I Will Never Get Over The O.C.’s New Year’s Eve Episode

As far as New Year’s Eve movies and TV episodes go, there are only a few that I believe are worth rewatching each year.

When Harry Met Sally is great a New Year’s Eve movie (despite most of the plot unfolding earlier in the year) and Friends’ “The One With All The Resolutions” will never not be funny (shoutout to Ross’s leather pants) but, ultimately, The O.C.‘s Season 1 episode “The Countdown” will always take the cake. Here’s why.

Marissa tells Ryan she loves him, and he says “thank you”.

At the beginning of the episode, after watching a Russell Crowe movie together (?), Marissa tells Ryan that she loves him. Instead of replying the obvious way — with an “I love you” back — Ryan simply thanks her for letting him know. No matter how many times this trope plays out in TV shows, it will forever be both very awkward and very enjoyable to watch unfold.

Summer and Anna hang out as friends and everything feels right in the world.

I can be famously indecisive, which explains why I was never able to work out who I thought was better for Seth out of Summer and Anna. Sure, Seth had been pining for Summer for years — and opposites do attract — but Anna was just so… cool! So Seth! In this episode, we get to imagine a world where Anna and Summer aren’t feuding over Seth Cohen, but are instead just two gals hanging out at a New Year’s Eve party, having a good time. I wish we got more of this!

It also happens to be the episode where Sandy and Kirsten attend a swinger’s party.

Of all the storylines we saw play out in The O.C., this has got to be one of the most memorable. “The Countdown” sees the appearance of Hailey, Kirsten’s younger (as in, practically Seth and Ryan’s age) sister. Hailey, the menacing little sister that she is, manages to convince Kirsten that she and Sandy are in a rut — and essentially tricks them into attending a SWINGER’S PARTY. (I’ll leave things there, just in case anyone reading hasn’t actually watched this episode.)

Oliver (probably) ends up having a really bad New Year’s.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that Oliver Trask is not a great guy. He’s manipulative, entitled, and obsessive to the point of eventually, later in the season, pulling a gun on Marissa (spoiler!). Oliver having a shitty New Year’s Eve at his own party, after Ryan rocks up and steals the kiss I’m assuming he thought he’d be getting from Marissa, is honestly just icing on the cake.

The episode features one of the best songs from The O.C.‘s soundtrack.

I don’t know how to properly convey how much The O.C.‘s soundtrack means to me. It’s how I discovered almost all of my favourite bands, and I still listen to songs from the show on a weekly basis. (If you want to do the same, might I suggest this incredible Spotify playlist.) ANYWAY, this episode has one of the best music moments of the entire series.

At the end of the episode, as Ryan finally finds Marissa just as the countdown to the New Year is happening, “Dice” by Finley Quaye and William Orbit is playing. It’s a truly incredible song — it’s also the exact kind of song you would want to be playing just as the person you love comes to rescue you from a sociopath’s New York penthouse party, less than 24 hours after you confessed your love for them.

Now, I’m fully aware that this episode has some obvious problems. For one, there is no way Ryan actually could have made it from Newport Beach to New York in time to find his way to Marissa by midnight — but that’s very much not the point. Like every Christmas movie ever made, we need to make some allowances when it comes to NYE-themed entertainment, because most storylines can’t really play out properly in one night. But for the sake of a good episode of TV, we need to just nod and accept that, in this instance, they can.

You can watch the final scene of the episode below (with a little bonus Seth and Anna, as a treat).