Editorial: The Graduates
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*This review is a little unorthodox and steps away from my usual style in some respects. Just thought I’d give a heads up.
There’’s little point in working from the beginning to the end. Or as I often do, go character by character in rundown. For the first time I feel I must directly address the metaphorical elephant in the room, Marissa’s presumed death.
It’s not something I was prepared to write about. In fact, immediately after the episode finished I contemplated sustaining an entire review on one word, speechless. But I quickly had to deal with the inevitable truth. I am a writer who discerns opinions, in this case for The O.C. I can’t shy away from exposing both delayed thoughts and my initial reactions.
In the week off from The O.C. I did as I normally do seek out episode stills and visuals that gave hints to what’s to come. In almost all of the episode stills for “The Graduates” was a smiling, happy, Marissa, something seen so rarely this season. Little did I know what was to end out an episode filled with hope and promise.
I don’’t like reading out right spoilers. But I couldn’t ignore that almost everyone, and everywhere, revealed that some one would die in the season finale. Just as equally perplexing were the foreshadowing words of Josh Schwartz. He stated, to I believe USA Today, that one character would be gone for good and another would return. Of course this was near season three’s mid-point before tabloids ran amuck with news that Mischa Barton was growing apart from the show and wanted out for a full-time career in movies.
I had inadvertently past over some spoilers, which I now see as foilage, that Sandy would take a heart attack. Could it of been he who comes to a sorry demise? I didn’t have the heart to even image it. So I quickly turned to the though of Dr. Roberts biting the dust. But my eyes, soon after, passed over a scan of a TV Guide ad, which stated that one of the shown characters would die by the end of the show. There was no Dr. Roberts, but instead all the other principal players, including Julie. Julie it would be. I was convinced of it. But nagging in the back of my mind were these terrifying thoughts that it still could be Sandy after all. Of course, I now have proof that neither of those scenarios panned out. It was Marissa who was sent packing to heaven, hell or neither depending on how you choose to view her character and the situation as a whole.
It still hasn’t fully processed in my mind. But there’s no avoiding the inescapable. When the minutes were closing on the show, and I knew there was no chance for the scene to break away, the television loving part of my heart sank. I couldn’t believe it. And even still, I followed the clock hoping that some unforeseen twist would surprise us all.
It’s not to say that I loved the character of Marissa. Just read my reviews over this season and you’ll see how infuriated I was with her indifference to life and the way she treated Ryan. She was often portrayed as equally tortured (sometimes for valid reasons, other times for invalid reasons) and self-absorbed. But I had usually seen beyond that. I saw the potential of her character and the positives in her friendship with Ryan, even going back to the days of the often-penned Three Musketeers. Ryan, Seth, Marissa as they were in season one in “The Model Home” and later in episodes such as “The Homecoming””, this is where my alliances lied.
Plus, I will make no pretense to the fact I was a genuine supporter of the potentials, both romantically and in further realized friendship, of Seth and Marissa. This is why it was painfully hard to shift from the fabulous throwback to the snarky repartee they shared in “The Model Home” to Ryan and Marissa being railroaded off the road by Volchok. Whatever potential was there, and whatever afforded us to imagine, or write as the case often was, are own story, was now killed in large degree.
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The actual logistics of her death is something I have to look at with more objectivity, and with the average viewer of The O.C. in mind.
There is no arguing that for many fans Marissa was a loved character who was both a staple of the show’s past and an essential part to its future. And perhaps for only a few less fans was the notion (however tired I thought it was) that Ryan and Marissa were meant to be together. Or at the very least, their distressed and circling love story should have remained as part of the show’s core.
Even I, who hated Marissa more often than I loved her, knew she was both essential to many viewers and was an established part of the show who didn’t deserve to die now and certainly not in the way that she did.
I’m a person who can’t afford invading the obvious. Without her next season, and with her sister Kaitlin as a poor replacement, the show will only sink further in the ratings. Surely Schwartz, Fox and Warner Brothers must of realized this before giving Barton an easy exit on her supposed six season contract. Or did they fire her for her rumored on set behaviors? Either way it’s a bad move.
