Let's all bow our heads and share a moment of silence for the deceased Nanny Carrie, who was easily the craziest person to stir up trouble on One Tree Hill since Psycho Derek.  Unlike faux-Derek, who got off easy with a trip to prison, Carrie ended up with a bullet to the face courtesy of a very pissed off Dan Scott.  Carrie was good at a great many things, including swimming topless, jumping in the shower with strangers, abducting children and bunnies, and reenacting scenes from at least a half a dozen different horror movies.  What she wasn't good at was squaring off with Dan and dying hair, the latter of which was proven last season when she attempted to turn Jamie's hair black and failed miserably.  I'll miss Nanny Carrie and her shameless ripping off of Stephen King's Misery, but there's no doubt that her storyline had run its course.

Now that Carrie is gone, is there any chance that the Scott family will welcome Dan with open arms?  I'm not betting on it.

Though the writers gave the crazed nanny a bit of a sympathetic back story a couple weeks ago, I'm thankful they didn't try to make us feel sorry for her in last night's episode.  They truly made her as psychotic and irredeemable as possible, so much so that a champagne bottle to the face and a couple of bullets to the chest barely fazed her.  Nanny Carrie practically morphed into a super-villain, though even she couldn't possibly survive a bullet between the eyes.  At least, I hope she couldn't.  One Tree Hill may take a cue from Heroes, its time-slot competitor, and start overflowing with bad dialogue and characters that never truly die.  Let's pray that doesn't happen.

I'm interested to see where things go now that Grandpa Dan slayed the wench and saved the day.  I assume he'll get his new heart and live long enough to indulge in many more morally questionable activities.  Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) and Deb (Barbara Alyn Woods) may even warm up to him a bit after his heroics, but chances are Nathan will still rail against letting Jamie anywhere near his grandpa.  I have no clue where Dan (Paul Johansson) will go from here.  Once he gets his heart, his storyline for the past year will be wrapped up, so the writers will have to find new shenanigans for him to get into.  I hope he ponders killing more Reverends, because that was certainly fun.

Also in last night's episode, Lucas and Peyton. . .zzzzzzz.  Oh I'm sorry, I dozed off there for a moment.  Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) got sucked into a season 5 storyline, Peyton (Hilarie Burton) took another spin on the Who's Your Daddy merry-go-round, and I nearly died of boredom.  Is it just me, or does any plot involving Leyton seem totally out of place and disconnected with everything surrounding it?  These two need to get involved with other characters, and they need to do it quickly.  I'm tired of seeing this couple shoved off to the sidelines and dealing with their own plots, mainly because their plots are terribly dull.  May I suggest adding a super-powered nanny to the mix?

One Tree Hill won't return for two weeks, so we have plenty of time to break out a bottle of Dom Perignon and ponder what's in the future for our favorite characters.  Will Dan find acceptance from his family?  Will Brooke find guidance from Sam?  Will Lucas and Peyton ever stumble into an interesting storyline?  I can't wait to find out.


- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)