Unsatisfied after being sidelined by injury during Operation: Jen Is Juiced, Navid continues in his singular mission to take down Kris Jr. He asks AAdrianna to flip on her favorite former pusher, but she doesn't want to compromise her probation. Navid continues to find himself at dead ends until AAdrianna realizes that corruptible-to-the-max Annie is dating Kris Jr. This is enough to convince her that he's a bad person who needs some learnin'. She makes an unexpected appearance at a group intervention to confirm that Annie's virginity-plucker is, in fact, a drug dealer. Navid later tells her that she doesn't need to sacrifice herself for his vendetta and vows to take down Kris Jr. another way. But it may be more difficult than imagined. This kid is positively slippery! To wit, Annie confronts Kris Jr. with the knowledge that he's dealing only to discover that he has the mother of all blow-your-brains knowledge: He has known all along that Annie ran over his vagabond uncle, but he simply overlooked it. Watch out for that one, kid. He's battier than any of us could have guessed.

All of this occurs during the Winter Wonderland dance, which is of such secondary importance that I haven't even felt the need to mention it until now. The only time it actually figures in is when Teddy, who has been making a major, public play for Silver -- even going so far as to disavow his playboy status -- turns a contrived impromptu falling of snow at the dance as a sign to plant another smooch on Silver. She freaks out and runs, only to have Naomi tell her to give blondie a chance. She seriously considers it until she sees Teddy hugging a red-dressed little thing… who turns out to be his sister. The catch is that only Dixon knows this for the time being, and he conveniently keeps it quiet so he can act on his recently reinvigorated feelings for Silver (thanks in no small part to Teddy, I'm guessing). Silver leaves this hanging for now.

And then there's Naomi. She and Liam spend the episode obviously pining for each other, despite her moral objections and his efforts to sublimate his feelings onto poor, second-best Ivy. Eventually the Little Surfer Girl gets it and tells Liam to stop being a jackass and tell Naomi how he feels. Knowing that he won't do this himself, she texts Naomi to set up the meeting. Liam explains every pertinent detail of his seduction by Jen. He acknowledges that he has serious characters flaws (an overly private and secretive nature), but resolves to be a better man for Naomi. Also, he shows her his big boat. Not Freudian at all.

And, in a rather slipshod tertiary storyline, Dixon makes up with Debbie only to tell her that he wants to meet up with his birth mom. And that's it until the new year, kids. Everyone is poised to make up, break up, get down, get exposed, or get out their fists (or their ta tas, in Naomi's case). And Matthews just gets wasted. For which I'm personally pretty psyched. Until 2010!