Marissa Cooper is the troubled daughter of James Jimmy and Julie Cooper. She is veered as the most popular and beautiful girl in Newport Beach and is the girlfriend of the captain of the water polo team Luke Ward. When troubled outsider Ryan Atwood moves in as her next door neighbor, Marissa begins to fall for him which changes her perspective on her sheltered and picturesque lifestyle. She is the best friend of resident party girl Summer Roberts. Marissa's three years in high school included some of the most unpredictable moments in the life of any teenager. From being the object of obsession to a fellow therapy friend, to discovering her mother's secret tryst with her former boyfriend, to sleeping with her family's gardener, to a lesbain fling, to shooting a man, to falling into bed with a bad influence, and finally falling to her tragic death.