No ghosts? No dream sequences? What kind of episode of One Tree Hill was this?  Overall, "We All Fall Down" was a step in the right direction.  Boring at times, but at least I didn't want to hit myself over the head with a frying pan while watching.

There was no Jamie this week, so I can't continue to praise my favorite character dynamic (Jamie and Julian).  I wish I could say that two of my favorite characters, Alex and Chase, slid easily into that spot of most entertaining story... but they were just annoying.

Sure, Alex being cute and cheesy one minute, and then flipping the switch to her sweet and serious side was nice, but the whole golfing expedition was a bit too heavy on the cheese.  Then again, the outfit she was wearing more than made up for any problems I had with the two of them this week.

I said before that I was a fan of Brooke losing her company so that she could start from ground zero, but the way it came about here seemed forced.  The random guy that came into the store to complain about losing his money because of her?  It seemed way too phony.  Blame bad acting, or bad writing, but it wasn't interesting.

And, seriously, you're going to give up all of your money to pay back complete strangers?  We're not talking about losing the company here, this is everything you have!  For something you didn't do?  Victoria is paying the price behind bars, why do you have to be such a masochist about this, Brooke?

I know that everybody on this show has their own set of issues, but I need some more relationship problems, or at least some single people.  In my soaps, I don't just want a bunch of couples that are happy together.  Everyone is paired off and no one is exploring.  In an eight person cast, it's ideal is to have four of them in two couples, two more kind of dating, but maybe cheating on each other on the side, and the two others getting with many different people throughout the season.  Everyone pairing up just doesn't create enough action.

So our boy Nathan has made the decision to quit playing professional basketball.  We all saw this coming when he was at the doctor a few weeks ago, but boy is that a young age to retire.  His back must be a lot worse than it looked while he was playing out at the River Court because he ripping it up out there.

I know Haley said that cash and things don't matter, but what are you all going to do for money?  Haley hasn't sang in a long while, and what can Nathan do now? Go back to the pretzel cart at the mall?  It doesn't seem like Dan Scott Motors is hiring anytime soon.  He said he's thought about this a lot, but it seems a bit too rash for me.

We were left with Julian looking over some footage he took of Nathan shooting at the River Court.  Is he turning that into his next movie?  About Nathan quitting basketball?  What will happen with the caller Haley is helping at the Crisis Intervention center?  How are Quinn and Clay going to handle going back to the beach house with all those bad memories?

Other thoughts:

• I'm glad Nathan is the one that turned out to be the basketball player, and it wasn't Lucas. James Lafferty can really play, and Chad Michael Murray's skills left quite a few things left to desire.
• I loved the opening theme this week. It was performed by Susie Suh, who has had five other songs on One Tree Hill. Check out all the show's music HERE.
• We began with Dear Lucas again.  Love it.
• Funniest moment of the episode had to be Julian being all in touch with his flower arranging skills.
• Browse through the latest One Tree Hill quotes now!

Dan Forcella is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.