The kids finally graduate from Harbor, and even Dawn Atwood gets to see it. She's so proud of Ryan that she gives him a car to celebrate. But you know what they say -- if a car appears in the first act, it will be in a tragic accident in the third. But more on that later. Kaitlin comes back to town to see her sister graduate, as well as announce her plans to stay in Newport and rule over Harbor High in her sister's place. Then she plays some rap music and throws posters of men's abs on the walls and makes it almost impossible to like her or look forward to her return in any way. The kids cement their future plans, with Seth (whose arrest for arson last week leads nowhere and is quickly dealt with and forgotten about) getting accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design for its spring semester, Summer is still going to Brown, and Ryan to Berkeley, and Marissa forgoing college for the thrill of the open seas, working as part of the crew on the boat her father is captaining. Unfortunately for her, Crazy Volchok will do anything to get her back -- including driving his new car and running her and Ryan off the road. Despite his section of the car being completely smushed, Ryan survives the crash with nary an injury, making him well able to carry Marissa's body out of the car before it dramatically explodes. And wow, it looks just like all those other times he's had to carry her body around, as we see in a montage celebrating this show's love of repetition instead of creativity. And as a barely-awake Imogean Heap sings "Hallelujah" over and over again, Marissa DIES. She dies! And even more pointlessly than she lived.
Previously: Marissa, Marissa, Marissa!
Ryan watches TV in the poolhouse. Kirsten folds some clothes. Finally, the moment they've both been waiting for arrives. No, not Marissa's death -- that comes later. It's Seth and Sandy returning home from the police station. Seth heads for Ryan and Sandy heads for Kirsten. They share their stories: Sandy told Seth to deny everything to the police, although he's not so sure that his son wasn't involved in the fire. Seth knows that the joint he forgot to put out must have caused the fire, but he doesn't know how to tell his parents the truth, because being honest with people is a trait that Seth does not possess. Kirsten doesn't think Sandy should let on to Seth that he doesn't trust them as their relationship is already strained.
Seth wants to listen to some sad music on his iPod, but he left it in the Rover. The Rover is still back on the street where Volchok tried to steal that car. He heads back to get it, only to come face-to-face with Volchok, who seems to think that returning to the scene of the crime is a good plan. Volchok says that he ditched the stolen car and ran back here, but he's sure that the cops saw him. Thus, he'll need some money to get out of town. And guess what? Ryan lives with rich people! Volchok threatens to tell the cops about Ryan's part in the car theft if he doesn't pay him off. Except that the cops saw Volchok with the car. They didn't see Ryan. So really, Volchok doesn't have any proof that Ryan had anything to do with the robbery and his threats are empty. Or they would be, if we weren't dealing with the Newport PD, whose standard criminal investigation technique involves a visit to Ryan Atwood that is usually followed by an arrest. Volchok even says that he'll tattle to Ryan's mother about this when she comes to town for his graduation: "I'm sure she'll be real proud." Actually, she probably would be. With that, Volchok runs off into the night.
California, here we come! Unless you're Marissa, in which case you'll be leaving it very soon.
In only a couple of hours, the Harbor students will be graduating. Summer, Taylor Townsend, and Marissa help set up for the event, giving them a nice opportunity to exposit that Seth only burned down a small part of the NewNewport Group and so those criminal charges pending against him shouldn't be serious enough to prevent him from graduating. As she does with most things, Taylor Townsend goes way overboard with the exposition and tells the girls that she had a threesome with Sung-Ho and Young-Na, who, if memory serves, ARE RELATED TO EACH OTHER. Taylor Townsend does a little dance in celebration of her adventures in incest, while Summer and Marissa both look equal parts disgusted and appalled. Julie strolls in to give Marissa some mail from her father and then leaves. Apparently, she's finally found some gainful employment with the United States Postal Service.
Dawn Atwood arrives at the Cohen mansion. Kirsten and Dawn share a realistically awkward moment at the doorway as they try to figure out whether they're supposed to hug or shake hands or just say hello. Kirsten invites Dawn in, and Dawn does her typical gawking over the amazing splendor of the Cohen foyer. She also makes a joke about being drunk that Kirsten doesn't appreciate. Although maybe Kirsten's just jealous that even Dawn has a longer sobriety record than she does. Ryan runs into the room and gives his mother a nice smile and a hug. Yay!
