If you wondered whether we’d ever find an episode of OTH that gives all the Drama Queens the feels, then look no further - this is it! We all shed a tear!
From the location, to the lessons, to BTS close calls…there's plenty of nostalgia to go around as well as stories of how it’s affected their personal lives.
Plus, the Drama Queens have some shout-outs to some real-life people that crossed their paths that they’d like to locate…could it be you? There’s only one way to find out!
First of all, you don't know me. Were all about that high school drama, Girl drama, girl, all about them high school queens. We'll take you for a ride in our comic girl Cheering for the drama Queens, Girl Fashion, but you'll tough, girl. You could sit with us Girl Drama, Queens, Drama, Queen's Drama, Queen's Drama, Drama, Queen's Drama, Queens. It's almost like the school lunch table because we assume certain roles in our friendship dynamic, and Joy has gotten so good at just doing like the synopsis that my default is to be like, I'm gonna sit back right now. I'm gonna let Joy do this. I didn't realize I was was I have I been railroading. I'm sorry, You're good at it. And then what happens is so feels really really good at ad reads and doing like the emotional work, like the therapy work, and I'm the one that does. But maybe that's true of every for the chandler being, Yeah, we've just got our we've got our jobs. So whose job is synopsis? I think you should. I think you should step out of your comfort. I agree, I think you gotta do it. Tell the people what they win to watch you guys, you can cried this episode after multiple time that the last few episodes have been real stinkers and so I was not expecting this. Yeah, Season three, episode twelve, I've Got Dreams to remember it was January six when this aired, and the synopsis is everyone is thinking of their future. After meeting with tree Hill Highs guidance counselor, Brook finds out the real reason why Rachel submitted her to Rogue Vogue. Keith is unfazed by Dan's attempt to rattle him and asked Karen out on a date, and then Nathan's failing the pressure of his basketball dreams, while Lucas takes center court and gets the attention of a college scout seriously to cover web. You know what I love? I really liked this episode. Um. I liked seeing people get what they need. Everybody's sort of gotten a little bit of what they needed. And even Brooke, when you know, when you were feeling super vulnerable and like scared of leaving high school and all that, like getting this a having an adult listen to your fears and being able to talk about those things to a grown up who is a safe space, which is just awesome. I have those fears validated and that yeah, it's scary. Um Peyton getting oh and Brook also being able to get what she needs with Rachel and still finding a way to stick up for herself. Great Peyton getting what she needs from Ellie. That beautiful. I mean, we'll, we'll, we'll hit all these moments in depth. But you know, Haley and Nathan getting what they need with each other, and the acknowledgement and um willingness to sacrifice for each other and the bridge back to each other. Nathan getting what he needs and learning how to step up and be a leader and put the team first. Lucas getting what he needs and recognizing that he's probably not going to go to college for basketball, and it's it's in the ball pardon the pun. He falls in his court to pass the baton to Nathan. Um and Keith and Karen getting what they need, and Dan gets a real good taste of his own medicine. It's everybody gets what they need. I love it. That's a great way to put it. It is I am. At the end of this episode, we were all like, who directed this? And this director is a guy named Stewart Gilad. How do we want to say his last name? That double L? There's no you, So I think it's Canadian director. And when I looked up his credits, I was like, I know, I know this guy, joy you and I geeked out. So it on this man because he directed like five episodes of Avonlea. That's right, Because you guys noticed, like we're obsessed with Anna green Gables, were obsessed with Adele, with that old series Avonlea, which is like a very Canadian old timey TV show that we loved as kids, and we kept we kept kind of noticing in this episode all these tiny little moments that meant so much. And it's very reminiscent of a show like Avonlee where you don't have like big, huge things going on. It took place in like the eight hundreds, you know, the little things are kind of the only thing that matter. And so to have a director like that come in and and make a meal out of those tender little moments, that's well, that's it reminded me of why. That's why I was saying when we were watching it, this is what people fell in love with the is white people came back to tree Hill every week because they were so in love with It's the it's the meat in between. It's the moments, the tiny moments, and especially you know you said it a minute ago joy when people have been struggling and they get what they need, it's a breath of fresh air. This whole episode felt like a breath of fresh air. And and this incoming director Stewart made these gorgeous choices. The way that he interviewed all of us in tight so that the guidance counselor, while being a great comic relief and really jumping in and being so good as a guest star, also would disappear in the moments that our characters got really vulnerable, and you got to see people share things that they've been scared to say out loud. And as as the episode went on, it got tighter and tighter and tighter, and then we were all looking into camera. Oh, I love that you noticed that I didn't see so I thought. He made such brilliant directing choices. In addition to bringing you literally into the character's world. When the Ravens were winning the championship, all the SloMo We're so gorgeous. You saw everyone have a moment of you know, holding their breath in anticipation, and then joy and us over with all the you know, the three of us with the cheerleaders and mouth and Gigi you know, screaming, and Keith and Karen, you know, a pom pomp went flying and popcorn went by in and then they under the basket when he's coming down from making that winning shot and he yeah, he makes it, and everyone grabs him and then he's just being carried and you thought he was going to have a heart attack and he didn't like every moment. Oh my god. It was so good and we needed this. We needed it, We need the audience needed it because it was the last, like I don't know, four or five episode. It's been a little rocky, and we've had so many guest directors and people coming in and trying new styles and sometimes it's like kind of takes away from the original, you know, meat of what we're trying to do, and there's just so many kind of fuzzy things that too that I feel like this nailed it. The audience, we everybody in the show got what they needed and the audience got what we needed. We needed this moment of like rah rah cheer, Yes, it's all going to work out, and the emotion. It felt like a small town in this episode. You know, so much of what our show builds into is like there's always this kind of escalation into either big city or richer kids, or you know, the more and more and more and more and more mentality. And this was a small town