Brooke stumbles drunkenly down the stairs and almost topples onto Peyton, who is looking through old high school yearbooks. Brooke slurs, "Don't let me have another beer unless I beg you, same goes for boys." Heh. "What are you doing?" Peyton says morosely, "Just wondering if we're all going to end up like Karen." Who's Karen? "Lucas's mom." Brooke jokes, "Not with proper birth control we won't." Double heh. Peyton moans, "That's not what I meant. She was our age when that tape was made, Brooke. In a lot of ways, we're just like her." Brooke tries hard to pay attention. Her eyes wander. Her head bobs. But she just can't take Peyton's whiny, feel-sorry-for-me introspection; hell, it's a party, for goodness sake. "Do you think it's awful how she just let Nathan's dad treat her like crap?" Brooke mumbles, "Yeah." But then she wakes right up: "But honey, that doesn't mean we're like her, maybe that means you're like her." And with that piece of drunken wisdom, Brooke's gone in pursuit of her next good time. Oh, drunken party girls are also sage -- who knew?

Nathan drops Haley off at home. She wisecracks, "Yeah, this is my house, we're staying here while we renovate the big mansion." Nathan laughs, "It's not like I was trying to show off." She snaps, "Isn't that your default setting?" He laughs awkwardly again, and Haley apologizes. They sit in the car for a minute. He asks, "Can I be honest with you?" She inhales, "I don't know, you tell me." Here, take note, Nathan seems almost human: "What I said at the beach, that was a lie. I'm really lucky to have basketball. It's pretty much my shot at everything from now on. If I lose it, it's over for me." But you know what, Nathan, there will come a point in your life where it won't be everything and it won't be all over for you -- you just have to keep that in mind so you don't turn out like your father. Haley says, "So, don't lose it." With his grades, he's close to being ineligible to do the one thing he's actually good at. Nathan: "It's not just my life, it's my dad's too. It's like he's still got something to prove to Whitey." Blah if he screws it up, blah it'll destroy Dan, blah it'll destroy Nathan blah. And he applies more pressure, taking no notice of Haley's wounds: "I know it's just going to complicate things with Lucas, but I really need your help." She promises to find him someone else. Nathan wants her because she's the best, and she won't tear him down. "It's not exactly easy having everybody know you're failing. It's you or nobody else." Haley looks like she might cry. Then she gives in -- she'll get him through the semester and then he's got to be on his own. Before she leaves the car, she tells him one more time to lay off Lucas. But wait, she's forgotten her hat! Don't worry, kiddies, it's not actually a continuity mistake; it's a point of the plot development. And it's juicy!