Fresh Starts & Farewells

"I'm going on tour with my Three best friends"

- Austin to Ally, Trish and Dez

"Fresh Starts & Farewells" is the twenty sixth and final episode in Season 2 of ''Austin & Ally. ''The episode was the twenty fifth episode filmed of season 2. It aired on the 29th of September. On the night of its premiere, it garnered 3.270 million viewers.

Overview
Ally, Trish and Dez prepare to join Austin on his first national tour. However, after performing as his opening act in Miami, Ally receives an offer to help launch her own music career and is faced with the difficult decision of staying behind or joining her friends on tour.

Episode Summary
Austin gets his chance to finally go on a national tour, to which he plans on bringing along Dez, Ally, and Trish to come with. Meanwhile, Dez has to study for his biology test and pass in order to go on tour with Austin for the summer. When he asks for help though, Dez hints to Ally to be his tutor, though Austin mistakenly takes it as him having to help out Dez. But in secret, Ally helps with Dez to study for his biology test. In another dilemma, Ally tries to seek temporary replacements for herself at Sonic Boom, and fires Trish as her manager for making a mistake of scheduling a meeting with Ramone Records.

At school, Austin tells Trish that he talked Jimmy Starr into getting Ally to perform as the opening act on his first night of the tour, and urges Trish to take credit for the move, knowing that two girls have been fighting over the mishap. Ally gets upset over the fact that she only got a score of 92 on her exam, and her depression is exacerbated when Dez ends up getting a 94, meaning Dez will be able to go on Austin's tour. Trish tells Ally of her performing as the opening act and gets hired again.

But the night of the tour, she gets fired again when Ally finds out it was Austin who got her to perform. When Ronnie Ramone from Ramone Records come though, thanks to Trish giving him concert tickets, Trish is once again rehired as Ally's manager, under the condition that Austin perform at his son's Bar-Mitzvah. Then, Ally sings The Me That You Don't See, and Mr. Ramone is so impressed that he decides he wants to make a record with Ally, who offers her a choice: between going on tour with Austin or staying and make her album the next day.

Trish tries to convince her to take Ramone's offer in spite of her desire to go on tour with Austin. As Trish suspected Ally admits part of the reason for her wanting to go on tour is that she still has feelings for Austin, who opens his concert with the song Better Than This. After the concert, Ally tells Austin of being offered a record deal. He is thrilled, but when she says that she can't go on tour if she accepts, the mood saddens.

A day later, Ally comes to Austin's tour bus to say goodbye to her friends, since she decides to stay in Miami and make her album. Austin almost confesses his love for Ally, but instead, he gives her a card that says, "Thinking Of You" on the front cover. Later, Ally is seen playing the piano in a recording booth at Ramone Records, with the card Austin gave her on the piano, and Austin playing the guitar on the tour bus.

Songs Featured

 * Can't Do It Without You (theme song)
 * Reflection (short cover by Ally)
 * The Me That You Don't See (premiere)
 * Better Than This (premiere)

International premieres

 * November 6, 2013 (France)
 * November 11, 2013 (Germany)
 * January 25, 2014 (Argentina)

Main Cast

 * Ross Lynch as Austin Moon
 * Laura Marano as Ally Dawson
 * Raini Rodriguez as Trish De la Rosa
 * Calum Worthy as Dez

Recurring Cast

 * Richard Whiten as Jimmy Starr

Guest Cast

 * Sunkrish Bala as Roger Dunlap
 * Joe Rowley as Ronnie Ramone

Trivia

 * Austin goes on his first tour and Trish and Dez join him.
 * This is a reversal of the ending of Albums & Auditions, where Ally has to choose between staying with Austin and co and going to New York. In this episode, Ally has to choose between going staying after getting offered a record deal and going on tour with Austin. The only difference is that Ally chooses to stay, even if it means being far apart.
 * Ally gets a record deal with Ronnie Ramone and decides to stay in Miami.
 * Ally is the opening act for Austin's tour.
 * Austin almost admits to Ally he loves her.Freshstartsfarewells.jpg
 * Both Austin and Ally perform in this episode on Austin's tour.
 * This is the second summer related episode of the series, the first one is Everglades & Ally-Gators.
 * Austin's performance was actually the last scene to be filmed in Season 2.
 * It's confirmed that Austin's performance was filmed at 1 am.
 * Writers confirmed they had to go 50 feet from their studio to film the goodbye scene.
 * This episode is the Season 2 finale.
 * Austin gives Ally a card saying `Thinking of You` which refers to Partners & Parachutes, when Austin sings I Think About You
 * Ally refers to Owen, her bird, when she tells Trish about how he fell in love with a cuckoo clock bird.
 * During Austin's performance of Better Than This, Calum claimed that the fire alarm accidentally went off, hence why Ross and the performers got wet. Although, he could have been joking as the performance included dancing with umbrellas and it seemed as if they were there because it was meant to rain.
 * Ross's performance of Better Than This was the last scene shot of the season, according to Calum.
 * It's possible they get 3 months off for summer since the tour starts at the beginning of summer and ends near the end of summer and Ally said it will be 3 months since she and Austin see each other again.
 * The 'Auslly Arc' continues in this episode.
 * According to the writers, this episode was filmed before the renewal of season 3, meaning that if the show was not picked up for its third season, this episode would have been the series finale.
 * Trish says nobody fires Trish de la Rosa when Ally says everybody fires Trish de la Rosa.
 * This episode aired on January 16th in the UK.
 * This is the first appearance of Ronnie Ramone.

Goofs

 * When Austin and his friends enter the tour bus, it's a contemporary Prevost. Later stock footage of the bus shows them riding an Eagle from the mid-20th Century.