I've seen enough primetime soaps in my life, so I was pretty sure I knew where Nathan's love child storyline was going on One Tree Hill.  First, he'd try to hide it from his wife with a series of increasingly unbelievable stories.  She would find out, get angry, storm out, and they would fight for another couple of episodes until they decided to slowly reconcile after it came out that he was right all along.

Basically, I was expecting a retread of the Nanny Carrie storyline, minus the murderous rampage.  Obviously I was wrong.  Instead, One Tree Hill has decided that, after all these leaps forward in time, the characters have actually matured into responsible adults who handle their problems head on.

I was happy that Nathan told his wife, and that instead of getting angry, Haley has been with Nathan long enough to trust him.  She's standing by her man, and even threatened to rip Clay a new pie hole for even suggesting they pay off Rene.

This isn't the desperate act of a delusional woman eager to hang on to her relationship, even if it means lying to herself about her man.  Haley is just being mature and responsible, trusting that the man she knows is still the man she's married to her.

Some of the other women on One Tree Hill could take notes.  It looks like this season's big jealousy storyline will be centered on Brooke and Julian, thanks to the delicious little minx named Alex.  While I would trust a big-time movie producer who moves to freaking Tree Hill for his woman, Brooke isn't used to being loved.

I would also say Rachel should stand by her new man, but I'm still not sure what's going on in her relationship with Dan Scott.  They're both awful people, and it's painfully obvious Rachel is just using him to get out of her former career as a stripper.  So I generally think standing by her man is good, since it's Rachel's only hope of leading a somewhat glamorous life.

The big question is whether or not Dan knows this.  Is he onto the fact that Rachel is a gold digger or has he changed his ways and does he now think they're actually in love?  I hope his heart problems haven't messed him up that badly, because I really want Dan to be the one who's using Rachel for some supremely evil goal.  That's the Dan Scott I know and love.



-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)