When the funeral director is killed in an accident, the family comes together to mourn and decide the fate of the funeral home.

The family attends the reading of Nathaniel's will. A widow is unable to pay the funeral bill after her late husband leaves her with a mountain of debt.

The family considers selling the business. Their latest client had an unfortunate accident with an industrial dough-mixer.

After a woman passes away in her sleep, her husband proves to be a very demanding client.

A boy accidentally shoots and kills himself while playing with a gun, and his mother is nearly comatose with grief.

A simple game of golf results in the death of a woman.

A drug-addicted actress dies from a cocaine overdose and leaves her fellow cast and crew members to set up the funeral.

A man dies after a long battle with cancer, and his psychic widow discusses the funeral arrangements with the family.

Christmas Eve - and the one year anniversary of Nate and Brenda's meeting and Nathaniel Fisher's death - is approaching, and this year, the Fishers are requested by bikers to allow the funeral home to be open on Christmas Day so they can have a party/memorial service for Jesse Ray Johnson, who was involved in a motorcycle accident on his way to his part-time job as a mall Santa while greeting some kids. The family (and Rico) each remember their last moments with Nathaniel and, in most cases, regret what they didn't do for him before he died. On Christmas Eve Brenda's mother invites Brenda and Nate over for dinner with a "special guest", who turns out to be Billy. Ruth prepares to take Claire to church with David out to visit Keith and Taylor, but they never make it when they enter Nikolai's shop to see it robbed and him shot in the legs with both now broken. Ruth decides, to the chagrin of the family, that he'll stay with them until he can walk, since he has no insurance. Nate is forced to confess his AVM to Brenda when he has a seizure as they sleep together. On Christmas Day, Marrilyn Johnson offers Nate a motorcycle as a gift so he can live every day to the fullest. Toby, Keith, and Taylor are invited for dinner that evening. Rico has a good holiday with his family - until his cousin Ramone arrives to attack him when he's forced to tell Vanessa he's gay and she told his wife. Also, Claire's holiday takes an interesting turn when Toby calls her "hostile" and she drives him away, though she does enjoy keeping in touch with Billy Chenowith.

A construction worker's metal lunch-pail falls from his perch on the building and strikes Dwight Edgar Garrison on the head - resulting in a major family conflict between his current wife and her 2 stepdaughters from his first marriage, on whether he should be buried with his late wife or the widow. Besides having to deal with that, Nate remains unaware that Brenda is still seeing other men but wonders whether she still wants to marry him, or just does out of pity...and whether he should wed at all when Lisa meets him and announces she's pregnant with his child. Claire has doubts about her relationship with Billy, who's also throwing Brenda and her perspective on most of her relationships into confusion. David's relationship with Keith is strong, but Keith's life is troubled when Karla relapses into drugs. Meanwhile, just about everybody finds Nikolai to be a pain while Ruth's working - even Rico loses his sandwich to him. But Ruth is more concerned with the fact that he's in debt to Yuri, a loan shark.

The Diazes' friend and former neighbor Leticia Perfecta Perez dies in her sleep at a beauty parlor and leaves his family a large sum of money, causing Rico to remember how he lost his father and got into the funeral business to begin with. However, she also leaves behind a son, never close to her in life, who wishes to give her a more expensive casket than her pre-meet's choice and is jealous of Rico. Nate and Brenda attend her parents' remarriage, he goes to cheer up Aaron Buchbinder, and Keith, David, and Taylor are visited by a social worker. Nikoai responds indifferently when Ruth tries to plan what days they'll meet, and while watching a separate movie than he is, she breaks up with him. Claire likes the prospect of attending LAC Arts school but is disappointed that Gary Deitman is about to transfer jobs. The news that Kroehner is bankrupt and undergoing a federal inspection is overshadowed by bad news for both David and Nate - Keith is found innocent for his shooting, but hours later attacks an argumentative abusive husband he investigates and is judged guilty; and Nate reads Brenda's story then recognizes it's not fiction when one of the subjects Brenda slept with from the night before comes by. Nate breaks off his engagement with Brenda just before Lisa calls to inform Ruth his daughter has been born.

