Season 15 | Episode 1

Another season of OC is here and I gotta tell ya, I’m not too excited. The start of the episode is intriguing though, showing old scenes from previous seasons when the OC franchise actually wasn’t boring. But right away we meet John, Shannon’s new boyfriend and it makes me so happy to see Shannon in a seemingly healthy relationship and all smiles. I hope John is the real deal and keeps making Shannon happy.

Then we meet Kelly’s new man and fiancé, reporter Rick Leventhal. Kelly, her daughter Jolie and Rick are at a county fair in Newport and all three of them seem to have a good groove together, which is good since we now know that Kelly and Rick got married in real life a couple of weeks ago.

Next scene is Gina and Shannon at Gina’s new house and Shannon reveals that Braunwyn AND Kelly are moving into the same neighborhood as her?! Yikes.

In comes Elizabeth the new, very rich OC housewife. Her, Kelly and Braunwyn seem to already be a trio which is scary. All we know about her thus far is she’s insanely wealthy and her current boyfriend won’t have sex with her yet because her divorce from her billionaire soon-to-be ex-husband isn’t final yet. You can’t make this stuff up, folks.

Finally we see Emily and Shane going out to dinner to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary. I will say I’m surprised to see that they’re still together and although they seem to be doing better it’s still a little awkward between them. But I’m glad they are working it out, and like Gina kind of hinted at earlier, Emily reveals to Shane that Braunwyn is always drinking so much when she’s with her that they probably will never have anything other than a surface-level friendship if she keeps it up. I really don’t recall Braunwyn’s drinking being a problem last season but maybe I’ve just tried to push last season’s OC completely out of my mind.

Braunwyn’s new house is a humble 8,000 square feet, 3 stories and is equipped with a meditation room, a full gym, a movie theater, and a pirate ship, yes, a pirate ship in the backyard. Later Braunwyn’s drinking comes up again when Gina and Kelly are at a yoga class, when Kelly reveals Braunwyn got plastered in Miami when they were celebrating Rick’s 60th birthday, stating she’s never seen her like that before. Call me psychic but I have a feeling Braunwyn’s drinking is going to be the main storyline this season… here we go!

We finally learn a little more about newbie Elizabeth, and I think I like her so far. We learn she’s the founder and CEO of a music video streaming service and grew up dirt poor in the Ozarks, making her motivated to work really hard to get out of poverty. In college is where she met her billionaire husband, but realized she lost herself in the marriage, knowing she would never be able to be anything but arm candy and known as the “billionaire’s wife”. BUT she’s back now and I say you go girl!!

Braunwyn, Kelly and Shannon are now meeting at Braunwyn’s house and its awkward from the beginning. Kelly and Shannon are still not seeing eye to eye from the problems that went on with them and Tamra from last season, and I just don’t see how this friendship will ever be re-kindled. Shannon and Kelly do end up apologizing to each other though, but I’m not confident that this will last long.

Next we meet Travis, Gina’s new man. He seems to make her really happy and even goes with Gina to her lawyer to discuss the restraining order Gina originally had on her ex-husband Matt. True love right there, guys.

Now we get to the heavy stuff. Emily and Braunwyn get together where Braunwyn openly admits to Emily that when she was in Miami she didn’t stop drinking for 4 days and that Emily was right last year when she called Braunwyn out on how much she drinks. Braunwyn is being really vulnerable and admits that she’s been drinking until she throws up since she was 14 years old, each exception being when she has been pregnant. Then, the episode ends with a bombshell – Braunwyn openly saying in her confessional that she’s an alcoholic. I told you this was going to be a storyline!! In all seriousness though, I hope she gets the help she needs, I don’t want to see anyone going through this.

Until next week!

Laura

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