7th Heaven
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Bye
Season 5, Episode 7
Bye
Air date November 13, 2000
Written by Brenda Hampton & Sue Tenney
Directed by Paul Snider
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"Bye" is the seventh episode of the 5th season and the 95th episode overall of 7th Heaven. This episode features the departure of Jessica Biel's character, Mary Camden, and only being in additional 9 episodes of season 5 out of the 15 left remaining.

Synopsis[]

Mary's credit card bill seems to have magically been paid off and now Eric and Annie want to find out how. Desperate to protect their sister, the Camden kids do everything they can to keep the secret but it is a disaster waiting to be revealed and once it is, Eric and Annie decide that there's only one thing left to do. They make their final decision to send Mary away to live with her grandparents in Buffalo for her own good.

Plot[]

In his office at the church, Eric is talking to himself about how to deal with troubled teenagers and as a parent how to deal with them, going back and forth and playing both the parent of the troubled teen and the one giving advice, as a way to gain clarity of his thoughts, clearly a metaphor for how to deal with Mary downward spiral to rock-bottom. Annie is looking at all of the places that she used to store money to figure out where Mary got the money to pay her bills when He expresses his frustration about not being able to find an answer to where Mary got her money to pay off her bills and tells Annie he has a feeling that whatever source of funds they uncover will give them insight into who Mary really is. Feeling overwhelmed, Annie decides it's better just to have someone around for company so she invites over the Hamilton family to talk to and explains to Eric that Mary left at lunchtime and hasn't come back home since. Eric asks Annie where she thinks she goes since she can't be looking for a job all the time and right at that moment, Mary is at the theater going to see another movie yet again. Lucy arrives home and offers help to Annie and explains that she was at the library working on her paper for school. Annie asks where the source of the money is again but Lucy tells Annie that she doesn't know where she got the money from. Annie asks about Mary's job at the bookstore and what happened to that but Lucy says she doesn't really know what occurred and all she knows is something fell through. Eric is upstairs with the twins and Simon and tells Simon that he is worried about where she got the money from and suspects it could be Simon himself but Simon says that he doesn't know where she the money but he didn't give her any. Eric jokingly asks the twins if they loaned Mary any money and Simon signals Ruthie to do something when she so happens to be right there to overhear Eric, but she runs away, and Eric asks if Ruthie could have had any hand with giving Mary any money. Simon says he'll have to ask Ruthie herself but Eric raises his voice and apologizes saying he's just a little worried about Mary.

