The O.C. (2003) - 67 mistakes in entire show

Deliberate "mistake": Lindsay is not at Caleb's funeral in the last episode of season 2, "The Dearly Beloved". It's unlikely that she would have missed it - she is still on good terms with him and he is her father, the only reason she left was to be with her mother, not because she didn't love Caleb.Obviously they didn't want to create another drama with having Lindsay there while they had to focus on the important story-lines - Caleb's death, Kirsten's drinking and Marissa shooting Trey.

Continuity: In season two, episode "The Return of the Nana", Marissa's arms change position repeatedly while she and Trey are down at the beach. Also, her bag appears with her, even though she left the apartment without it.

Continuity: Season 4 - Episode 8 - The Earth Girls Are Easy - When Kaitlin is at the party, talking to Bullit, her strand of hair changes from hanging over her eye to hanging down next to it, without her moving her hands or head to displace it.

Continuity: In season 2 episode "The Risky Business", the top Summer holds changes position in her hands.

Continuity: At the beginning of the second episode of season 3, "The Shape of Things to Come," Summer, Marissa, Ryan and Seth are ordering pancakes at the restaurant. In this whole scene, Marissa's blue mug keeps changing position between shots.

Continuity: At the beginning of the first episode of Season 3, "The Aftermath", Ryan's hair is much shorter than it was at the last episode of season 2. Since they arrive at the hospital with a bleeding Trey, we know that this is right after Trey got shot. It doesnt make any sense that Ryan would go get a haircut right after Trey got shot and then go to the hospital with him.

Continuity: Season 4 Episode 5 The Sleeping Beauty: When Taylor calls Ryan in the middle of the night (around 03:03 when he first checks), the second time Ryan checks the time on his radio it shows 03:23, however it jumps back to 03:04 when he looks again.

Continuity: When Ryan is lighting Marissa's cigarette with his, at the start of the shot it's full, then the shot goes to Ryan and it's still full. But then the shot goes to Marissa and if you look at Ryan's cigarette you can see it is almost all gone. Then the shot goes to Ryan and the cigarette is full again.

Continuity: When Marissa is dumped on the driveway by Summer and Holly, Ryan first sees her there her left arm is across her chest with her elbow sticking up. The next shot of Marissa her ams are straight and spread out, and the next they are close by her sides, which is impossible for her to have moved them herself as she is unconscious.

Continuity: When Sandy first picks up Ryan, we see in several shots that Ryan's bike is in the trunk, and that the trunk is open. However, when they drive up to the house, the trunk is now closed, with no bike.

Continuity: When Ryan and Sandy leave to take Ryan back home, it is supposedly the morning. But as they leave, the sun can be seen over Marissa's shoulder, which is the west (because her back is to the ocean). Since the sun sets in the west, it can't be morning.

Other: After Kirsten is talking to Sandy about the fact Seth got into a fight and she comes inside to see that Ryan has made breakfast, there is no way he could of set the table, found all the utensils and ingredients and cooked them by the time Kirsten gets back inside.

Audio problem: At the beginning of the episode we see Kirsten on the phone, in the next shot we see Sandy pick up a towel and look out the window. At this moment you can see Kirsten, and she is still talking on the phone, but her mouth doesn't even move.

Continuity: In the morning when Seth goes into the kitchen where his parents are, he reaches into the cupboard to get a bowl. However, in the next shot he now has a box of cereal.

Continuity: When Kirsten and Ryan are talking while setting up for the Casino Night, the camera cuts between Ryan And Kirsten while they talk. Whenever you see both characters in one shot, her fringe is forward, but when you see the individual shot of her, her fringe is pulled back behind her ear.

Continuity: At the part where Kirsten brings Ryan and Seth to help set up the hall, Seth starts to blow up balloons with helium. In one shot he has an orange balloon under his arm and is tying the bottom, and the next he's starting to fill up a different balloon, without time to finish tying it and pick up a new one.

Continuity: When Ryan's lunch tray gets knocked out of his hands in jail and the guy pushes him onto the table, a fork appears in his hands with no time to pick it up.

Continuity: In this episode Seth, Ryan and Kirsten arrive at the country club in the Range Rover to get the boys ready for Cotillion. In the next scene we see Sandy with the surfboards in the back of the Range Rover as he has just come home and Jimmy arrives to apologise, soon after we go back to the country club where Seth and Ryan are trying on jackets and meet up with Marissa, Summer and Luke, proving that the Range Rover should still be there, not back home.

Continuity: In the scene where Ryan and Anna are learning to waltz Anna's hand goes from the top of Ryan's shoulder to the side of his shoulder and back to the top of his shoulder between shots.

