Ethan is Claire's friend's nephew. Claire invites him to go to Disneyland with them in hopes of getting Haley to fall for him and completely get over Dylan, who had moved to Wyoming in the episode Dude Ranch. Haley, adamant that she wasn't going to babysit him, quickly changes her opinion after meeting him, much to Claire's delight.
Much to Claire's chagrin, Dylan shows up at Disneyland completely unannounced. He rushes off after running into them and Haley realizes that she still likes Dylan. So she ditches Ethan, leaving Alex with Ethan, another thing that Claire did not like. After seeing Dylan as a 'Daper Dan', Haley ditches Dylan and begins talking to Ethan again, bumping Alex out the way.
After some time, Dylan meets up with Ethan and Haley again in his Little John costume declaring his love for Haley. Ethan and Dylan get into a minor scuffle.
At the end of the day, Haley eventually dumps Ethan, Ethan leaves with some friends he ran into and Haley and Dylan get back together.