10 Bonkers Things That Happened On ‘The O.C.’ That You Probably Forgot About

There are few ’00s TV shows that created the level of absolute hysteria that The O.C. inspired when it first premiered in 2003.

I can still remember the show being event television during its height of popularity. The O.C. aired in Australia on Tuesday nights before Rove Live (feel old yet?) and it was the kind of teen TV series that all your friends discussed the following day at school. Across its four seasons, the series produced some truly iconic moments, from Seth and Summer’s Spider-Man kiss to the (hilariously parodied) ‘Mmm, whatcha say’ shooting scene.

While the show gifted us a lot of memorable moments, there were also storylines that some of us just want to forget. This was especially the case in Season 4 after Marissa died, where the show just got kind of weird.

10 bonkers things that happened on The O.C. that you probably forgot about:

1. Ryan became a cage fighter.

In the aftermath of Marissa’s death, the show truly went off the rails. As Season 4 kicked off, we saw Ryan revert back to his bad boy antics and he decided to start a career in, umm…cage fighting. Look, it happens to the best of us when we’re going through a rough patch. The cage simply calls to me.

2. Summer got kicked out of Brown for freeing lab rabbits.

When Summer started studying at Brown, she basically got a personality transplant. All of a sudden she was a hippie, she lost all of her fashion sense and she cared deeply about animals. Summer even helped to free a bunch of rabbits from a science lab, which resulted in her getting expelled after her friend Che (a young Chris Pratt) totally threw her under the bus to the school’s Dean.

3. That whole Rebecca thing.

It was smooth sailing for Sandy and Kirsten in Season 2, but in Season 3 it was like the couple made the mutual decision to take turns almost cheating on each other. There was Kirsten flirting it up with Newport Living’s editor Carter, which was vaguely interesting. But the whole Rebecca saga was such a drainer — and waaaaay too overcomplicated.

Rebecca was Sandy’s ex and returned to his life after she went on the run from the police, because she was accused of starting a fire and well….killing a man. Sandy then became obsessed with clearing Rebecca’s name and tbh, no one cared about any of this storyline.

4. Johnny fell off a cliff and died.

This show did Johnny so dirty. While he seemed like a kind and sensitive soul when he first appeared in Season 2, by the time of his untimely death, Johnny’s whole personality was pretty much just being obsessed with Marissa. After his surfing career was put in jeopardy due to a car accident, Johnny went on a bender with Marissa’s younger sister with fatal consequences.

He decided to climb up a bunch of rocks at the beach and despite Ryan trying to save him, he fell off a cliff and plummeted to his death. The episode was titled ‘Cliffhanger’, so y’all can’t say this show didn’t have a sense of humour.

5. Julie tried to cover up being in a porno.

Julie is The O.C.’s most iconic character and I will not hear a bad word against her. One of her most chaotic moments was when her sex tape Porn Identity was unearthed by an ex from her past, and when he threatened to leak it, she tried to convince Caleb to pay him off. The porn movie in question involved Julie dressed in ’80s aerobics gear as a pizza delivery man arrived. Truly queen shit.

6. Seth burnt down Sandy’s office by leaving a joint still lit.

For a short space in time in Season 3, Seth became a stoner. How? Why? Huh? I dunno. It coincided with him applying to college, and he started smoking marijuana to deal with the pressure. This led to him self-sabotaging an application interview, and then, worst of all, he left a joint unattended and ending up burning down Sandy’s office. Soon after, Seth got arrested but luckily for him, The Newport Group dropped the charges. Lol. The privilege of it all.

7. The Cohen’s house was destroyed in an earthquake.

Ah, Season 4. What a mess. Towards the end of the series, the unthinkable happened: the beloved Cohen house was destroyed by an earthquake, and Ryan was severely injured. It’s not fully explained in the episode how the entire big-as-shit mansion could be knocked down completely and irreparably, but after everything the Cohens went through with Marissa’s death, haven’t they suffered enough?

8. Taylor married a French erotic novelist.

This was possibly the weirdest timeline on The O.C. and I still can’t make heads or tails of what the writers were thinking. First up, Taylor comes home from France with a French husband named Henri-Michel. Then when she tries to divorce him, he says this could only happen if she was unfaithful, which leads to her orchestrating a romance with Ryan.

Still with me? After they divorce, Henri-Michel revealed that he wrote an erotic novel about their short relationship called A Season For Peaches, and Taylor joined him on the press tour to promote the global best-seller. I have no words.

9. Ryan and Taylor fall off a ladder and wake up in an alternate reality.

And the Season 4 hits keep coming. I have no memory of ever watching this episode but it sounds absolutely bonkers. While Ryan and Taylor are putting up Christmas lights, they both fall off a ladder and wake up in an alternate reality. Their new reality is a taste of what life would be like if Ryan had never came to Newport.

Things are very different: Sandy is married to Julie; Kirsten is married to Jimmy; Seth is a loner; Johnny is alive and well; and Summer is a vapid narcissist. This episode was extra awkward, as it suggested that Marissa would have been dead in either scenario. Brutal.

10. Everyone collectively forgot that Theresa ever existed.

Remember Theresa? We were first introduced to her as Ryan’s childhood friend from Chino and by the end of Season 1, Ryan left Newport after she got pregnant with his alleged first child. However, she lied and told him that she lost the baby. Cut to the end of Season 3, Theresa returns after Kirsten spotted her holding a baby — a baby that isn’t supposed to exist.

It all ended in Theresa telling Ryan that the infant was actually Eddie’s child. Many eagle-eyed fans noticed that the baby had a striking resemblance to Ryan with light shaggy hair — while Theresa and Eddie both have dark brown hair.

Whooooose baby?! I demand a DNA test! Anyways, the question still looms as Theresa didn’t appear in the series ever again.

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The O.C. is available to watch on Stan.