Steve invites Brandon to stay with him at a Malibu beach house, owned by one of his mother's industry connections. They throw a farewell party for Brenda before she leaves for college in Minnesota. Kelly returns from Europe, without Dylan, who has been rejected for acceptance into Berkeley. David seeks out affordable off-campus housing. Brandon has a surprise encounter at the beach house with Jill Fleming, daughter of the owner, who mistakes him for a burglar and threatens him with a can of mace. Andrea visits Gil Meyers and frets over her decision to stay in California for college instead of leaving for Yale.

Donna is afraid to tell her mother about David living with her and Kelly at their new beach front house. Kelly tells Donna about her troubles with Dylan during their stay in France with both trying to make each other jealous. Dylan returns from Europe to reconcile with Kelly who admits he was faithful to her. Meanwhile, Brandon tries to get close to Jill who wants to take things slow, and it unwittingly creates jealousy with Steve. In Minnesota, Brenda gets homesick for the warmth of Beverly Hills while trying to adjust to college life and her brash roommate Darla Hanson.

Brenda returns to Beverly Hills to find her bedroom taken over by Brandon and her parents angry that she dropped out. College registration is too much for Dylan who has a kindred spirit, so he and Brenda pair for a fishing trip to talk about their future. David and Donna try to audition for the DJ's on the California University's radio show, while Andrea tries to get in with the university's newspaper, The Condor, and soon clashes with the egotistical student editor Josh Richland. But Andrea has a more friendly meeting of minds with Dan Ruben, her dorm faculty advisor. Meanwhile, Steve tries to get Brandon in on the fraternity life on the CU campus by pledging the Kappa Epsilon Gamma (K.E.G.) fraternity.

During Rush Week, the girls attempt to pledge the Alpha Omega sorority and the result bores Brenda; reunites Kelly with an old flame, John Sears, whom she can't stand and shake off; exhausts Donna who tries to boost ratings for her and David's radio show; and stereotypes Andrea when she suspects the sorority president of being anti-Semetic. Meanwhile, Brandon is asked to run for student senate, but Steve won't accept his involvement with the senates politics which are unpopular with the fraternity.

During the first week of classes as California University, Donna becomes burned out of her work which is interfering with her college courses, Donna quits the late-night radio shift leaving David solo. Brenda seeks a job for herself to pay for her college tuition and finds one with her father, but she fails to deliver some important contracts. At a pool party for the college freshmen, Steve decides, but can't bring himself, to break up with Celeste. A jealous Dylan can't deter John Sears from seeing Kelly. Also, Andrea discovers that her residential advisor and admirer, Dan Rubin, is her English professor.

Jim sets a lonely Brenda up on a blind date with Stuart Carson, the son of his business associate and both he and Brenda hit it off. Dylan decides to buy a new car, regardless of the price. Due to his late night schedule, David causes problems with Kelly and Donna over his lack of housekeeping. Kelly tells Dylan that they should start seeing others as a result of her growing relationship with John Sears. Meanwhile, Andrea finally loses her virginity when she and Dan move beyond being "just friends."

Dylan considers buying a gun after his new car is stolen from him at gunpoint. Meanwhile, Brandon's sociology professor Corey Randall asks him to tutor the university's basketball star, D'Shawn Hardell; Andrea and Dan mull over going public with their affair; Brenda and her parents are invited to lunch at Stuart's parents' house in Bel Air as Brenda and Stuart's romance really takes off.

Cindy and Jim throw a party for their 20th wedding anniversary. As Stuart and Brenda's affair grows, he proposes marriage and she willingly accepts. Meanwhile, Brandon falls for an anthropologist grad student named Lucinda Nicholson. A paranoid Dylan buys a gun from a street dealer and almost shoots Brandon. Andrea tells Kelly that she has doubts about her affair with Dan after he tells her about his non-belief in marriage; then Andrea meets Jesse Vasquez, a charming Latino barman, at the party. Mel asks David to look after baby Erin while he heads off to Mexico with his girlfriend.

Brenda is bothered when Stuart tells her that his parents want her to sign a prenuptial agreement; Jim also finds out about Stuart's prenuptial papers and asks Dylan to look into Stuart's background. Meanwhile, David and Kelly grow more hostile to each other when they are caught in the middle of Mel and Jackie's custody battle for Erin. On his first dinner date with Lucinda, Brandon discovers that she is married... to his sociology professor. Guilt plagues Steve he does a favor for Sears and his frat buddies to bed blind date Laura Kingman, a professional college dancer.

