Monday, October 13, 2014

The O.C. Easter Eggs: Johnny Harper Predicts His Own Death

In season three episode 10 "The Chrismukkah Barmitzvakkah" the episode's focal point is raising money for Johnny's surgery. Stubborn Johnny tries to raise money himself via shady ways and instead the gang helps him out by getting Ryan to throw a charity bar-mitzvah. Johnny predicts his own death in the following scene below, Johnny and Marissa talk privately at the Diner.


Marissa: Hey, thanks for meeting me.
Johnny: Of course, after last night you really talked me off the ledge

THE LEDGE!!! WHAT!!!


Flash forward to Season 3 episode 14 (yes only 4 episodes later) "The Cliffhanger" Johnny is getting drunk with Kaitlin on the beach, suffering from depression involving Marissa not being in love with him like he wanted. Johnny decides to climb a very high cliff. Kaitlin panics and tries to get him down to no avail. Kaitlin is in need of some serious intervention,  Ryan and Marissa come to the rescue.


Ryan climbs up the cliff and confronts a drunk and stumbling Johnny to try and talk him to get him back on solid ground.


Johnny refuses to give in to Ryan heroics claiming that if he Ryan saves him Marissa will only like him more....


Johnny gets closer and closer to the edge holding a near empty bottle of Jim Beam. Johnny's shoes start to slip on the cliffs gravel - all of a sudden its too late.


Ryan tries to reach out for Johnny but he is too late and too far away. Johnny slips off the edge of the cliff.


Ryan reaches out but is left with seeing a horrible sight. This is a huge realization for Ryan, its the first time his efforts to help someone completely fail, we aren't used to seeing that happen in this series.


Ryan looks down at what is left of Johnny and is in complete shock.


Marissa and Kaitlin then shield their eyes as cry for their friend. 


Poor Ryan, he tried his best. 

So yes in a way Johnny predicted his own death. Johnny was an interesting character but I thought that the writers wrote his story to a dead end, there wasn't much more the writers could do and to be honest I would have rather seen Oliver come back (as rough as that was) than go on and on with the Johnny story..I mean think about it, it was a total downer story - nothing good ever happened to him. His girlfriend cheated on him, he broke his leg and couldn't surf anymore, gets the surgery and then falls off a cliff and dies..On a side note this story smells very similar to the Oliver story line, Marissa gets close to a guy that has ulterior motives in which she is of course blind to (everyone else sees it), Ryan starts to hate the guy, the guy falls crazy in love with Marissa and then goes literally crazy. If it were up to me (Rooney line) I would have had Johnny go on his surf tour after his leg recovered and that would be that but the writers had their reasons i'm sure and lets face it in the land of The O.C. you either die or move away to never be scene(puns) again, no side characters get out alive! How would you have written the Johnny story?

Where to find it:

Season 3 episode 10 "The Chrismukkah Barmitzvakkah"
and
Season 3 episode 14 "The Cliffhanger" (how appropriate)





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