Life Lesson: Everyone Take Off!

S01E21

Peyton's turned her web cam back on. Yawn. She's doing up her belt, giving web pervs the world over enough to keep them going through the rest of the day. Larry knocks on the door, calling out wondering if she's decent. Peyton cracks, "If you mean clothing-wise, yes." Larry comes in and comments on the cam. She says dryly, "Oh. Damn. I got dressed in front of that web cam." She giggles while he tells her not to say that. He continues, "I thought you said that thing was evil anyway." She says, "Well, yeah, but that's before I saw you pull your duffel bag out of the closet." Peyton puts on her Converse sneakers. "Were you going to tell me you were leaving?" Larry explains that he's just making a short run to Florida. He'll only be gone for six days. Peyton jokes, "Okay, five nights to party." Larry says quickly, "And no time to talk, so here it comes." He continues, "Um, are you comfortable with me seeing Lucas's mom? If it's too weird for you --" Peyton insists that it's not too weird. She tells him that she likes Karen. Larry asks, "Is there something going on with you and Lucas?" Peyton ties up her shoe. People get up early in Tree Hill. She says, "Not really. It's cool." She puts her foot down, literally: "What if it was too weird for me, you dating Karen." Larry laughs and tells her she'd just have to get used to it. Wow. A whole scene, and I don't want to make a comment about sawdust or puppets or anything. Peyton tells her dad to just "do his thing," gives him a fist to bump, smiles, and then looks mournfully into her web cam. Larry smiles on his way out of her room, but gets serious for a minute as he tells her to "shut that thing off." But she can't shut it off, she's "Punk'd and Disorderly." Yawn.

Luke and Karen eat breakfast. Well, Karen pushes her food around her plate and Luke scrunches up his eyebrows. That's The Chad's code for "about to say something serious." He says, "The other night I saw Dan and he said something." Karen moans, "Aw, what now!" Luke continues, "He said to ask you what really happened back then." The Tune of Total Discontent pipes in. "Any idea what he what he meant?" Karen answers, "Who knows, it's Dan." Luke pushes a bit further: "Yeah, but, I don't know, he was talking about what kind of father he was. Was he just messing with me?" Karen puts down her fork and picks up that tone. You know, the one where "secrets" that could "ruin" lives are about to come out and create a "cliffhanger" to drape the season-ender in: "Lucas, you know I always have your best interest in mind." Luke squints. "Since day one, you believe that, right?" Yeah. Of course he does. Because Karen's the den mother to end all den mothers, but wait! Of course, she has a confession to make: "Well, after you were born, Dan asked to be in your life." The Chad looks confused, which means that he's scrunched his eyebrows so close together I'm surprised he can see out of either eye: "You told me he never wanted anything to do with you?" Karen answers, "He didn't show up at first, but when he moved back into town with Deb, he told me that he'd like to help raise you." Wait! Luke! Please, open your eyes; you'd like to see this! Your mother's admitting she lied all these years. Your world is about to come crashing down. Karen says, "And he asked for joint custody. I told him no." Okay, you're telling me that all of this couldn't have come out before now? In the sixteen years that Luke's been in the world, Dan never tried to see Lucas on his own, never challenged Karen, never fought back after she said no the first time? Honestly, I don't see how this itty-bitty piece of information changes one damn thing. But we all know it's going to be all blown out of proportion and turned into some ridiculous melodramatic existential life-changing realization. Good grief.