Throwback Thursday, a weekly article in which we look back at our favorite TV episodes from over the years.
"It wasn't supposed to be this way. The artists, and the scientists, and the poets...none of them fit in at seventeen. You're supposed to get past it. Adults, they see kids killing kids and they know its a tragedy because they used to be those kids. The bullies and the beaten and the loners. You're supposed to get past it. You're supposed to live long enough to take it back. Just take it all back."
Hey everyone, Winston here doing this week's(and my first) TBT review. When I first signed my name down, I had several different ideas in my head about episodes that I loved before I finally settled down on this one. I have seen a lot of TV and I have seen a lot of character deaths but I don't think I've ever seen an episode turn a whole series on it's head and not get thrown to the wayside at some point down the line. That's what makes
One Tree Hill's season 3 episode 16's
With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept so good. I love OTH. I stuck by it even its not so fine hours (The Mess of Psycho Derek and Carrie/Season 7&8 weirdness), and will get caught up in rewatches of the show on a whim. Still, there is no denying the power behind this episode, the tension, the pain and loss experienced as the viewer sits anticipating the outcome of the 42 minutes. I know someone who feels the opposite about the show, but even he has admitted that this episode stuck with him. It was such a fine hour filled with such great moments for the characters, so well written that it never felt like just another commentary. It never felt like OTH was standing on a soapbox preaching the dangers of bullying. It felt like a turning point in the series for all the major characters. It was an inciting event that was both engaging as it played out, but also in all the repercussions that came along with it.
The hour began picking up with the fireworks of
Just Watch The Fireworks; the time capsule from season two has been released and leaving some damage in it's wake. Keith and Karen are engaged! Jimmy Edwards from season one returned with his video being a vicious commentary on how no one is worth remembering at Tree Hill High. Lucas agreed to be adopted by Keith, while Dan attempted to force Keith into making peace. Jimmy got into a fight at the Friends with Benefit concert Peyton hosted in her bio-mom's honor at Tric. In the opening scene of With Tired Eyes we watch Jimmy survey Tree Hill High as his infamous video plays again. He mutters "Here we go" before heading back in and coming face to face with Ross, one of the guys who beat him up last week. Ross bumps him while walking away and Jimmy pulls out a gun and shoots just as Peyton and Brooke are walking by on the other side of a glass door. Panic ensues and Jimmy runs away, Brooke runs out of the school as the principal initiates a lockdown. Outside, Nathan and Lucas pull up in a bus with rest of the team when Brooke runs into Lucas and tries to get out what happened and that she Lost Peyton. Nathan realizes that Haley is in the tutor center where she locked herself in and he runs into the school. Lucas tries to stop him, but Nathan goes in anyway and Lucas runs after him while Brooke calls after him. Meanwhile, Haley is telling everyone in the tutor center that they're safe unaware they are locked in with the shooter, Jimmy.
This was such an intense opening. Sure it was heavily foreshadowed that something was going to happen with Jimmy in the last episode, but the execution of the opening; Jimmy's smoking of a cigarette while a voiceover of his time capsule entry plays, was magnificent. In the opening moments you could see his disconnect, that he was truly over it. The hour has just begun, but I get chills everytime the camera pans to reveal that Jimmy is in the room with Haley and co.