Continuity: When Seth and Summer are having breakfast at a cafe he pushes his toast towards her and she eats the crusts. But in the next shot, and for the rest of the scene, the plate is still beside Seth.

Continuity: When Marissa leaves the bar, after downing the pills and tequila, she leaves her bag, but presumably Ryan found it. Then, when Ryan sees Marissa down the alley he runs to her, but his hands are empty, yet, in the next shot, where he kneels over her body, Marissa's bag is in his hand and he puts it down beside her.

Continuity: At the beginning of the episode when Seth is eating in the Crab Shack and talking to Ryan, he's holding his drink but in the behind shot he's bringing the drink to his mouth but in the front shot it's resting on the bench and again in the back shot he's sipping the drink but in the front shot it's nowhere near his mouth.

Continuity: After Summer calls Seth and Ryan from the bathroom to say she's found Marissa, she puts her phone on the shelf, and then goes back into the main room to find Marissa gone. Then as Summer walks out the door she shoves her phone back into her bag, even though she left it on the shelf.

Visible crew/equipment: During the Tijuana scenes, several times during and after the scene where Marissa catches Luke, you can see the shadow of the camera on the characters.

Revealing: Just as Jimmy is about to kiss Kirsten, you can see the actress nod to signal him, which wouldn't be right as in the story Kirsten doesn't want to kiss Jimmy.

Continuity: When Summer and Seth are arguing during the car trip to T.J., Summer's hands move from touching her hair to holding her bottle when she says, "You're Jewish?"

Continuity: When Marissa and Ryan are out at the vending machine, Marissa hasn't got her cell phone with her, and she hasn't got any pockets, but then later when they are heading back inside just as it rings she is holding it.

Continuity: Jimmy brags to Marissa that he is having an "actual phone line" installed that day, when in the episode before he is seen using a cordless home phone when Julie rings him after Marissa ran away from the hospital.

Factual error: Marissa tells Ryan that she "has never slept with anyone before" (in the literal sense), which is not true as she and Ryan slept together (in the literal sense) at the motel in Tijuana, and then woke up with their arms around each other.

Continuity: When Sandy, Kirsten and Rachel walk into the living room, Rachel's arms move position between shots.

Continuity: When Marissa goes to see the psychiatrist, she sits down and puts her jacket on the arm of the chair. When the shot changes, her jacket is on the other side of her.

Revealing: If you look closely, a bit into the fight you can see that Hailey is not actually putting any trash inside the trash bag. She is just going through the motions.

Continuity: At the end of the game, when the whole group is in the lounge at the Cohens', Luke and Seth are versing each other on the PlayStation. However, the screen shows the game is only in single-player mode, but both Luke and Seth are using controllers.

Revealing: The picture of Marissa and Ryan that Oliver hides is from the pilot episode, at the fashion show hosted by Marissa. However, at the time she and Ryan barely knew each other and wouldn't have an excuse to take a photo together.

Continuity: When Oliver is singing along to "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones and is dumping all the pills onto the coffee table, the pills go from being all mixed up to in colour co-ordinated piles, and back and forth.

Continuity: At the start, Summer and Marissa are talking about the weekend. Summer says something like, "I'm going mad over Seth Cohen." The camera swaps from Summer and Marissa. We see Summer first with her hair in front of her ear, then when we cut back after seeing Marissa, Summer's hair has gone to behind her ear.

Continuity: Ryan walks into Oliver's hotel room twice; there are two shots of him moving from behind the hotel room to come in front of it, separated by six seconds.

Continuity: Ryan and Theresa are walking along the beach with ice creams. The amount of ice cream changes between shots. This is especially noticeable with Theresa's ice cream.

Continuity: Anna's sleeves change while she is playing video games in the student lounge.

Other: In this epsidoe when Marissa and Summer meet Cody Briches on the beach, Marissa says she's never watched "The Valley," which is not true, as in the Valentines Day episode, she's lying on the couch watching T.V and you can hear "Next Time On The Valley".

Audio problem: The phone message that Ryan leaves on Luke's voicemail is different to what he originally said, which is "I want to make sure you took care of it. Take care of it," but the message recorded is, "I'm just calling to make sure you took care of it. Take care of it." Also the background sounds from the club - the music, people talking, etc, are missing.

Plot hole: Ryan says that he has left his watch at the motel after sleeping with Theresa, and goes back to get it. However, at the end of the Goodbye Girl (the episode before) he is seen wearing it as he gets out of the car to go and talk to Theresa, only to find she's gone back to Chino. The whole story of Ryan and Seth going back to get his watch from the motel is just an excuse for them to discover the whole Luke/Julie affair.

