Now that Marissa and Luke have parted ways, it appears as though this would be the perfect moment for Ryan to step up and ask Marissa out on a date. Unfortunately, however, Ryan has no car and no money, and therefore absolutely no means of taking her anywhere. Of course, the obvious solution is for Ryan to get a job, and sadly he ends up applying at (what I believe is) one of the absolute worst places he could have possibly chosen—a restaurant that serves seafood. First of all, working with food in general is not fun at all. Take it from someone who knows. And secondly…seafood? I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t want to come home smelling like fish every day. Plus, seafood is disgusting. Granted, I guess I have to consider that this show is set in California—a large portion of these people’s diets is probably seafood. Still, couldn’t Ryan have gotten a job at like…I don’t know, a local gift shop or something? Oh well, if he’s happy, then I’m happy, too.

On that note, I was extremely delighted when I saw that Ryan’s trainer Donnie is played by Paul Wesley. Of course, most of us know Paul Wesley as Stefan from The Vampire Diaries. Now I realize that this is a minority opinion, but Stefan is without a doubt my favorite of the two Salvatore brothers on The Vampire Diaries. Why? Well, mainly because Stefan is kind, loyal, considerate, and tends to try and work things out peacefully rather than resorting to violence. In his appearance on The O.C., however, Paul Wesley plays a character that is absolutely nothing like Stefan. At first glance it is more than apparent that Donnie is a “tough guy”—kind of like Luke, only probably a little more dangerous—and I found this to be extremely refreshing. Trust me, you would too if you 1) have been watching The Vampire Diaries for as long as I have and 2) have never seen Paul Wesley play any character other than Stefan.

Anyway…back to The O.C. Ryan and Donnie are homeboys almost instantaneously, and at the end of Ryan’s shift Donnie invites him to a party. Seth is somewhat jealous that Donnie has already stolen his new brother (daww), but when Ryan returns from the party later that night he informs Seth that Donnie’s party wasn’t really that great. He also tells Seth—in a roundabout way—that parties like that are not for him. What Ryan is trying to say, of course, is that a rich kid like Seth (someone who lacks street smarts) would probably get his ass kicked in Donnie’s neighborhood. Seth doesn’t seem to comprehend this, however, and one night he stops by the restaurant to talk to Donnie and Ryan right before their shift is about to end. He convinces Donnie to invite both Ryan and himself to another party, and Donnie agrees with a little smirk that says: Haha, yeah, sure…just don’t expect to make it home in one piece. Dork. Thankfully, however, with Ryan’s supervision, nothing of serious consequence happens to Seth at the party—nothing, that is, except for someone beating the absolute crap out of his car. Someone was probably just pissed that he had a nice car, I figure. Oh well. Not like Kirsten’s business can’t take care of that kind of thing.

Unfortunately Seth does not learn from this incident, and the very next day he rushes back to the restaurant and invites Donnie to Holly’s upcoming beach party. He does this only because Ryan has informed him that he will be busy that night; he finally asked Marissa out on a date, and she said yes! What an unexpected surprise. I thought she was going to say no…oh, and it turns out that Ryan isn’t actually going to take Marissa anywhere—they’re just going to stay in for the night and “hang out.” And make grilled cheese sandwiches. How adorable.

Ryan and Marissa’s “date” is extremely awkward at first, but after pushing one another into the pool they get comfortable real quick. Later they are drying off, and are just about to kiss, when suddenly the phone rings. Ryan answers, only to find that Seth is on the other end. He has frantically called Ryan in order to inform him that—oh shit—Donnie is creating quite a scene at Holly’s party. Apparently he and Luke have gotten into a fight (no surprise) and it looks like things could get pretty ugly. Ryan hangs up, telling Marissa that he’s sorry, but that he has to go and help Seth. Hooray for brotherly love! Marissa seems disappointed, but doesn’t object.

Ryan arrives just in time to witness the action. Donnie has pulled out a gun, and is pointing it at multiple people. (Again, Stefan would never do something like this. Unless, of course, he’s in “ripper” mode…but don’t even get me started on that load of BS.) Ryan jumps into the chaos, trying to put an end to it, and in the process Donnie’s gun goes off. Luke takes a bullet to the arm, and he is immediately rushed to the hospital. Ryan calls Marissa and tells her what has happened, and she comes running to the hospital to see Luke. Looks like their relationship might not be over after all, folks. Personally? I have no problem with that whatsoever; thus far I see absolutely no reason to favor Ryan/Marissa over Luke/Marissa. But that’s just me talking.

Oh, and I should probably also mention that Julie has recently informed Jimmy that she wants a divorce. I can’t remember if it happened in this episode or not, but one of my favorite scenes was when Julie tried to make Jimmy feel even more guilty about all that he has done. In order to save money, they were forced to sell their youngest daughter’s horse named China. Julie walks into Jimmy’s office all upset…

JULIE: I just took her to say goodbye to China. We’d might as well sell her riding gear now, too. She won’t be needing it anymore.

JIMMY: ….

JULIE: You know, I think China was her best friend.

JIMMY: Honey, China is a horse!

That probably wasn’t supposed to make me laugh, but it did.

Anyway, I’d say that that pretty much wraps up all I want to say about this episode. Tuesday I’ll be watching Pretty Little Liars for the first time and writing a recap on that…it should be interesting, or at least I certainly hope that it will be. Then Thursday I will continue with episode six of The O.C., ‘The Girlfriend.’ Until then…peace.

I don’t know why I say that almost every time.