The Sleeping Beauty
Season: 4
Episode: 5
Characters: Ryan, Seth, Summer, Sandy, Kirsten, Julie, Che, Taylor, Kaitlin, Veronica, Bullitt, Spencer.
Editors Choice Quote: “So…what? Sandy just served me up like a piece of meat?…How rich is he?…Five o’clock will be fine.” - Julie.
Episode Guide
Seth finds Ryan sitting on the couch at 2:30am watching some Bollywood hits. It seems that Ryan hasn’t been sleeping much lately. Can’t sleep is maybe more like it. Breakfast comes around and so does Taylor Townsend. All glammed up. As if she’s trying to impress somebody. She then volunteers to bring Ryan his morning coffee. She thanks him for saving her from a life of loveless French marriage, then offers him anything he wants as a thanks. Anything. Okay. Well…bye.
Julie wakes up with some young buck in her bed and tries to rush him out of the house before Kaitlin finds him. Naturally, Kaitlin is already downstairs having breakfast and spots the latest beau du jour as he tries to sneak out. Later that day, Taylor drops by the comic book shop looking for a favor from Seth. But Seth is already all too aware that Taylor is looking for some help with catching Ryan’s eye.
So Seth calls Ryan at El Pavo Guapo, which is only three doors away from the comic book shop. He asks Ryan if he’s ready to date again, and Ryan, confused by the question, says he doesn’t know. Seth reports back to Taylor that Ryan is a mess right now. If anything, this makes him even more appealing to Taylor.
In Providence, Che and Summer walk into a biology lab posing as janitors. Che lifts a key from a hook and they get out of there before a student scientist can get too suspicious. In sunnier climes, Kaitlin is enduring a tennis lesson with her hunky instructor, Spencer. She asks him out and Spencer reminds her that she’s 15. Then Julie shows up, clearly intrigued by Spencer, who’s clearly intrigued by an older woman. And Kaitlin has to stand there and watch all of this while trying to not hit somebody with an overhand smash to the head.
Meanwhile, Sandy drops by the shiny new offices of New Match, where Kirsten is setting up shop. Unfortunately, the woman who’s retiring her high-end dating service in Laguna got a higher offer for her client list than Julie and Kirsten gave her. And the gals don’t have enough to match it. Sandy suggests a meeting with Gordon Bullitt, an oil tycoon recently freed from jail after serving time for tax evasion. Sandy’s playing golf with him tomorrow to help land donors for a public defender’s office benefit Sandy is putting together. Kirsten’s a little reluctant, but desperate to get her business off the ground, agrees to meet him.
Che and Summer slip back into the lab after nightfall and begin freeing lab rabbits from their cages. In Newport, Ryan gets a late night call from Taylor. Seth told her about Ryan’s sleep problems, an area she’s an expert in. Like every other area. She’ll be glad to help him get some rest if he meets her at the diner tomorrow morning at 8.
Morning comes, as it often does, and Taylor finds Ryan at the diner. When he explains that this all started after Thanksgiving, after Volchok turned himself in, Taylor has his answers. Ryan fell asleep every night thinking about finding Volchok the next day. But now that that’s over, Ryan has nothing to look forward to, and nothing to wake up for the following day. Ryan leaves and Taylor is super excited about her breakthrough.
On the course the next day, Sandy finds the perfect opening to pitch Gordon Bullitt on backing Kirsten’s business. Gordon can talk to her tomorrow at the benefit. Well, problem is, Bullitt’s date for the benefit just went back to her husband. Well, isn’t that a coincidence?! Kirsten’s business is a dating service! And her partner is newly single! Man, sometimes things just work out perfectly in Newport Beach.
Taylor swings by El Pavo Guapo to pick up Ryan’s keys to the Cohen house. She needs to specially prepare his room as his official sleep therapist. Seth, standing nearby, yells at Taylor for turning his info about Ryan’s sleep problems into a seduction tool.
Summer returns to her dorm to learn from her roommate Amber that the word about Operation: Bunny Rescue is out, there’s a bunny under her bed and Summer got a call to appear in the Dean’s Office tomorrow. Che pops in with word that he got a call as well. It seems the student scientist picked them out of Facebook. Too bad those janitor costumes didn’t come with masks. Summer starts flipping out, but Che assures her that everything will be fine. And he’ll be with her until the end.
At the country club, Kaitlin has a new plan for Spencer: let him see her in a bikini. It’s a fine plan, except with Spencer making out in a court with Julie, he has his eyes closed and misses the suit. Kaitlin slinks off in shame.
