"I've Got Dreams to Remember" is the twelfth episode of Season 3 of One Tree Hill and originally aired January 25th, 2006. The episode was written by Mike Herro and David Strauss, and directed by Stewart Gillard.
Guidance counsellor meetings force the Senior class to consider their futures after high school. Lucas and Nathan look to impress a basketball scout, whilst Ellie tries to get Peyton to reconsider her current plans of skipping college. Dan makes another attempt to drive a wedge between Nathan and Haley. Meanwhile, Mouth is caught in the middle as Rachel makes her play to usurp control of the cheer squad from Brooke.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Peyton tells Ellie about "this guy" that she previously had a relationship with that was more than just sex and she was in love with; however, she never provides a name and the few details that Peyton provides line up with both of her previous relationships with Lucas and Jake.
- Call-Back: It is once again noted that Peyton isn't the cheerleader type.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Paid-off from the previous episode - Nathan reminds Lucas about the deadspot they discovered on the court, which allows Lucas to steal the ball from the opposing team and make the game winning shot.
- Peyton and Ellie's discussion about the concept of Friends with Benefits gives Peyton the inspiration for the name of their cancer benefit album - "Friends With Benefit".
- Conversational Troping: Ellie and Peyton discuss the concept of Friends with Benefits.
- The Gadfly: Lucas is quite happy teasing Karen about her date with Keith.
- Generation Xerox: Peyton considers skipping college, citing that Ellie had skipped college; Ellie points out that she's a freelance writer who lives paycheck to paycheck, and Peyton can do better than that.
- Green-Eyed Monster: At the end of the episode, Dan is sat in his car, jealously watching Keith happily having dinner with Karen and Lucas, before Keith knocks on the car window and tells him to go home.
- Internal Reveal: Haley finds out that Nathan had been paying Chris Keller to work with her on her music.
- Manipulative Bastard: When Brooke confronts Rachel about her starting cheer practice early and without Brooke, Rachel points out freely admits that the Rogue Vogue showcase coincides with the Sparkle Classic and Brooke won't be able to do both - either Brooke does Rogue Vogue and lets Rachel usurp control of the cheer squad, or Brooke does the Sparkle Classic to spite Rachel and in the process gives up an opportunity to get eyes on her designs.
- Pet the Dog: As he speaks to the scout after the game, Lucas gives Nathan an introduction aswell.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: It's quickly revealed that the reason Keith was arrested for the fire at Dan Scott Motors was... Dan abusing his power as Mayor and forcing Tree Hill PD to arrest him, despite there being no actual evidence tying Keith to the fire.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Nathan skips a Social Studies class because Dan was going to speak to the class in his capacity as the new mayor of Tree Hill.
- Ship Tease: Peyton gives Ellie a brief version of her dating history, noting that she and Nathan were "more about the benefits" than they were friends, before telling Ellie about "this guy" who was more than that and admitting she was in love with him when Ellie asks. Whilst the initial assumption is that she means Jake, she never refers to him by name and the details she shares about the relationship also line up with her history with Lucas in Season 1.
- Stating the Simple Solution:
- During his police interrogation, Keith points out all of the logical fallacies they're making in an attempt to pin him as the culprit behind the fire at Dan Scott Motors. This is made much easier, of course, by the fact Keith genuinely had nothing to do with the fire.
- Lucas asking Brooke why she can't attend the Rogue Vogue showcase and Sparkle Classic gets Brooke to realise she can technically do the showcase on the Saturday and then fly from New York to Charlotte to perform in the Sparkle Classic.
- Titled After the Song: The episode title is taken from the song "I've Got Dreams To Remember" by Otis Redding.
