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Ugly Betty, which I usually recap, did not air this week so I thought I'd look at the series finale episode of The OC.
Although the show had a creative resurgence this season, the writing had been on the wall for some time with the abbreviated number of episodes ordered for this year and the unwillingness of Fox to move the show out of the way of the double whammy of airing opposite the two most popular scripted shows on television: Grey's Anatomy and CSI.
The finale's circle of life theme resulted in a satisfying sendoff to our favorite fictional Newpsies. Plus the witty and self-referential skewering of pop culture continued to the end. Read on to find out the fate of the Cohen-Cooper-Atwood-Roberts-Townsend clan ...
First off, no major characters from the past, dead or alive, returned to finish out the series, save for Marissa Cooper (who died at the end of last season)who appeared in a locket Summer gave to Julie just before Julie walked down the aisle (more on that below). I had read some rumors that Caleb Nichol might return somehow from the dead but I guess Alan Dale is just too busy acting on just about every other show I watch... like Lost, 24, Ugly Betty, and not to mention all the shows I don't watch. All we need now is a show staring him and this season's "it" girl, Julia Ling who so far has appeared this season on The OC (Band geek who had a crush on Kaitlin's brief boyfriend, Will), Studio 60 and ER.
OK, I digress, so back to the show at hand. We begin 6 months after the earthquake that leveled Newport over the previous two episodes. The Cohen family is living in the Robert's mansion with the Coopers and Kaitlin has been working on perfecting her Sandy imitation (I'll schmear it for ya). Ryan and Taylor broke up and Taylor is back in France. Julie is pregnant and planning to marry the Bullit. Seth and Summer have retreated to her room to live in their bathrobes, sit in recliners and watch "Briefcase or no Briefcase."
The Cohen family learns that their house is beyond repair from earthquake damage so they go on a tour of cookie cutter mcmansions with infinity pools but no pool house and no soul. Kirsten glumly asks the real estate agent to put in an offer on the last one because Kirsten is nine months pregnant and tired of imposing on and squatting at chez Roberts-Cooper.
It's not all game shows and lounging in Seth and Summer's room as Summer shows Seth the floor plan for their apartment in Providence (which is oddly the same as her bedroom) and she catches a glance at one of her old sea otter flyers.
Taylor returns from France for Julie's wedding and as she chats insanely with the customs agent, recounting the demise of her relationship with Ryan, the agent places her on the terrorist no-fly list.
Summer picks Taylor up at the airport and they bump into Seth and Ryan on their way off on a mission. Ryan and Taylor look at each other and both realize that they are still in love.
Kaitlin and Julie meet Bullit's 11 other sons who, unlike Spencer the gigolo, are all named after cities in Texas (El Paso, San Antonio, ...) except his Vietnamese son, Hanoi. Houston is home to one of the largest Vietnamese populations in America but I guess that name was already taken by another brother.
Seth and Ryan arrive at their mission destination and they try to buy the Berkeley house of which Sandy and Kirsten have such fond memories. The gentlemen who now own the house laugh at the offer and slam the door in the boy's faces - no deal. Seth and Ryan try again, making a sentimental plea including the story of Seth's handprints in the cement but still, no deal. They realize that they need the big emotional guns and since Kirsten can't fly commercial at nine months pregnant, the Bullit swoops in just as Sandy and Kirsten are about to make the offer on the Newport mansion, buys it for them and whisks them off in his private jet to Berkeley to make the Berkeley house owners an offer they can't refuse.
Back home in Newport Summer is catching up on news of her favorite show, "The Valley"
