This is the first appearance of Sophia Bush (Brooke Davis).

This is the first episode to feature the regular opening credits.

The website on Jimmy and Mouth's t-shirts, ravenshoops.com is a functioning website maintained by Warner Brothers. Click here to visit the site.

Haley: (to Keith) She doesn't want to go. She doesn't want to see her high school sweetheart slash your brother Dan slash the jerk who abandoned Lucas slash the father of Nathan, the team's star player slash my wrists if I hear the story again. Let's go.

Tim: I can’t believe the bastard spawn is on our team.
Nathan: For now.

(Lucas misses the ball)
Peyton: Nice hands.
Lucas: Nice legs.

Peyton: Do you want to come in?
Lucas: What about Nathan?
Peyton: What about him?
(Lucas walks up to Peyton’s front door)
Peyton: What are you doing?
Lucas: Um, you just said –
Peyton: I didn’t invite you to come in; I just asked if you wanted to. Thanks for the ride.

Karen: Luke, I’m sorry I missed [the game].
Lucas: Yeah, me too.

Teacher: Peyton, describe Lucas in one word.
Peyton: Choke.
(the class laughs)
Teacher: Lucas, care to respond and describe Peyton?
Lucas: Lonely.
(Nathan raises his hand)
Teacher: Yes. Nathan.
Nathan: I can describe Lucas in one word – bastard.
(the class “oohs”; Lucas gets out of his seat, tackles Nathan and then punches him)

(about the fight)
Dan: Did you get hurt?
Nathan: No.
Dan: Okay, good.
Nathan: Did you?
Dan: Me? Why?
Nathan: He wasn’t swinging at me, Dad. He was swinging at you.

Peyton: (to Lucas) I want to draw something that means something to someone. You know? I want to draw blind faith or a fading summer or just a moment of clarity. It's like when you go and see a really great band live for the first time and nobody is saying it but everybody is thinking it. We have something to believe in again. I want to draw that feeling ... but I can't. And if I can't be great at it, then I don't want to ruin it. It's too important to me.

Whitey: (to Lucas) Look son, there's no shame in being afraid. Hell, we're all afraid. What you gotta do is figure out what you're afraid of because when you put a face on it you can beat it. Better yet, you can use it. Think about it.

Lucas: I didn’t want to be like him and I was afraid that I’d become him if I played. In the gym, I felt like he had a piece of me. I never felt like that on the playground.
Karen: Well, I’d say he’s taken enough from us. I took the night off to watch my son play again. The way that he used to when he loved the game more than anything.
Lucas: Mom, thank you.
Karen: It's hard to fight the things we are afraid of... sometimes we just need a little help.

Lucas: (to Peyton) Your artwork does mean something, it's what got me here.

Lucas: (voiceover) Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It is yours.

At the end of the episode when the Ravens are leaving the locker room for the game, Lucas is ahead of Nathan in line. However, in the next shot as they run onto the court, Lucas is last in line.

After the game, Dan tells Nathan he looked winded during the game and they'll go running in the morning to get his endurance up. However, in the scene following this one Lucas and Nathan get into a fight at school then Lucas and Karen talk about the night before. It isn't until the scene after Lucas and Karen talk, which would be two days after the game, that Dan makes Nathan run with him.

Whitey's office andthe layout of the area around his office is different than the office seen in the "Pilot" when Keith and Whitey talk about Lucas after the game.

Episode Title: The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most

"The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most" is the title of an album by Dashboard Confessional as well as a track on the CD.

Haley: (to Lucas) "Dawson's Freaks" starring Rocket Roe and Bunny Bigard.

The title mentioned is a reference to the WB series Dawson's Creek. The stars Haley mentioned are a reference to how you constuct a porn name by using the name of your first pet and your mother's maiden name. "Rocket Roe" is Lucas' name and "Bunny Bigard" is Haley's.

The premise of this episode is closely related to the lyrics of the song for which the episode was named, "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most". In the song, the chorus of the song reads "And the grave that you refuse to leave/the refuge that you've built to flee/the places you have come to fear the most/is the places you have come to fear the most." Like the song, the safe place that Lucas had formed to get away from his anger toward Dan and Nathan, the river court, becomes the place that he had come to fear the most.