Annie is in the kitchen and calls Matt to figure out who gave Mary the money. Annie asks Matt if he loaned her any money but Matt says he got a bills of his own to pay. Annie asks Eric, who just came down from upstairs, if Simon could've loaned her any money but Eric says no and Annie abruptly and rudely just hangs on Matt. They both try to figure out who gave her the money, and Eric suggests Annie's dad to which Annie calls her father to see if she got the money from him but he says no and jokingly fakes forgetting who she is to get a few laughs. He asks if Eric, Annie, and the kids are alright and Annie explains Mary's situation but her dad says that Ginger controls all the money and finances so she shouldn't worry about bailing Mary out. Annie's dad starts to tell her to let him know if there is anything else he could do, but he gets cut off when Annie once again abruptly and impolitely hangs up on him. Annie realizes how impolitely she just ended the call and calls back again the apologizes for hanging up on him. He jokingly fakes forgetting who she is again and Annie hangs up properly this time. Eric tells Annie that he already called his parents but they didn't give her any money either. They think of John as a possible lender but when they call to talk to him, Matt explains that he is not there, so Annie asks him to ask John if he could've loaned her the money. Matt vouches for him and that he wouldn't ever do that. Eric suggests Heather but Annie tells her she already talked to her in class and she hasn't even talked to Mary in recent times. Ruthie comes downstairs and tells them that she "confesses" and lent Mary $20. Eric and Annie know that 20 dollars aren't enough to pay her bills and she would've gone to Ruthie last, meaning she did hit the other kids up for money. Ruthie meets Lucy and Simon in the hallway and Lucy starts freaking out and tells them this isn't going to hold them up for long. Simon tries to reassure her that they aren't going to find out. Eric suspects they might have stolen something from Hank and Julie's house, so Annie calls them to ask. Julie says they didn't give her any money and Annie hangs up only to call them back when she notices how rude it was to just hang up on them so suddenly. She asks if anything of value was missing, but Julie says no and the only valuable thing they have is their daughter. Annie suggests Robbie and that he has a job but Eric tells her that he paid him a visit a while ago and he's back with his old girlfriend, so Eric suggests that all of the kids are lying and Ruthie's confession was a smokescreen. Ruthie and Simon are listening in and run upstairs to tell Lucy that they have 24 hours to replace the money because Annie always places the money on the same day every month. Eric tells Annie that they are protective and don't want to see Mary in any trouble, but the truth is she is in trouble and they have to do something about it. Eric and Annie welcome Patricia and Morgan Hamilton into their home, and the two parents exchange stories about their respective children. When asked about Mary and Nigel, both families were hesitant and evasive in answering how they are doing. Lucy, who is in her room, calls Matt and informs him that the Hamiltons are visiting and that something big was going on since it was just Morgan and Patricia, and no one knew where Mary is. Lucy also mentions that when Mary did come home, she says she was looking for a job, but Matt is worried that she still hadn't found one and they couldn't yell at Mary since they couldn't even find her. At that moment, Mary is actually been spending her time at the movie theater, watching the same movie multiple times just to kill time instead of looking for a job. In the kitchen, Annie is talking to Patricia about Mary and how it helps to talk about their problems. Meanwhile, in the living room, Eric and Morgan discuss Mary and what they should do before things got worse. Eric is worried about where Mary was getting the money. He tells Morgan how Mary used to be a star basketball player, but now she was falling apart. Annie then went into the twins' room and found Ruthie weighing down the twin's piggy banks with rice. Annie calls for Eric and the Hamilton family excuses themselves and leaves the room. In the twins' room, Lucy and Simon walk in and Ruthie admits to taking money, and when Annie is scolding her, Matt enters and Eric becomes suspicious. Matt confessed that Mary had asked them all for money and they had all decided to take the twins' money out of sympathy. Eric asked the kids to go downstairs and he and Annie discussed that they are going to talk to the kids and confront Mary when she got home. Annie asked what next of their plan was and Eric told her he has an idea.

Everyone is waiting in the living room for Mary to arrive, and when she finally does get home, she is defensive about why everyone was there and doesn't want to take part in one of their interventions. Eric tells Mary that if she goes to her room, they are all going to follow her because she really needs this talk. Reluctantly, Mary sits down and Eric begins telling her that life is a school and he has not been providing her with the help she needs and begins describing everything that he found out about the past couple of weeks. He then proceeds to tell her about all the failed jobs, Frankie & Johnny, and the drunk driving incident, emphasizing that no one has done her any favors by looking the other way and avoiding the truth and looking the other way because they didn't want to see the truth. Annie joins in stating that she does not want Mary to go to jail, as she is still on probation, and that if Mary is hanging out with the wrong people, she needs help before things get worse. Annie adds that she had been hoping Mary would ask for help, but maybe that is too difficult for her right now. Matt then talks to Mary about how he hasn't been around and he feels bad about it but really cares about her. He goes on to say that it is easier to be bad than good and she needs to decide to become a responsible person. Also, what she does affects everyone else, and everyone is there for her. Lucy tells Mary that she used to look up to her, she used to be better at school than she is and better than anything else she did, but she doesn't want to be like her anymore. She then goes on to say that deep down she knows that the real Mary doesn't want to be like the bad Mary anymore, she doesn't want to lie to Annie and Eric and take money from the twins. Mary keeps on rolling her eyes and doesn't want to listen anymore but she remains quiet. Lucy continues her speech by telling Mary that she wants Mary to be a winner and not to be nothing since her basketball career has ended, and she needs to fight for something. Simon brings up the financial side of his point of view and offers her advice to not spend more than what she makes. Simon also tells her to keep her promises to her family and pay back her family first before her other lenders. He offers to help her with her financial side like creating a budget or a payment schedule but she needs to pay off her personal debt, the money she owes to Sam and David. He goes on to explain that maybe a professional will want her to pay off her bills but as a brother, the right thing to pay off is people and to keep her promises to her family. Ruthie then speaks, stating that she is angry at everything and that she is tired of covering for Mary. Ruthie adds that Mary is selfish and does not care about anyone else and that she behaves as if she is the center of the universe, and she is tired of her late coming home, tired of covering her, tired of lying to Annie and Eric, and tired of her empty promises. Ruthie then angrily rushes upstairs. Eric then asks the kids to go upstairs and he and Annie decide to talk to Mary alone. Mary tries to tell them that she will do better, but Eric cuts her off and states that the conversation they just had was for general audience and they are now moving on to the adult stuff. Annie shows Mary a joint that they found in her room, and Mary denies actually smoking any marijuana. Eric then tries to get Mary to explain why it was in her room, but she gets defensive and yells at them for searching her room. Annie explains that privacy is a privilege, not a right, and they did not know how far in trouble she had gotten. Eric adds that Julie and Hank told them about Mary babysitting and drinking. Mary asks what the harm is in experimenting with things, but Eric explains that some people do get addicted and that Mary should not take the risk to see if she is one of those people. Annie then tells Mary that she will be going to live with Eric's parents in Buffalo, as they have six other kids to deal with, and they have offered to find her a job and help her get her life together. Mary continues to complain about it, but Eric explains that they are leaving at 9:00 that night for the airport so she can fly to Buffalo to be with her grandparents. Mary then asks about her car, and Eric explains that it is in his name and they will keep making the payments until they decide what to do with it. Mary then asks about what happens if she does not want to do this, and Eric tells her to come up with a better plan before they leave for the airport. Mary says nothing.

