I Ranked "The OC" Couples From Worst To Best So You Don't Have To

I hope we all know which one's coming last.

Note: This post contains references of domestic violence. Please continue at your own discretion.

35. Marissa and Volcheck

FOX

I think that it's obvious why this is last but I'll say it anyway. He was the enemy of her best friend who had only recently died, he threatened her boyfriend at the time several times until she had to literally pay him to stop, and this was all before their relationship even started. Then, he chased her around for ages despite her constantly saying "no" to him, and when they were actually dating it just changed Marissa negatively as a person and drove her away from her friends and family. Finally of course, when they broke up, despite the reasoning for it being him cheating on her and her prom, he became obsessed with her and jealous of Ryan and her's friendship, to the point at which he tried to kill Ryan on the road but killed her instead and left her there to literally die, ran away and didn't own up to it for months.

34. Oliver and Natalie

FOX

Ok, I'm not sure if this even counts as a real relationship because it was literally just made up by Oliver because he was obsessed with a girl, and the obsession ended up with him holding her hostage and threatening her. Despite the fact that the story and reasoning for it are bad, so was the cover-up of it and the fact that he chose her to be a fake girlfriend. Natalie Bishop was literally his childhood nanny who had initially raised him, but he decided to choose her name as a fake girlfriend, not to mention she was unaware of the whole thing. Oliver also did loads of mad things and constantly blamed it on his "relationship with Natalie," for it to be revealed that it doesn't exist.

33. Taylor and Dean Hess

FOX

When I'm watching Season 4 I always forget that this even happened because of the fact that the character dynamics have changed so much since early Season 3. However, this was wild: he was her teacher who was a lot older than her, so it was clearly very inappropriate, and he very obviously used her and her need for control as a way to establish discipline. Not to mention Taylor used her relationship with him to manipulate Seth and Summer AND she actually thought he liked her.

32. Teresa and Eddie

FOX

This isn't a main relationship in the series, but it plays quite a large part in the storyline of Season 1 and was clearly a bad one. Eddie hit Teresa, yet was very overprotective about her with Ryan and fought him multiple times for literally talking to her. Then, when she was pregnant he left her to raise the child herself, but luckily she had a happy ending that she deserved.

31. Seth and Anna

FOX

Some people like this couple and some people hate it but it might be controversial, me putting it this low down the list, but I have my reasons. The whole reason they started dating was basically because of a lie that Anna made when she was clearly interested in Seth from the start, but the whole time pretended everything she was doing was to get him and Summer together. When they were dating, though it wasn't a toxic relationship, Seth was clearly still in love with Summer the whole time and that was obvious to Anna, so they were better off as friends.

30. Julie and Frank

FOX

I HATED this relationship so much. I think it was good that Julie was happy for the first time since Marissa's death, however, I think that had partially to do with Bullit too. The fact is, Frank's a horrible person, who abused his children and wife, and Julie is close to Ryan at this point so she shouldn't have done it in the first place, not to mention Frank also lying to Ryan about dying just to see him. 

Also, the idea of Ryan and Marissa's parents dating is horrible.

29. Julie and Luke

FOX

Okay, this was probably one of the weirdest relationships on the show. Before this happened, Luke had actually changed and was a good person and friend. However, they had massive age differences, not to mention the fact that Julie was in a relationship at the time yet was having an affair with her teenage daughter's ex-boyfriend who had cheated on her. Also, Luke was genuinely in love with Julie but she just used him and when he saw her get engaged to Caleb, it resulted in him having to go to the hospital after a car crash and initially drove him out of Newport.

28. Ryan and Taylor

FOX

Ok so fair enough this wasn't at all a toxic relationship and they were ☺︎ together. I just think it was rushed into and changed the dynamic of the show and characters. Firstly, their relationship was very rushed. They began the series as just friends, not close at all, and by the fifth episode they were dating, despite them both still grieving over the death of Marissa, who was literally the love of Ryan's life. 

Also, this relationship completely changed both of these characters to make the relationship even slightly make sense. Ryan went from being a moody, violent, and sarcastic character to being more lively and "funny" (at least for him) and Taylor went from being scheming and obsessive to not scheming at all and being slightly less obsessive, as well as being just nicer — though still annoying — and just less Taylor. I think that though the relationship itself wasn't bad, the concept of it just didn't make sense and was maybe just created because Ryan and Taylor both needed someone to date to distract from Marissa's death and Taylor's recent divorce.

27. Trey and Jess

FOX

This relationship never went into much detail, but both characters were just extremely annoying and bad people, and their being together was just really annoying too. Jess manipulated Trey and Trey used Jess because he was in love with Marissa and wanted a distraction. Basically, it just really annoyed me.

26. Kirsten and Jimmy

FOX

This relationship wasn't displayed much throughout the show, only that one time when Jimmy kissed a married Kirsten and in the alternate reality episode. However, we all know that they were previously together as teenagers and Jimmy is just a bad person who shouldn't be with Kirsten or get in the way of Sandy and Kirsten's relationship. This is just another annoying relationship that should've just been left out of the storyline.

25. Sandy and Rebecca

FOX

This whole storyline just made me so annoyed because like firstly, it's so unrealistic that Sandy would ever cheat on Kirsten or stay at the office late at night with Rebecca and ignore his family. Not to mention that Rebecca had run away without saying anything to Sandy when they were younger and then comes back when she needs him after literally faking her own death.

24. Caleb and Gabrielle

FOX

I hated this. First of all what was like a 70-year-old doing dating a 20 something-year-old??? The age difference was so weird, and then she cheated on Caleb with Ryan who was basically her grandson, wtf? And this just ruined Ryan and Marissa which makes it even worse.

