we actually liked this episode very much!

The characters got really close again, and they actually communicated on a normal way...in the past few episodes...some things seemed to be brought in a little...robot-y ...but this episode it all went smooth and it seemed so natural!

It was like One Tree Hill of Season 4 (which we still think was a better season..)... the characters showed us who they really are and can be, (Brooke worrying about something else than her company and her image, Peyton doing what she's good at and succeeding in things..) eventhough some themes were pretty dark and gloomy (drugs), there was still a positive glow coming out of the episode (“we can beat this”, “we’re staying together”,...)... we think this was also the very first episode of the season where they tone wasn't...moody

What we liked:

eventhough he had only a small part in this episode (not that we mind because we generally don't like his character very much..) but we think that Q was implemented as a good person with feelings for once... you could see that he was dissapointed and they decided not to throw the cocky attitude in it, which was a good call in this situation!!!

We think that Brooke & Rachel (props to Sophia & Danneel) acted towards eachother on a very humane, personal level ... you could feel the tension dripping off of it and it was good!...they both raised and lowered their voices at the riht time...which made it sound like they were having an actual drug-induced-conversation instead of acting it off a script... Also, Danneel played the druggy-part really well...

We loved the fact that Owen ditched (or beat up...) the dealer..however we are a bit confused as to whetehr or not Rachel & Owen have met sometime in the past... because there's no way that Owen could've overheard brooke saying "rachel"...it was too soft (specially since the situation was clearly hectic..). Also the fact aht he was so open about his past to Brooke ...

We loved little Jackson's performance again...he just blew the stage away when he was acting the hate scenes... It was a powerful performance for such a little guy, eventhough it made us cringe sometimes (poor haley!) ... still... very well done by Jackson...specially the "I hate you" and the "I wish nanny carrie was my mamma" scenes where very strongly acted.

Peyton and Mia's performance against John was great! ...we loved the fact that they pulled it off in the end and that Mia got what she wanted...eventhough we're sad to see Kate Voegele go as a character ... she was good!

we liked the fact that Lucas didn't tell a lie for once...

WHAT WE DIDN'T (really) LIKE

We didn't like the fact that Dan is already eligable for parole... Isn't there a higher punishment for brothermurder (or murder occuring in the close family/relatives?) ... And the fact that he pretty much lied about the fact taht Jimmy was the one that killed keith for about a year shouldn't have helped his case in the way it aperantly did... Normally, murderers don't get out after 5 years, specially not when they lied about it in the first place..
What we also didn't like is the fact that, at the end of S4, you could see Dan being sorry about what he had done (the suicide attempt, the nervous breakdown,...) ...but now, the character just seemed to be his old self again.... And we know...Dan wouldn't be Dan if it weren't for the evil part of it...but it would be nice and refreshing to see him actually feeling sorry about the things he did...we mean, he did have 4 years (which is only a little amount...) to think about his actions

We didn’t like Carrie... Not only because we don’t really believe the actress when she’s playing it (sorry for the fans, but that’s the way we see it...)...but we also have the biggest issues with Carrie when it comes to Jaimie and Haley... Haley was there when Carrie needed a job (okay, she was looking for a nanny...but it wasn’t like carrie had an overload of experience...) and than Carrie goes phycho and tries to overrule Haley’s marriage by going after Nathan and trying to persuade the little boy into hating his mother??? That’s just sick!
What we are interested in is, however, if the Naley fans are going to give Carrie (or Torry DeVitto) the same treatment as Rachel (or Danneel Harris) (for trying to steal Nathan and almost succeeding in it)...Both Rachel & Danneel got a lot of things thrown at them/her for “persuading Nathan”...so we’re pretty curious to see on how its going to evolve for Carrie & Torry....


so, good episode!!!!!

I still need to watch this full episode before I can comment (I tried to watch it the morning before I left, but was running out of time and ended up fast-forwarding most of the non-Rachel scenes, lol), but yay, Rachel! I was so happy to have her back, yet sad to see her so broken. Aww.