'One Tree Hill' Craziest Storylines, 20 Years Later
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On September 23, 2003, an all-new teen drama premiered on The WB, one that was focused on two half-brothers, Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty), and their very different lives in the small town of Tree Hill, N.C.
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“One Tree Hill” evolved quite a bit from that storyline over the course of the first season, homing in more on the show’s love triangles, both within Nathan and Lucas’ high school, and among the adult characters. Through the years, those lines blurred, with multiple former students dating or marrying their friends’ parents.
That’s just one example of how the series, which aired for nine seasons before wrapping in 2012, went a bit off the rails. Never was it afraid to lean into unrealistic and downright wacky storylines. There were very mysterious things that happened in that small North Carolina town — like, each person who left town becoming extremely successful the moment they graduated from high school.
Below, Variety has ranked the wildest “One Tree Hill” storylines, from a high-school wedding to a dog eating Dan’s donor heart.
14. Nathan and Haley get married
“One Tree Hill” didn’t waste anytime diving into absurd storytelling; by the end of Season 1, teenage Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz) and Nathan had decided to get married after having dated for a few months. The way it was revealed was also bizarre, with Lucas seeing her half-dressed in the morning and berating her for not waiting until marriage to have sex. She then tells him, “We did wait. We got married last night.”
13. Jake literally kidnaps his child
Jake Jagielski (Bryan Greenberg) was a teen father in Tree Hill with an ex who was fighting him for custody of their daughter. While she isn’t equipped to be a mother, Jake avoids going to court and instead leaves town with baby Jenny, thanks to help from Peyton (Hilarie Burton). Side note of crazy: Peyton later casually proposes to Jake while they’re still in high school, living in different states.
12. Pete Wentz plays Pete Wentz
Amid some of the series’ heaviest storylines in Season 3, “One Tree Hill” brought in Pete Wentz … as himself. He met Peyton when she somehow secured Fall Out Boy to play at her club, Tric — and they casually started dating. Underlining this: Pete Wentz, a grown man playing himself, dated Peyton while she was a high school student.
11. Keith’s murder
Lucas’ Uncle Keith (Craig Sheffer) was written off “One Tree Hill” in one of the most shocking ways. During the traumatic school-shooting episode, he heads into the school to try and convince shooter Jimmy Edwards (Colin Fickes) not to take his own life. After he fails to do so, Keith’s brother Dan (Paul Johansson) — the father of Lucas and Nathan — enters the school and shoots Keith, angry his brother slept with his wife. Keith’s murder was never investigated, since everyone just believed Dan when he said that Jimmy killed him.
The way that the truth came out was equally strange, with Lucas talking to Keith in a dream, and later hunting down the random girl in the school who witnessed it all. (After committing this cold-blooded murder, Dan was out of prison a few years later.)
10. Nathan gets involved with a loan shark… played by Rick Fox
While his wife, Haley, was pregnant, Nathan was struggling with finances in Season 4. So, as a high school senior, he got involved with Daunte, a loan shark (Rick Fox!). After he won the state championship, when he was told to lose, Daunte hit pregnant Haley with his car. Later in the season, Nathan ultimately loses his scholarship for the point shaving.
9. Lindsay realizing Lucas still loved Peyton while at the altar
Lindsay (Michaela McManus) and Lucas’ relationship was rough from the start, as they met while she edited his book, “The Comet,” which was clearly about Peyton. However, instead of realizing that fact while she was editing the book — or while seeing Peyton driving her car, a Comet, around town for months, Lindsay somehow thought of it while at the altar. Ultimately, she left Lucas standing there alone and broke his heart.
8. Skills dates Deb
At the end of Season 5, Nathan’s mom, Deb (Barbara Alyn Woods) began dating Skills (Antwon Tanner), one of his best friends who went to high school with him. They hid the romance for a bit until coming out as a couple. Ultimately, they broke up when she found out he wants kids.
