Peyton shares shocking news with Lucas who is still in LA with Dixon and Julian. Nathan struggles to adjust to his new career and Brooke desperately searches for Sam.

Nathan is on the bench during five losses, but has more maturity, team spirit and insight than the arrogant, selfish star scorer. He feels this is bound to pay off, as Dan predicts. After refusing six top directors, Lucas and Julian get an ultimatum from his father, Paul. He also tells Peyton that the infidelity she dumped Julian for was his publicity stunt. Julian is incredible patient with Brooke's insecurity. Chase is Mia's ideal playmate, inspiring a new single.

Brooke looks for a model as the new face of Clothes Over Bros. Mia and Haley fall short of selling a million records. Dan finds a confidant in an unlikely person. Nathan deals with being distant from the ones he loves, while Clayton reminds him he's in the NBA. Tree Hill's former bad girl - Rachel Gatina returns.

Haley returns to the stage much to Miranda's annoyance but the gig turns out to be a success and changes Miranda's attitude somewhat. Brooke believes she might be pregnant but is conflicted on how Julian will take the news - but the test proves negative. Julian finishes the script with Alex and heads out to be with Brooke at Haley's gig but gets a call from Alex telling him she's close to taking cocaine again so he goes to her much to Brooke's annoyance. Rachel and Dan arrive back in Tree Hill but his hoped reconciliation with Nathan doesn't materialize. But Dan isn't going anywhere. Mouth meets Rachel and tells her to try and reconcile her differences with Brooke but Brooke isn't having it. Mouth and Brooke are both concerned and angry with Millicent who's desperation to be liked by the public is putting her in a downward spiral. Elsewhere, Clay's hardball tactics with the Charlotte Bobcats and Nathan's contract fail when they sign another player to fill Nathan's spot. What will Nathan do now?

Nathan tries to calm Haley down after Taylor and David's shock announcement that they are a couple and then through the ensuing dinner that Taylor plans out until all three James sisters find themselves in the pool fighting it out. David and Quinn talk and he agrees with her that their marriage is at an end. Julian takes offense to the director hired for his new film and fires him after he punches him for insulting Alex. Finally after talking to Brooke rationally and asking her to be the movie's costume designer she makes him see that he should direct the movie himself which he brings up with his father who agrees. Mouth and Lauren fix up the disheveled apartment after Millicent's recent partying and then tells Millicent he is staying in Tree Hill. Millicent and Brooke agree to try and be friends again.

Haley, Quinn and Taylor receive a surprise visit from their mom Lydia who tells them that she has incurable pancreatic cancer and that she is not seeking any further treatment. Quinn takes the news very hard but Clay is there to support her. Meanwhile, Alex sets her sights on Alexander as Brooke and Julian try to get their old relationship back on track, and Millicent finds herself struggling with temptation.

In getting back at Julian for sleeping with Alex, Brooke messes with the costumes for the shoot and generally does her best to wound Julian but it takes comments from Alex to get her thrown off the set after she punches Alex in the face. Only later does she discover that it was Alexander that Alex slept with as she switched rooms with Julian. She tells Victoria who is furious and it later transpires that her mystery lover is Alexander. Meanwhile, Lydia takes ill from her cancer and is hospitalized and reaches out to the daughter Taylor but it is Quinn who manages to get her to come before she dies. Elsewhere, Clay tells Katie he won't be representing her but it doesn't put off Katie and she finds out that he was married to Sara so she transforms herself to look like her. Lauren and Mouth nearly get it together only for Skills to come back to Tree Hill.

Quinn's gallery opens with Clay very supportive unaware that he is being stalked by Sara lookalike Katie until she makes her presence known and Clay shows Quinn how alike Katie is to Sara. Josh's sex tape with Alex is emailed to Julian's father with a demand for $1,000,000 putting the film in jeopardy. Miranda finds out she is being deported thus putting a spanner in the works with Grubbs's recording but Grubbs finds a way around it by proposing to her. Lauren tells Skills that she has fallen for someone else but he is unaware it is his best friend Mouth until he sees a photo of them at the gallery where he promptly punches Mouth. Meanwhile, Victoria's affair with Alexander is exposed in more than one way. Elsewhere, Nathan and Jamie spend a guys evening together & later he asks Haley if she'd be ready to try for another baby. She tells him she took a pregnancy test and it was negative but is she telling him the whole story?

Nathan and Haley struggle with the aftermath of her mother's death, while Brooke deals with the fallout of Alexander's tryst with Victoria. Alex discovers a secret about her leading man, Josh, that could derail Julian's film, and Quinn is confronted by an unhinged Katie.

Haley tries to overcome her depression by joining Nathan, Jamie and the rest of the Tree Hill gang on a trip to Utah for the premiere of Julian's film.

The biggest day of Brooke Davis' life has arrived, her wedding day. Julian gets his parents to agree to a truce on their special day, but will they uphold their end? Brooke makes up with her mom, and when her dad fails to turn up, her mom walks her down the aisle. Nathan's advice of sincerity helps inspire Julian's 'best man' Jamie to make a brilliantly simple speech. Chase disagrees with Skills' absurd security-obsessed job description for them as ushers. He ends up making hotter use of the limousine.