In their room, Lucy walks in and Mary angrily yells that she is not happy about the situation. Lucy tries to explain that Eric and Annie are more concerned with her safety than her happiness and that they didn't know about her leaving. Mary then tells Lucy that she doesn't want to talk to any of them and threatens to throw something at her. Annie asks Eric if this is the right thing to do, and he reassures her that they have tried everything and it is the best for Mary. Annie then tells Eric that she may have to remind him that it is the right decision. All of the kids are sitting in the kitchen and they are sad that Mary never said goodbye to them. Ruthie questions if anyone wants any cake to bring up the mood. At the airport, Mary realizes that she didn't know how much trouble she was in and is thankful for them bringing her to that realization. The boarding of the flight is called and they hug Mary and tell her that they love her and they cry as she walks onto the plane. Annie has to reassure Eric that it is the right thing to do, as he is also crying.

Notes[]

  • This episode marks the first time one of the main cast has been written off of the show. The reason for that is because Jessica Biel (Mary Camden), wanting to change her image, posed for seminude photographs for Gear magazine which the producers of the show were not happy about. They had to write a storyline in season 5 to write Biel out of the series and that would explain her absence. Even though she left, Biel still appeared in 16 episodes during season 5 and all 22 episodes in season 6. This was supposedly done by Jessica's own request so she could focus on college, as Entertainment Weekly reported back when the show was airing.
  • When this episode originally aired on November 13, 2000, 7th Heaven achieved a Nielsen Rating of 6.8 (or 10.4 million viewers) - its highest rating in two and a half years. This was enough to lead the WB.

Trivia[]

  • This is the last episode to feature only the original cast in the opening credits.
  • After this episode, Mary (Jessica Biel) was a recurring character and appeared in nine of the remaining fifteen episodes of the season. She was only featured in the opening credits of the episodes in which she appeared: every episode in the sixth season, five in the seventh season, and one in the eighth season. She would not return until the tenth season finale.
  • This episode has the longest scene in the history of the show. The scene where the family confronts Mary lasts 15 minutes and 29 seconds, going from one commercial break to the next.

Goofs & Errors[]

  • Ruthie yells at Mary that she never came home to have pizza with her like she promised, obviously referring to a previous episode called Losers. However, this isn't entirely true; Mary did make it home with the pizza and was more than willing to be with Ruthie but Ruthie was mad because she got home an hour late.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Stars[]

Opening Credits[]

Featured in the opening credits are:


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