The Adam Brody Renaissance Continues: Seth Cohen’s Most Memorable Moments on ‘The O.C.’

[Season one, episode 13: “The Best Chrismukkah Ever”]

When one thinks of Seth Cohen, often the first thing that comes to mind is “Chrismukkah,” a holiday he created to blend both Christmas and Hanukkah, as his mom, Kirsten, is Christian, and his dad, Sandy, is Jewish. As Cohen called it, “the greatest superholiday known to mankind, drawing the best of what Christianity and Judaism have to offer.” It was first introduced in season one, but there’s one episode featuring the Cohen-invented holiday in all four seasons.

“The show’s concept was: If you’re a young Jewish man living in Orange County with a WASPy mother, how do you celebrate your heritage while taking advantage of all the gifts you can get by combining both holidays?,” Schwartz told THR about originating the holiday in 2016, one that caught on outside the show.

Stephanie Savage, writer-producer on the series, added, “It’s about inclusiveness. We were surprised after the episode aired by how many people told us this is how they celebrated, but didn’t have a name for it.”

[Season one, episode 19: “The Heartbreak”]

Cohen’s most romantic — and one of his most unforgettable moments — in the series happens on a coffee cart. After he and Summer kept sneaking around to keep their relationship a secret once he and Anna broke up, he had enough of Summer ignoring him in public and decideed to stand his ground. That when he climbs onto a coffee cart and says to Summer: “Acknowledge me now or lose me forever,” in addition to owning that he’s proud to be a “big dork and I listen to emo.” In front of all their peers, Summer, the “It Girl” of the school, takes his hand and climbs on top of the cart with him, sealing her choice with a kiss. That public display of affection is a pivotal moment for Cohen and Summer’s relationship, marking the first time they’re officially a couple.

[Season one, episode 27: “The Ties That Bind”]

And that doesn’t mean the girl.

While Cohen had his moments of romantic grand gestures and thoughtfulness, he also had his flaws, including being selfish at times, especially in his relationship with Summer. At the end of season one, Ryan thought he might be the father when his ex-girlfriend Theresa (Navi Rawat) gets pregnant. So, he decides to leave Newport, which also means leaving Cohen, who struggles with the thought that his life could return to what it was before Ryan came to town and became his first friend — and brother. Devastated by the news, Cohen chooses to leave Newport on his sailboat to attempt his life goal of sailing to Tahiti. But before leaving, he doesn’t go to Summer to tell her his plan. Instead, he leaves her a letter. While this decision wasn’t the best and earned his character some criticism, we must remember that Cohen was just a teenage boy who lost the only friend he ever had and was grieving in his own way.

[Season two, episode 14: “The Rainy Day Women”]

One of the most romantic moments in The O.C. happened on a rare rainy day in Orange County. After Cohen’s failed attempts to win Summer back, she goes to the airport for a trip to Italy with her then-boyfriend, Zach Stevens (Michael Cassidy). But she changes her mind after seeing a kid play with a toy horse, which reminds her of Cohen’s cherished toy horse, “Captain Oats.” She realizes she still loves him and leaves Zach to head to Cohen’s house. There, she finds him dangling upside down from the roof (he had fallen while trying to fix the TV satellite dish), wearing a Spider-Man mask, and pulls the mask down to kiss him (amid the background music to Oasis’ “Champagne Supernova”). The scene recreates Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst’s smooch in Sam Raimi’s 2002 film Spider-Man, which was released a few years before this episode. And it’s one of the most romantic moments in the series.

[Season two, episode 23: “The O.Sea”]

Remember when George Lucas made a cameo as himself on The O.C.? Cohen skips his junior prom to meet with Lucas, the Star Wars inventor, who is interested in his comic book, Atomic County, which he created with Zach. Even though Cohen is sitting across from his hero, he’s still hung up on the fact that he missed prom with Summer and asks Lucas if he attended his prom, to which Lucas says he didn’t, but admits he does regret it and shares with Cohen an important message on experiencing pivotal moments in your youth. “The prom is a great American tradition. It’s important to experience being a teenager when you’re actually a teenager,” Lucas says. “When I went off and made my film American Graffiti, I never had the experience of a prom and I had to make a movie about it. I felt hopelessly inadequate without having really done it myself.” The message led Cohen to realize where he really wants to be — so he walked out to be with Summer. 

[Season two, episode 23: “The O.Sea”]

When skipping out on their junior prom for the Lucas dinner — to discuss his interest in his and Zach’s graphic novel, Atomic County — Zach is at the dance with Summer. But after hearing George’s advice, he and Zach swap places, and Cohen arrives at prom just in time for the prom King and Queen unveiling. He gives another romantic speech that solidifies their relationship. While Cohen didn’t win the title, Summer did, and he joked he would be her “jester” instead. The moment shows that even when they are on and off (which was most of season two), Cohen still showed up for her when needed, and matured from season one’s mistakes.

