A Complete Rewatch: One Tree Hill

You Can't Always Get What You Want is the fourth episode of the second series of One Tree Hill, and it aired on CW in October 2004. There's a new kid in town, his name's Felix, and he smells like trouble with a capital T. Nathan and Keith develop their budding relationship while Lucas and Dan tiptoe around each other. Karen starts her classes at the local university, and Peyton and Haley move towards their music dreams- in very different ways.

BEHIND THE TITLE.

You Can't Always Get What You Want originates from the Rolling Stones' 1969 classic, released on their album Let It Bleed. I swear I have just discovered the lyrics today, in 2022, even though my Great Indie Phase of 2007 included saying I loved the Rolling Stones? Besides the point, I know. The general message of the song is simple: "you can't always get what you want, but you'll get what you need." Its composition (verses telling different stories and choruses holding the message) reminds me of Alanis Morrisette's Ironic, one of my favourite songs. It's easy to see how this relates to the episode. Our characters don't necessarily get what they want. Haley wanted a car, but maybe she needs a piano to remember who she is as a girl, not just a wife. (Is it me, or does she give off traditional housewife energy since she got hitched?) Brooke wanted, I suppose, to never see Felix again, but she needed his support and sweet-talking ways to get herself out of her shoplifting tryst. Deb wanted a divorce, but she needed the only person who felt the same way as she does about Nathan's marriage. You get the gist.

GENERAL OPINION.

I briefly spoke about the bad reputation season two has among the fanbase, especially compared to the other high school series. Though I can see its flaws and how it leaned into clichés and teenage fiction tropes, it holds a special place in my heart, and I love how summery it feels. Season 1 was aesthetically dark, with scenes filmed at night and the importance of rain, and I love the one-eighty turn Season 2 does. I always have fun watching this episode. Felix is the alpha male you love to hate, and the racing car scene is very suburban Fast And The Furious. (And who doesn't love a bit of The Fast And The Furious?) I also love its more toned down moments, its quieter scenes. I love watching Nathan develop a relationship for the first time, as much as I love seeing Karen and Peyton showing determination and ambition.

SOUNDTRACK

- Angel by Lo-Tel

- Fire At Will by The Other Guys

- Ever After by The Other Guys

- 13 States by Michael Meanwhile

- Big Days by PMG

- There's Something Better by Hathaway

- At The Speed Of A Yellow Bullet by Head Automatica

- Raise Your Hands by PMG

- All I Want From You Is Love by Let's Go Sailing

- Sway by The Perishers

I remember mentioning The Perishers and their song Sway, which I love, a few episodes ago, explaining how it reminded me of Veronica Mars. I had entirely forgotten it was on One Tree Hill as well, and it caught me by surprise when I first heard it. It was also surprising to see an appearance from Head Automatica, the side project of Glassjaw frontman Daryl Palumbo. (Their song Beating Heart Baby, which boasts a banging key-change, is a classic of the 2000s emo scene.)

THE BEST BITS: ANDY HARGROVE.

If Felix is the alpha male we love to hate, Andy Hargrove is the new guy in town we are ready to love, full stop- and I promise it goes beyond that New Zealand accent.

Andy Hargrove is Karen's business teacher, but he makes an impression before the class starts. He sits beside her, doesn't introduce himself, and asks if she knows how tough Hardgrove is before standing up to do his job. He asks thought-provoking questions and brings up the question of greed from the get-go, asks his student if they want to do well and good and makes the distinction between both.

So far, in Tree Hill, the only example we had of a financially successful person was Dan Scott, who married into money and built a profitable business. He is greedy, a perfectionist, and, in some aspects, he is the cliché of a ruthless businessman, down to the suit and the expensive car. Andy is his exact opposite. He was successful (he was at the head of a fifty million dollar business) but cashed it all in because he did not feel happy or challenged anymore. Within one class, Karen feels inspired enough to dig up the expansion plans she had drawn up for the café. He teaches valuable lessons. Doing good and doing well are not exclusive. There is no right time. Go for it. Andy Hargrove is here to show us a different side of success, the positives, and he is an excellent catalyst for Karen.

And he's got a pretty sounding accent too.

QUOTES.

"It only takes one person to say yes, Peyton. If you believe in it, see it through. Eventually, someone else will see it too."

Peyton drops by the café to ask Karen for advice, as "the only woman I know who runs a business," and explains how she wants to start an all-ages club night to bring live music in Tree Hill, but she struggles to get taken seriously because of her young age. Karen's encouragements have always resonated with me, and I love her wisdom.

