The O.C. - Premiere
Troubled teen Ryan moves in with the wealthy Cohens and all of their lives change
Season 1
Episode 1
Original air date: 5 August 2003
It’s been about ten years since I did a rewatch of The O.C. and I just remember being really surprised that there are only four seasons. It was such a huge deal when it came out (I was totally watching every week) and I guess it felt much longer. They did fit a lot of drama into those four seasons though, so come with me and relive the crazy adventures…
First, here are our main characters in case this is your first introduction to The O.C.
I was going to write a little intro for all of them but let’s just dive right in, you’ll get to know them along the way.
Two teenage hoodlums are breaking into a car. The older one, Trey, says he’s the older brother and he’ll show the younger one (Ryan) how it’s done. He smashes the window and jumps in the car, urging Ryan to follow.
Uh oh, sirens. A short police chase ensues, ending with Trey crashing the car. He’s bleeding but no one is seriously injured.
Ryan is led in handcuffs from his jail cell to a large room where he meets Sandy Cohen and his eyebrows. Sandy has been appointed as his public defender. He asks how Ryan is, and if they’re treating him okay. Ryan asks about his brother.
Sandy tells him that Trey is looking at 3-5 years for his variety of offences, but that’s not Sandy’s concern. He reads Ryan’s file and sees that he has been suspended from school a couple of times but he has amazing test scores. He asks Ryan if he’s thought about college or his future, to which Ryan scoffs and tries to look stoic.
“Dude, I’m on your side”
Sandy’s not a regular public defender, he’s a cool public defender.
Ryan spouts off some nonsense about how he read an article saying social security is going to run out in 2025 and people will have to work until they’re 80 so he doesn’t want to commit to anything too soon. Okay, funny guy.
Sandy essentially tells Ryan he needs to get his shit together. He can relate, he grew up in the Bronx, with no money and a shit family. Ryan is not ready to hear this yet, he continues his sassy bad boy act.
Sandy gets Ryan released, they’ll be a hearing later. Ryan’s mum pulls up outside the jail, riding the curb as she does so. She tells Sandy she should’ve let Ryan rot in jail like his dad is and like his brother’s going to. Nice.
Sandy, concerned with what he is sending Ryan back to, gives Ryan his card and tells him to call if things get to be too much.
Back at home, Ryan’s mum, who is (let’s be honest, continuing) drinking, yells at him. She wants him out of her house.
Then, A.J., Ryan’s mum’s boyfriend, chimes in. Ryan tells him it’s not his house and A.J. punches Ryan in the face! His mum tells them to stop and then doesn’t know what to do so she lights up a cigarette. Ryan packs his stuff and leaves.
He heads to a payphone to call some friends to see if he can stay with someone for the night. No luck, but then Ryan remembers that he has Sandy Cohen’s number.
They make their way through the dodgy suburbs until they see the beach. Ryan comments on Sandy’s fancy car, says he thought public defenders don’t make much money.
“I don’t. My wife does.”
They pull up to a gated community, full of mansions. Sandy tells Ryan to wait in the car. He glances at Ryan and goes to take the key out. Ryan tells him it’s no fun if the key’s in it, and Sandy leaves the key.
Kirsten (pronounced Keer-sten, if you aren’t watching) is not happy that Sandy brought Ryan home. She says it was only a matter of time before Sandy brought home a felon, what if he’s scamming you to case the house? Sandy tells her that technically he’s not a felon, and he’s not a mastermind, just a kid.
Sandy asks Kirsten when she got so cynical, she asks him when he got so self-righteous.
“I’ve always been self righteous”
Kirsten gives in and says he can sleep in the pool house.
Ryan heads to the sidewalk to smoke. He sees Marissa standing next door. Get ready for the cheesiest introduction of all time.
“Who are you?”
“I’m whoever you want me to be”
Marissa asks if she can bum a cigarette.
She asks him why he’s really here, and he tells her everything. She’s like Oh, you’re the cousin from Boston, wink wink. Sandy appears and Marissa says I just met your nephew. Sandy’s like riiiight, my nephew. From Seattle. Sandy tells Marissa he’s looking forward to her fashion show tomorrow night.
“Really?”
“No”
A giant four wheel drive turns up. It’s Luke, Marissa’s boyfriend. Ryan looks disappointed.
Sandy tells Ryan there’s no smoking in this house. He takes Ryan to the pool house where Kirsten does introductions. She says if he needs anything Rosie here can help. Is she a live-in maid? Ryan thanks her and they all leave.