The surgeons are dismayed when Nate's blood vessel ruptures and he suffers a hemorrhage, and his blood pressure continues to rise, then Nate dies...At least, the family and Rico are in shock, grieving, while Nate himself is dining in a hated restaurant with his father, impatiently waiting to get to his own funeral. He arrives early, sick of the food, and sees his funeral (open-casket, not a memorial service after cremation as he wished)...then hears David speaking to him from the next room where he sees himself paralyzed and with speech problems struggling to relearn. He continues through the home and witnesses himself completely healthy living with Lisa and Maya; at Christmas dinner with his family, including his father, who never died; living with a woman he has yet to meet and their son; spending his time lazily, watching TV and drinking beer with a woman. Returning to the funeral room, he meets his father again, who doesn't give him a straight answer on whether he's alive but suggests he just traveled through parallel worlds and must open a white coffin to get his answer....7 months later: Nate, Lisa, and Maya live with Lisa's self-absorbed actor boss Carol, where Lisa is a cook. David and Keith, now a reluctant security guard, are in therapy to find a healthy relationship, and David is advised to find an activity for himself so applies to the Gay Men's Chorus. Claire is attending LAC, enjoying it less than she anticipated, and starting a relationship with rock-band member Phil. Nate learns an interesting secret about his own life from Ruth and all the while sees scenes shown in his surgery that make him wonder if this life is meant to be.

Robert Lamar Griffin's rare heart disease finally takes its fatal toll, leaving behind his boyfriend Kevin Lamb, a scene-designer of the opera company where he was a lighting-designer, who requests Fisher & Diaz to allow him to create a Chinese opera set for the funeral. David suspects Rico's views of homosexuality are narrow and defends it, while the couple's having been together so long offer new insight to his relationship with Keith. With Ruth's birthday approaching, Lisa prepares to throw her a party despite Nate's warning that she prefers her birthdays without any celebration. But with fun-loving Bettina invited and at Lisa's insistence, Ruth breaks her own standards of not using the best china or dancing. Claire is the only one not to attend the party; she's out watching the introduction of ultra-radical artist Scott Philip Smith, and is invited to dinner with Russell by Olivier and Smith, later learning what her potential may come to and wondering what it will be. After a while, Nate retreats from the party, too, disturbed by the growing similarities between Lisa and Ruth. He dreams that his father hints that between the wife he married by default and his hated inherited job, Nate may soon wish to use the old apartment he used to escape from the same things, and Nate retorts that he's less secretive, he loves his family, but Nathaniel wonders...why shouldn't he have loved his own, if he remained with them?

A piece of "blue ice" broken off an airplane strikes Anahid Havanessian, whose husband goes to Fisher & Diaz for a funeral...but changes his mind when, frustrated with the government for hiding that such deaths are common and suspecting Nate's silence is indifference, he's snapped at by Nate, who then snaps at David and Rico for telling him he lost them money by not demanding payment for the meeting when they "switched to the local chapel". Walking in the early hours of the morning to clear his head without success, and drinking heavily and sleeping with a bar prostitute, he's in bad shape and can't accept the news of his mother marrying George. David and Claire are also reluctant, since David is worried about his brother and believes it should be delayed and Claire is worried they haven't known each other long enough to wed, but they know they'll marry either way. Claire visits her father's grave and learns, along with the fact that he's OK with the marriage himself, Lisa, Gabe Dmas, and her child are all with him. David is encouraged by his father to make up with Keith, which he does at church by talking with him so long they forget to go in. They're both present for their mother's wedding, but Nate isn't - after getting the news that Lisa has been found drowned, he continues to drink heavily and gets into a bar fight. Rico gets into a situation almost as bad when getting the bad news that his sister-in-law, despite being a nuisance, won't leave yet. Angry with Vanessa, he goes to dance class without her then is invited to a strip club where he sleeps with one of the dancers, Sophia. Brenda prepares to date, but not sleep with, her charming neighbor Joe. Nate finally leaves the bar after losing the fight, drives drunk, and is haunted by visions of Lisa and Nathaniel urging him to drive off a bridge, and finally ends up at Brenda's.

Devoted Christian Dorothy Sheedy mistakes inflatable dolls floating from a truck bed for angels, and jumps out of her car, unaware of her surroundings, and is hit by another driver. Her husband, also strong in his faith, doesn't know whether his wife's death was an odd accident or suicide but remains calm about it, believing it was simply her time to die. Nate doesn't accept that and when David forces him to stop pressing the man with questions on why his beliefs are thus and why he won't appear more angry or saddened, he quits the business and confronts Ruth for trying to persuade him to stay at all. Keith goes to a job interview to be a celebrity's security guard. A plumbing-system problem causes blood to arise in all the building's drains, and David has an interesting reaction to the plumber that Keith takes in stride. Everyone else gives Ruth a hard time for putting George's belongings up in place of the family's. Rico continues to weakly answer Sophia's pleas to see him, spending less time with his family or at work.