When their wedding plans become too much of a hassle, Stuart convinces Brenda that they should elope to Las Vegas. After Brandon finds out, he gets the rest of the gang to drop what they are doing and they all fly out to Vegas to try to discourage Brenda and Stuart from their marital plans. Meanwhile, Laura wants to see more of Steve, who tries to keep things between them under wraps. On other personal fronts, Brandon continues to try to keep Lucinda distant who continues to flirt with him every chance she gets. Donna continues to try to resolve the continuing feud between David and Kelly.

After Steve breaks up with Laura, she tells Kelly and others that he date-raped her the night they were together to get back at him. Meanwhile, Kelly learns Sears true sexist colors and rejects him, but he too doesn't take it so kindly. Dylan tutors Brenda in poetry which brings them to a disagreement. Also, Brandon's relationship (or lack of it) with Lucinda takes a dangerous turn when D'Shawn finds out and threatens Brandon to take his history mid-term for him or he will tell Professor Randall of his suspicions. When Lucinda insists to Brandon that he should take D'Shawn's tests, Brandon reacts stressed and hits the road.

After mistaking a woman at a rural filling station for his former girlfriend Emily Valentine, Brandon decides to visit Emily's home in Marin County north of San Francisco. He learns that the Valentines have moved to Greece, but runs into Emily by chance on a cable car in San Francisco. They rekindle their romance and decide to spend Thanksgiving together, but Emily does not reveal that she must move away in a week. Back in Los Angeles, the KEG frat house and Alpha sorority serve Thanksgiving dinner at a halfway house, and John Sears tries to take advantage of a 15-year-old girl. Steve intervenes and has the fraternity president distract John. Meanwhile, Dylan declines Kelly's Thanksgiving invitation because he plans to go surfing, but later agrees to dine with the Walshes. When Kelly comes over with her family, she snaps at Dylan and makes a scene. Elsewhere, Andrea is hesitant to attend a Thanksgiving soirée at the home of Dan's parents. Jesse, the bartender from the Walshes' anniversary party, is working Dan's parents' party; he asks Andrea out, and she willingly gives him her address.

Emily has been accepted to the prestigious Cousteau Institute in France, but does not want to attend because she and Brandon are in love. Brandon observes her passion for marine biology and encourages her to pursue her dream. Brenda balks when she is asked to appear nude in an experimental campus play. The frat and sorority pledges must endure a series of humiliating experiences during "Hell Week." The upperclassmen order Steve to steal a prize autographed baseball from Professor Randall for a scavenger hunt, but he gets caught. Andrea breaks up with Dan and begins dating Jesse. She learns that he is a UCLA law student who attended undergraduate courses at Yale.

Strange dreams contemplate Donna to fulfill David's dream to sleep with her on their second anniversary together, until her parents show up for a surprise visit. Meanwhile, Brandon returns from San Francisco where he learns about the Steve's botch break-in, who finds himself left in cold after Mike Ryan and the rest of the frat members reject him. Only John Sears remains sympathetic to Steve and tries to help. But when Brandon learns and relays to Steve that the campus police were anonymously tipped off to Steve's break-in, Steve realizes that Sears had set him up. In the meantime, Brandon plays hardball with the corrupt Professor Randall to drop the break-in charges against Steve by threatening to go public about him rigging test scores for D'Shawn and other basketball stars to they can play basketball for the university. Elsewhere, Andrea falls deeply in love with Jesse. Also, John Sears continued wooing of Kelly only pushes her back to Dylan.

The Walshes trip to Hawai'i doesn't go as planned when their plane is turned around due to technical problems. A woman claiming to be Jack McKay's mistress shows up on Dylan's doorstep with her daughter in tow. David's sexual frustration leads him to be hostile to Donna. A lonely Kelly cracks her tooth on candy and calls Mel for dental advice. Jesse takes Andrea with him to church for midnight mass. The characters all flash back to previous Christmases over the course of the episode.

David's work and study schedule begins to take a toll on him when mid terms come around, leading him to start using crystal meth. His erratic behaviour worries Donna and Kelly. Dylan wants to help Suzanne with her financial troubles by giving her $10 000 but Jim urges Dylan to let him do a background check on her first. Steve decides to take his suspicions about John Sears to their fraternity chapter president. Brandon continues to tutor D'Shawn in sociology but still feels that Professor Randall is giving him preferential treatment. During a basketball game, D'Shawn sustains an injury that he fears will impact his future career prospects. Andrea learns from her new RA that Dan Rubin has transferred to another dormitory.

The side effects of David's burgeoning drug habit cause him to fall asleep in the park whilst babysitting Erin and she goes missing. Brenda, Donna, Brandon and Steve head out of town on a ski trip where Donna meets a handsome ski instructor. Dylan finds himself slightly out of his depth when Erica gets her first period after their swimming lesson. Jim's background check on Suzanne yields some unexpected results and Dylan confronts her upon her return to Beverly Hills. Andrea receives a surprising medical diagnosis.

