The Deal

As Hannah prepares to attend her latest showcase rehearsal, Allie stops her and asks if she and Garrett are dating. Hannah denies this, admitting that they are just fooling around. Allie is thrilled, but Hannah internally grapples with guilt over her upcoming date with Justin, feeling a nagging urge to cancel but brushing the impulse aside. Later, at her rehearsal, Hannah notices the arrival of a freshman cellist named Kim Jae Woo. She realizes that MJ has given in to Cass’s unreasonable artistic demands yet again. Feeling disheartened about the song and the showcase, she participates without enthusiasm.

After rehearsal, Garrett is waiting in the hall with coffee for Hannah. When Cass exits, Garrett pointedly calls him the wrong name and warns him not to take advantage of Hannah during the duet. As Cass and MJ leave, tension sparks between Garrett and Hannah. Despite her claim that they are just friends, they cannot deny their mutual attraction. Their shared look confirms their unspoken decision to head back to Garrett’s place together.

Once in Garrett’s bedroom, Hannah and Garrett begin kissing passionately. Although Hannah is eager to move quickly, Garrett slows her down, focusing entirely on her pleasure. When she reaches her climax, Hannah is overwhelmed with joy and relief, realizing that she is not broken after all. She begins to cry, moved by the breakthrough. Hannah then reciprocates, pleasuring Garrett. Afterward, she suggests that they take things further and have sex, but Garrett holds firm on his decision to move slowly. Before leaving for practice, Garrett invites Hannah to stay at his place until he returns. She agrees and decides to surprise him and his roommates by cooking dinner. She calls her mother to get her Nana’s lasagna recipe.

Garrett and his roommates return home from practice and are surprised to find that Hannah has made dinner for them. The gesture deeply touches Garrett. During dinner, Tucker asks Hannah if she is dressing up for Halloween, and she explains that she is stuck passing out drinks for the campus dorm crawl. Logan playfully promises to stop by, and his flirtation bothers Garrett. The teammates also mention Garrett’s aversion to Halloween, which puzzles Hannah.

Meanwhile, Garrett reflects on his growing feelings for Hannah. He thought that he didn’t want a relationship, given his focus on hockey, but the idea of not having Hannah in his life unsettles him. 

The next day, as Hannah prepares for the dorm crawl, her thoughts keep drifting to Garrett. She senses that his dislike for Halloween might stem from a deeper issue. Acting on her intuition, Hannah cancels her plans to help with the dorm crawl so that she can spend the evening with Garrett instead.

Garrett greets Hannah with a kiss on the cheek when she arrives, and she doesn’t even tease him about acting like her boyfriend. Hannah describes a disappointing phone call with her mother, in which her parents revealed that they might not even be able to afford to leave Ransom for Christmas. Hannah admits that her family is broke and explains that her attendance at Briar is only possible because of her full scholarship and financial aid. Garrett reassures her that he doesn’t care about her family’s financial situation, insisting that while his father is wealthy, he himself is not.

Hannah confesses that her parents’ debt is largely due to her legal battle against Aaron, the person who raped her. She explains that her parents had to take out a second mortgage to cover her legal fees after Aaron’s family countersued. Garrett is horrified to learn the details. She explains that after the rape, her parents immediately reported the crime, and Hannah underwent a rape kit at the hospital. Aaron was arrested, but because his mother was the mayor and his father the parish leader, he was later released on bail. Despite the evidence against him, his parents used their political clout to ensure that the charges were dismissed. Aaron’s friends then lied under oath, falsely testifying that Hannah willingly took drugs and pursued Aaron. The judge ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed, and the case was dismissed. In the aftermath, the entire town turned against Hannah, forcing her to be homeschooled. Aaron’s family even filed a defamation lawsuit against hers, demanding reimbursement for legal fees. Her parents hired an inexpensive lawyer, but Aaron’s family employed a costly one and left her parents buried in debt. Hannah then shares that her one visit back to Ransom after leaving for college resulted in her father getting arrested for defending her against insults from the fathers of Aaron’s friends at a hardware store.

Garrett is appalled at the injustices that Hannah and her family have endured. In return, he shares that he despises Halloween because this was the night that his father first hit him—one year after his mother had died. The abuse continued for years until Garrett was finally strong enough to fight back. Hannah suggests that they create new, positive Halloween memories to replace Garrett’s bad ones. She initiates intimacy between them, and they have sex for the first time. Afterward, Garrett invites Hannah to watch his game against Harvard the following day.

