Seth and Summer are still broken up. This is despite Summer's and Taylor Townsend's best efforts to the contrary, ending in Summer's standing on the coffee cart and telling Seth to tell her that he doesn't love her anymore. Which he does, because Seth loves lying to Summer. Meanwhile, Ryan heads for Albuquerque to invite his mother to his graduation, but ends up sleeping with her weird co-worker and deciding not to invite Dawn because he's afraid she'll embarrass his superior ass in front of his Harbor classmates. Then he changes his mind and invites her, and Dawn is very happy indeed. Aww. Volchok takes Marissa to a party where his friends drug an already drunk-out-of-her-mind girl and try to rape her. Marissa stops them with her incredibly bad acting and then goes crying to Julie, who spends the entire episode trying to be an actual mother and never quite succeeds. Kirsten flirts with drinking alcohol again after Sandy blows off a dinner with her, but doesn't because that would mean she'd actually have a storyline and we can't have that. And where is Sandy? He's saving Matt the Non-Entity from being killed when the idiot tries to extort money from the Evil Dr. Griffin.
Dinnertime at the Cohens! Sandy compliments Seth's grilling skills -- of which entirely too much has been said in this show's three short seasons -- and Seth turns it back on Ryan, saying that he doesn't need to be a fisherman after all, since apparently being good at grilling makes fish just jump into your freezer. "That was a bad idea," Ryan admits. Well, at least this show is finally admitting to itself how crappy its plotlines are. Perhaps it will actually make an effort to write some good ones. Kirsten changes the subject to Ryan and Seth's graduation, where each kid has received only two tickets, because Harbor really is the ghettoest private school ever. Even Chino High School probably gives its students more tickets than that to their graduation ceremony. Then again, most of those students probably don't graduate. Sandy worries about getting a seat for The Nana. At least Caleb is dead, so they won't have to worry about him. Ryan graciously offers up his tickets, figuring that no one he's biologically related to will be going to his graduation. This results in an awkward silence, until Kirsten suggests that Ryan invite someone from his real family. GREAT IDEA, Kirsten! The only family member of Ryan's who isn't in jail or banished from Newport is Dawn, and at her mention, Ryan freezes up and then leaves to "wash up," even though there's a sink right there. Sandy wisely points out that this might not be such a hot idea of Kirsten's, but Kirsten says that Dawn is going to AA now (since when? Wasn't she in jail just last month?), and therefore is probably an awesome mother and person and things will go just fine. Kirsten even throws in a dig at Sandy being a crappy person lately as the unhappy couple passive-aggressively cuts vegetables.
Some time later, Kirsten comes to the poolhouse to apologize for butting into Ryan's business. He says that he had actually been thinking about inviting Dawn to his graduation, figuring that so much time has gone by since the last time he saw her, and that he thought his graduation would be their last chance to see each other. Ryan asks how his mother was when Sandy visited her, and Kirsten answers that Dawn is "not good." I would have thought being in jail was more along the lines of "absolutely terrible," but whatever. Maybe, Kirsten says, a visit from Ryan will change Dawn's outlook on life and give her something worth straightening out her life for. Because living with Ryan for fifteen years sure did the trick, right? Kirsten offers to fly to the dreaded Albuquerque with Ryan, but he says he needs to do it alone. Kirsten's face falls as she realizes that she won't have anything to do in this episode after all. "How bad can it be?" Ryan says. Well, I guess Dawn can't abandon you now that you're a legal adult.
Marissa combs her luscious post-shower locks in front of a mirror, and thinks about what a prize she is. But she's not alone -- Volchok has somehow infiltrated the super-secure Roberts mansion, and is excited to share his newfound knowledge of Mexican culture gained during his weekend Baja trip with her. He moves in for a kiss, removing some of Marissa's robe while he's at it, revealing that she puts her bra and panties on immediately after her showers. She pushes him off, saying that she doesn't want her mother to catch them together. Before she even gets a chance to finish her sentence, though, Julie makes her presence in the bedroom doorway known. That sixth sense to know when there's a virile young stud around sure does come in handy sometimes, eh, Julie? Volchok shoots Julie his most charming and sleaziest smile, and extends a hand for her to shake. Julie threatens to take him apart. Marissa has no discernible reaction to any of this, whereas, had I just been caught with my hot boyfriend and in a state of partial undress, I would have at least raised an eyebrow or two. Marissa: cool, calm, comatose. Volchok leaves the house, saying it seems that he was just a "phase" for Marissa, since she didn't want to have sex with him immediately.
