The Love Haters

The rest of the day goes well until after dinner, when Cole starts to yell at Hutch about all the ways life has been kinder to him, and Hutch wonders why Cole is keeping score. When they get back to the Starlight, the Gals and Sullivan are waiting by the pool, and they can hear the conversation as Cole accuses Hutch of falling for Katie, and Hutch doesn’t deny it. Thinking it will solve their situation, Cole admits the truth about his fake relationship with Katie, but this enrages Hutch, sparking a physical fight.

Katie wants to stop the fight, but Rue suggests they should give them a minute to clear the air. They eventually stop fighting, and Cole reveals that he started claiming Katie was his girlfriend after Rue told him that Hutch had feelings for her. Cole reveals all his jealousies toward Hutch and says Hutch should have saved their mother rather than him the night of the accident. Hutch understands that Cole thinks his mother would still be alive if Hutch hadn’t saved him from the car, but Hutch reveals that their mother told him to save Cole and thus, in a way, it was their mother who rescued him. This revelation punctures Cole’s understanding of his brother as an infallible hero, allowing him to see his brother as a human being with his own grief.

Shortly after Hutch’s admission to Cole, Sullivan starts throwing up from drinking too much. She asks Katie to take her back to her room. When Sullivan starts crying, Katie knows that she can’t leave her, and the two commiserate over their struggles with heartache and self-image. Sullivan drunkenly suggests that the two should be best friends, and Katie agrees under the stipulation that she not get fired. The women shake hands on it, with Katie believing Sullivan won’t remember any of it in the morning.

By the time Katie gets back to the pool, Hutch is gone, surprising Katie, who assumed he would want to see her now that he knows she is single. When Katie tries to call him later, he doesn’t answer, and he isn’t at home when she goes to the marina to find him. Katie calls Beanie to complain, and Beanie advises her to give Hutch space to think. Yet the next morning, Hutch still can’t be found, nor can any of the Gals, Cole, or Sullivan. Katie goes to their scheduled swimming lesson alone and sees how lonely the island feels now that there is a hurricane brewing. Katie realizes she is in love with Hutch, but he still has every right not to say goodbye to her.

The next day, when she gets to the air station, Katie learns that the military base has been preparing to face the major hurricane that is about to hit nearby. Katie sees Hutch there, but he doesn’t have time to talk to her, and she can’t tell whether he hates her or is just busy. Later that day, she learns that the Florida Keys are being evacuated as Hurricane Rafael has shifted course again. Katie learns that Rue and the Gals have already evacuated. In a phone call, Rue suggests Katie take her car and go back to Texas, but she gives her an open invitation to return to the Starlight any time. Katie finally runs into Hutch, who is surprised she hasn’t left yet. Katie apologizes for the way everything happened, and Hutch also apologizes before turning away to get on the helicopter. After a moment, Katie chases after him and asks him to kiss her goodbye, and to her surprise, Hutch does so before telling her to get to safety.

As Katie is heading out of the Keys, she gets a call from Rue, who tells her that Carlos, who had been driving all of the base’s pets to the mainland, had trouble getting George Bailey in his car and had to leave him. Katie understands that George Bailey was afraid of the thunder from the hurricane, and she knows she has to go back to save him, despite Rue’s pleas to keep heading toward Miami. Katie makes a U-turn and speeds back to the island. On the way, she calls Cole.

Cole reveals that he told Hutch that Katie went along with the lie to save her job, as he didn’t want to tell him about Rue’s illness. Katie now understands that Hutch hadn’t been taking her calls because he thought she selfishly used him to save her job, and she is angry that Cole lied again. However, Cole reveals that they don’t have to worry about Sullivan or losing their jobs, since he and Sullivan slept together and fell in love the morning after the fight. Cole is happy that someone likes him better than Hutch, and Katie tells him to call his brother and confess to his new lies.

Katie finally gets to Hutch’s houseboat, but it takes her a moment to find George Bailey, who is whimpering in the closet. Katie tries to cajole him into Rue’s Mini Cooper by convincing him that they are going on a walk, but George Bailey won’t budge beyond the doorstep. She tries to call Hutch but hears the buzzing of his phone from the other room and understands why he never called her back. Suddenly, there is a large flash of lightning which sends George Bailey back into hiding inside, and the dock the houseboat is moored to collapses, leaving them stranded on the boat.