23. Julie and Lance

FOX

I hated this so much because when Lance first came into the story, Julie hated him — understandably because he was literally blackmailing her — and then all of a sudden they're having an affair? It made no sense, ok?

22. Luke and Holly

FOX

This wasn't really a couple, but they were both idiots. Luke cheated on his girlfriend of like over 10 years and Holly was one of Marissa's closest friends — not to mention she was completely unapologetic after it and acted like Marissa was dumb for not knowing.

21. Marissa and DJ

FOX

This really annoyed me because it completely ruined Marissa and Ryan's relationship. Marissa obviously loved Ryan but that all was thrown away for DJ, who she'd known for like a month, and who had ZERO personality at all. I'm pretty sure he said like three things the whole time.

20. Marissa and Luke

FOX

This relationship was just bad. I love Marissa and love Luke when he isn't beating people up, cheating on people, or having an affair with his ex's mum. HOWEVER, it was just a bad relationship from the start because Luke was overprotective of Marissa and Marissa just didn't like him that much. When they're not dating though, they have a really nice friendship and were good friends so I think that it's good they broke up and were just friends.

19. Caleb and Julie

FOX

This was such a weird relationship, but I think Caleb actually loved Julie at the beginning. I think she was just with him for money, then as the marriage progressed, those roles switched. Julie cheated on Caleb and Caleb completely ignored her but I have to admit it was really sad when he dies and she tried to save him.

18. Julie and Jimmy

FOX

Just bad. They were bad in Season 1 because of the debt thing and everything, then in Season 3 Jimmy literally lied to Julie about changing everything and then left her on their wedding day.

17. Ryan and Sadie

FOX

I hated this couple, ok? So Ryan knew this girl for like a few days and suddenly decided he's gonna leave someone he loves whose best friends just died. They were always in some sort of drama and she was annoyed that he was going to college like it wasn't obvious. Also, Sadie didn't know that Ryan hated Johnny lolz.

16. Johnny and Kasey

FOX

They were kinda irrelevant and only together for like three episodes, but they weren't good. Johnny ignored Kasey to hang out with Marissa and it was obvious he was in love with her. You can't really blame Kasey for not wanting to be with him BUT did she really have to cheat on him with Volcheck who was his literal enemy????

15. Taylor and Henri Michelle

FOX

This was a weird relationship too. they got married out of nowhere, and though it's not mentioned, I'm guessing Taylor did this so quickly to annoy her mum and because she was grieving. When Taylor wanted a divorce, this guy literally just didn't let her, and when he finally did, he wrote a book about her and tried to compete with Ryan for her, so he's basically just really annoying.

14. Julie and Neil

FOX

I really love this couple at the beginning and I think they're good together, but I hate how Neil is in Season 4. He literally cheats on a woman who's grieving for her daughter with the literal step-monster, ugh.

13. Summer and Danny

FOX

This was literally only a thing in one episode, but it was annoying anyway. Summer was only dating him to make Seth jealous, and Danny was annoying and unfunny. So yeah, it was dumb.

12. Jimmy and Hailey

FOX

I don't know I don't really have a problem with this couple but it was weird that Jimmy would date his ex's little sister and I think Julie was right that he was only with Hailey because he couldn't be with Kirsten.

11. Ryan and Teresa

FOX

I like both of these characters, and their friendship too, but I think it wasn't good for them to be in a relationship. Ryan just left Chino without telling Teresa, and they were only together at the end of Season 1 and beginning of Season 2 because of the baby which Teresa lied about. I know this was because she cared about Ryan, but it was definitely wrong. In Season 3 they almost got together, but I think Teresa was right that they shouldn't because everything had changed so much.

10. Julie and Bullit

FOX

I really liked Bullit and I wish that Julie liked him more, especially because of Kaitlin and him being such good friends and being happy. But Julie just didn't like him enough, sooo.

9. Kaitlin and Will

FOX

I kinda liked this couple but I think it's good they didn't end up together because I think that Will just thought that he was better than Kaitlin, and made that obvious.

8. Kaitlin and Justin

FOX

I liked Justin but I think Kaitlin was kinda mean to him until the last episode with them together. Also he kind of just disappeared and was never mentioned again.

7. Seth and Alex

FOX

I like both Alex and Seth as people, but i think they were a bad couple because they had to change too much to be able to date each other.

6. Summer and Zach

FOX

I liked Zach, but i really didn't like this couple because it was getting in the way of Seth and Summer and the comic so i just thought it wasn't a great one.

5. Marissa and Alex

FOX

I liked this couple together but i just think that it wasn't great because Marissa wasn't good at looking after herself and Alex was too overprotective and then she got a gang on Ryan so yeah.

4. Ryan and Lindsay

FOX

I really liked this couple as like an interval one because i think they both really liked each other, but it was too complicated when it turned out that she was like his adoptive step aunt or something and Caleb was being annoying but it was really sad when Lindsay had to leave.

3. Sandy and Kirsten

FOX

Yayz Sandy and Kirsten are good because they're Sandy and Kirsten and basically started everything so yay. BUT there were loads of dramas that are like ignored like Jimmy, Rachel, Rebecca, Carter, the hospital and other stuff.

2. Ryan and Marissa

FOX

YAYZEES Ryan and Marissa, nearly the best couple on the show because they loved each other the whole time, even though they weren't together and when she died. They like got past all the drama and were always there for each other and I'm still so angry and sad that they didn't end up together and weren't even together when she died.

1. Seth and Summer

FOX

SETH AND SUMMER ARE THE BEST COUPLE ON THE SHOW OK BECAUSE THEY'RE THE BEST CHARACTERS AND YEAH THE FUNNIEST AND JUST DON'T ARGUE WITH ME ABOUT IT.