Hallelujah, Mia is Back

Hey OTH fans!

Last night's episode of "One Tree Hill" has to go down as one of the best episodes of the season, perhaps series. There were so many OMFG moments, from the subtle to the extreme, that I couldn't help but sit there the entire time with a big stupid grin on my face.

First off, let's talk about the Haley/Peyton/Mia show, which has developed into one of the funniest yet poignant ongoing subplots in the show's history, enhanced even moreso tonight by the oh-so-welcome return of the gorgeous girl with too many vowels in her last name: Kate Voegele! Her easy chemistry with the other girls and their mutual respect and support for one another is such a refreshing relationship for a teen soap opera like this. You see a brightness and ease when the actresses share scenes, especially Hilarie Burton, that you don't get from their interactions with the other actors on the show. On a side note, when Peyton said that Mia's record had sold almost 100,000 copies and peaked at number two on iTunes (not to mention that Starburst tour! Product placement!), I wonder if that was just on the show or if it reflects Voegele's fortunes offscreen. My fingers are crossed for the latter.

And then there was the great moment with Haley and Peyton on the roof of Clothes/Bros, a moment that most other teen soaps would ignore or delete before air. The roof has such history with Haley, and Peyton trying to nail Dan with a water balloon (if only it were milk...) before Haley screamed, none too subtly, "He has heart problems! You are going to kill him!" I was in stitches.

If only killing Dan were easy. It appears as if the show is ramping up for some season finale operation to save Dan's life, which may or may not involve him killing a poor beloved pastor to get what he wants. Yup, boys and girls, Dan seems to be a villain again, and is anyone surprised? Yeah, all I'm hearing is crickets chirping too. As interesting as seeing if he will indeed go through with killing a pastor to save his life, we've seen this "Dan Might Die!!!" card played one too many times before, and it's starting to get a bit worn. But then again, it's not a season finale without Dan almost dying (and yes, I know he didn't almost-die in the season three finale, but his soul did, so I'm counting it). Let's just all cross our fingers that he finally kicks the bucket, who is with me?

So Deb and Skills are #$%^ing now. Absolutely brilliant. I love how the writers can come up with some of the oddest, yet perfect, pairings and sell them to the audience. Do I think that the coupling will last past the season finale? Probably not. But am I happy Skills has something more to do than wandering around doing absolutely nothing? Hell yes! And the fact that Deb didn't immediately shoot him down brought tears of laughter to my eyes. And do I perhaps see a reunion with Tim in the future as well? Please?

On the Naley front, after taking a run with his dad (awww) the kid found the note for his grandfather in the trash (of course) and subsequently ran away in his cape and jersey, to be found an undetermined distance away by his mother, who did not yell at her husband or mother-in-law (who was busy flashing Skills at the time) for letting the child escape, but instead went to the park for a heart-to-heart about why she doesn't trust Dan...and the kid didn't listen at all. Surprise! But Bethany Joy Galeotti did impress me quite a bit with her understated emotional journey over the course of the episode to prepare herself mentally to return to the recording industry, which almost destroyed her (and derailed season two) before.

In all of this, the subplot of the Ravens and their plan of just shooting three-pointers the entire game almost got lost in the abyss. Now, I'm not that much of a sports aficionado, but wouldn't the other team get wise to the move sooner rather than later? Ah well, it is One Tree Hill. And Mouth had a fairly-digestible subplot about nearly getting fired for not using footage of Lucas freaking out at the game. Honestly, I think he should be fired. Destroying footage of his friend doing something that was newsworthy was just as unethical from a news standpoint as using the footage would have been unethical from a friend standpoint.

Last week I talked about how I didn't really understand Lucas' motivations or character anymore. This week I don't care, because honestly, he's just become a lump of hair gel and disgust. The guy doesn't give a damn about his job anymore, moans night and day about losing Lindsey after he did everything but title his new book "I Still Heart Peyton!" and then attacks Peyton for being nothing but supportive and understanding with him. When he ended the episode in bed after Peyton bothered to pull his worthless butt out of Trik and take him home telling her that he hated her, I officially went from not caring about him to loathing him. And if Peyton is still fawning over the little ass after this, I'm losing my respect for her as well. It's a great dramatic exclamation point to end the episode on, instead of just leaving the grey area that the creators normally do, but it will be quite a job for the writers to pull Lucas out of the hole they have dug and heaved him in.

Oh, and the baby lived and Brooke cried. Yay!

Finally, something else that I very much missed about the show in Mia's absence was the fact that her musical closing were gone as well. But, happily enough, she did a jaw-dropping cover of "Hallelujah" (not as good as Jeff Buckley's, of course, but her soprano suited the song perfectly) that had all the great plot threads converge while character contemplated. Welcome back, baby. Please stick around for the season finale.

What do you think? Are the writers REALLY going to save Dan from the brink of death yet again? Does one near-drowning, a kidnapping and now the kid running away make Naley unfit parents? And do you hate Lucas as much as me right now?