The guys get to see the cover of Teen People Magazine featuring themselves. To their surprise, Doug is replaced by a tree. Mr. Lawless and Ms. Porter, the new senior vice president for What-ev Records, wants him out of the band because he doesn't fit. The other guys threaten to leave, however, if Doug is kicked out. Knowing that money would be lost if 2gether broke up, Ms. Porter says Doug can stay.
Doug, however, seems to be generating real fans. He receives more fan mail than any of the other guys. They apparently tried to make fake letters and send them to him, but they were never sent by any of them. In the park, two screaming fans approach Doug, and ignore Mickey and Jerry. Then Lawless and Porter take him out to a restaurant where they present the idea of Doug going solo, reminding him of a letter from a kid that would kill himself if he didn't go solo. Doug is really excited about his new album cover, "Doug!", also. He leaves to tell the other guys. Porter, however, was the one who made the fake fan mail and screaming fans just to get him out of the band.
Back at the house, the guys are angry that Doug is selling out. Chad is more worried about living without Doug. He is unsure that he can be independent. Lawless gives Doug a new office (that is extremely cramped) and has time to think of words for a new song. He sits at a park with his keyboard for inspiration.
Meanwhile, Lawless presents a new addition to 2gether, Austin Adam Alan Palmer, who is really a computer-generated dancing machine. The guys are not happy about the new member, who can't keep up with his fast dance moves.
Doug gets his first gig singing at a Japanese restaurant. He, however, doesn't get a good response from the crowd. Frustrated, he goes to 2gether's house and talks to Jerry to see if everything is going okay. Jerry tries to pretend to Doug that the new member is working out great, and Doug tries to pretend that his career is going ... well, great. Before he leaves, he drops a tape of the new song he wrote at the house.
The other guys begin fighting more, and they realize that it is because Doug isn't there. The guys know that they can get him back by getting themselves in trouble at the live webcast, so they sabotage Austin by messing up the CD. At the live webcast, Austin appears and the guys fear that the plan didn't work, until his head starts bouncing around. They stop the webcast and don't agree to go on without Doug, who just walked in the house. The guys tell him how much they missed him, and the webcast comes back on with a surprise entrance from Doug and a performance of "The Hardest Part of Breaking Up (Is Getting Back Your Stuff)," the song Doug wrote and left at the house. |
