Expert: Mel - 3/11/2007

Question
hello, I have been looking for the answer to this question for a long time. I am an obsessed with bloodtype horoscopes and I have a fight with my friend about Kelly's bloodtype I think she is AB my friend thinks only A? Do you know Dylan's bloodtype too?  

Answer
LOL ... This question is so specific, one might think you're joking.  But there is one episode in particular that it sounds like you're trying to remember.

As the 8th season began, producers wanted to make sure they could still 'start the show off with a bang'.  So they had Kelly get shot (8.02, 212), in the stomach, exactly one moment after telling Brandon she loves him ... for full dramatic effect. Just another random drive-by shooting at the airport, I guess.  

Cut to the next episode, where Jackie, her mother, asks all of Kelly's friends to get their blood typed in case "something happens".  Her blood type is very rare (AB negative), and the hospital does not have a supply.

Well of course, then, something does happen, and a transfusion is needed.  The following episode (8.04, 213) reveals the mystery donor as Noah Hunter, giver of Life.  This, in my opinion, was a rather overt attempt by the writers to enforce likability for his character, who had recently been added to the cast without much explanation.  Had it not been for the need to highlight his heroics, blood type would certainly not have been mentioned.

It is not surprising, then, that it hasn't been mentioned for any other character.  It simply holds no relevance.  And despite the fact that Dylan has had more brushes with death than Luke Perry has had seasons to play him, the only time where profuse bleeding is evident is in episode 5.10, 122, entitled, "The Dreams of Dylan McKay".  Here, he is brought into the hospital after crashing his car, high on cocaine. But in this case, his life and "the battle for his soul" (their words, not mine) are dependent on his ability to unconsciously resolve conflicts involving his dead father, lost little sister, and past loves.  We merely wait for him to come out of his coma.

Probably the episode to come closest to answering your question of blood type is in season two (2.22, 44), where Dylan refuses to tell Brenda what they're doing for Valentine's Day but promises that it involves something "warm, red, and close to [her] heart".  A sweater, it is not.  Rather, a trip to the hospital to donate blood together.  There, Dylan explains that he was in a car accident as a young boy and needed a lot of blood at the time.  He figured that when he got older he might "give some back".  Incidentally, this is used to explain how Dylan got the infamous scar on his right eyebrow, as his head had gone through the windshield.  In real life, Luke walked into a soda machine ("FANatic" interview, 1999).  

Also in real life, Jennie Garth was visibly pregnant at the time of filming her 'getting shot in the stomach' scene.  Talk about insensitivity ...

Hope this helps, and you can stop arguing with your friend now.  Blood-type horoscopes.  Who knew?

All the best,

Mel