episode. You're back in this old timey gym that we all fell in love with. Of that gym when Keith picks Karen up for the date and the three of us were like, like, you guys don't understand. Wilmington's sidewalks at night have a very specific like sound and smell and sense memory picture and which one of you said it, You're like, I can smell it. I did, yeah, so yeah, And that and that really low hanging humidity. You get this mixture of salt water and magnolia and guardinia and old leaves because the seasons are changing and it's like all mixed together. You can't tell if it's the most beautiful smell or the strangest smell. There is no place more romantic to me than the South. Take Paris, you can have Paris. I want the South. It is so romantic, you're you know, there's there's literally bugs flying around that light up the sky like their little fairies flying around everywhere. In the summer, it's it's unbelievable. And the heat and then you know you're just like it's that sexy. I love it, and I think, especially for the three of us, that's where we came of age. You know, we talk about movies and television and these classic coming of age stories. That's what One Tree Hill is and Wilmington's was our coming of age story together and here we are. It makes me so emotional, Like we say this all the time when we go out and we speak like we're the love story, you guys, And I'm I'm having this deeply nostalgic like Stewart really brought us back, deeply nostalgic feeling about us three coming of age together on those sidewalks late at night. I can around totally here the click of our boot heels, like you know how there's like high heeled boots and I can yeah, there's just um, there's an intimacy to this small town field that we got in this episode. I say it, Yeah, there's a quietness too to those to those streets, even on the busy days, you know, the riverwalk stuff and when we would be out even when we were doing burning boat stuff, and or if you just go out downtown you're walking around, there's something that there's always around any corner. There's a there is an intimacy and a quiet that you could find just tucking into any small corner that you can't find in New York City. You can't quite find it in l A. There's always some I don't know, there's something. It's a small town thing. It's really unique to small towns knowing that you can find it and you hit it on the on the head to Hillary the wonder, there's magic in the air. There's wonder around every corner. It's not all been blown out to where be Blore jaded and it's like whatever, they're still magic. It still feels fun well to have a smaller basketball crowd too, you know, like that smaller gym really set a tone. And you know we saw in the last episode and it was so gross and the boys are cleaning it up and it just kind of felt like a device and it was like, oh, we got kicked out of our normal gym to film, so we're gonna go like take up this story, having fewer extras, being able to really like decorate the place, but have those decorations set against a backdrop of decay. You know, when you grow up in a small town that doesn't have resources and you see that decay every day, and then you're having these conversations with seventeen year old kids about what is your future going to be. I really appreciated that not all of our characters were like, oh, we're going to college, you know, yeah, what can I afford it to be able to go to college? And it's not a reality for every kid, but on TV, like a lot of the other teen dramas, it was just kind of a given, like we want to go to college, not us. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's one of the things that really resonated. I don't know with me and you know, growing up sort of middle lower class, and and I think there's just so many people that resonate with that sense of not everything is secure, not everything is certain out there, and we're all just kind of struggling by Um. That's pretty cool, Yeah, And I think it is nice to see everyone not be so confident all the time. You know, we had a lot about how there was this sort of over indexing on our show of success. Everybody became something huge. Yeah, it's it's really nice to see people just say, look, I don't know what's going to happen. I loved, you know, especially for a character like Brooke, who you know, was one of the quote unquote rich kids at school. I loved seeing behind the curtain. Thank you. I'm like, wait, I should learn to take a compliment with we're watching um. You know, I loved being able to throw her peek behind the curtain and say, this person who looks like they have it all together, is alone, has no one to talk to, doesn't know if she's good at anything, doesn't know if she's going to end up anywhere. You know, whether it's outward projection or an observer's expectation or your own fear, nobody really knows what's accurate. And so watching Peyton say I don't know if I'm going to go to school, watching Hayley say, well, what matters more to me my individual dreams or or my partnership. Having Brooke be afraid that she may not amount to anything. Once she leaves high school. These were all wind was into these people and and it feels more real. And yeah, Joy, you're right when you think about how you grew up, Like my mom went to trade school, she was a dental hygienist. Like you know, there was there wasn't a degree available to everyone, even a generation behind ours. And the reality is there wasn't a degree available to and everyone in our generation, and there certainly isn't a degree available to everybody now. And I appreciate the representation. Yeah, well, and that's that's where I was going with it, is that Brooke represents a demographic that does exist. There's not there's no shame in being wealthy, There's no shame in growing up that way. That's that's that is a demographic of people who grew up that way. But it doesn't take away the humanity and the things that we struggle with. And that's what I love Brooke representing, is that she's she's still just just a girl standing in front of a high school wondering, I'm just a girl standing in front of my college counselor asking is anyone ever gonna love me? In the most fabulous little argyle sweater. This episode was so really two thousands were they were redeemable. Okay, they were some cute stuff. All the kids are wearing it now. I mean now it's ironic, but they're still wearing it. God Bless Latter Clueless made an impact not just on us, but on generations to come. Thank you, Alicia's that's right. I love it. I love it so much. But like you, you mentioned our guest actress Donna Cooper, who played the school counselor what like a huge job. You know she's got she's got a scaffold this entire storyline and also be someone trustworthy in the course of like one episode. Why we didn't have her all the time? Who knows? I don't know, who knows. Might have been nice, God Well, to see Brooke open up to someone, to see an adult that's able to get in there with the kids in a meaningful way. She would have been a great series regular. Actually, it would have been so nice to say. I mean, I guess Whitey sort of served that purpose, but he's not. He's so much older than us, and you know, I love the wisdom that he offers. But also there's there's an element of just there's always going to be a miss a Mr misconnection, missconnection there with someone with that big of an age difference, and we would have been really nice. She was great. I mean, the idea that these meetings were such a big deal. Do you guys remember your counselor meetings? Oh yeah, you do? Do you you don't remember? It wasn't a big deal. Well, I think I was one of those like turbo kids that had it so planned out. I was just like, I don't need you to ask me a questions, Like I'm getting out of here, I'm going to New York. I've been saying it since I was eleven, Like we don't need to talk about it. I got it. And so this kind of idea that like, oh, we're going to have these big meetings with the counselor. It was so you're telling me it's real. