One Tree Hill: "Darkness on the Edge of Town"

It might seem like I'm a little obsessed with this show, given how infrequently I blog and of those infrequent blog posts, how frequently I blog about this show. Well, I say nay to that, sir. I find its shenanigans refreshing, as it doesn't take itself too seriously these days, and I enjoy mocking it with love. I realized last night that of the long-running shows still on the air that I'm loyal to, I've been loyal to this one the longest. Now in its eighth season (I know, right?!), One Tree Hill has become a comfy, but tattered pair of sweatpants on my season pass list. Translation: I'm not throwing it out.

This week's episode featured a storm, so we knew some crazy s*** was going down in Tree Hill! Some of the series' best episodes have been storm episodes, and this one was up there with the best offenders. Let's start with the return of Psycho Katie (one of the best OTH psychos since Nanny Carrie!). I was trying to explain this to a friend last night, and realized just how manic it sounded, but here goes: Quinn was home alone on the stormy night, left vulnerable to attack by Clay being out of town, so of course Crazy Katie stalked in. We'd just seen her making crazy eyes to the camera in the last episode, so we knew it was coming. Of course the phones were down because of the storm, and a fallen tree was blocking the driveway, so Quinn had no choice but to dogfight that crazy lady all through the house. Point: Crazy Katie. At one point it looked like Crazy Katie was going to leave, which doesn't make any sense, since a tree was down in the driveway, but whatevs, so instead of letting Crazy Katie free to stalk another day, Quinn football tackled her off a balcony, causing them to fall in the pool. Then, Quinn played dead (just go with it), only to sneak back into the house and put the lone bullet she managed to recover (and keep dry) through the madness in the empty revolver and shoot Crazy Katie in the stomach. Point: Quinn. Then, it looked like Quinn went downstairs to clean stuff up, while Katie lay there bleeding. Eventually we saw some paramedics carting Katie to the hospital, so we know she was still alive, but this brings me to my next topic: where are all the first responders in Tree Hill?

Last week, Quinn contemplated murdering Crazy Katie, and it became clear that Quinn had tracked her down in Crazytown, or wherever Tree Hill psychos reside between bouts of terrorizing. My problem with this: shouldn't police be able to find her pretty easily? Both of Crazy Katie's shooting victims somehow survived to identify her. Tree Hill Police Department: FAIL.

Apparently the paramedics and firefighters in Tree Hill are as bad at their jobs as the cops, because the other major plot this week involved Brooke and co trying for the better part of an hour to get Jamie out of his seat belt after a car wreck (where else?) on a bridge. My favorite part was when the car fell off the bridge into the ravine, and Julian was all, "Don't worry, it's hit the bottom. The car's not sinking." Famous last words before the levy broke. I will admit that while I was watching this, I was pretty sure everyone was going to live, but I wasn't sure how they were going to get out of this pickle. Of course eventually everyone lived, and Jamie was reunited with his parents, who only had a boring flat tire through all this. But, seriously, we didn't even see the arrival of the worst first response team in the USA. Point: storm.

This is probably the last season of One Tree Hill, so we can only venture to guess that this will be its final storm episode. In my opinion, it was a fun one!

Also, has anyone else noticed that James Lafferty (Nathan) is looking more like Superman everyday? Not complaining, just observing.