Episode 16

Before we get to this week's rather ho-hum episode, a couple more notes about the previous installment: Modern Amusement was already deemed the "hip local reference of the week," but there was also an "un-hip local reference of the week": The Arches. Christ, do Sandy and Kirsten really eat there? Does anyone under 70 who isn't breathing from a tube really eat there? The Cohens seem more like a Five Crowns couple. More incongruous was the undercover bust of Oliver. One cop taking down a drug buyer? Yeah, right. There should have been squad cars wrapped around the block, helicopters shining lights down from overhead and one of those crack den-ramming tanks NPBD bought on the cheap from LAPD. And did you catch how polite the narc struggling with Oliver was to the meddling Ryan? In the real OC, that boy would have had a slug in him and the DA's office would have issued a typed report clearing the officer of wrongdoing before Chino's head hit the turf. And if Oliver turned out to be the son of a high-ranking sheriff's department official, all he'd get would be a polite ride home.

Okay, this week: Oliver pulls scams to break up Ryan and Marissa, Summer's gets between lovey-dovey Seth and Anna (literally) and Kirsten drives a wedge between her mooch of a sister Haley and their superrich dad Caleb. Newport officially forsakes scamster Jimmy, but before he can go to Phoenix to start life anew, Sandy gets him to stay and go into the restaurant business with him by resuscitating the dying Light House (think Chart House), a place John Wayne used to frequent!

For those of you from The O.C.'s target demographic, John Wayne was a famous Newport Beach fag.

LINE OF THE WEEK: Oh, you can't play golf without a buzz on." Luke, recalling the advice of the great Sam Snead.

THE O.C. FOX/CHANNEL 11. WEDNESDAYS, 9 P.M.