Rachel Virginia Gatina was a fictional character on the CW television series One Tree Hill, played by Danneel Harris.
“ "Rachel, what happened to you?" ”
— Brooke
“ I don't know. Life happened, I guess. ”
— Rachel
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Season 3
1.2 Season 4
1.3 Season 5
2 See also
3 References
[edit] Biography
The character of Rachel is introduced in the show's third season and is portrayed as the ultimate "bad girl"; promiscuous, cunning and manipulative. She is presented as an opponent for fellow character Brooke Davis and the two frequently lock horns. Later episodes show a more vulnerable side to Rachel, after she establishes a close friendship with her former nemesis and she is seen to deal with issues such as cosmetic surgery, relationships with older men, expulsion and heroin addiction. The character is written out in the show's fifth season, set four years after the events of the previous one but returns for a two episode guest appearance before being subsequently written out again. She made her last appearance on March 11, 2008.
[edit] Season 3
In Episode 3.04: "An Attempt to Tip The Scales", Lucas and Brooke meet Rachel at the TRIC Masquerade Ball, where she is dressed as Pamela Anderson. She makes reference to the fact that Lucas is dressed as Tommy Lee, Anderson's ex-husband and the two dance with each other, infuriating Brooke, Lucas' non-exclusive girlfriend. Rachel quickly becomes a thorn in Brooke's side when she joins the cheerleading squad and challenges Brooke for her position of Squad Captain. Brooke inadvertently sets Lucas up on a date with Rachel and they go to the store where Brooke works. Rachel insults Brooke and this continues into the "Midnight Madness" game to officially begin the new basketball season. Brooke and Rachel become embroiled in a vicious catfight which turns into a brawl when the other cheereleaders become involved. To stop the internal fighting among her squad, Brooke devises a "Fantasy Boy Draft" but this backfires when Rachel picks Lucas.
On their date in Episode 3.07: "Champagne for my Real Friends, Real Pain for my Sham Friends", Rachel attempts to seduce him but upon realising that nothing will happen between them because Lucas loves Brooke, Rachel finally gives up her pursuit of Lucas and instead begins flirting with Brooke's friend, Mouth. Brooke tries to warn Mouth against Rachel but Mouth has seen another side to Rachel and begins to fall for her, though it appears Rachel is only using him to get at Brooke.
Rachel submits Brooke's designs to "Rogue Vogue" which is hosting a fashion show in New York on the same weekend as the Sparkle Classic. With Brooke in New York and out of the way, Rachel captains the squad and deviously puts Peyton in Lucas' bed, deliberately not telling her about a room swap so as to cause more trouble for Brooke. Brooke shows up in Charlotte and when she and a hungover Peyton sabotage Rachel's routine, Rachel is livid.
In Episode 3.15: "Just Watch The Fireworks", the Time Capsule recorded in Season Two is opened and released throughout the school, causing widespread chaos. One student, Jimmy Edwards, is vilified by his fellow students for expressing his contempt for them in the Time Capsule and pushed over the edge, takes several students hostage, among them Rachel, with a gun. Edwards eventually takes his own life and Keith is fatally shot by Dan, though everyone believes Jimmy to have killed Keith. Brooke and Rachel organise a "Cleansing Party" at the school to allow all the students to work through their grief together. At this party, Mouth and Rachel dance together and Rachel confesses to Mouth that she was the one who opened the Time Capsule. Mouth is furious with Rachel and she brings the group to her family's Log Cabin for the weekend out of guilt. She and Mouth make their peace with one another and Mouth talks Rachel out of telling everyone what she did. When Rachel reveals to the group during a game of "I Never" that she walked in on Brooke "Brooking herself", Brooke swears revenge.
