Previously: Kaitlin and Julie tried to stay out of trouble. Hahaha.
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The Sleeping Beauty
Annie: Ahhhh! I am so excited to be recapping this episode because it introduces my favourite OC character EVER. I’m so excited.
SO EXCITED. Okay. Let’s get to it.
We open at Casa Cohen, Ryan is trying to battle his insomnia by watching Bollywood films. Seth joins him, and whines a bit, but then promises to stay up with him in solidarity. Cue montage of Seth sleeping on the couch next to Ryan while he stays up all night. Kirsten find Seth asleep on the couch the next morning and wakes him up.
In the smoothest of scene transitions, Seth is in their kitchen pouring coffee and Kirsten is asking for his help writing the tagline for her business. The best Seth can come up with is ‘Love is….niiiiiice.’
Sandy returns from some wheedlin’ and dealin’, and then Taylor shows up, claiming that she has something to drop off for Julie. Even Sandy knows that’s code for hoping to run into Ryan.
Taylor offers to bring Ryan his coffee, and then the two of them share a really awkward conversation. Taylor exits stage left, continuing to be awkward, and for those of us that are not very good at TV, Sandy makes a comment about how Taylor’s clearly hot for Ryan. Thanks, Sandy! We wouldn’t have picked up on that without you.
CALIFORNIA! HERE WE COOOOOOME!
After the credits, we open on a sleeping Julie. She wakes up, panicking because her latest one-night-stand has overstayed his usefulness welcome. As the dude is trying to get his junk together and GTFO, he bumps into Kaitlin. He tries to give Kaitlin a story about how he’s Julie’s personal trainer, but Kaitlin isn’t here for that. She tells him that her mom can sleep with all the inappropriate guys she wants, because that just means Kaitlin will be free to do whatever she wants.
At the comic book store, Taylor is trying to recruit Seth to help her attract Ryan. Seth is less than interested in helping Taylor, because he believes Ryan’s probably just her current boy obsession of the week.
Taylor pleads her case, by vomiting so many words all over Seth until he agrees to help her.
Seth calls Ryan, and without any preamble, asks Ryan if he’s feeling up to dating again. Ryan is confused by Seth’s out-of-the-blue call and tells Seth that he’s not sure. Seth hangs up and tells Taylor the bad news that Ryan isn’t ready for dating just yet, so Taylor should just not bother. Taylor isn’t hearing him.
We cut to Summer and Star-Lord Andy (what is his name in this show again?).
Che! Che. Summer and Che are dressed as janitors and steal a key to a lab at their university.
After the notabreak! Kaitlin is hitting on her tennis instructor. How old is she supposed to be here? Because I’m getting creeped out.
Her instructor shoots her down, telling her she’s 15. Good job, Mr. Appropriate Instructor! I’m so proud of you. You get a ‘not a creepy-pedo’ gold star!
Julie shows up to hit on the tennis instructor. He seems kind of into it. Damnit, Mr. Appropriate Instructor! What did I just say about boundaries? Am I going to have to change your nickname?
Sandy shows up at Kirsten’s office and gives her a Superwoman paperweight. Kirsten is worried about the future of her new business venture, and Sandy offers her some advice and help, in the true good-guy Sandy way.
Star-Lord and Summer are still wearing their janitor outfits and have returned to the lab at their university. They’re going to free the test animals! Summer talks to one of the test subjects, a super cute bunny, telling it that according to an ID card, its name is Pancakes. I personally think it’s a little wrong that they’re naming their test subjects, but I’m too excited by the appearance of this rabbit to care. HI PANCAKES!
Clearly, I’m not the only one who’s in love with this character.
Taylor calls Ryan at 3am to tell him she is going to help him overcome his insomnia. She wants to repay him for when he helped her with her weird French husband. Taylor’s already bad at this. Why is she calling an insomniac at 3am? What if he’d finally been able to get to sleep and her 3am call woke him? Taylor clearly knows nothing about insomnia. Ryan reluctantly agrees to meet her.
Next morning, Taylor arrives at the diner to meet Ryan. She gives herself this little pep talk, telling herself to just relax and be normal. I totes identify with Taylor here, because that’s what I tell myself about about every social interaction I engage in.
Taylor asks Ryan a million questions and decides that Ryan’s insomnia is due to lack of purpose. Instead of asking how she got to be an expert, Ryan bails.
In a brief scene, Julie is hijacking Kaitlin’s tennis lesson and Kaitlin is PISSED about it.
Sandy and the Old Tycoon guy are being stereotypical ‘business men on a golf course’. Tycoon guy throws in some sexism and racism for good measure. Old Tycoon guy has some cash to burn, so he’s going to meet Julie and attend their event.
After the notabreak!, Taylor shows up to get Ryan’s keys so she can get his room all ready for her cure to insomnia and I lol forever, because when do characters in this show need keys to access someone else’s house or room before? Seth tries to talk Taylor out of her evil plan, but she’s not listening to him again.
Over on the east coast, Summer’s roommate tells her that the dean’s office wants to see her and Summer is a bit freaked out about it. Summer’s roommate, who is Olivia from season 7 of Gilmore Girls to me, always and forever, mentions the rabbit lab break-in and points out that Summer has a rabbit under her bed. Star-Lord, who’s being a grade-A douchebag, tells Summer that he’s been called into the dean’s office, too, and tries to reassure Summer. Like, this guy:
Yeah, I wouldn’t feel very comfortable with this guy’s reassurance, either.
Kaitlin and her friends are going swimming and she’s telling them that she really wants to show off for her tennis instructor, but he’s too busy making out with Julie.
