‘One Tree Hill’ Recap: Bad Things Are Coming

One Tree Hill is not joking around this season.

The first few minutes of the premiere episode for the ninth and final season of the CW show were packed with tragic scene after tragic scene.

[Warning: Spoilers ahead.]

Clay (Robert Buckley) and Quinn (Shantel VanSanten) are fighting, and maybe breaking up. Brooke (Sophia Bush) is tearing apart her café. A building is burning. And Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) is standing over a dead body in a morgue.

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After the jaw-dropping tragedy, viewers were brought back into present day, and happier times. Sure, Brooke and Julian (Austin Nichols) are dealing with the trials of being parents of twins, but they’re happy, as are most of the characters. But if there first few minutes of the premiere tell us anything, it’s that things won’t stay peachy for long.

The show’s creator Mark Schwahn told The Hollywood Reporter that he wants to push things forward this season in a big way. “In a season that could have just been a look back or a pat on the back or something quiet and soft, I just really felt like let’s go out being forward thinking and challenging the audience a little bit,” said Schwahn, who added that he felt the ninth season is definitely his favorite.

So what else did the premiere teach us? Here are five things we learned:

1. Chris Keller is back.
Tyler Hilton returns as bad boy Chris Keller. While his not hitting on Haley anymore (ok, maybe a little), he’s still stirring up trouble when he takes control of the record label. Alex (Jana Kramer), for one, is not a fan at first.

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2. Dan Scott is back too.
Paul Johansson returns as Nathan’s dad Dan. Somehow, his diner has burned down, and he needs somewhere to live, so he begs Haley to help him. But Dan being back in their lives can only mean trouble for Haley and Nathan.

3. Somebody is going to die.
Haley is looking over someone in the morgue. We don’t know who, but she’s crying. While showrunner Mark Schwahn wasn’t giving THR any hints as to who it could be, he did say this: “I will say that we won’t end the season with the cast that we start with, and I think for fans of the show, that will be emotional and powerful.”

4. Clay can’t sleep.
Clay and Quinn may have overcome a murderous crazy lady who looked like Clay’s ex-love in the past season, but now they are dealing with a new problem: Clay can’t sleep. While the couple seems very much in love, it looks like Clay has some issues to work out before the season is over.

5. Mouth gets fat.
Mouth (Lee Norris) wasn’t in the episode at all. But never fear – he’ll be back, and bigger than ever. Literally. At a recent event Norris revealed that his character has gained about 80 pounds this season, which forced Norris to spend several hours in the make-up chair every day.

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