Wednesday, December 4, 2013

With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept


 For my last post I want to discuss one of my favorite episodes on One Tree Hill...



The episode is the explosion of the aftermath of the releasing of the time capsule. It was just a typical day a Tree High School until a hurting student brought a gun to school. Jimmy Edwards is an outsider who gets beat up and criticized each day in the hell he calls school. He walks in one day feeling helpless and unable to deal with the pain any longer and pulls out a gun in the middle of the hallway. Jimmy shoots the gun not wanting to hurt anyone but accidentally gets Peyton in her leg. She makes it to the library to hide. Everyone runs out and panics. Brooke runs outside looking for Peyton. Lucas and Nathan run back into the school to save Haley and Peyton. Haley and Skills are in the tutor center with a few others including Jimmy, whom no one knows is the shooter. Lucas finds Peyton and stays in the library with her while Nathan finds Mouth and tries to find Haley. Nathan makes it to the tutor center and finds Haley and the other students. They all decide to leave until they hear a warning of, “Don’t.” They turn around and find Jimmy holding the gun. As the students are asking him why he is doing this he simply asks Abby to say his full name, she could not answer. Haley then says his name and says he is a good person who freaks him out and he makes everyone be quiet. He sees Haley has a phone on her and was calling the emergency dispatcher. Jimmy takes the phone and tells that that if anyone comes in the school he will shoot students. He takes everyone’s phone but Nathan tricks him into thinking he does not have his.

Outside of the school Dan is working with the principle to figure out what to do. Jimmy yells at the students for constantly leaving him out even his old friends Lucas, Mouth, and Skills who found their new popularity and left him. In the gym a news reporter is watching the time capsule video and tries to get the story until Brooke says as the student council president that the reporter should be ashamed of herself. In the tutor center the students try to convince Jimmy that he will not get in trouble if he lets them go but a loudmouth Marcus says that he will not lie for Jimmy. Jimmy then admits that he did this not because he didn’t get into college, not because he isn’t popular, but because he felt invisible and is sick of it all. Jimmy then tells the students about a day no one noticed him and how it was the best day ever. He got very depressed and overdosed on pills that night. He missed school and when he got back no one even noticed. 

One of the girls Abby starts to look ill because of her diabetes so Jimmy lets her go and admits he is the only shooter. Nathan texts his father and lets him know what is going on. Jimmy then becomes scared and says anyone that goes in that hallway will die and then he hears a door slam. Jimmy finds Lucas carrying Peyton out. Lucas tells Jimmy she has been shot and needs medical attention as Jimmy says he didn’t mean to hurt anyone and Keith steps in letting Lucas run free to get Peyton help. Keith talks to Jimmy and tells him he has been in his position but it gets better and the pain goes away. As he cries about how he is hurting he falls to his knees and shoots himself. Keith screams and mourns over Jimmy’s body as Dan walks in. The episode then ends with Dan picking up the gun and pulling the trigger towards Keith, hilling him. He then gets away with this murder for a few episodes because everyone assumed Jimmy shot Keith before killing himself even though he did not want to hurt anyone.
            
This was such an amazing episode in my eyes because it was more than just a TV show. This was about a very important issue in a lot of children and teenagers lives. Bullying is no joke and can lead to scary situations. Jimmy felt he had no way to deal with his pain any longer so he took his own life. This episode was dramatic but compelling. I think that they should show this episode of One Tree Hill to every high school. People are hurting every day and we need to make a difference and reach out to those who feel are left behind. 



Out of all of the episodes in all nine seasons this may be my favorite because of how emotional it makes you while watching it. The episode was an important message and the acting was incredible in it. The message could have easily been not as compelling if the acting was sub par but these actors were so committed and believable that they did the writer proud. I could re watch this episode 1000 times and it also makes me just want to be a better person.  GO WATCH IT.