Everwood TV Show - The Last Of Summer - Everwood Recaps, Everwood Reviews, Everwood Episodes | TWoP

Recapped by AB Chao · Aired 2003-09-15

The kid sits down. Sad Strings of Dead Boyfriends play as Amy stands up for her turn. Emily VanCamp is acting the shit out of this, though. She hesitates, then breathes deeply and starts softly, "Tomorrow's closing day at the Everwood Pool. Every year Mr. McAbee throws a luau. I never really thought much about it, but that's what I was doing just now...imagining Colin there. I was imagining what he would do..." At this point, Treat and Delia walk into the auditorium. Irv says, "I try even now to look back at that time, look past the blame and outrage that made it all so hard to see anything. I try to piece it together." Amy sees Treat. Their eyes meet, and Treat's sadness is clear and unbearable. Amy just looks pissed. Irv tells us, "What follows...is all I know." Chills, and credits.

Aw, man! They changed the song. I hated it so much last year that I grew to love it, and now they've gone and turned it into "Everwood Theme Song: Dance Party Remix." This behavior ain't cute, Berlanti.

"The funeral for Colin Hart fell on the first warm day of spring," Irv says. "For many who attended, it was the most difficult day they had ever known." We're at a gorgeous graveside scene. The crowd fades out, leaving only Amy. She's crying. "But the day was kind enough to pass. I'd like to say it took a while for Everwood to return to business as usual, but it didn't." Cut to downtown Everwood, where some kids are chucking water balloons at Patch Abbott's office. Hee. Patch runs out and gets whacked with one. Irv continues, "Bright and Amy went back to their usual summer jobs; Ephram joined them, though his duties were a little less glamorous." Bright's a lifeguard, Amy's a waitress. Ephram's cleaning the pool. Aw. Okay, can we talk about these uniforms? Because they are HOT. White polo, khaki pants, navy-and-blue-striped grosgrain belt. I want one. Delia splashes around in the pool, playing Marco Polo with a bunch of other girls, having finally made, as Irv puts it, "that group of girlfriends so important to a little girl's youth." True dat, Irv. True dat.

And now for the sadness. Cut to Treat, picking up food at the diner. Irv says, "Andy Brown, on the other hand, suffered the expected scrutiny of a community that didn't care to understand the intricacies of Colin Hart's surgery." Customers give Treat dirty looks. Patch Abbott rolls his eyes at Nina. Treat leaves, so beat down that his shoulders sag. It's pitiful.

By AB Chao

Cut to the pool. Patch Abbott gets out of his car, bitching at Rose that he'd rather be golfing. He has about one gallon of sunscreen slathered across his nose and cheeks. Way to protect only half your face there, Genius. He tells Rose that it's one thing to insist he take Fridays off, but another to make him spend them with "half-naked sun-damaged chuckleheads." Heh. Rose ignores him. They start to walk towards the pool, when a lady with a little baby stops Patch. She shoves the kid's ass in Patch's face and asks him to check on "Edwin's diaper rash," which she claims is getting worse. First-time mother, clearly. Slap some Desitin on that child and shut up, lady. She insists that Patch take another look. Patch tells her to get the kid's ass out of his face. No shit. Hee. Pardon the pun. Rose chides, "Haaaarold." Patch looks at the rash, and tells her to give the ointment a few more days to work. "By the time you get my bill, he should be ALL better." The lady doesn't understand. "Your bill?" Patch tells her about the bill for the medical services she just connived him out of. "Have a nice day," he finishes. I sure missed Patch Abbott.

Mayor Rose tells Patch that she thinks he enjoys being the most despised man in Everwood. Patch says he does, but that last time he checked, the slot had been filled. Cut to the Browns, driving up to the pool. Delia shrieks, "Stop here, stop here!" She jumps out before anybody can see her with her Bad Colin-Killin' Daddy. Eeeee! Ephram is driving! He asks Treat if he wants to come with them. Treat declines, saying he has some things to do at his office. Ephram: "You're actually paying people to show up now?" Ouch. He gets out of the car. Treat sighs heavily.

