Ships make the world go round.
I am a firm believer that you don’t choose the ship, the ship chooses you. You don’t know what it is – you just are drawn to it. It consumes you. It makes you fall and think that is a love that you want to have and experience.
Ships are what make a television show or a movie. They are what draw us into a book. They are what teach us about what love is and isn’t.
And sure, we know that it is a fairytale. We know that it’s not real. But it feels real watching it.
This week we’re examining the love that we have for Leyton. Lucas and Peyton from One Tree Hill were meant to be. You can fight us on it – but we’ll examine why we will go down with this ship.
YOU DON’T SEE ME
We all have that person that we know of, that we don’t speak to, that we have formed our views of based on the things that we had heard. We didn’t see them for who they were, because the world around us dictated what we thought of them.
But that’s what makes for drama. And in drama is where every good love story starts.
You could see from the first moments that these two were meant to be. I think that I wasn’t looking for it because it was the pilot episode I didn’t know what ships were.
When Peyton was in her relationship with Nathan, it was toxic. Lets all be honest with each other. That shit was not good. They were never meant for each other.
But when Peyton’s car breaks down and Nathan is too busy to come and get her – it solidified that he was an ass. Peyton ends up calling a tow truck that is driven by Lucas. She knows that Lucas and Nathan are brothers – brothers that don’t get along, talk, and have a hatred for each other. But this interaction leads to us seeing Luca’s interest in her and Peyton’s overly guarded nature.
But we also get one of the lines that we should have seen foreshadowing their entire relationship.
“First of all, you don’t know me. Second of all, you don’t know me.”
Maybe, as Lucas said, that’s the point. They don’t know each other, but I firmly believe looking back that they didn’t realize just how much they knew each other.
PEYTON AND HER ART AND IT MATTERING
One of the most beautiful things about Peyton is her creative mind. She is deep and expressive and she’s got this heart that shines through in her art.
Her life has always been complicated, but for Peyton, she’s found her voice in the things that she creates and the music that she allows into her heart.
But in the beginning Peyton didn’t see the beauty of what she was creating. Lucas did. He submitted it to a magazine and Peyton was enraged. But sometimes you need someone else to see the beauty in what you do for you to see the beauty in yourself.
“Your art matters…”
No matter what else happened in the future, we all knew at that moment that Lucas would care for Peyton more than anyone else ever would.
Things wouldn’t always be easy for them. We all know that love is never easy.
In the first season, Peyton admitted that she had feelings for Lucas to Brooke (lets all not forget the party at Dan’s house where Brooke dared her to kiss Lucas and she was pissed that he got all emotional). These two were going to have to do a dance and we know that.
But sometimes the pain and the pleasure of the dance is what draws you in.
YOU’RE ALWAYS SAVING ME
There aren’t many people in this world that would run into a burning building or into a building where people are being harmed to save someone.
For Lucas, it wasn’t a question of running back in when there was a school shooting to get Peyton. “With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept” is one of the most distressing and moving episodes of One Tree Hill. When Lucas found out that Peyton was still in the building during the Jimmy Edwards school shooting, he went back in to save her.
“You’re always saving me […] If I say I love you right now, will you hold it against me? Cause I’ve lost a lot of blood,” before kissing him in the library.
This was also a turning point in the Brooke and Lucas relationship, as if you needed more proof that Peyton was the person that he would love forever.
IT’S YOU PEYTON, IT’S ALWAYS BEEN YOU
Anyone else cry every single time they see this? I do. I cry my eyes out.
Peyton: “I’ll be seeing you.”
Lucas: “Peyton… It’s you.”
Peyton: “What?”
Lucas: “When all my dreams come true, the one I want next to me…it’s you. It’s you, Peyton.”
Sometimes shit come full circle and for Peyton and Lucas this was a moment that is burned in my heart.
When Peyton asked Lucas who he wanted standing next to him when he won the state championship and he said Brooke, I wanted to slap him into the middle of next week.
But sometimes you need to have a slap in the face and a moment to come to terms with who you want to be with. And as he sinks the game winning shot, he realizes that it’s Peyton.
We coulda told you that bro.
SHE FELT SAFE WITH HIM
Peyton has been through a lot. Her heart has been used, abused, broken – you name it.
But I think most of us have that one person that we truly believe that even if they hurt us once – they never meant to hurt you and they did hurt you – they would still be a safe space.
And for Peyton – Lucas was that person. When Derek attacked her and she asked to stay – you knew. You knew that she felt he would protect her and he felt that he would too.
WAKING UP IN VEGAS
Lucas let his heart guide him a lot, but he also let it confuse him a lot. He always did what he could to make everyone happy and then again confuse everyone around him.
Because Lucas could never see the forest through the trees and see what he needed and wanted.
One Tree Hill taught me what a cliffhanger was. It taught me that a show was going to leave you heart broken and torn and waiting on the edge of your seat to see what happened next.
One Tree Hill was the first show that made me keep coming back because I needed to know what happened. And season 5’s cliffhanger was the ultimate. Lucas – who did he love? Lindsey? Brooke? Peyton?
The season 6 premiere answered it for us. In the season 5 finale we had heard Lucas tell someone that they loved them, that he was going to Vegas, and he wanted them to join him. In the season 6 premiere we realized it was Peyton.
And we all jumped for joy.
This was a huge moment. The two of them were safe and secure in their love. They knew that they wanted a wedding with friends and family. And that trust and love that they had for each other – MY HEART WAS FULL.
WE’RE HAVING A BABY
Lucas has always been a man that wanted a family. Peyton seemed to always be scared (IMO) of family, but wanted it so badly. Family meant everything to her.
I mean can we talk about that moment that Peyton took Lucas to meet her Mom? Her Mom may have been in heaven, but taking someone to your parents grave is a HUGE thing. To her, that was letting him into her family – even though if you really think about it – through everything, they’ve always been meant to be and so family was always inevitable.
But when she tells Lucas that he’s going to be a baby daddy?
Here’s my heart.
These two have it.
THEY GET THEIR HAPPY ENDING
These two went through everything. Their heart took them through it. They’ve almost lost each other more than anyone should. They’ve found their way back to each other.
And every second has been worth it.
They made a commitment to each other.
Lucas: “Peyton, I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you. And this ring, and these words, are simply a way to show the rest of the world what’s been in my heart for as long as I’ve known you. I love you, Peyton Elizabeth Sawyer. I always have and I always will.”
Peyton: “Lucas Scott, we have been through so much together. And despite how confused I’ve been or lost I might’ve gotten, there was always you finding me, and saving me. You deserve to be adored, so that’s what we’re going to do. Your baby and me, we are going to adore you for years to come. I am so terribly in love with you, and I always will be.”
They committed to being in love and with each other forever. And when they got through everything – when you saw that they could get through anything – you knew it was forever.
And that’s why we will go down with this ship.