Julie opens her mouth to scold Marissa, but is met with a snotty "spare me the lecture" while Marissa continues to dry the hell out of her hair. Don't be too tough on your hair, Marissa! It's probably already brittle from the lack of nutrients it gets. Julie says that there's no lecture to give; she sees Volchok's appeal. He's "cool" and "has great abs," although since he, unlike Marissa, was clothed that whole time, I don't know how Julie could have known that. I guess it's pretty safe to say that, though, when you live in a town with an average ab-to-human ratio of 4:1 (one of the highest in the nation!). Julie adds that Volchok "personifies everything that's bad for" Marissa, to which Marissa retorts that Julie probably wants to sleep with him, then. I don't think a motherly slap across the face would be bad for Marissa, Julie. C'mon, do it. DO IT! But no, she just sighs that Marissa's choices will affect her future, and then Marissa finally grabs some pants and leaves the room.
"I went completely overboard and made you a ridiculously gigantic sandwich for the flight," Kirsten says, offering Ryan a disappointingly small brown bag. Whoa, there, Kirsten! Don't knock yourself out with all that mothering! I was hoping that the sandwich would be so long that Kirsten would walk by the camera carrying a long sub, exit the frame with the sub still going past it, and then she would come back across the frame, holding the end of the sandwich, like in cartoons. And then she could paint a tunnel on the side of a cliff and then a train would come through it. Ryan thanks her, and claims to be "looking forward" to eating that sandwich on the plane, although I don't see how a sandwich so huge can possibly pass the carry-on baggage size requirement. Kirsten and Ryan confess that they're both worried about this trip -- Kirsten because she's letting the high-schooler she's supposed to be taking care of wander around a strange city by himself, and Ryan because he doesn't know what to expect from his mother these days. He figures he'll check the diner she mentioned working at in her birthday card (I guess they were cool with her going to jail for bouncing checks during one of her benders) and then see what's up. "Whatever happens, you have at least one proud mother watching you when you graduate," Kirsten says. Really? Who -- oh, she means herself. Sometimes I forget that Kirsten is the mother on this show. Or that she's on this show at all. I'm all like, "Who's that blonde woman in the opening credits? Is that Regis's daughter?" Kirsten and Ryan hug, and we all remember how good this show was when it focused on moments like that.
Meanwhile, the kids on this show who don't have flights to Albuquerque to catch or grimy boys to sleep with are in school. Seth stares longingly and sadly at Summer from across the hall, although it's hard to feel sorry for him when he's the asshole who dumped her. Taylor Townsend notices the exchange, and rudely walks away from whatever conversation she was having with two other girls to plunk herself down to Summer. Taylor informs her that Seth looks as sad as Summer does, to which Summer says that the only thing that would make her feel better would be for Seth to be "skinned, filleted, and served up as Assless, Gutless Wuss Tartare." Only rich people use culinary terms like "tartare" in their insults. Taylor Townsend praises Summer's descriptive abilities, and then offers to be there for Summer in her time of emotional distress. Notice that Marissa has not made such an offer. Summer says she can't believe that Seth would let her plan their college lives together, and then suddenly turn around and ruin them when only two years ago he was standing on a nearby coffee cart, professing his love to her for all to see. "That was so sweet," says Taylor Townsend, pretending she was actually there. Summer does a little deductive reasoning and figures out that she's too much of a prize for Seth just to reject out of the blue like that, so something must be up. And she's going to find out what that something is.