Katie wants to call Beanie, but instead she calls 911. The dispatcher tells her that no rescuers are being dispatched during the active hurricane. Katie tries to convince the dispatcher, but she only tells Katie to find a life jacket and save herself rather than the dog if it comes to it. Luckily, Hutch’s boat is equipped with plenty of safety gear, but Katie still panics as George Bailey looks to her for safety. Katie sees part of the marina catch on fire as they continue to drift away from it. She tries to think what Hutch would do in their situation, but she feels completely hopeless.

Katie has a miserable time as she rides out the storm on the houseboat and tries to take care of George Bailey. She puts the dog in the closet to keep him safe from the listing of the boat and the glass on the floor, and she notices that the hairclip Hutch took from her is no longer where it was before. After hours of panic and seasickness, the storm calms, and Katie and George Bailey fall asleep together. Shortly after, Katie realizes that the boat is letting in water, and they are nowhere near land.

Luckily, her phone is still working, and she calls 911 again. The storm has calmed sufficiently that the dispatcher can send search and rescue out to find her. Panic floods in again as Katie waits to be rescued, but she is relieved when Beanie calls. Katie asks Beanie about her own beauty list, and Beanie replies that she loves everything about herself, just because it is hers. Katie enjoys talking about the mundane things in Beanie’s life, but the boat suddenly lurches again, and her phone slides off the railing.

Waiting in silence with George Bailey, Katie begins to grieve the person and the body she only just learned to love. Katie begins to sincerely apologize to all the parts of her body that she had been mean to over her life, admitting that she should have been better to herself. After crying for some time, Katie hears a helicopter just as the boat tips to its side, and she and George Bailey fall into the water.

Katie wonders if it is Hutch who will come to save her, but she is still surprised when he is indeed the one to jump in the water. Hutch reveals that the helicopter is nearly out of fuel and that they might need to take the injured George Bailey and come back for Katie later. Though she understands the logistics of this decision, Katie nevertheless feels rejected by Hutch. The houseboat sinks just as Hutch takes George Bailey up in the helicopter, and Katie feels alone until she sees the helicopter descending again.

The helicopter doesn’t have time to pull Hutch and Katie up, so they hang from a sling as they return to the base. Katie apologizes for everything as she and Hutch fly away, but Hutch understands that Katie only got caught up in Cole’s lies. He reveals he has her hairclip with him and that he took it because he wanted a reminder of her. When Katie brings up the fact that Cole said Hutch hated love, he agrees because he knows how much his love for Katie has recently messed up his life. However, the two agree to hate love together. Katie reveals that she saved some keepsakes of Hutch’s mother before the boat went down as a way to apologize, and Hutch tells her she doesn’t need to apologize as he kisses her again.

The video promo turns out far better than Katie would have ever hoped for, as does the “Day in the Life” video. Katie plans to have the mini-documentary online for only a few days, until Hutch sees it and understands how the fame it could bring her would help in her career. Hutch sends the video link to Jennifer Aniston, with whom he has kept in touch since rescuing her dog, and the video goes viral. Sullivan offers Katie a promotion afterward, but she doesn’t take it, instead moving to Key West to help take care of Rue and run the Starlight. However, she continues to make videos for Aniston’s wealthy and famous friends.

Rue takes all of the advice of her medical team and thrives even with her diagnosis. Cole and Sullivan officially start dating, and to Katie’s surprise, their relationship thrives as well. Cole and Hutch aren’t completely reconciled, but the brothers look at their relationship in a new light since their fight. George Bailey heals completely from his injury and never knocks Katie down again. Hutch moves to the cottage next door to Katie, and George Bailey splits his time between them.

Just after Katie was rescued, Hutch went back to work, and Katie went back to Texas, calling Beanie first thing. Beanie is angry that Katie never told her she was essentially shipwrecked, but forgives her when she tells her that Hutch was the one who saved her. Katie conquers what Rue called her chromophobia, and she now exclusively wears colorful clothes. Katie has a completely new outlook on life and herself, and she appreciates the bravery that it took to overcome her fears and insecurities.