Elsewhere, Sandy is driving Caleb home from a night in the clink. He advises Caleb to put Kirsten in charge of the company as his next move. At the school coffee bar, Seth sees a flyer for a show by The Walkmen and wonders if he should buy Summer and Zach tickets to seem more selfless. Ryan turns around and bumps into Lindsay, spilling his iced coffee all over her. And in his attempt to help her pick up her stuff, he accidentally pops her in the nose. She nervously backs away from him, refusing any offers of further “help.”

Meeting with Caleb, Kirsten and Sandy implore him to turn over control of the company. Julie Cooper-Nichol drops by and tells Caleb she only wants to support him. He wants her to set up some food and coffee for the new home office. Back at Harbor, Summer is effusively praising Zach, but she won’t introduce him to her dad. Which makes Marissa suspect that maybe Summer isn’t over Seth, after all. But when Zach charms them both some more, Summer inquires about his weekend plans.

In physics class, Ryan just happens to be stuck sitting next to Lindsay. Naturally, in squeezing into his chair, he drills Lindsay in the back of the head with his backpack. They quickly agree to never speak with each again…and then the teacher partners them up.

After school, Seth and Ryan drop by The Bait Shop to look into Walkmen tickets. Problem is, they’re sold out. When Seth sees that the staff gets extra tickets, he asks about a job. Alex, the woman on hand, offers him a mop and one night to prove himself.

The next morning, Kirsten seems a little tense about Caleb’s arrest. It seems like she isn’t so sure they’ll be able to keep the company. Or their house. In a less happy place, Marissa and Julie are still bickering. Marissa tells her mother it’s too bad Caleb won’t be going to jail, because then Julie would be out on the street and Marissa could move back in with her father.

Physics class convenes once again. Lindsay informs Ryan that she already finished their lab report, put both names on it and turned it in. So…they won’t have to work together or anything. She tells him to just be happy he’ll be getting a free A, pretty boy. Ryan, upset that Lindsay used his smoldering good looks as evidence of stupidity, immediately rats her out to the teacher and suggests a new partnership. Nah, instead they can have a new assignment which they must work on together. Lindsay thinks this further proves her theory about Ryan’s intelligence.

Over at The Bait Shop, Seth is explaining to Alex just why he took the job. Which is to score free tickets for his crush and her new boyfriend. Alex, as a girl, warns Seth that Summer will see right through his game. Inside the offices of The Newport Group, Sandy tells Kirsten that he just got fired from his high-priced law firm because he’s representing Caleb.

Later that night, Seth drops by Summer’s bedroom with the ducats. She’s confused, but pleased, by the selfless gesture. The next morning, Marissa is enjoying breakfast with Jimmy when Julie comes by to pick her up. Julie briefly complains to Jimmy about her current problems with Caleb, and Jimmy reminds her that she used to stand up for herself.

At school, Lindsay and Ryan have a discussion about their misunderstandings. She seems to think he’s just another rich boy from Newport. Little does she know about his raw Chino roots! They agree to work on their project separately with minimal collusion. That night at Summer’s, Zach is working through the potential ramifications of Seth’s ticket endowment. He needs to figure out her feelings because what if she likes the new, changed Seth? She can go to the concert by herself to figure it out and let him know what she learns. Summer can’t believe what a mature person he is.

Elsewhere, the Cohens are sharing a toast with the Nichols. Caleb has an announcement. He’s calling a press conference tomorrow to announce Julie as The Newport Group’s new CEO. Across town, The Walkmen are rocking The Bait Shop. Summer strolls in, sans Zach, and Seth has a seat with her. Ryan ducks outside, where he finds Marissa sitting on a bench. He invites her inside.

Sandy is showing Caleb out and tells him he’d better find a way to make things up to Kirsten unless he wants Julie to be his lawyer too. Back at The Bait, Seth tells Summer he took a job there to get her tickets to seem selfless so they could be friends. She says it was a sweet move and that’s when he kisses her. Not so sweet. Seth chases her outside, where she accuses him of planning the whole night to get her back. This might be it for them.

The next morning, Seth is wondering where he went wrong. Ryan would love to chat, but he has to catch up with Lindsay. Inside, Kirsten tells Sandy she’s not returning to the office as long as Julie is in charge. Sandy tells her to quit, but Kirsten is too high-strung to be unemployed. And she’s worked too hard to leave The Newport Group like this.

Over at Nichol Villa, Seth is paying Marissa a visit. Surprisingly, he wants to talk about Summer. Marissa advises a simple apology to make up for last night’s debacle. Then Seth and Marissa exchange info on their friends. Summer is at lunch with her dad, Ryan is at school working on a project.

Caleb drops in for a chat with Kirsten. He wants to appoint her to CFO, since whoever controls the money controls the company. She accepts. At Harbor, Lindsay reluctantly compliments Ryan’s half of the project. And she wants to offer him an apology. They smirk and snicker over their bad first impressions, they flirt up a storm. Marissa oversees this and slumps away, sad.

