A Complete Rewatch: One Tree Hill

The Leaving Song is the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the first series of One Tree Hill. Mind the olden times when show seasons used to have over twenty episodes? Unseen these days! In this one, Lucas finds himself torn inside as he confronts his mother and discovers she denied Dan joint custody during his childhood. After Peyton makes a mistake at the mall, Jake and Jenny's entire future is put on the line. Finally, Haley finds some questionable websites bookmarked on Nathan's laptop and wonders about their relationship.

BEHIND THE TITLE.

The Leaving Song is originally performed by Californian rock band AFI (which stands for A Fire Inside, you learn something new every day!) It was released on their 2003 album Sing The Sorrow. Even without taking a closer look at the lyrics, the title relates perfectly to the episode: the concept of leaving is central. We watch Keith pack his belongings to move to Charleston. Larry leaves on a job in the Keys and takes Jake along with him. Whitey abandons the Ravens for one playoff game to have eye surgery, and Lucas expresses the desire to move away from Tree Hill. In the song's first verse, I like the line "poisoned hearts will never change" as it is somewhat discussed in the episode, as everyone wonders whether it would have been beneficial for Lucas to be around Dan as a child and whether obtaining joint custody would have prevented Dan from being the person he is today.

GENERAL OPINION.

With the idea of everyone leaving, and everything being suspended in the air in a very cliffhanger-ish manner, I believe The Leaving Song could have been a fantastic season closer. Then, you'd have to spend the entire summer wondering whether Haley would forgive Nathan, how things were going to go for Lucas and Keith in Charleston, and what about Jake and Jenny in Savannah? Regardless, I think it's a brilliant episode, and I love how all the feelings and sides of the stories and plotlines are explored. When discussing his childhood, Nathan explains he never questioned whether to hate Lucas or not. His parents did, so he followed suit. This is a thing of the past. Every facet of the mirrorball gets time to shine, every reaction is portrayed as fair and human, and it's what makes The Leaving Song so beautiful.

SOUNDTRACK

- I Can't Steal You - Matthew Ryan

- Through The Blue - Evan & Jaron

- No Tomorrow - The Blackouts

- Revelry - Sea Ray

- I Have Found Mine - The Blackouts

- Time And Time Again - Chronic Future

- Thrown Away - VAST

- Once In A While - Gigolo Aunts

- Suffering - Satchel

- Don't Take Your Love Away - VAST

Once again, we have seen some artists on the list before, namely Matthew Ryan (Peyton even wears his merch earlier in the season) and The Blackouts. I have always believed one of the reasons why One Tree Hill feels so comforting as a show is its sense of familiarity, and the soundtrack heavily contributes to the feeling. The show primarily gives us a chance to explore all the sides of our lives and emotions and does so while offering us the opportunity to discover a band's or an artist's whole album.

And I'm a big fan of consistency.

QUOTES

My absolute favourite line of the episode is when Peyton tells Lucas: "If you don't like the person you've become, then do something about it, because no one's going to do it for you." It's straight to the point and efficient, and it rings true in many aspects of life.

(And I also love Brooke saying about Jenny that it's "never too early to learn to accessorise." There is something strangely pure in this.)

THE BEST BITS: PEYTON AND JAKE.

I believe I have always made clear that my favourite pairing in the show is Peyton and Jake. It has been questioned by many fans and, while I understand where they are coming from and see them raise excellent points, I stay a sucker for Jeyton. I think that, in Jake, Peyton finds a quiet she deserves after everything life has thrown at her. He loves her. He's easy on her heart. That's it. I love how simple, fresh, young their friendship felt until The Leaving Song, how they do normal kid things like eating pizza and babysitting. I love the equally simple and fresh way their relationship evolves into "actually, we're more than just friends" territory.

At the end of the episode, Jake decides to leave Tree Hill and hops on Larry's boat to get to his cousin, in Savannah, in the hope of protecting Jenny from Nicki. He meets Peyton at the harbour and she tells him she "hoped he wouldn't be here," and then, she kisses him. I adore how clumsy the kiss is. It's almost impossible to tell whether she got his lips or that awkward spot between the cheek and the mouth, he looks genuinely surprised, and it doesn't look like a grand, romantic gesture. It means: "in case I never see you again, actually, I think I liked you, and this sucks." It's pure. It balances out the grown-up content we have often seen in the show, the over-sexualisation sometimes, and it shows us two teenagers with a crush acting exactly like so in a situation that's much too mature and complicated for their years.

THE LITTLE THINGS.

- One of the first scenes shows us Peyton, getting ready for school and, while she is putting her shoes on, Larry walks into her bedroom. He notices her webcam is on and asks whether she is back online. So...He knows his teenage daughter uses a webcam all the time in her bedroom? He knows she's showing herself on the Internet? And he's okay with it? He only seems bothered when she realises it was on the whole time, and she got changed in front of it. Even then, he doesn't seem too worried and doesn't lecture her on Internet safety or anything at all.