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, it happens. I mean I definitely had one. I was going to go to RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. I was like, that was my dream school for ever. I was I'm getting the hell out of here and going to London. That was my plan years America. This is stupid, that's right. Yeah, I felt that way for sure. I just wanted to get to London. It's all I ever wanted to do. Was like, I'm want to go do theater and British TV and like costume dramas and I don't care about anything else. And then uh so I had. I had begun filling out my application. I was like halfway through, and I've been talking with my guidance counselor about it. And my grades weren't awesome, but I'm also an actor, so I think they you know, and I had like a long history of work behind me, and so I felt like, yeah, yeah, exactly. My grades in history and English were really good. They didn't Rodda probably doesn't care about math, so thank god, so I got you know, I got really close, and I was I was ready to submit, and then um I got the Guiding Light and it was a two year series regular job, and I knew I obviously couldn't do both, and um so I just chose the I chose the job. I was like, well, if I could start working straight out of school, why don't I just do that? And then if I if that job ends and I don't get more work. Well, then I'll go to school because Rod is still going to be there. Um. But then, you know, I kept working, so my dream school still sitting out there. Maybe I'll go when I'm like sixty guys, okay saying Sophia, can I do that? You guys? I love this because Hill similarly to you, I had a plan in high school and I I was doing all this crazy community service work my senior in high school and every I just had no free time. That was like when I probably started over scheduling myself and I'm still trying to unlearn that and and I so I really had a plan and it was like this is what I'm doing on you know, every day until the end of the year. And UM, USC was my top choice because I knew I wanted to be in school but also be acting. And the counselor meeting that was the most impactful for me, which was weirdly mirrored in this episode. I went to USC for the b FA Theater program. You know, I did the audition and it's like a really big deal, You're coming to get a Bachelor of Fine Arts and UM and they accept fourteen students on audition per year and blah, and I got there and I was like, I hate this. Um. All we do all day is like sit around in an empty black box theater and we do scenes and then people who, well, why did you make that choice? And I was like, aren't you supposed to not like the actors self conscious about their choices, rather than perhaps like teaching you to be malleable, to be able to make dramatically different choices ever more quickly, like maybe that maybe maybe plan B should be the plan. And I was like, I don't think I like this. And I transferred into the journalism school. So I was doing a theater minor and I was doing a major in journalism, and I was like this it was resonating for me. It was telling real stories about real people and their real life experiences, and that was where you know, plays, television scripts, film scripts and and being a good truthful actor met For me, it was in the balance of those classes. And I was gearing up for my senior year at USC. I was the philanthropy chair, I was doing all these things. Everything felt like a big deal, very much like Brooke Davis being like, it's my last chance to take my team to Nationals. What am I gonna do, and I booked and I was supposed to test for one trial. I booked this you know, the callback happened, and then Joy we saw each other and then we're going in for the final test. And I knew that if I signed the test deal and I booked it, I'd have to move in two weeks. And I was like, but it is my senior year in college. And I went to see my advisor in USC Annenberg School of Journalism, Annie Matine. Shout out to Annie, sweet Annie, this like lovely woman who had never heard raise her voice or swear at anyone. When I explained to her the conundrum I was having of like, this is my one senior year in college of my life. Looked at me and went, are you out of your mind? And I was like what? And she just said, you you've been working for years for this. You can always come back to college. You will not always get this opportunity. So go, oh, God bless Annie. We got God bless Annie. Right. And so I thought to myself, much like you did. I mean, you know what these shows about high school? How long could they last to? Maybe four years? I'll go, I'll go, and then I'll go do my senior year in college. And then I turned thirty right after we wrapped, and I was like, I don't think I'm ever going back. I want to, but because is that they really want to? We've only got to go to college of time, let's go where we're watching episodes of this show, like eventually in a couple of years will run out of One Tree Hill episodes. Then do we just go to college together? Since we didn't do a podcast? Is there any other answer? But yes, yeah, drama to go to college. Okay, By the way, you guys won't be surprised. But I had my favorite professor from the USC in a Berg School of Journalism, Professor Christopher smith Uh come on as a guest on Work in Progress and I interviewed him about you know, what he remembered and how he how he teaches kids to analyze the world around them and all person and I said, damn. I was like Professor Smith, I like, I really I want to come back, like we do a specialized final year of study, Like would you be my my sponsored professor? And he was like absolutely so if you guys want to go to USC, we can go. Kim Kardashi and can go to law school and pass the bar. Sure z, Yeah we can. I appreciate that about she made school accessible again, you know, like in your thirties and forties. I love it. I'm all for us going to school because I I liked learning. I liked that classroom environment. I think a lot of what we do feels like the kinds of debates and analysis that we were doing just about, like not teen drama, like we we used to talk about the Ming Dynasty and the way we talk about Tree Hill. Um. Yeah. Yeah, I think we go to school and I still feel the year that our characters felt in this episode. You guys, what if we go to school and then we run a radio show on campus. Yeah, and then we'll put on a benefit show and we'll make Joy Slash Hailey perform. We'll be like Frasier when he like started getting punked by college kids because he was on the radio at the college. You