Seth visits the restaurant where Summer is lunching. This can’t go wrong, can it? Well, actually, he sees Zach having lunch with them and Summer’s dad enjoying the company of this fine young man. Seth slumps away, sad. He finds Marissa on the same bench from last night and joins her. He can’t believe they’re the two loneliest people in Newport these days.

Seth gets some help from Alex to prove that his friends don't know him as well as they think. Meanwhile, Summer gives some thought to how she really feels about Seth after she learns new information about Zach. Marissa is happy to share an evening with Ryan. But at school, Ryan finds himself embarrassed and frustrated after a run-in with new classmate Lindsay. Caleb's legal problems threaten to leave both Sandy and Kirsten unemployed as Julie makes sure she stays on top even if Caleb goes down on.

Guest Cast: Michael Cassidy as Zach, Shannon Lucio as Lindsay, Michael Nouri as Neil Roberts, Perry Anzilotti as Mr. Greenburg, and Olivia Wilde as Alex.

Seth (to Ryan): Damn Oregonian barbers, man! Making my head too small for my body.

Sandy: You're not exactly the ideal client.
Caleb: What, Rich? Powerful?
Sandy: Guilty.

Lindsay (to Ryan): Yeah, I have to get rhinoplasty, but now I'll look like all the other girls here.

Julie (to Caleb): As soon as I saw the paper, I walked right out of my seaweed wrap and I came here.

Seth (to Ryan): I may be selfless, but I'm still pretty stingy.

Seth (to Ryan): Oh come on. What? The only music they had in Chino was the sound of gunshots and helicopters?

Sandy (to Ryan): There is no more archevillian than an asthmatic mathlete.

Sandy (to Caleb): Face it Caleb. It's time to get your Martha Stewart on.

Ryan: Don't worry. I promise to keep my hands to myself.
Lindsay It's your elbows I'm concerned about.

Lindsay (to Ryan): The only reason I transferred to Harbor was so I could load up on AP courses, get accepted to Yale early and never have to look at another Cheerleader or water polo player ever again.

Ryan: You really are changing.
Seth Yeah, changing urinal cakes.

Seth (to Ryan): Please dude. I just need to talk about me for just several more hours at least.

Seth (to Sandy): Ryan is now a science nerd and I am a blue collar worker.

Marissa (to Julie): If Caleb did go to jail then you'd be living on the streets and I could go back to living with Dad.

Lindsay (to Ryan): Oh yeah, you're not stupid at all.

Julie (to Jimmy): You married me because I was pregnant. I married you because I loved you.

Lindsay: I'm not here to make friends.
Ryan: Yeah, well mission accomplished.

Summer (to Zack): Holy mack, you are like such an adult... are you like a robot.

Marissa (to Ryan): The last time we went to a concert, it, uh, didn't end so well.

Sandy (to Caleb): I suggest you find a way to make this up to Kirsten now unless you want Julie to be your lawyer.

Seth (to Marissa): I don't know. He's kind of a dork now.

Seth (to Marissa): If someone had told me last year the we'd be the teo loneliest people in Newport, I wouldn't have believed them. At least not the you part.

The Bait Shop, a venue for live musical talent to perform, is introduced.

"The Valley" and "The O.C." both air on Thursdays at 8:00 PM.

Recap:
Seth Cohen is so unselfish that he somehow manages to make the entire plot of this episode about him, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Seth decides that he's going to get Summer back, and to that effect takes on a job at a club just to get her tickets to a concert. At said concert venue, he meets a new character who has a chip on her shoulder in an I'm-hardcore- but-in-a-Gwen-Stefani- in-1996 kind of way. Who else? Who else? What else happened? Who cares. How about Caleb. After being sprung from the clink by Sandy, the old man makes the world of, say, everyone around him a living nightmare. Sandy gets fired for representing him, Kirsten gets passed over for CEO of his company, and Julie gets progressively more orange, though I'm totally not sure whether that's Caleb's fault. Meh. Let's indiscriminately blame him for everything this week. Meanwhile, back at the concert, Seth tells Summer how much he just wants to be friends, and then puts some awkward smacky moves on her in a way that means he doesn't want to be friends. It's so dire a situation that Seth has no choice but to confide in Marissa. Oh, and Ryan elbows his new lab partner in the face several times, and it's totally not predictable at all that the two of them will go from fighting to...love. In other news, shut up The Walkmen and each individual walkman who contributes to their screeching musical deathscape. The Walkmen suck. End rant.

Spoilers:
Seth sees Summer and her father having dinner with Summer's new friend, Zach. He and Dr. Roberts are hitting it off... even if Zach talks superheroes ;) Ryan and Lindsay are paired together as lab partners in a Physics class. Marissa also appears in the episode.

Seth is working at a Bait Shop in order to get tickets (for a show we assume) for Summer. He's not doing it to win her back but to show he can do something good for others... such as for Summer and her new friend. His boss is a 17-year-old girl wearing a retainer who got kicked out of school and is now working full-time.

Ryan goes to a girl's house (she's named Lindsay) to tell her he should have gone to the dance with her. She says that anyway they wouldn't have worked out because they are from two different worlds. Later that night, Lindsay drops by the poolhouse. (SpoilerFix.com)