Over at the Newport Bay Yacht Club, Matt is downing one of probably several alcoholic drinks and waiting for Sandy to arrive so that he can make a proposal: he wants Sandy to pay him off (with Griffin's money, since Matt is mad at Griffin and not Sandy but also totally scared of Griffin and so has to go through Sandy) in exchange for Matt's not going to the DA with the incriminating documents he claims to have. Griffin has until the night to pay him in cash. With that, Matt has his drinks put on Sandy's tab, and turns to leave. "You're getting yourself in pretty deep here, Matt," Sandy warns. "No deeper than you," Matt shoots back. Right, Matt. Except for the fact that Sandy isn't an unemployed loser who just got his face beaten in.
Marissa shows up at Volchok's. He's sure that she's going to dump him, because her mom disapproved of him, showing that Volchok has absolutely no concept of the teenage female mind, even though he seems to know his way around teenage female vagina. So he's surprised when, instead, she offers him the pleasure of her company for the day. He asks her whether she's planning on attending school today, and Marissa explains that away by saying it's the second semester of her senior year, as if she ever regularly attended school in any semester of any school year. I mean, are we even sure she's still enrolled at Harbor at this point? Shouldn't Harbor's truant officer be knocking on Julie's door pretty soon?
The dreary look of the stock footage establishing shot tells me we're in dreaded Albuquerque. Ryan enters a diner, and leaves all hope behind. There he finds a blonde waitress who isn't his mother. She looks about Ryan's age (that is, thirty-five), and explains that Dawn's shift is starting in a few hours. When Ryan tells her the name of the five-star hotel he's staying in, the waitress -- who introduces herself as Chloe -- immediately knows who he is, having heard all about his cuteness and rich adopted family from Dawn. Ryan says he'll come back for his mother's shift. Chloe checks out his ass.
For what I believe is the first time this season, we actually go into a Harbor classroom, as some guy teaches the kids how to factor polynomials, saying it's "good stuff!" Not only is it not good stuff, but it's also the kind of math work these kids should have been doing in, like, their freshman year. Even my school's math classes were more advanced than this, and we didn't even have AP classes. Nor did our teachers harbor the illusion that anything they were teaching us was fun for us to learn or for them to teach us. But not much learning will be going on at Harbor today, as Summer rudely interrupts the class to guffaw loudly at a joke Seth has made at their teacher's expense but that Seth didn't actually make. Even though Seth denies Summer's claims, they are both sent to Dr. Kim's office.
In the hall, Seth asks Summer what her problem is, and why she got him kicked out of a class for the first time in his life. Summer says that she just needed to get his attention because she is calling off their breakup, which she has the power to do since she was technically the person who did the dumping in the first place. Unless Seth can tell her a reason why they should stay broken up, they're back on. And more affectionate than ever, as she plants a kiss right on his lips.
Lock your doors and hold your children close, because night has fallen on Albuquerque! As promised, Ryan returns to the diner, only to see his mother through the window getting pawed by some stereotypical biker dude. I know I love getting my hamburgers served to me by a woman who just had a leather-gloved hand on her bits, so I'm sure the diner costumers are as thrilled to see the display as Ryan is. He turns to leave, but is called back by Chloe, who's dressed in her street clothes and ready to party! Ryan accepts her invitation.
Volchok and Marissa nakedly make out until they are interrupted by a knock at the door. Volchok thinks it's his "supply drop," but no -- it's Julie, who calls to Marissa through the door, thus giving Marissa plenty of warning to cover herself in a sheet and hide in Volchok's massive warehouse apartment. By the time Volchok lets her in, Marissa is long gone. Julie complains that Harbor called to inform her that Marissa didn't show up at school today (or for the last two years), to which Volchok sexily lights a cigarette, and says that Marissa has already been accepted to college. "Listen up, Tommy Lee," Julie says, as if that would be an insult to any guy who has seen the Tommy Lee porn video, "you're just the latest in a series of experiments my daughter likes to make when acting out." And since Marissa's annual downward spiral/experimenting phase usually only last four episodes, Volchok's time with her should be almost up. "Soon Marissa's gonna wake up and realize that she is so much better than you and your life," Julie finishes. I kinda doubt that, Julie, since Marissa is definitely not better than Volchok. Or anyone. Except maybe Matt. Maybe. Julie says that when Marissa does decide to come home, Julie will be there waiting for her like a good family member. And a terrible mom. Julie leaves, and Marissa comes out of hiding to simply and stupidly say, "That's my mom!" She doesn't even pretend to deny the things Julie said to Volchok, of course. Disgusted, Volchok leaves to get some beer.
