In the hallway of the Cohen house, Seth is dressed in a
bathrobe. As music (“We Used to be Friends” by the Dandy Warholes) blares,
he dances in his usual quirky style. However, when the scene cuts to the
kitchen, Seth has suddenly put on a sickly face and a fake cough. He tells
Sandy that he is too sick to go to school. Sandy immediately tries to check
his temperature and asks him if he wants to stay home, but Ryan, who is
having breakfast at the kitchen table, isn’t as easily fooled. He suggests
that Seth might need some “Anna-biotics” to take care of his “Summer flu.”
Sandy catches on, then, and he and Ryan both urge Seth to simply go to
school and work things out with Anna and Summer.
Kirsten then enters the kitchen and Sandy observes that she is not yet
dressed for her new yoga-lates class. When Kirsten says she isn’t feeling
well, Seth and Sandy remind her of her drunken behavior on Thanksgiving,
which encourages Kirsten to reveal her real fear – that Julie Cooper has
told everyone she has a drinking problem. Sandy tells Kirsten that she has
to go to yoga-lates to convince her friends she is no longer hung-over and
Ryan chimes in to tell Seth he has to go to school to convince Summer and
Anna that he isn’t afraid of them.
Kirsten and Seth reluctantly give in. Sandy and Ryan celebrate the fact that
for once, neither of them has done anything wrong.
At Harbor, Ryan and Marissa are in class, where they are assigned a project.
They have to focus on a pivotal point in European history and they have to
work in randomly chosen teams. Ryan and Marissa hope to work together, but
it is soon revealed that Ryan’s assigned partner is Luke Ward. Everyone is
unsure about the two of them working together, especially Marissa and Seth.
Marissa is more hopeful, though, considering the possibility that Luke and
Ryan might become friends, despite the awkwardness of one being her current
boyfriend and the other one being her ex. Ryan lets Marissa and Seth know
that he will be going over to Luke’s after school.
At Jimmy’s apartment, he and Sandy are discussing Jimmy’s financial
situation. Sandy tells Jimmy that he can avoid criminal prosecution if he
sells the house, but Jimmy worries about the reaction of Julie and youngest
daughter Caitlin.
In the girls’ bathroom at Harbor, Marissa and Summer talk about Seth. Then,
as Summer pumps Marissa for information, Anna comes in to floss her teeth.
At first Summer and Anna exchange harsh words, but then, when they both run
into Seth in the hallway after leaving the bathroom, they immediately
pretend to be friends just to upset Seth. Seth is very uneasy about the idea
of them being friends and nervously talks too much.
To the surprise of her peers, Kirsten shows up for yoga-lates and fends off
their comments about her being “under the weather” on Thanksgiving. She
confronts Julie about what she has been telling people and challenges her to
start acting like a friend.
At Luke’s house, Ryan arrives to see Luke’s mother desperately trying to
discipline her two youngest sons. Luke’s father, Carson Ward, arrives on the
scene, which immediately delights the boys, but when Luke appears he seems
less enthused. In fact, instead of being happy to see Luke, Carson scolds
him and asks Ryan to keep him on his toes. Carson then invites Ryan to a
Trojans game for that weekend.
In Luke’s bedroom, Luke begins outlining all the possible ways they could do
their project, offering use of his father’s business equipment to make
presentation materials. He seems eager to get the project done.
Julie and Jimmy Cooper talk on the telephone. Jimmy tells Julie the advice
that Sandy had to offer and lets Julie know he has to pay everything back by
July 1st. Julie becomes angry, telling Jimmy it’s the holidays and that if
this is how it has to be, maybe Jimmy should just go to jail. She hangs up
on him.
Luke and Ryan head over to Luke’s dad’s car dealership, expecting to work on
their project. Luke shows off one of the cars, asking Ryan to sit in it with
him. They listen to the stereo and happen to look up and see Luke’s dad
walking across the room with his “business partner”, Gus. However, things
take a very strange turn when Carson and Gus suddenly begin to kiss. Ryan is
uncomfortable and Luke appears devastated. In his shock, he trips and sets
off the alarm on one of the cars. Running to escape from the situation, Luke
gives Ryan one final warning: “If you tell anyone…”
“I won’t,” promises Ryan.
