Malibu Rising

Movie star Tuesday Hendricks arrives to the party and spots her costar Rafael Lopez. Tuesday met her fiancé Bridger at last year’s Riva party, but they have recently split. She wants to show her face in public as a gesture of defiance. However, when Bridger walks in, instead of confronting him, Tuesday runs away with Rafael. They both share the drugs they brought with them.

There are now over 70 people in the house. Jay is still waiting for Lara. Hud sees Ashley arrive at the party and is surprised that she decided to come. He wants to tell her about his conversation with Jay but isn’t ready.

Nina notices a young girl in the living room. Then, Nina’s agent appears, whispering in her ear that it’s a good move to get back with Brandon. Brandon makes a toast to Nina and tells everyone to have fun.

Ricky Esposito has noticed Kit walk by several times. He has long thought that Kit was attractive, but he is nervous about going to talk to her.

Nina moves through the party and away from Brandon. When Prince’s “1999” comes on, she goes outside to dance. A friend from the restaurant tells Nina that it’s nice to see her having fun. Then, Nina sees Hud talking to Ashley and immediately deduces that they’re sleeping together. She knows Jay won’t respond positively and worries that the night won’t end well.

Lara arrives. Jay comes up to her and they kiss.

Kit notices Ricky looking at her. Vanessa is heartbroken when she notices Hud kissing another woman. Kit asks Vanessa if she should go talk to Ricky, and, distracted, Vanessa says yes. Kit decides to kiss Ricky.

Seth talks to Hud and Ashley, who leave to get beers. Alone, Seth thinks about his romantic hopes. His soulmate, development executive Eliza Nakamura, arrives at the party. However, as Seth is in the back yard and Eliza stays in the front.

Hud and Ashley go down to the beach. Hud admits that he lied to Jay but promises to talk to him again tonight. Ashley tells him that she’s pregnant.

Film writer Bobby Housman arrives at the party and notices that it’s crazier than it has been in years past. He eats all the shrimp from the tray the waitress Caroline is holding, pulls out a brick of cocaine, and yells that he has brought enough cocaine for everyone. The party escalates as the cocaine is passed around. Kit talks to Ricky, thinking it will be easy to kiss him.

Brandon thanks Nina for taking him back. Nina’s model friend Tarine Montefiore, a model, arrives with her music producer boyfriend, Greg Robinson, who takes over from the DJ. Tarine and Nina go down to the wine cellar, where Tarine demands Nina explain why Brandon is there. Nina shrugs and says, “It’s just easier this way” (230). Tarine worries about getting older—her days as a model are numbered. She tells Nina to stop being such a people-pleaser: “I suspect you have not lived a single day for yourself” (232).

Ricky does a magic trick just as Kit spots Vanessa kissing Seth. Ricky shows Kit how to do the trick and then kisses her. Kit doesn’t enjoy it. It’s clear to her that “she did not want to kiss any guy at all” (235), but wanting to ignore this feeling, she kisses him harder.

Nina moves upstairs, still reeling from her conversation with Tarine. However, the young girl she spotted earlier knocks on Nina’s bedroom door, introducing herself as Casey Greens. Casey’s lips look exactly like Nina’s—and Mick’s. Casey admits that she thinks Mick is her dad. Casey is from Rancho Cucamonga, where her adoptive parents recently passed away in a car crash. Her birth mom died in childbirth. A note on the back of Casey’s birth certificate implied Mick Riva is her father. Nina tells Casey that she hopes for her sake Mick isn’t her father. As Nina points Jay and Kit to Casey, she thinks about what would’ve happened if Hud’s biological mother had not dropped him off and is glad that she was able to know and love him. She then gives condolences for Casey loss.

Mick fixes his tie in his bedroom. His record label recently rejected the three songs he put together for a new album, suggesting he find a new, 1980s sound. Angie, his ex-manager, would have convinced them to release the tracks he’d recorded—but Angie no longer manages his career. She was also his sixth wife, and she left after discovering his infidelity. Lonely, he thinks it would be nice to see his children. After receiving a handwritten invitation in the mail—Kit has sent one every year for the past five years—Mick decides to go to the party.

Jay talks to a retired surfer while thinking of his heart condition, which will cut his career short. Lara reappears and asks to go somewhere quiet, so they go to Hud’s truck. Lara tells him that he’s calmer than she expected, and Jay confesses he is trying to impress her. He tells her that he might be in love her, and they start to have sex. Looking for a condom, Jay opens Hud’s glove box and finds the photos of Ashley Hud developed earlier.

Hud and Ashley are still on the beach. Ashley asks what Hud first thought when she told him about the baby, and he says, “I thought, How is it possible to love something that fast?” (258). She agrees. They decide to go talk to Jay.

Brandon stands in the bathroom regretting cheating on Nina with fellow tennis player Carrie Soto. Their relationship had started after he lost in the second round of the Australian Open. After missing the match point, he couldn’t manage a smile when he shook his opponent’s hand. Nina didn’t make him feel better, but Carrie seemed to see inside him. When he started to win again, they began sleeping together and Carrie told him she was in love with him and that he needed to break up with Nina. However, after his shoulder injury, Carrie offered him no sympathy and he decided to leave.

Tarine finds Nina to warn her that Carrie Soto has arrived and is threatening to set the house on fire. Downstairs, Nina and Tarine watch Brandon trying to talk his ex-lover down. Carrie sees Nina and apologizes. Nina is jealous of Carrie—Carrie can scream at Brandon, while Nina feels like she always has to accept what is thrown at her. Nina has had enough. She tells Carrie and Brandon to leave. At first, Brandon begs her to let him stay; then he insists that this is his house. Nina tells him to take it. Letting go of the house, she feels lighter.

Casey is in Nina’s bedroom, thinking about her old life and still feeling the sorrow of losing her parents. She worries that she’ll never belong anywhere again.

In the car, Jay halfheartedly finishes having sex with Lara. He again tells her he loves her. However, Lara doesn’t feel the same way. He lashes out, yelling, “I knew you weren’t the kind of girl you marry” (278). She leaves.

Mick arrives in Malibu thinking about how to apologize to his kids.

As Kit makes out with Ricky, Kit realizes that once she admits to not liking kissing Ricky, she will also have to admit she doesn’t like kissing men at all. She hopes that some sort of attraction will appear, but it doesn’t, so she stops Ricky, saying that they should just be friends—“But, like, real friends […] Like I sincerely meant that. If I was going to like a guy…I think it would be you” (283). When Ricky doesn’t get the hint, Kit comes out as a lesbian, to which he responds, “That makes sense. Girls are hot” (284). They laugh, and Kit thanks him. She hopes to meet a girl like him, who is kind and has nothing to prove. She kisses Ricky on the cheek, “the first time Kit had kissed someone with all of her heart” (284).

Brandon sits alone in Nina’s room drinking and decides that he has to get at least one of the women back so that he can live his ideal life with a family and more tennis titles. Jay storms through the house looking for Hud, eventually spotting him coming up from the beach with Ashley. Mick arrives at the house and walks into the party. His children don’t see him.

Hud explains to Jay about being with Ashley. When Jay demands that he stop sleeping with her, Hud refuses, and they start to fight.

Nina walks out of the pantry and recognizes Mick immediately. She hides, wondering what he is doing at the party. Then, she lets her siblings know that he is there, starting with Casey.