Johnny, Ripper, No Pants Lance, and Ty are all surfing at the Office, the perfect breaking point on Sunset Beach where only they know of its location. When they get back they are reminded by their fellow co-worker Kelly about Grom initiation, the initiation of the newcomers. After the groms are startled awake with a 7 AM wakeup, they gathered outside on the porch along with Wipeout and are told what Grom initiation is: doing what the seniors tell them to do, no matter what, until 6 p.m. While at first they are reluctant, they are told that their reward, if they make it through the day, will be access to the Office. Lo does not take it seriously though, as she still thinks her situation is temporary, while Reef tries to find it all on his own. When Reef and Wipeout try to find it by following the seniors, they get busted and are hung up in a tree via wedgies. In the Pirate Ship, Kelly, Emma's supervisor, deliberately spills clam chowder on Emma and tells her once she's finished cleaning it off, she has to serve the Ridgemounts. Meanwhile, Fin has to clean a room that was seriously trashed. Broseph is let off easy when he makes a deal with Johnny, 30% off for Johnny at Broseph's mother's surf shop and her seafood jambalaya, if Broseph doesn't have to do the gross things, just as long as the others don't find out.
While Emma is serving breakfast to the Ridgemount family, she asks Lo if she was going to punch in for work. However, Lo still thinks her punishment is a joke, but when her dad sees her he tells her to punch in soon. Lo says she will but when her dad leaves for a conference call, she says right after breakfast. Emma tells Lo that Ty is cute, but Kelly overhears this and in front of everyone, tells Emma to propose to him. Taking pity on her, Ty tells Emma that she doesn't have to, but she reminds him that she can't refuse. She proposes on one knee, for which Ty elbows George hard for laughing, then offering his hand to help her up, good-naturedly tells her to maybe ask again in ten years. Noticing the hand she held, he asks if she smells fish. Emma runs off horrified and humiliated, while Lo glares at Kelly for enjoying the whole scene. Around the corner, Emma states that that was the most embarrassing moment of her life. In the meantime, Reef's supervisors Ripper and Lance are having Reef clean the seniors' surfboards and say he loves seniors out loud but when he does a real senior shows up and gives Reef a look and moves her eyebrows in a flirting way.
When Ripper comes to see what Johnny has been planning for Broseph, Johnny tells him that Broseph will not want to continue living afterwards. Ripper has the idea of having Broseph wear the old Wipeout suit, which after 'Wipeout' threw up inside, has never been washed. When Ripper leaves Broseph tells Johnny that he refuses, but Johnny says he might have to. Brospeh says he "might" also have to tell Emma that Johnny has a crush on her; Johnny responds that he'll tell Ripper that he can't find it. Lo is golfing at the golf course when her dad finds her and yells at her to get to work. Reef shows up at Room 441, where Fin is still cleaning, with an atomic wedgie and tells her he was forced to give his supervisors foot massages. He's had enough and comes up with an idea on how to find the Office: he asks to borrow Fin's key to the Ridgemounts' penthouse. Fin refuses, and Reef explains that Ty must have some sort of record or a map to it but as he is saying this, Ripper and Lance appear behind him and hear everything; Reef realizes this and is then hauled away. Lo's bratty younger brother, George, spots Lo from the lobby in the gift shop trying on clothes, and saying that sometimes she makes it too easy, he points her out to their dad. Mr. Ridgemount has finally reached his breaking point, and George points out that their father's eye is twitching. On the beach, Reef is being tortured by his supervisors, forced by Lance toward having to kiss Ripper's butt. But then he reveals he had thrown the two seniors' surfboards into the ocean, giving him time to find the Office while they retrieve their boards.
Mr. Ridgemount finally brings Lo to the dining room personally and tells Kelly in a calm, but firm voice, that Lo will be working for her immediately, much to Kelly's pleasure. Mr. Ridgemount gives Kelly his card with his private number, and warns Lo that if he gets one call from Kelly, Lo won't be going on her trip to Europe. Lo gets her new uniform and is photographed by George, which sets her own eye twitching in rage. She is forced to go through Grom initiation, otherwise, Kelly will call Lo's dad. Ripper and Lance try to go after their boards, but the water tricycle they are riding on falls apart. The girls meet up at the staff house and Lo is aggravated after the first day, but Emma assures her they can make it. Broseph comes along and asks about the smell: Emma and Lo had their hair covered with expired mayonnaise and Fin had to clean seaweed out of a bathtub. They ask him about his day and he claims that Johnny has been hard on him, but he isn't even dirty to prove it. Kelly, Johnny and Ty come to the front porch and serve them two earthworms and two grasshoppers each. However, since Johnny told Broseph ahead of time, he has a doctor's note, raising suspicion from the other seniors. Fin finds the challenge of two worms easy, as her brothers had already done this to her when she was five. Emma and Lo discover they have a heaping plateful each (no doubt personally prepared by Kelly) AND Broseph's four insects. Ty clearly disapproves of the amount but can't say anything, and they are forced to eat it.
Reef, still looking for the Office, is found by Lance and Ripper, who chase him to the hotel, capture him, shove a snorkel mask and fins on him and throw him in the lobbyquarium to be chased after by Buster the shark. Meanwhile, the rest of the groms have to surf while covered in petroleum jelly, which involves a lot of pain, slipping and sliding off the boards. To avoid being eventually eaten by the shark, Reef finally caves in and agrees to do whatever challenges they have. The rest of the challenges include carrying three watermelons each uphill, a spray paint fight (done by the girls), being buried in sand while surrounded by crabs (at which Lo is seen visibly wailing and crying in fear of the crabs), the guys rolled through the lobby in strollers, swim trunks and baby bonnets, and even running through the lobby with nothing but the bonnets on.
Finally with 17 minutes left, the other seniors and Ty proclaim them to be hardcore and decide they've passed, but Kelly demands one last, sickest test for the groms. In a dumpster, there is a keychain with a surfboard on it, and if they don't find it in fifteen minutes they all fail. While most of them finally decide to concede, Emma encourages them to go in for the Office, even Lo, who the shocked Kelly is expecting to let the others down. Lo tells the other groms that if they find the keychain, it will be worth the added satisfaction of ticking Kelly off. To Kelly's stunned surprise, Lo is the one to triumph for the groms and find the keychain, and they are able to surf the Office. After a long day of surfing, they sit around the fire to talk about their day. Everyone has figured out by now that Johnny let Broseph off easy; the groms wonder where he is and are told that the seniors are punishing him by having him wear the old Wipeout suit during his shift.
Tropes:
- Right Behind Me: Happens to Reef when he is trying to persuade Fin to let him into Ty's room.
