Ray Pruit returns to Beverly Hills as Donna and David's first video-production assignment for MZA. Meanwhile, Colin prepares to flee the country while Valerie asks Brandon and a reluctant Kelly to help her in finding him. Joe decides to quit football and choose a new course for his life by moving back to his hometown in Pennsylvania and wants Donna to come with him, but she declines. While Steve is still incapacitated by his broken jaw, Carl takes Clare out on a date who becomes wistful over Carl's memories of her mother.

Carl hosts Steve's weekend long 21st birthday bash on the ship Queen Mary in Long Beach, where the music group "The Goo Goo Dolls" entertains. Carl then asks Steve a favor: to have a chance with Clare who he has had a crush on. David and Donna grow more intimate while their producer Erik, makes a move on Donna and other women as well. Andrea Zuckerman arrives in town to have fun at Steve's party, and Nat brings Joan along who keeps feeling unwell. Meanwhile, Valerie hires an FBI agent, named Richard Ballen, to find Colin who's in the area trying to get access on a ship to take him to South America. Also, Susan tells Brandon that she has decided to leave town to accept a job offer at a newspaper company in Washington D.C. which makes him wonder if he has a future with Susan after all.

Brandon is on a road trip through the USA when his car breaks down in a small town in Texas, and he encounters racism from the redneck locals after he befriends a young black girl, named Mariah. In Beverly Hills, Valerie seeks financial help from Kenny Bannerman, one of Jim Walsh's former coworkers, to revamp business for the Peach Pit After Dark. Meanwhile, David and Donna work together on another music video project and find that their renewed relationship may be on a short fuse. Also, Clare and Steve attempt to meet with each other after spending their summer away, unaware that they are at the same airport at LAX waiting for the other.