Deb Lee

Deb Lee
File:Deb Scott.jpg Barbara Alyn Woods as Deborah Lee
Portrayed by	Barbara Alyn Woods
First appearance	Crash Into You (episode 1.04)
Created by	Mark Schwahn
In-universe information Occupation club owner Siblings Cooper Lee (brother) Spouse Dan Scott (ex-husband) Children Nathan Scott (son) Other relatives James Lucas Scott (grandson) Keith Scott (brother-in-law, deceased) Haley James Scott (daughter-in-law)

Deborah "Deb" Helen Lee (formerly Scott), is a fictional character on the CW television series One Tree Hill, played by Barbara Alyn Woods.

Are you crazy? -There are evidences to support that.

— Nathan Scott and Deb Lee

Fictional character biography

Deb Scott is the ex-wife of Tree Hill mayor Dan Scott (Paul Johansson), the mother of the Ravens basketball star Nathan Scott (James Lafferty), and the grandmother of James Lucas Scott.

Season 1

Deb first appears when she returns from a business trip and is concerned by the change in Nathan's behavior, which she attributes to Dan's influence on him. She quits her job and decides to stay at home and work on her family. Dan is not happy to see Deb befriending Karen and even less happy when Deb takes over the running of Karen's café while Karen is in Italy. After Nathan takes amphetamines to beat Dan's scoring record, he collapses on the court and is rushed to hospital. This causes a huge row between Dan and Deb, as Dan didn't call her to tell her that Nathan was in hospital. So Deb throws her husband out of the house. She later realises that Dan is never going to change his ways and seeks a divorce from him. Dan makes it clear to Deb that he is prepared to reveal her secrets to Nathan so Deb confesses herself and tells her son that she had an affair some years previously. A disgusted Nathan moves out and is granted emancipation from both his parents. After one final fling, Dan agrees to give Deb her divorce. She signs the papers and is waiting for Dan to do so so that the divorce can be finalised. A desolate Deb seeks solace with Keith on the eve of his departure to Charleston but when Dan walks in on Deb sleeping with Keith, he is destroyed and the next day, Deb finds him on the Beach House floor - he had suffered a massive heart attack while signing the divorce papers. Dan viciously warns Deb that she'd better hope he dies.

Season 2

Dan pulls through and comes home to live with Deb while he is recovering. Deb is at a low ebb over Nathan and Haley getting married. She refuses to accept their marriage, destroying her relationship with her son. Dan takes advantage of Deb's vulnerable nature and convinces her to give their marriage another go. Dan "accidentally" lets slip to Karen that Deb slept with Keith but Deb denies it when Karen asks her about it later. Out of guilt, she tells Karen the truth. Karen is initially angry but she and Deb later patch things up. Lucas moves in with Dan and Deb. On the morning of Keith and Jules' wedding, Lucas sees Deb taking painkillers and confronts her about it; she tells Lucas to mind his own business and continues taking the pills in secret. After Nathan is involved in a car crash suicide attempt, Deb offers to donate blood but is told that she can't because she has been abusing prescription drugs. After Nathan wakes up, he and Deb reconcile and Deb books herself into rehab so that she can get better for her son. After being discharged, Deb finds out that Dan stopped Nathan from going to "High Flyers" by telling him that Deb first took pills when he left home, which is not the truth. Deb convinces Nathan to leave Tree Hill with her for a new life together and when Lucas uncovers Dan's illegal ledger, she realises Dan could go to jail for a long time but Dan blackmails Deb into giving the ledger back, putting Deb's plans to get away on hold. Nathan moves back in with his mother and Deb is watching from the upstairs window when Haley shows up out of the blue on the doorstep.

Season 3

At the end of the summer, Karen returns from New Zealand and Deb tells her that Dan moved back home after his dealership was burned down. When Karen decides to run for Mayor, against Dan, Deb helps her to sabotage Dan's campaign, despite also being tied to Dan during the election. Dan promises Deb freedom and a divorce if she helps him win the election, which he does. After learning that Lucas knows she started the fire to kill Dan, Deb runs away. She tells Nathan that she wanted them to get away from Dan and she thought that killing him was their only option. She decides to go away for a while and straighten herself out. Deb returns (with her brother Cooper in tow) following Keith's death in the school shooting. She helps Karen to get back on her feet and takes out a restraining order against Dan although she is forced to sit with him at Nathan and Haley's wedding, where Dan tells Deb that he thinks Keith was the one who tried to kill him. Not wanting Keith's good name to be besmirched, Deb tells Dan the truth - Keith didn't try to kill him, she did.

Season 4

Dan is furious with Deb for trying to kill him and he threatens to do the same to her, though he promises that he won't fail like she did. A shaken Deb resorts to taking pills again and buys a gun to protect herself from Dan. When the gun accidentally goes off in the middle of the café, Karen discovers the pills and orders Deb to go back to rehab but Deb refuses and quits her job at the café instead. She also fires Karen from TRIC but when Deb ends up in jail for trying to buy drugs under a false prescription, Dan bails her out in exchange for her giving TRIC back to Karen. Karen tries to help Deb by putting her back into rehab while Deb is in a pill-induced sleep. However, Deb soon books herself out again. By now, Deb has become a shadow of her former self. Dan shows her what she has reduced herself to and also tells her that he loves Karen and always has - he just settled for Deb. Deb also ruins things with Nathan by accidentally knocking over a pregnant Haley. Realising that she has hit rock bottom, Deb takes an overdose but Dan manages to get her to hospital before it's too late. Nathan and Haley decide to help Deb by moving in with her so that they can keep an eye on her and make sure that she does not relapse again.

She now appears to be clean although she often jokes about the fact she's "crazy". After Karen's accident she puts two and two together and discovers that Lucas tried to kill Dan with her gun, which he explains to her by revealing the truth about Keith's murder. She stays by Karen's side during graduation and advises Nathan to stay away from Dan. She then takes her role of grandmother seriously and convinces Nathan and Haley to go to the graduation party and have fun before unplugging the phone because they were calling her too often to make sure everything was OK.

Season 5

Deb's whereabouts in Season Five is yet to be revealed.

Quotes

• "She's young enough to be your daughter, and in this town, she might just be." -Deb to Dan
• I'm a good person. I pop pills and so what? I haven't killed anybody! I may have started a fire once and accidentally discharged a gun but that was an accident.
• "Have a great time at the party, and bring me back some drugs." - Deb to Nathan and Haley
• "Dan, get out of my house or so help me God, I will stab you in your sleep"
• " Sweet dreams Dannyboy "

Goofs

• Deb's name was spelled Debra on her pill box in season 2 and Deborah on her divorce papers.

• In Season 3, when she goes to get her keys to find Dan and comes back her hair grows about 3 inches in a few seconds. In every flashback to that day, she is in her long-haired form.