We're past the ten year mark. We're probably roughly to the point where The OC has completed or will soon have completed its first season ten years ago. I am listening to "Untitled" by Simple Plan and as my natural reaction has become thinking of The EmOC, I am now in that nostalgic mode thinking about the show that encompassed my life ten years ago and created some pretty strong relationships in my life.
I take you back to August of 2003. I was about to start my second year of college, probably still at Delta. I had just started working at Taco Bell about six months prior and was dealing with the transitional life of all my friends from high school still being there...I had accumulated "Freshmen Pets" my senior year, and well, you know how math goes. I hate math. TV comes on and there's this commercial where this prissy little snot says "who are you?" and this kid in a nice coat smoking a cigarette says "whoever you want me to be." I don't know how...but THAT along with "I am not going to let a criminal into our house" absolutely hooked me. I couldn't have told you then what the show was going to be about, but I know that our family vacation to the mall in Troy was the same day it started. I saw ads for it at the mall, and was absolutely GEEKED. Why? I have no idea. When we got home, I busted into the living room to get FOX on so I could watch this show that had somehow enticed me. I missed the first five or ten minutes. When the pilot was over, I saw there would be an encore the next week. I missed the same five or ten minutes then, but I was HOOKED.
The OC actually introduced me to the blogging world. I remember writing responses to the episodes almost every week and being flooded with all kinds of good, bad, and ugly comments. Especially when it involved either Teresa and the baby, Kaitlin Cooper's transformation into Willa Holland, or what must have been something I was particularly proud of where I felt the need to "rally the troops" and remind them that so what if the characters had different boyfriends and girlfriends and how we were fans of the SHOW not necessarily the teenage romances. And then, of course, there was Oliver.
I can't think of a single positive thing on the internet during the ten year anniversary spectaculars. So, let me, for the sake of nostalgia, and Natalie, and because why would I want to do something when everybody else is doing it as opposed to taken the unbeaten path to the beat of my own drummer?
Oliver Trask: My Defense Mechanism
Oliver Trask sits in the waiting room of the Psych office In comes Marissa Cooper, who has recently OD'd in TJ, shoplifted, and can't seem to find a good time that doesn't involve a clear and alcoholic beverage. Her father is a crook, her mom can't seem to value family over getting ahead in life. Then there's her boyfriend who can't seem to go a very long time without punching somebody, and lives with your next door neighbor -- who happens to be head over heels for your best friend, who has her own set of problems -- and an ex boyfriend who can't seem to know when enough is enough. Not to mention her dad's history with said neighbor's mother. Marissa is Social Chair, she is so popular she probably gets her chair wiped down before she has a seat in Math Class. But Oliver is the bad guy here, I forget.
He does what, exactly, to merit being considered such a horrible person? Marissa is in the psych office for being so miserable. Forced there as a deal to move in with her father, it should have been no big deal. She just wanted to do her part, right? And then she meets a friend. A friend who happens to be a pathological liar, but he said it himself, "You met me in therapy, remember?" Oliver Trask: The friend who takes the gang to see Rooney, takes them golfing, gets them out in the real world, as opposed to beach parties with too much drinking, pool houses full of fornication and what not, and ... back stage to meet the band? OK, so he has a sour drug deal, and winds up in juvy for a hot minute, til Sandy Cohen comes and saves the day.
And no, I'll give you he's not the greatest influence... ditching school and all. But his big "crime" was his obsession over Marissa to those haters out there. The haters that couldn't stand a Ryan and Marissa break up, which did happen. Constant reminders that they are from two different worlds, and I don't particularly believe that Oliver and Marissa would have been a successful couple either, don't put those words in my mouth, those words did, however get Oliver a punch in the mouth. Got Ryan suspended. And for what? What did Ryan even win out of the whole "trying to prove he was right, Oliver can't be trusted" thing? Again, WE ALL MET OLIVER AT THE SAME PLACE --- THERAPY. But, after a few virgin Mojitos, what was there to hate about him? He showed nothing but compassion in the beginning. He did really seem to be the only one who cared about Marissa's feelings after all. Ryan was too stuck up on how he hates New Year's, Kirsten's sister shows up from God Knows Where, locking the boys in the pool house, and so on and so forth, and Summer Roberts, Marissa's BEST FRIEND is ... hung up on Seth Cohen? She can't believe it. So, no surprise, the boy from therapy gives and gets the real Marissa....somebody I don't think we even get until we go back and watch the entire series ten years later.
So, what is it then? Are we against Oliver because he was trying to break up Ryan and Marissa? I mean Ryan broke up Marissa and Luke...and apparently tried to break up Marissa and Alex, and Marissa and Volchuk. Are we against Oliver because of the whole faking suicide attempts, pulling a gun on Marissa? Last I checked one was an attempt to get Marissa as his girlfriend, and one was the ... real?... suicide attempt when he didn't get her. And let's not forget here.... Ryan was the only thing that "caused" and also "fixed" the problems here... then decided that he couldn't love Marissa anymore. He dumped her like cold egg-drop-soup in time for Valentine's Day.
Need I remind you we're talking about a girl in therapy here? She was oblivious to being seduced by Oliver, thought he was trying to kill himself when he was the only one who asked about her life...be it they met in therapy, she needed somebody to be social with besides a therapist, right? And Ryan was so worried about finding dirt on Oliver, he never really saw Marissa as more than a trophy to keep...and then she got dumped after watching her new found friend put a gun to his own head and have a nervous breakdown. Then Ryan hooks up with Teresa (who I was never a fan of, and I know I got lots of slack about that)
and more than likely gets her pregnant, then runs away to Chino.
So, when we see this the next fall, we're expected to believe that's Oliver's fault? I think not. Should have just that fizzle out into another one of her failed relationships in life and she could be sad instead of ... dead... by the end of it all.
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