The O.C.: The Party Favor

(S03E23)  What has happened to our wonderful little group of four? Remember back in the day when everybody got along? Yeah, I think there was one episode where that happened way back in Season One. They were on a beach or something.

This week it's all about Senior Prom and, quite frankly, I have given up trying to suspend my disbelief that any of these characters remotely looks like they're in high school. The characters seemed really subdued to me this week. I guess that's because they're all bummed out about their respective situations. Ryan isn't with Marissa but he does know that Kevin is cheating on her. Seth can't find a way to explain to Summer that there's nothing between him and Anna. And, Kirsten and Sandy are moping about because he's turning into her father and she's turning back to the bottle.Basically, everybody is at prom with the wrong date. Seth and Summer should be together, Ryan and Marissa should be together. All these other people are just muddying the water. Speaking of others, I was a little worried about how Lisa Taylor's cameo would go but it was quick and dirty, with some trash-talk about Simon. Perfect!

Summer takes Big Korea to prom to make Seth jealous. I giggled a bit at how she treated the guy, directing him around like he was a pet. Seth takes Anna, as part of her clever plan to reunite Seth and Summer. I kinda started thinking that Anna was actually out to get into Seth's pants. It turns out she wasn't. She reunited Seth and Summer by making Seth tell the truth about not getting into Brown. Rather than make-up sex, there was much vomiting on Summer's part ("Hey! Rigatoni! Nice.").

Marissa has the suckiest prom ever. I think we all saw that coming, didn't we? I mean, she's dating this total wet towel named Kevin who is a thief, an alcoholic, a druggie, and a cheater. Ryan keeps walking in on him making out with other girls but when Marissa finally sees it, she slaps him and... cries? Come on. How did you not know he was a total loser? Then he calls Ryan "Bitch boy"? Them's fightin' words! We think he's gonna kick Kevin's ass right there in the hallway, but we have to wait until the end when Ryan realizes that Kevin stole $5,000 from Taylor's purse. It turns out that Kevin is a dirty fighter, throwing bottles and whatnot. Ryan gets the upper hand and... kills him?

Man, next week looks like a total downer, too.