JD arrives at the beach to answer a distress call but finds that the victim has already been saved — and no lifeguard is there, although he can see the tracks in the sand showing clearly that someone else made the save. Later he relates the story of the rescue and the phantom lifeguard to Cody and Bridget. Mitch arrives at headquarters, ready to call a general meeting, but before he can, Alex confronts him because she wants to come out from behind her desk and get a tower assignment. After all, she is a qualified lifeguard and paramedic.
At role call, a surprised Mitch looks on as Alex announces that she has hired a new maintenance person, Jessica ‘Jessie’ Owens. He demands to know where she found the money in the budget for a new hire, and Alex simply rebuffs his question. Jessie wants to be a stuntwoman, but makes money in the meantime by running her own cleaning company. Everyone is excited about the fact that they will no longer have to clean up after themselves or do laundry.
To add more stress to Mitch’s day, Ed Symes is back. He offers to give Mitch some free medical supplies if Mitch will let him ride in the call car. Seeing a way to get even with Alex, Mitch agrees and Alex, not knowing what’s she’s in for, happily joins Mitch and Ed in the call car. Naturally, Ed can’t take his eyes off Alex. They get a call that there is a surfer down by tower eight, so Mitch lets Ed put on the lights and they peel out. Mitch and Alex rush to the downed surfer, who has broken his arm. Ed wants to try one of his company’s new slings on the victim, but Mitch suggests he try the splint on Alex. Naturally, Ed doesn’t know what he’s doing, and Alex winds up looking like a mummy. x
Back at headquarters, Jessie’s cleaning and laundry efforts have disastrous results as Cody falls on the newly-washed floors, and bathing suits and jackets shrink to infant size in the laundry. But when Jessie practices her stunt work it’s obvious she’s very good. After finishing a workout, she spots a mother screaming that her daughter, Beth, has fallen into the water. Jessie rescues the girl and brings her to shore amidst crashing waves. Her hysterical mother asks what happened, but by the time Beth explains that Jessie saved her, she has disappeared.
Hearing of the rescue, Mitch and crew are once again puzzled by the mysterious phantom lifeguard. Fresh from the rescue, Jessie returns to headquarters to clean the showers, sees JD there humming to himself and is immediately smitten. JD asks about her reel, and she says it is with a major Hollywood stunt coordinator, who she is to meet with soon. When she finds out that the meeting is in half an hour, JD gallantly offers to help her finish the towels. In her rush, Jessie accidentally bumps the laundry detergent bottle and it falls into the machine. After she runs out, the machine beings rocking and tons of soap bubbles start bubbling out of the machine, onto the floor, and out into the hallway.
At her tower, Sheryl sees a man collapse and thinks it is a heart attack, but when Mitch and Alex arrive, the man assures them it is just cramps from a too-vigorous workout. Ed, wanting to be the hero, rushes over to them with the defibrillator. Mitch tries to stop him before he shocks the man, and gets shocked himself. He falls to the ground, unconscious. Mitch and Alex eventually get even with Ed by asking him to demonstrate a sling/stretcher victim immobilizer. Once he is completely strapped in and helpless, the two of them leave, satisfied with their revenge.
When they get back to headquarters, everyone is in an uproar since soap bubbles are everywhere. Alex is forced to fire Jessie. However, as Jessie shakes her hand, Alex notices Jessie has cuts similar to those on Beth and suddenly realizes that Jessie must be the phantom rescuer. But Jessie is depressed and heads home. On the way, she sees two frat brothers bury a pledge up to his neck in the sand. Suddenly, the pledge starts sinking into a sinkhole. Jessie yells to a passing biker to call 911.
As the pledge sinks beneath the surface, she ingeniously gets him to use the plastic tube from her bike chain to keep him breathing until help arrives. The lifeguards arrive and finally manage to winch the grateful young man out of the hole.
Jessie is invited to join rookie school as Ed shows up again, waddling in his stretcher across the sand. Like a phantom, he has come back to haunt them some more.
