A Complete Rewatch : One Tree Hill

Spirit In The Night is the seventeenth episode of the first series of One Tree Hill. In this one, the Ravens, players and cheerleaders alike, head to Charlotte for the Classic, an annual basketball game and cheerleading competition, which puts Brooke on edge. Tensions are growing between Lucas and Nathan after Whitey asks Lucas to help his younger brother with his game, and following Lucas' attitude towards Haley. Back in Tree Hill, Dan's taking over of Keith's place leads to a big change for one of our brothers.

BEHIND THE TITLE.

Spirit In The Night is originally the title of a Bruce Springsteen song released in 1973. Springsteen's music being generally specific of a time and place, the lyrics don't actually match what is happening in the episode. However, there is a similar feeling in both the song and the episode: a wild night away from home, where everything could happen, and everything could take you by surprise until you go back to normality.

GENERAL OPINION.

This is one of my absolute favourite episodes in the series, and probably in the whole show as well. It falls under my "episodes depicting parties and special nights" preference, and I will always be a sucker for dance numbers. It feels like a welcome break in everyone's lives. Just like there is between Brooke and Peyton, there is a truce granted to everyone, a break from the sad parts of their lives, a moment where they are allowed to not think about anything that happened to them. There is no storm, there is no aftermath- only cheer truce. For a weekend, everything is over.

THE BEST BITS: THE CLASSIC.

As I explained a paragraph ago, I am a sucker for a dance number. Cheerleading was always there in the background, in One Tree Hill, but we rarely ever saw it in action before this episode. Before Spirit In The Night, it was only "Peyton is a cheerleader since her mom was one" and "Brooke is the captain of the cheerleaders." And in this episode, we SEE it. And what best way of seeing it than during a competition?

The build-up to the dance number, towards the end, was glorious. Brooke was true to the captain of the cheerleader cliché, bossy and bitchy towards the rest of her squad. There was a rivalry between her and a former summer campmate, Claire Young, captain of the Bear Creek Warriors. Honestly, the relationship between the two of them and the idea of a cheerleading contest gave me Bring It On vibes and, considering it was one of the most popular teen flicks of the decade, released only three years prior to filming, I wouldn't be surprised if it had been done on purpose. (And I'm not mad.)

After many twists and turns, after Theresa dropping out because she had chickenpox, after everyone getting caught in the jacuzzi after hours, after Brooke mellowing out, after Haley rising up to the challenge when she describes herself as a "born clutz," we get the actual competition. The joy in this scene is infectious. Haley is smiling big the entire time, and it looks like she's discovering a new part of herself. She's not a "born clutz," she can dance, she can look good in a short skirt and crop top, she's coordinated, and she can find the confidence in herself to dance in front of a gym full of people. And just seeing everyone smile so big makes me so goddamn happy- so does Mouth doing the choreography along with them from the bleachers, a true "Regina George's mother at the Christmas Talent show" moment.

This scene is just pure serotonin.

SOUNDTRACK

- Once In Every Crowd by Viva Voce

- Shadows Cast A Lie by James William Hindle

- Looking For A Reason by Paul Trudeau

- Slam by Midnight To Twelve

- Good Girl, Bad Boy by Junior Senior

- Shake Your Booty by APM Music

- Big Man On The Block by Black Toast

- Get Naked by Black Toast

- Mix It Up by Master Source

- Kung-Fu Fighting by Bus Stop feat. Carl Douglas

- 100 Years by Five For Fighting

- All Kinds Of Time by Fountains Of Wayne.

I have learnt only last year that Fountains Of Wayne were known for more than their iconic hit, Stacey's Mom, a staple of all pop-punk nights. One of the band's founding members, Adam Schlesinger, who passed away in 2020 from COVID, was a prominent songwriter and wrote for artists as diverse as Bowling For Soup, the Jonas Brothers, or Katy Perry. (He also wrote for The Click Five, and that's a name I haven't seen in a very long time.) He also wrote quite a lot for television and film, including shows such as Gossip Girl, Felicity, or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Another name I hadn't seen in a while is Junior Senior. I remember their mega-hit Move Your Feet exploding when I was in middle school, but as France often does, we didn't care about the follow-up singles, which means I could be surprised at a line such as "Three other groups are using Junior Senior." (Through writing this, I also discovered the track Good Girl, Bad Boy was on the She's The Man soundtrack. WHAT A FILM.)

QUOTES

- If an angry dance-off breaks out, I got your back.

- Good, just don't stick another knife in it.

- That's not the only thing that's loose.

- Tim, just say it's a strip club.