guys didn't see that episode. Never moving on to Dan's short tie, Oh my god, Hey, do you know why this episode felt so good because it's like the first time Dan's failing. Yes, yeah, that's another that's a great point. Yeah, And the first year we've seen him have a feeling. In many episodes they made him and I know we talked about this last week. They made him like such a mustache twirler lan. And in this episode he is running into who evidence of his own failures, evidence of how other people are loved in ways he isn't. He's suffering the accountability of his cruelty, and it is a relief. We don't want the bad guys to win. As I was just gonna say, it's like, this is why we watch stories like I've been watching the Harry Potter Marathon with Maria, like this is why, because we we need to know that the good guys come out on top at some point. And you know, and uh, and I love it. I love seeing Dan. It's not that I love seeing him suffer. I love seeing this element of justice happen where the and and people living in a space of freedom, like what Karen and Keith are doing. It's like, you can't get me down, man, no matter what you do to me. You can. You can keep trying, but I'm always going to get back up. Craig Scheffer standing m v P of this episode. My God, the fun he's having when he's in holding at the jail, out of here. I didn't do to that guy. Meanwhile the crime, I'm like, lawyer, could you just if you could start a stop talking, don't don't ever talk to the cops. Don't ever talk to the cops. But the way he triggers Dan to come in and show who he really is, that he has been the violent one all these beats, let's leave. Yeah, no reason to bring mom into it, Danny. Incredible, But that moment at the end to get back to start joy, Greg Cheffer standing in the rain looking like an old timey movie star, just with like grown up James Dean energy, saying totally isn't your life Danny? Oh yeah, I was like, I want a movie of this. I want more of this episode. I need, I need more of these two. It was gorgeous. He looks good in the rain. I think Craig Shepherds just always carry around rain above him. Just you know what, that opportunity right there where Keith approached Dan's car could have been a very catty line. It could have been something really snarky. Well he did say, I hope you have your pants on? Well he did, But it's not your life, Danny, is an admonishment that is gentle and sad and kind of cautionary, you know, because for how many years did Keith look in on Karen and Lucas and Dan say like, it's not your life that was that's my kid, that's my ex you know. Um yeah, that's right. Keith could have gone full at all, and instead he was really gentle, just like, drive away, this is not yours. Um. After Dan has just created such havoc. You know what I thought was so wise about it, not just the way it was written. There are things Craig did in that first scene in the jail he goes police, oh, like his choices. And what you're making me realize is you talk about the way the scene happened. Is Craig made a choice. You could punch someone with that or you could like slowly gut them with it. And he slowly and gently gutted Dan with that, saying I know how much you hate your life. Yeah, it's all your fault. This life is mine and look around you, man, like it cuts right to the center because of all of us, but especially if a guy like Dan, a narcissist, a violent narcissist. Its spending time sitting in his car outside of you know this cafe, was sitting and watching his Scott is a stalker. Isn't at the high school. He's my business either in her kitchen or in her restaurant. But it's it's just such an interesting way to watch essentially a duel, and and Keith doesn't do some big violent sword move. He just gets him right in the center of his heart and it's quick and it's like it's like Dan never sees it coming. I don't know why this became a fencing movie to me all of a sudden, Yes, I would watch the hell out of these two doing more of this. You can, I think if you go see Berserker, the movie that they shot in South Africa. And then okay, wait when we're all together, when we're all together in September and we have a summer party, that's what we have to Also, what I liked is that Dan makes such a big deal out of I have delivered this scout to you, Nathan. I have delivered this scout and I've done it out of control, and I've done it out of ego, and it's the me show Scouts here because of Dan Scott. And then in reality, what ends up happening is his brother, the kid he shot on for years, and the person who he handed the spotlight over to in this game is the person that hand delivers the scout to Nathan. It comes from a place of love and a place out of mutual respect, out of this like ego driven place, and Dan just has to stand back and watch it. He used to watch Lucas deliver on a silver platter the meal that he thought he cooked, you know, and it's just white. He coming through with the good parenting of refusing to allow Nathan to play, even though he knew the scout was there, and even though it was those are the moments, as parents were, it's really hard to do the right thing. That iPad all the time, and we have to say no, that's right. There's moments in life when you just have to say no, or you just have to like put your foot down and say, I'm sorry, this is the consequence for whatever you did a B or C. I know it's prom but you're grounded because blah blah blah, and I'm sorry, I know this really sucks, but you did do this. And but but people have to learn that there's consequences for their actions in English. Joy, I just gotta see in English. I don't know how because this child is like my child, you know. Oh, he's so smart. Get to see in English. And I say, you have to read books this summer. And it's like I've taken away that I've had. He has to read a book. He's devastated. He's Nathan Scott on that bench. Okay. After we got done taping yesterday, I go and I'm sitting at my desk and my son comes into my office devastated, blubbering, blubbering because he has finished of Mice and Men, the book I assigned to him. And it was the most rewarding moment ever because he's like, this book is crazy and experiences here the joy of watching those Scott brothers. The Yeah, I have watched the click happen. It's the class and you can't do everything for them. You just have to set it up, like here's the parameters. I'm not in control of what happens, but here's here's the parameters. And then they showed up. They showed up for each other. It's good. It's good. You've got to go through the pain before you can appreciate the click. Well, I think there's something so inspiring to thinking about the ways in which we all had to learn to be who we've really truly feel like we are, to be a little less afraid, to be a little less conformist, you know, a little less um blindly trusting of authority even and then too, you know, to watch all of our friends kind of raising this next generation. I'm the most impressed watching my friends, watching what you both are talking about in this moment. And and so many of the women in our lives be parents when they exemplify Oh no, I can't make my kid do anything, and I can't have expectations about who they are. What I can give them is rules and structure tools to be the best versions of themselves