Ryan and Chloe share a beer at one of those seedy Albuquerque bars that serve to minors (of course, it helps when said minor looks thirty years old). Ryan and Chloe talk about Dawn and how her new boyfriend looks a lot tougher than he actually is. Unlike every single one of Dawn's other boyfriends, this guy has a "good heart." And then a song comes on that Chloe wants to dance to, and Ryan obliges her, even though, as he says, he's not a huge dancing fan. They do a little slow dance...
...before progressing to the mattress mambo back at the hotel. And that's why you shouldn't let your teenagers go on trips by themselves.
Griffin meets with Sandy at the NewNewport Group. He says that the Urban Planning Committee of Anonymous Whoevers has "signed off" on whatever stupid new deal they have going on. Sandy didn't want to see Griffin about that, though; this is about Matt and his incriminating files. Sandy says he just wants to let the cops deal with everything, but Griffin says that would ruin all of Sandy's "hard work," which I'm sure wasn't "hard" or "work" at all, nor do I see how Sandy would be affected by any of this, unless he's doing something illegal, as well. Honestly, how many red flags can Griffin raise before Sandy realizes that this is stupid and stops pretending to be a businessman? Griffin says that he'll deal with Matt himself, no longer even trying to pretend that he wasn't the reason Matt got his ass kicked the last time someone "dealt" with him. Sandy refuses to let this happen, and Griffin wishes them both luck. I don't know why Sandy even called him over there if he wasn't going to let Griffin do anything.
As Chloe puts her clothes back on, she and Ryan agree not to tell Dawn about their shared moment of skankiness. Chloe sees the graduation tickets on a table and figures out that they're the reason for Ryan's visit. Chloe and Summer should start a detective agency together. She thanks Ryan for his "company," and then leaves the room to think about how pathetic and/or desperate she is to have slept with her co-worker's teenaged son.
Ryan calls home, much to Seth's delight, since Seth now gets to live vicariously through Ryan's hot sexual fun times. Ryan says he's thinking of leaving the dreaded Albuquerque early without even seeing his mother, because he doesn't want her to invite her new boyfriend to his graduation. Why not just give Dawn the one ticket, then? Then she won't be able to invite anyone else, right? And then the other ticket can go to The Nana, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you feel about The Nana. I've never seen an episode with her in it, so I don't know. Seth suggests that Ryan just stop by and saying hello without inviting Dawn to the graduation ceremony at all, which is what a coward would do. And since Seth is a coward, it makes perfect sense that he would think to do this. Ryan asks about Seth's current troubles, and Seth admits that everyone still thinks he got into Brown and he's happy to keep the illusion going for Summer's sake. "Sounds like we both have women to face," Ryan says very cheesily. "Each who suffers blackouts of their [sic] own kind," Seth concludes, nonsensically. I mean, I get how Dawn suffers blackouts, but Summer? Is there some new trendy definition of "blackout" that I haven't heard of yet? Like that time when Summer mentioned boot camp, and I said that she must be in the ROTC, and everyone emailed me to tell me how stupid and unhip I was to not know about fitness boot camps, which, by the way, I DID but I was feigning ignorance for the sake of a joke. ["I believe it's a reference to Summer's well-documented rage blackouts." -- Wing Chun]
I hear sirens! We must be back in Albuquerque. Ryan finally enters the diner, and comes face to face with his mom. In a really nice moment, Ryan smiles in spite of himself, and then grins hugely as his mother runs up to him, all "my baby!" this and huggy that. It's easy to forget that she kicked him out of her house and then moved away without telling him when she behaves like this.