After the notabreak! Ryan comes home to find that Taylor has filled his room with candles and is offering to spend the night with him. Ryan’s not a complete idiot, so he asks Taylor straight out if she has a thing for him. Taylor swears that she doesn’t, because she’s a lying liar who lies.
The next morning, Seth finds Taylor at the pool house. Ryan returns from a jog and awkwardness ensues when Ryan and Taylor do the ‘this isn’t what this looks like’ dance. Seth delivers possibly the best line of the whole episode, saying that it’s too early for that much weird and he leaves. Ryan and Taylor decide to quit their sleep therapy thing because it’s weird and awkward.
Bullet, formerly known as the Old-Tycoon-because-Annie-couldn’t-be-bothered-to-remember-his-name, wants to take Julie to this event that everyone keeps talking about. Julie decides she’ll go with him, because he’s like, really, really rich. And that’s Julie’s favourite type. Kaitlin asks Julie if it would be okay for Kaitlin to crash the party. Julie says yes, because she’s bad at TV. I’m good at TV, and I think that Julie may come to regret this.
In her meeting with the deans, Summer confesses to her part in operation bunny liberation, but refuses to name Star-Lord Che as her partner in crime. The deans ask Summer about her role in a bunch of other questionable activities that have gone on at the campus, and Summer swears she had no part in any of that stuff. Yet, she refused to name douche Che, who is definitely more of a season one of Parks and Rec Andy, instead of superhero Star-Lord. Poor Summer.
Next, we have a really brief scene that I was going to skip over, but it was ridiculous, so I couldn’t. Kaitlin finds Taylor moping. Taylor’s upset about Ryan, so Kaitlin tries to cheer her up by giving her advice on how to seduce men. WHY IS THIS 15-YEAR-OLD GIVING THIS ADVICE, SHOW? WHY IS THIS A THING THAT IS HAPPENING?
At the party for contrivance, Sandy is wrapping up a speech, Julie is hitting it off with Bullet, and Ryan is looking sad. Then Taylor shows up in slow-mo, all dressed up.
Julie has talked Bullet into investing in the new business venture, and is talking to Kirsten, when Kaitlin rocks up with the tennis instructor as her ‘date’. Kaitlin has lured this poor, clearly kind of dumb, tennis instructor to the party, telling him that Julie wanted him to come to the party. Just as Julie is kicking into damage control mode, Bullet returns to the group and is all ‘Boy, what are you doin’ here?’ because OF COURSE the tennis instructor is Bullet’s son. OF COURSE.
Seth is thinking about calling Summer, when Sandy comes over for some father and son chat, but also to tell us, the audience, that things seem to be going well for Ryan and Taylor. Seth goes in to check it out, I guess? And he sees Taylor and Ryan dancing together, flirting and looking happy. The song ends, and Ryan goes to get Taylor a drink at the bar, where he finds Seth. Seth is kind of a jerk and teases Ryan about how he’s so going to date Taylor. Ryan gets defensive, and tells Seth that he’s definitely not going to date Taylor. Just in time for Taylor to come up behind him and hears it.
After the notabreak!, Ryan is following Taylor out of the party, and they have a moment. Ryan tells Taylor that he just doesn’t have the time or emotional capacity for this. He tells her that he really likes her as a friend, and Taylor storms out.
Back inside the party, Julie is taking Kaitlin to task for being a brat and screwing up her business deal. Kaitlin whines that Julie’s bringing home other boys and going after boys that she likes. Julie points out that tennis instructor is too old for Kaitlin, but agrees that maybe Julie’s behaviour isn’t cool. Julie asks how Kaitlin knew that the tennis instructor (whose name, I finally decide to remember, is Spencer) was Bullet’s son. Kaitlin swears she didn’t know, and Julie’s impressed at the coincidence of it.
Haaaaa, Julie. It wasn’t coincidence. It was contrivance. You’re so bad at TV.
Back in Providence, Summer is waiting for douchebag Che to get out of his meeting with the deans. It turns out that Che sold Summer out by telling the deans that Summer was responsible for all the stuff that Che had been doing. What a tremendodouche.
Back at the party, Kaitlin goes to find Bullet and makes a good case for Julie’s business. She tells him that he should definitely invest in the business. Apparently, he’s all for taking the business advice of 15-year-olds, because he goes to find Kirsten to talk investments. Julie and Kaitlin make up and decide to go for ice cream. As you do.
Now I want ice-cream.
Mopey-Seth finds Taylor in his room. See what I mean about not needing keys? Taylor tells Seth that she’s giving up on pursuing Ryan. Seth tells her that’s very un-Taylor-like and that she shouldn’t give up that easily. Taylor goes off to find Ryan, I’m guessing? Seth’s phone rings and it’s Summer. She’s calling to tell him about Pancakes, the BEST CHARACTER EVER.
Taylor finds Ryan and gives him some herbal tea. Ryan tells her that she doesn’t need to plot or trick people into liking her, he thinks she’s amazing. Ryan tells Taylor that he wishes he felt something more for her, and Taylor asks him to kiss her, just to see. They have the most awkward lead up ever, and then afterwards, Taylor apologizes, and bails. Ryan’s looking broody. They’re trying to tell us he’s feeling something.
After Seth gets off the phone with Summer, he goes to find Ryan, who is passed out, sound asleep, with the tea Taylor gave him near by. Fade to black.
This episode for me will always hold a special place in my heart, because it is the first time we meet Pancakes, who is by far, the BEST character the OC has ever seen.
I would’ve totally watched the hell out of a Summer and Pancakes spin-off. Hashtag missed opportunities.
Next time on The OC: Seth goes to visit Summer at Brown in S04 E06 – The Summer Bummer.
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