One Tree Hill

Last time on One Tree Hill, Carrie the devious nanny used some swimming pool antics as an attempt to seduce Nathan, but so far has been unsuccessful.  Dan (Paul Johansson) escaped from prison, became a vampire, and started haunting Jamie, but unfortunately that was only a dream sequence.  Lucas and Peyton had a huge argument over his past proposal and their subsequent break up, leaving the tension between them at an all time high.  As for Brooke, she got verbally beat down by her shrew of a mother, but it looks like she might finally find the strength to stand up for herself.

On tonight's episode, the entire gang gathers at Tric to see Mia perform, but they're far too busy bickering and plotting against one another to listen to much music.

As the episode begins, everybody shows up at Tric to do some shots and celebrate their togetherness.  Lucas has brought Lindsey, which is sure to cause some serious drama.  The instant they get there she's complaining about wanting to go home, longing to avoid any confrontations with Peyton.  However, if there are no confrontations with Peyton I'll never get my longed for catfight, so bring it on.

Jamie is staying with Skills for the evening, so Nathan (James Lafferty) and Haley are free to live it up for the night.  The only problem is that Nathan can't drink, because he was an alcoholic for about an episode and a half at the beginning of the season.  Quentin shows up at the club, saying that he's taking a study break from wading through Les Miserables.  Mia also arrives, and Peyton asks her if she wants to open for The Honorary Title, which is the band the show is name dropping about 18 times tonight.  After Mia's arrival, Millicent shows up for a blind date with Mouth, which Brooke has set up.  The gang's all here, now let the fireworks begin!

Carrie approaches Nathan while Haley is in the restroom, trying to get Nathan to do a shot of tequila against his will.  Since he won't bother getting tipsy, she does two shots herself.  Good call Nathan, because tequila is nasty, nasty stuff.  The first big drama of the evening occurs when Lindsey confronts Peyton after she attempts to pay Lucas rent for her studio.  Lindsey lets Peyton know that she doesn't like her, then storms off with her bad ass self.  I can't really blame Lindsey in this instance, as Peyton was rudely talking smack about her last week.

Brooke (Sophia Bush) lets Mouth know that he's being set up with Millicent, and the two blind daters share some fun banter with one another.  I kind of love them together and long for them to team up to kill Mouth's evil boss.  Lindsey gabs to Haley about how much she hates Peyton, but Peyton quickly butts in to pull Haley away.

Mouth and Millicent share stories of their past dating lives, but Mouth keeps getting text messages from his boss.  Meanwhile, Brooke continues to flirt with bartender Owen from last week.  He continues to be unimpressed with her supposed fame, and she continues to find it absolutely sextastic.  Unfortunately their sexual innuendo doesn't last too long, because Victoria shows up at the club to crash the party.  The Honorary Title must be a ridiculously popular band.

Brooke rushes over to confront her mom, and her mom wants to know why she rescheduled the Macy's meeting.  Apparently mom's payback is to come hang at the club and flirt with younger guys.  She really is the worst mom ever, isn't she?

Peyton (Hilarie Burton) and Haley go to find Mia, who is shooting pool and insanely nervous about the prospect of opening for the band.  She's afraid that she'll be terrible and destroy Peyton's multi-dollar record label, but Haley assures her that she'll do just fine.

In another part of the club, Mouth and Millicent are being awesomely nerdy and adorable.  Of course, that's the moment when Mouth's boss shows up to ruin my day.  After he explains that he doesn't really want to see hang out with her, she tells him to run along and enjoy his evening.  However, her smile of encouragement quickly falls to a frown of "I'm going to destroy your career."

Peyton and Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) are still arguing over her rent check.  He doesn't want to take it, she insists that he does.  The rent doesn't pay itself Lucas, nor will royalties from An Unkindness of Ravens, so I suggest you take money where you can get it.

Much to Brooke's dismay, Victoria is already calling bartender Owen on a first name basis.  Across the bar, Carrie is still downing shots next to Nathan.  He mentions the fact that he saw her swimming topless, and Carrie feigns shock and embarrassment at the situation.  I so totally believe that she showed her breasts off accidentally.

Lindsey is pissed off that Lucas keeps hanging out with Peyton, and mentions that she saw him go to Peyton's place the other night.  She storms off in a huff, more angry than ever that he didn't tell her about his visit and that she had to find out on her own.