A fabulous, tanned Bright chills in his lifeguard seat. Suddenly, a little girl starts to scream, "Help! Help me!" Bright jumps in, "rescues" her, and gives her a little kiss on the head. Aw. Delia and her group of friends watch from the shallow end. Drowning Girl smiles slyly. "I told you it would work." Delia's all, "Oh my God he KISSED you." Drowning Girl, also known as Britney, tells the girls that they have to wait thirteen minutes until it's somebody else's turn, and then she'll decide who goes . Delia wants to know why Britney gets to decide. In classic kid logic, Britney retorts, "Because I'm the one who made up the game." Case closed.

By AB Chao

Uh-oh. Amy's in trouble. As she stands around, lost in thought, her boss rushes over and says that somebody's been waiting for their hamburgers for twenty minutes. She tries to recover, and Ephram steps in. He tells Bossman that there's some sort of problem in the kitchen, that the grill caught fire or something. Bossman: "It's a grill. It's made to be on fire." Ephram offers to check it out, but Bossman is all over it. He runs off. Amy apologizes. Ephram says helping her breaks up the monotony of his day. Amy can't find the order she was supposed to put in. Ephram finds it on a table and tries to hand it to her, but Amy's distracted by the sight of Mommy Hart coming down the steps, looking like she's been rode hard and put up wet. DAMN, she looks bad. Apparently, losing a child ages you twenty years and makes you forget how to apply concealer. Amy goes to see what she wants. Mommy Hart asks Amy to organize Colin's memorial service. Um, what? How is this Amy's job? I mean, there's grief, and then there's crazy. But Amy says she'll handle it. Mommy Hart hugs her and thanks her. Ass.

Treat's office. Nurse Edna asks Treat if he wants to go for lunch at "M.J.'s." Treat says no. Edna says, "We thought we'd catch T3 over at the cineplex afterwards." Treat says, "Haven't you seen that already?" Edna: "Well, the first six times don't count; I was still learning all the lines!" Hee. Treat says to go ahead, but not to make a habit of it. He says that he knows they're not that busy, but there's still shit to do around there. Uh huh. Edna leaves. Treat goes to open his lunch and knocks a glass off the table. As it crashes on the floor, we flash back to Colin's surgery. He's lost a lot of blood. Treat asks, "How long has he been on bypass?" Three hours. No good. Here's where Colin and his leaky vein get into trouble. The assisting surgeon suggests trying for a new vein, but Treat says that three more hours on bypass is too long. "Prepare to close," Treat commands. The other doctor says that Colin won't make it if they do that. Treat says again, "Prepare. To. Close." We flash back to Treat, picking up not only the glass on the floor, but the pieces of his shattered life. Heh. Commercial.

By AB Chao

Treat makes coffee in the Brown Kitchen. Nina, looking pretty haggard her own self, comes in. She asks if Delia's ready, then says that she made reservations at "Brenda's new restaurant," which is some kind of Planet Hollywood ripoff, from Treat's description of it. Nina invites him, and Treat immediately declines. Nina goads him into it, saying, "When was the last time you had an Ashton Kutcher hamburger?" Treat: "What is that, some kind of sauce?" Oh, Treat. Get yourself a subscription to Entertainment Weekly, dude. Delia runs in, saying she's ready. She tells her dad not to forget to buy her a sleeping bag, which must be purple, for her friend Britney's slumber party. Delia's grown over the summer. She's just as cute, in an older way. Nina tells Treat to think about tonight. He nods, but he totally doesn't want to think about anything.

