Emma comes out of the changing room with her waitress uniform on, which is based off of an authentic wench outfit from the early 1800s, according to Bummer. Fin's then given her maid dress, which she immediately hates. Wipeout the mascot however sticks his head out the changing booth beside Fin, and pointedly tells her to consider herself lucky. Bummer tells her that the guests like to see workers that look like they won't steal from them. Before Fin can comment, Emma tells her to just put it on. Reef and Broseph come in with their uniforms on. Reef makes fun of the girls' uniforms, but Emma responds that at least they don't look like a "preppy little momma's boy," to which Bummer even chuckles. They are all given their name tags, tossed over Bummer's shoulder to the floor. Bummer then tells them that it's not true that he has a tradition of firing one employee on the first day: actually, sometimes it's more than one. Emma freaks out and hopes she doesn't mess up.
While Lo's cleaning up the penthouse, Rosie comes in and points out that she's going to be in big trouble once her dad gets back—also, Lo ultimately has to finish cleaning up the penthouse by herself, as aside from Rosie having to leave to go train the new maids who arrived as part of the new summer staff, the rest of the hotel staff (including the entire housekeeping staff) is too busy cleaning up the rest of the hotel. Though initially upset, Lo ends up doing a pretty good job of cleaning up the penthouse by herself. However, it doesn't let her off hook—as it turns out, her bratty younger brother, George, was sent a video of the party last night via his buddy's My Face, and their father saw Lo at the party. Mr. Ridgemount summons Lo to his office, and after giving her a lecture on how he ultimately got into the hotel business, reveals the punishment he's come up with: Lo's going to work for her spending money by working at the resort for the summer (all while being treated like just another employee). On top of all that —
- She has to move out of the penthouse and live at the staff house for the summer.- All of her credit cards are taken away and she can't use the hotel's spa/salon.- She's been assigned to work in the dining room, which means that she has wear the same uniform as Emma—also, she has to punch in for the breakfast shift at 7:30 the next morning, although Bummer advises Lo to come in early to have her uniform properly fitted.
Lo's very upset about her punishment and tries delaying it by pointing out that she at least needs some time to pack, but it turns out that Rosie already has all of her stuff packed, indicating that she knew about Lo's punishment the entire time. This makes Lo mad and the hotel heiress questions the maid on why she made her "run around like crazy" cleaning up the penthouse—Rosie simply states, "I don't want to live in a pig-sty." Johnny soon comes in to help Lo move her stuff to the staff house for the summer. Lo figures that she'll be able to do her job in the dining room easily, but is obviously still upset about how her summer vacation is turning out so far.
The rest of the new staff members are back from training and are tired. However, Reef states that this is the time to surf and they decide to get their stuff and meet back on the porch in five minutes. Emma goes back to her room and finds out that there is a skunk in her room, and it sprayed her bed! Afterwards, her roommate, Martha (who was responsible for the skunk spraying the room when she threw Emma's flip-flops at it), tells Emma that she is bunking with a friend in town, leaving Emma in her own room (along with the skunk, which is still hiding in the room's closet). Emma has to pass on surfing to clean her stuff from the skunk spray, much to her displeasure. In the laundry room, Emma is crying and is noticed by Broseph. When Broseph asks Emma what's wrong, Emma explains how bad her day has gone: she's terrible at her job, she's homesick, she doesn't have a surfboard, she doesn't have any money for surf lessons and to top it off, her roommate's a skunk! Broseph, feeling bad for her, offers to take her somewhere, which she says agrees to.
Reef and Fin are almost at the beach until Bummer asks them to hall sit, which they do. It turns out hall sitting is babysitting the kids in a room from the hall while their parents dine out. They decide to call back home to see what's up. Fin's sister, Sam McCloud, is using all of Fin's stuff, even her longboard, and that their parents are letting Sam stay in Fin's room for the summer. Reef's buddy Moe from the previous episode's lame job turns sweet when their buddy Brad becomes manager, gets rid of the horrible uniforms, and they get their own hours. Both are so mad that they don't notice that the two kids in the room are running wild in the hall. After Johnny and Lo get all of her stuff to the staff house and Johnny shows her the room that she'll be staying in for the summer, Lo tries convincing Johnny to take her stuff back to the hotel and sneaking her into one of the open guest rooms (and simply not telling her dad). Johnny ultimately declines, explaining that while he feels bad for Lo, he doesn't want to risk getting fired if her dad were to end up finding out. He thanks Lo for the party she threw the previous night and leaves her—when Johnny is back on the porch, Lance and Ripper tell him that Andrew was there earlier looking for Emma. As it turns, Emma had the lowest evaluation out of all the employees, so she's probably going to be sent back home. Martha, though, couldn't care less, which Lance and Ripper take offence to. Johnny, also put off by Martha's cold attitude towards Emma, gets an idea and excuses himself.
At the beach Emma has her new surfboard and asks what are they doing. Broseph reveals that he will teach her how to surf for free. They work on her surfing for most of the afternoon—though she messes up a few times, Emma proves to have a natural affinity for surfing. Meanwhile, Johnny uses his front desk computer station to get into the hotel's database, and changes the evaluation score for Emma by switching hers with Martha's. After getting back to the staff house and telling the others what they did, Reef and the rest express happiness that at least two of them were able to get some surfing in (especially since Emma was finally able to learn how to surf). When Emma and Broseph make it back to the dorm, Bummer comes and announces the employee with the lowest evaluation, thanks to Johnny, is Martha. Lance and Ripper don't feel sorry for her in the least, and are even smiling, possibly thinking that karma just handed Martha what she deserved.
After Martha storms off, Bummer announces that they are all on six weeks probation and if they get three strikes within that time, they will be fired. When Bummer leaves, Fin heads up to her room, but is surprised to see Lo in there, who explains that she and Fin are going to be roommates since the other bedroom (Emma's room) smelled too bad. Lo fills Fin in on who she is and why she's there, and while Fin's obviously upset that it's basically Lo's fault that she and the others (minus Broseph and Emma) didn't get a chance to surf, she feels better that Lo's at least being properly punished for it. The two then hear Emma crying since her room has been declared an environmental hazard and obviously can't stay in there. Fin, feeling bad for Emma, advises her to move in with her and Lo, since their room has a third bed. They then hear Reef telling them that there's a bonfire on the beach for new staff. On the beach, Fin makes a toast to the summer and to Surfer's Paradise.
Tropes
- Noodle Incident: George got in trouble with his father when he set a boathouse on fire.