Continuity: Marissa walks inside, pulls off her dress, and puts on her pink top, doesn't put on any pants but in the next shot she's wearing jeans.

Continuity: The lighter and packet jump into the Nana's hands after she stubs out her last cigarette.

Continuity: In the scene where Summer first goes in Marissa's room, Marissa's hairstyle changes - her hair is in a ponytail for most of the scene but in close-ups she has a visible fringe.

Continuity: When Ryan and Marissa are play-fighting in the Balboa Bakery, their arms change position repeatedly.

Continuity: Aunt Cindy's arms change position back and forth, between holding her drink with two hands, and holding with one hand and the other on her hip, while talking to Caleb and Julie at the shower, when Julie is trying to get Cindy to leave them alone.

Continuity: When the camera is focusing on the pool at the hotel it slowly moves up and then we see Ryan and Seth walking down some stairs (in the upper left hand corner). We can see Ryan swinging his arms and he's not holding a drink, but in the next shot he's holding a drink.

Continuity: When Ryan goes to say goodbye to Seth and Seth is sitting on his bed listening to his iPod, in one shot they are in his ears and the next they are out without him moving.

Factual error: Marissa said to Ryan (in episode "The Brothers Grim") that the last time she was in Chino, she "saved his ass". She was referring to Thanksgiving, but that's not the last time she was in Chino. The last time she was in Chino was in "The Nana" when she ran there after finding out about Luke and her mother's affair.

Factual error: Julie picks up Marissa's iPod and presses the menu button, and Marissa acts as though the song has stopped, when pressing the menu button wouldn't do anything to the song - all that would do is have the playlist come up on the screen.

Deliberate "mistake": The posters on Seth's walls are different to the ones he had up when he left Newport. Since Seth has been in Portland all summer and not returned home, it's impossible for him to have changed them and extremely unlikely for Sandy or Kirsten to have either.

Other: In the first episode of season two you see Teresa with Ryan, yet she has no bump. Season one ends at the end of the school term and season two starts off just before the school term. Therefore there's been about two and a half months of school holiday plus the time between her sleeping with Ryan and discovering she's pregnant and Ryan leaving for Chino with her - therefore she should be showing some signs of pregnancy in early season two.

Continuity: When Ryan and Seth arrive at school Marisa goes and hugs Ryan. As she hugs him she puts her hand on his shoulders as if to hug him around the neck, or just to let Ryan hug her, but in the next shot her hands are around his waist.

Continuity: Early in the episode, Alex tells Seth that the night of the Killers concert is her night off. (She works at The Bait Shop, the concert venue.) At the end of the episode, Alex is paying The Killers, as if she were the manager on duty.

Continuity: In Series 2, Episode 'The SnOC', we see Zach punching Seth with his right fist. However, when Summer gives him some ice, he covers his left fist with it (which is now bruised and swollen).

Continuity: When Ryan and Lindsay are making out, Ryan's hands change position in different camera angles, as well as the way Lindsay is sitting when Kirsten interrupts them.

Continuity: While Sandy is singing and they all have their arms around each other, from the front, you see Alex is next to Zach, but from the back, Marissa is standing next to Alex and not Zach.

Continuity: Sandy's hands change from being on the microphone and being in the air between shots while he's singing.

Continuity: At the beginning of the episode, Kirsten and Ryan are sitting at the table. From the front you see Kirsten pick up her coffee cup. In the behind shot you see her put it down and in the next shot, which is from the front, the cup is still in her hand and she's putting it down again.

Continuity: When Seth is eating alone in the restaurant, there is a plate with leftovers in front of him. In the next shot, when Zach arrives, the plate has moved to the top right side of the table.

Continuity: Caleb tells Julie that when he had his coronary, she was in a spa in Nice, even though in the episode before it was established that Julie cancelled her trip to Nice.

Continuity: In the scene where Summer is about to leave for Italy with Zach and then realizes she has forgotten Princess Sparkle, she receives a phone call from Seth. In various shots the phone is on top of her hair and under her hair.

Continuity: When Summer screens the call from Seth at the airport, her phone opens without her flipping it.

Continuity: When Sandy meets Rebbecca in the coffee shop to discuss her running away, Rebecca's coffee cup alternates from being down on the table to by her mouth, when you see her from behind, between shots.

Visible crew/equipment: At the beginning of the episode, where there is a shot of the poolhouse, look at the top right hand corner. You can see where the set ends.

Other: How exactly does Seth unlock the door? The entire purpose of locking the storeroom is to keep mall customers out so they won't steal things, not to keep people in there, so there is no way it was only lockable from the outside. If it was a key operated lock, why would someone just leave their key in the keyhole for someone to take? There is no explanation for Seth being able to unlock the door.