Cut to Amy, looking at pictures of Colin. She's in his room on the bed, which is icky. Laynie walks in, carrying a computer. PowerBook, mmm. Laynie looks prettier than she did before, and her hair is very good. She hands the computer to Amy and says Colin had tons of pictures on there. Amy looks guilty, and says, "I should have called you, Laynie." Laynie says it wasn't her decision. She sits down on the bed to Amy. "Sometimes I'm really mad about it. Sometimes I'm glad I wasn't there. I got a whole extra day to feel normal." Aw, that's so sad. Amy tells Laynie she can help with the memorial if she wants. Laynie says she can't even get past his room. Laynie thanks Amy, and leaves. Amy opens the computer, and the desktop is set to a gorgeous photo of her and Colin. Damn (you Berlanti).

Treat's on his couch, flipping channels. He's depressed. He flashes back to Colin telling Treat not to bring him back if something's wrong, and Treat promising Colin that he won't keep trying. We flash back to Treat. He remembers telling Colin how everything was going to be fine. Oopsie.

Everwood Pool of Evil Little Girls. Britney is trying to show Delia some trick with string, and Delia doesn't get it. They bicker a little bit, then Delia tells Britney how her dad's getting her a sleeping bag for the party. Britney glances at her mom, then uninvites Delia. Britney tells Delia that it's because of her dad, since nobody likes him. Bitch! Britney says brightly, "Don't worry. We can still be pool friends!" Shut up, Britney. I hope someone pulls your hair. We pan over to Ephram, who's been eavesdropping on this little exchange. He stalks away angrily.

By AB Chao

Abbott House. Amy clicks through Colin's photo album nostalgically. Patch Abbott knocks and asks Amy if she wants to go for ice cream. Amy says she can't, but that she'll be ready to go for their eight o'clock reservation. Ice cream before dinner? Sign me up. Patch lingers in the doorway, unsure of what to do, and walks out. Amy keeps looking through Colin's computer and -- surprise, surprise! -- happens upon a document labelled "Dr. Brown." We hear Colin voice-over his DNR letter. Amy closes the file, stunned. Somebody's in trouble, and his name rhymes with "Randy Clown."

Speaking of whom, cut to the Brown House of Guilt and Sadness. Delia and Ephram arrive home from the pool. Delia runs upstairs, pouting. Ephram tells his dad that he needs to get his damn ass out of the house and quit making his kids bear the brunt of Everwood's hatred, basically. Ephram says, "You're doing it again...acting like a freak. You hole yourself up in your office all day, you don't come out at night, you realize we haven't been to dinner as a family once all summer?" Tell him, Pretty. Ephram says that Britney uninvited Delia because her mom didn't want Treat in the house. Treat says he can't control anybody's mind, and make them like him. "What am I supposed to do, take out an ad in the Pinecone that says, 'I'm Andy Brown -- Still A Nice Guy and a Heck of a Surgeon'? What am I supposed to do?" Ephram says he wants his dad to stop acting so damn guilty. He says, "Why is [Colin] so different? You did your best, didn't you? You tried?" Treat: "Of course I tried." Ephram asks his dad why he can't let it go, then. Treat doesn't know. Ephram says that he better figure it out, because the guiltier he acts, "the more people are going to convict you. And us." Wah. Will Treat see the light, come to his senses, turn over a new leaf? Find out after the commercial!

We come back to a shot of Colin's DNR, undoubtedly printed out by Miss Entitlement herself. Amy and Patch are at the Hart House. Amy explains that if Treat had seen the letter, he may not have done everything he could to save Colin. She's nearly hyperventilating, and I want to slap her. She says they need to find out if Treat knew. Mommy Hart tells her, "He did know, Amy. And so did we." Aw, yeah. Amy can't believe it. She doesn't understand how he could have done this to her. To HER. Because Colin's life is all about Amy, don't you people know anything? Amy brats, "You came to me, you asked me to plan the memorial, you asked me to go through his stuff, find pictures, and I did that for you. And you kept this from me?" Mommy Hart says she's sorry. Daddy Hart says he thought they did the right thing. Amy: "Colin's dead. How could that be the right thing for anybody?" Christ on a houseboat. Shut up, Amy. Patch nods apologetically to the Harts, and they leave.

