Ryan decides to not return to school, and makes a decision to take a job as a fisherman which Sandy reluctantly accepts. Marissa turns to her new friends, Johnny, Casey, and Chili, to help her with Ry

n\’s situation when he tells her that he\’s leaving down on a fishing trawler for a few months at sea. Meanwhile, Summer and Seth team up to try to reveal the romantic tryst between the nasty Dean Hess and conniving Taylor. When Sandy learns about this, he uses his legal skills and poker-face tactics to play hardball with Dean Hess to let Ryan back at Harbor High, while Seth and Summer confront Taylor. Also, Charlotte finds out about Julie\’s downfall (now living at a flea-bag motel) and uses this to recruit her as her co-conspirator to plan another scam to try to rip off Kirsten and the Newport community.