Finally, in the episode with the Tijuana road trip, we watched a scene between her and Seth in the diner and knew: This girl is amazing.

She was often paired in scenes with her best friend, Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), who was the leading female of the series until her death.

Summer was unusual in combining the qualities of a conventionally attractive and desirable character with a tough, outspoken, "take-charge" attitude.

As a result, Summer gets angry and starts dating a classmate named Danny (Bret Harrison), but that relationship doesn't last long, and she finds that she still has feelings for Seth.

This is further complicated when Summer also becomes professionally involved with Seth and Zach as they develop their comic book, Atomic County, for publication.

This relationship proves inextricably linked with the personal feelings all have for each other, and resulted in a bad meeting with a media executive that effectively killed their partnership.

The introduction of Reed, a female attractive, older comic book executive who Seth was not initially truthful about also caused difficulties.

Zach apparently succeeded in impressing Lucas and it has been rumored he was given an internship and moved away from Newport as a result, explaining his absence for season 3.

Towards the end of the season Summer also becomes worried about her best friend Marissa's behaviour, unexplained bruises and a tension with her boyfriend Ryan and his brother Trey.

They have trouble earlier in the season deciding what colleges to go to and how it would affect their future together, but eventually they agree on going to Brown University, which is more feasible after Summer gets a high SAT score.

Summer cares a lot about Seth and when he starts smoking pot, she becomes worried about him and forgives him if he promises to stop.

While their future as a couple seems uncertain at this point (and is complicated by the return of Seth's ex-girlfriend Anna Stern), Summer takes a Korean pop star as date for the prom.

When Summer falls off the stage after being announced Prom Queen for the second time in a row, Seth runs to her and tells her the truth about Brown and they reconcile.

Summer has also dealt with several changes in her home life, such as her stepmother, an unseen character, leaving and divorcing her father.

She eventually accepted the relationship and recently announced engagement, however, seeing the happiness it had brought her father despite her own reservations about Julie.

In "The French Connection", Summer meets up with former best friend Holly Fischer (Ashley Hartman) to find out what life is like as a "Newpsie-wed".

Summer realizes that she has changed and no longer belongs in her old world; she fears that she does not know who she truly is, and breaks off the engagement with Seth in order to find herself.

Also, in "The Case of the Franks" Summer gets offered a job at GEORGE (Global Environmental Organisation Regarding Greenhouse Emissions) travelling around the country speaking to children in high school.

During his second attempt, which consists of various adventures of the family, he overhears a conversation between Summer and Kirsten, in which the former says that she just wants Seth to be excited about something that he loves.

Summer attends protests and works to save the environment and educate students on environmental issues for a year.