By AB Chao

Brown House. Treat asks Delia what she's doing. She says she's playing Cat's Cradle, but it doesn't really work with one person. I never did understand that dumb game, so I feel better that Delia can't get it either. Treat says he'll play with her. Delia says it's stupid anyway. Treat: "You're mad at me." Delia says she's not. Treat says it's okay, he's mad at him too. Aw. Delia says, "It's not your fault people hate you. I mean, you didn't mean to kill Colin." Hee. Treat tries to explain that he didn't actually kill Colin, even though he died. Delia doesn't understand the difference. He asks her if she remembers giving her hamster cold medicine back in New York. She does. Treat says, "You wanted to help him, but he died anyway." The point is, she tried to help and couldn't. Treat says that sometimes it's out of their control. Delia: "Like with Mom?" Oh, poor motherless Delia. Come over here and let me hug you. Treat agrees that, yeah, it's "like with Mom." Treat changes the subject quickly, saying that they can go to a new restaurant with Nina if she wants to. Delia wants. Yay! Treat informs Ephram that they're going out to dinner. Ephram: "Can I drive?" Treat: "No." Aren't those lines from last season? I sense a recurring theme. The one entitled, "Maybe If I Bug The Shit Out Of My Dad Enough, He'll Let Me Drive The Car."

Brenda's Planet Hollywood ripoff. It's kickin'. Brenda sashays around in a hideous Marilyn Monroe outfit. She notices the Browns walking in, and tells him they're right out of tables. Bitch. Nina pushes her way in, and says that it's her reservation. Brenda snits, "Well, aren't you a tricky little thing." Kick her ass, Nina. Brenda grudgingly leads them to a table.

By AB Chao

The Abbotts are in a booth. Patch is making fun of the stupid menu. "Smoked Trout Nicoise Salad With Field Greens and Dijon Vinaigrette...and look at what Baxworth is charging for this culinary catastrophe." I tend to agree. Dear Chefs of the World: Get over yourselves. It's a salad, not a spaceship. Brevity is the soul of both wit and food. Watch this: "Salad." Learn it, live it, love it. Signed, The Entire Planet.

Amy sulks in the booth. She doesn't want nothin', especially not food. Shut up, Amy. Bright: "The Kelly Ripa Salad looks pretty good, Dad, except for the burnt walnuts. I'll just ask 'em not to burn my nuts." Hee. Amy catches sight of Nina and the Browns (name of my album, incidentally). Uh-oh. She marches over to Treat. He greets her kindly, because he's NORMAL. Amy asks him if he didn't think she would "find out." Oh, you mean the big "secret" that everyone was keeping from you, and only you, because the entire world revolves around...you? God. Treat doesn't understand. Amy says, "I found the letter. Colin didn't just die, you let him. You let him DIE, DIDN'T YOU?" She's freaking the fuck out. Ephram asks what's going on. Amy tells him that his father, the number one surgeon in the country, is a big joke and killed her boyfriend. Treat, calm as ever, stands up. He asks Amy to come by his office tomorrow and they can talk about it. That's code for: "Go sit back down with your family and quit making a scene, you impudent little snot." Amy doesn't take the bait. She wants to know NOW! Treat says there's nothing he could do. Amy says -- nay, shrieks -- that it wasn't his decision to make. Patch finally steps in and tells Amy to calm down. I can think of a few other things that I'd do to a child of mine acting like that. Treat says he tried. Amy, weeping now, says, "You didn't try hard enough, did you? DID YOU?" Oy. Treat says, "No." Heh, that's so crazy. He says that it was a huge risk in the first place. Amy says that's what he said the first time, and Colin ended up "perfect." Riiiight. I've always thought vandalism and beating the shit out of my friends was perfect behavior, too, Amy! Nobody understands us. Amy hauls ass, crying. Patch apologizes to Treat. Ephram looks real sad. Soundtrack of Tantrum Aftermath plays as we cut to the Browns arriving home from the restaurant.

