The Dream Lover
Season: 4
Episode: 11
Characters: Ryan, Taylor, Seth, Summer, Sandy, Kirsten, Julie, Kaitlin, Che, Henri-Michel, Will, Lucy, Spencer.
Editors Choice Quote: “You turn our business into a prostitution ring and you get hung up on. Company policy.” - Kirsten.
Episode Guide
Over breakfast, Seth complains to Ryan that Summer’s rejection of his marriage proposal has put somewhat of a damper on their relationship. Ryan assures him that this doesn’t mean they’re broken up. At the same time, Taylor is complaining to Summer that Ryan hasn’t returned any of her last 17 phone calls. She assumes this means they have broken up. Ryan claims to Seth that he’ll call back when he’s ready.
You know who is calling Taylor, however? Henri-Michel. He’s renting a house in Newport and has asked Taylor to move with him. A proposal Taylor is actually considering. The boys stare at a cell phone, considering calling and…
Later that day, Summer tracks down Ryan at work to get to the bottom of both relationships. Ryan confesses that he’s just waiting for Henri-Michel to au revoir, and Summer breaks the news about his rental. Elsewhere, Seth is looking for Summer, but only finds Che doing tai chi in Summer’s living room. Che has come to Newport to offer support to Summer because he was picking up some weird Seth vibes in Providence. They saved him once, so now Che is here to save Seth.
At the Yacht Club, Taylor has lunch with Henri-Michel, and she starts thinking that maybe he came along at just the right time. She and Ryan were too different, they hadn’t gotten serious yet and Henri-Michel seems to truly love her. Maybe moving in with him is a bonne idée.
Meanwhile, over at Harbor, Kaitlin is beaming over her first honestly-earned A. She thanks Will for the tutoring, then watches as Will is approached and complimented by a band chick, Lucy. She hopes to see him Friday night at the bake sale.
Julie calls Kirsten in a desperate attempt to reconcile, but Kirsten promptly hangs up on her. So Julie calls back, begging that their friendship can’t end like this. Kirsten again hangs up.
Ryan drops by the Cooper house in search of Taylor, but all he finds is Kaitlin in the driveway. Kaitlin advises him to check Henri-Michel’s hotel room for her and if he’s going after her, he’d better have some kind of gift with him to smooth things over. Inside the house, Summer has set up a date in her bedroom for her and Seth. Twinkly lights, video games, Thai food, whiny music. She still loves him, despite the scuttled proposal. Seth squirms out of Summer’s attempts at romance and goes downstairs to consult Che. Che promises to start the healing tomorrow morning.
On that next morning, Summer finds a note from Che that he is taking Seth to the forest for his mission. Ryan swings by the hotel on a mission of his own. Henri-Michel welcomes him in, offers some coffee, then mentions that Taylor is currently out furniture shopping since they’re moving in Monday. Ryan turns to go and Henri-Michel spots a gift in Ryan’s hand. A little teddy bear holding a coffee mug of gummi bears. Which is maybe cannibalistic, but whatever. Henri-Michel takes the gift and promises to deliver it to Taylor, reasoning that it will be more meaningful if Taylor chooses him knowing that Ryan wants her back. Oh, those romantic French.
Kirsten gets a call from Spencer. He was talking to his boy Chas and, as it turns out, he has Chlamydia. Spencer’s in Mexico and Julie doesn’t work there anymore, so maybe Kirsten wants to call all of Chas’s clients.
Kaitlin is touching up her makeup in the bathroom when three band chicks sneak in. Lucy makes it clear that Kaitlin had better not show up at the bake sale tomorrow. The trumpet chick seconds that emotion. Not all that intimidated by the nerdy trio, Kaitlin vows to show up at the bake sale tomorrow night just to see what happens. Oh, and in this exchange, Lucy called Kaitlin a skank.
Taylor returns from furniture shopping and Henri-Michel shows her Ryan’s gift. She files it straight in the garbage can. Kirsten calls Julie with the Chas news. Julie promises to drop off the list of Chas’s clients tomorrow. Kirsten refuses, so Julie offers a compromise. They’ll do it together. Kirsten drives, Julie talks.