Having agreed over the phone not to have sex with others, Keith on his return tells David of having slept with Celeste. Still stressed from his attack, David now worries that Keith will develop an interest in women. Claire is still having trouble coming to grips with her own sexuality. Her friend Edie no longer wants to speak to her but Jimmie suggests they sleep together. Claire is also surprised at school when she learns that Billy Chenowith will be their substitute teacher for the rest of the term. In the year he's been away he seems to have gotten his act together but does admit he's not seen his sister Claire in that time. Brenda and Nate are sleeping together regularly but her admission that she loves him elicits a strange and unexpected response. Ruth has no interest in returning home and she and Bettina set off for a holiday in Mexico that has its own surprises for them. At the funeral home, Nate and Rico's latest client is Lawrence Tuttle, a comic book collector who died when a bookshelf fell on him. Rico is still living at the funeral home and pining for Vanessa and the kids; George suggests it's time to move on and find a new woman.

George's infatuation with impending disaster is causing him nightmares. His daughter Maggie joins him and Ruth for dinner and she has a lot of stories about her dad. Later, Ruth is quite concerned when she finds George talking by himself to an imaginary person. Claire's showing of her work is a huge success but she ignores her friends in the process. Nate is stressing over Barb's threat to take Maya away from him. He learns more about the circumstances of Lisa's death, leading to another tragedy. David hopes that if he faces his attacker, who is now in prison, he will feel liberated. It doesn't quite work out that way. Keith gets an interesting offer from Roger, who had promised to drop his lawsuit against Dave in return for sex.

Lila Simmonds Coolidge passes away just before her 95th birthday...which she happened to share with Nate. This year, Nate's 40th is marked by the news that he'll be a dad, which he doesn't react to as enthusiastically as Brenda had hoped. Claire breaks off with Billy after a final night together because of his wild behavior off medication, while George's apologies to Ruth don't lessen her impatience toward his problems. Rico sleeps with Vanessa when he shows up to remind she forgot to pick their son up, but she ensures it will be the last time. At Nate's unwanted party where his mood is already low after accidentally revealing Brenda's pregnancy and creating more friction, a bird some consider to be an omen and others merely to be an annoyance continues to invade the house. When Nate is insulted for allowing its return by not closing the window it originally entered through, he takes out all his frustration on the bird.

Lawrence Hall Matheson chooses the wrong moment to check his pulse while jogging in a California "ecotone" - a cougar mauls him. Hospitalized following his seizure, an unconscious Nate dreams he returns home after he simply woke his asleep arm up and requested a divorce, while in reality Maggie struggles to answer medical questions and contact the family. David arrives only to learn that Anthony is terrified to be in a hospital, and Claire is accompanied the whole time by Ted, so she respects him despite the fact that he's Republican. The doctor, unfamiliar with Nate or the family, at first only manages to report redundant information, then finally concludes he should be fine, save some left-side weakness that therapy should eventually cure. Ruth doesn't have a cell phone so while everyone else awaits news of Nate, she is unaware of the situation and rejects Hiram, fantasizes revenge on all her boyfriends (and what her reaction would be to her husband), and after a long walk manages to start home via Chinese tour bus. Brenda guesses what "physical activity" caused Nate's heart to race just before his incident, and confronts him when he awakens, only to find her offer of forgiveness rejected: Nate says he's tired of fighting and is ready to give up on their relationship. When he and David fall asleep together, they both dream they're in the back of their father's VW bus smoking. A casual, relaxed David (Nate says he dreamed he was a whole other person) is surprised to see "what they've been waiting for" turns out to be the ocean, where Nate eagerly jumps in and encourages him to follow, though he's not as surprised as Nate and their father are that he balks and makes excuses about sharks. But David has to face the shock of his life when he wakes up.

The family prepares for the worst funeral of their lives. Ruth makes things worse on David by taking out her pain on him until he stands up for himself, and Nate makes things worse for Brenda by reminding her she had the chance to marry Joe if she doubted him. Claire, troubled by the fact that mainly negative memories come to mind, again finds comfort in Ted, who explains that it's not unusual. In the middle of the preparations, Keith gets an emergency call from Roger to remove a breaking-and-entering actor...who reveals Roger taped their affair as he promised he wouldn't, so Keith quits working for him. David has no other business so concentrates on the funeral to keep himself together, especially after a brutal insult from his father, who dodges the question on whether he had favoritism among his children but openly condemns David's gayness. Ruth's pain increases when learning it's a green burial so helps David in order to see the body. At the private burial, David is terrified when he imagines he's attacked by Jake in an orange-sweatshirt in the car and suffers another panic attack, so doesn't help. Ruth gets some comfort with Bettina's visit and, after the funeral, with Brenda's request for her to watch Maya until she can recover from her own pain...and anger.