[Season three, episode 10: “The Chrismukkah Bar Mitz-Vahkkah”]

In the third annual Chrismukkah episode of the series, Cohen took his invented holiday to a new level when he decided to throw Ryan a Bar Mitzvah. While, yes, Ryan isn’t Jewish. The intentions were pure as the core four (Cohen, Ryan, Marissa, played by Mischa Barton, and Summer) planned the night to raise money for Marissa’s friend Johnny (Ryan Donowho), who couldn’t afford to have the surgery he needed. In the process, Cohen’s excitement to teach Ryan more about Judaism made it all the more heartwarming. (Almost like a pre-rabbi Noah in Nobody Wants This?) It also marked a full-circle moment for Cohen, as he finally got to experience a Bar Mitzvah with his friends because no one attended his own.

[Season three, episode 13: “The Pot Stirrer”]

Let’s be real, Cohen’s whole stoner storyline was way out of character. I mean, this is the same character who was a total straight edge in season one. But when Cohen started smoking pot in season three, he gets too stoned and misses an interview with his dream school, Brown University. For how much of the series Cohen talks about how desperately he wants to leave Newport, it’s surprising he would risk jeopardizing his future. Following this, his relationship with Summer crumbles and he travels all the way to Providence to try to convince the college to accept him — but fails to — so he could attend with Summer, who surprisingly got in. What makes this such a memorable moment is seeing how the tables turned between him and Summer. Also, it was revealed in 2023’s Welcome to The O.C.: The Oral History that the writing of Cohen smoking weed was due to Adam Brody’s low energy and growing disinterest in what the show was becoming.

[Season three, episode 25: “The Graduates”]

This list wouldn’t feel complete without including one of Sandy Cohen’s words of wisdom. In the season three finale, Cohen comes to Sandy to talk before his graduation ceremony. He confesses to accidentally burning down the Newport Group by forgetting to put out a joint. Instead of getting angry like most parents would, his father tells Cohen he’s disappointed in all the lying he’s done lately, including this and not coming clean right away about not getting into Brown, and they ultimately move forward from the situation. With Cohen taking accountability for his actions and ending with an awkward hug and an “I love you,” the moment reinforced the powerful bond the Cohen family has.

Cohen and Marissa were both a part of the core four, but their one-on-one scenes were few and far between. However, the moments they shared on-screen felt memorable, as they both could understand what it was like to be an outcast in Orange County. Especially when Ryan came back for season two, but moved on from Marissa, and Summer moved on from Cohen. “If someone would’ve told me last year that you and I would be the two loneliest people in Newport, I wouldn’t have believed them. Well, at least not the you part,” Cohen tells her. They both shared more in common than they realized, like their love for indie bands. And the neighbors’ lives were each drastically changed when Ryan came to Newport. Their relationship was something that could have been focused on more and their awkward hug goodbye in the season three finale before (spoiler alert!) Marissa died felt forced.

[Season four, episode two: “The Gringos”]

In all of The O.C.‘s run, Ryan was the hero. He was constantly saving Marissa, Seth and everyone else from trouble. However, when Ryan really needed someone, Cohen was that person. After Marissa’s ex-boyfriend Volchok (Cam Gigandet) ran Ryan and Marissa off the road, which was fatal for Marissa in season three, Ryan was determined to avenge her death. While Ryan was searching for him, Cohen found out his location, but told Ryan the wrong address because he knew Ryan would murder him. While Cohen was out looking for Ryan to tell him, he ran into Steve-O, who has a cameo and gives him a tattoo. After all of the times Ryan had Cohen’s back, it was a satisfying moment to see Cohen repay the favor and step in when Ryan was about to make a life-altering decision.

[Season four, episode 16: “The End’s Not Near It’s Here”]

In the series finale of The O.C., viewers see that years have passed, as the show cut to Summer walking down the aisle to marry Cohen. Earlier in the episode, the couple’s future took them in different directions as Summer skipped moving to Providence for college with Cohen, and instead joined a global environmental organization called GEORGE. So showing them as each other’s endgame, despite the distance, was a satisfying moment for fans.

Fun fact: At that point in the series’ run, Brody and Bilson had broken up in real life. “We broke up at the very end, so there wasn’t much [for us to film] after the breakup,” Bilson said on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast in 2021. “We did get married after we broke up on the show. That’s always fun! That was like the only scene left to shoot, was the wedding. [The writer’s were] like, ‘You broke up? Let’s give you a wedding.’”