The next morning, Marissa meets Ryan to go to school. She asks a lot of
questions about Luke’s parents and is surprised when Ryan says that Luke’s
dad was home, since he is normally away on business. Ryan plans to keep
Luke’s secret, but is so bothered by it that he tells Marissa, who assures
him that she can be trusted. In the kitchen, Seth pumps Ryan for information
on Luke’s family, but Ryan won’t share anything. As the three arrive at
school, Seth shares his concerns over Summer and Anna’s friendship. Then
they run into Luke, who is nasty to Ryan and then calls Seth a “queer.”
Marissa reiterates her promise to Ryan and then heads to class. Seth tells
Ryan he finds it “oddly comforting” that Ryan and Luke appear not to be
friends after all.
In the Harbor library, Seth sits down by Anna, but she quickly gets up and
leaves. Moments later, Summer enters the library as well , takes one look at
Seth, and then joins Anna instead, which makes Seth uneasy all over again.
He covers his ears to block out their giggling as he tries to study.
At their second yoga-lates class, Kirsten checks in with Julie, letting her
know that Sandy informed her about her situation. Julie tells Kirsten she
won’t sell the house. Kirsten offers to let Julie and Caitlin live with her,
but Julie seems to think it isn’t worth it, now that Caleb has decided to
break up with her and Jimmy is probably going to jail. Julie tells Kirsten
this is her opportunity to get even with her for gossiping about
Thanksgiving, but Kirsten just reiterates her offer to help. They are about
to continue their conversation when another of their classmates comes in and
starts gossiping about what happened when a friend of hers went to get her
car serviced. The details are left out at this time, but the impression is
given that it has something to do with Luke’s dad.
At the tennis courts, Sandy and Jimmy are talking about Jimmy selling the
house again. Sandy encourages Jimmy to try selling the house, even if Julie
doesn’t want to. Sandy thinks Julie will change her mind after he makes a
call and gets the SEC to investigate her as well as Jimmy. Jimmy thanks
Sandy for his help and confidence in his hard times and then apologizes, but
Sandy has no idea what the apology is for. Jimmy then realizes that Sandy
doesn’t know he and Kirsten have recently kissed and after beating around
the bush for a moment, confesses to the kiss. Sandy is fuming, but Jimmy
assures him that the only reason Kirsten didn’t tell him herself was that
she didn’t want to hurt him. Sandy says he has to use creative visualization
to avoid seeing Jimmy’s head as something he should hit. Jimmy says that he
just didn’t want there to be any secrets between them. At that moment,
Sandy’s phone rings. It is Kirsten, who says, “I have some news, but I’m
only telling you.”
At Harbor, gay jokes about Luke’s dad are suddenly flying all around.
Everyone seems to know and Luke blames Ryan. Ryan automatically accuses
Marissa of spreading the rumor around, but she swears she didn’t tell
anyone. Marissa then gets upset, saying that Ryan obviously doesn’t trust
her.
Back at the Cohen house, Sandy approaches Kirsten while she tends to the
flowers by the pool. They comment briefly on Luke’s family and then Sandy
admits that he isn’t okay and that it’s because of Jimmy Cooper. He tells
Kirsten he knows about the kiss and Kirsten says it meant nothing. Sandy
wants to know why she didn’t tell him if it was meaningless. Kirsten tries
to convince him, saying, “It meant nothing.” But Sandy says, “It means
something to me.”
At the dinner table, Seth prattles on about Luke calling him gay while his
father has been gay all this time. He keeps cracking jokes and both Sandy
and Kirsten scold him and ask him to stop. Ryan says that he has been to the
Wards’ house and they seemed happy. Sandy reflects that this is the end of
their marriage and life as they knew it. Ryan wonders how a marriage could
last so long with a secret like that, which makes Kirsten and Sandy think of
their own relationship. Seth comments that no one will be accepting of this
in Newport.
At the yoga-lates class, the women gossip about Luke’s father, joking about
all of the signs that he was gay that they missed.
At Harbor, Marissa and Ryan arrive in class, but barely even make eye
contact. Luke has not shown up to class.
Anna and Summer are in the library studying, when Seth comes on the scene.