Seth comes to Summer's bedroom. She eagerly pretends that their relationship problems don't exist, and asks him what their plans are for tonight. Seth says that there aren't any, since he is now breaking up with her. "I'm sorry, I really am. But I feel it's for the best," he says, not really sounding all that sorry at all. Summer is flabbergasted, saying that she only un-broke up with him to find out why he wanted to break up with her in the first place. "I guess now you'll never know," Seth shrugs, and leaves Summer to be broken-hearted, once again.
Back in Albuquerque, Land of No Hope and Broken Dreams, Dawn already knows that Ryan came to invite her to his graduation, thanks to Chloe the Weird Stalker Loudmouth, who actually called Dawn to tell her about it. Way to ruin the surprise, there, Chloe. The diner chef, who's not into warm family moments, orders Dawn to go serve some patrons. She and Ryan agree to talk more after her shift, and she gushes that it's great to see him again and she's really grateful that he invited her to his graduation. On one hand, Ryan's an asshole for considering not inviting her to his graduation, an event made extra-special for them because no Atwood has ever managed to achieve it before. But on the other hand, it's not like Dawn did a whole hell of a lot to help him get to that point, nor does he owe her anything at all. So Seth and Ryan both get to be total cowards and not tell either of their blackout-having women the truth. Ryan almost does when he leaves the diner, but then sees how happy his mother looks and can't bring himself to disinvite her just then.
The morning, Marissa wakes up in Volchok's bed, since she apparently lives with him now, to the sounds of his rowdy surfer friends coming over to do some partying. To this end, they've brought beer, bongs, bad music, and obnoxious attitudes. Oh my god, do I sound old. One of the guests is a blast from the past -- Heather! And she's looking older than ever. But she's supposed to be a high-school senior, and doesn't Volchok hang out with ANYONE his own age? Anyway, Heather sees Marissa and still hates her.
Dawn winds down from her all-night, half-a-day waitressing shift in the Waitress Locker Room, which is fairly large considering that only two waitresses even work there. Chloe's there too, getting ready for her shift and dispensing advice on what Dawn should wear for the graduation ceremony that's, like, two months away. The Angry Chef, who apparently works all day and all night at this place, pokes his head in while the women are changing to yell at Chloe that she has a customer and tell Dawn that her son is here. Dawn giddily checks her hair before going out to see him.
Dawn tells Ryan that she's been thinking about the graduation, and she'd like to treat the Cohens to dinner. On her salary, I'm sure they can each get one churro. Pretty sweet deal. Dawn excuses herself to answer her ringing cell phone, showing that even people who are so broke that they can't afford to stay out of jail can still somehow pay for a cell. Seriously, I saw a homeless man talking on a cell phone the other day. Although in that case, there probably wasn't anyone on the other end. There is on Dawn's though: her boyfriend's calling, and this takes the fun right out of Ryan, especially when he hears Dawn saying something about booking a flight to Newport for both of them. As an afterthought, she asks Ryan if it's okay to bring her boyfriend, and he could very well say something here like "I was hoping to spend time with just you," or whatever, but he doesn't. He just says that's fine. Which I guess it would be, since he has no intention of letting either of them see his graduation. Dawn runs off, and Chloe slides over. She apologizes for "accidentally" telling Dawn about the graduation ceremony, and I'm totally sure she just "accidentally" called Dawn's cell phone and then it all slipped out. Yeah.
Summer paces around her room, venting her frustrations with her newly ex-boyfriend. And what friend is there to hear Summer's cries? Who will be Summer's pillar of support in this difficult time? Why, Taylor Townsend, of course! Surely you didn't think it would be Marissa? In her convoluted, metaphor-filed way, Taylor Townsend tells Summer that Seth must still love her, since he never said he didn't, and only broke up with her out of fear. Fear of what, though? Taylor Townsend has an idea of how they can find out.