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As for the execution of the death, I offer no mercy. It all begins with Marissa’s character receiving a letter from her father for Graduation. It’s soon disclosed that Jimmy is working on a ‘boat for rich people’ and wants her to join him for a year. Marissa contemplates a new journey and renewed life with her father. The downside is that it includes peeling potatoes and other hard-pressed manual labor. This is a job that would of whipped in her into shape and possibly still could. Perhaps that’s why she accepts working along side her father as a deckhand. It’s not exactly a step up from college and it most certainly is an insult that her father would ask her to take a job that he only took because he trashed his life and the family he created through bad business dealings. In fact, if I recall, Marissa never wanted to see her father again if he chose to walk away one more time. So where is the continuity in all of this? Sorry. I forgot. Continuity and The O.C. go together like oil and water.
Summer and Julie are brokenhearted over the news, but ultimately except her choice. Ryan simply is encouraging and with out a doubt her biggest supporter of whatever choices she makes. In a way, he’s almost an equivalent to General Hospital’s Jason Morgan. He may still love her and he’ll surely miss her if she leaves but he could never tell her what to do or influence her final decisions. Especially not now, when they are at their best, as friends. The friendship that poured over into this episode was magical to watch. Seriously, their greatest potentials were in their friendship I believe.
Following shortly after is the gang’s joyous graduation and then a playful rendezvous at the model home. During the later scenes are numerous throwbacks to “The Model Home” episode of season one. And for a rarity this season, the throwbacks didn’t seem forced and unnecessary. The end to all of this is fond farewells from Summer and the others. Ryan offers her a ride to the airport. But little do they know Volchok has been stalking them. See, Volchok has come to the realization that Marissa was the best thing he ever had. It appears he has even fallen in love with her. But he refuses to let things go till he’s had a chance to tell her that. Of course, we all know how romantic stalking and making threats can be. Now just imagine him speed chasing you down the highway and trying to run you off the side of the road. Is one ready for marriage yet?
I’m getting rather snaky. But of all the ways to kill off Marissa, this one is just absurd. It is, to some degree, believable, but the implementation is so weak. It came off feeling rushed and predictably tagged on. Especially when all the tabloid stories flash in your head as your watching them speed down the road.
The car Ryan’s proud mother had given him as a graduation present had now done multiple flips off the side cliff of the road. With the car squashed like a pancake Ryan still was able to release himself and get out of the vehicle. Marissa however is reaching a state of unconsciousness and appears to be stuck. Ryan accesses the situation and sees the car is starting to catch fire. Worse yet there is gasoline leaking. He quickly comes to and pulls Marissa out. This is where things get even more dreadfully distorted. He picks her up, just in the same motions as he did in the ending to “The Escape”. There’s a certain posturing to this that is off putting. And it doesn’t help to have the scene juxtaposed with its equally over-the-top forbearer. Marissa is now dead at the hands of Volchok whom she, after his weird post-Johnny stalking, willingly perused a relationship with. And in a way she is dead at the hands of Ryan who could of killed him if only he had chosen to not just mess with his face but actually get the job we all know he really wanted to do done. How more crucial and dynamic it would have been to see flashes, from the prospective of Marissa who essentially set this all into motion, of her beginning her relationship with Volchok, or visions, from Ryan’’s perspective, of beating him to a pulp than it was to see flashes from ““The Escape”. You could also argue that we should of seen flashes of all her greatest moments on her own and with Ryan. But the truth is I didn’’t have any interest in seeing a swan song. I’m more interested in the overall impact and how this flows with past and future storyline. But with how dismal and poorly acted, from both Barton and Ben McKenzie, her death was I can’’t take much faith that the writers or certain actors will create truly dynamic material for next season out of this. Not to say any of our remaining actors can’t act, but they can only be as good as the writing. The event could be a catalyst for a new and brilliant season of The O.C. But I can’t imagine that happening at this point.
I haven’’t read a single afterthought or indication as to what will now happen in season four. Perhaps this will go the way of Dallas and it will all be a dream. Somehow I think not. Somehow I will have to process that she is not only dead, but endured a tactlessly bad death at that.
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There was a whole three quarters of the show that passed by with wonderful pacing, heart warming family moments, and a glorious return to Sandy’s essential being. Up until Marissa’s predictable lead-in to death, I was actually enjoying the show.
