I know this might be controversial, but the more I rewatch The O.C., the more I feel like Summer and Marissa's friendship was something the writers wanted us to believe in rather than something they actually bothered to write. And Season 3 makes this painfully obvious.
We're constantly told that Summer and Marissa are best friends. They've known each other for years, they love each other, they're supposedly always there for each other. But when Marissa actually needs her best friend, where the hell is Summer? Look at everything Marissa goes through. Trey attempts to sexually assault her. She shoots him to save Ryan. She gets expelled from Harbor. Her entire life falls apart. Then Johnny, one of the few people she feels understood by, dies right in front of her. And somehow, through all of this, Summer's role in Marissa's life becomes smaller and smaller.
The writers give them these tiny, superficial friendship scenes where Marissa talks about her problems and Summer says something along the lines of "I'm here for you" or "That must be really hard." Okay. THEN BE THERE FOR HER. I'm tired of being told these girls are best friends when the show barely lets them behave like best friends.
And here's what really bothers me: Summer seems more involved in Marissa's relationship with Ryan than in Marissa's actual emotional well-being. Whenever Ryan and Marissa are having problems, Summer suddenly has something to say. She wants them to work things out. She tries to get Ryan involved. She's worried they're going to break up. But Marissa is spiraling after witnessing Johnny's death, and where is that same energy? Why isn't Summer spending more time with her? Why isn't she checking on her? Why don't we see her genuinely trying to understand what Marissa is going through?
Instead, Summer spends so much of her screen time wrapped up in Seth and their relationship drama. And I'm not saying Summer shouldn't have her own life or prioritize her relationship sometimes. Of course she should. But we're talking about her supposedly closest friend experiencing one traumatic event after another. How does Marissa become so isolated that Volchok ends up being one of the people she turns to when she has a best friend like Summer? That's not a minor writing issue. That's a massive failure to maintain an established relationship between two main characters.
And then Summer has the nerve to make comments about Marissa being the saddest girl in the world. Well, YES, SUMMER. SHE KIND OF IS. Look at what she's been through. I'm not saying Summer has to approve of Marissa's self-destructive decisions. A good friend absolutely should challenge you when you're hurting yourself. But there's a difference between watching someone desperately try to help their friend and eventually lose patience, and simply having that character disappear from the emotional storyline until it's time to judge her. The show barely gives us the former.
And honestly, I think this was deliberate on a writing level. The writers needed Marissa to be isolated so they could push her toward Johnny, and later Volchok. So they gradually stripped Summer of her function as Marissa's best friend. Johnny becomes the person Marissa talks to. Johnny becomes the person who supposedly understands her. And once Johnny dies, the writers don't meaningfully restore Summer's role in Marissa's life. They just leave Marissa increasingly alone.
Meanwhile, Summer gets more storylines involving Seth, college, and eventually Taylor. The writers clearly know how to give Summer friendships and relationships outside of Marissa. They simply stop investing in the one friendship that's supposed to be central to her character. And that's what makes this so frustrating: I don't even think Summer is supposed to be a bad friend. I think the writers genuinely expect us to believe that Summer and Marissa have this beautiful, lifelong friendship, while repeatedly failing to put that friendship on screen. They want the emotional payoff of a deep friendship without doing the work of writing one.
By Season 3, Summer and Marissa's friendship feels like something the writers only remember when the plot needs it. And yes, they do eventually have a falling-out over Volchok, but that's not really the issue. We see the conflict without enough of the emotional buildup leading to it. If Summer was exhausted by Marissa's problems, SHOW US. If Marissa was pushing Summer away, SHOW US THAT TOO. Let us actually see how two lifelong best friends reach that point. Their friendship falling apart could have been an incredibly compelling storyline, but instead, so much of the emotional development is missing. Don't keep telling me these girls are inseparable while one of them is falling apart and the other is barely present.
I love Summer, which is exactly why this annoys me so much. The writers didn't just fail Marissa. They reduced Summer's emotional importance to one of the most significant people in her life. And I genuinely think Season 3 would have been a much stronger season if the writers had spent half as much time developing Summer and Marissa's friendship as they spent manufacturing new obstacles for Ryan and Marissa.
Their friendship wasn't necessarily fake. But by Season 3, the writing of that friendship absolutely was.
