Born a few days after 9/11, Rue Bennett grew up with several mental disorders and started to take drugs to cope with her panic attacks and the stress of the world she lives in. She eventually had an overdose and was taken to rehab during the summer break.
Freshly out of rehab, Rue goes to buy drugs from her drug dealer, Fezco, and his preteen acolyte Ashtray. Fezco mentions to Rue the arrival of new girl she will like. While leaving, she sees Nate Jacobs and Christopher McKay, both members of the high school football team. With McKay leaving for college, he is throwing an end of summer party at his house.
While in the car, both discuss the future party with but McKay worries about the presence of Nate’s ex Maddy. Later, Nate sees a girl biking on the road and catcalls her for his amusement eventually causing her to lose balance and crash.
The girl who crashed turns out to be Jules, the new girl in town. While attending summer school she befriended Kat, who invites her to McKay’s party. Jules decides instead to meet up with an older man. After an unpleasant hook up with him, she decides to leave him to join the party.
Meanwhile, Kat is getting prepared for the party with her friends, including Maddy, Nate’s ex, who tease her for still being a virgin.
Wanting to go the party, Rue has first to prove to her mother that she is clean. She leaves through the backdoor to go at her childhood friend’s house, Lexi, to get her urine for the drug test. At the house she meets with Lexi’s mother and her sister, Cassie, who has recently started to date McKay.
At McKay’s house, boys are drinking before for the party and Nate starts to talk about Cassie and shows the others nude pictures and footage of her having sex. McKay is visibly annoyed and humiliated by this. Later during the party he and Cassie have sex.
While walking to the party, Rue meets the group of girls, who are surprised to see her, thinking she died from the overdose, and drive her to the party.
At the party, Kat is alone with a group of boys, who question her about her sex life, while she tries to hide the fact that she is a virgin. They pressure her to remove her top and she eventually has sex with one of the boys.
Rue meets Fezco, and they have a conversation on the death of her father, and on how she started to become addicted through pills.
During the party, Nate and Maddy try to make each other jealous by hooking up with others, and Maddy starts to have sex in the pool with another boy in front of everyone. Furious, Nate stumbles upon newcomer Jules and starts intimidating her. Jules ends up retaliating by cutting herself and threatening Nate with a knife causing him to freak out and apologize. Impressed by the act, Rue greets Jules and joins her home to tend her wound.
While Nate is coming home, a picture in his staircase reveals that Jules’ hookup is none other than Nate’s father.
Tropes
- Adults Are Useless: A frequent trope for this show, but this one has Jules' father letting her go out at night, without having any knowledge of where she is going, all the while being new to the town. It is even more true considering the fact that she is planning to meet with a much older man in sordid motel.
- Blatant Lies:
- Jules when she says to Cal she is 22.
- Kat when she tells other boys she is a "fucking savage".
- When Rue convinces her mother that she is clean.
- Childhood Friends: Rue and Lexi were this, but have since grown apart.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Nate can't stand seeing Maddy hooking up with someone else and lashes out.
- Dumb Blonde: Cassie suffers from this stereotype.
- Girl Posse: Although a friendlier version, Maddy, Cassie, BB and Kat seem to be this, with both Maddy and Cassie dating/having dated popular football players. During this episode however, Cassie doesn't interact with other members of the group.
- Jerk Jock: Nate is very quickly established to be one. Averted with McKay who seems to be a lot kinder but gives in to peer pressure.
- Madonna-Whore Complex: When the boys ask Kat if she's a "prude or a slut".
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: McKay tries to defend Cassie in front of the other boys.
- Off the Wagon: Rue is this right after leaving rehab.
- One Degree of Separation: Expected since it's a high school setting but we see how interconnected the characters are. Rue is friends with Lexi, whose sister Cassie is dating Mckay, who is friends with Nate, who was dating Maddy, who is friends with Kat, who befriended Jules during summer school, who slept with Nate's father Cal.
- Questionable Consent: While Kat seems to be willing to lose her virginity with one of the boys, she definitely appears to be uncomfortable when he asks her to remove her top in front of McKay's brothers. They also play on her insecurities.
- The Reveal: Jules' hookup is Nate's father, Cal Jacobs.
- Slut-Shaming: Cassie is particularly a target of this due to many pictures and videos of her circulating online.
- Virgin-Shaming: To a certain extent, Kat. While it's not malignant, her friends make fun of her for giving advice about sex and relationships while being a virgin herself. Jules plays it straight.Jules: "Bitch, this isn't the 80's you need to catch a d***k!"
- With Friends Like These...: Despite being nominally friends, McKay doesn't seem to like Nate. He disapproves of his catcalling and appears to be infuriated when Nate starts to share pictures of Cassie. Meanwhile Nate seems perfectly fine with humiliating him in front of his friends and brothers.