She enacts this revenge in Episode 3.19: "I Slept with someone from Fall Out Boy and all I Got was this Stupid Song Written about Me" when, having broken into Rachel's cabinet at the cabin, puts up fliers of an obese 14 year old girl all over town entitled "Guess Who: Find Out Soon..." prompting a horrified reaction from Rachel, who tells Mouth the girl is someone she used to know. Upon further investigation, Mouth discovers that the girl was Rachel herself, prior to extensive plastic surgery. As Rachel opens up about her past to Mouth, it brings them closer and they share a kiss but when Mouth comes to Rachel's house to tell her how he feels about her, he finds her with the much older Cooper Lee, Nathan's 29 year old uncle, who Rachel met online, under the guise of a 26 year old model. Brooke and Mouth revel in watching a horrified Cooper discover that Rachel is actually a 17 year old cheerleader. He tries to finish things with her but she seduces him once again before he leaves town and stops returning her calls. Rachel is heartbroken by this, having fallen in love with Cooper and Brooke is surprised to find herself feeling sorry for Rachel. They slowly start to develop a friendship.
In Episode 3.22: "The Show Must Go On", Cooper and Rachel cross paths at Nathan and Haley's wedding reception, where she is furious to see him flirting with other women and drunkenly makes a speech where she reveals Cooper slept with her even after he found out she was only a teenager. After this, she runs off and steals the wedding limo, Cooper jumping into the passenger seat. He calms her down and she agrees to let him drive her back to the reception, though he tells her when they get there, their relationship never happened as far as he concerned. Asking Cooper if there is anything she can say to stop him from leaving her, she is downheartened when he tells her there isn't, prompting Rachel to make a revelation that Cooper refuses to believe. Inebriated, Rachel grabs control of the wheel when Cooper refuses to pull over. They swerve to avoid Nathan and Haley, who are coming in the opposite direction and the limo veers off the edge of the bridge and into the water, rendering Cooper and Rachel unconscious and fighting for their lives. Nathan, in his attempts to rescue them, also becomes trapped and he too is left in a life-threatening predicament.
[edit] Season 4
The opening moments of the season premiere see Rachel reveal to Cooper in a flashback that she is pregnant. He refuses to believe her causing her to grab the wheel and veer the limo off the bridge and into the river. Nathan rescues Rachel, though he does not recall doing so and is confused about what happened in the water. Rachel subsequently tells Brooke that she lied about being pregnant to punish Cooper for rejecting her. Unaware that Rachel is not pregnant, Cooper takes the blame for the accident to protect Rachel from police interrogation. When Rachel confesses that she lied about the pregnancy, Cooper is outraged and tells her to leave. He then leaves Tree Hill without saying goodbye, however Rachel isn't mourning his departure for long as she is soon in pursuit of Nathan, manipulating his confusion over his deceased uncle Keith saving them from the river in an attempt to get close to him. After Nathan tells her that Haley is pregnant, Rachel quits her pursuit of him and admits she lied about seeing Keith before offering Nathan words of support as he tries to deal with his impending fatherhood.
With Brooke and Peyton no longer friends following Peyton's revelation that she is still in love with Lucas, Rachel allows Brooke to move in with her and sets her up on a date with an older man, Nick Chavez, who Brooke begins seeing. Brooke and Rachel are horrified to discover Nick is their new English teacher and when Brooke continues seeing Nick, Rachel confronts him over his illicit relationship with a student. Nick alledges to Brooke that Rachel made a pass at him, though Rachel alledges it was the other way round and taking Rachel's track record into account, Brooke believes Nick, until she catches him with Tia, one of her models from the TART fashion show. She realises Rachel is a true and honest friend and dumps Nick.
In Episode 4.08: "Nothing Left to Say But Goodbye", Rachel approaches Haley and asks her for tutoring help, which Haley refuses on the grounds of Rachel having tried to sleep with Nathan. Later, Nathan and Brooke convince Haley to take a chance on Rachel which she does but is disgusted when Rachel tries to bribe her for the key to the cabinet where the tests are kept. Rachel later steals the key and tells Brooke that she is the one failing calculus, not Rachel. Rachel tells Brooke that if she wants to be able to graduate with her friends, she has no alternative but to steal the test and cheat. The two break into the Tutoring Centre and steal the test. After almost being caught by Principal Turner, Brooke and Rachel are forced to join the "Clean Teens" to cover their tracks and take an oath to remain "Virgins For Life" (or at least until marriage) though Rachel is soon removed from the society when leader Shelly Simon finds footage of her stripping at a college party. When the missing test is brought to Principal Turner's attention, all students are put under scrutiny and Haley tells Rachel that she will not think twice about turning her in if she finds out she was behind it.
