One Tree Hill 9.06

'And here you are, because you’re a Scott, and no one is smarter or tougher than a Scott boy'

The ninth and final series of One Tree Hill is turning out to be just as brilliant, if not better as the other eight. With Nathan missing and Julian struggling to deal with the aftermath of his childcare incident, this episode was seemingly just a stepping stone to what is surely set to be a fantastic series finale.

At November’s ‘An Evening with One Tree Hill’, creator Mark Schwahn, when asked to describe this series in one word said ‘Moose’, and last week, with the discovery of Nathan’s present to baby Lydia in the gutter, we found out why. Nathan’s ongoing kidnap storyline is, psycho nannies and fake brothers aside, one of the darkest One Tree Hill has ever told. James Lafferty’s Nathan Scott being held hostage and threatened by a foursome of Northern European gold diggers seems unlikely in North Carolina, yet the whole kidnap has been pulled off by Schwahn and his team very convincingly, right down to the eerie warehouse Nathan seems to be trapped in. The intensity Lafferty shows in his scenes in ‘the chair’ makes for a gripping hour of television. With this episode under Lafferty’s direction, the actor and director owned tonight’s episode.

An aspect which did appear to let this episode down were the other characters’ reactions to Nathan’s disappearance. Even Brooke, who has known Nathan since High School seemed only mildly concerned at his disappearance, choosing instead to focus on her dispute with the neighbouring cafe owner. It was, in fact, one of the younger members of the cast who pulled out a gut-wrenching reaction to the news of his father’s disappearance. Jamie Scott’s (Jackson Brundage) outburst attacking Dan thoroughly portrayed the feelings of the Scott family, reinforcing Lenz’s (Haley Scott) excellent performance of a potential widow-to-be.

For Brooke and Julian, this episode saw the fallout from the dramatic closing scenes of last week’s episode. Brooke’s trashing of her rival’s cafe came at the price of Karen’s Cafe’s own patrons. The scenes between Brooke and Tara (who appears to own no clothes which fall below her mid-thigh) really stood out from the rest of Tree Hill’s standard character- jumping scene snippets which have become a staple of recent series. Their quick-witted cat fights showed off their talents, particularly Sophia Bush’s whose character Brooke Davis has allowed her to become quite a pro at such quick-fire squabbles.

One Tree Hill showed its strengths in the early seasons by showcasing new, and sometimes ‘off-the-beaten-track’ bands and music. Tonight, once again, that made a return with Chris Keller a.k.a Tyler Hilton performing one of his tracks, Prince of Nothing Charming, at Karen’s Cafe. Although every viewer knew it was a shameless plug for Hilton’s new album ‘Forget the Storm’, (which is fantastic and available to download from ITunes now) the performance was worked seamlessly into the Chase-Chris-Tara love triangle.

Despite many excellent performances, which we have come to expect from this final series of One Tree Hill, the Scott family, and especially the Scott boys, truly stole the show, both on and off the screen, in this episode.

Aired 9/04/12 E4