The horrible Kaitlin arrives at the Roberts mansion, much to the surprise of Dr. Neil. No one was expecting Kaitlin to show up for this graduation, seeing as her performance has been less than stellar and her character adds nothing to the show. And yet, here she is. Great. She explains that "since [her] grades went from "B"s to "A"s, [she] was wondering if [Dr. Neil] could change [her] "A"s to "B"s." And with that, she points to her chest. Should they really be making a fifteen-year-old girl talk about her chest like this? Maybe I'm just a prude in my old age. Speaking of old age, Dr. Neil is understandably uncomfortable and stammers that Kaitlin should talk to her mother about her enlargement surgery options. "Dude, I'm totally kidding!" Kaitlin laughs. Yeah, well, there's a time and a place to make jokes about your flat chest, Kaitlin, and it's not in front of your soon-to-be stepfather.
Julie strolls in and hugs her Other Daughter hello. Kaitlin says she figured that since Jimmy won't be coming back for Marissa's graduation, there'd be an extra seat there for her to occupy. With that, she retreats to the hot tub.
Seth finds Sandy in the living room. They discuss The Nana, who will apparently be enjoying Seth's graduation through pictures posted on the internet and not in person. Seth asks his father to not stand up and do an embarrassing cheer when his name is called. Sandy agrees not to, but lets us all see what we're missing with this rap:
"Seth Cohen Capture the Flag Victory Rap"
words and music by Sandy "S-Dawg" Cohen
Check out my boy Cohen,
Can you believe how he's grown?
The competition away he's blown!
While I congratulate Sandy on his grammatically correct avoidance of ending his sentences with a preposition, I must deduct points for his awkward rhyming scheme. Anyway, Sandy tells his son that "despite everything," he's still proud of him. Instead of answering this with a "thanks for the shitty compliment, Dad!" Seth comes clean about what started the NewNewport Group fire. He looks properly ashamed of himself, and Sandy says that he appreciates Seth's honesty now, but is upset with him for lying so much about everything before, and, most of all, for not coming to Sandy about all this in the first place. Seth says that he was embarrassed about his many personal failings, and the few times that he tried to talk to Sandy about them, Sandy was too busy with his job. And Kirsten is an unstable alcoholic, so Seth wasn't going to go to her with anything, either. Plus, they all spent most of their time off-camera on the back burner while Marissa had her storylines that went nowhere. Sandy admits that they both screwed up this time. "We're both usually so awesome!" Seth says. Hee, I love him again. Sandy says that, while the matter isn't over, it won't interfere with Seth's big day today, which Sandy and Kirsten have been looking forward to "forevah." Seth and Sandy hug manfully, but Seth can't express his love for Sandy because Sandy is another man and Seth is suddenly a giant homophobe. I don't like him anymore.
Summer finds Marissa sitting in a study hall. "Can you sit?" Marissa asks her. Summer can sit, because she, unlike some people on this show, doesn't have a stick up her ass. Marissa tells Summer that Jimmy is captaining boats for rich people now and has invited his daughter to work on his yacht for a year while it sails to Greece as part of Jimmy's continuing efforts to Ruin His College-Bound Daughter's Life. Marissa wants to go, even though she didn't have the warmest of feelings for her father the last time she saw him and has never expressed a particular fondness or ability to do the grunt work her new job would entail. As she's said over and over again these last few weeks, Marissa doesn't think she's ready for college right now, and this will give her a new life and a change. Or a new death and a change into not breathing anymore. It's "the perfect graduation present," Marissa says. Enh, not really. I got a car from my parents, and that pretty much kicked ass. Hell, I'd prefer a toy car to a year of deck-swabbing and potato-peeling with the father who has let me down and abandoned me and my mother time and again. Marissa will be flying out to where the boat's docked in Hawaii tomorrow night. Summer is very sad about this, but also -- and this is probably just my imagination -- relieved and hopeful about her Marissa-free future. The girls hug each other. Lots of hugging in this episode.
Volchok is hiding out in his van. Heather, apparently recovered from her near-date rape, brings him his clothes, and says that she hasn't seen any cops looking for Volchok. He says that he's sure the cops are after him and so he needs money to leave town. Volchok sure does have a lot of faith in the Newport PD's abilities to find criminals or even care about their criminal investigations past one episode. Heather points out that he can make money easily and must be waiting around Newport for something else. I believe we call that thing a "plot contrivance." Heather suddenly discovers her love of psychoanalysis and tells Volchok that he still wants Marissa, and only cheated on her because his love for her scared him or whatever. He's hoping to see her one more time to convince her to join him on his life on the run in Mexico. If he couldn't get her to come with him for a weekend in Baja, I doubt this will be a rousing success.