In Episode 4.14: "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers", Rachel swaps her answerbook with Brooke's when Principal Turner gives them a surprise test to determine who stole the original one. As a result, Brooke passes and Rachel fails. She is suspended until further notice and Haley loses her position as Tutor as a result. A furious Haley confronts Rachel at Nathan's pre-prom party, throwing a drink in her face - "That is for getting me fired" and slapping her - "and that is for trying to sleep with my husband." Unable to attack a pregnant Haley, Rachel then leaves the party in disgrace and it is revealed that she has been expelled from several schools in the past prior to Tree Hill. In the following episode, "Prom Night at Hater High", Rachel's suspension becomes an expulsion and she decides to leave Tree Hill and join her parents on holiday in New Orleans. After an emotional farewell with Brooke and Mouth, Rachel heads to the airport but a picture message entitled "Missing You Already" inspires her to go back. She tries to gatecrash the Prom but Princial Turner turns her away and Mouth goes with her. They spend the evening together and after one last dance at the airport, Rachel prepares to board before spontaneously inviting Mouth to join her. He accepts and the two set off together but the gang have to rescue Mouth from Honey Grove where he was arrested after Rachel went AWOL. Mouth disappoints Chris Keller when he tells him that he didn't sleep with Rachel - but he did see her naked!
In Episode 4.20: "The Birth and The Death of Day", Brooke finally owns up to stealing the calculus test. Principal Turner decides not to expel her and later announces Rachel as "Graduating in absentia" at the graduation ceremony, to Brooke's delight.
In Episode 4.21: "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone", Rachel is revealed to be the organiser of a post-Graduation party to celebrate their last night as Seniors. As she reacquaints herself with Mouth and Brooke and tells them that where she's been "is a long story", she and Haley maintain their bitchy rapport with one another and Rachel is touched when Brooke hands her her diploma. She remarks; "Of all the schools I got suspended from, I'm glad I graduated from this one". She then spray-paints her name at the River Court with the rest of the gang and they all vow to reunite in Tree Hill in four years' time...
[edit] Season 5
Four years have passed since High School ended and in these four years, Brooke has managed to turn Clothes Over Bro's into a multi-million dollar corporation, achieving fame and success in the process. Her company CEO is also her mother, Victoria, who is depicted as cold-hearted and calculating, seen almost immediately when, in Episode 5.01: "Four Years, Six Months, Two Days", she forces Brooke to fire one of her friends who models for the company as this model's personal problems is giving the company negative publicity. Under pressure from Victoria, Brooke calls her friend and dismisses her over the phone.
This friend is revealed to be Rachel when, in Episode 5.10: "Running To Stand Still", Brooke takes her new boyfriend Owen to New York. When they arrive at one of Brooke's apartments, they discover someone has been squatting there. Owen finds Rachel in the bedroom, unconscious after a heroin overdoase. He manages to revive her and while she is sleeping, Brooke tells Owen that she hasn't seen Rachel in a while and had no idea of the extent of her problems. Owen, himself a recovering addict, tells Brooke that if Rachel is to recover, she's going to need Brooke's help. While Owen fends off Rachel's drug dealer, Brooke tries to persuade Rachel to go back into rehab but Rachel pleads with Brooke not to make her as she doesn't want to be left alone again. Instead, Brooke brings Rachel home to Tree Hill which proves beneficial as Rachel is soon making progress and on the way to recovery, though after being rejected by Mouth when she makes a pass at him, Rachel is left feeling low again and a visit from Victoria is the final nail in the coffin. Victoria brands Rachel "worthless" and incapable of overcoming her problems. When Brooke and Peyton return home that night, Rachel is nowhere to be found and neither is the money Peyton had given to Brooke. After discovering Victoria was responsible for Rachel's sudden departure, Brooke fires her - both as her CEO and her mother.
