Previously on One Tree Hill: Victoria Davis returned acting suspiciously nice, Mouth and Millie returned to a life of monotonous monogamy, Skills returned to the dating pool with his eyes set on Jamie's teacher Miss Lauren, and Peyton returned home from the hospital safe and sound.

But more importantly, Nick Lachey comes to Tree Hill!  For my money, 98 Degrees was the superior '90s boy band thanks to smooth ballads and hunky dudes, as opposed to those little boys in N*Sync or the Backstreet Boys.  But to be honest, I'd still take O-Town and LFO over both of them, because I want a girl with Janet Jackson's smile who wears Abercrombie and Fitch.

Peyton's hormones are in overdrive, making her absolutely insane on bed rest.  Brooke is also being driven crazy by her mother Victoria's newfound niceness towards Sam.  Crazy women come in threes, because Haley is also a bit frazzled upon learning that the music label is interesting in buying one of her songs for another artist.

Victoria's manipulation is in full effect as she compliments her daughter, threatens vendors and shreds a letter Sam received in the mail.  Against Brooke's advice, Sam and Victoria bond over their mutual honesty.  Victoria defends Mia's shoplifting past while Sam asks point blank why Victoria is such a bitch.  It's not quite as great a pair as Sam and Julian, but it's close.

Brooke finds the half-shredded letter, which is from Sam's birth mother wanting to reconnect.  Victoria did it to protect Sam and keep her with them, but Brooke is angry.  She takes the letter to Sam, but Sam doesn't want the letter.  Sam is one tough cookie and is still angry that her birth mother gave up on her.  In order to get over her anger, Sam agrees to go back to the coffee shop and finally confronts her real mother.

While fixing up the Comet, Lucas finds ticket stubs to the Cure concert he and Peyton went to after graduation while Brooke was busy giving Chase the best 60 seconds of his life.  The flashbacks continue as Peyton reveals she was the one who sent Lucas' book to publishers in New York City.

Flashback world also features the two stopping at a diner for lunch.  Lucas fakes a dine and dash as a joke for Peyton, but in the process he drops his ticket on the ground.  So the two don't make it into the concert, but they spend their last night together snuggling on the hood of the Comet talking about all the babies they plan to make together.


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(Image courtesy of the CW)