WEDNESDAY: Beverly Hills 90210
THURSDAY: Dawson’s Creek
TODAY: The O.C.
1. Episode 1.19, The Heartbreak
I remember watching this episode when it originally aired (which actually was few days after V-Day) and being so POed and disappointed that Ryan wasn’t just ready and willing to get back with Marissa after the Oliver debacle. I remember my mom explaining to my 16-and-a-half-year-old self that Ryan’s trust and faith had been betrayed and that’s not an easy thing to get over. But lucky for me I’m a sucker for episodes where someone is broken-hearted. And lucky for us we get some comic relief when Seth and Summer’s romance finally comes to climax (no pun intended, I swear!). At the end, he sweeps her off her feet and it feels like we’re swept off ours, too.
Unlike the Chrismukkah episodes, where all four eps are must-mentions, I can’t say the same for the show’s take on Valentine’s Day. The V-Day episodes in seasons 2 and 3 are mediocre and the holiday doesn’t even get a mention in season 4. (See correction in comments.)
And thus we move on tomorrow to One Tree Hill, where it gets even more disappointing…
TeenDramaWhore 
Actually, in season 4 Taylor gives Ryan a scrapbook and says that she was going to give it to Ryan on Valentine’s day but she couldn’t wait.
Ah, thanks, Alyssa. So it does get a mention but it’s certainly not a “Valentine’s Day” storyline.
Okay, after I posted that comment I started to think that there was another mention in the fourth season and I did some digging and sure enough 4×13 “The Case of the Franks” is a Valentine’s Day episode. The very first scene is Taylor baffled by Ryan’s proposal that they do nothing for V-day because he doesn’t want to put too much pressure on the holiday. And the rest of the episode is all about who Julie will choose (Bullit or Frank) and about the poem Summer read in elementary school with flashbacks and flashbacks with Kirsten and Jimmy when they were younger, so it does have a romantic theme. I remember actually liking that episode, I liked the flashbacks and I liked that Julie chose Frank enough though he didn’t have that much to offer her.
I think the timing of the episode airdates got messed up because “The Groundhog Day” was actually a week before the real Groundhog Day and this V-day episode aired nearly two weeks before the 14th.
P.s. I wasn’t trying to prove you wrong. I didn’t think there was a V-day episode either, but then it started to bug me until I looked it up lol
Alyssa, you ROCK! This episode aired February 1 and totally threw me off. But now I remember very well, thanks to you, that it is indeed a Valentine’s Day episode. And I now I also remember that I LOVED it. As regular readers know, I’m a sucker for flashbacks so getting more of the Seth/Summer story and the Jimmy/Kirsten/Sandy story that way was just awesome. And even the Julie/Frank story had its “aw”-worthy moments. (Seriously, Julie in a love triangle?! But it worked!) So had I realized this when I did the post, I would’ve included this one (but still left out seasons 2 and 3.) Now I’ll post some clips here in a bit. Thanks so much, Alyssa!