed animals in the background. And I love how, for all the ways she plays grown-up, talks freely about sex, knows what to do almost without fear in case of unwanted pregnancy, and goes out to bars to drink alcohol, she is still a little girl somewhere, who collects soft animals.

THE MOST AMERICAN MOMENT.

The only one I have for this episode is similar to those from a few episodes ago, and it's how late that drugstore is open. If I had a pregnancy scare after midnight, the only thing I could do is wait until the morning with an anxiety attack, because there would be nowhere open to get me a pregnancy test.

THE MOST 00s MOMENT.

We have two small ones in this episode! The first one is the Nokia 3310 with a customised case. We have spoken about this specific brand of cellphones before and how they were a staple of the cool kid from the early 00s, but we haven't talked about the customised cases you could clip on. I never had one of those, but I was jealous as hell.

The second one we have takes place at the end of the episode, when Dan digs up a box full of memorabilia related to Lucas from his desk. In it, there are newspaper clippings about him. See, I'm a basic white girl who loves a journal, so of course, I'm into every paper-related thing. I pick up free magazines and newspapers everywhere I go and collect things for my journaling. However, are those still the norm? Do people still collect magazine and newspaper clippings from the people they love or the events they care about? (I would do that, but, you know.)

One of the notes I have and truly need to talk about is the relationship between Haley and Nathan. I do love them together, I think they're a sweet couple, and I love how Nathan is trying to better himself for her. We have seen the whole "girl tries to fix boy" trope so much, and I love that it simply comes from him this time around. It's his thought process and his decision. However, there are still a few things that irk me in their relationship. I understand that Haley is portrayed as a girl who's mature beyond her years, but it sometimes gets unrealistic and too much. She is visiting Nathan in the morning before school (who has time for that? What time does this girl get up? She doesn't even have a car!) and when Nathan wakes up, she offers to "run his shower." Surely, if he can play grownup and live by himself, he can get out of bed and shower by himself? Later on, when she catches him filling in a paper to sell his car, she offers some of her savings to pay for the apartment. I get that she's in love but...She doesn't live here. It's not even a loan, it's her offering to pay for things so he doesn't have to sell his car. And I understand her kindness and maturity, I understand her instinct to care for others, as she has had to do that with her many siblings and with her family, but...She is not Nathan's mother or babysitter. She's his girlfriend, they're sixteen, and they're in high school. If he needs the money to pay for his flat, why hasn't she suggested he get a job instead of offering to bail him out?

There is something of an omniscient narrator about Dan in these early episodes, and I truly love this part of the show. It doesn't even feel like Dan is used as a device to make the plot move in a clunky and unrealistic way, it just looks extremely natural that, as a man who believes the world is his oyster, he simply would try to be everywhere, know everything, and consider his word as gospel. He just spends his days driving around Tree Hill and trying to catch everyone doing things, only to spread the word and make the storyline move. I actually kind of love this about him. He's a great villain who gives himself the power to get his ammo and make Tree Hill the place HE wants it to be.

The last thing I want to talk about is the pregnancy storyline. See, I understand this is southern America, a super white place. States like North Carolina probably vote conservative and are unbelievably Christian. I understand that. But that's a lot of people who are somewhat comfortable with the idea of a sixteen or seventeen-year-old giving birth to a baby and being her mother? I don't think I had realised how deeply Christian this show can be until I watched it as an adult and aborting the baby was not anyone's reaction. I understand, again, being terrified when finding out you're pregnant in high school, but...There is something strange about the idea that keeping the baby and parenting it was as much on the table as abortion was. Why wasn't the fact that they are in high school and don't have jobs and very few adults to help them out brought up? We know Brooke's family is rich, but...You know. There's something almost uncomfortable there. Abortions are okay. Not even considering keeping a baby when you're in high school is okay.

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

We have Keith wanting to leave town: where does that leave everyone? We have Nicki spying on Jake and Peyton. What lengths will she go to to get Jenny back? And we have Dan opening up a box of memorabilia, revealing he has followed Lucas' life from the sidelines. Indeed, these childhood photographs have not magically materialized in his office, so...Where are they from? Did Karen give them to him?