Episode Report Card Ragdoll: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Is There Life After Basketball?
By Ragdoll | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.26.2004
Peyton comes downstairs at this moment and says, "Hey Dad, do you know where my --" She sees Luke and asks, "What are you doing here?" If you can imagine it, Peyton's dad kind of looks like an older, slightly better-looking version of Ed Burns. He jokes, "Trying to rake me to death." Peyton giggles and says, "What?" Luke tries to explain himself, but just manages to embarrass himself a bit further. He says that he's going to go put the rake back on the porch. Peyton and Larry have a good chuckle. I like Larry already.
At school, Peyton and Brooke walk together. Brooke leans in, kind of bonks Peyton's shoulder, and says, "So, who's the guy?" Shockingly, Peyton is wearing a black t-shirt with some sort of logo on it and Brooke's in red, again. Sigh, I really wish the wardrobe people would branch out, even just a little bit. Peyton says, "That'd be my dad." Brooke jokes, "Oh, I'd be smiling too, but for entirely different reasons." Peyton whacks her in the shoulder and giggle-shouts, "Dude, that's my dad! Don't go all porn-dog on me. There's a line." The two of them stop walking for a minute, and Brooke asks Peyton to tell her if she's being in appropriate, because she wants to ask her something. What is it? Brooke quietly says, "I need to connect more with Lucas." Peyton teases, "I thought you guys were already doing that?" Brooke replies, "The whole making-out thing is great and all, but that only goes so far -- can you help a girl out?" Peyton thinks about it for a minute, and says, "Yeah, you know what?" She grabs a CD from her bag and says, "Give him this and tell him that tracks 8 and 11 make you think of him." Brooke asks, "Wait, make me think of him or make you think of him?" Peyton insists, "Just friends." Brooke thanks her, hugs her, and then runs off to impress Lucas with her insecurities and fake musical tastes. Yeah, now there's a way to connect with your new boyfriend -- by pretending to be someone you totally are not. It's recipe for disaster. Yawn.
Haley and Nathan are studying in the library or the Tutoring Centre, I can't really tell which. For once, the walls aren't decorated with some sort of Ravens Basketball paraphernalia. Instead, there's a poster on the wall that says, "Open It." Haley asks him if he finished The Little Prince. Nathan flips through the book looking disheartened and dejected: "I'm just going to watch the movie. This book is stupid." Haley's hair is totally straight. It looks really nice. She says, "Nathan, you're not going to pass French if you keep watching movies." He continues playing with the book: "It's not like I've got a lot of time to just sit around and read." Haley, with her keen sense of observation, says, "Are you ever going to tell me how it went?" Because she knows it's not The Little Prince that's bothering Nathan; it's that he's carrying the weight of the world around on his b-ball shoulders. Is up for the challenge? Not right now, he's not: "The therapist asked me if I really want to play basketball or not." Haley leans in and asks, "Wow, what did you say?" Nathan replies, "I don't know. No one's ever asked me that question before." I'm going to have to say it again: Haley looks really pretty in this scene. She says, "Wow, that's really big." Nathan adds, "These last couple weeks without it, I mean, if I didn't play, I might actually have a life." Haley asks him what he'd do instead, with all that free time. Nathan replies that he doesn't really know, but that at least he'd have some time to figure it all out. She smiles at him, and he jokes a little about their finding "things" to do with their time. Then, he leans in and kisses her -- and this is such a sweet little scene that I don't want to yawn, or barf, or make snide comments because both actors did a good job, and I actually kind of want to applaud them. Anyway, now it gets cheesy, as Haley says, "I think you're really brave." Pause. "To consider rebuilding who you are. I don't know if I could do that." Nathan thinks she could. They both have to go to class now, and then Haley mentions that practice starts back up today, but Nathan doesn't know if he does. Aw, poor Nathan -- he's having a midlife crisis even before he hits his twenties. I can't imagine the pressure of not knowing if you want something that's been ingrained upon you since you were small. The level of unease he must be feeling would be huge; he's just trying to figure it out -- to see who he really is, and what he wants from life. So even though the whole "brave" comment might be a bit melodramatic -- I mean, he's not pulling babies out of burning buildings -- it's kind of apt as well, at least in this context. He's kind of brave to think about standing up to King Basketball and giving back the keys to the kingdom.
Brooke shows up and sits down beside Luke as he does homework outside on one of the concrete tables. She insists that all "work and no Brooke makes Luke a dull boy." Brooke pulls her knapsack off her shoulder and says, "I've got something for you." He feels bad and says that he doesn't have anything for her. But Brooke insists that he does, blah sexual innuendo, blah. Out comes the Travis CD, and thus commences my wincing. Brooke hands it to Luke and says that a couple songs remind her of him. He says, "I didn't know you were into Travis." She says, "Are you kidding I love Travis, he's the best." He looks at her funny because, of course, Travis is a band and not a boy. He says, "What?" And she says, "The Travis guy, are we not in the same conversation?" Luckily, the bell rings and saves her from colossal embarrassment in front of her new boyfriend who's way more cool and well-read than she is, which makes her kind of insecure. Anyway, she tells Luke to listen to tracks 8 and 13, even though Peyton said to say 8 and 11. Sigh. Oh, Brooke, if you're going to pretend to be anything, it's better to move down the learning curve instead of up -- you can always pretend to be a dummy like most of the girls did in my high school, so the boys think they're smart when they're around you. One girl I knew pretended that she thought cheese came right out of a cow's stomach and that she couldn't tell time, and she always had a boyfriend. Heh. You guys know I'm joking, right? Well, about the downward spiral of Brooke's learning curve; that girl at my high school really did exist.