This week’s episode starts just as things are heating up between Alexis and Jake in Palm Springs. They’ve been working on his script, taking lots of selfies, amongst other things. When Jake returns home, Paige is still working on that Econ paper and Cassie has made dinner plans for Paige’s birthday. The girls joke with Jake about all of the promiscuous tweets that were posted during his four days away. Jake isn’t in the mood for jokes or to hear anything remotely negative about Alexis, so he begins to insult a romantic relationship between Paige and Rainer that doesn’t even exist. He does promise to come to Paige’s birthday dinner though.
Jordan drops by Tangey’s trailer to inform her that her new song is the reason why he’s a newly converted country music fan. After dropping the bombshell that she fired her mom, we learn her new song is in fact about her relationship with Jordan because she wrote the song while leaving their night in Chicago. Apparently Jordan’s relationship with Nina escaped his mind because he invites Tangey over to the beach house. Jordan assures her it’s all been cleared with Rainer, and Tangey doesn’t let that slide. She wonders where he say in all of this is because it seems like Rainer and Jordan are deciding who she gets to be with. Jordan sincerely apologizes and I actually believe him. Hot PA Adam tells Jordan that he’s needed somewhere, not knowing that Jordan would run into the other woman in his life when he steps out of Tangey’s trailer. His excuse for not being able to meet up with Nina later is that he has to meet his trainer to prep for his many shirtless scenes he has to film the following week. Later that night, Tangey does meet Jordan at the beach house, and things escalate quickly. An intimate moment I’m sure they thought was private wasn’t private at all since there was someone hiding in the bushes taking photos of it all.
Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss was a special guest star this week. He also had the patience of a saint when trying to teach Rainer and Paige how to dance. It’s safe to say that those two have zero idea what they’re doing. They have three days to learn the dance and things aren’t looking too great, which does not make Wyatt a happy camper. Rainer suggests meeting at his place to practice the following night, the same night Paige has her birthday dinner.
When Paige does wake up on her birthday, Cassie is already doing everything she can to ensure that her best friend has the best 21st birthday ever by making smiley-faced pancakes. Jake is also showing more interest in their dinner at Los Amigos. Paige even finished her paper the night before. Things are looking up! Well, until Jake gets sassy when he learns that Paige actually has to bail on her dinner for rehearsals at Rainer’s place. Jake doesn’t have any right to be jealous. Let’s not forget that he was just living it up in Palm Springs with Alexis.
Speaking of Alexis, she gets a call a little later on in the day that Newcastle Studios is interested in Jake’s script. Even though Jake is sort of being the worst to his friend, he is on the way to selling his script. Alexis meets up with her best friend Tangey for lattes and to dish about the script and how she wants to attach herself as a producer. Tangey questions Alexis’s motive for sleeping with Jake, and Alexis confesses that it started as a way to get under Paige’s skin but has grown into more than that. Tangey is over the moon for her friend and offers to pay for the lattes except her card is declined. When she checks her accounts on her phone, Tangey learns that her accounts are frozen.
Nina gets an urgent mail delivery and a panicked visit from Jordan all at once. Jordan just found out his mother is in jail because she sent him a letter. Nina does a really great job at calming Jordan down without ever mentioning that she is actually the reason his mother is in prison by telling him, “Trust me. Whatever happened to land your mom in jail was her own damn fault, not yours.” No, it was your fault, Nina. Nina goes on to reveal a secret I did not see coming: “Now no one will know that your parents aren’t really dead.” WHAT?! Apparently Nina helped to build the Jordan we know and love. Oh, that urgent mail I mentioned contained the pictures that were taken of Tangey and Jordan. It was all Nina. After the two actors had finished filming a scene, Nina overhears Tangey asking Rainer about Jordan. Rainer tells her that he is genuinely happy for her and that he knows Jordan sees their newly-rekindled relationship as more than a random hookup.
In one of my favorite scenes in this episode Cassie calls Jake out on all of his unnecessary rudeness. She demands that he ends the fight he started and to be there for Paige’s 21st like she was for his. She warns him that he could lose Paige if he doesn’t put aside his jealousy. Jake then tries to force Cassie off the phone to go to his meeting with Mike Tanen from Newcastle Studios and Cassie goes off. She says, “Oh, so it’s okay if you work? But if she has to…” CLICK. Jake hangs up the phone on her…
The meeting is going great until Jake mentions that he wants to direct the film. That sets Mike back a bit, but Jake recovers by making a compelling speech about how much this project means to him and how he won’t let anything stop it from being made, including his own wish to direct it. Mike sees something in Jake and says the studio wants his script. Alexis is beyond thrilled and wants to celebrate with Jake, but he kindly turns her down because he knows he should be at Paige’s birthday dinner. Maybe Cassie’s call did leave a lasting effect.
