"Just Watch the Fireworks" is the fifteenth episode of Season 3 of One Tree Hill and originally aired February 15th, 2006. The episode was written by James Stoteraux and Chad Fiveash and directed by Billy Dickson.
When the contents of the time capsule are released ahead of schedule, the students of Tree Hill High are forced to reckon with their past decisions. Lucas and Mouth must confront an old friend, Nathan and Haley are forced to revisit past trauma, and Brooke has to deal with the fact that she bared more than just her soul in her video. Meanwhile, Peyton prepares for her benefit concert at Tric, whilst Dan and Keith have a reckoning.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Peyton introduces all of the acts performing in the cancer benefit concert, much like Hilarie Burton would do at her old day job presenting MTV’s Total Request Live.
- Bash Brothers: Lucas and Nathan immediately jump to Jimmy’s defence when he gets attacked by a group pissed off about his time capsule video.
- Blatant Lies: Tim’s time capsule video features him claiming that he’s hooked up with most of the popular girls in Tree Hill High.
- The Cameo:
- Fall Out Boy and Jack's Mannequin appear as themselves, performing in Peyton’s cancer benefit concert at TRIC; but Fall Out Boy’s Pete and Patrick are the only ones with actual dialogue.
- Bryan Greenberg appears as Jake Jagielski through the use of archive footage.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Deconstructed with the the return of Jimmy Edwards, last seen in the second episode of the series. Jimmy is shown to have become bitter that all of his friends effectively abandoned him to become part of the popular crowd once Lucas joined the Ravens.
- Happily Adopted: Whilst talking to Lucas after he’s been told of the engagement, Keith tells Lucas that he’d like to officially adopt him as his son, but only if Lucas is okay with it. Towards the end of the episode, Lucas tells Keith that he’d be okay with the adoption.
- Hey, That's My Line!: After Pete from Fall Out Boy flirts with Peyton, lead singer Patrick walks up and asks what Pete said to her, before asserting that Pete stole his line.Pete from Fall Out Boy: So, be right back, I’m gonna go save the world.
[Pete grabs his bass and walks onto the stage. Patrick stops beside Peyton.]
Patrick from Fall Out Boy: Did he just roll ‘I gotta go save the world’?
Peyton: Yeah?
Patrick from Fall Out Boy: That’s my line. - Not So Above It All: For all of Brooke’s embarrassment over her time capsule video - in which she goes topless - being posted on the internet, she perks up when she finds out that she trended at #23 on Limewire.
- Old Shame: In-Universe, Nathan isn’t best pleased that his time capsule video has been released, as he spends a significant portion of the video deriding Haley and their marriage as the videos were recorded when Nathan was at his lowest following Haley leaving to go on tour with Chris Keller.
- Poor Man's Porn: Peyton teases Brooke by insinuating this when Brooke complains about “some creepy guy” watching her time capsule video after it’s released on the internet.
- Shipper on Deck: Lucas, Haley, Brooke and Peyton all state their approval when they find out Keith and Karen are engaged.
- Shout-Out: Peyton name drops Limewire, a popular file sharing website active between 2000 and 2010.
- Spotting the Thread: Peyton notes to Brooke that Mouth already knew about Brooke saying he’ll probably be a senator in the future, as he made a similar comment to Peyton on their Fantasy Boy Draft date. When Principal Turner asks Mouth and Brooke (the students with access to the A.V. equipment) if they had any ideas on who could have accessed the time capsule, Brooke immediately realises that Mouth had already seen the time capsule ahead of time.
- Titled After the Song: The title of the episode is taken from the song "Just Watch the Fireworks" by Jimmy Eat World.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Upon realising what he’d done, Brooke calls Mouth out for invading her privacy and watching her time capsule video ahead of time.