as they grow into who they are, because they they're their own people. And it's so cool to watch because you you see the click over and over again, you see it work, and you go, damn, I picked really good friends, they're really good parents. You just have to do the hard thing. That's that's what's hard, is doing the hard thing. But there's always a payoff, you know, well, and we see it with Lucas and Karen in this episode, which is really nice because you know, she gave him the speech last episode about him spending the night at Brooks and she's like, look, you're almost eighteen. You're gonna be gone next year. I can't can't hover, but I really need you to make smart choices, and you've got to attempt your heart as well as other stuff. And for him in this episode to sit down and be like, Okay, we're going on a date with Keith. You beautiful. You know, like that kind of relationship is it's something you fight hard for because it would have been really easy for Karen to pawn him off on camps and like you know, and and doing the things that we've talked about as parents, Like it'd be so easy for me just to hand off responsibility to somebody else. Instead, I'm going to have those difficult conversations with you, and I'm going to listen to you, which is oftentimes the hardest part about parenting. The listening. Yeah, just listening and not offering advice unless they ask. I mean, sometimes you have to speak up, but like a lot of times it's just the listening. Like, wow, I mean I have ideas about that. If you ever want to hear my opinion, but I'm you know, I hear you. I'm sorry you have to go through that. That's rough. And then you're like text each other and we're like, is this the right thing to do? You're like, I actually know the answer and I've been there, but you don't want to hear it because you don't think I know anything. And it's me to see a mother's son relationship modeled in this like lovely, healthy way is it makes me hopeful. Maybe this is why grown ups liked our show, because they were like, I guess hope this is what would happened. I missed Dev in this episode. I would have liked to see some moments of her like trying to figure some stuff out too, but I know they only had so much time. But that would have been what would Dev have been doing in this episode if she had been in it, I mean, should have been the third wheel on the Karen Keith date. That's probably why they kept around, just to keep that tidy, because you know, um, maybe she'd have been in therapy, she's talking to her own guidance counselor that would have been it would be really nice, do you our grown ups ever go to therapy, any of the grown ups in the show. I'm trying to think that would have been a kind of I like that we did this as a time capsule episode because it was like the time capsule confessional episode, you know, but it would have been really fun to do the same thing with like the kids in the guidance Counselor's office and all the adults in therapy right honestly, Like you know, Jeff went and did a rewatch of the Sopranos uh last like during the pandemic. I think everybody did um and watching that show back as an adult with Tony Soprano in the therapist office hit very differently than when that show aired when we were eighteen nineteen years old, and it was sort of kitchy back then. It was just like Lobster goes to therapy, watching this grown man try to game his therapist and like work around it and then then actually maybe trying to do some real work. It was very interesting, and it would have been lovely to have that device in our show with Dan Scott having an outlet like therapy like Scott and Therapy is a whole spinoff friends, ye oh, would not be that man's therapist. But how different would everything have been if he had had a Lorraine Broco to be like not today? Mr. How great was Cheryl in this episode Sherley, Oh my gosh, I just she made me so emotional walk it was that her choice just to be crying at the table, because what was that about scripted? I don't think. I think I think Peyton asks her, are you sure you're okay? Oh? Yeah? So maybe it was. And there's something really lovely about the fact that we didn't get into it, do you know what I mean? Sometimes we talk stuff today and the idea that this grown up is that the dining room table cry and a kid is just so in her own bubble that she's like, I mean, I guess if you say you're okay, you're okay. You know, I wouldn't have pushed a grown up when I was a kid. Well when it played, because she was emotional about being proud of you, and it seems like that's genuinely where it was mostly coming from. She's so good and I think she's so earnest in it, and all the stuff she says is just everything I ever want to grown up to say to me, And so it's so hard to watch because I'm just like, because I know it's going to get taken away, and I want it for Payton and I want it for myself, and I'm just like, oh no, it really is the worst band aid that's ever been ripped off professionally to have fairly in our orbit and then have her go away because you're just like, what why please? No, don't not that one. No. But but she's so cool in the episode. You know, Peyton's talking to her about her girlfriend's sex life. You know, what a cool relationship. I hope that I can talk to my daughter in that way where it's like friends with benefit you like, you can, Brandon, that's whatever you want. But that's just slip around. Yeah, that's not that's not really gonna work for you. Yeah. And then she's got the where with all to like be like, okay, so who are used going on with? And you know what's what's kind of interesting is that Peyton gives such a vague answer that we don't know if she's talking about Jake or she's talking about Lucas, because she says he was my friend and there were benefits and now he's gone and we don't really know who she's talking about. We we assume she's talking about Jake. But in her storyline in the first three seasons of Peyton, the person who is consistently her friend in tough moments is Lucas. Yeah. Um, And so it's again one of these little tiny bread crumbs. We had one either in the last episode or two episodes ago where Peyton subconscious was like, should Lucas be with you and not Brooke? This is another one of those bread crumbs where it's like, yeah, I was wondering the same thing. I was like, is she talking about Jake or is she talking about Lucas? She didn't say a name. I didn't heard Jake, but but not like like what Ellie's saying, if you can find your best friend who is also your lover, isn't that the fairy tale? Yeah? That's it? Yeah, I mean kind of can Ellie man just coming in with the one two? She just knows what's up every time, and you know it's interesting too, Like there have been so many movies, shows, books made, and read and experience that revolve around the idea of what you learn before you die, like what what you kind of are able to put in perspective when you you know, when people find out they have terminal illnesses. And Ellie really comes in like that sort of oracle. She sees all of it. She's got all the perspective, you know. She she's able to kind of zoom in and get really sharp in all these lessons. And I would love to know from the writers if some of that was meant to mirror, you know, the stories we've all read about you