Dylan gets Suzanne a job at the Peach Pit as a waitress, which takes a different turn when Nat is hospitalized after a heart attack. Dylan then learns that Nat may lose the Peach Pit when Nat's cousin Joey arrives in town wanting to sell it. Meanwhile, Brandon is asked to be a candidate for a college task-force on education to go to Washington. David seeks treatment for his drug use while trying to find a substitute for his radio shift and finds Steve, who does a bad job. Meanwhile, Andrea's not sure she can tell Jesse about her pregnancy, and Cindy becomes involved in university life as a courtship instructor.

With Nat still in the hospital awaiting heart surgery, Brandon temporarily takes over running the Peach Pit, while Dylan rescues the place after he buys out Joey's share, making Dylan the co-owner. Meanwhile, David's drug problem returns, resulting in Kelly and Donna moving out and David losing his radio DJ job when Howard the station manager sees that he's completely out of control and fires him. Jesse objects to Andrea's decision to get an abortion. Brandon learns of Lucinda's divorce from Professor Randall and wants a relationship with her.

Donna tries to make up with David, whose increased drug use turns her away. David also steals $150 from his father to buy more amphetamines for himself. When his drug dealer is arrested later, he finds himself in possession of a huge stash of narcotics and calls on Dylan for help. Meanwhile, Jesse and Andrea meet with her grandmother to get her blessings before their wedding and reception at the Peach Pit. A dangerous affair begins between Brandon and Lucinda, who shows her true colors when she starts teaching her anthropology class of human sexuality and preaches the need for multiple partners, seeing sex as her personal weapon. Brenda gets a surprise visit from a long-absent Stuart on Valentine's Day.

Brandon uses Kelly as his date at a university social event to shield his affair with Lucinda from Josh Richland, a snooping student reporter from the Condor determined to dig up any dirt on Brandon. Meanwhile, Brenda and Stewart travel to Palm Springs where they find big complications from a small mistake Brenda makes which leaves them stranded in the desert, where Stuart fumes over and it resulting in her finally breaking off their engagement for good. David rents a piano as a new hobby while Kelly moves back in with him and Donna. Also, Andrea lets Steve use her dorm room after he can't stand living at the KEG house.

Lucinda temporally loses interest in Brandon when she flirts with Dylan to ask him to finance her documentary film. Meanwhile, Kelly and Brandon spend the weekend together at a task force retreat where they meet the university Chancellor, Milton Arnold, Dean Trimble and the Chancellor's teenage daughter Clare, where Brandon and Kelly become more attracted to each other and brush off Josh who's still hounding them. Brenda and Donna befriend a stray dog that escapes from the university's lab, whom they name Rocky. Also, Andrea discovers that Steve is allowing Muntz and his frat buddies to use her dorm room for nooners. Andrea protests, but changes her mind when Steve begins to date her dorm resident advisor, Kathy Fisher.

Brenda and Donna attend an animal rights rally, and are crestfallen when the university refuses to suspend animal testing. After Rocky dies of cancer, Brenda becomes involved with a small group of radicals. She serves as lookout when the group breaks into the university research building and tries in vain to save Andrea's lab (which does not harm animals in its testing). Brenda is arrested. Kelly and Brandon are furious when Dylan refuses to fund Lucinda's film. He finally tells Kelly that Lucinda came on to him. Brandon breaks up with Lucinda and Kelly confesses her kiss with Brandon. Dylan races over to the Walsh house to fight Brandon, but the tension is defused when he accidentally punches Steve.

Brenda calls Dylan from jail in the hopes of keeping her arrest a secret, but he is forced to tell her parents. Brenda's friends avoid her out of fear of being accessories after the fact and Kelly acts especially bitchy because she is tired of Dylan coming to Brenda's rescue. Brenda faces felony charges, as her crime was a federal offense. An FBI agent who had gone undercover with the activists offers her immunity in exchange for her testimony. Kelly apologizes for shunning Brenda. Andrea gives Donna a healthy puppy (Rocky II) to take her mind off Rocky's death. Steve and his overbearing father, Rush, take on a baseball star and his dad in a father/son golf tournament. Steve catches his father cheating and forces him to complete the game honestly. Lucinda receives a grant for her movie and leaves the university. Josh threatens to expose Brandon's affair with Lucinda unless he endorses his campaign for student president. Brandon calls his bluff and Josh eventually has second thoughts.