By AB Chao

Treat tells Delia to go put her pajamas on. (As a side note, who here says "pa-JAH-mas"? Is that a Yankee thing? Because I've never heard it down here, and I sort of hate it. ["I do, it is, and shut it." -- Sars]). Treat looks at Ephram and says, "I guess we know who you won't be taking to the prom this year." Heh. Ephram asks his dad if they're going to talk about this. Treat says there's not much left to say. Ephram says he wants to hear the truth from his dad. Treat says there was a point in the surgery where he could have tried something else, but he kept thinking about the night that Colin sat in their den, pleading with Treat to "promise something that I never should have promised." Treat says he just stopped trying. Ephram asks if Colin would have lived. Treat says probably, but he would have been barely functioning at best, and at worst he would have been on a respirator, until the Harts were forced to make the same decision that Treat had to make. Treat says that he knew the only way to keep his promise was to let Colin go. No tears. No tears! Tears bad! Where the hell is Johnson & Johnson when you need them? Ephram asks his dad why he's been living alone with this all summer. Treat says he didn't have a choice, he didn't want Ephram to hate him like everyone else. He says he couldn't take that risk. Ephram shoots him down with, "The only risk you took was not being honest with me." Daaaaamn. Treat nods, and says now that he knows, Ephram can decide just like everyone else: "Did I kill Colin Hart, or did I save him?" Aw, Treat. You're so sweet and pitiful, and you have such a hot son. It's very hard for me. Commercial.

Abbott House. Bright is getting dressed for the memorial, and fighting with his tie. Patch Abbott walks in. Bright says, "It's the looping-under part that keeps screwing me up, I told you just give me a clip-on." Bright's so dumb. I love him. Patch helps him with his tie. Bright asks how Amy's doing. Patch says she's better than the night before. Patch turns Bright around, saying, "What in the world? Were you trying to strangle yourself with Armani?" Damn, Bright wears Armani ties? Everwood must have a thriving online-ordering community. Bright says he didn't know Amy felt like she did about Treat, because he doesn't blame him for what happened. "If she blames him, she must blame me, too. I'm the reason that Colin got hurt in the first place." Patch tells Bright he can't keep "going there." Heh, it's like when my parents try to use slang. You've never known funny until you've heard a fifty-four-year-old woman tell you to get up off her grill. Patch says that Amy's in a lot of pain, and looking for someone to take it out on. He says that at the moment, that unfortunate soul is Dr. Brown, but that doesn't mean that she's right. However, he says, he'd prefer that she throw fits as opposed to keeping her feelings inside, as it's the only way she'll ever move on. That may be true, but I still would have had to bag that girl for the way she acted in a restaurant. He finishes, in fine Patch Abbott form, "I do know one thing. It doesn't mean that she loved him more." Look at Patch, always knowing the right thing to say. He's a good daddy. I like good daddies. Bright tells his dad, "Thanks." They hug. It's sweet.

By AB Chao

Outside the auditorium. Treat and Delia get out of their car. Delia remarks that there sure are a lot of people at the memorial service. Right you are, Delia! Treat thanks her for pointing that out. Delia asks, "Are you going to talk to all these people?" Treat says he's going to try. Delia: "Are you going to tell them the hamster story?" Hee. Treat says he's going to say something like that. They walk in, and we're back to the moment at the beginning of the episode, where Amy is talking about Colin and the end-of-summer party. Amy notices Treat, and continues, "I don't think he'd be too crazy about tonight, he hated school assemblies. He hated school assemblies, but he loved basketball and Coldplay, and Jim Carrey movies. And he loved the month of October because that's when his birthday was..." Everyone cries. Not me, though. Amy says, "But most of all, he loved Everwood. People always talk about moving away from here someday, but Colin never did. He wanted to be a part of this place forever. He is now." Shit! I want to hate her, but I can't. Well, a little. Amy bows her head and sits down.

