It Still Stings: One Tree Hill Gave up on Its Most Powerful Redemption Arc

Editor’s Note: TV moves on, but we haven’t. In our feature series It Still Stings, we relive emotional TV moments that we just can’t get over. You know the ones, where months, years, or even decades later, it still provokes a reaction? We’re here for you. We rant because we love. Or, once loved. And obviously, when discussing finales in particular, there will be spoilers:

Pale, waxy, and having just suffered an overdose, Rachel Gatina (Danneel Ackles) whimpered to her friend Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush) in Season 5 of One Tree Hill, “please don’t give up on me.” It’s a plea to Brooke, the audience, and a show that did, in the end, give up on her. 

Just over 20 years ago, One Tree Hill introduced the rivalry of half brothers Nathan (James Lafferty) and Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) Scott, alongside their many friends, girlfriends, and enemies in the small fictional town of Tree Hill, North Carolina. During its nine-season run, the show dipped into tragedy, comedy, and ridiculousness (perhaps you’ve come across the now-infamous scene of a dog eating a heart just before it’s being transplanted into a dying man’s body). It welcomed and said farewell to a long list of recurring cast and series regulars. But even as its characters transformed from high school cheerleaders, jocks, and nerds into famous authors, singers, and NBA stars, the show firmly kept its footing in Tree Hill—a town that always forgave. 

Redemption was baked into One Tree Hill’s ethos from the beginning. When we first met Nathan, he was cruel to his girlfriend, bullying Lucas, and running the high school’s social scene. But before long, his romance with nice girl Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz) softened his exterior, and he went on to become a fan-favorite. Brooke started out seemingly self-centered and shallow, only to eventually be class president, a world-renowned fashion designer, and the glue of the show. The Scott patriarch, Dan (Paul Johansson), was already a villain when he shot his beloved brother at point blank range in Season 3, but, after many ups and downs, he ends the show dying with his family by his side, mourning the loss. 

It’s because of the care and compassion that One Tree Hill awarded Dan that makes the downfall of Rachel Gatina even more painful. When Rachel came on the scene dressed as Pamela Anderson at a Halloween party in Season 3, she was primed to be hated. She flirted with boyfriends, tried to steal Brooke’s friends and cheer squad, and wasn’t afraid to insult. But slowly, she won over the shy Mouth (Lee Norris), headstrong Peyton (Hilarie Burton), Lucas, and eventually Brooke. When Rachel got kicked out of school for trying to help Brooke, it was satisfying to see two women who spent so much time hating one another learn to forgive, love, and fight for each other. So why did One Tree Hill turn Rachel into a punching bag? 

Her first departure from the show comes after she convinces Mouth to leave Tree Hill with her, then ditches him for another man. The rest of the cast (and the men Mouth meets in jail after getting arrested on this road trip) jump to tell Mouth he doesn’t need Rachel, that she’s a slut. Rachel’s promiscuity is a big part of her character, as is the reveal that she used to be fat and got plastic surgery to look the way she does—all traits the show weaponizes against Rachel, as if being overweight or liking sex or changing your body is a crime. 

The disgusting way her character is handled is made even worse by the fact that there was so much potential in her. With Rachel, the show dipped into conversations around fat shaming and slut shaming in a way it never did before and never did again. In the later seasons, it’s revealed Rachel had been a sex worker, and instead of delving into anything meaningful around this, One Tree Hill used it as the beginning of her ultimate demise. 

This may not have been merely a creative choice. In 2017, nearly 20 women from the cast and crew wrote a letter accusing the show’s creator Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment, and psychological and emotional manipulation. The three main actresses (Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton, and Bethany Joy Lenz) have continued the conversation on their rewatch podcast Drama Queens, alleging that much of the on-screen choices were a reflection of what was happening behind the scenes. In one episode, they allege that the jokes made at Rachel’s expense were punishment for Danneel Ackles rejecting the creator’s advances. 

If this is true, it adds a darkness to Rachel’s character arc that rivals anything the writers could come up with. Even if it isn’t, Rachel’s downfall hurts all the same. When she returns for two episodes around the time of her overdose, we get a glimpse of the old Rachel: someone doing her best in the face of her horrible circumstances. But when she comes back again in Season 7, she’s nearly unrecognizable. Instead of a return, her re-entrance feels like the introduction of a brand new, Lady Macbeth-like character, with no signs of the loyalty or compassion she had let slip through her hard exterior in the earlier seasons. She’s now Dan’s wife, and the producer of his show Scott Free Redemption, an attempt at restoring his public image. She’s greedy and bordering on evil, pushing Dan to betray his family (again) for money. The last interaction we see between her and Brooke—the only time in her final story arc that she attempts an apology—results in Brooke slapping her. The final words between two women who once had the most interesting friendship on the show are “Stay away from me, bitch.” 

Rachel’s degrading moral compass is used to magnify Dan’s developing one. In her final moments on the show, she learns that Dan’s has left her with nothing. 

“Forgiveness doesn’t exist. You’re simply what you do and how you pay for it,” Dan says, talking to both the audience of Scott Free Redemption and his wife. “So remember that when you practice whatever evil’s in your heart, or when you cheat or steal or lust or hate or gossip or covet, or whatever it is that you do, or you’re planning to do, or you have done. There is no forgiveness.” 

For Rachel, that was true. 

Mallika Mitra is a freelance writer and editor, and co-writes Yes, We’re Still Watching, a weekly newsletter all about TV past and present. You can follow her at @mitra_mallika. 

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