Harbor's graduating students wear gender-specific purple and blue robes. Seth tells Ryan that he's very happy to be leaving this school and all of its asshole students. One of them, that guy who's always yelling at Taylor Townsend when she tries to make her speeches, bumps into Seth and makes fun of him for wearing a dress. The guy finds this extremely funny, which I guess makes sense considering that, as far as jokes this episode go, it's better than Dawn's about being drunk and Kaitlin's about wanting her stepfather to give her breast implants. And it's definitely better than Seth's response to Summer's question about how things are for him at home: "Sandy Cohen and I got a little man-boy love going." Summer's reaction to this, however, is very funny indeed. I believe it's the same expression that was on her face when Taylor Townsend started going into detail about her incesty threesome. As the students get ready for the processional, Marissa comes up and calls Ryan away for a talk.
We join Marissa and Ryan, as Ryan is reacting to Marissa's news: he thinks that it's a good idea. Because he thinks that it's what she needs, not because he's thrilled to be lifted of the burden of having to see her every day at Berkeley, I'm sure. "That means a lot to me," Marissa says. "Huh," Ryan says. "Who would've thought you'd be going to college," Marissa says. "Shut up, bitch," Ryan does not respond. Instead, they both marvel at the role-reversal of Ryan going to college and Marissa doing physical labor. "Everyone's doing exactly what they need to," Ryan says. Damn right they are! Marissa's going to do some hard work and learn how people who aren't spoiled little rich girls have to live. Also, she'll die, which is definitely something she needed to do three seasons ago. Ryan offers to drive Marissa to the airport, as this is pseudo-symbolic since she was the first person Ryan met in Newport (except for, you know, Sandy) and he wants to be the last person to say good-bye to her. Marissa says that she was going to ask Ryan for that ride, so she's glad he volunteered instead. User to the end, our Marissa.
With that, Ryan and Marissa rejoin Summer and Seth. Ryan dorkily says "let's go graduate!" They do this in a music montage. Valedictorian Taylor Townsend leads the group outside to where a small crowd of extras are waiting for them. Taylor Townsend reads the speech her mother totally wrote with her, judging by Mrs. T's mouthing the words as Taylor says them. There's talk of journeys and your typical high-school valedictorian speech stuff, and each of the kids get their diplomas. I especially enjoyed it when Ryan got his and Dawn clapped and cheered and cried. Sandy's reaction to Seth getting his diploma is much more enthusiastic than it was for Ryan in the Cohens' continuing tradition of loving him more. Sandy does not perform a rap, however. Too bad. Julie embarrasses the hell out of Marissa by standing up and pumping her fist in the air when Marissa gets her diploma, and she's all weepy and proud and stuff. Marissa even gives her a cute little happy wave. Summer hugs the hell out of Dr. Kim when she gets her diploma. I had no idea Summer and Dr. Kim were so tight. This is followed by the mandatory photo session, and Adam Brody has never had a good picture taken in one of these things. He's always making a funny face or scrunching his nose up or blinking. Kaitlin throws up gang signs in her pictures, because she is hateful. And then all the kids throw their caps up in the air, which I was not allowed to do at my high school graduation because our school feared that the sharp edges would poke our eyes out on the way down.
Everyone goes to the Yacht Club for a celebration dinner, which oddly begins with someone off-camera saying "there's no such thing as a little racist." This is not followed by someone mentioning a midget who hated black people, so I don't know what the point of that was. Sandy calls the table to order so he can make a speech about all the wonderful touchstones they've experienced together, filled with tragedy, comedy, first loves (Seth and Summer look at each other), and broken hearts (Ryan and Marissa do not look at each other), and dead family members. Cheers! Summer starts crying that all their Harbor fun is over and now they'll all be going their separate ways, especially if Seth doesn't get into RISD. Seth promises her that whatever happens, they'll make it work. The last time he said that, Summer got into college and he didn't, and he lied to everyone for no reason and almost ruined his relationship with his parents and his girlfriend.