The next morning Ryan heads outside and is greeted with an amazing view that goes all the way to the ocean. He goes into the main house where Seth is playing Playstation, he asks if Ryan wants to join.
Seth is the opposite of Ryan in many ways, one of them being that he never shuts up. He provides endless commentary on the game they’re playing as Ryan looks broody and says nothing.
Sandy comes in and tells Seth to get outside and show Ryan around. Ryan asks what they do around here.
Sailing apparently. Seth tells Ryan he has a dream of sailing to Tahiti with Summer. Ryan asks skeptically if he’s taking this boat? Seth says no, his boat, the Summer Breeze, is named after a girl named Summer who he’s never spoken to.
Sandy arrives on the beach, he tells the boys that they’re leaving for the fashion show at 7. Seth doesn’t want to go, all the kids from school will be there and they suck.
Sandy says Ryan has to go, Marissa invited him. Seth’s like um, I’ve lived next to Marissa forever, her dad nearly married my mom, and she’s never invited me anywhere.
Sandy’s like they did not almost get married!
Ryan’s like maybe Summer will be there? Seth is in.
Marissa answers the door to some guys in suits, they are from the SEC and want to talk to Marissa’s dad, Jimmy. Uh oh. Jimmy tells Marissa it’s nothing to worry about. Mmhmm.
Ryan is getting dressed up. He tries to put his tie on but can’t work it out. Sandy comes in and tells him that he couldn’t tie a tie until he was 25. He shows Ryan how to do it. He asks if it was alright hanging out with Seth, says he’s an interesting kid if you get to know him. Ryan says Seth’s cool and Sandy looks happy. He’s obviously worried about poor Seth and his no friends.
Sandy is done and Ryan looks fab.
“Better than a jumpsuit!”
Marissa’s fam are also getting ready. Her sister Kaitlin is played by baby Shailene Woodley (for now). Julie, her mum, asks Kaitlin if her hair looks good straight or if it’s too ‘Avril Lavigne’. Aw, our first very 2003 reference.
Marissa’s dress is also very early 2000s. It seems like a lot of early 2000s fashions are back in style at the moment, which is…interesting. I haven’t seen anything like this around yet, but who knows what the future may bring.
Julie makes a couple of critical comments about Marissa’s hair and dress but Jimmy tells her she looks beautiful.
The Cohens, and Ryan, arrive at the fashion show. A waiter offers Ryan some fancy appetisers, to which he stares blankly.
Seth tells Ryan:
“Welcome to the dark side”
Random women keep flirting with Ryan, asking about Boston and Seattle. One lady thinks she heard he’s from Canada.
Ryan sneaks up to the bar and asks for a 7 and 7. Which according to Wikipedia is:
A Seven and Seven or 7 and 7 is a highball cocktail, a mixed alcoholic drink containing Seagram's Seven Crown, a blended whiskey, and 7 Up, a lemon-lime soft drink. It is typically served with ice. It was one of the most popular drinks in the United States during the 1970s.
Kirsten sees him and he sheepishly hands her the drink.
“I want my husband to be right about you”
Seth gingerly waves hi to Luke who approaches him and says
“Suck it, queer”
Nice. he turns and almost runs into Ryan, who stares him down.
Seth points Summer out to Ryan. Summer sees Ryan and decides she’s going to find out who he is.
Sandy’s like HEY SETH, ISN’T THAT SUMMER OVER THERE? And points dramatically. Damn, Sandy, be cool.
Seth finds seats for him and Ryan at the kids’ table, with Kaitlin and her peers.
THE FASHION SHOW BEGINS.
Marissa introduces it, thanking everyone and telling them that it’s for a battered women’s shelter charity.
Summer is first on the catwalk, in another early 2000s fit.
Backstage is a tornado of clothes and hair curlers. The woman running the event tells a girl she is wearing Calvin Klein instead of Vera Wang because she ‘doesn’t have the chest for it’. Ouch.
Marissa is fixing her lipgloss in the mirror when a girl in a headset with a clipboard tells her she’s up next. Summer bursts in with two glasses of champagne.
“Look what I stole!”
“Look what I stole!”
Marissa produces a bottle of vodka.
Marissa walks the runway in another very low waisted dress. 2003 was a bad time for waists. She gives Ryan a look when she gets to the end. Luke sees this and is NOT HAPPY.
Kirsten tells Jimmy and Julie that Marissa looks beautiful. Sandy jokes about her dress costing more than his annual salary. Some other guy at the table makes a comment about Jimmy making him lots of money. Jimmy looks nervous.