Okay, so maybe it's just me, but there is something similar in the dynamics between Peyton and Brooke (the first quote) and Tim and Nathan (the second quote). In both cases, one half of the pair makes an attempt at humour (Peyton and the "angry dance-off" comment, Tim trying to discreetly say the group is going to a strip club), and the other half of the pair responds with sarcasm (Brooke) and the kind of annoyance you save for your annoying little brother.

Brooke's "Tutor Girl, you look bitching" deserves a mention, just because I love the word bitching. Finally, for a positive, inspiring line, I love Nathan's "There's no secret. You just start shooting one day and deal with the pain. Somewhere along the line, it'll get easier."

THE LITTLE THINGS.

- The first is an obvious pop culture reference. When Dan breaks out the clandestine basketball game between Keith and the rest of the team, he tells his brother "Break's over, Axl Rose," referencing the legendary frontman of the band Guns'n'Roses, known for his propensity to turn up three hours late on stage, but also for the way he wore bandanas on his forehead during the eighties, just like Keith.

- When Deb and Karen are speaking in the café, Karen makes a Mommie Dearest reference, pointing at the 1981 film starring Joan Crawford, a movie about an abusive and manipulative mother. I had to push the research a little on this one because it is very often mentioned in another one of my favourite shows, RuPaul's Drag Race, and, if I'm not mistaken, it has become a gay classic over the decades. (According to several opinions on the matter, it has become a drag staple because of how sassy Joan Crawford's character is, because of the many one-liners, and because of its weird so-bad-it's-good cult classic status.)

- According to Whitey, people are being put in bedrooms in alphabetical orders, which explains why Lucas and Nathan are sharing accommodations- they are also sharing a surname, which makes a lot of sense. However, how are Brooke, whose surname is Davis, and Peyton, whose surname is Sawyer, sharing a bedroom too? My theory is that Whitey is messing with his students by picking the room assignments and shacking up the kids who need to talk and get closer together. This could be why Lucas and Nathan are sharing a room, which is why Brooke and Peyton are forced together, and which may even be why Jake is bunking next door to Peyton.

- When Peyton and Jake are talking in his room, they are interrupted by Brooke's loud calling. When leaving, Peyton says "cheer Nazi calls" to describe Brooke's strict manners these past few days, and this one is going to have to be a yikes from me. We just don't compare someone being strict to a literal dictature that killed millions of people.

- The cheerleading competition is sponsored by Secret, which is a deodorant brand. (I suppose this is quite obvious to a North American audience, but not so much to a European one.)

- When the Bear Creek Warriors are catching the Ravens rehearsing their choreography, Claire Young thinks she's sassy by saying "These moves are so '03." Isn't it still 2003? Or, at most, aren't they just on the cusp of 2004?

- I looked for this one after reading about it online, but here goes. When the Ravens are playing, you can see an aerial shot of the players, and it transpires Jake is the only one playing in Converse when everyone else is playing in Nike trainers, or brands most of the time associated with sports. I looked for it because the person who pointed it out was saying that he was playing in "skating shoes," and...no. I don't know much about basketball, but I thought the fact that Converse were primarily basketball shoes, as influenced by Chuck Taylor, was common knowledge?

- Nathan says it has been approved for him to get his own apartment after emancipating from his parents. How realistic is it that a seventeen-year-old would get an apartment by himself, without a job or steady income?

THE MOST AMERICAN MOMENT

It's quite an obvious one, as the plot of the entire episode revolves around it, but it's the cheerleading competition. As we are not closed off from the western world and its culture (she says, a French citizen), we do have cheerleaders in certain events, but they are a much more niche situation, and they don't have the same powers the ones shown in televised fictions do. As I explained before, we don't really have high school sports and, as such, we don't have cheerleading as an extra-curricular activity either. But they exist for certain football teams, though they aren't the norm. Competitions might exist, but chances are, they would not get a big brand sponsor nor be the be-all and end-all of anyone's life like they are Brooke's.

THE MOST 00s MOMENT

There are probably a few lying around in the pop culture references, from Junior Senior to Bring It On, and there are many in the fashion and the multiple Juicy Couture tracksuits, the staple of every cool girl in the decade, but I think my absolute favourite has to be Claire Young's make up. When talking to Brooke and being the quintessential mean girl, she is sporting dark brown lip liner with lip gloss of a lighter shade. How representative of the era is this! It seemed as though everyone and their nan wore lipgloss (though it is a ballache, with your hair sticking to it and all), and darker lip liner was a must. I'm always scared of having a 00s heroine moment whenever I wear lip liner. In 1x17, Claire Young embodies the trend down to a T- it's perfect.

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

So...what about Larry and Karen, then? Is there a love riangle with Keith on the horizon?