Rachel has not been seen or heard from since and her current whereabouts are unknown.
“ "Rachel, what happened to you?" ”
— Brooke
“ I don't know. Life happened, I guess. ”
— Rachel
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Season 3
1.2 Season 4
1.3 Season 5
2 See also
3 References
[edit] Biography
The character of Rachel is introduced in the show's third season and is portrayed as the ultimate "bad girl"; promiscuous, cunning and manipulative. She is presented as an opponent for fellow character Brooke Davis and the two frequently lock horns. Later episodes show a more vulnerable side to Rachel, after she establishes a close friendship with her former nemesis and she is seen to deal with issues such as cosmetic surgery, relationships with older men, expulsion and heroin addiction. The character is written out in the show's fifth season, set four years after the events of the previous one but returns for a two episode guest appearance before being subsequently written out again. She made her last appearance on March 11, 2008.
[edit] Season 3
In Episode 3.04: "An Attempt to Tip The Scales", Lucas and Brooke meet Rachel at the TRIC Masquerade Ball, where she is dressed as Pamela Anderson. She makes reference to the fact that Lucas is dressed as Tommy Lee, Anderson's ex-husband and the two dance with each other, infuriating Brooke, Lucas' non-exclusive girlfriend. Rachel quickly becomes a thorn in Brooke's side when she joins the cheerleading squad and challenges Brooke for her position of Squad Captain. Brooke inadvertently sets Lucas up on a date with Rachel and they go to the store where Brooke works. Rachel insults Brooke and this continues into the "Midnight Madness" game to officially begin the new basketball season. Brooke and Rachel become embroiled in a vicious catfight which turns into a brawl when the other cheereleaders become involved. To stop the internal fighting among her squad, Brooke devises a "Fantasy Boy Draft" but this backfires when Rachel picks Lucas.
On their date in Episode 3.07: "Champagne for my Real Friends, Real Pain for my Sham Friends", Rachel attempts to seduce him but upon realising that nothing will happen between them because Lucas loves Brooke, Rachel finally gives up her pursuit of Lucas and instead begins flirting with Brooke's friend, Mouth. Brooke tries to warn Mouth against Rachel but Mouth has seen another side to Rachel and begins to fall for her, though it appears Rachel is only using him to get at Brooke.
Rachel submits Brooke's designs to "Rogue Vogue" which is hosting a fashion show in New York on the same weekend as the Sparkle Classic. With Brooke in New York and out of the way, Rachel captains the squad and deviously puts Peyton in Lucas' bed, deliberately not telling her about a room swap so as to cause more trouble for Brooke. Brooke shows up in Charlotte and when she and a hungover Peyton sabotage Rachel's routine, Rachel is livid.
In Episode 3.15: "Just Watch The Fireworks", the Time Capsule recorded in Season Two is opened and released throughout the school, causing widespread chaos. One student, Jimmy Edwards, is vilified by his fellow students for expressing his contempt for them in the Time Capsule and pushed over the edge, takes several students hostage, among them Rachel, with a gun. Edwards eventually takes his own life and Keith is fatally shot by Dan, though everyone believes Jimmy to have killed Keith. Brooke and Rachel organise a "Cleansing Party" at the school to allow all the students to work through their grief together. At this party, Mouth and Rachel dance together and Rachel confesses to Mouth that she was the one who opened the Time Capsule. Mouth is furious with Rachel and she brings the group to her family's Log Cabin for the weekend out of guilt. She and Mouth make their peace with one another and Mouth talks Rachel out of telling everyone what she did. When Rachel reveals to the group during a game of "I Never" that she walked in on Brooke "Brooking herself", Brooke swears revenge.