If we recall back just one episode, Seth was arrested for supposedly setting fire to, and burning down, the Newport Group. Instead of making this bigger than what it was and glorifying the ruthless questioning by police and all the grittiness of being arrested, the real issues were dealt with. Seth was forced to deal with his actions. And he finally, in an almost willing state, came clean to his father. Sandy, rather than be judgmental, embraced his son with love and guidance. He didn’t dismiss Seth’’s actions either, proving that Sandy may possibly be the greatest father in Television right now. Seth was surprisingly more open and honest than he ever had been in the past. And in the closure of the scene they count their blessings, looking to the joys of graduation, then hug. I couldn’t of asked for anything better. To me, this was the best moment of the show. It showed Sandy at his best and most crucial and it showed genuine and positive growth in Seth’s character.
Sandy, after making a trip back to the public defenders office realizes what his true calling has always been to intercept in the lives of wayward teenagers. I couldn’t be more pleased. Nor could Kirsten. And for the first time since maybe season one Kirsten and Sandy shared a passionate marital moment as they discussed what they could be doing now that they’d be living in an ‘empty nest’. The scene implied a certain suggestion and then they kissed. No, scratch that. They were back to making out. Oh sweet Kandy your back to your former glory!
Seth and Summer felt more sincere and pleasantly sweet than they had in some time. This was in large part do to Seth’s growth in character. I had a real sense that he was now seeing the bigger picture. He had put his insecurities behind him and was putting full faith in that whatever happened with RSD, whatever happened in general, they loved each other enough to make it through. This was also one of the few times that I actually took full faith in that love. With the way their relationship sometimes became a game or the way Seth always lied it was hard for me to be fully invested and trust their love for each other. For once I finally, and wholeheartedly, could. It was a satisfying feeling.
Also satisfying was knowing that Taylor was now in the inner circle. I don’t even want to mention Kaitlin as being a fair replacement for Marissa. But at least I can take comfort in knowing that Taylor can fill the void and is now a staple for season four. Her Korean threesome confession was both funny and disturbing, but it’’s these elements that make her character unique and defined.
Perhaps irrelevant in the grand scheme of my review, but I have to make mention of the awkward tension at the model home when Summer announces that for all of two or three episodes she wanted Ryan for herself. What delight I took in this even if the faces of almost everyone else turned cold and awkward. It almost felt like a shout out to the other couple ships. To know they are acknowledged is rather comforting. What other reason would they have to bring back that classic snark between Seth and Marissa, when for so long it had almost vanished with little hope of returning to what it was in season one. Yes, the scene was trying to establish a connection back to the essential season one episode and how far things have come. Still, it felt suspiciously like a shout out to the vast and different fan bases and I have to appreciate that.
Ryan was grossly untouched in this episode. I don’t say that lightly either. It was presumed by so many that his brawl and after interaction with Volchok would lead to major revelations and growth. But Ryan hasn’t yet put closure to Trey or the problems he has with aggression, and violence. Now that Marissa is dead all these factors will likely intensify. The healing process seems far off, if to come at all. And worse yet his interaction with Volchok, the payoff, was all a pretext for Marissa’s coming death. Look at it in one perspective and Ryan was merely a pawn in the writers need to knock off Marissa. I did enjoy the interaction he had with his mother. It was great to see each of them grow in love and trust. And it was deeply special to see Ryan be able to embrace his mother with a level of comfort and security. The glow on his face when he saw that his mother had bought him the rebuilt Toyota, combined with a sign of relief that nothing went disastrous with his mother, as it had in the past, was priceless.
But with all the good there was an overpowering bad. Marissa’s overall storyline in this episode and her death was so inadequately done and misplaced that the episode fails almost completely on that alone. But I won’t be so cruel as to cement that thought. Rather, I’ll treat this as two sectioned off parts to the episode.
* ½ stars for Marissa’s never to be manual labor adventures with daddy and her death.
**** stars for rest of the show and all the hope, promise and growth it brought Seth and the Cohen family except for, of course, Ryan via the episode‘s closing. And of course for the dynamic potential Marissa's death will have on season four, provided I can retain some faith the writers can pull this through and gives us our once glorious show back.
