Fans will likely never forget the dramatic circumstances surrounding when Mischa Barton's Marissa left The OC.
Barton's character was a defining part of the early-2000s teen TV drama, serving as a primary protagonist alongside Benjamin McKenzie's Ryan, Adam Brody's Seth, and Rachel Bilson's Summer in the show's first three seasons.
During her time on the series, Marissa was put through the wringer. In just three seasons she had to grapple with her parent's messy divorce, an evolving drug/drinking problem, and (yes) being investigated for murder among other things.
What Happened to Marissa on The OC?
After being a mainstay on The OC for three full seasons, Mischa Barton's Marissa Cooper left the series in 2006.
Her exit came as a part of the Season 3 finale ("The Graduates"). The episode follows the show's core cast of characters as they graduate from high school and venture out into the adult world for the first time.
However, things turn dire fast. The episode notably ended as the (at the time) new addition to the series Kevin (Cam Gigandet) got behind the wheel while under the influence at some graduation festivities.
This sends Kevin careening into Ryan and Marissa's car as the pair of young lovers-turned-close-friends grapple with the reality that they will be separated for their first year out of high school.
Kevin hitting Ryan's car, sends Ryan and Marissa off the road and into a ditch, knocking both of them unconscious. Ryan awakes pulling Marissa from the flaming wreckage, but things do not look good.
In epic OC fashion, Marissa slowly dies in Ryan's arms, cutting back and forth between moments from the show's premiere and the bloody Season 3 finale as Imogen Heap's "Hallelujah" plays in the background.
Finally, Marissa takes one last breath while being held by Ryan, signaling her end on the series, one season before the entire show would ultimately be shuttered in Season 4.
This epic Season 3 moment has remained one of the most dramatic bits of storytelling from the sun-soaked series, yet again, setting the modern template for so many shows that would come after it (just look at some of the more dramatic moments of a series like The Outer Banks).
The Real Reason Marissa Left The OC
While Marissa's exit from The OC may have seemed sudden in the show itself, it was anything but outside of the series.
Marissa actor Mischa Barton had long maintained she was ready to leave the hit teen drama by the time the series killed her off in Season 3.
At the time, she told Newsweek (via Digital Spy), "I was really excited that I get to die," positing that she had "done pretty much everything else with the character:"
"Well, I was really excited that I get to die, to be honest. I've done pretty much everything else with the character. It was better than one of those lame farewells."
This came amid rumors Barton had wanted to quit the series; however, the actor made it clear that it was the series' producers who ultimately made the decision to kill her character.
In a 2013 conversation with Daily Beast, series creator Josh Schwartz admitted the number one thing fans ask him about the series is "Why did you kill Marissa?"
"It’s a complicated, multifaceted question," Schwartz remarked, telling fans, "This was always in the cards for this character:"
"It’s a complicated, multifaceted question. It had as much to do with creatively feeling like this was always in the cards for this character and she was an inherently tragic heroine, and part of the Ryan/Marissa story was him trying to save her from a fate that she couldn’t be rescued from, and part of it had to do with pressure from the network in terms of ratings, and what we could do for the show’s fourth season. For a lot of critics, that character was a source of frustration. For a lot of audience members, that was their favorite character."
When asked if Barton wanted to leave the show like rumors seemed to suggest, the OC creative declared, "Mischa didn’t want off the show any more than any of the other kids wanted off the show:"
"Mischa didn’t want off the show any more than any of the other kids wanted off the show. [Laughs] It was a complicated chemistry with the cast … But she certainly wasn’t actively seeking to leave the show."
The OC would run for one more season without the presence of Barton's Marissa, before eventually coming to an end in February 2007.
This would hardly be the first time a beloved character died in a hit TV series — a tact that dramas like General Hospital have been employing for years — but, for a generation of young TV audiences, it was one of the most significant.
The OC is now streaming on Max and Hulu.
