The OC

SEASON 1

The first season of The O.C. premiered on August 5, 2003 in the United States, featuring a total of 27 episodes. The premiere shows a new life for Ryan Atwood, a 16 year old living in Chino, the Cohens and the Coopers, and everyone else in the wealthy, picturesque, secretive, turbulent community of Orange County, California. Faced with the prospect of life in a group home, Ryan decides to run away from Newport, but Seth and Marissa convince him to stay. During the season, Ryan and Marissa develop a relationship and Seth and Summer fall in love despite Seth's brief relationship with Anna Stern. Jimmy lands in financial trouble, so Julie leaves Jimmy. Ryan and Marissa's relationship falls apart when new kid on the block Oliver Trask comes to town. His overpossesive and turbulent past drives a wedge in between Ryan and Marissa's relationship. Trask then threatens to kill himself but is talked out of doing so by Ryan. Luke has an affair with Julie. Near the end of the season, Julie and Caleb get married. Ryan discovers that he may be the father of the unborn child of his ex-girlfriend, Theresa, and decides to leave the Cohen family and his current girlfriend, Marissa, to support her through her pregnancy. Upon finding out that Ryan is moving back to Chino with Theresa, Seth sails away in his boat, leaving farewell notes for his parents and Summer.

SEASON 2

The second season began on November 4, 2004 in the United States. It featured a total of 24 episodes. At the start of the season, it is revealed that Seth ran away to Portland, Oregon, where he has been staying with Luke and Luke's father. Ryan has spent the summer in Chino, living with Theresa Diaz and her mother, and working on a construction site. Realizing he would be happier back in Orange County with the Cohens, Theresa tells Ryan that she lost the baby. This prompts Ryan and Seth to return to Newport, where Seth ends up working under Alex at the Bait Shop. They have a brief relationship, but Alex, revealed to be bisexual, starts dating Marissa.Meanwhile Julie and Caleb have sent Marissa's sister Kaitlin off to boarding school. Also, Ryan starts a relationship with Lindsay, a new girl at school. Their relationship flounders when Newport finds out that she is the love child of Caleb and half-sister to Kirsten. After Lindsay and her mother move to Chicago, Ryan's brother Trey is released from prison. As he has nowhere else to go, the Cohens invite him to stay with them while he gets his life in order. However, he soon gets into trouble with drugs, and while high, attempts to rape Marissa. Meanwhile, Kirsten begins drinking heavily, a problem that is further aggravated after her father dies of a heart attack. As the season ends, the Cohens and Ryan stage an intervention and Kirsten leaves for rehab. Ryan then discovers his brother's attempted rape of Marissa, and confronts Trey. The two fight and Trey is about to kill Ryan when Marissa arrives and shoots Trey to save Ryan.


SEASON 3

The third season began on September 8, 2005 in the United States and featured a total of 25 episodes. The season begins with Kirsten still in rehab and Trey in a coma. Trey eventually comes out of his coma and, after Julie Cooper briefly attempts to blackmail him into blaming Ryan for the shooting, he leaves town. Marissa escapes charges over the shooting, but is expelled from Harbor and is forced to attend Newport Union, a nearby public school. There she meets Johnny, a surfer and his sidekick Chilli. Ryan is also thrown out of Harbor after punching the Dean because he man handled Marissa. Johnny falls in love with Marissa, and she eventually has to choose between him and Ryan. Ryan is re-admitted to Harbor as it is revealed that the Dean was currently having a sexual relationship with Taylor Townsend. Marissa is re-admitted to Harbor after her friends stage a campaign, with the assistance of Marissa's former rival Taylor Townsend. Marissa's younger sister Kaitlin returns from boarding school and takes a liking to Johnny but Marissa can't deny that she has feelings for Johnny. After choosing Ryan, a drunk Johnny falls to his death from a cliff on the beach. After the death of Johnny, Kaitlin distraught with his death returns to boarding school away from the terror. Seth and Summer continue their relationship. Problems include Seth smoking weed and skipping his college interview but the two work things out and their relationship stabilizes. Unable to come to terms with Johnny's death, Marissa becomes involved with Volchok another surfer with a "bad boy" reputation. However, she catches him cheating on her during prom and ends their relationship. In the third season finale, an intoxicated Volchok, still reeling from his break-up with Marissa, rams Marissa and Ryan off the road and over a cliff. Ryan survives the crash and pulls Marissa from the wrecked car. Marissa then dies in his arms.


SEASON 4

The fourth and final season began on November 2, 2006 in the United States, and featured a total of 16 episodes. The season begins with everyone coping with the death of Marissa Cooper. Ryan has moved out of the Cohen household and becomes a cage fighter to deal with his anger. Summer begins attending Brown University, where she throws herself into environmental activism, and avoids calls from Seth, who stays in Newport and finds a job at a comic book shop. Marissa's younger sister Kaitlin returns to Newport from boarding school and starts attending Harbor. Julie, meanwhile, hires a private detective to track down Volchok, who had fled to Mexico. She plans to have Ryan take revenge on Volchok, presumably by killing him. Ultimately, with Seth and Sandy's help, Ryan allows Volchok to turn himself in to the authorities. Ryan subsequently moves back in with the Cohens. In the meantime, Taylor Townsend, who is previously thought to have been in Paris, attending the Sorbonne, secretly returns to Newport after impulsively marrying a Frenchman, who then refuses to grant her a divorce. Ryan helps her by posing as her lover to get her husband to agree to the divorce, after which she and Ryan begin a romantic relationship. After releasing rabbits from a laboratory, Summer is suspended from Brown for a semester and returns to California where she and Seth reconcile. Julie Cooper begins a relationship with wealthy Texan businessman Gordon Bullit, however, she soon becomes conflicted when she falls for Ryan's biological father, Frank, who was released from prison. Near the end of the fourth season, Kirsten becomes pregnant with a baby girl, and she and Sandy consider whether Newport is the right place to bring up another child. A powerful earthquake hits Newport, and the Cohens' house is damaged beyond repair.
The series finale documents the characters' lives six months after the earthquake. In a flashforward, Seth and Summer get married, Julie graduates from college, Sandy becomes a law professor, and Ryan becomes an architect. The series concludes with Ryan reaching out to a troubled teenager just as Sandy did for him, years before. The last words of the series being "Hey kid, you need help?".

**wikipedia.org