Nathan and Haley grow closer, despite the recent scandal. Brooke wonders if a spark might be rekindled with Chase. Peyton receives a tempting offer that could ultimately take her away from Tree Hill. Mouth reconnects with Gigi. And Lucas tells Karen that Dan is a murderer, setting off an explosive series of events.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Apathetic Student: The Tree Hill High yearbook has a section for each student to state a goal for the future; Peyton left hers blank.
- Association Fallacy: Haley is removed from serving as Valedictorian at graduation, due to Nathan's point shaving scandal.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Haley includes "Find Bigfoot" as one of her post graduation goals; Lucas does too, but with the added caveat of doing so before Haley.
- Cassandra Truth: No-one believes Lucas when he claims that Dan was the one who killed Keith, as he has no proof and his sole witness has fled town.
- Cliffhanger: Dan receives a text from Abby Brown saying that she’s going to the police. As he tries to leave Karen’s home to "deal with a problem" Dan gets stopped by Lucas, who holds him at gun point and reveals he sent the text. Karen collapses in pain, and Lucas orders Dan to stay away from his mother, before firing the gun as Dan tries to check on Karen.
- Comic-Book Time: Peyton tells Lucas that she’s been wondering about his whereabouts since they returned from Honey Grove two days earlier, implicitly stating that the two previous episodes (and the next episode) all take place in the same week.
- Gaslighting: Dan engages in this, in an attempt to undermine Lucas' credibility now that he knows Dan was the one to murder Keith.
- Internal Retcon: Every mention of Jimmy Edwards has been removed from Tree Hill High’s yearbook, with Jimmy’s early contributions to the RavenHoops podcast being attributed solely to Mouth - they even crop Jimmy out of a photo of Mouth rather than use a different photo.
- Manipulative Bastard: Dan undermines Lucas’ accusations against him at every point, even going so far as to suggest he needs psychiatric help to Karen.
- Pet the Dog: After finding out that Jimmy has been removed from the yearbook and his mother ordered a copy back in the fall, Mouth asks Gigi to help him edit a memorial to Jimmy into his mother’s copy of the book. When Mouth publicly announces that he has Jimmy’s year book and wants to give it to his mother, a crowd of students line-up to sign the book, with Lucas being the first.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Abby Brown and her mother have fled Tree Hill as a result of Dan forcing his way into their home.
- Shout-Out: Peyton is accepted into an internship at Sire Records.
- Take That!: When Peyton reads the Tree Hill High yearbook and questions Brooke’s stated goal of someone telling Joan Rivers "I’m wearing Brooke Davis" on the red carpet, Brooke notes that the alternative was Ryan Seacrest.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Haley off-handedly mentions where Deb keeps her gun to Lucas, completely unaware that he’s out for Dan’s blood now that he knows the truth about Keith’s death.
