Blood Ties

Finally caught The OC episodes I’d missed, two in a row on Wednesday. I can’t quite separate them in my head anymore, the timeline’s already gone soft, so I’m just going to let them stay blurred and talk about what mattered.

Everyone’s trapped in family problems they didn’t ask for, which seems to be the point right now. Ryan’s convinced he can’t be with Lindsay because she’s technically his aunt—the kind of thing that destroys you if you let it. Seth’s trying to impress Alex by being someone he’s not, a bad boy, when the only reason she’s interested in him is because he’s actually decent. That contradiction will wreck him eventually.

But Marissa got under my skin this time. Her mom sleeps with her ex-husband, and Marissa’s response is to get drunk and tear through a party, which is what someone that damaged would do. She ends up hating herself and her mother in equal measure. She finally cuts things off with DJ, and I don’t think either of them expected anything else. He was never anything but a weapon against her mother. I’ve always wanted Ryan and Marissa to work out, but watching her helpless against the people she’s stuck with—watching all of them, really—that’s the show’s real subject.

You can’t want the right person when family gets in the way.