Seth is talking to his Only True Friend, Captain Oats, when his phone rings. It's Taylor Townsend, informing him that the weekend detention he got for doing absolutely nothing -- while Marissa skips school every day and isn't punished at all -- will be held in the student lounge. And Taylor Townsend is the Harbor Student Proctor this week, so she would know. Taylor Townsend, you are the Student Proctor of my heart.
Sandy's off having lunch, or something, somewhere, away from his angry naggy wife. But there is no escape, because she calls to ask him why he left so early this morning without even saying goodbye to her. Nor did he wake her up when he came home late last night. Kirsten thinks they need to talk, because they've been "disconnected" lately. This is true, but it's not entirely Sandy's fault. It's not Kirsten's either. It's the fault of the writers, who have decided that we don't need to see them together anymore. Kirsten wants Sandy home for dinner tonight. He agrees to be there. Which means he won't be. I'd be more upset about this, but this whole Sandy-Kirsten relationship trouble thing kind of came out of nowhere. Other than their differences of opinion over some of Sandy's business ethics, they haven't really had any problems since that slightly rough patch, when Kirsten refused to come home from rehab.
Sandy hangs up on Kirsten, and Matt swoops in. He orders a drink, and Sandy warns him to get out of town, since Griffin isn't interested in his little deal. Au contraire, Matt says; Griffin actually called Matt after he and Sandy talked, and agreed to meet Matt with the money tonight. Matt thinks this will work out perfectly. He'll be able to use the money to start up his own business back in Chicago, and no one will ever question where he got that money from, nor will Griffin's goons, who have already beaten him up once, tear his limbs off instead of paying him. Matt, you are an idiot. Sandy warns him as much.
The party's still going at Volchok's place! Various random people do various random drugs. Heather, especially, is having a good time, dancing spastically in a corner, while two guys cheer her on as if she or her body movements were at all sexy. Volchok tenderly kisses Marissa on the head, and tells her to let loose and have fun. Good luck with that, Volchok. Marissa never has fun. Marissa heads over to get another beer just as some guy gets one for Heather. This puts Marissa in the perfect position to see the guy slip something into Heather's beer, as if the girl needed anything else at this point. Props to the guy for keeping his roofies in a cool-looking glass vial, though. Marissa then watches without saying a word as Heather drink all the roofies down.
Weekend detention sure did get pink! The student lounge is filled with heart balloons and giant Hershey kisses. I really don't know why Summer is putting this much effort into a guy who, for whatever reason, clearly doesn't want to be with her anymore. At least she didn't spend that much on the display; it's probably leftover Valentine's Day stuff that was 75% off. Summer emerges and stands up on the coffee cart in front of the Kissing Booth she brought back just for this, and tells Seth that she knows he's scared, but she also knows that he still loves her. "Summer..." Seth says warningly. But she doesn't stop, continuing to spill her heart out, saying she loves him lots and wants to be with him forever and ever and ever. Can he really say, in front of this coffee cart and everything, that he doesn't love her? If he can, Summer will go to Brown by herself and be miserable and alone and never bother him again. You'd think that Seth would sort of see that maybe Brown isn't such a great opportunity for Summer, after all, or that she should at least be able to make that determination for herself with all the facts. You'd think that, but Seth just says, "I don't love you anymore." Summer is stunned, but recovers enough to yell at Seth to leave. He does. And who is there to comfort Summer? Taylor Townsend is! Although Summer would rather be alone right now. But she doesn't get a chance to do that, because she has to report for her weekend detention, where she, Seth, and the math teacher who probably wishes he hadn't given them a detention that he'd have to spend his weekend enforcing, will spend a very awkward few hours.
Julie remembers that she has a daughter and stops by Marissa's room. Marissa isn't there, of course, so Julie calls her. Amazingly, Marissa is able to hear her cell phone ringing over the noise of that new Led Zepplin-sounding band's hit single. Instead of talking to her mom, though, Marissa watches two guys lead Heather -- who isn't looking any more out of it on the roofies than she did before them -- outside. "Hey Heather," Marissa weakly calls after her. Shockingly, Heather does not respond to Marissa's near-silent call.