When the rest of the gang takes off on a ski weekend, Brenda stays behind and discovers an old diary that belonged to a young woman who once lived in the Walsh house with her parents and brother in the late 1960s, in which Brenda imagines herself and the gang as the girl Wendy and the gang as her hippie friends.

While working with Kelly to recruit guys for the "Men of CU" beefcake calendar that they're working on, Donna goes on a spontaneous date with D'Shawn just to make David jealous when she finds him flirting with his blind piano teacher Holly. Meanwhile, Steve sees no reason to keep the secret that their frat president, Mike Ryan, is gay despite being sworn to secrecy.

Brenda hopes to impress Roy Randolph, a visiting Broadway director, when she auditions for the lead role in the campus play of "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof." Steve is reunited with Laura Kingman, where he coaches her for the same lead role, while Kelly also wants in on the part. Meanwhile, Brandon brushes off continuing advances from his new admirer Clare Arnold, the daughter of the university's chancellor, who won't take "no" for an answer when she handcuffs herself to his bed. Also, Dylan tries to help a jealous Erica accept her mother's new chemist boyfriend, Kevin Weaver.

When Brenda and Kelly are called back to final auditions, the resulting competition puts a serious strain on their friendship. Steve continues to coach Laura for the lead, and she ends up making a superior performance, brushing aside Brenda. Meanwhile, Brandon is still being perused by Clare who has a crush on him. So, she tricks Brandon into taking her out to her senior prom at her posh boarding school which leads to Brandon getting decked by an angry passerby at Clare's hotel post-prom party. Also, Jesse's not around when Andrea has a medical emergency and she's forced to call on Donna for help to take her to the hospital. Elsewhere, Kevin continues to charm his way into Dylan and Suzanne's life which makes Kelly feel left out.

After Brenda finally wins the lead role in the play, the unbalanced Laura attempts to sabotage Brenda's acting career by spreading rumors that she granted sexual favors with Randolph to win the lead. Meanwhile, Kevin impresses Dylan and Erica when they visit his lab where he tells Dylan about his clean-up plans for Santa Monica bay which are under funded. So, Dylan asks Kevin if he could act as his beneficiary to open up his own chemical clean-up company, while Kevin also announces his engagement to Suzanne. Kelly continues to resent Suzanne and Kevin's presence which drives a further rift between her and Dylan after she tells him that her 'Woman's Intuation' tells her that something is not right about Kevin and Suzanne. Jesse also suggests more bed-rest for Andrea who continues to feel unwell over her pregnancy. Also, Brandon speaks with Clare's skeptical father over her wild behavior and her advances towards him while she's making future plans to travel with him.

Dylan and Kelly finally call their relationship quits due to him spending more time with Erica, Suzanne and Kevin, and Kelly openly expressing that she doesn't trust Suzanne and Kevin over their continued presence. Erica tells Dylan that she overheard her mother and boyfriend talking about moving to South America, while Kevin and Suzanne easily convince Dylan they want to relocate Kevin's new chemical company to Arizona. Meanwhile, Brenda finds old feelings for Dylan returning when he gives her an opening-night gift medal before the play. Dylan considers investing in Kevin's business offer by financing it, as does Jim who agrees to be a silent partner. Elsewhere, David sees danger of his drug use returning when working with a new rock band for the CU's Mardi Gras. Andrea is hospitalized and has strange dreams, fearing she may lose the baby. Also, Brandon tries to get to meet with an elusive Chancellor Arnold, after he sees that his name is not on a list of task force members to meet the president, thinking that his times with Clare may have cost him the trip to Washington. But, Brandon eventually learns that his name being absent from the list was just a typo mistake all along.

In the two-part season finale, Brandon goes to Washington D.C. as a part of the college task force to meet the president. Kelly follows Brandon to Washington to get him out of a jam when Clare and Lucinda arrive at the hotel to pursue him. At the CU Mardi Gras, David impresses pop star Kenneth "Babyface" Edmunds, and his recording manager Ariel with his keyboard music and Donna catches David in a very compromising position with Ariel. Steve runs into Celeste who's now with John Sears. Kevin and Suzanne get married in a semi-formal ceremony where he persuades Dylan to cut out any outside investment in their business offer. Jim becomes angry at Dylan for making such a rash move and Dylan fires Jim as his financial holder. Dylan then goes to a bank and gives Kevin full power-of-attorney control over his money, unaware that Kevin and Suzanne have had a hidden agenda for Dylan's inheritance all this time. After her major success in the CU play, Brenda gets a scholarship offer to study acting in London and she pays a visit to Dylan's place before leaving. Also, Andrea and Jesse experience the joys and fears of parenthood after their daughter is born.