Marissa approaches her mother at the bar to share her "big news." Julie says that she already knows what it is -- Jimmy called her last week to run the idea by her before bringing it to Marissa. And while Julie will miss Marissa terribly, she thinks that Marissa should go with Jimmy if she wants to. There's nothing about Julie, how she would rather Marissa go to college or anything like that. Great job, Mom. Kaitlin makes an uninvited appearance to say that she knew about this, too, since Jimmy called her for her opinion, as well. Kaitlin has decided that with Marissa away from home, she should come back to Newport -- "for good." I think that's more "for bad." Julie starts to cry with sadness. She demands a Cooper family hug, and her daughters oblige her. With that, Julie gives Marissa her graduation gift -- a pearl necklace. How porny! Hey, how come Marissa hasn't died yet?
Dawn also has a graduation gift for her Ryan. She leads Ryan through the parking lot to show him the Toyota 4-Runner she managed to buy him with some help from her boyfriend and a guy they know who restores old cars. It's no Range Rover, to be sure, but Ryan absolutely loves it and gets all childishly excited with his "you got me a car? You go me a car!" Awww. When those two have such warm moments like these, it's easy to forget how Dawn abandoned him three years ago. She runs inside to get her stuff so Ryan can drive her home.
Taylor Townsend drops by the party to say good-bye before heading off with Sung-Ho to his family's village where they will spend the summer defusing landmines and probably having sex with each other. She thanks them for allowing her to be "second-circle core," and despite the fact that she makes up names for the hierarchy of her friendships, Seth invites Taylor Townsend to join their inner core. Which is easy for him to say now that she's going off to Korea and then to university at the Sorbonne so they'll never have to see her again. "The Fab Five!" Taylor Townsend exclaims. Oh, but there's no need to complicate things by adding a number, Taylor Townsend. I'm sure something will happen that will bring your group's numbers back down to four any moment now. "I'm so happy! And so sad," Summer says. Taylor Townsend doesn't get that she's being insulted, though.
Marissa gets a call from Volchok. He apologizes for being a dick and promises to make things up to her. Marissa rejects this offer, so Volchok decides that the best way to ingratiate himself to her is to threaten to "make things real bad for Ryan."
Marissa finds Ryan in his new car, adjusting the mirrors and enjoying himself. She ruins that right quick by asking him whether he stole this car, as Volchok told her he's into doing that now. She offers to get Ryan the money to pay Volchok off, saying that since she's the one who brought Volchok on them, she might as well be the one to get rid of him. Ryan can't argue with that logic. Marissa says,"We're in this together, okay? One last time."
Oh, lookie! It's a commercial for the new MacBook. Seeing as how I bought an iBook less than two months ago, I hope the MacBook fucking crashes and burns and is riddled with bugs and errors that are only ironed out when I'm in the market to buy a new laptop.
The morning, Dawn takes a cab back to Chino since her son apparently doesn't want to drive her back in the car she bought for him. Ryan and Dawn promise to see each other soon and say that they love each other, and Seth wanders in and says it meant a lot that she could be here for the ceremony. "I was being sincere," he has to add. When he finds out about Ryan's car present, though, his genuine goodwill dissolves into petty jealousy.
Kaitlin stakes her claim on Newport by remodeling Marisa's bedroom to her specific tastes, since she will be sleeping in it now. That makes sense -- it's not like the Roberts mansion doesn't have ten thousand vacant rooms for her to use. And really nice of her and Julie to run all this by Dr. Neil before making any permanent plans. It's only his house, right? Julie comes upstairs to find Kaitlin listening to bad music on her iPod mini. I guess Kaitlin couldn't get an iPod nano because of how her mother was poor for a few episodes. Kaitlin tells her mother that she's cool for letting Marissa go off on that yacht and skip college, like Julie had a choice. "It's pretty cool that you came back so she can leave," Julie tells Kaitlin. Yeah, more like "convenient." Kaitlin says that was one reason; the other is that now that Marissa has graduated from Harbor, she can go there and rule it. Yeah, because Marissa ruled Harbor what with her getting expelled from it and not having any friends except for her boyfriend and Summer and her boyfriend. She really Veni Vidi Vicied that place. Suddenly, Kaitlin's music turns back on, even though no one is anywhere near the iPod. Is Dr. Neil's mansion having a poltergeist going to be a Season 4 storyline? Because if so, I will watch it and love it. Until, of course, the poltergeist's girlfriend starts hanging out with this other poltergeist who loves surfing. Then I will hate it. Kaitlin slinks out of the room, and Julie takes a second to admire Kaitlin's ugly collage of male torsos.
