Season 1
Episode 1
Original air date: 23 September 2003
It has been too long since I’ve rewatched One Tree Hill. So take a trip with me to Tree Hill, there’ll be basketball, drama, so many teenage problems, and did I mention drama?
Nathan Scott is playing a basketball game in the gym, for the school team The Ravens. His dad, Dan, is being the ultimate stage parent until Coach Whitey glares at him and he backs off.
Lucas Scott bounces his basketball as he walks to the riverside court to meet his friends, as seen in the opening credits.
Mouth (yes, that’s his name), and Jimmy are scoring/commentating. Meanwhile, at the school gym, Whitey is mad. The team isn’t playing well enough! Nathan points out that they’re winning, and he gets REPLACED. You will not question Whitey in his gym.
Then they start losing, so Whitey puts Nathan back in. Nathan grabs the ball and sidles up to a cheerleader (Peyton), who tells him not to bother showering tonight. Gross.
*Fun fact* James Lafferty (Nathan) was 17 at the time of filming, while Hilarie Burton (Peyton) was 20. She said it was weird having to kiss a teenager. If you like behind the scenes gossip and facts, check out the Drama Queens podcast hosted by Hilarie, Bethany Joy Lenz (Hayley), and Sophia Bush (Brooke).
Nathan and Lucas both win their respective games.
Nathan is driving the team and cheerleaders around in a school bus that they ‘borrowed’. Peyton is driving while looking for a CD and almost hits Lucas.
He stands there stunned until she waves him on.
A girl on the bus asks Nathan where Peyton is. He’s like who knows, so the girl kisses him. Bitch, he’s driving! He almost drives onto the train tracks and gets hit by a train. The train passes and SURPRISE here are the cops.
The basketball team is in serious trouble with the principal and the police. The principal reads out the players who were not involved: Jake, Tim, and Nathan. A flashback shows us that the cop let Nathan go, and he dragged Tim away with him. Everyone else is banned from basketball for the rest of the season.
Dan confronts Whitey, annoyed that he didn’t stand up for the team. Whitey doesn’t give a single crap what Dan thinks and says he will not let the lunatics run the asylum.
Lucas is back at the court. He tells the guys that he’s currently reading Steinbeck. Ooh okay, smartypants.
Peyton hoons past in her car, and a guy named ‘Junk’ asks the guys if they’ve seen her webcam. “She’s naked on it like all the time”.
Lucas, looking smitten, tells them that she almost ran him over the other night. Aww.
Lucas heads to Karen’s cafe where his mum, Karen, and his bestie Haley are closing up. They sit down for a dinner of soup.
Haley is chatty as hell. They found a present for him today (but she wasn’t specifically looking for it, in a Joey loves Dawson kind of way!). It’s a Shakespeare book. I THINK LUCAS LIKES READING.
Keith Scott pays Whitey a visit. He heard the news about the team, and has brought his flask. Whitey says
“I saw your little brother today, Danny”
You know, in case Keith needs a reminder of his family tree. YOU KNOW, YOUR YOUNGER BROTHER, DAN?
Keith says Lucas plays basketball. Ready yourself for some exposition.
“Oh, Dan’s other son.”
“Well, Karen’s son. Dan’s on the birth certificate but they never got married.”
Whitey thinks if Lucas had any promise he’d be on the team already, instead of playing at the riverside court. Keith takes Whitey to spy on Lucas playing basketball. He thinks that Lucas should know how good he is.
Whitey asks if Keith and Karen are…you know, but Keith says they’re just friends.
Whitey remembers when Dan told him that Karen was pregnant as they were finishing high school. He told Dan that he should honour his scholarship. Keith said he did Karen and Lucas a favour.
In case you are very confused by all that blatant information being shoved down your throat: Lucas = Dan and Karen’s son. Keith = uncle. Dan = bad. I love how Keith is spelling it all out for Whitey, as if he wasn’t there and doesn’t know the situation like everybody else in town.
Peyton is making some ART on the computer when Nathan wanders on in. He asks what she’s wasting her time on, and turns off her music. No one listens to this. Uh, yeah, Peyton does. Get out of here.
Peyton waited for him but he was out with the guys. But he’s here now! To ask if she wants to come out with the guys. He tells her to sit in her closet and listen to her loser rock.
Nathan apologises and sweet talks her to get back on her good side. DON’T FALL FOR THAT.
