The Earth Girls Are Easy
Season: 4
Episode: 8
Characters: Ryan, Taylor, Seth, Summer, Sandy, Kirsten, Julie, Kaitlin, Bullitt, Spencer, Frank.
Editors Choice Quote: “Last coffee of ’06. How much are you hoping I don’t make that joke all day?” - Seth.
Episode Guide
The new fab four is on the road to Vegas for New Year’s. During a pit stop, the girls retreat to the bathroom and Ryan asks Seth why they’re acting so crazy. Acting crazy even for girls. Well, it’s because one of them just took a pregnancy test and now they’re awaiting the results.
But let’s rewind a bit and go back seven hours earlier. Ryan lays out his New Year’s itinerary for Seth. Breakfast with Taylor, quick packing session and then off to Vegas with Taylor. Although she only knows about the breakfast part right now. Seth, conversely, has absolutely nothing planned for Summer that evening. Plans are for grown-ups, man.
At the same time, Taylor and Summer are reviewing their upcoming evenings from their perspective. In short, Taylor is excited but nervous and Summer is already bored by the thought an evening of Korean cinema with Seth. The couples tag out with their friends and meet up with their mates. Taylor has a present for Ryan. Lingerie. Seth has a present for Summer. An ironic t-shirt. Summer accosts Seth about his lack of plans for the evening, expresses displeasure with them and leaves.
At home, Taylor is happily packing for her surprise trip. She grabs a box of tampons, thinks, consults her datebook and thinks some more. A cycle is…say…off a bit. Over at New Match, Julie is on the phone with Spencer covertly discussing the male prostitution ring that they accidentally stumbled into running. They need to figure out how to handle all of the cash they’re receiving, because Julie’s having a tough time sneaking it into the books. Then Bullitt shows up with an invite to his New Year’s party. Julie gives him a big maybe.
At home, Seth frets about his lack of New Year’s plans, which led to Summer’s sudden lack of interest in him. And then he stumbles into the perfect plan. Ryan’s. Seth is going to barnacle himself and Summer onto Ryan’s special trip.
Julie and Spencer meet up in a parking lot. Spencer worries that he can’t find his little black client book. He had it when he called her from the café, but hasn’t seen it since. Incidentally, at the café, a man overheard Spencer’s call to Julie and took a curious interest in it. Julie takes the missing book as a sign to close up the Littlest Little Whorehouse in Newport, but Spencer coaxes her into going through with their New Year’s Eve booking. That night alone will mean $40,000 for each of them.
In a hotel room, the man from the café looks over some surveillance pictures he took of Julie. And then there’s a knock at his door. It’s Bullitt. Bullitt knows the man, Frank, from his services as a private dick. Not in the Spencer sense. In the spying sense. Anyway, Bullitt told Frank whenever he needed a job to look him up, and Frank has hit the ground running on a new task. He saw that Bullitt invested in a dating service, so Frank did a little nosing around. But Bullitt thinks Julie is on the level. When Bullitt leaves, Frank pulls out Spencer’s little book.
Taylor finds Summer in her bedroom and shares a big secret with her. She thinks Summer is pregnant. Summer admits she’s late, but not pregnant. Taylor asks her to take a pregnancy test to prove it. In a bout of perfect timing, Seth arrives with surprise news. He’s taking her to Vegas with Ryan and Taylor. Which is news to both Summer and Taylor, as Taylor had no idea what Ryan’s surprise plans were. Well, she does now.
The car is packed and then loaded with people and the group is off to Vegas. Seth confesses to Ryan that he knows he’s crashing the party, so he’s going to get Ryan the best room Sandy Cohen’s money can buy to say thanks when they arrive. Meanwhile, Taylor keeps prodding Summer about her possible pregnancy. In search of toothpaste, Seth digs through the brown bag Taylor is carrying and finds the pregnancy test. Trying to cover, Taylor quickly claims that it’s hers.
The group arrives at their pit stop. Ryan apologizes to Taylor for Seth horning in on their racket, but says once they get their own room, things will start looking up. Actually, Taylor now thinks maybe they shouldn’t do any special touching. She knows she bought him lingerie, but maybe now isn’t the time. You know, with the pregnancy scare and all. Which she doesn’t tell Ryan about it. Seth, eavesdropping and reading between the lines all at once, asks Ryan if he and Taylor have had sex yet. Because if not, this frantic whispering and plotting and sneaking can only be about Summer’s cycle.
Summer takes the test. If she does as well as she did on her SATs, no baby for her. Back in Newport, Julie arrives at New Match only to find Frank waiting at her desk. And then Bullitt pops out, eagerly announcing that he’s hired Frank to handle Julie’s books for her. Then she won’t be so busy at the office every night and then she’ll have more time for the Bullitt. Julie realizes this is not good. Because, you see, not only is she running a prostitution ring, she’s been keeping careful records of it all. Which is…maybe dumber than running the ring itself.
Seconds left until the pregger test is done. Summer starts panicking. She can’t look. While the girls are fretting about Summer’s future, a woman in the bathroom with them slowly reaches under the stall and steals Taylor’s purse. The girls calm down for a second, notice the purse is gone and now a car chase through the desert is on. A normal speed chase, but still. The girls make it clear that they need the purse because something vital is in it.
