Marcus runs several businesses at school, including escorting younger students to avoid the bully Stephen Hobert.

Stephen whispers slurs at Marcus's brother Charlie and at a student named Danny near the school lockers.

Marcus punches Stephen in the face after Stephen uses a slur, earning a school suspension.

Principal Jenkins suggests enrolling Charlie in a specialized school for students with disabilities.

Melissa plans an affordable spring break trip to Puerto Rico, where the family can stay with relatives.

Marcus sends his first email to his absent father, hoping they will reunite during the Puerto Rico trip.

The family arrives in Puerto Rico and meets Tío Ermenio at his run-down but welcoming hostel in Old San Juan.

Sergio drives the family to Darma's farm, where Charlie approaches and gently strokes a horse named Magic.

Marcus storms out of Sergio's truck and shouts at the mountains after a heated argument with Melissa.

Marcus and Melissa reconcile at a chinchorro roadside restaurant, and Sergio arranges for Tío Pepe to contact Marcus's father.

Charlie wakes Marcus to show him that his father finally responded to one of his unanswered emails.

The family arrives at the luxurious Hotel Maravilla and meets Marcus's father, a polished businessman, for the first time.

Marcus's father reveals his true motive for the meeting by trying to sell Melissa a hotel time-share.

Charlie quotes Willy Wonka to tell his father he has failed a test, making Marcus and Melissa burst out laughing.

Back at school, Marcus learns that students and parents signed a petition opposing his expulsion during the break.

Marcus Vega runs a set of businesses at school to help his struggling family, but his life unravels when he punches the bully Stephen after Stephen uses a slur against his brother Charlie. Facing possible expulsion, his mother Melissa plans a spring break trip to Puerto Rico, where Marcus pushes to find his long-absent Puerto Rican father. The family bonds with their extended relatives while Marcus obsessively searches for his father across the island, leading to a heated argument with Melissa. When his father finally responds, the family travels to a luxury resort where Marcus confronts the man he spent years imagining. The meeting exposes a painful truth: his father is selfish and indifferent, and it is his mother who is the real hero of the family. Returning home, Marcus finds his classmates rallied to keep him in school, and he begins to see himself and his world in an entirely new light.

The major events driving Marcus's story from trouble at school to truth in Puerto Rico.

Danny joins Marcus's walking group and adjusts his own drop-off point to help Marcus get back in time to pick up Charlie.

Melissa shows Marcus a box of his father's belongings and reveals that his father left the family without warning.

Danny lends Marcus his parents' camera before the trip, the first time anyone has given Marcus something without expecting anything in return.

Marcus breaks into a cold sweat on the plane and realizes that he is afraid of flying.

During a Miami layover, Charlie stocks up on guidebooks about Puerto Rico to prepare himself for the trip.

Marcus is surprised to discover his mother speaks fluent Spanish when she enthusiastically greets Tío Ermenio in Old San Juan.

Ermenio shows Marcus and Charlie a photograph of their father as a young man working on Darma's farm.

Ermenio's extended family gathers for a fireworks celebration in Old San Juan on the family's first evening in Puerto Rico.

A street dancer pulls Charlie into a public dance circle, and Marcus rushes over fully expecting a confrontation.

Marcus sneaks out of Darma's farmhouse at night and climbs a haystack to get cell reception and send his father another email.

Darma reveals that Marcus's father wanders between jobs and may currently be staying with her cousin Pepe in Manatí.

More than forty neighbors gather at Tío Pepe's beach house for roasted pork and dancing, but Marcus's father is not among them.

The pisa y corre bus nearly departs without Marcus after he runs back to buy Charlie a cold drink.

Melissa spots Marcus's father through a hotel window before they are formally introduced, giving Marcus his first real glimpse of him.

Marcus and Danny organize a school art night where Marcus displays his photographs from the Puerto Rico trip.

Before the trip, small moments lay the groundwork for Marcus's transformation, including Danny's quiet kindness and the loan of a camera that gives Marcus an entirely new way of seeing the world. On the plane and in the streets of Old San Juan, Marcus discovers fears he didn't know he had and warmth he never expected from strangers. His extended Puerto Rican family welcomes him through fireworks, street dancing, and home-cooked food, and Marcus slowly learns to stop guarding and start participating. Days on the island bring setbacks and surprises, from missing a bus to missing his father entirely at Pepe's neighborhood gathering, each one quietly reshaping Marcus's expectations. The reunion with his father unfolds only after Melissa catches her first glimpse of him through a hotel window, preparing both her and Marcus for the difficult meeting ahead. Back in Springfield, Marcus uses the photographs he took across Puerto Rico to share his journey with his school community, cementing his identity as an artist and a friend.

The quieter but crucial moments that shaped Marcus's journey from Springfield to Puerto Rico and back.

Danny calls Stephen an ignoramus for claiming Puerto Rico is another country, standing up to the bully before Marcus does.

Marcus reveals during the principal's meeting that he secretly placed his business earnings into the family's emergency fund jar.

Melissa reluctantly agrees to email Marcus's father, while stressing that the Puerto Rico trip is not about finding him.

Marcus takes his father's old driver's license from a box and sends a second email including their Puerto Rico travel details.

Charlie enthusiastically studies the Puerto Rico itinerary and practices salsa dancing before the family departs.

Marcus discovers at Ermenio's hostel that he has a large extended Puerto Rican family he never knew existed.

The sign above Darma's farm gate is translated for Marcus as stone without water doesn't sharpen in the forge.

Darma euthanizes a sick cow with a single gunshot, telling the family that the necessary thing is not always the easiest.

Marcus admits out loud for the first time that he is furious at his father for abandoning the family.

Sergio opens up to Marcus about his younger brother who died serving two tours with the US Army.

Marcus's father repeatedly asks Marcus to translate every time Charlie speaks, infuriating both brothers throughout the hotel tour.

Marcus confronts his father directly, listing the financial hardships and deep loneliness his decade-long absence caused the family.

Marcus hands his father's driver's license back and walks out of the hotel with Melissa and Charlie, leaving his father behind.

Marcus begins making eye contact with students at school and realizes most of them admire rather than fear him.

Marcus visits the neighborhood bodega regularly to practice Spanish, feeling connected to his Puerto Rican identity for the first time.

Long before the Puerto Rico trip, Marcus's sense of self is shaped by small acts of courage and concealment, from secretly filling the family emergency jar to watching Danny stand up to a bully in a way Marcus could not. The decision to take his father's old driver's license and reach out across a decade of silence sets Marcus on a collision course with a truth he has spent years avoiding. In Puerto Rico, each day delivers a revelation: a family he never knew existed, a farm steeped in heritage, and a cousin whose fierce loyalty shows Marcus what a devoted father actually looks like. By the time Marcus finally faces his absent father, he is no longer searching for a rescue but delivering a reckoning, pouring out every hardship his father's absence created. Walking out of the hotel with Melissa and Charlie marks the moment Marcus stops defining himself by his father's absence and starts defining himself by his own choices. Back home, the friendships he builds and the Spanish he begins to learn confirm that Marcus has found the belonging he was searching for all along.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional breakthroughs that transformed Marcus Vega.