The next morning at the res, Ethan approaches Ben. He starts to talk to him, but gets spooked and makes his way for the door. Ben begins obscurely reminiscing about how Ethan never liked the water as a boy. He would take him, and Ethan wouldn't get near it. Then one day his mother took him and voila. Ben admits things have never been right between them and apologizes. He has come to terms with that it wasn't Ethan who chased away Mrs. Whitehorse, but Ben himself.

As Ethan lets that relationship-shifting admission shift in, Laurel rocks out on her violin as Rebeccannie and Kristin admire her from the control booth. Kristin says off-hand, "She is so talented. I don't know where she gets it." Rebeccannie recalls how good Ted was on his yellow Fender guitar and says innocently (or, as is usually the case with Rebeccannie, probably not innocently at all), "Remember that?" Kristin gets a pained look on her face as she's once again reminded how much less history she has with her own husband than Rebeccannie. She excuses herself, saying she knows it's uncool for a mom to be hanging around. Rebeccannie tells her she's lucky Laurel even let her get within a block of the studio. Kristin admits she is very lucky indeed. But you know who's not getting lucky tonight? Ted.

Rebeccannie offers to escort Kristin to her car as the kids wrap up the recording session with Nigel Lythgoe's Yankee doppelganger. Baz compliments Laurel's song but notes that it seems to be a really messed-up relationship. He assumes it must have been about the guy before Justin. Laurel admits that, nope, it's about Justin. Baz: "Oh. Uhhhhh... awkward!" He gets back to the nuts and bolts, suggesting she go up instead of down during the final chorus. Funnily, it's about stepping stones because Laurel keeps stepping closer and closer to Baz as they make sweet, sweet foreplaymusic. Alas, the world's most contrived kiss doesn't happen yet because Justin suddenly appears. Laurel goes to freak-out level five outwardly because her mom just left the studio 90 seconds ago (seriously, there's no way they didn't pass each other in the hall) and inwardly because she is guilty. Justin adopts his signature dumb puppy dog look and tells her, "Got the Chinese!" Baz makes a swift exit as Laurel tries to be feign excitement at spending time with Justin.