So Marissa has to go get her. She finds two guys looking very guilty outside Volchok's van. Marissa makes up a story about leaving her jacket in the van and needing to go inside to get it. But they won't let her by, so she has to abandon the story, rush past them, and open the van door, shouting Heather's name. "Shut up, bitch!" one guy says. It's hard to control women when they aren't on roofies, isn't it, guy? Marissa will not be stopped! She looks into the van to see the roofies guy on top of Heather. The roofies guy just tells Marissa to wait her turn with Heather. Then he realizes that his game is up, and he and his friends give up on scoring some non-consensual non-teenage vagina for tonight. Marissa hops in the van and covers Heather's half-naked body. It's her good deed for the season!
Dawn shows up at Ryan's hotel room to show him the dress she just bought for the graduation ceremony. "I know it isn't like what Kirsten wears," she says. Poor Dawn has such an inferiority complex when it comes to mothers who are much better than she is. Anyway, the dress is "low-cut" and "sparkly," and more like an evening thing than what I would associate with a graduation ceremony. Also, it's ugly. Chloe, who's there because she has absolutely nothing better to do, urges Dawn to try it on and show it off to Ryan, but he says he doesn't have the time to see it, since he's taking an early flight back to Newport. And since they're on the subject of graduation...he was thinking about it, and he doesn't really think Dawn would enjoy seeing him graduate from high school. In fact, Ryan was thinking of blowing off the ceremony entirely. It'd be best if Dawn visited him later in the summer, really. And Dawn may be an idiot when it comes to alcohol and men, but she isn't totally stupid. She knows that Ryan is ashamed of her and doesn't want her to go to his graduation. "I may not have been the best mother in the world, but I have never been ashamed of my family," she sobs. And that's true, I guess, but mostly because Dawn was too drunk to feel shame. Dawn walks off, and Chloe shakes her head disappointedly at Ryan, as if she knows anything about this situation that would qualify her to judge.
After the commercial, Ryan is defending himself to Chloe, saying that his mother always gets clean for a little while, and tells everyone she's changed, then meets a "low-life", and goes back to her evil ways. But wait, Chloe says -- the newest "low-life" in Dawn's world is a guy she met in rehab who hasn't had a drink in twelve years and pays for Dawn to live in his apartment and even fixed up a car for her. So the guy is a sucker, I guess. Ryan is no sucker, though, and doesn't think that eighteen years of bad decisions can be undone with one supposedly good one. Chloe offers to drive Ryan to the airport, although she does have one stop to make on the way there. Gosh, I wonder where that could be?
It's 7 PM, and Kirsten has a dinner made, but Sandy is not there to eat it. Nor is he answering his cell phone.
That's because Sandy's waiting for Matt and Griffin to have their meeting, and his phone is on silent because Sandy is in Stealth Mode. As he watches from above, Griffin and Matt meet on the beach. Griffin waves an envelope full of money in Matt's face. Matt says that the files are in his car, and that Griffin can send one of his goons to get them. But the goons don't move. Because, Griffin says, they aren't here for any file retrieval. Things are looking pretty grim indeed for Matt the Hopeless Moron until Sandy comes out from behind a car to announce that there are no files at all; Matt was bluffing. He has no proof that Griffin's been up to anything sinister. Matt plays along, saying he figured that if Griffin was guilty of something, he'd pay Matt off. The goons confirm that Matt's car is empty. The evil Griffin lectures Matt for wasting his time, and drives off with his goons.
Sandy hands Matt a generous severance check. It's not as much as Matt was hoping to get out of Griffin, but it's a lot more than he deserves. "I put you on this path, Matt. Take it," Sandy over-guilts. Matt apologizes for being such a tool, and the two guys go on their way. And is my television broken, or was that whole scene done with a weird echoey otherwordly effect on everyone's voices? In the car, Sandy grabs the "incriminating files" he took out of Matt's car and hid in his jacket when no one was looking, rifles through the three stapled pages they consist of, and dumps them in his center divider container thing for safekeeping. Can you feel the dirty business intrigue excitement?!?!