She enacts this revenge in Episode 3.19: "I Slept with someone from Fall Out Boy and all I Got was this Stupid Song Written about Me" when, having broken into Rachel's cabinet at the cabin, puts up fliers of an obese 14 year old girl all over town entitled "Guess Who: Find Out Soon..." prompting a horrified reaction from Rachel, who tells Mouth the girl is someone she used to know. Upon further investigation, Mouth discovers that the girl was Rachel herself, prior to extensive plastic surgery. As Rachel opens up about her past to Mouth, it brings them closer and they share a kiss but when Mouth comes to Rachel's house to tell her how he feels about her, he finds her with the much older Cooper Lee, Nathan's 29 year old uncle, who Rachel met online, under the guise of a 26 year old model. Brooke and Mouth revel in watching a horrified Cooper discover that Rachel is actually a 17 year old cheerleader. He tries to finish things with her but she seduces him once again before he leaves town and stops returning her calls. Rachel is heartbroken by this, having fallen in love with Cooper and Brooke is surprised to find herself feeling sorry for Rachel. They slowly start to develop a friendship.
In Episode 3.22: "The Show Must Go On", Cooper and Rachel cross paths at Nathan and Haley's wedding reception, where she is furious to see him flirting with other women and drunkenly makes a speech where she reveals Cooper slept with her even after he found out she was only a teenager. After this, she runs off and steals the wedding limo, Cooper jumping into the passenger seat. He calms her down and she agrees to let him drive her back to the reception, though he tells her when they get there, their relationship never happened as far as he concerned. Asking Cooper if there is anything she can say to stop him from leaving her, she is downheartened when he tells her there isn't, prompting Rachel to make a revelation that Cooper refuses to believe. Inebriated, Rachel grabs control of the wheel when Cooper refuses to pull over. They swerve to avoid Nathan and Haley, who are coming in the opposite direction and the limo veers off the edge of the bridge and into the water, rendering Cooper and Rachel unconscious and fighting for their lives. Nathan, in his attempts to rescue them, also becomes trapped and he too is left in a life-threatening predicament.
[edit] Season 4
The opening moments of the season premiere see Rachel reveal to Cooper in a flashback that she is pregnant. He refuses to believe her causing her to grab the wheel and veer the limo off the bridge and into the river. Nathan rescues Rachel, though he does not recall doing so and is confused about what happened in the water. Rachel subsequently tells Brooke that she lied about being pregnant to punish Cooper for rejecting her. Unaware that Rachel is not pregnant, Cooper takes the blame for the accident to protect Rachel from police interrogation. When Rachel confesses that she lied about the pregnancy, Cooper is outraged and tells her to leave. He then leaves Tree Hill without saying goodbye, however Rachel isn't mourning his departure for long as she is soon in pursuit of Nathan, manipulating his confusion over his deceased uncle Keith saving them from the river in an attempt to get close to him. After Nathan tells her that Haley is pregnant, Rachel quits her pursuit of him and admits she lied about seeing Keith before offering Nathan words of support as he tries to deal with his impending fatherhood.
With Brooke and Peyton no longer friends following Peyton's revelation that she is still in love with Lucas, Rachel allows Brooke to move in with her and sets her up on a date with an older man, Nick Chavez, who Brooke begins seeing. Brooke and Rachel are horrified to discover Nick is their new English teacher and when Brooke continues seeing Nick, Rachel confronts him over his illicit relationship with a student. Nick alledges to Brooke that Rachel made a pass at him, though Rachel alledges it was the other way round and taking Rachel's track record into account, Brooke believes Nick, until she catches him with Tia, one of her models from the TART fashion show. She realises Rachel is a true and honest friend and dumps Nick.
In Episode 4.08: "Nothing Left to Say But Goodbye", Rachel approaches Haley and asks her for tutoring help, which Haley refuses on the grounds of Rachel having tried to sleep with Nathan. Later, Nathan and Brooke convince Haley to take a chance on Rachel which she does but is disgusted when Rachel tries to bribe her for the key to the cabinet where the tests are kept. Rachel later steals the key and tells Brooke that she is the one failing calculus, not Rachel. Rachel tells Brooke that if she wants to be able to graduate with her friends, she has no alternative but to steal the test and cheat. The two break into the Tutoring Centre and steal the test. After almost being caught by Principal Turner, Brooke and Rachel are forced to join the "Clean Teens" to cover their tracks and take an oath to remain "Virgins For Life" (or at least until marriage) though Rachel is soon removed from the society when leader Shelly Simon finds footage of her stripping at a college party. When the missing test is brought to Principal Turner's attention, all students are put under scrutiny and Haley tells Rachel that she will not think twice about turning her in if she finds out she was behind it.
