Ryan Atwood

Ryan Atwood
File:OC-305.jpg Benjamin McKenzie as Ryan Atwood
First appearance	Premiere (episode 1.01)
Created by	Josh Schwartz
Portrayed by	Benjamin McKenzie
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Bartender/Cage fighter
Spouse	Marissa Cooper (ex-girlfriend) (deceased) Theresa Diaz (ex-girlfriend) Lindsay Gardner (ex-girlfriend) Sadie Campbell (ex-girlfriend)

Ryan Atwood is a fictional character on the FOX television series The O.C., played by Benjamin McKenzie.

Season 1

In the beginning of the season, Ryan Atwood is a troubled teenager living in Chino, California. He was caught stealing a car with his brother Trey and later met attorney Sandy Cohen (played by Peter Gallagher). Ryan was later abandoned by his family and Sandy eventually adopted Ryan, with some objections from Sandy's wife, Kirsten Cohen, at the beginning. However, Kirsten after meeting Ryan's mom and realising she was unable to take care of him welcomed him to stay and Ryan integrated gradually into the Cohen family, albeit with some minor difficulties. He also has gradually integrated into Newport Beach society, but does still remain somewhat of an outsider. He has become a brother to Sandy and Kirsten's misfit son Seth Cohen, and Sandy and Kirsten consider him as a second son. Ryan and Marissa Cooper, a popular but somewhat troubled teenage girl, developed an attraction for one another that initially had its difficulties because of her relationship with Luke Ward and the differences in their lives and backgrounds. However when she and Luke broke up they became closer and formed a somewhat troubled but strong relationship.

During the middle of the season, Ryan's relationship with Marissa was interrupted by Oliver Trask, a mentally deranged person who Marissa met in Therapy, and whom developed an unhealthy obsession with her. Oliver began hanging around with Marissa and Ryan, even inviting them to his Palm Springs Vacation Home. Ryan became very suspicious of Oliver's behaviour, his background and his feelings for Marissa. This brought significant trust issues between him and Marissa to the fore, which eventually resulted in them breaking up. When Marissa realised Oliver harboured a unhealthy obsession for her, she sought Ryan's help and Oliver after threatening to commit suicide was committed to a mental hospital. Afterwards she tried to get back together with him but Ryan could not forget the fact of how easily someone had come between them, and refused to resume their relationship, although they did remain friends until they got back together later in the season. At the same time, an old girlfriend from Chino called Theresa moved to Newport to be with him, which resulted in them having a short relationship. Theresa then left Newport after her violent fiance Eddie came to Newport and a fight broke out between Ryan and him. Ryan and Marissa got back together shortly after, but this was further complicated when Theresa arrived back in Newport towards the end of the season after suffering domestic abuse from Eddie. Theresa revealed to Marissa that she was pregnant, and did not know whether the father was Ryan or Eddie's. In the season finale it looked like Theresa was going to have an abortion, but then decided to keep it and decided to go back to Chino to be with her family. Ryan felt compelled to go back with her to help her bring up the child, leaving Marissa and everything behind.

Season 2

Ryan was shown at the beginning of season two to be living with Theresa and working as a construction worker. A visit from Sandy prompted him to go to Portland to try to convince Seth to go back to Newport, who ran away the previous season after being distraught by Ryan's departure. They both returned to Newport Beach in the first episode of the second season, after Theresa made him believe she had a miscarriage, seeing how unhappy he was living his old life again.

Ryan is portrayed as much more mature in the second season. After he broke up with Marissa Cooper after realising she was already in a relationship with someone else, Ryan had a relationship with Lindsay Gardner, who is soon discovered as Kirsten Cohen's illegitimate half-sister. Later, after Lindsay moved to Chicago with her mother, Ryan reunited with Marissa, originally as friends but they soon developed into a couple once again. The middle of the second series also saw the return of his brother Trey into Ryan's life, after he got released from prison. Trey's return caused a number of problems for Ryan, not least because of Trey's stealing and drug use. This came to a head when Trey tried to rape Marissa in a drugged up state, while Ryan was in Miami visiting his step-grandmother, Sophie Cohen (the Nana). Eventually Ryan found out about the attempted rape which lead to a confrontation between him and Trey. The confrontation turned deadly with Trey having Ryan pinned to the floor and strangling him. Marissa walked in and pleaded with Trey to let Ryan go. Trey, in a fit of rage refused and Marissa shot him in the back to save Ryan's life. It was left unclear whether Trey survived or not until the third season.

Season 3

After being in a coma for two months, Trey wakes up and initially when offered money by Julie Cooper implicated Ryan in the shooting. He then however cleared Ryan's name afterwards when confronted by Marissa and subsequently left Newport. Ryan and Marissa both faced a campaign to expel both of them from parents at the prestigious Harbour High school as a result of the shooting however, which resulted in the school board and the new Dean of Discipline Hess expelling Marissa, and later Ryan after he assaulted the dean. Marissa then ended up going to Newport Union public high school, with Ryan eventually being re-admitted to Harbour after Dean Hess was blackmailed over having an affair with a student, Taylor Townsend.

While Marissa was at Newport Union, until she was readmitted again into Harbour, she made friends with another boy Johnny Harper, who later complicated Ryan's relationship with Marissa when Johnny fell in love with her, and Ryan was suspicious about whether the feelings were reciprocated. Marissa confirmed her commitment to her relationship with Ryan, and told Johnny although he was her friend and she cared for him she would never be in love with him. This rejection prompted Johnny to go on a drinking binge, which resulted in Johnny falling off a cliff to his death.

Ryan and Marissa became distant from each other afterwards, with both of them admitting their relationship was not working, and eventually their breaking up. Ryan then started dating Sadie Campbell, Johnny's cousin who moved down to Newport temporarily to help her aunt. The relationship was short-lived however when Ryan was accepted into UC Berkeley and they admitted they had little conceivable future together with Ryan due to leave for college in the fall and Sadie then left Newport. He recently became reacquainted with his mother, who appears to have made progress in sorting out her life. He recently became reacquainted also with his childhood friend and former girlfriend, Theresa, when he found out that she lied about having a miscarriage. She told him that she had a paternity test which confirmed her former abusive fiancé Eddie was the father not him. Theresa attended Harbor's prom with Ryan as friends.

However Ryan was provoked into returning to his former ways by Volchok, a local surfer and Marissa's boyfriend after they split up, who cheated on Marissa and then stole the post-prom party money from Taylor, and then provoked Ryan into a fight when he came to collect it. Theresa left when she found out, and Volchok used his injuries to blackmail Ryan into participating in a robbery. In the season finale, Volchok needed to get out of town and tried to blackmail Ryan into giving him money for this purpose, with the threat that he would tell the police about Ryan's involvement in the robbery. Marissa gave Ryan the pearls her mother bought her as a graduation present to pawn for Volchok's escape money.

After getting the money, Volchok continued to try to blackmail Ryan but wanted to talk to Marissa. In the midst of his threats, Marissa pulled up in Ryan's car which clearly upset Volchok. While Ryan drove Marissa to the airport, an angry and drunk Volchok tried crashing into Ryan's car to get him to pull over, so they could finish their rivalry on the side of the road. He sideswiped Ryan's car and knocked it over a barrier; the car rolled down an embankment and came to a stop on a road below. Ryan sustained no serious injuries in the accident, but Marissa suffered a head injury and died in Ryan's arms on the road.