Ida drops by the studio to tell her side of the story to her daughter about the frozen accounts. She says she’s just looking out for Tangey but Tangey doesn’t buy that. Tangey doesn’t care about whatever her mother has to say. Ida counters with, “Well maybe that’s something you should’ve thought of before you charged off on your own.” No manager, no money. Talk about tough love. Tangey threatens to sue her mother and that doesn’t even phase Ida. Ida gives her daughter the option of getting into a huge lawsuit that will end Tangey’s career or to just go back to the way things were.
Jordan and Tangey are on their way somewhere later that night when she asks him for advice about that whole situation. He thinks Tangey should fight back because having nothing may be better than staying with her mom. He talks about how he built himself from nothing and how she can do the same. Their driver pulls up to a place with a nice crowd waiting outside and Jordan freezes. It’s clear that he was hoping for something a little more secretive. Tangey stands her ground about not wanting to hide in the shadows by sternly telling Jordan, “I’m done hiding and sneaking around, Jordan. I am not going down that road again.” Jordan decides that now is a good time to break things off with Nina and pursue an actual relationship with Tangey. Nina is absolutely crushed but pushes him to do what makes him happy by saying, “All I ever wanted was what was best for you.”
Speaking of doing what’s best for you, before kicking her out of the studio, Tangey tells her mother that she’s going through with the lawsuit because Jordan set her up with a lawyer. Having no money of her own at the moment, Jordan puts Tangey up in a hotel and gifts her a credit card. It’s sweet that he’s doing what he can to help her. It’s a step in the right direction.
Paige is off doing everything she can to turn her paper in past the due date. She swings by CMU (California Metro University) and pleas her case to her professor. Paige talks about her rocky adjustment to rising stardom and how she’ll never fall behind again. Unsurprisingly, her professor could care less and is unwilling to grant Paige any special privileges. Paige returns to the apartment, clearly feeling a little defeated after rehearsals and her professor turning her down, so Cassie tries to pick up the pieces…again. Cassie tells Paige that she will tag along to Rainer’s and afterwards they can go out. Cassie is determined to salvage her BFF’s birthday.
Paige isn’t in the best mood when Rainer welcomes her and Cassie into the beach house. She’s grumbling about all of the things that haven’t really gone her way until she’s not anymore. Suddenly she’s met with at least a few hundred people yelling “SURPRISE!” That’s right, Rainer threw her a surprise birthday party with the help of a “great accomplice” in Cassie. So when Jake does come home to head out for the dinner, he finds an empty apartment. He gets a call from Cassie telling him to go to the house of the guy he hates. She tells him that she’s changed her mind about Rainer because of everything he’s done for Paige. Her call with Jake is cut short because hot PA Adam steals her away.
Paige learns that Wyatt and tWitch were in on it. In fact, the dance scene does shoot in 3 weeks AND Rainer already knows the steps. Plus, it’s revealed that the mystery woman Paige saw Rainer with earlier in the episode was his party planner Maddie. Paige hopes that since everything has been fake then so was Jake’s anger towards her. NOPE. Cassie advises her friend to brush all of that off and dance the night away. Rainer brings out a massive cake and randomly dips her, which was totally to dodge a kiss. And who arrives just in time to see this flirtatious moment? Of course it’s Jake. Jake leaves the party without saying a word to anyone and ends up celebrating with Alexis at her place.
As the episode winds down, Nina and Ida join forces. Nina tells Ida that Jordan’s mom is still alive and in prison. Nina says that she’s telling Ida all of this to help Ida protect Tangey and so she can protect Rainer but it is clear there is more to it than that.
A lot goes down the following morning. To start things off, Nina gets a call from her mother. She asks if Nina has told Rainer an important piece of information Nina had promised to tell him when he turned 18. Her mother reminds Nina that she is only pushing off the inevitable and Rainer is turning 23 next month. Nina’s mother says, “You’ll regret keeping this from him. He deserves to know who his father is.” Turns out Jordan isn’t the only one whose parent is alive and well. So what’s stopping Nina from telling her son the man he thought died when he was a baby is actually still alive? “His father just became the head of the studio,” Nina reveals. Yes, that means that Alan Mills is Rainer’s father.
Back at the apartment, all of my wishes were granted as hot PA Adam saunters out of Cassie’s room talking about how much fun they had. As for Paige, she stayed over at Rainer’s where there is nothing in the refrigerator. She took the bed, he took the “lumpy, uncomfortable” couch. He says that he wasn’t expecting anything from her. He then says that he wants to change when he’s with her. I will admit that this line did make me groan and roll my eyes, but I guess it was kind of sweet.
Just when you think you’ve made it through all of the twist and turns for this week, the final two minutes deliver yet another one. Ida visits Jordan’s mother in prison and says, “I think you have a story to tell, and I’m the one who’s going to help you tell it.” I’m sure that will end well.