The thief pulls up to a desert New Year’s party at an abandoned industrial site. The kids follow. Now would probably be a good time to mention that the thief is dressed up as an alien for the party. And…so is everybody else there. Meanwhile, at Bullitt’s New Year’s bash, everybody is dressed in formal wear. Including Julie, who, perhaps against her better judgment, has decided to attend. She quickly buttonholes Spencer, asking why he brought of all their clients to the party where Kirsten will be.
In the desert, the alien rave is raving and Taylor still can’t find her purse. Ryan tells her he’s not mad about her…thing. Her problem. He’s only upset that she didn’t tell him. Taylor, growing angrier by the second, asks Ryan if he truly thinks she had unprotected sex with some stranger between her divorce and the makeout session with Ryan, a gap of only a few days. Taylor storms off, getting lost among the terrestrial extraterrestrials.
At the Yacht Club, Kirsten finds Julie and asks why all of the New Match clients have been set up with such young men. Wasn’t the point to find suitable long term mates for them? Then Frank shows up. Julie introduces him to Kirsten as the man Bullitt hired to balance the books, figuring she’s about to be exposed. But Frank says that only are the books in order, business is booming. It’s an Auld Lang Surprise for Julie.
Seth asks Summer why it’s such a big deal to find Taylor’s purse, then asks Summer to give him a little high five. After all, shouldn’t they celebrate the fact that it’s Taylor’s pregnancy scare and not Summer’s? There’s a little third-person irony for ya! Summer’s pained reaction alerts Seth to the fact that it’s probably Summer’s pregnancy scare after all.
Frank finds Julie at the bar and admits that he just didn’t want to embarrass her in front of Kirsten. But he knows the truth about New Match’s business. If she joins him in his suite in about half an hour, maybe he’ll forget about what he learned from the books. On his way out, Frank bumps into Sandy, who introduces himself. When Frank leaves, Sandy stares at him, thinking maybe he knows him from somewhere.
It’s a minute to midnight and Ryan is starting to get agitated. He again confronts Taylor, but Summer jumps in, admits the test was her and steals the car keys from Ryan’s hands. Summer and Taylor run off and take the car, leaving Ryan and Seth behind. But that actually kinda works out, because as the boys are standing there, they see the alien that absconded with Taylor’s purse. They sneak into a back room where the alien is about to get down with some…other alien or something and take the purse back. Of course, the two aliens spot them, so they have to run for it. As they run out, Seth spots a guy who talked to him earlier. The guy loved Atomic County, considers Seth a hero and dressed up as Kid Chino for the party. But, even better, the guy is in his car right now. Seth and Ryan hop in and ask for an emergency evacuation.
In the back of a van balling through the desert night, Ryan and Seth talk about the stick test in the purse. Seth realizes he has to be there for Summer right now, and Ryan enlightens him to the fact that he wants to be with Summer whether that test is one pink line or two.
Seth and Ryan make it home in one piece and Ryan finds Taylor in her bed and explains that he doesn’t think she’s a whore. Good. And once that’s established, she reveals to Ryan that she’s wearing her new lingerie under the covers. Which doesn’t make her a whore. It’s just for her boyfriend and girls can like sex just as much as boys.
Seth finds Summer in her bedroom as well. He explains that he’ll always want to be with her, no matter what. And he hasn’t looked at the test yet. And…he has an engagement ring for her. She takes the eyeball ring on her finger and agrees to marry him. Oh, the test is negative. TV wedding, everybody!
Julie makes her way to Frank’s suite. She says she won’t trade sex for silence, which is fine, because that’s not why Frank brought her there. Meanwhile, Sandy has retreated to his office to peruse some old files. And he’s found Frank’s record. B&E. D&D. DUI. A whole litany of criminal acronyms. That’s when Frank tells Julie that…he’s Ryan’s father.
SpoilerFix
+ Ryan and Taylor's New Year's Eve road trip to Las Vegas takes a surprising turn when Seth and Summer tag along; Julie is leery of the man hired as NewMatch's accountant (Kevin Sorbo), and Sandy thinks he knows why. Source: TV Guide Online
+ Summer does a pregnancy test. Taylor is there for her. Ryan, Taylor, Seth, and Summer, celebrate New Year's Eve at a rave... but things aren't peachy for Seth and Summer. Source: SpoilerFix.com
+ Does the thought of Seth and Summer having a baby give you the warm-and-fuzzies? If so, the Dec. 21 episode is not to be missed. Source: Ask Ausiello @ TV Guide
+ It's New Year's Eve in The O.C. and Ryan has planned a special surprise road trip for himself and Taylor, but when Summer confronts Seth about not making any plans, Ryan's romantic getaway for two is spoiled. Meanwhile, Summer's future rests in the hands of a raver, the gang meets on the way to Vegas. And the Bullit asks an old friend to take a look at Julie's accounting. Guest Cast: Kevin Sorbo as Frank; Gary Grubbs as Bullit; and Brandon Quinn as Spencer. Source: FOX
+ In Episode 4.08, it's clear that Julie is involved with Bullit. Frank Perry is brought in to verify Kirsten's and Julie's books. What he tells in front of Kirsten is something totally different than what he tells to Julie in private... which will lead to Julie wanting Frank to keep his mouth shut. What price will Julie have to pay? Source: SpoilerFix BuddyTV Spoilers Chat
+ Episode 4.08 will see a new recurring make his first appearance. Frank Perry, an attractive business man with a dark and deep secret, is the associate of Bullit (who’ll be played by Gary Grubbs).
Rating
8 / 10