Whitey approaches Lucas in class and takes him off to the gym. He offers him a chance on the team but Lucas is not interested.
Lucas’ riverside court friends are annoyed at him for not joining the team, they think he deserves it. It’s a very Good Will Hunting moment. We deserve to be on the river court, you deserve to be a star!
Somebody left Lucas a Ravens jersey on his doorstep. Karen walks in as he’s trying it on and tells him to take it off.
I wonder why she gave Lucas the last name Scott if seeing him in the jersey gives her such a visceral reaction.
Karen is looking through a photo album as she sits in the gutter, as you do. She doesn’t want Lucas to sit his life out because of her.
Nathan is lifting weights when Dan comes in and adds some extra weight. He says Nathan’s mum called and won’t be back until next week.
Dan says the fact that Lucas shares their last name is ‘wishful thinking on his mother’s part’, and says they made a mistake in high school. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SON.
Dan wants Nathan to go tell Lucas not to join the team. He doesn’t want anyone coming in and ruining his chances.
Nathan confronts Lucas at the court. THE TEAM DOESN’T WANT YOU AND NEITHER DOES MY GIRLFRIEND. He challenges him to a game, to decide who gets to be on the team.
Haley and Lucas are discussing if he’s going to accept Nathan’s challenge when Haley gets attacked by birds. Lucas tells her a group of crows is called a murder and she says that’s why people think he’s weird. She asks what a group of ravens is, and he tells her an ‘unkindness’. That is actually true, as well as being fitting for the team.
Peyton’s car is smoking. That can’t be good.
Keith and Lucas are working on cars at Keith’s body shop. Keith is trying to convince Lucas to play on the team.
Lucas hitches Peyton’s car to the tow truck. He tries to impress her with some NOFX lyrics after seeing a sticker on her folder. She calls Nathan to come pick her up but he is too busy and important.
Lucas offers her a ride and at her sassy response asks why she’s a cheerleader? She’s the least cheery person he knows.
Dan goes to see Keith at the body shop.
“How ya been, big brother?”
You know, the way you speak to your siblings.
Lucas convinces Peyton to let him give her a ride. He tells her that she can insult him.
They get talking about how Nathan and Lucas share a dad. Lucas tells her how he used to play basketball with Nathan in junior league.
The kids made fun of him because Dan was his dad, so he quit. He didn’t want his mum to have to see Dan. Brutal, having other people know who your dad is before you do.
Lucas overhears Dan telling Keith that he wishes Lucas didn’t exist and that he told Karen to ‘take care of it’.
Lucas accepts Nathan’s challenge. But if he wins, he wants something else.
Karen confronts Dan at his car dealership. She essentially tells him don’t start caring what Lucas does now, let him play basketball if he wants and shut your dumb mouth.
Dan catches Nathan emerging from a steamy bathroom. Someone forgot to put the extraction fan on, tsk tsk. Dan notices Nathan has a nipple ring.
“If I wanted a daughter I’d adopt one”
“What, so you could abandon her too?”
Ooh, burn.
Dan asks if he’s serious about the bet with Lucas. Did Nathan tell him, or how did he find out? Nathan says he wants to do this for himself.
Peyton appears from the bathroom in a towel.
Karen and Keith are sorting books at the cafe, talking about how time goes so fast.
Haley meets Lucas on the roof, where there is a mini golf course. Haley has just put up fairy lights. She tells Lucas that his mum is worried about him. He asks if she thinks accepting Nathan’s challenge is selfish of him.
Haley thinks he and his mum worry too much.
Mouth and Jimmy have dressed up for the occasion. Peyton doesn’t understand why Nathan wants to do this. She asks what Lucas gets if he wins.
“He gets you.”
Aw hell no.
Tim drives Nathan right up to the court in his fully sick car with blue lights underneath. WOW SO COOL.
A very exciting game follows. Do all these kids’ parents know they’re out here at midnight?
Nathan hits Lucas in the face, which just makes him more determined. Nathan tells Lucas that his dad never mentioned him even once. Lucas WINS THE GAME.
Peyton asks Lucas what he bet. He says if he wins then Nathan has to stay on the team, because that’s the last thing he wants.
Lucas watches Peyton do literally nothing on her webcam.
Lucas enters the school gym for basketball practice and everybody stops and stares.
See? SO. MUCH. DRAMA. And that’s only the first episode. We haven’t even met Brooke yet! I love her.