He lets them know he wants to apologize to them both for what happened on
Thanksgiving. He tells them he would never want to ruin his friendships with
them and both girls seem to soften as they smile and become slightly
teary-eyed. As Seth leaves, the girls decide not to sit together anymore and
they go their separate ways.
Kirsten and Julie have lunch together. Julie worries about being homeless
and brings up Caleb, who freaked out when he heard that Julie wanted to sell
the house. Kirsten really wants Caleb to stop trying to replace her mom and
just be happy with Julie, but neither woman is sure that will happen.
Summer comes up into Seth in the hallway at Harbor and lets him know that
his apology was the first she’d ever received from a boy and that it was
also the nicest. She wants to know what he is doing on Saturday. Seth heads
outside, then, where Anna invites him to walk with her to the lit mag
meeting. She thanks him for the apology and also asks him what he is doing
on Saturday. Seth is honest, telling Anna he has a date with Summer. Anna is
quiet for a moment, but then says, “What are you doing Friday night?”
Ryan goes to visit Luke and finds that Marissa is already there. When he
enters the house, he sees that bags have been packed and Carson is getting
ready to leave. Luke apologizes to Ryan for accusing him. It turns out that
Carson told his wife himself and she is the one who spread the news all
around Newport. Mrs. Ward and Luke both refuse to speak to Carson. Outside,
Luke vents to Marissa and Ryan, wondering how long this has been going on.
Marissa tries to encourage Luke to think of this as an opportunity to get
closer to his dad, but Luke says he doesn’t want to hear it. Ryan lets Luke
know that his dad must still care and reminds him that this is better than
having a father who knows nothing about you.
Some jerks from a rival school’s soccer team come over and accuse Ryan and
Luke of being gay. When one of the rival students calls Luke a “fag”, Ryan
punches him out. But then the rest of the team arrives on the scene. Ryan
and Luke look nervous.
Julie comes over to the Cohen house with more news about Caleb. She has told
Caleb everything Kirsten said about him and announces that Caleb is now
buying Julie’s house and keeping Jimmy out of jail. Kirsten is speechless.
In the living room, Seth and Sandy watch cartoons while Seth studies. Sandy
asks Seth to ask Kirsten who was at the door. When Kirsten says it was
Julie, Sandy asks Seth to ask his mother what she wanted. Seth refuses to
participate in this nonsense of running back and forth between parents and
forces them to speak to one another. Kirsten then tells Sandy that Caleb is
buying the Cooper house. Sandy only has a moment to digest this information,
however, when Ryan and Marissa come through the door, helping a badly beaten
Luke. Kirsten gets the first aid kit, while the kids explain what happened.
Sandy offers to call the Wards, but Luke begs him not to. Sandy calls his
dad anyway, to let him know Luke will be spending the night.
Outside, Ryan and Marissa discuss trust. Ryan has forgiven Marissa and a
moment later, they are sharing a kiss. Headlights beam up onto the porch at
that moment. Luke’s father has arrived. Inside the house, Carson beats
himself up for lying and knows that Luke won’t want to see him, now or ever.
Carson tells Sandy the best thing he could do is leave, but Sandy tells him
he is brave and should stick around. Carson goes to leave, but then Luke
comes into the room. He says he’s just going to grab his shoes and then
he’ll go home with him. Carson blinks back tears.
In the kitchen, Kirsten makes tea and Sandy comes in. Kirsten tells Sandy
his speech to Carson was impressive. Sandy wants to know if Kirsten will
tell him all his secrets from now on. Kirsten demands the same from Sandy.
Kirsten says, “There’s no way you can know everything about someone. That’s
what keeps it interesting.” She says that at a certain point they just have
to trust one another and Sandy says that should also mean that she can trust
him enough to tell him unpleasant things. As the tea kettle boils in the
background, Kirsten and Sandy kiss.
In the parking lot at Harbor, Marissa, Ryan, Luke and Seth prepare for
another day at school. Luke is worried that everyone is going to stare at
him and whisper about him. He suggests going to the beach until it blows
over. But Ryan says that won’t work. He is still the kid from Chino who
burnt a house down and Marissa is still the girl who tried to kill herself
in Mexico. Seth rounds out the group, by saying, “I’m still Seth Cohen.”
Then, pushing off on his skateboard, he says to Luke, “Welcome to my world.”
