One Tree Hill Fan!: Season 1 Episode 1

The Pilot

Original Air Date: 9/23/2003
Director: Bryan Gordon
Writer: Mark Schwahn

Before watching One Tree Hill, the basic plot is pretty obvious. Lucas and Nathan Scott are brothers who share the same father, Dan Scott. In his high school years, Dan knocked up Lucas' mom and left her. Not too long later, Dan impregnates another woman, Deb, but decides to marry her and they produce Nathan. Lucas is clearly the kid from "the other side of the tracks" and Nathan is clearly the rich kid who seems to have it all. When they both excel at basketball in high school, drama ensues. I gathered all this from previews alone- I'm so smart, hah!

In the first five minutes of the first episode, Nathan almost crashes a stolen school bus full of kids into an oncoming train. Why was Nathan not paying attention to the road? Because some random chick was kissing him- a random chick who was not Peyton, Nathan's girlfriend. At the same time, Peyton almost hits Lucas with her car because she was looking for a CD. Does she apologize? No. She gestures for him to get out of her way. Really?!

So, right away we know Nathan is a cheater without morals and Peyton likes music- maybe a little too much.
Keith, the uncle of Lucas and Nathan, is apparently friends with the coach of Tree Hill's basketball team, Whitey Durham. They're such good friends that Keith asks Coach Durham to put Lucas on the basketball team. When they are sitting in the car watching Lucas play at the river court, Durham doesn't look very impressed. Following this scene, we see Nathan act like an ass towards Peyton. I think everyone wonders here: Why is she with him?

After Lucas rejects Durham's offer to join the team, Durham leaves a jersey at Lucas's door? Really? Why would he do that? Then, Lucas goes outside to sit with his mother, who happens to be looking through a photo album. Who sits outside, close to the sidewalk, to look through a photo album? Couldn't she at least
have been sitting on the porch? Or, even better, a porch swing?

Next, Dan Scott tells his son Nathan to "go to this kid and talk to him" which Nathan intreprets as a go-ahead to harass Lucas. Nathan goes to the river court and challenges Lucas to a one-on-one match. His terms are that if he wins, Lucas can't join the team, but if Lucas wins, Nathan will quit the team. Already
we see the love/hate feeling Nathan has towards the game. Nathan would quit the team before risking not being the star player. Guess what?! Lucas secretly bets him that if he wins, Nathan stays on the team! Clever Lucas!

When Dan Scott tells Nathan not to challenge Lucas in the one-on-one match, we clearly see his lack of parenting skills. When Peyton walks out of the bathroom behind Nathan, in a towel, I laughed so hard! What high schooler is allowed to freely have sex in their parents house, with their parents' knowledge?! Weird. And skanky.

During the big one-on-one match, Nathan not only elbows Lucas right in the face, but also has the nerve to tell him that his father, Dan Scott, has not mentioned him once. Lucas keeps his cool though, and wins! Victory for the underdog! But will Lucas get the girl? Not tonight apparently. Peyton leaves with Nathan. It appears, however, that she goes home alone and gets on her webcam. Lucas watches her on it. Really?!
Creepy. And Peyton should be way more cautious about having her webcam on all the time. It's the INTERNET after all. She doesn't know who's watching her...maybe that's why she does it?

Qoutes:

Coach Durham: "The inmates will not run the asylum."
Skills: "C'mon dawg, you know I be readin' vicariously through you."
Lucas: "God doesn't watch sports."
Lucas: "There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose the ventures before us." (Shakespeare)

Literature Mentions:
Steinbeck "The Winter Of Our Discontent"
Shakespeares "Julius Caesar"

Soundtrack:
Drift