TVSquad

(S04E15) It's starting to feel very final isn't it? I'm really impressed with the way the series is wrapping itself up. Some of the cheese factor still exists (Seth getting help from the homeless folks again), but for the most part the characters and their paths are falling into place.

I think this may have been the first episode of The OC that took place entirely at night. As a result, the whole episode was lit in shades of dark and light blues. It reminded me a lot of a season one episode of CSI: NY.

Overall though, what the episode really emphasized for me is how far Ryan has come. This is probably the biggest tragedy that could have possibly occurred in Newport Beach and despite that, the group remained intact with Ryan right in the middle of it. Not bad for someone who came into their lives as an outsider.

I had a little trouble dealing with all the forced drama that occurred, like Ryan having that chunk of glass in his back or Kirsten possibly having issues with the pregnancy. Stuff like that is obligatory in an episode like this, but we know what The OC is all about by now. It's a feel good show and when stuff like that occurs, you know it's going to have a happy outcome.

For the most part the episode was very good though. I liked how things got patched up between Taylor and her mother, Veronica. Seeing Seth react when he realized that Ryan's life was in his hands was incredibly compelling. Except for maybe when he stepped in during his mother's intervention in season two, I think it's the first time we've really seen Seth genuinely scared. Gary, the ice cream scooper, was a odd but nice addition. He made Kaitlin seem pretty vulnerable and it wouldn't surprise me if he shows up again in next week's finale. And of course, there was the ending. But I sort of saw that coming. The front of the Cohen house looked fine, so it made sense for the rest of the home to be completely destroyed.

Additionally, there was some great humor peppered throughout the episode:

• Kaitlin telling Gary that she "could stab him" with his Epi-Pen was priceless.
• Taylor + Jimmy Cooper's flare gun = endless hilarity
• All the "fear of zombies" stuff was great and got even better when Summer told Taylor to "go 187 on that zombie ass."
• The best jab though? When Seth, after giving Ryan two pints of his blood, quipped that if they had turned this into a body swap comedy, then maybe they could have squeezed another year or two out of it. (Take that FOX.)

Now we have one week left. It's already been announced that the final DVD set will be released on May 22, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The finale hasn't aired yet, but after this week's episode, it looks like we're in store for a pretty powerful conclusion.