Television without pity
Adam Brody is adorable wearing an argyle sweater; peeling potatoes; pausing while peeling potatoes; resuming peeling potatoes; tryin' to step it up a notch; being fed from a spoon; lying that he needs to feed Ryan's sea monkeys; loving his chinos; "expressing awe and delight"; and becoming entangled in said argyle sweater. It's Thanksgiving in The O.C. this week, and the male members of the Cohen family conspire to keep Kirsten away from the meal preparation; they do not, however, conspire to keep her away from the "margs," and so she eventually ends up soused and hysterical. But not before Ryan -- who actually says the phrase "candied yams" with a straight face -- gets a call from imprisoned Trey, requesting a holiday visit. Marissa tags along to Chino, where in a show of incredibly poor judgment, she waltzes into the prison yard wearing the shortest skirt ever made. Seriously, it's entirely comprised of, like, three threads. Trey -- looking very much like Real World's Trishelle these days -- reels Ryan back into his old life, having fallen into jail troubles and needing to pay off a debt. So Ryan moves a stolen car from the house of his former girlfriend (Teresa, who looks no younger than Marissa) to a chop shop, narrowly avoiding ending up looking like his brother. Back at the manse, Seth engages in all manner of slapstick resulting from having one girl (Summer) in the pool house and one girl (Anna) in the bedroom. Kirsten and Sandy, meanwhile, try to make a love connection between Jimmy and Rachel, which is temporarily thwarted by Caleb and Lady Heather's party crashing. By the end of the episode, everything blows up in everyone's faces -- including, nearly, the turkey. We also learn that Ryan played Snoopy in his sixth-grade production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Snoopy! Now if the writers can only find a way to work in Snoopy's happy dance, lives across the world will be complete.