And, with a smile and nationwide record release, our beloved Mia (Kate Voegele, the woman who proves that more e's in your last name can never be a bad thing, making me ponder changing my own last name to Taeloere for kicks and giggles) has left the building.
And I'll miss her. It's hard to believe that only six episodes ago she was K-Fed's quiet sidekick, and now she has left the show in a blaze of glory by laying the verbal smackdown on the botox-using record label executive from the season premier. You go girl, but please come back. In a show that is having an increasingly hard time maintaining viewer interest in supporting characters (Mouth was nowhere to be seen this episode, Skills has been gone for two episodes, and their roommates apparently have died and begun to mold in the apartment), Voegele brought natural charisma to the role and made it something more than one note, not to mention her easy chemistry with the rest of the cast. I'm sure she's destined for big things.
As Mia left, Rachel returned, and is apparently more !#$%ed up than ever. When Brooke and D.B.T (Disposable Boy Toy) found her unconscious on the floor of Brooke's NYC flat, I wanted to yell at the screen "You only lost a regular role on a CW drama! It's not worth it!" But she was not in any real danger of death (at least not ?til May sweeps, anyway), and Brooke decided to bring her back to Tree Hill instead of leaving her alone in a treatment center in New York. Daneel Harris has apparently been taking good acting pills in her time away from the show, because her heart-to-heart with Brooke was quite touching and almost heartbreaking because Harris underplayed it instead of being a token diva druggie. Oh, and at some point D.B.T. took off his shirt for no reason and threw Rachel's dealer into a mirror. Because that scene was necessary.
Since we are on the subject of good acting, let's take a moment to applaud Bethany Joy Galeotti for her outstanding work this episode as her marriage fell apart around her. After Skank Nanny tried to seduce Nathan in the shower (looming shots of James Lafferty's abs abound), Haley literally grabs Skank Nanny's hair to throw her out of the house. And later, her confrontation with Skank Nanny at the door was icy and beautifully played. The kicker, however, was the cliffhanger, where she and Nathan found their son floating facedown in the pool (I was expecting Skank Nanny to kidnap him, so kudos for sinking lower than my expectations for allowing him to just jump in the pool and drown). The way Galeotti delivered the lines "I want a divorce. This marriage is over." Sent chills down my spine. Though, let's be honest, they'll probably be back together in two or three episodes (isn't episode 100 coming up soon? Perfect timing).
And then there was that worthless subplot about Dan getting paroled. We all know he's going to be out, and then try to redeem himself but no one believes him and then his emotional motivations will be a grey area blah blah blah. After creator Mark Schwann pulled off beautifully pacing the murder, cover-up and eventual uncovering of Dan's murder of Keith over the course of two seasons without making it seem stretched out and giving a whallop of a payoff, I'm not sure Dan's story has any more mileage left in it, especially now that the brothers are both adults and can easily get restraining orders. But, whatever, get on with it, and please bring crazy Deb back too. God, I miss her.
Congratulations should go to the cast and crew for getting renewed for a sixth (!) season. Most teen soaps...okay...all teen soaps are either cancelled by this point or are severely showing signs of age, but that does not seem to be the case here, and I couldn't be happier about that.
Source:
http://tvfan.ew.com/shows/One+Tree+Hill/recap/299 