know, this is what I learned being a hospice nurse, this is what I learned having terminal cancer, Like we've all read those, right, And I really get that kind of energy from her and from the way she talks to you, and I think it's so beautiful, and I would I would just love to know how intentional that was, you know, I want to be like Ellie, Like she's so frank. Like I loved that cut where it's what were you doing after high school? And it cuts to Ellie and she goes drugs because I think that there's a way to be a parent that is disarming with your kids. Like we live, you know, in New York, and we go into the city all the time, and obviously We're in Washington Square Park all the time, and there's just like drugs everywhere. Everybody's smoking weed, everybody's like skateboarding. It's an eyeful for a twelve year old boy. And so you know, it's like I want to I would like to imagine that I am more of an Ellie parent, where I'm just like, what do you want to know? Like, let's talk you, Let's be real safe about stuff, Let's be smart about stuff. Um. I try and do that too. You gotta just level with them. Man, they're not dumb, yeah for sure. Well, and they're hearing it at school. Yea, better they hear it from us the cool damn right. I don't think it's so important to disarm some of that for your kids. Like I know how effective that was for me. You know, my mom talking to me about being in her early twenties in Manhattan and going to Studio fifty four and all the stuff she saw. Yeah, Marine does not seem like the kind of person that hides much. She's just like, yeah, oh my god, my we're attired. Is so fun. My mom came into my house, you guys a couple of weeks ago, and I was like I'm thirsty and opened the fridge and grabbed a can. And I don't even know where these came from. Jenny. Y'all know Jenny and one of my best friends. Probably many of you listening at home, No, Jenny, and Jenny loves a can, so I think we just have them here. But it's like that, like C A A, and I think they're like a they're like a weed soda and I think them like a pr office and they're just here. I've never had one that's not particularly want to be a sponsor on drama queens. I mean, we'll take it. And my mom my mom grabs a kid and I go, oh my god, mom, Mom, Mo, mo mom. And she's like what she's like opening it and I go, there's weed in that. That's not like a it's not just a ginger whatever. And she goes, yeah, it's two milligrams. It looks at me like I'm a loser. And I was like, oh, I mean, okay, enjoy it. And she was like, you need to relax. You should drink one of these. And I was like, okay, okay, lady, we're calling me up tight. But what I was say is like I think back you know, it's funny for me now at our age, I think back to being young and my parents, because of their own experiences and their experiences and their family, we're able to really clarify some things for me because as a kid, you learn like, dare drugs are bad, you know, and what the adults do is good. And my parents were like, listen, some drugs are legal and some are. Yeah, we were in high school. Marijuana wasn't legal. Granted it was everywhere, but my parents were like, look, there's really no difference between marijuana and tobacco. One just made so much money for corporations that they were able to make the other one illegal. They'll both fuck you up and there and only one is addictive and we'll give you cancer. You make your decisions, you know. Some some people labor and I'm not, by the way out here saying like everybody should try every drug because there's no difference there. There obviously are, But my parents were like, listen, that's right, all in cats. But you know, my my dad's dad and I can say this because you know, both my dad's parents were no longer with us, but my dad's dad was an alcoholic, and my parents were very clear, like, listen, everybody drinks because it's legal. Alcohol is also a drug. Like they gave me very clear perspectives on being careful in all sorts of arenas and respecting how I felt under any version of influence I might want to try at any time. As I grew up, you know, just because when thing is legal doesn't mean it won't put you in a dangerous situation. Figure out how you feel. And that was more illuminating for me thinking back, like at Gus's age, than anything else, because it gave me agency two understand that I could observe things as they are, not just as someone told me they were, not just like, yeah, it's fine to chug beers all weekend because everybody in college is doing it. I was like, I mean, I love a good beer as much as the next person, But like the people doing keg stands and beer box gets so drunk they throw up on themselves and that's embarrassing, you know. Like that's the thing about freedom. You can't just there. There's no such thing as just do whatever you want. But we have conflicting desires at all times. You want to go party and get drunk and get high, The freedom you're giving up is the freedom to think clearly and have a more you know, organized life, being able to function on a high level. If you're going to live this other way, so you want that freedom, you're giving up this freedom. If you want the freedom to be able to do, you know, live a life where you're um coherent, you're working on yourself, you're constantly um functioning on a level that is uh beneficial, then you have to give up the freedom to go live a life where you're constantly filling yourself up with things like drug and alcohol, drugs and alcohol. Um. And that's something that was never I mean, I was always a pretty good kid and I didn't do well. I hate that term good kid. Um. I was. I was a pretty safe kid, um in terms of until that drugs pain came along. Don't get me started, you know. But but but yeah, nobody ever really talked to me about that idea of like, we'll think about what you're giving up on either end. You're going to make your decisions, like you're saying, so if you know you're gonna make your decisions, but just think about what you're giving up on either side. There's no such thing as just total freedom doesn't exist well. And I think something's interesting about what you're saying is we get stuck in this false binary a lot. And you know, Joy, I've heard you say like, I wish I was I wish I gave myself permission to be more wild when we were in our twenties, and I meanwhile, I mean, sister Hillary was like, well, I probably could have sobered up a little. If we met in the middle, we would have been unstoppable. But that's it, you guys. What I'm saying here is I think if we're more honest with each other, with our kids, if our parents had had the language that you know now that we're in this amazing era of mental health awareness that we have, like there could have been a little more grace for the flexible. Yeah, you're not, there's no what's a good kid? Great exactly, But if you want to experiment, can you do that safely? You will make mistakes that you'll wish you could take back, and you'll do some things that adults in the room might tell you, we're a mistake that will be your favorite memories of your life. Like let's make calculated risks. Yeah, calculated risk like because let me tell you what. And for our friends at home, we're pros that calculated risk. Now we're more fun than we've ever been. I love us. I love us