Lucas tries to stop Nathan some more, but Nathan defends his choice. "What if they walked away and something happened to Haley? Could you live with that?" They see blood and Lucas fears it could be Peyton. The brothers split up; Lucas wants to check the library and Nathan needs to find Peyton. (There must have been a bowl of onions around when they exchanged that moment of non-dialogue, where they wanted to say I love you, but basically didn't, because I got a bit misty) In the tutor room, Haley, Skills, Rachel and co. debate on trying to escape the room. Lucas follows the blood trail into the library and almost attacks Peyton with the bat he was holding. He immediately goes in to comfort her while she apologizes for losing Brooke in the commotion, and she tells him she cut herself on some glass.(I know Peyton has her detractors who say she isn't a good friend to Brooke, but while bleeding out as a gunman is on the loose, she's apologizing for not being able to keep with her..that's a friend) Lucas tells her they have to move her, but Peyton can't walk. Lucas decides to barricade the doors to keep them safe and they can hide and wait. He takes her hand and promises he is not leaving her. (Lucas Scott plays the hero so damn good, especially with Peyton, that's why they are an OTP)
Out in the halls, Nathan runs into Mouth who was editing videos and is oblivious about what's going on. (Welcome to real-life Mouth) Nathan fills him in and seeing how Nathan grips his weapon, Mouth accompanies to him to find Haley. Just as Skills is saying that he has no cell service, there's a knock at the tutor room door. Nathan slides his I.D under the door and Haley goes to let him in, but is stopped by Marcus who thinks it could be the shooter. The rooms is divided on letting him in, but Haley heads to the door and whispers "Always" to which Nathan replies "Forever" (These two....man there are a lot of onions around.) Just as Nathan says they are going to get out of here, Jimmy pulls the gun on them and tells them to stay. Everyone is surprised that Jimmy is the one with gun.(I mean, really?) Mouth and Skills try to plead with him, but Jimmy isn't hearing it. He wants them to know how it feels to be scared, to be him. When Abby, one of his hostages, asks him why he is doing this, Jimmy calls her by her full name and then asks her what his is. She doesn't know. Haley steps in and tries to plead with him...except she is also dialing 911 on her phone so they can hear that Jimmy is the shooter with seven hostages in the tutor room. (Well Played, Haley.) Jimmy takes her phone, and threatens that if anyone comes in, students will die. He then takes the phones, pepper spray(Rachel's aka Miss this is all your fault) and Nathan's bat. Nathan tells Jimmy he doesn't have a phone and then Jimmy forces him to tape a line down the room. Meanwhile Dan is outside the school with the principal, trying to figure out how this happened. We also see that Brooke is trapped within the old gym and can't leave because she doesn't have a parent. Mary Edwards is pulled from the crowd by an officer.
The ball just starts rolling and doesn't stop. I liked the response of the principal as he states to Dan how this happened. The school can only do so much. Jimmy's reveal that he was the shooter to the hostages in the tutor is another excellent reveal of how shattered this boy is. When he asks Abby his name and when he calls them out on being scared like him, you can feel his pain. Also, while I like Brooke, I hate that she was separated from all the action. While it's all good and swell to give the audience and plot intenseness a beat to recoup, it just didn't work for me here.
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Back in the library, Lucas looks over Peyton's leg and assess that they will have put pressure on it and Peyton tells Luke that the shooter was Jimmy. She tells Luke that he didn't look angry though, he look scared. Cut back to the tutor room where Jimmy lords over his hostages. He chastises them for thinking he wouldn't shoot him, because they don't know him.He calls Mouth out for changing and ignoring him. Rachel (in one of her
very few good moments) comes to his defense, but Jimmy doesn't want to hear it. He tells them that this isn't what he wanted, he just wanted this to stop. Marcus, says they could all charge him and Jimmy says go ahead, while waving the gun around implying they wouldn't all make it. He then says the others will get them if they try to run, but Nathan calls him out on it. Then Jimmy calls them out in return, and tells them to think about how many people they have made miserable, or ignored and to think about that before asking if there were others. When he hears a phone goes off and Marcus says it's his. Jimmy sets the gun down and answers it exclaiming "OPEN YOUR EYES, YOUR SON'S A DICK" and then throws it against the wall. Then he starts throwing the other phones and repeatedly yelling the same phrase(Minus the Son's a Dick Part). He almost doesn't see Marcus run for the gun, but he picks it up before Marcus can make it and points it at him, yelling at him to step back or he will shoot him as Marcus antagonizes him. Luckily, Skills steps in and punches Marcus out to diffuse the tension in the room. Outside the school Dan is running into a dead end as the response team Captain tells him they have to wait and follow protocol. Keith overhears and asks Dan if it's true that it's Jimmy and tells Dan that he knows Jimmy and that he's not a bad kid. Dan's reply? "He is now." (Never Change, Dan Scott you sass monster) Keith walks over to Karen who is having a breakdown because she doesn't remember what Luke was wearing on that she didn't get a chance to say goodbye.
In an attempt to make Brooke relevant back at the gym, she slams down a reporter's laptop in the gym as she is watching Jimmy's video and then when asked for her stance on all this, Brooke tells said reporter she should be ashamed of herself. In the tutor room, Nathan asks Jimmy what does he want out of all of this, and it seems that Jimmy himself doesn't know. When Rachel says he could give up, because he didn't hurt anybody, Jimmy's face is all too telling. This has all taken on a life of it's own and he can't stop it now. Nathan and Haley try to reason with him and tell him that if he gave up that it could be okay, but Marcus shuts them down. Then Abbey delivers one my favorite lines "We're all just kids, and we just have this life. And the things you say and do, we feel that. How can you have so much hate in your heart? How can you act like it doesn't matter. It does matter. What happened to us, we're just kids?" Rachel tells him that high school is just 700 days of so many, and then Jimmy fires back with how many does he get back, while listing off some of the bad things that happened to him, including his dad walking out on him and his mom because he realized his son was a loser. He tells them this isn't breakfast club, signifying that this isn't going to end in his surrender. All of this isn't because he isn't popular or didn't get into college, all of this is because he is tired.