Ryan screeches up to Marissa. Nice to see he's treating his new car so well. She hands him the pearl necklace so he can pawn it off and give the money to Volchok, saying that she sort of feels bad about giving away her mother's gift, but not so much so that she won't do it. What exactly makes them think that this plan will work? Ryan did what Volchok wanted last episode, and Volchok is still blackmailing him. Marissa tries to get in the car to accompany Ryan to the pawn shop, but he's not thrilled about the idea. He agrees to let her go, but only if she stays in the car. A pawn shop is no place for a young lady.
Sandy stops by the D.A.'s office, where he meets his successor, Jason Spitz, who tells Sandy he is a legend there. Spitz complains that his job sucks and he can understand why Sandy wanted to leave it, but Sandy says that his time working there were "some of the best days of [his] life." The best days of the show, too. With that, another lawyer comes to meet with Sandy.
Kirsten enters Seth's bedroom to say hello. He starts to apologize for the fire, but Kirsten calls it "the best thing that could have happened." Is Kirsten drunk again? They'll just build the office again, but it will cost them lots of money and now Seth could have a criminal record. She promises him that after Sandy finishes talking to the lawyers, Seth will be fine. Well, that storyline certainly was worth it. What a payoff we got there! Kirsten hands Seth some mail -- a letter from RISD. Judging by the size of it, it doesn't look like good news.
Ryan exits the pawn shop and gives Volchok the money. Volchok asks to speak to Marissa, but Ryan tells him to send her a postcard, apparently under the mistaken assumption that Volchok can read. With that, Marissa drives past in Ryan's car, and he jumps in, while Volchok pounds on the windows and begs to talk to her. But she just speeds away.
Marissa returns home without incident. But her time will come. Oh yes, it will come. Julie comes up to see Marissa while she packs for her trip. I'm sure her halter tops, frilly blouses, and short-pants will make for adequate deckhand wear. Julie says that everything she's ever done, good or bad, she did for Marissa. Except for those episodes when Julie was supposed to be a hateful, self-absorbed bitch and a horrible mother. But forget about that! She apologizes for sleeping with Marissa's ex-boyfriend and trying to frame Ryan for attempted murder, and Marissa forgives her. They manage to cry about this without shedding any tears. Although, to be fair to Mischa Barton, she definitely managed to get teary-eyed. Kaitlin walks in and says that Ryan and Seth are here to take Marissa away. The girls share one last Cooper Family Hug and Julie smiles, happy to have two daughters who are alive. FOR NOW.
Summer, Seth, and Ryan are waiting for Marissa downstairs. They're on their way to the Harbor After-Grad party, but then they all wonder whether that's really necessary. After all, none of them are actually friends with anyone in Harbor and they barely attended that school anyway. They decide to spend Marissa's last night in town doing something with just the four of them instead. Marissa knows the perfect place.
Sandy presents Kirsten with a bouquet of flowers and some good news about Seth's criminal charges: he explained everything to the D.A. about what really happened and it looks like everything will "blow over." More importantly, Sandy was thrilled to see how harried and unhappy his replacement is and wants to go back to the D.A.'s office instead of running the NewNewport Group. I'm sure the D.A. will be happy to have a guy who was so recently under criminal investigation, too. Kirsten is happy about this. They celebrate by making out and sinking to the floor for some good old-fashioned kitchen floor sex.
Marissa's party destination is the Model Home, now rebuilt and left completely unguarded so that four teenagers can jump over its fences and into its heated pool, which has been left totally full and clean for our heroes. They swim and play and talk about how great their lives are since Ryan Atwood entered them. Seth, who can't tell his own father he loves him, seems pretty comfortable horsing around with Ryan. Summer reminisces about the time that she thought Ryan was cute, and laughs at how wrong she was. "No offense," she adds. "None taken, beeyotch," Ryan shoots back. Awesome. He so rarely gets to talk and act like a normal person. Marissa brings everyone down by saying that she should get going to the airport. "Here come the waterworks," Seth groans. Summer and Marissa hug and profess their love for each other, and Summer orders Marissa to make her the maid of honor if Marissa ends up marrying a "hot Greek shipping heir." Well, it'd be better that than the fat greasy oil heir Mischa Barton used to date. Seth and Marissa hug and try not to impale each other on their protruding bones. Eat some sandwiches, you guys. Hey, now that Marissa is going to bite it, I have to get my eat a sandwich jokes in where I can.