Meanwhile, Kirsten stares at the nice romantic dinner she made for Sandy for a second before grabbing his plate and dumping it in the trash. She decides to go for a liquid dinner instead, taking out a wine bottle Sandy unwisely put in the same house as a recently recovering alcoholic. Could it be? Could Kirsten actually have her own storyline, albeit the same one she ended last season with? Oh, but no -- she just dumps it all down the sink.
Seth comes home. Kirsten hurriedly puts the wine bottle away, and greets him. He mentions seeing some Yakuza films to help kill the pain he's in, and Kirsten asks him whether he needs to talk to her. No, Seth only wants to talk to Ryan. Which is just fine with Kirsten, who would rather be alone while she comes unglued.
Chloe and Ryan stop by the diner, of course, which is closed even though it's a 24/7 joint. Chloe opens Dawn's locker, and tells Ryan that he is Dawn's "whole life." Except for the parts where she actually had to raise him. And I guess Dawn is pretending that Trey never existed. Ryan looks in the locker to see pictures of him at various ages plastered on the inside of the door. He's surprised, although he really shouldn't be, since I believe we've seen all these pictures before at the Cohen house. I do like that they're all pictures of Ben McKenzie as a little boy, although I question using that picture of him in a football uniform, since we've never seen him play. Dawn comes in and sees the scene. She tearfully explains that Kirsten sent her all the recent stuff: "She's a real nice lady." Yeah, she is, since she generously took your child off of your hands for you and gave him a life and everything. And how did Kirsten get all that stuff to Dawn, anyway? No one even knew where she was until they found in her jail last month. Maybe Kirsten sent it via the Magic Delivery Fairy. Chloe closes the locker she had no right to open and leaves the room to finally give the Atwoods some time away from her over-involved ass.
Ryan apologizes. Dawn says that she really wanted to go to his recent birthday party "-- But you didn't," Ryan finishes angrily. Dawn says that she was afraid then, but now, one month later, she's committed to being clean and sober, and has a boyfriend who is good for her. A lot can happen in a few weeks, unless it's on this show, where nothing ever happens all season. Dawn and Ryan agree that it's hard to hold things together sometimes, Ryan adding that he may live with rich people, but he's still Dawn's son. "So I'm still your mom?" she says, so hopefully. He says she is. She says that must mean that she isn't "all bad." Aw. Dawn cries some more, and they hug. And when they pull apart, Ryan hands her the two tickets to his graduation.
Outside the diner, Ryan meets Chloe. He thanks for her the family intervention that ended up working, and she says she isn't sorry for anything that happened. He says he isn't either. But he's leaving now. And despite vaguely telling Chloe that he'll see her again when he comes back to visit, I don't think we'll be seeing Ryan in Albuquerque again. Or in Chloe. Ryan gets in the waiting town car that amazingly has not been stripped of its parts during the five minutes its been parked on these mean Albuquerque streets.
Sandy puts the incriminating files in his home safe, and tries to pretend he didn't just deal his marriage a heavy blow to get them.
Julie drinks alone, because the show couldn't afford Michael Nouri's no-doubt-astronomical rates this week. Marissa comes home, and tries very, very hard to act scared and upset, and in need of her mother. Meanwhile, did Marissa bother to call the police and report those guys? Because if not, then there's really nothing to stop them from turning around and doing that to some other girl.
Taylor Townsend offers to make Summer some more Frappuccinos in the hopes that the endorphins in chocolate and sugar will make Summer feel a little better. But nothing will. Even so, Taylor Townsend's shoulder is there for Summer to rest her sad little head on. Taylor Townsend is a good friend.
Ryan comes home to find Seth waiting for him. Seth needs to get into Brown and get Summer back. And he needs Ryan's help to do it. "It's good to be home," Ryan says, patting Seth on the back. Too bad Seth doesn't deserve either Summer or Brown.