Just as his date is about to get interesting, Mouth gets a text message from his boss that says if he kisses Millicent, he's fired.  At that moment Millicent leans in for a kiss, but Mouth (Lee Norris) backs away and she runs off.  There are certainly a lot of people running off in distress in this episode.

As if it wasn't bad enough having Carrie, Mouth's boss, and Victoria in the same place, K-Fed shows up too. He immediately tries to hit on Carrie, but Nathan interrupts.  After Carrie leaves to go dance with skeezemeister K-Fed, Quentin comes up and accuses Nathan of flirting with the nanny.  Everybody can read your thoughts Nathan, so you better stay away from that girl.

Now that K-Fed has arrived, Mia is ten times more nervous than before.  Peyton explains that she invited him so Mia could stand up for herself.  Thankfully that's just a lie told to encourage her, and indeed it works.  She gets out on stage and rocks the place like its Lilith Fair in 1998.  Take that, K-Fed!

During the song, Lucas approaches Brooke, asking her to attempt to mediate the whole Peyton and Lindsey situation, but Brooke declines.  This randomly reminds me of a moment in The O.C., when Summer made a joke about how their local club conveniently booked bands that played quietly enough for them to have conversations over.  Seriously, they do that on every show.

After the song wraps up, Brooke wants to know how Mouth's blind date is going.  He spills the beans about sleeping with his boss, and Brooke is shocked beyond belief.  She gives Mouth a piece of her mind, explaining that he should call Millicent and not care so much about his career.  Go for it, Mouth!  You need to break out from under the tyrannical high heel of that evil, evil shrew.

Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) and Mia enter the crowd after the band takes the stage, and they immediately start arguing with assy K-Fed.  He makes some reference to Haley's granny panties, which pisses Nathan off and causes Quentin to come up and punch K-Fed in his face.  Finally, Quentin does something I can get behind.  Unfortunately for Nathan, Haley isn't impressed with his manly intervention and reminds him what happened the last time he got near a bar brawl.

Victoria is doing her best to drag Brooke down again, letting her know that she's wasting her time in Tree Hill.  They get in an argument, and Victoria tells her that if she doesn't grow up she'll lose both a CEO and her mother.

Lindsey, who has been in full on jealous bitch mode all night, tells Lucas that she's going to go home.  She explains that she's not normally a neurotic crazy person, but his continuing friendship with Peyton is driving her nuts.  She even dyed her hair Peyton blonde, in a creepy ode to Single White Female.  For those of you who haven't seen that pop culture touchstone, you really should, because it is awesome.

Mouth confronts his boss about her text message, and he finally, finally breaks up with her.  Of course, she fires him right on the spot.  Can't he sue for that or something?  I look forward to Mouth winning millions in a sexual harassment lawsuit.

After Lindsey takes off, Lucas confronts Peyton and asks her why she can't get over him.  She explains that she should have said yes to his proposal, and that she was young and immature way back in the distant past of three years ago.  She kisses Lucas after declaring her love for him, and he kisses her right back.  Haley sees the entire thing and walks off in disgust.

Lucas says that he has to go see Lindsey, and Peyton confesses to Brooke that she returned to Tree Hill for Lucas.  Nobody is shocked by this, especially not Brooke.  She tells him to go get her man and that Lindsey doesn't stand a chance.  Peyton is such a homewrecker!

Haley heads to bed after she gets home, leaving Carrie to try out her slut routine with Nathan.  She tells him that she's going to go for another topless swim session, and even leaves the light on so he can see a little bit more clearly.  He turns the light off and heads to bed, but Haley is still pissed about the bar fight that Nathan didn't even start.  She says that she's disappointed in him, but happy that he's not sneaking around with another girl.  Not yet, anyway.

Brooke has a heart to heart with Owen, and he tells her that there's no chance she'll end up a drunken shrew like her mother.   Brooke wants him to ask her out, but he claims she's too young for him and that she still has some maturing to do.

Peyton shows up at Lucas' place to start her homewrecking, but Lindsey unexpectedly answers the door. She holds up her hand to show off the engagement ring that Lucas just gave her.  Yep, he asked her to marry him!  If that's not bad enough, he did it using the engagement ring he was originally going to give to Peyton.  How tacky.  This love triangle is really going to get out of control now.

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