Guest Starring

Plot

It's raining. A huge thunderstorm system that lasts for more than 24 hours is lashing Newport Beach and lightning becomes commonplace in this episode. Seth doesn't want to lose Summer and tries to find a romantic gesture to win her back before she travels to Tuscany with Zach. He buys his old boat, the "Summer Breeze" (named after Summer), back. The "Summer Breeze" is now called "Gimmie Sex", yet Seth still thinks it works as an objective correlative. But when he calls Summer to give one last chance, she refuses to do so. Seth wants to watch TV, but something is broken and he wants to repair it. He climbs up the roof, wearing his Spider-Man mask and tied to a chimney, when he slips and hangs upside down from the roof. At the airport, waiting for the flight to Tuscany, Summer finally decides she wants to stay with Seth when she see's a young boy (who looks like a younger version of Seth) playing with a toy horse and comics, Zach seems to understand. She drives to the Cohens' house, sees Seth hanging there and kisses him passionately.

Lindsay doesn't talk to Ryan after the postponed adoption. She thinks about moving to Chicago with her mom. The paternity test is positive after all, but she still decides to go to Chicago.

Marissa tells Julie about her new girlfriend Alex. She moves in with Alex, but is having problems with this independent life she's not used to.

Sandy wants to bring Rebecca back to Newport, but the road is closed and they have to stay in a motel. Sandy really wants to go home to Kirsten, telling her that he would walk home if he had to. On the drive home a careless moment causes a crash, Rebecca flees from the police, while Sandy takes the bus home. Once Sandy is off of the bus he immediately seeks Kirsten. She askes "Is it over?" To which Sandy replies "I promise you, it never started."

Marissa walks Alex to work, and when Alex goes in, Marissa sees Ryan standing in the rain alone. Marissa walks up to him and asks, "Are you O.K.?" to which a hearbroken Ryan replies, "Yeah". Marissa sympathizes for Ryan and puts her arm around him.

Trivia

• This is the last appearance of Kim Delaney as Rebecca Bloom, Shannon Lucio as Lindsay Gardner, and Kathleen York as Renee Wheeler on The O.C.
• The episode title comes from the Bob Dylan song, "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" on the 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde.
• The scene were Summer kisses Seth in the rain is an homage to Spider-Man.
• When the episode originally aired in the United States, the actual weather in Orange County was uncharacteristically wet.
• In this episode, Seth Cohen is seen wearing a shirt Britt Hartzel Vakil previously wore.
• The scene where Seth asks for his job back and Alex calls him a flakey employee was a tongue-in-cheek reference by the writers at how Seth and Ryan have jobs, yet never seem to go to them. The commentary of the episode further poked at this, when one of the writers questioned, "Does Ryan work at the Crab Shack anymore?"
• Josh Schwartz said on the commentary of this episode that his dream ending for this episode would be for the camera to pan out while Seth and Summer are kissing in the rain and to see the boat under water in the pool. However, they did not have enough money to film this scene, so it never happened.
• In this episode when Seth mentions 'THE REAL VALLEY' and says it is a knockoff it is poking fun at Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County
• The opening conversation between Seth and Ryan includes references to the movie The Day After Tomorrow during Seth's comment on the weather.

Music

• "No Rain" by Blind Melon
• "In Every Sunflower" by Bell X1
• "God Killed The Queen" by Louis XIV
• "Faking The Books" by Lali Puna
• "Save It For A Rainy Day" by Jayhawks
• "End Of The Road" by Boyz II Men
• "Champagne Supernova" by Matt Pond PA