Chesapeake Shores Season 5, Episode 7, "What's New" recap
(Warning: Major spoilers in the following article)
It was a busy week for the O’Brien family. Evan ended up living on their couch for a few days. Jess and Dave worked out some newlywed issues, and — oh yeah — Sarah is pregnant!
The episode started with Jess and Dave waking up. Jess is relieved because, for the first time in a long time, she didn’t have nightmares. Unfortunately, Dave didn’t sleep too well. Jess kicked him in her sleep and hogged the covers. Jess is mortified.
“Abby said I did what when we were kids and I didn’t believe her,” Jess says. “It’s true, I’m a bed hog.”
Abby, Nell, and Meg are having breakfast. Mick has left for a business trip to Kansas. Abby says they need the Wichita project to go through since Evan backed out of their deal to build a hotel.
Evan’s back
Evan stops by to drop off a wedding gift for Jess and Dave. He apologizes to Abby for pulling out of their deal. He reaches for a picture of Mick and manages to throw out his back. He tells Abby to call his driver, Mandrake.
At the fire department, Sarah gets pulled into a meeting. She is offered a job as a lieutenant.
Back at the O’Briens, Mandrake is helping Evan get comfortable on the couch. Evan tells him to get a private ambulance but Nell says no.
“You’re going to stay on this sofa until you can stand up alone,” she says.
“I guess I could stay a little while,” Evan says.
Abby asks Mandrake how long Evan’s back spasms usually last. He says it depends.
Sarah and Kevin are getting ready for bed when she tells him about her job offer. He is happy for her, but she can’t decide what to do.
Kevin tells her it’s the first step towards her becoming chief, which is something she always wanted. She agrees but says she will miss going on calls. Then again, she points out, if they start having kids, she won’t be able to do that anyway.
“Are you saying you might not want to have kids?” Kevin asks her.
“I don’t know what I’m saying,” Sarah replies.
Dinnertime
The O’Briens are having dinner. The girls ask Abby if they can get a dog. From the couch, Evan asks for more chicken.
Abby brings him some and he shows her pictures of the ship that has been excavated on the hotel site.
“I guess this is pretty awkward,” Evan says. “I stopped by to pull out of a deal and I get stuck here.”
He explains that he was in an accident once that has left him with a bad back.
Office space
The next day, Bree, Luke, and Kevin are helping Connor renovate his new office space.
Kevin starts knocking out a wall. Bree asks if he wants to talk about what is bothering him. He says no, and then maybe.
Connor and Luke are ripping up floorboards. Connor asks when Luke plans on telling Bree that he spent time in prison. Luke says he plans on bringing it up that weekend.
Luke tells Connor about his parole officer, who has been hard on him. He asks if Connor could get him assigned to a different officer. Connor says he will look into it.
At the O’Briens, Carrie is painting while Nell and Arthur talk. Nells asks why he doesn’t paint anymore.
“I’ve painted it all,” Arthur says. “I’m sick of it.”
Inside, Caitlin tells Abby she is worried that she doesn’t seem to have a special talent.
Abby says she will find her gift. Caitlin asks what Evan’s gift is. Abby says it is that he never stops thinking.
Ripping off a band-aid
Back at Connor’s office, Kevin tells Bree about his conversation with Sarah.
He is worried she wants to put off having a baby.
They then talk about the two guys who are interested in Bree. Kevin tells her to pick one. She says she has, but she doesn’t know how to break the news to Jerome that she isn’t interested.
“Pull it off like a bandaid,” he says. “It’s the only way.”
Evan is talking on the phone. Caitlin approaches him and asks if he really is thinking all the time.
They start talking about gifts and talents. He asks her if she ever considered designing video games. He shows her some software that could help her do that.
Bree sees Jerome at work. She explains that she doesn’t feel for him what he feels for her. He says he understands.
Jess and Abby are talking. Jess asks what the deal is with Jay. Abby says she doesn’t know. Jess says she heard that Evan spent the night.
“Evan did not spend the night,” Abby corrects her. “He’s laid up with a bad back.”
Abby asks Jess about married life. Jess says she is a bed hog. Abby laughs. She points out that when Jess kicked in her sleep as a kid, it was because she was stressed out.
At the O’Brien house, Evan gives Abby the papers to dissolve the deal. Caitlin is busy designing a video game. Evan tells her it is really good. Caitlin asks how she will show it to him when he’s finished. He gives her his private email address.
“No one believed in him”
Abby is speaking with Mandrake. She finds out this isn’t his name, it’s just something Evan calls him for fun. Abby comments on Evan being too lazy to read his own paperwork. Mandrake says that though Evan doesn’t read much, he is not lazy. He has dyslexia, which went undiagnosed when he was a child. As a result, people called him lazy and unmotivated and he wasn’t able to go to college.
“No one believed in him so Evan had to believe in himself,” Mandrake says.
Jay comes by the house to drop off some papers for Abby. Caitlin asks him what his gift is. He says teaching and playing guitar. Caitlin asks if he will give her lessons and he says yes.
When he leaves, Caitlin asks, “Mom, do you like Jay?”
“Of course I like Jay,” Abby says.
“But do you like him like him?” Caitlin asks.
Before she can answer, Nell comes in and asks for Abby’s opinion on a scarf.
Nell’s date
Nell and Arthur are sitting in the park talking about how Chesapeake Shores used to be. Arthur mentions that Nell’s husband built the fountain they are looking at. Nell says yes, that he built it twice.
“The first time he didn’t like it so he tore it all down and started over,” she said.
While she talks, Arthur sketches her.
Jess and Dave are talking. She tells him what Abby said, about how she kicked in her sleep when she was little when she was stressed about something. She can’t figure out what she has to be stressed about.
Dave reminds her that she is running a business, that she just got married, that she’s not sure if she wants kids, and she just found out that the furnace needs to be replaced.
“Jess,” he says. “Let’s just be anxious together. That’s what marriage is.”
Jay and Caitlin are playing guitar and singing a song together on the porch. They go inside to get something to drink. Abby offers them brownies. Caitlin asks for lemonade.
“Could I have some lemonade?” Evan calls out from the living room. “I love lemonade.”
Abby introduces Evan to Jay while Caitlin brings Evan a drink.
Back outside, Jay says that Evan is an interesting guy.
“He is a pain,” Abby says.
But then she defends him, saying that he’s never had a real family.
“Am I actually feeling sorry for a world-famous tycoon?” he asks.
Sarah’s accident
At the firehouse, Sarah is helping to hang a banner when she gets dizzy and falls from the ladder.
At the O’Brien house, Meg is on the phone. When she hangs up, she tells Abby that she was speaking with a woman who runs a gallery in New York and claims that Driscoll made a deal with her in the ‘80s that gives her exclusive rights to sell his artwork. The woman is coming down that weekend to look at Arthur’s paintings.
Abby goes through to the living room. Evan is standing up and preparing to leave.
“I can’t thank you enough for your enforced hospitality,” he says.
He then asks her for the agreement to dissolve their deal. She hands it over and he tears it up.
He says he has a new idea. He bought the lot next to the hotel site and plans to build his resort there. The excavation site will become a museum. He says he got the idea from watching the O’Brien family.
“You guys have so much going on,” he says.
He also tells Abby that Jay is in love with her.
Meg gets a call from Kevin about Sarah. They all go to the hospital.
A doctor comes into Sarah’s hospital room and explains that Sarah is pregnant. She and Kevin hug.