Ryan comes back to the pool house to find candles, relaxing music and Taylor in pajamas. She claims that most people sleep better with a warm body beside them. Ryan, finally catching on, asks Taylor if she likes him. She assures him quite plainly that she does not. So how about a massage? Or perhaps a mixed message?
The next morning, Seth brings in the café and sees Taylor in the pool house. But no Ryan. He went out for a run after staying awake all night. Again. Taylor thinks about how to adjust her plan for tomorrow, but Ryan says he probably just needs to work things out by himself. A temporary setback for Taylor’s plot.
Summer faces the dean’s board. Before they can even start, she admits to freeing the cute little bunnies. But she won’t say who else was involved. She can’t betray the new her. Elsewhere, as Kaitlin readies herself for the charity ball, she notices Taylor pouting on her bed. Taylor asks what to do when you already pitched yourself at a boy, but he doesn’t even know you exist. Kaitlin’s advice is basically to get all dolled up, go somewhere you know he’ll be and start vamping away. Works every time!
And now the benefit is officially underway. Ryan stands by the bar, lost in his thoughts, when Taylor struts up to him in what one might call a stunning red dress before asking him to dance. Then Kaitlin shows up with Spencer. Whose last name, incidentally, is…Bullitt. On the dance floor, Ryan and Taylor are having a nice close dance and things are going well. Ryan retires to the bar to fetch them a drink, and Seth, now into the idea of Ryan moving on after a chat with Sandy, asks Ryan what the deal is. Ryan scoffs at the idea and says, quote, “Dude, just forget about it, okay? I’m not going to date Taylor.” Which is fine, but…Taylor was standing right there and overheard him. She rushes out on the verge of tears.
So Ryan chases after her, seeing as how she’s now a female in distress. He tries to explain what he meant to her and Taylor says if he would just give it a chance, maybe he could be happy for once. She thinks about him and knows what he’s feeling. Before Ryan can say he likes her as a friend, Taylor walks off in shame.
Julie angrily pulls Kaitlin out of the ball to harangue her about the stunt with Spencer. They argue about competing for men and Kaitlin being forced to watch men sneak out of the house while she’s eating breakfast. It makes her want to barf! Julie says…that Kaitlin actually has a very good point there. Julie’s been acting horribly lately.
Summer anxiously waits in the hallway as Che testifies about the night in question. Che admits that he basically blamed her for every suspicious pro-environment crime that Brown has endured since the semester began. Even though he’s the one responsible for all for them. You see, he’s incredibly important to the protest movement at Brown. And since Summer was going down anything, he might as well blame her for everything and get totally off the hook. Summer idealism comes to a screeching halt.
Back at the ball, Kaitlin convinces Gordon Bullitt to invest in New Date. And possibly to marry Julie for fun. It’s not every day that a 15-year old outsmarts an oil tycoon. Seth comes home from the benefit and finds Taylor in his bedroom again. She has some tea for Ryan. It worked for her once when she had trouble sleeping, but she’s too embarrassed to give it to Ryan herself. Seth expresses some surprise that Taylor is rolling over and giving up this easily. And even though Taylor knows Seth is trying some Jedi mind tricks on her, she agrees to give it another shot.
Taylor takes the tea down to Ryan. He thanks her, tells her how wonderful she is and apologizes for not feeling anything. So she orders him to kiss her. If he doesn’t feel anything, her pursuit is over. Okay. One kiss. She kisses him and…maybe there is something there after all.
Seth comes down to the pool house to talk with Ryan and…he’s sleeping. And not because of the tea, either.
SpoilerFix
+ After having ended things with Doctor Roberts, Julie will go for younger guys, such as her personnal trainer. Source: SpoilerFix BuddyTV Spoilers Chat.
+ Bullit, a man in his 50s who has made his money in old. Gordon has a Texas flavor and isn't completely honest. Source: SpoilerFix.com
+ Julie and Dr. Roberts seem to be no longer a couple as Julie wakes up with another man in her bed. Kaitlin is please that Julie has a new party-like life-style as it means she has less time to watch her daughter. During a tennis lesson, Kaitlin hits on her 25-year-old trainer and is not pleased when Julie is interested in him too. Summer, Amber, and Che, try to save some bunnies from science. This little adventure leads Amber in front of Brown's Disciplinary Board where she is asked to spill the names of her accomplices.
Rating
8 / 10
