Lines in the Sand

A diver bursts from the water in a panic: his girlfriend has gotten caught in a gill net. Jason and Sean immediately dive down and try to cut the girl free, but the net is very strong. The two lifeguards swim to the surface to get another breath of air. The girl’s air hose gets stuck in the thin netting and is cut. Sean grabs a couple of bottles of spare air. Jason works frantically to cut her free, slashing up his own hands on the thin net. Finally, she is out and safe. The two swim towards their jetskis.

Sean and Jason are at Matsumoto’s waiting in line to buy a shave ice. Sean warns Jason to lose the cowboy hat-at least while on duty. As they wait in line, Sean explains the unique Hawaiian treat to Jason, who remains bemused that so much fuss is being made over a “snow cone.” While Jason goes off for a moment, Sean buys two cones. As he tastes it, he is so overcome with the flavor that he inadvertently spills his cone on JENNA AVID, a pretty woman wearing a halter top. He tries to mitigate the stain, but winds up being “all hands.” Jenna seems to enjoy his fumbling and flirts a bit with him. Sean is obviously attracted to her, and she does nothing to dispel this, telling him she likes to bathe in guava juice and coconut milk. Later, Sean and Jason are surprised to see her pull up to Haleiwa, put on some business clothes over her beach wear, and enter the headquarters. They guess that she is the alleged new head of all the North Shore life-guards. They are correct.

What they do not expect is the ultimatum she delivers: it is well and good that the team is doing a lot of training, but they are using her facilities, and she would like their help when they are short handed. While Jenna talks, Jason relives the “snow cone in-cident” to Dawn. She’s suitably impressed. Allie finds it amusing, too. The team and Sean are not too happy with this news, and plans to call Mitch after the day is over to make sure this doesn’t happen again. For today, though, they reluctantly, agree to help with the beaches. As they head out, Sean complains to Dawn that he feels like a rookie again. Dawn immediately senses his attraction to Jenna, but also knows that Jenna is a real “ball buster.” She also senses this back up work is no one time thing.

JD and Jessie are sent to patrol a beach that is beautiful-but empty. This is a good op-portunity for them to spend some time alone. But the first thing JD does is take out all of his stacked up paperwork! She is a little frustrated that he is not helping her with her dreams of the Xterra games and has seemed to push their original plans of a honeymoon in Maui aside. He reminds her that this was her decision. The two then start bickering about the fact that they are bickering, with JD insisting he never bickers because his whole family used to.

On the second beach, Dawn and Jason are faced with more of a crowd and a big problem: as Dawn looks into her binoculars, she sees a group of people enter the water and start taking off their clothes! She immediately calls Sean for backup.

Sean and Kekoa hurry back. By the time he arrives, Sean sees that LEESA STEINBACK has arrived. She is a lawyer for the naked people in the water and she shows Sean a permit saying that they have permission for a peaceful protest. If he attempts to stop them, he will be infringing on their First Amendment rights. They are here to protest a nuclear power facility accident that has sent a radio active cloud over Hawaii. The protestors intend to remain naked until the US government does something about the dangers of nuclear power. To Sean’s dismay, he sees a news helicopter hovering overhead and a TV satellite truck, armed with annoying, career-climbing reporter KATIE MADDEN, pull up. Katie immediately starts asking questions. To make matters worse, Jason thinks their cause is pretty justified. Sean calls Jenna, who is amused at his predicament. Sensing that there is no winning this battle with her, he is about to call the police department when Dawn tells him they have already arrived. They claim they can’t go into the water. That’s Sean’s territory. The fire department is not much help either, but they come along to see the show, too. Allie notices that many of the people in the water probably shouldn’t be there, for health reasons. It is all becoming a big circus.

Sean is talking to Leesa, trying to make her understand how people might be in danger. She doesn’t care-it’s all good fodder for the CNN news helicopter flying overhead.

JD, in an attempt to make up for whatever he said that got Jessie upset, shows her his newest invention. It is a handless spare air container, worn on the head like one of those hands-free beverage dispensers he saw on ESPN. Jessie sees the contrap-tion and bursts into laughter.

Sean now knows why Jenna was so hot to hand out beach assignments: she knew trouble was brewing and didn’t want it to happen on her watch. He calls her on her dastardly scheme. She remains coy.

Leesa starts repositioning her protestors so they are not only more telegenic, but more in danger-to raise awareness. Sean looks at the cops, at Jenna, at his fellow teammates, and then at Katie. He sees that enough is enough, but knows he and the team can’t technically do anything to stop the protest. He comes up with an idea: he walks into the water and warns a man to get out of the water: he is looking peaked. He then gives one of the women some extra sun screen. He is doing his job: risk management. Leesa, sensing a turnaround is at hand, begins leading the group in a chorus of “We Shall Overcome.”

Sean denounces everyone involved in the protest, from the weak willed police and fire departments to the local media to the protestors themselves. He points out that their use of “We Shall Overcome” borders on the sacrilegious. He points out they are making a mockery of everything they said they believe-they are now polluting the beach as much as any nuclear cloud. Do they want Hawaii to become the new haven of radi-cals? Dawn and Jenna join in the chorus, mentioning how both Leesa and Katie are in this for themselves. Jenna is pretty impressed. Sean sees that she’s impressed. A few of the protesters begin moving towards the beach. Leesa, seeing her plans going awry, starts moving towards them. She stumbles and sputters, her carefully coifed hair and make up ruined. Jason helps her stand up, knowing she has been rendered ineffective. The protest is over. Allie and Dawn help hand out towels.

Jenna tells Sean that he did a better job than even she could have. She also invites him to dinner. Sean is shocked by this.

Sean and Jenna are standing at the shrimp shack, waiting for their food. This was not Sean’s idea of an intimate dinner. Nevertheless, they flirt outrageously, but she lets him know she never does much on a first date.




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