The O.C.

Episode Report Card
Sara M: A- | 324 USERS: C+
YOU GRADE IT
School's Out For Summer
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

After a seamless cut from the "previously on" shot of Ryan and Taylor kissing, we go into a music video from approximately 1987. Taylor Townsend, her hair a-teased and a-permed, humps the Cohen's kitchen counter in an ethereal white dress while a bug-eyed Ryan watches her. "What's cookin', Ryan?" she asks. Except that Sandy's actually the one doing the talking, as he, in the real kitchen, offers Ryan a freshly-schmeared bagel in a fish-eye lens. This snaps Ryan out of his little fantasy world. He says he's just "going to see if Seth's up," since Ryan obviously is. Seth walks into the kitchen, ready to go to Rhode Island to check out RISD and check on Summer. Ryan panics; he needs Seth's advice. Seth needs Ryan's bagel. The Cohens wonder if Seth should be visiting Summer after agreeing to give her space. Butt out, Cohens! Unless, of course, they're the ones paying for all those plane tickets to Rhode Island. Seth leaves for his cab (I guess no one wants to drive him to the airport and Seth doesn't know how to call the Super Shuttle), telling Ryan they'll talk once Seth lands in Providence.

Summer meets with the Head of the Deans, who informs her that she is suspended from Brown until next fall, effective immediately. She doesn't even get to do her finals! I'll tell you, there were times in college when I would've loved to be suspended to get away from the stress of studying for finals. Not Summer; she says she has nowhere to go and nothing to do. The Dean helpfully suggests she can start packing and go home. And maybe think about this next time she has the desire to free some bunnies.

So Summer has to pack up her room. Down go all those environmental awareness posters that got her into trouble in the first place and the T-shirts that I never understood why they were on the wall and not in her dresser. Summer tells Pancakes, who now has its own special carrier but still no cage, that they're on their own from now on. Bright walks in and has no shame. He tells Summer that "back at the reservation," he was taught that sometimes the weaker gazelle must be eaten so the rest of the herd could survive. I'm sure Summer loves being called a weak gazelle. Isn't calling something a "weak gazelle" redundant? Don't they have those ridiculously thin legs that break easily? Summer threatens to tie Bright up with hemp rope and set him on fire so she can get high off the fumes. You can get high from burning hemp? I wonder if that's why Woody Harrelson loves hemp so much... Summer says she really liked Brown and the person she became there. Bright says that just makes her sacrifice all the more powerful, as if Summer had sacrificed herself and not had her ass handed to her by her crappy asshole friend. Bright leaves, so dejected that he bumps into some passing guy's shoulder. The scene ends here, so feel free to imagine that guy spinning around and beating the crap out of Bright.

The O.C.