so much more now than I did when we were twenty two, and I loved us a lot then. Yes, devoid of parenting. Um to have this, you know, guest actress who's doing this arc come in and like, bomb after bomb after bomb is just like listen, if you're going to fool around with a boy, awesome, make sure it's worth it. Hey, if you're going to do drugs, I did drugs. I'm here, I'm a functional person. You could do better than that. You know, that earnestness and that honesty. I was just so hungry for it, and I hope we continue to get more of it because I know, like other parents come in, like Daphne comes in eventually, joy, your mom comes back after I leave. You know, like we get it, but like you know, we would only get it in little, tiny doses. We did get some parenting in this episode, though, and that I loved that. We saw Karen talking with Lucas, we saw the Elle moment, We saw Whitey doing the right thing for his for his boys, his team, um and whiskey glass and put it in the drawer and closed the drawer. When did that happen? Nathan goes into Whitey's office after the aim and it's like, I know you had to do that, you know, Like, yeah, I just want to talk to you about scouts. Whitey has, you know, a hard earned glass of whiskey sitting on his desk, and rather than leave it there, which is inappropriate, he takes it and puts it in his desk drawer and just slowly closes the drawer like the child have been looking away. Child has already seen the glass. The child knows what is happening, and he's just like, this is a formality. You never saw anything. You gave no attention. No, that's great. I need some whiskey. How's your how's your whiskey line? Going home? Dude? We I have so tomorrow I'm going to an event at the Beakman Boys estate because they're the Beakman Boys. Um. Beakman Boys are a couple um that moved up here to the Hudson Valley years and years and years ago. They bought a goat farm. They completely employed their whole town with a line of like Goat soap and like all these like fabulous boutique products. And if anyone exemplifies UM caring for their community and building opportunities for small towns and rural areas, it's them. And so I read their book before we bought our farm and they were like my heroes. So tomorrow they're doing this event at their estate and they're using m F Libations as like their cocktail at the dinner, and it's so nice. I can't wait to go. And I'm gonna play with baby goats and it's gonna be drinking. Meanwhile, I am going to a friend's house to have some drinks tonight, and I'm bringing a bottle of wine that came to me from Drink Good Wine and very excited about this. I've got a case of six I've been drinking the white. One of the whites is in my freezer right or sorry, my fridge right now, Grant has I don't really drink wine. White wine are like crazy. The oranges are insane. I'm saving them. Actually, that's what I'll bring them I'll bring tonight is an orange wine. Okay, So anyway, I'm excited about both of your family like our companies and just wanted to suck you guys fun. Um, we have some listener questions. Alex wants to know. I noticed there's a wedding nearly every season. Was that intentional? That's hysterical? Wasn't intentional by the writers. Somebody in the art department was probably sleeping with a local florist. They're like, so when I was on the Earth Carolina Film Commission, that was one of the like how many small businesses benefit from film in a place like Wilmington's, you know, and when you look at like the catering we do for dinners and food many and things like weddings and funerals on our TV show would blow up a florists yearly income. Do you guys remember speaking of what those those film mission research pieces. I remember after our show wrapped. Um, and you know, again, guys, we were just like a family show. We weren't doing you know, crazy stunts and blowing things up, I mean very often, but you know, the just the amount of investment. They talked about, how not money spent insularly on our show, like within the studio, you know, per episode, but money that filtered from our show filming in Wilmington's out into the city and state. In nine seasons, our show generated two hundred and fifty six million dollars investment into North Carolina hotels awesome, like hotel rooms rented to Hillary's point, you know, catering for second meal that came from the Chinese restaurant or from the books on Front Street, like the you know, if we were shooting a wedding that was eight days and eight days, we needed forty six flower arrangement day wedding. And it's not just like a four hour wedding or like a six hour wedding. It's like a fifteen to seventeen our wedding. And I think that's a that's part of the story that gets lost there. There's this real weird narrative that's been pushed about Hollywood and film and TV. And it makes me laugh because I'm like, first of all, nobody works in Hollywood all over the country from Jersey. We're all from Jersey, but we um biography by the way, Joy can't wait. But there's like, there really is this incredible thing anywhere that a that a show or a film pops up. You create a community, and you also boost a community. And so it's funny, you know. I like when people are like, why do you TV people care so much about healthcare, I'm like, because we all have health care because we're in a union, you know, like we want other people to be able to be in unions and like go to the doctor for like not a million dollars a year. That's a and I and I think it's I get really proud when we get to talk about the way that our storytelling has been able to stand up in communities like Wilmington's and in states, you know, like our former home state, and we get to, you know, we get to support all these cool small businesses and the clothing stores. So that was our favorite wedding though of all the weddings, Oh, of all the weddings, what was our favorite wedding? I really had fun at Nathan and Haley's wedding where the car goes off the bridge, because it was just so much to do, and um, it was in such a beauty. We were shooting on this gorgeous property and it was like old and historic and there were so many I don't know, everybody was there and it was a big party and everything was in a different location, so it wasn't all in one room. So we were moving from like places on the property to different places. And and then there's like a car going off literally went off the edge, and we had Michael Trucko with us, and there's like guys in the water trying to shoot the alligators. There was a lot going on. I liked that wedding those but that was that was the one. Have I told the story yet about when I was I couldn't get there because my flight. I missed my flight and we had to shoot that day. We had a helicopter set up for that for that day, Like there were shots from a helicopter. There were like guys set up in the water. It was a huge, huge, huge day. And I was flying back from wherever I was, probably l A or Washington or something, and um, I was sitting in the Atlanta airport and I had my headphones on and they changed the gate and I didn't hear it, and I missed the flight and it was the last flight out and I had to be there. I had to be there at like six thirty in the morning. So I literally this is this is some real bougie guys. This is the kind of