The Gamble (19 Aug. 2003)

Ryan has a difficult stay in a Juvenile Hall prison for the arson charge. Seth makes Kirsten aware of his anger over Ryan's situation, and Kirsten makes a compromise to bail Ryan out of ... See full summary »

Director:

Ian Toynton

Writers:

Josh Schwartz (creator), Jane Espenson

Stars:

Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Ben McKenzie

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Gallagher	...	Sandy Cohen
Kelly Rowan	...	Kirsten Cohen
Ben McKenzie	...	Ryan Atwood (as Benjamin McKenzie)
Mischa Barton	...	Marissa Cooper
Adam Brody	...	Seth Cohen
Chris Carmack	...	Luke Ward
Tate Donovan	...	Jimmy Cooper
Melinda Clarke	...	Julie Cooper
Rachel Bilson	...	Summer Roberts
Daphne Ashbrook	...	Dawn Atwood
Kimberly Oja	...	Taryn Baker (as Kim Oja)
Francis Capra	...	Z
Adam Grimes	...	Nordlund
Josh Kloss	...	Chip Saunders
Devin Mills	...	Karen

Storyline

Ryan has a difficult stay in a Juvenile Hall prison for the arson charge. Seth makes Kirsten aware of his anger over Ryan's situation, and Kirsten makes a compromise to bail Ryan out of jail to stay with them, temporary. Later, Ryan's mother, Dawn, makes a surprise visit to Newport, and things don't go quite as she and Ryan may have planned due to her constant drinking. Meanwhile, the monetary secret involving Julie, Jimmy, Kirsten and Sandy comes to a head when Sandy finds out of Jimmy's financial problems about the money investments he lost and unwisely 'borrowed' without permission from his clients bank accounts to cover it up and lost that money too, and of Kristen's lending their money to help Jimmy which brings out more jealousy in Sandy for he's aware of Kristen and Jimmy's romantic past.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 August 2003 (USA)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min

Did You Know?

Trivia

It is revealed that Julie is from Riverside, CA.

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Goofs

When Seth enters Marissa's room and Summer's top is off, you can clearly see a couple of tattoo's on Summer's right shoulder; one of which is a butterfly. Throughout the rest of the series, Summer's right shoulder is exposed many times, however these tattoo's are never seen again on her body.

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Quotes

Seth: What are you doing?
Kirsten: Taking a Newpsie break.

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

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Soundtracks

"Sing Sing Sing (With A Swing)"
Performed by James Horner

User Reviews

It's a gamble on ratings...

Daphne Ashbrook returns as Dawn Atwood when Sandy tracks her down. He begs her to come to the house and confront Ryan about her abandonment. Ryan isn't having it. As Ryan and Dawn try to work things out, Kirsten realizes that she's gotta warm up to Ryan because she might be the only mom he has.

Kirsten has some major development over the episode than any other character, I think. Peter Gallagher really shows his skills as an actor and the conflict between Luke and Ryan is fun to watch. It's great to see Ryan try to change. It's great to see Marissa hide how she feels about Ryan.

It's a decent episode, I'm just not a big fan of Dawn Atwood. I could be bias toward the character for the mere fact that she's an unloving mother and I can never forgive her for what she did to Ryan.