Lucas is trying to make sure that Peyton stays awake despite her loss of blood. He asks her to tell him about a perfect day and she tells him about snow day a few years ago. She tells him about how safe it felt in that snow fort, but then she mentions that it got cold, just like it is now. She talks about how the analysts and the reporters would come now and try to make sense of this, but they won't be able to. She says that they will always carry this with them and that it will never be the same. (Such foreshadowing!) She tells Luke that she knows it's not glass in her leg, and he confirms that it is a bullet. He tells her he has to get her out of there, and that he won't let anything happen to her. Then comes one of the most iconic lines in OTH history. She tells him that not only is he always saving her, but that she loves him. Then the Leyton shippers cries are heard around the world as she kisses him, just in case he can't keep his promise. (Leyton forever. Sucks this had to be how it happened and sure, Lucas was in denial, but this moment, was everything. #PoorBrooke) The reporter lady has some words for Brooke, calling her out for not spending time with Jimmy. Some girl's mother comes up asking if Brooke has seen Glenda, because Glenda said they were friends. Brooke has no idea who Glenda is, but says she will go find her and then she runs outside and cries. She finds Glenda and tells her that her mom is here. Glenda decides to wait a bit before seeing her mother because she wants her mom to know what it feels like to lose her. Brooke apologizes to Glenda for not knowing her, and then calls Karen to come get her since she doesn't have a parent. Keith tells Karen to go, because he's not going to let anything happen to their boy. (Awwwww, Keith!)
It's only been an hour, but it feels like forever. In the tutor room, Haley mentions she should be in current events right now, and then Nathan asks Jimmy where he should be right now. Jimmy replies that it should be AP English, but he stopped going a couple of weeks ago when he spent the whole day without anyone noticing him and that was his best day in a long time. He went home that same day and tried to commit suicide, and spent two weeks out of school and when he returned no one noticed. Mouth starts crying and recites the quote at the top of the review. Jimmy mentions how easy it was for someone like Nathan to get away with what he said about Haley in his capsule video. Nathan calls him out for running to get a gun just because he didn't like how he was seen by the people here and that maybe it is easier for people like him but that doesn't make this right. Abby is starting to look real bad over in the corner. Abby is diabetic and needs her insulin, which is in her locker across the quad. Jimmy agrees to let her go, but she hesitates because she is scared of the others. Jimmy confirms that he is acting alone and tells her to run and she does. Jimmy is too busy watching her walk away to catch Nathan texting until it's too late. Dan gets the message from Nathan that Jimmy is working alone and is in the tutor center with hostages still and he mentions it to Keith. Keith pleas with Dan to let him go in and talk to him so it doesn't turn out bad and nobody has to know.
Jimmy is angry now, and promises that whoever steps into the hallway next is going to die and guess what? Lucas has chosen this moment to carry Peyton out of the library. The door to the library slams and Jimmy steps out into the hallway to shoot whoever is out there. They all try to plead with him and Skills tell him it doesn't have to be like this and Jimmy replies that he thinks it does. Before he leaves, Jimmy turns to them and tells him that they will remember him as a monster, and he wonders how they will remember all of them. He walks out until he comes face to face with Luke carrying Peyton. He tells him the school is on lockdown, and Luke tells him that he has to get Peyton out. Keith pops up, (THE SCHOOL'S ON LOCKDOWN! Is it bad I laughed when he said that?) and he tells Jimmy he knows he didn't meant to hurt Peyton, so he should let Luke carry her out. He steps in front of Luke right in Jimmy's sights and tells Luke to leave. Keith moves with Luke, making sure to stay between him and the gun and as Luke makes to the doorway, he says Keith name as if to ask him to come with him, but Keith tells Luke to go, and that he loves him. (Cue Michelle Featherstone's God Bless the Child and my river of tears.) Keith then heads to Jimmy to ask him to put down the gun and even relates his own experience. He tries to tell Jimmy that this gets better, that the pain in his heart, the voice in his head will go away.Jimmy screams that he can't take this back and that he can't erase this. Cut to Luke headed out with Peyton his arms. Cut back to Jimmy pleading how he just wanted them to leave him alone and that he wanted them to like him as he sinks to his knees. He starts saying "I'm not here' and then Keith tells him it'll be okay. He screams that it hurts, that it always hurts while punching his chest, gun quivering in his hand, before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.
