Just curious! I quite often hear about people who were shocked to see BL split in 4x01. But I myself saw it coming after seeing BL in the end of 3x22. That whole dance scene just kind of felt like a "goodbye" scene to me. And despite the scene, and the words themselves coming from Lucas being sweet... it just seemed evident to me that it all just wasn't enough for Brooke. And that she felt completely defeated, regardless of what Lucas was saying to her anymore. And then at the very end when Lucas told Karen that "Brooke left.", and the way that he said it, seemed to me like he was implying that despite all of his efforts, she was still upset and feeling down. I dunno. It all just felt like the end of BL, to me. So I myself kind of already saw it coming when they called it quits in 4x01. Yet there are others who seemed to be completely surprised by it.

So I was just kind of wondering what the different views are here, and if I'm the only one who interpreted the 3x22 scene that way :)

I just never saw it. I thought that after the dance scene... i just really believed they were going to work things out.

definitely. this whole episode just screamed the end of brucas to me.

I can't say that I definitely saw it coming because sometimes couples fight and make-up, but usually when they make up it's done in the same episode. This scene had more of a sad heart breaking feeling to it than an angry resentful feeling (and on tv shows sad and heart breaking is what often leads to breakups).

I always assumed when people said they didn't see Brucas's breakup coming, they meant in general, not specifically after 3x22. Because aside from their fight in 3x22 when Brooke finds out about the kiss, there really wasn't anything leading up to a breakup. There a comment by Rachel about Lucas not calling Brooke while he was gone, except that then while he's away with Karen he tells her that Brooke is on his mind with a smile. And then acts crazy about Brooke in 3x21 when he returns home. And Brooke's feelings for Lucas seemed pretty strong up until 4x01. So I was more just surprised because I didn't think there was a downfall to their relationship. They just fought in 3x22 and it was over. And then Brooke's reasoning for breaking up with Lucas didn't even have anything to do with her insecurities, or the kiss, or Peyton. She said she just felt like he wasn't letting her in- so she stopped missing him and stopped needing to be let in. But the only other time we got a tiny glimpse of Brooke feeling that way was in 3x17 when Lucas asked if he told Brooke how much he loved her that day and she said not really. But then the next episode he spent basically the entire episode letting her be there for him, opening up to her about his feelings about Keith's death and concerns for his mom, and his memories with Keith.

So while 3x22 may have seemed like their downfall, I didn't see anything leading up to that point. And I definitely didn't predict her reasoning for the breakup.

The breakup scene is actually why I started re-watching One Tree Hill so.

It was just too sudden, i guess i don't blame BL'rs when they say Lucas settled for Peyton

I saw it coming, it was just a matter of time in my opinion