By AB Chao

Treat leads Delia to a seat to Ephram. He walks up to the stage, and looks out into the crowd. Nurse Edna gives him a supportive smile, and he begins to speak through a throat full of tears. Who's crying NOW, Berlanti? He says, "I came here tonight to share with you my memories of Colin Hart, and to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. For most of you these are empty words, I know, but I offer them nonetheless. As patients go, Colin was the best kind that you could hope for: he was willful, he was determined, endlessly optimistic...and why not? His recuperation from his initial surgery was hailed as a miracle." We pan over the faces in the crowd. The Harts, Nina, Bright, Edna, Irv. They're all boo-hooing. Amy tries not to cry, the effect of which makes her look like she just did a shot of tequila. Mmm, tequila. Treat continues, "For five months, he reacquainted this town with his beautiful spirit. Many of you believe that I was somehow responsible for all of this...and I let you, because I was desperate to believe it, too. We're taught as surgeons to think that we are in control of people's destinies. But the truth is, we are really just foot soldiers. Colin knew this. He didn't expect a miracle from me, because he knew that he was the miracle. What he expected was for me to do my best." At this point Treat loses it, tears running down his face. He finishes, "That is what I tried to do. I'm sorry it wasn't enough." He looks at Amy. "I'm sorry that he's gone." Aw, man! Best speech ever. You Everwood bitches better be touched, is all I have to say. Treat steps down, and leads Delia out of the auditorium. Ephram gets up and follows, glancing back at Amy as he goes. The door shuts, and I totally think it's the end of the episode. That tricky Berlanti, it isn't.

We cut to Treat making breakfast, and Irv tells us, "Sometimes it is only with the ending of a season that a storyteller can find the most appropriate ending to his tale. As the last hours of summer crept up on Everwood, it seemed everybody was just about ready for a change." Here we see Patch run out of his office and nail one of the water-balloon kids with one of his own. Go Patch! We see Bright in his lifeguard stand, and Delia playing with her friends, as Irv says, "A fresh start, filled with new adventures and new friends." Edna and Treat work together. Irv says, "And some old ones." Then Treat and Patch eat lunch together in the diner as Irv exposits, "And those somewhere in between. For if death reminds us of anything, it reminds us of just how resilient the human spirit is...when it wants to be."

By AB Chao

Amy and Ephram, at the club. It's their last night. Amy tells Ephram that he can go, she'll lock up. Ephram says he can stay if she wants. Amy says that's okay. She leans over a railing, her back to him. Ephram stands there for a second, then tells her, "After my mom died, everybody told me that I was going to be okay. That it'd take a little time, but I'd heal. That never happened, not really." Amy turns to him. Ephram tells her that what she's feeling never goes away, not really. He says she doesn't get to go back to being the person she was before. "It's more like something inside of you breaks and your body finds a way to compensate for it." He says it's like if she broke her hand, she would figure out how to use the other one. But it's either that, or sit around and look at your busted hand forever. Now, this is all very sweet, and it's an awesome thing to say to someone in as much pain as Amy must be in, but why does she have to ruin every damn thing? Amy replies, "I wish he wasn't your father, Ephram." Aigh! Shut UP! Ephram says sometimes he wishes that, too, but he's a good person and knows what she's going through. Amy whines, "If you're asking me to forgive him, I can't do that." Nobody cares who you forgive, little girl. Except Ephram, who would be calling MY ass if he knew any better. He asks her what happens now. Amy says they're friends. Ephram says he'll see her at school. He gives her the cutest little goodbye nod ever, and leaves.

Colin's voice calls out, "Grover! Grover, over here!" Amy turns, and there's Colin, on the diving board. She smiles. Colin says, "It's eleven o'clock. Remember? You promised." Amy starts to run down the stairs to meet him. Colin says, "Wait. I'll come to you." He dives into the pool and fades away. Amy pulls herself back to reality and tries to shake it off. She walks along the poolside, folding down the seats as she goes. Sad Piano of Dead Boyfriends plays, and...credits.

I don't think I have to tell you who to damn. And week on Everwood -- Bright's too dumb for college!