Sophia Bush did not hold back about her disdain for Brooke and Lucas’ story in One Tree Hill’s 100th episode.
“You guys, this never made sense,” Bush, 41, confessed to cohosts Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz on the Monday, August 7, episode of the “Drama Queens” podcast. “As soon as it started I was like, ‘ah f–k, I know what’s coming.’ Because they wanted to get into the storyline of Brooke wanting to have a kid.”
In the 100th episode of the WB/CW drama, Bush’s character Brooke Davis admits she wants to have a child at 22 years old after achieving her career aspirations. Bush, for her part, found her new character’s arc to be “super weird” and didn’t like the idea of having a baby fill a void for her character. “A baby is not a Band-Aid,” she quipped.
Bush went on to criticize that the episode was “dripping” with misogyny due to the lack of women writers involved at the time. On the show’s credits page, Mark Schwahn was listed as the sole writer of the monumental episode. (Bush, Burton Morgan and Lenz as well as several women who starred on the nine-season drama have accused Schwahn of misconduct several times since 2017.)
“And, by the way, you can see who wrote this episode as a solo writer and the misogyny dripping from it with, like, ‘I’m so unfulfilled, I’m successful but I’m empty inside cause as a woman I can’t possibly be happy unless I have a baby,’” Bush stated. “This whole episode is dripping with we did not have any female writers in the room get to edit this or do a polish on its grossness.”
Sophia Bush. Tammie/AFF-USA/Shutterstock
In the series, Brooke dated Lucas, who was portrayed by Chad Michael Murray, in high school. Burton, now 41, played Brooke’s best friend Peyton who also had feelings for Lucas. During the 100th episode, Brooke was aware of her friend’s feelings and was rooting for their romance. However, in that episode, Brooke also wanted Lucas to be the sperm donor for her child.
James Lafferty, Bethany Joy Lenz, Hilarie Burton, Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray. INFGoff.com
“It’s all so gross — and we know why — but ew gross and for me the level of ick,” she said. “I was like, Brooke Davis has established boundaries and become good friends with Lucas. She is also Peyton’s No. 1 fan. Like, that’s my ride or die. I would never, [and] Brooke would never be like, ‘I know you’re in love with this man who’s about to marry someone else, but I’m just gonna ask him for a quick organic material donation so I can make a baby with him.’”
Bush noted that Brooke’s decision seemed “so out of character” for her.
“Truly when I tell you, I was infuriated then, I am infuriated now. It was not based in reality,” she admitted. “I hated every minute of it and this just doesn’t track. It’s so off-the-charts insane. Brooke owns a multimillion-dollar company, you think she can’t go to like whatever the version of North Carolina cryobank is and pay $1200 for a semen sample?”