The Real O.C.

[Photo courtesy of teenangel87 on YouTube]
So now that the finale's aired and Marissa Cooper's death has been made known pretty much to every corner of Cyberspace, the backlash and speculation have begun.

Did Mischa Barton want off The O.C. or not? The show's creator, Josh Schwartz "revealed" in an interview with TV Guide following Thursday's show that "We didn't have a strained relationship. Mischa's never exhibited any kind of vindictive behavior before, so it would seem out of character. But I don't really know ... No, she never said that [she wanted to leave the show]. She was always 100 percent professional and ready to go and ready to work for the show and support the show. She was never misbehaving or "sicking out" or any of those kinds of rumors that were out there."

The real reason Marissa had to go, according to Josh, is "if you go back to the pilot episode of the show, tragedy is in the DNA of Marissa's character. When you first see her in the pilot, she's passed out drunk in the driveway of her house. Her dad's losing all of his money, and her boyfriend is cheating on her. This is a girl who attracted that kind of tragedy. And Ryan and Marissa, while they had some good times, were never really a happily ever-after couple. They were always the star-crossed lovers. So as we looked down the barrel at the end of the season, it just felt like that's where the show was pushing us. The show kind of paints you in a certain direction. And it was the kind of thing that will drive us into next season as the kind of cataclysmic event that will force some people to leave and some people will not be able to leave. It has a huge effect in terms of how it drives into next season."

And according to another source, the five different endings involved several different deaths to several different characters. If what Josh is saying is true (and, conversely, the rumor that different deaths were filmed), how did Mischa know Marissa was the one to die? I doubt that different characters' deaths were filmed, especially since when asked about how Mischa took the news of Marissa's death, Josh said: "She took it in stride. She handled it professionally and continued to do great work. However she felt about it personally, she was never anything but a professional when she was on set." I think Josh is just being sweet and diplomatic about the whole thing. It's pretty unwise to kill off one of the main characters of the show unless circumstances are especially extenuating. Regardless, Marissa's dead now (unless the fan uprising causes the show to reconsider the storyline and has her rise from the dead sort of à la Trey). Then again, the official episode guide sums up the conclusion of the episode with: "The car explodes and Ryan lays Marissa down on the pavement and rouses her. He tells her he’s going to get help, but she begs him to stay. And then she dies." Sweet.

But Josh is a little unhappy about one thing -- Mischa's revelation of the secret ending to Access Hollywood, which was aired the night of the season finale: "It was unfortunate," he said. "I don't really know what happened. It was definitely unfortunate, and I don't think Access Hollywood really handled it that well either."

IMDB reports that O.C. fans are no happier at Mischa. Oh well, seems like she had the last laugh.