I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning(Season 2, Episode 19)

Nathan's heretofore unmentioned uncle Cooper visits to snap Nathan out of his funk. He's a race car driver! He takes Nathan and Lucas to the track to show off. We meet Cooper's crew chief and his daughter who is named Daytona(!) The crew chief teaches Nathan and Lucas to race the cars. Wasn't this a plot on a Dukes Of Hazzard episode?

Try as he might Nathan can't escape thoughts of Haley. Daytona sings that "Stars Go Blue" song, which might be the final straw for him mentally. When the race ends Nathan keeps driving, and he accelerates so quickly he loses control of the car and crashes. Nathan becomes the latest member of the other Scott family tradition: being unconscious on an operating table.

 Dan drops in on Karen at school and reveals her relationship with Andy to the class. A student reports this to the officials of course, and Andy is given the option of quitting or being fired. Andy chooses the former, and he does it all for the glory of love.

Andy tells Dan what a bastard he is for doing the things he's done. Dan responds by offering Andy a job application since Andy is unemployed now. Don't ever change, Dan. Ever.

Brooke stays close to Peyton, because of Peyton's depression over Jake.  All of the women(minus Haley of course) end up at Tric, where they dance! Debra shows up drunk, and proceeds to drink more. She is enabled by the others(who don't know of her pill popping problems. Brooke dances like a dork. Look at her.  Dan finds Debra passed out on his damn lawn and doesn't even bother to wake her.

Oh, That Brooke!  Brooke is using her new found responsibility to be a designated driver for drunk kids. On that particular night, she picks up Mouth, who's completely smashed and loving it! Mouth and Brooke drive around for fun, until she picks up her former rival Erica Marsh. Mouth and Erica like each other. They're going to be a thing now!

 CLIFFHANGER!  Nathan needs a blood transfusion. Debra is a match, but hers is unusable because of her drug abuse. Daytona(!) believes Nathan's crash was a suicide attempt. Nathan didn't break out of his funk! He got broken by it.

Lucas voice over!

“Time takes it all whether you want it to or not, time takes it all. Time bares it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again.”(Stephen King)

 

Episodes without Haley: 3

(Next episode, Nathan imagines he's in an alternate reality where he and Lucas have switched places. That entry may be rather lengthy..)