Summer and Seth wave good-bye to Marissa as she heads inside to change. In the privacy of the giant mansion she's trespassing in, Marissa cries. Ryan comes inside and asks her whether she's okay, his hair all tousled from the pool. They remember their night in the model home, and Marissa apologizes to Ryan for all the "craziness" she's put him through since then. He says he wouldn't change a thing..."except maybe Oliver." "Me too," Marissa says. And this is yet another instance where the writers wink at us that they get that they made a mistake, and yet, they still give us Oliver-like characters such as Johnny, so they obviously didn't learn their lesson. So who cares?
Ryan and Marissa pull out of the Model Home. They're being watched by Volchok, who's drinking from a flask behind the wheel of his van. Heather's in the passenger seat and warns him not to drive in his condition. He doesn't listen to her, of course.
Seth brings Summer to his bedroom to give her a graduation present. There's a huge cardboard box with nothing inside it except for an envelope from RISD. Seth has been accepted, after all! He was too late for the fall semester, though, so he'll be starting in the spring. Summer's very happy. Seth apologizes to her for being such an asshole, and they make plans to see each other during Summer's Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks before they're reunited year. Kisses!
But back to the danger. After her swim in the pool, Marissa's hair is magically straight and beautiful and her makeup perfectly applied. We must look good for our death scenes, you know. She asks Ryan whether he's nervous about going to college semester, and, without hesitation, he admits to being terrified. She says that she is, too. Because she's about to DIE! As they pass a sign informing them that they're leaving Orange County (DOOM!) Volchok starts honking at them and flashing his brights. Suddenly, he rams into the back of the car. "What is he doing?" Ryan wonders, sounding kind of unconcerned. "What the hell?" Marissa asks, sounding only slightly annoyed. They're taking this well so far. When Volchok rams them again, they start getting more upset. Marissa recognizes Volchok's van as he pulls up alongside them and screams at Ryan. He rams the driver's side of the car. Marissa screams at Ryan to pull over, but he says there's nowhere they can do that. We cut to a shot of the cars on the road and what appears to be plenty of room for Ryan to pull over. At the very least, he could slam the brakes on to get away from Volchok. But if he did that, then Marissa wouldn't DIE! Volchok says that he's just trying to make them pull the car over so he can "finally finish this," at which point, he rams Ryan's car off the road. It goes flipping around down a hill and lands upside down on another road. The driver's side is absolutely crushed here, but it won't be Ryan who dies.
We get to see the car lying there, smoking, for a few moments so the true impact how incredibly stupid a way to kill off a main character this is can really sink in, and then we go inside the car. Ryan wakes up and finds Marissa lying to him, unconscious. He punches a window out to escape the car and he seems to be totally okay despite the horrendous appearance of the accident he was just in. A miracle! But it won't be the only one. When Ryan sees that the car is on fire and gasoline is dripping all over the place, he goes back in to get Marissa out. Twigs are flammable, you know. This is dangerous. Ryan drags Marissa out of the car, picks her up, and carries her like he's done all those other times -- which we see clips of just in case you didn't get the connection and thought this show was actually doing something original for a change -- while repeat-season-finale-singer Imogean Heap sings "Hallelujah" just like Jeff Buckley's done on this show twice before. Except not nearly as well. In the shot were Ryan's carrying Marissa and the car blows up behind them, though, he looks really freaking hot.
Ryan puts Marissa down carefully and tries to wake her up. She does, and her head is bleeding and her injuries have given her a strange Kabuki face. Either that, or the makeup department doesn't apply "death mask" nearly as well as it does "Marissa glamour face." "Ryan," she says. Ryan says that he'll get help, like he always does for her. This time, she begs him: "Stay. Don't leave." Then she moans a few times, and Ryan whispers that she'll be okay and he'll stay there and neither one of them says I love you. Sucks to be you, Ryan/Marissa fans! And with that, Marissa pants a few times and dies. Ryan is shocked. He keeps calling her name, and then lets out an "oh... no." Unfortunately, his crying face looks a lot like a smile. Kind of like the smile on my face right now when Imogean Heap comes back and sings "Hallelujah!" about the fact that Marissa just bit it. We flashback to Ryan driving away from Marissa and looking back once to see her standing in front of the sunset.
Wow, what a terrible way to kill off a character. Why did they break Ryan and Marissa up if she was going to die? Why not have Marissa leave the show on the Greek cruise? I'm all for her leaving my television screen, but this was such a pointless way to do it, it just left me feeling hollow and unsatisfied. Pretty much like this show always does. So I guess it's fitting.