On Dan's birthday, his parents turn up unannounced; Dan tries to make everybody keep Nathan's quitting from them, and Haley offers to come for moral support. Just when she was counting off her dad's return home, Peyton gets a call a storm knocked four men off his ship, and she must identify if a corps is his, so Lucas drives her, but the roads are blocked too so they must spend the night in a motel, but Lucas doesn't forget Brooke. At the Scott diner, the mothers tell the truth, how grandpa Royal Scott also pushed Dan too hard till he took his mother's advice to use a knee injury to quit basketball altogether; like coach Nathan walks out disgusted, losing all respect for the man he always tried desperately to please, and decides how to deal with it.

Lucas reveals that he knows who tried to kill Dan in the dealership fire. Brooke, Peyton and Haley find themselves behind bars. Chris Keller convinces Nathan to be his wingman at a high-stakes poker game. The residents of Tree Hill finally choose a mayor.