In Episode 4.14: "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers", Rachel swaps her answerbook with Brooke's when Principal Turner gives them a surprise test to determine who stole the original one. As a result, Brooke passes and Rachel fails. She is suspended until further notice and Haley loses her position as Tutor as a result. A furious Haley confronts Rachel at Nathan's pre-prom party, throwing a drink in her face - "That is for getting me fired" and slapping her - "and that is for trying to sleep with my husband." Unable to attack a pregnant Haley, Rachel then leaves the party in disgrace and it is revealed that she has been expelled from several schools in the past prior to Tree Hill. In the following episode, "Prom Night at Hater High", Rachel's suspension becomes an expulsion and she decides to leave Tree Hill and join her parents on holiday in New Orleans. After an emotional farewell with Brooke and Mouth, Rachel heads to the airport but a picture message entitled "Missing You Already" inspires her to go back. She tries to gatecrash the Prom but Princial Turner turns her away and Mouth goes with her. They spend the evening together and after one last dance at the airport, Rachel prepares to board before spontaneously inviting Mouth to join her. He accepts and the two set off together but the gang have to rescue Mouth from Honey Grove where he was arrested after Rachel went AWOL. Mouth disappoints Chris Keller when he tells him that he didn't sleep with Rachel - but he did see her naked!
In Episode 4.20: "The Birth and The Death of Day", Brooke finally owns up to stealing the calculus test. Principal Turner decides not to expel her and later announces Rachel as "Graduating in absentia" at the graduation ceremony, to Brooke's delight.
In Episode 4.21: "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone", Rachel is revealed to be the organiser of a post-Graduation party to celebrate their last night as Seniors. As she reacquaints herself with Mouth and Brooke and tells them that where she's been "is a long story", she and Haley maintain their bitchy rapport with one another and Rachel is touched when Brooke hands her her diploma. She remarks; "Of all the schools I got suspended from, I'm glad I graduated from this one". She then spray-paints her name at the River Court with the rest of the gang and they all vow to reunite in Tree Hill in four years' time...
[edit] Season 5
Four years have passed since High School ended and in these four years, Brooke has managed to turn Clothes Over Bro's into a multi-million dollar corporation, achieving fame and success in the process. Her company CEO is also her mother, Victoria, who is depicted as cold-hearted and calculating, seen almost immediately when, in Episode 5.01: "Four Years, Six Months, Two Days", she forces Brooke to fire one of her friends who models for the company as this model's personal problems is giving the company negative publicity. Under pressure from Victoria, Brooke calls her friend and dismisses her over the phone.
This friend is revealed to be Rachel when, in Episode 5.10: "Running To Stand Still", Brooke takes her new boyfriend Owen to New York. When they arrive at one of Brooke's apartments, they discover someone has been squatting there. Owen finds Rachel in the bedroom, unconscious after a heroin overdoase. He manages to revive her and while she is sleeping, Brooke tells Owen that she hasn't seen Rachel in a while and had no idea of the extent of her problems. Owen, himself a recovering addict, tells Brooke that if Rachel is to recover, she's going to need Brooke's help. While Owen fends off Rachel's drug dealer, Brooke tries to persuade Rachel to go back into rehab but Rachel pleads with Brooke not to make her as she doesn't want to be left alone again. Instead, Brooke brings Rachel home to Tree Hill which proves beneficial as Rachel is soon making progress and on the way to recovery, though after being rejected by Mouth when she makes a pass at him, Rachel is left feeling low again and a visit from Victoria is the final nail in the coffin. Victoria brands Rachel "worthless" and incapable of overcoming her problems. When Brooke and Peyton return home that night, Rachel is nowhere to be found and neither is the money Peyton had given to Brooke. After discovering Victoria was responsible for Rachel's sudden departure, Brooke fires her - both as her CEO and her mother.
Rachel has not been seen or heard from since and her current whereabouts are unknown.