The O.C. - Marissa Cooper Throws Things Into Her Pool While Screaming
(Watch the video before you read this - it will be more fun before I’ve talked about it)
I have been watching The O.C. with Rebecca lately and I am pretty much digging it. Much in the same way The Good Wife is a show with only straight white characters (except for Kalinda, who was once the best part of the show and then started talking to Cary who sucks and don’t even get me started) that fairly ably deals with and discusses issues of race and sexuality, The O.C. is a show about wealthy people that fairly ably deals with and discusses issues of class. Here, in the season two premiere, Marissa Cooper has a total freakout. The subtext of this scene is that (Spoilers Ahead for a show nearly a decade old) Marissa’s mom slept with Marissa’s ex-boyfriend last season, then married the Evil Land Baron who owns the whole of The O.C. and frequently murders his serfs with complete impunity. Also, Marissa’s Other Ex-Boyfriend, Ryan, the brooding Young Brando, heard that his own ex-girlfriend, Theresa, got knocked up (possibly by him) so he moved back to Chino to work construction and spend his life in a loveless marriage. So certainly there’s a lot on Marissa’s mind. The sub-subtext is that Marissa is a huge alcoholic with suicidal tendencies. This is sub-subtext because characters on the show seem unwilling to deal with either of these facts. They came to a head in the first season, when Marissa got super drunk in Tijuana and tried to O.D. on pills. They handled this by taking her to a hospital, until she escaped and everyone rallied around her to convince her mom not to send her in for psychiatric treatment. She was in therapy, maybe, until she met a boy in the waiting room who turned out to be a supervillain who tried to kill everyone. So Marissa’s got a lot going on here. Also at play here: this episode aired November 2004, so it was probably filmed around August 2004; early October at the latest. Earlier that year, the movie Garden State was released. Garden State was written and directed by Zach Braff, who can only be described as Alt-Universe Josh Schwartz. His movie includes this scene:
What was happening in 2004 that led so many angsty Jews to believe in the power of the primal scream? Did Josh Schwartz and Zach Braff go to the same therapist? Did the O.C.’s writing staff see Garden State and decide to rip it off? Was this kismet? Or, perhaps more delightful, was this scene an improv by Mischa Barton, who couldn’t remember her lines? We may never know the truth. But we are blessed to have a scene like this.