After such an intense hour, you'd think it all be over. You'd think as Luke's signature narration played over the CODA at the end, that all your faves were safe. You'd be wrong. YOU'D BE SO WRONG! Mark Schwahn was sitting somewhere polishing his goblet he was about to fill with fan tears, because not everyone was safe. Keith was still in the hallway, holding Jimmy's lifeless body and Dan comes in and picks up the gun, and as Keith exclaims that Jimmy is gone and Luke's voiceover says does this darkness have a name. Then, Dan Scott kills his brother.
Overall thoughts: I remember watching this for the first time and just having a freaking meltdown. I remember watching this with my best friend and watching the terror on her face as Dan killed Keith. This episode was already so heavy because it spent most of the hour taking our characters from their serialized world of drama and turning it on it's head in a poignant hour that really drove home that they were still kids. This was still high school and like all high schools there were things that weren't all concerts and love triangles. There was pain, there was ignorance, there was darkness. This hour is one of the finest OTH hours and probably the most shocking. Jimmy Edwards disappeared in season one. You probably didn't even notice, and that's what makes it so real, and so hard to digest because his character really did become invisible, only to become a focus when his pain was made public. It just lined up in a way that didn't make it feel cheap or a stunt but that it was intentional and it was always meant to come back to this point. Whether or not you realized it, it made you realize we all knew a kid like Jimmy Edwards and seeing his breakdown, his struggle knowing this was wrong but there was no way out was effective. It made an impact on not just the characters but the viewer. I think that watching it everyone got something different from it; maybe be a bit nicer, be a bit more outgoing. The character's decision to take matters into own hands would shake things up in a significant way.
One of the best parts about the episode is just how the characters react in this episode. Nathan's first instinct is to find Haley and protect her. While there are no grand gestures or life altering moments for them in this episode, it does inspire Nathan to re-propose later which leads to the spectacularly cliffhangered finale. Naley was always the constant in the rollercoaster of relationships on OTH and though they had just reconciled previously, their exchange of "Always and Forever" is a nice reminder how in love these two are. Brooke was just so out of place. I know she needed her own moment to give her growth since she wasn't in the building, but it just took away from everything. Keith was just so Keith, good guy until the end. When Lucas said the Heroes don't always make it, I should have known something was going down. Keith couldn't just go in and save Lucas, he had to try and save Jimmy too. That was Keith's fatal flaw, he just cared too much, he felt that he could get through to Jimmy, because he knew that something must have snapped to put him here, much like it did in him when he bought that himself gun previously. He met his end because his brother was wicked and he had to be the hero because that's just who Keith was.
Like it or not, I believe that Lucas made his choice romantically when he walked into that school despite Brooke pleading for him to stay. Yes, he was chasing Nathan, but I think on some level he had to know if Peyton was in there. When he saw the blood he assumed it could have been Peyton's. I wouldn't say the kiss he shared with Peyton was cheating, because the girl was bleeding out, but as you find out later he does't tell Brooke which speaks volumes. He and Peyton work because he has to save Peyton. Whether it's from herself or some outside force, she needs saving and Luke needs to be a savior. That's why he and Brooke could never work. Brooke is no one's damsel, she is strong and independent and while her and Luke spark, they could never set fire because he will always find his way to Peyton like he did in this episode. Finally, Dan Scott. Well, Dan is just an evil bastard. Dan is the spoiled child who has realizes he can't always have it his way and lashes out. Sure, he believed Keith tried to kill him thus this was eye for an eye justice to him, but to murder your own brother because he wanted to be the bigger man and just let go of all of this. How RUDE! That final moment that this whole episode culminates to, eclipses everything that happened before it, and creates a ripple effect in the character's at the forefront of the show. It's amazing how that moment, that death, changed the show forever and that is what makes this episode the best of the many great ones. It just found a way to weave so much storytelling together and then effectively changed the show's dynamics following. It's a perfect example of how to create a new arc while improving on the old one, and somes show should take note. And to answer Lucas Scott, yes this darkness has a name it's
Mark Schwahn, destroyer of souls Dan Scott.
What did you think of this episode? Do you think there was one that was better? Did you like the way the subject matter was handled? How did you feel when Keith died? Do you think Lucas knew he was choosing Peyton in that moment? How much do you hate Rachel for causing all of this in the first place? Sound off Below and vote in this poll!
About the Author - Winston Mize
Winston is a 24 year old goofball, born in the north, and currently living in the south. He loves TV.... for some it's coffee, for him it's TV talk that gets his day going. He wants to be a screenwriter, and watches some of everything. You name it, he's probably checked it out. And he would like you to know that it is okay for a 24 year old to play with action figures... well, he does anyway
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