I Have Some Strong Opinions On "One Tree Hill" Finales So I Ranked Them From Best To Worst
One Tree Hill was the undisputed queen of finales.
🚨 WARNING: This post ~obviously~ contains a LOT of One Tree Hill spoilers. Read at your own risk! 🚨
1. Season 3, "The Show Must Go On"
Nothing will EVER beat this finale. In any show. Ever.
I mean, you've got a Nathan/Haley wedding:
An epic Brooke/Lucas fight (and the official end of Brooke and Peyton's friendship).
Brooke, Rachel, or Haley ~maybe~ being pregnant.
Rachel and Cooper crashing the limo off of a bridge and Nathan nearly drowning as he tries to save them.
AND finding out Karen is pregnant with the late Keith's baby.
And that's not even the half of it.
Also, this finale has the best music scene in One Tree Hill history with Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" playing over almost all of the above listed events.
2. Season 4, "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone"
One Tree Hill does cliffhangers like no one else. But this is a great finale that doesn't have one. It starts with Haley and Karen having their babies during graduation, and then flashes forward a few weeks to Rachel's goodbye party.
This finale perfectly captures the feeling of being at the precipice of both the end of everything you know and the beginning of all that you will know.
I still get chills thinking about it. Everyone is just so happy.
Well, except for Dan, who confesses to Keith's murder...
3. Season 6, "Remember Me as a Time of Day"
This is another beautiful finale that could've served as the series finale.
Peyton and Lucas have their baby and leave Tree Hill to live happily ever after.
Nathan finally makes it to the NBA.
Plus, Karen makes a reappearance!
Not to mention, Brooke goes to LA to confess her love for Julian, and the end, featuring all the characters we love, is so inspiring it gives me chills.
4. Season 7, "Almost Everything I Wish I'd Said the Last Time I Saw You"
Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I really liked Season 7. Mostly because of Brooke and Julian and Clay's introduction.
In this finale, we see the whole gang heading to Utah to support Julian's movie release. We also get to see Julian proposing to Brooke!
!!!!!!!
All in all, a very sweet episode with a heart-stopping cliffhanger in the last few seconds where Clay's dead wife's doppelgänger shows up and shoots Clay and Quinn. WILD!
5. Season 9, "One Tree Hill"
Okay, so they did a pretty good job of ending the series. Season 9 was actually great, and the series finale really brought us full circle, with everyone happy.
Julian was starting to film his OTH series, and Gavin Degraw performed...
...but I do have one very important question. WHY DIDN'T LUCAS AND PEYTON COME BACK FOR THE FINALE?
6. Season 2, "The Leavers Dance"
Someone's trying to kill Dan (as usual) and Haley's back (but we're pretty mad at her). Deb is definitely out of her mind. Lucas is in love with Brooke, but she's scared he still likes Peyton. All in all some classic stuff, but nothing wild or amazing. 🤷
7. Season 1, "The Games That Play Us"
Compared to the other finales, it's super tame.
But it also features NALEY GETTING MARRIED, which was a plot twist I did not see coming.
I was definitely shocked.
It loses points for Lucas being a dick the whole end of this season, though.
Sorry, not sorry!
8. Season 5, "What Comes After the Blues"
This finale has a pretty good cliffhanger, with Lucas randomly proposing to either Peyton, Brooke, or Lindsey (we weren't sure which at the time) and Dan getting hit by a car just before his pacer goes off, notifying him there's a new heart for him.
But overall, this one felt rushed (probably because of the writer's strike), and once again Lucas sucked for the last part of this season.
9. And finally — Season 8, "This Is My House, This Is My Home"
Haley and Brooke reopen the cafe and Brooke has her babies.