"This is My House, This is My Home" is the twenty second episode and Season Finale of Season 8 of One Tree Hill and originally aired May 17th, 2011. The episode was written and directed by Mark Schwahn.
A year in the life. Nathan and Clay hit the road to find the right athletes for their agency, Brooke and Julian prepare to become parents, Mouth and Millie’s chemistry as co-anchors leads to new opportunities, Jamie learns hard lessons about love, and Chase joins the Air Force.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Babies Ever After: Brooke and Julian have twin boys, Davis and Jude.
- Back for the Finale: Dan Scott returns, as Nathan visits him at his diner to inform him of Lydia's birth.
- Book Ends: The final shot of the episode recreates the opening shot of the series, with Jamie taking Lucas' place as he dribbles a basketball over a bridge on the way to the River Court whilst wearing a Keith Scott Bodyshop hoody.
- Dénouement Episode: All of the storylines introduced since the start of the previous season are wrapped up in previous episodes. This episode instead serves as an epilogue showing how Tree Hill’s residents change over a year - largely so the season can end on the introduction of Brooke’s children.
- Determinator: Nathan tells Clay how he used to stay in the gym until the early hours of the morning as he worked on getting back to the NBA, knowing that if he put in the work and didn’t reach the NBA, he could at least be content that he did everything he could, and that they need to find the NBA prospect with that same mentality. They find it in Danny Howard, working on his jump shot in the gym at nearly 3 in the morning.
- Hollywood Military Uniform: Chase is shown in his Air Force fatigues through the majority of the time skips, before wearing his dress uniform as he reunites with Alex and Chuck.
- Kicked Upstairs: Defied - After several months of working on "Mouth and Millie in the Morning" together, Mouth and Millicent are told that the parent network are looking to refresh their own morning show; Mouth immediately realises that this is solely an opportunity for Millie, as their male anchor isn’t going anywhere. However, Millie ultimately chooses to continue working with Mouth over the more prestigious job.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After Jamie stops wearing his heart shoelace that he shares with Madison after Chuck makes fun of him for it, she moves on to a different crush, leaving Jamie to watch on jealously.
- Series Fauxnale: The episode was written and produced under the impression that it would the the Grand Finale of One Tree Hill, with the eventual renewal for Season 9 coming as a surprise.
- Shout-Out: Nathan mimes "Ma Nah Ma Nah" from The Muppet Show with Lydia.
- Spoiler Opening: Paul Johansson is credited long before Nathan goes to visit Dan in the third act.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Lydia Scott is played by a variety of "actors" over the course of the episode due to the various time skips.
- Time Skip: The episode skips forward months at a time in order to show everyone’s lives changing over a year, most notable being the progression of Brooke’s pregnancy.
- Titled After the Song: The episode title is taken from the song "This is My House, This is My Home" by We Were Promised Jetpacks.