In the forest, Che informs Seth that they have reached the secret spot where they’ll be bedding down for the night. Taylor arrives home, having been called by Summer. And Summer made the call by request of Ryan, who’s waiting in the house for Taylor. He wants to apologize for making a mistake. He now realizes that how they feel is much more important than what they have in common. Taylor asks how he feels then, and Ryan struggles to even stammer. Taylor announces that Henri-Michel has written a long love poem for her and will be giving a reading of it tomorrow night before spinning on her heel and leaving. It seems that a gauntlet has been thrown down.
The next day, Kirsten and Julie find their first past client and inform her of the potential STD. She threatens to sue. The gals are off to a great start. Meanwhile, Taylor starts to doubt which man is for her and Seth and Che continue their forest sit-in. Just to update all of the various goings on.
On to the bake sale! Kaitlin shows as promised/threatened. And the first thing she does is tell Lucy she’s only there because Lucy didn’t want her to be. The band chicks threaten Kaitlin, so she calls their hats lame. Lucy relates to Will, who sides with Kaitlin. Which puts Lucy in tears, so she runs off the bathroom. Which goes unnoticed by Will but not by Kaitlin. Finally, some good teen angst on The OC!
Seth and Che sit in a tent around a pile of hot, steaming rocks. Seth is sweating, probably more than he ever has before. And then he drops into a vision. A vision of an empty Cohen house. Seth finds a pool in his bedroom and an otter swimming in the pool. Then he wakes up, raving that his animal spirit has been cured. But when he tells Che that his animal spirit is an otter, Che seems a little concerned.
Ryan shows up at Henri-Michel jam de poetry. The women in the audience are incredibly moved by his words. When the applause dies down, Ryan pulls out a poem of his own and summons the crowd’s attention. He starts in, but trails off and walks away. Taylor grabs the poem and starts reading it aloud. It’s short but touching and the crowd is moved by Ryan’s words as well. Including Henri-Michel, who runs out. Taylor follows after him.
Kirsten and Julie arrive at The Yacht Club to continue breaking the bad news to clients. Kirsten spots Spencer at the bar and he quickly confesses that he lied about being in Mexico and the whole Chlamydia thing. But Julie made him do it. Julie admits it was the only thing she could think of to get Kirsten to take her call. Julie pleads that she can live without being Kirsten’s business partner, but not her friend. She needs her in her life.
Kaitlin finds a tearful Lucy hiding in the bathroom. Kaitlin apologizes that Will doesn’t like Lucy, but claims she didn’t do anything. Lucy bursts out of the stall proclaiming that she has loved Will since the day he arrived and Kaitlin doesn’t appreciate him. Lucy complains that Kaitlin makes fun of everything that makes Will himself, and makes him wants to change who he really is. Kaitlin weakly retorts that she does not and walks out.
Taylor rushes back to Henri-Michel’s hotel room, but all that’s waiting for her is a note. Henri-Michel explains that he loves her, but he loves love more. And he doesn’t want to be alone in it. Next to the note is Ryan’s little gift.
Kaitlin and Will walk on the beach after the bake sale. Kaitlin asks if he’ll be doing it again tomorrow and suggests that maybe he should. And while there…maybe he should take a harder look at Lucy. They’re probably a better match.
Che and Seth return from the forest. Seth heads upstairs to Summer to explain that he’s an otter, Che heads downstairs to meditate some more. When Julie asks what he’s doing, Che explains that in his own past vision he was a toad who fell in love with…an otter.
Taylor finds Ryan and explains where she is. Hearing Henri-Michel say “I love you” took over her life. It made her whole. She needs it to hear it. A lot. But she knows she can’t ask him to say that just yet.
SpoilerFix
+ Kaitlin will start to date Will Tutt (played by Chris Brown). She gets jealous of time he spends with the girls part of the school band to a point that she and Lucy, one band member who has a crush on Will, will go head to head. Henri-Michel seems to be in episode 4.11. Source: SpoilerFix BuddyTV Spoilers Chat
+ Kirsten must clean up after Julie when one of the men she hooked someone with has an unpleasant "medical condition." Will Tutt (played by Chris Brown) along with fellow school band members Lucy, Jane, and Rachel, will host a bake sale to raise money to get new uniforms. Someone wrote a poem for Taylor. Source: SpoilerFix.com
Rating
7 / 10