7. Every storyline involving Clay
Clay (Robert Buckley) joined the show as Nathan’s agent in Season 7. He quickly got into a relationship with Haley’s sister Quinn (Shantel VanSanten) but was being haunted by his late wife Sara (Amanda Schull). Later, Clay was stalked by a woman named Katie Ryan, who looked just like his former wife (also played by Amanda Schull); eventually, she shot both Clay and Quinn, but it was never fully explained why.
Later, he started struggling with sleepwalking and checked into a rehab center. While there, he learned he has a 6-year-old son and the doctors have been aware, but he’s been blocking out the memory all these years.
6. Dan and Rachel get married
Rachel (Danneel Ackles) — who’d gone to Tree Hill High with Lucas, Peyton and Brooke (Sophia Bush) — returned in Season 7, and was, in quite a shocking reveal, married to Dan. Apparently, they’d met when she was working as a stripper and prostitute, and they decided to get together to launch a self-help talk show, “Scott Free Redemption.” (Spoiler alert: they ultimately divorce.)
5. Peyton’s two brothers
First, Peyton found out she had a long-lost brother, and audiences met Derek (Matt Barr), a man whose girlfriend had died so he began stalking Peyton because she looked like her. After she found out he wasn’t who he said he was, he attacked her — twice. During the second attack, Brooke came to her rescue and they were able to knock him out with their “eighth grade cheer camp” routine. Meanwhile, Peyton’s real long-lost brother Derek (Ernest Waddell) was introduced, a Marine who is actually very normal!
4. Everything Nanny Carrie does
In Season 5, Nanny Carrie (Torrey DeVitto) became obsessed with Nathan, and tried to seduce him multiple times, nearly ruining his marriage to Haley. Then, after being fired as Nathan and Haley’s nanny for their son Jamie (Jackson Brundage), she kidnapped Jamie and took him to a creepy motel room. Luckily, Dan caught her and saved Jamie.
She returned in Season 6 as a fake nurse, this time holding Dan captive in a house in the middle of nowhere. When Haley had an inkling that something was wrong with Dan, she went (with Jamie in tow, for some reason) to see what’s going on, and the two of them ended up being chased through a corn field by Carrie. Ultimately, Deb stepped in and smashed a bottle in her face. Dan followed up by shooting her.
3. Brooke gets attacked and has the worst cover-up ever
In Season 6, Brooke was attacked by a man who we later found out is the older brother of Jack Daniels (Evan Peters’ character, don’t ask) while closing her store. While this storyline was haunting, what followed was even stranger — she told everyone that she’d fallen down the stairs and they believed her, despite it being very clear something else happened. Xavier (Devin McGee), her attacker, eventually goes to jail — not for murdering Tree Hill basketball star Quentin (Robbie Jones), which he also did during a gas station robbery, but for keeping Jack and Sam, Brooke’s foster daughter (Ashley Rickards), hostage. He’s later let out.
He returned in Season 9, stalking and attacking Brooke again. She got away, and he’s eventually sent back to jail.
2. Nathan gets kidnapped
In the final season of the show, it’s now Nathan who got kidnapped for attempting to sign a Russian basketball player. (He was working as an agent by this point?) Not only did Dan come up with an entire plan to get him back, but he enlisted Julian (Austin Nichols), Chris Keller (Tyler Hilton) and Clay to help. The episode was oddly filled with comedy — until it’s not. In the end, Dan saved Nathan’s life, and seemingly was redeemed for the awful crimes he’d committed over the course of the series.
But, he got shot in the process and soon after, died.
1. A dog eats Dan’s heart
Long before Dan died, though, during Season 6, he was at the center of one of the most infamous scenes from “One Tree Hill.”
Dan was set to get a heart transplant, and while he was in the waiting room, a staff member carrying said heart tripped on a dog leash and dropped the freezer it’s in. The heart rolled out onto the floor, and a random golden retriever ate it, while Dan watched.
(On top of everything else, apparently, while prepping for heart surgery, patients are just wandering through the waiting room in their hospital gowns.)
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