stuff that actors do at the last minute because we're so scrambly, because because you don't want to get fired and you don't want to make everybody wait, like a crew of two hundred people wait for you know, an extra six hours. Like it's it was bad. It was like the worst case scenario. And I went down to like budget rent a car, and I said, because I knew I had to sleep because I had to work the whole next day and I had it was like my wedding day and it was craziness and I had to sleep. So I found this woman that looked trustworthy, and I said, I will pay you a thousand dollars to drive me to Wilmington, North Carolina tonight, and she did. She was not even a car service, just the lad because it just was no time. There was no time to like find a car was back then, that's right, that's right. Everybody was closed. Yeah, and it was you know, I was twenty one, I mean whatever. So she was like, this is really weird, but I kind of trust you, and um, I also like I've seen your show, so I know you're not crazy. Let me get my boyfriend and you know, so that I'm not alone in the car with you strange ladies, and they drove me to will join does Banasa? Guys, how do we find this woman? We have to find the podcast. Okay, yeah we do. That would be amazing if we has heard their friend tell this story, Like, have I never told you? That's the time I had to drive joy less? You know, um, somebody I slept in the backseat. I woke up in Wilmington's. I mean I just kind of I tried to sleep. You know, it's like a little scary three iPhones. We were so resourceful, Like damn, that's so there's no excuse when like an assistant that I hire can't figure something out like they do how to, Like I can't. I can't. I just can't. Yeah. Yeah, I like this. Oh man, I can't wait to find this woman. I love this wedding so much more juicy because I know how hard you worked for it. You know you had to be there. We need to know her. Yeah, yeah, please, if you're out there, call us, text us. Let's spend a while. Yeah, I don't know how you top that. Joey can't. We're done. I'm just gonna pay these two people most likely to get kidnapped is Bethany Joy. Let's get in the back seat of your car, Please don't kill me. Most likely to the it's great. Most likely the crash of wedding is going to be that woman who drove me from Atlanta to North Carolina. She's like, what are you guys filming today? Come? Wait? Why are you pointing to yourself? So I've done it um years ago? Oh my god, years and years ago. I can't remember. I wonder if we were still in Wilmington's or maybe if it was the first year after we wrapped. I don't know, but I was in Philadelphia. I was there to speak to the Girl Scouts. I gave a talk to like hundred young girls on you know, activism and community service, sweet little angels. It must have been right after we wrapped our show, and I was with my friend Erica, who is like a crafting maven, and she had also come to the Girl Scouts conference and took them through crafts. We had the time of our lives with all these little kids. It was like being camp counselors again. And all I wanted was a cheese steak. We were in Philadelphia. I was like, there is the iconic spot. I gotta go. And there was like a dinner plan that because we had a bunch of friends in town, and I was like, I gotta take a detour. I gotta get cheese take on the way to dinner. I know that's ridiculous, but I'm doing it. And Erica was like, Oh, come with you. And so we had to walk from this diner to this other restaurant we were going to, and there was this party that just looked so fun, and she was like, look at those lights. I want to I want to get a close up look at those. You know, she's thinking like I could build those. And we walk over and somebody kind of gives us this weird look and and and I don't know, let's say, I'm gonna use y'all's names for fun, like, oh, are you here for Hillary and Joy? And we were like yeah. She's got her phone out and she's like looking at you know, she's trying to like sneak a picture of these cool lights that are changing colors. And she's like, let's just speak inside for one minute. And we go in and we realize we're at a wedding, and I'm like, Erica we have to go. And she's like, absolutely not. We're here. We made it in. That guy at the door's police security. Thank god, we're dressed up. And I was like, I feel very uncomfortable, and she was like, you are not. I am a calculated risk taker. This was not a calculated risk. This was an immediate risk. Also not to like, you know, say this thing that's gross, but like we've been on TV for a long time. We're not exactly inconspicuous. And I'm like Erica, and she goes, this will be good for you. Come on, we would like start walking in. She's she's amazing. And we walk in and like someone comes around with champagne. She's like, get a champagne. She's like, give me five minutes and if you're having a miserable time, we'll leave. And either way we'll leave intent. And I go, okay, okay, okay. So I'm like taking a deep breath, no sw I'm like, my hands are so clammy telling you this story. Four minutes into this Philadelphia wedding, which by the way, ruled, wish I'd gotten the name of the band and they were amazing. Um, this guy with a camera comes over and goes want to record a video for the bride and groom, and Erica looks at me like literally gives me the ideare you face? And I downed my champagne and went, we sure do a video message together for this couple we've never met, probably complimenting their lighting scheme, and then we went to dinner. This is genius. Oh my gosh, it's so good. I love the impulsiveness. I love If you're the person whose wedding I crashed in Philadelphia, please send us the video. Guys, we have so many time projects for the fan base. This week you have to find Joyce Driver and Sophia's bride and groom. This also shout out to our detectives. Have you guys seen the tweets about Tyler, Elvis and Chris Isaac? Wait what, oh joy I'm gonna send him to I have not been on social media and so long I saved the tweets. People put Chris Isaac and Elvis in one of those face melder things and the man that comes out is Tyler Hilton with black hats. Une send me these psh there are we love y'all? Yeah, thank you. I'm a big fan of all their hard work so much easier on it. It's incredible. You guys, you are the best. Um. Okay, So next week we have episode thirteen, The Wind that Blew My Heart Away. Our contest winner Amanda told us that this was going to be the episode that made us really happy. She didn't you know. She was like, wait to get the thirteen. That's when you get your show back. But I really feel like twelve was a strong Maybe she just had the numbers off. This is a good one. I was really into this one. Baby baby size jim Um. All right, ladies, I love you both so much. Hey, thanks for listening. Don't forget to leave us a review. You can also follow us on Instagram at Drama Queens O t H or email us at Drama Queens at I heart radio dot com. See you next time. We are all about that high school drama. Girl Drama, Girl, all about them high school queens. We'll take you for a ride in our comic Girl Cheering for the Right Tea. Drama Queens draws my girl up girl fashion, but your tough girls. You could sit with us. Girl Drama Queens, Drama Queens Drama, Queen's Drama Drama Queen's Drama, Queens