Hannah attends Garrett’s game at Harvard with her friends. While there, Hanna suddenly remembers her upcoming date with Justin on Sunday night and wonders what to do. She hasn’t thought of Justin all week but doesn’t know if she should abandon her crush to pursue her new connection with Garrett. Because Garrett hasn’t mentioned dating and has said before that he is not looking for a relationship, she decides to keep the date with Justin.

Garrett’s team wins the game, and afterward, he meets Hannah outside the arena and kisses her in front of her friends. Their moment is interrupted when Garrett’s father appears, demanding that Garrett speak with him privately. Phil insists that Garrett come home for Thanksgiving, but Garrett refuses until his father threatens to physically drag him home. Phil mentions that his girlfriend is cooking dinner and has requested his presence. He also threatens to stop financially supporting Garrett if he doesn’t come home. Garrett has no real choice but to comply. He is financially dependent on his father’s support and cannot fully separate from him until he can access the secret trust fund that his mother’s parents left for him. He will be able to access it on his 21st birthday (January 1), but until then, he needs his father’s money to pay for next semester, which will be billed in December.

On the bus ride home, Logan tells Garrett that while he and Dean were at quarterback Beau Maxwell’s house for Halloween, they overheard Justin bragging about a date with Hannah this weekend. Garrett is taken aback and hurt. He had been starting to believe that his connection with Hannah was real, and this unwelcome news shakes his confidence, leaving him questioning where he truly stands with her.

Garrett arrives at Hannah’s dorm and asks if she is going out with Justin this weekend. Hannah admits that Justin asked her out but that she hasn’t decided yet. Garrett is hurt, though it stings less when he learns that Justin asked her out before she and Garrett became intimate. He insists that she cancel, but Hannah bristles, reminding him that they aren’t officially dating. Garrett admits that his feelings have changed and that he might want her to be his girlfriend. He suggests making things official, but Hannah remains silent, unsure of her own feelings. Garrett storms away, assuming that their relationship is over.

Garrett stalks out to his Jeep, but Hannah follows him, arguing that he caught her off guard and didn’t give her time to process her feelings. She apologizes for not mentioning the date with Justin and tells him that she just called to cancel it. She wants to explore an exclusive relationship with Garrett instead, which he is overjoyed to hear.

Hannah and Garrett enjoy two exhilarating weeks of dating. However, matters take a negative turn when Hannah receives bad news about her showcase. MJ and Cass suddenly decide to drop her from the performance entirely, with Cass now performing the piece as a solo. With only four weeks until the showcase, Hannah feels hopeless.

In order to ensure that Hannah can still participate in the showcase given the new development, her advisor has decided that she doesn’t need to team up with a composition major. The faculty head gives her permission to sing one of her own compositions. Hannah accepts this solution but requests Kim Jae Woo—the freshman cellist—for her act.

Hannah dedicates all her free time to perfecting her original song for the showcase. One night, while she is practicing, Garrett texts her about his team’s loss to Michigan. Instead of texting back, Hannah calls him. He asks to hear what she has been working on, and she plays the same song that she sang weeks ago, now more refined. Afterward, Garrett asks if she will accompany him to his father’s for Thanksgiving, seeking her emotional support, and Hannah agrees.

Hannah and Garrett visit Phil’s brownstone in Boston for Thanksgiving, where they meet Phil’s girlfriend, Cindy. They are told to wait in the living room with Garrett’s father, but the situation becomes so awkward and tense that Hannah takes the first opportunity to escape into the kitchen with Cindy.

While making small talk, Hannah senses Cindy’s resentment toward Phil. Cindy loves to cook, but he never gives her a chance to do so because he prefers to eat out. They met at a charity event that she was organizing over a year ago and soon started dating. She used to be an event planner, but she sold the company a few months ago because Phil said that he missed her too much while she was at work. Cindy also mentions that she moved in with Phil just two weeks after they met. This raises red flags for Hannah, hinting at Phil’s controlling behavior. As Cindy reaches for a pan, her sleeve lifts, revealing bruises on her arms, and Hannah feels uneasy.