- During the first shot of Tree Hill High of the episode, on the outside sign, there is mention of a "Booster club pancake breakfast." Now that's something I'd like to attend.

THE MOST 00s MOMENT

I have two in this episode. The first one revolves around Haley having to go to Nathan's flat to use the Internet because he owns a "cable modem" and she doesn't. (On second thought, maybe someone in her life should pay for the Internet, so she doesn't have to run to other people's houses to do her homework.) Remember the time when you didn't have the Internet in your home, and you had to use other people's computers? At their house? We didn't get anything modern until I was fifteen, I believe, and I remember being eleven and going to my friend Laura's house because she had a computer in her BEDROOM? The luxury! We never did much more than silly little flyers and fake magazine covers that heavily starred her hamster Leeloo, but those were the days. (Also, look at the size of that laptop! It looks like one of those VTech toys.)

When she is at the mall looking for Nicki and Jenny, Peyton rummages through her handbag trying to locate her cellphone. When she can't find it, she simply borrows a flip phone from a promotional stand to call Karen, because in 2003, phone stores were not as common as they are today, and you knew people's phone numbers off by heart. (And she walks off with it.)

One of the most important subjects of the episode is Haley discovering porn websites bookmarked on Nathan's computer. I am so happy to see how the writers included Haley voicing her doubts, being heard, and standing up for what she believes.

On one hand, I understand her. She is young, inexperienced, in love for the first time, self-conscious, and she is anxious for Nathan to see her naked. Of course, she is going to be hurt to find he is looking at women who portray unrealistic beauty standards online and undoubtedly finds some form of pleasure in it. (Another point I am very glad the show made through Haley saying the women in porn are "triple jointed, and waxed, and always turned on, and that's just not real.")

It's understandable Haley wonders whether she is going to be compared to those women whenever she and Nathan have sex, especially if all he has been recently confronted with are unrealistic bodies and heavily scenarised moments. There is no shortage of essays on how damaging traditional porn can be, and I don't feel like I am the most qualified person to talk about this.

I also understand Haley being upset when finding pictures of Peyton saved into the laptop, especially since they are recent. (One of those shows her wearing the same outfit she had at the start of the episode.) Keeping pictures, especially naked, of your ex-significant other is not okay, and the idea that Nathan still actively watches Peyton's webcam feels uncomfortable.

On the other hand, porn is not inherently bad. Consuming pornographic content does not make one a bad person. I don't like seeing it filed under "I'm a guy. Guys look at that stuff" in the episode because it feels reductive and a cliché. A lot of people of all genders and ages consume pornographic material on the Internet, and it's very okay. I'm also not a fan of the "at least, he's not cheating" conversation. I understand the show was created and written in the early 2000s, and, in 2021, we are a lot more at peace with the idea of people watching porn and pleasuring themselves even in relationships, but at the time, it was seen as questionable for your partner. I am glad this side of the conversation evolved. Overall, the topic was a necessary discussion, and I am glad the show brought it on, especially in 2004. However, parts of it now feel outdated, such as the demonisation of pleasuring oneself in a relationship, and the romanticisation of sex and one's first time. (i.e, when Haley calls sex a "magical expression of how much you love each other.")

As we will see in later series, One Tree Hill loved nothing more than offering us dream episodes in which we saw what could have been in another timeline or world. I feel like an interesting one could have been based on one of The Leaving Song plotlines: what would have happened if Karen had okayed Dan getting shared custody of Lucas when he asked? Would he have become a different man? Would Nathan and Lucas have grown up together? Would they have gotten along? Would Keith and Dan's relationship have improved? Would Karen and Deb have become friends earlier? It could have been a wonderful take on the dream episode trope.

My problem with the plotline is not the fact that it exists, but the way Karen is shown as the only culprit. We see her point of view, we are told her reasons for lying, but no one seems to understand her. At the time, she would have been in her early twenties, caring for a toddler by herself while running a small business and supporting herself. In comes the guy who asked her to get an abortion because he did not want the child, who left her, and who had another baby with someone else, some he married and had a family with. Now, he wants joint custody of a child he didn't want in the first place. As much as I believe he could have regretted his actions as a teenager, as much as I believe in second chances, we have to see Karen's side of the story.

Life's circumstances forced her to learn to stand up for herself, protect herself and her child, and put his best interests at heart. Maybe she believed not introducing a father (with who everyone in her world had a conflicted relationship) in her son's life was the only way she thought of to protect herself and Lucas. And if we're questioning whether to cut Dan some slack because he briefly regretted his actions, we have to do the same with Karen and understand she undoubtedly did the best she could with what she had at the time.

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

Will the Ravens win the playoffs? Will Nathan and Haley finally understand each other? Are Jenny and Jake going to be okay? How's Charleston going to be for Keith and Lucas? There are so many questions at the end of the episode. Maybe an almost-end of the season cliffhanger was smart after all.