Kirsten asks Jimmy if he’s okay. He says he just needs to get some air. Julie pays literally no attention to Jimmy.
Jimmy goes to the bathroom and has a mental breakdown in the toilet cubicle. Ryan is in the bathroom and overhears.
Summer is off to her friend’s beach house for a party and she invites Ryan. Ryan tells Seth that Summer invited them, asking for Seth specifically. Seth chooses to believe this and they jump in the car.
At the party girls are dancing in bikinis, and people are doing drugs. Seth is out of his comfort zone.
“Cocaine. That’s awesome”
Marissa is making good use of that stolen vodka. Summer has her sights set on Ryan.
Luke stares at a girl’s breasts. She says
“Isn’t it beautiful? The sand and the water?”
Totally.
He asks if she wants to check it out. She says what about Marissa?
“Oh, no worries”
Very much worries, LUKE.
Kirsten runs into Jimmy, walking his dog. She asks if he’s really okay, but he says he’s just been working hard. She asks if Marissa is back yet. Seth never goes out so she’s a bit worried.
Julie calls out to Jimmy to see if he got her froyo. She is wearing a pink velour tracksuit,
Seth walks in on some people getting it on in the spa bath.
“Wow, I should really learn to knock, in case there’s a threesome going on in the bathroom”
All the stoners are slunk into the couch, wearing those horrible surfer jumpers that look like they feel like old rope.
If you see one of those, run, before you have the most boring conversation of your life.
Marissa moseys up to Ryan. She asks what he thinks of Newport.
“I think I could get in less trouble where I’m from”
An absolutely drunk Summer finds Ryan and spills her drink on him. Seth walks up at that moment and thinks that something is happening between them. Ryan tries to explain but Seth storms off after telling him to go back to Chino, and that there’s probably a car in the parking lot he can steal.
“Chino? Ew”
Well, I guess that’s the end of Summer’s crush.
Seth ends up on the beach where Luke and his friends start pushing him around. Ryan sees and rushes over to stop them.
Luke and Ryan get into a fist fight which ends with Ryan lying bruised on the sand.
“Welcome to The O.C. bitch!”
Luke’s best line of the series, for sure. Iconic.
Back at the pool house, Seth is impressed that Ryan stood up for him. He thinks Ryan should teach him some moves. He’s also excited that he spoke to Summer, even though it wasn’t an ideal situation.
Ryan, on the balcony, sees Summer and another girl dump Marissa, who is passed out drunk, onto her driveway and drive off.
Ryan carries her to the pool house.
The next morning the boys wake up and Marissa is gone. Kirsten bursts in, furious. She sees that Seth has a black eye. She tells Sandy, who is just happy that Seth has a friend. He’s rather Seth hang out with Ryan than one of the trust fund kids around here.
Kirsten says she doesn’t want Ryan in her house anymore. She tells Sandy that Ryan has a family, and it’s not up to him to decide if they’re good enough.
Ryan’s making breakfast for everyone. He says he usually makes breakfast at home, his mum isn’t much of a cook. That’s it Ryan, guilt trip her with your drunk mum. Kirsten apologises for kicking him out. He tells her she has a nice family.
Ryan goes to say goodbye to Seth. Seth gives him a big hug and tells him maybe he’ll come to Chino and Ryan can show him ‘the hood’. He gives Ryan a map and tells him he might find ideas of somewhere to go.
Sandy drives Ryan home. Ryan goes inside and the place has been cleaned out. Looks like they moved out and didn’t tell him, THAT’S COOL AND NORMAL. Sandy follows him inside and says come on, let’s go.
Overall thoughts: This might be nostalgia talking, but it’s so good! Apart from a couple of side characters, the characters are pretty much how they are for the series. You know sometimes you’ll watch a pilot episode and the actors haven’t quite gotten into their characters yet, or the premise is very different to what the series becomes? The O.C. starts out with solid storylines, and really fleshed out characters.
The 2003 of it all: Oh my god, the velour tracksuits, the Avril Lavigne reference, the use of a payphone. Amazing.
Spoilers for those who have already watched the series:
*Please don’t keep reading if you don’t want spoilers*
Some thoughts I had while watching this episode:
It’s so funny to see how much of an asshole Luke is. From memory he becomes just this nice, chill guy. Summer, too.
The Jimmy storyline starts right away, we’re jumping straight in, that’s interesting, I thought it was awhile until all that happened.
Also, Marissa is already a big drinker, I didn’t think that would start until later.