(Considering the rest of Peyton's trajectory this episode, I wish it had remained this wholesome for her. Watching an adult man pretty much force a teenage girl who dressed up too cute for the job to take cocaine if she wants a shot at what she's doing was quite uncomfortable, though realistic.)

THE LITTLE THINGS

I feel like I have to mention Lucas driving Dan's expensive car in flip flops. See, I don't have a license (yet), but my brother does, and I hear him talk about footwear in the car at least once a week. He'll complain some shoes are too big for the pedals, or the soles don't grip them enough. In my thirty-one years of life, I have rarely ever seen my brother drive in flip flops unless there was a heatwave, and it was not a comfortable experience for him. So you're telling me a teenager would have been behind the wheel of a car he didn't know and raced someone else in flip flops without any problems? Right.

The second detail I noticed was Peyton drawing at the end of the episode. She is recreating the moment she shared with the music manager, when he cut a cocaine line on a mirror and offered it to her, and the border of the picture is solid black. That Micron pen was not having a great time. (I have some of those pens, and I wouldn't even dream of assaulting them the way Peyton does.)

When the boys meet at the Rivercourt, Mouth mentions Felix and asks Nathan if he has met him. The continuity in this scene is slightly off as Mouth was present he introduced Nathan and Felix. Nathan even had to reassert that Haley was his wife because the new kid seemed pretty interested.

POP CULTURE POINT.

The episode opens with Brooke lying in bed, and she wakes up because she hears someone swimming in her pool. The soundtrack to the scene is Lo-Tel's Angel, a song with a light pop-punk vibe.

This scene is, again, reminiscent of classic teenage comedies. Swimming pools are associated with teen comedies. Famous examples include Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, or She's All That. Even Sabrina The Teenage Witch (the movie) had a swimming pool scene. Having a pool in your garden meant you were one of the rich, cool kids.

In the early 2000s, pop-punk was at its height, and bands such as blink-182, Sum 41 or Jimmy Eat World were as mainstream as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Historically, pop-punk is associated with teenagers and, by proxy, with teenage films. The most iconic soundtrack of the genre is American Pie and its many sequels, but energetic guitar tracks appear in almost every teen flick. Never Been Kissed had Jimmy Eat World's Lucky Denver Mint at the end, and New York Minute, starring the Olsen twins, showed a Simple Plan concert. It is then no surprise a show as embedded in the 2000s trend as One Tree Hill would combine a swimming pool scene with a light pop-punk song.

Later during the episode, Felix makes a "girl next door" reference. Depending on the time of filming, this could mean two different things. You Can't Always Get What You Want aired in October 2004, and, in April 2004, the film The Girl Next Door, starring Elisha Cuthbert and Emile Hirsch, came out in theatres. Despite my deep love of teenage fiction, I have never seen it, but the plot revolves around a high school senior who falls in love with his attractive neighbour, who turns out to be a former adult actress. The film popularised the phrase "girl next door." The girl next door trope refers to the female love interest in a movie or show, and she lives, quite straightforwardly, next door to the male protagonist. She is also often natural and unpretentious, which are traditionally desirable traits. (It goes without saying that this is fucking sexist.)

When Brooke gets caught shoplifting, Felix turns up to bail her out, and after she lives, ungrateful, with the bra he bought for her, he shouts: "You're welcome, Winona!" It refers to a piece of celebrity gossip that shook the early 2000s. Winona Ryder, known for her roles in Girl, Interrupted, Beetlejuice and a personal favourite, Heathers, came back sprinting into the limelight in 2001 when she got caught having shoplifted merchandise worth over $5000 in Saks. Ryder was prosecuted and charged with grand theft and vandalism. She also performed community service. The incident was in every tabloid and remains a classic element in pop culture of the early 2000s. I was eleven when the event happened, and I remember reading about it in my teeny bopper magazines. I did not even know who Winona Ryder was. I knew she was an actress and, of course, about Johnny Depp's infamous "Wino forever" tattoo.

Despite referring to Felix as "alpha male" and saying I "love to hate" him, I am aware of the flaws he displays. Yes, he is conventionally attractive and, fifteen-year-old me had a bit of a crush on him at the start of his One Tree Hill stint. At the time, I did not see the sexism - it was not something I had enough education to perceive, and, as I was watching the show in French, I believe some of it got lost in translation. As an enlightened adult, hearing him ask Mouth how "the stock" was, referring to women in the same terms used to describe cattle, gives me such an icky feeling. I still believe Felix, as a character, was designed to attract both love and hatred. Some people will defend him, and others will hate him. He's polarising, and he smells like trouble.