Nate and Brenda's daughter Willa is born, but 2 months early and at only 2 lb. 4 oz., requiring a prolonged hospital stay. Nate is convinced she won't make it and insists that he can't accept it if she does and is "damaged", shaking Brenda's own confidence. Rico encourages David to sell the funeral home but instead he and Keith buy out Rico's 25% so he can start his own. David agrees to temporarily leave home, and goes to the funeral home. There he's confronted by Nathaniel about considering leaving the business and for his gayness, and is forced to fight his mysterious attacker back, then finally sees his face. Maya is returned to Brenda and Ruth has to face her own problems, until Maggie reveals Nate did see her, happily, as Brenda insisted. Claire takes up photography (of Ted) again and gets a job offer at a New York photo production company, but offers to be there for Ruth until she insists she go and unfreezes her account. Brenda gets a surprise visit from Nate, who finally shows love for his daughter, and someone else. Claire learns the company who gave the job offer has just failed, but Nate encourages her to go onto New York anyway.

Christmas Eve - and the one year anniversary of Nate and Brenda's meeting and Nathaniel Fisher's death - is approaching, and this year, the Fishers are requested by bikers to allow the funeral home to be open on Christmas Day so they can have a party/memorial service for Jesse Ray Johnson, who was involved in a motorcycle accident on his way to his part-time job as a mall Santa while greeting some kids. The family (and Rico) each remember their last moments with Nathaniel and, in most cases, regret what they didn't do for him before he died. On Christmas Eve Brenda's mother invites Brenda and Nate over for dinner with a "special guest", who turns out to be Billy. Ruth prepares to take Claire to church with David out to visit Keith and Taylor, but they never make it when they enter Nikolai's shop to see it robbed and him shot in the legs with both now broken. Ruth decides, to the chagrin of the family, that he'll stay with them until he can walk, since he has no insurance. Nate is forced to confess his AVM to Brenda when he has a seizure as they sleep together. On Christmas Day, Marrilyn Johnson offers Nate a motorcycle as a gift so he can live every day to the fullest. Toby, Keith, and Taylor are invited for dinner that evening. Rico has a good holiday with his family - until his cousin Ramone arrives to attack him when he's forced to tell Vanessa he's gay and she told his wife. Also, Claire's holiday takes an interesting turn when Toby calls her "hostile" and she drives him away, though she does enjoy keeping in touch with Billy Chenowith.

After a woman passes away in her sleep, her husband proves to be a very demanding client.

George's infatuation with impending disaster is causing him nightmares. His daughter Maggie joins him and Ruth for dinner and she has a lot of stories about her dad. Later, Ruth is quite concerned when she finds George talking by himself to an imaginary person. Claire's showing of her work is a huge success but she ignores her friends in the process. Nate is stressing over Barb's threat to take Maya away from him. He learns more about the circumstances of Lisa's death, leading to another tragedy. David hopes that if he faces his attacker, who is now in prison, he will feel liberated. It doesn't quite work out that way. Keith gets an interesting offer from Roger, who had promised to drop his lawsuit against Dave in return for sex.

A piece of "blue ice" broken off an airplane strikes Anahid Havanessian, whose husband goes to Fisher & Diaz for a funeral...but changes his mind when, frustrated with the government for hiding that such deaths are common and suspecting Nate's silence is indifference, he's snapped at by Nate, who then snaps at David and Rico for telling him he lost them money by not demanding payment for the meeting when they "switched to the local chapel". Walking in the early hours of the morning to clear his head without success, and drinking heavily and sleeping with a bar prostitute, he's in bad shape and can't accept the news of his mother marrying George. David and Claire are also reluctant, since David is worried about his brother and believes it should be delayed and Claire is worried they haven't known each other long enough to wed, but they know they'll marry either way. Claire visits her father's grave and learns, along with the fact that he's OK with the marriage himself, Lisa, Gabe Dmas, and her child are all with him. David is encouraged by his father to make up with Keith, which he does at church by talking with him so long they forget to go in. They're both present for their mother's wedding, but Nate isn't - after getting the news that Lisa has been found drowned, he continues to drink heavily and gets into a bar fight. Rico gets into a situation almost as bad when getting the bad news that his sister-in-law, despite being a nuisance, won't leave yet. Angry with Vanessa, he goes to dance class without her then is invited to a strip club where he sleeps with one of the dancers, Sophia. Brenda prepares to date, but not sleep with, her charming neighbor Joe. Nate finally leaves the bar after losing the fight, drives drunk, and is haunted by visions of Lisa and Nathaniel urging him to drive off a bridge, and finally ends up at Brenda's.

Having agreed over the phone not to have sex with others, Keith on his return tells David of having slept with Celeste. Still stressed from his attack, David now worries that Keith will develop an interest in women. Claire is still having trouble coming to grips with her own sexuality. Her friend Edie no longer wants to speak to her but Jimmie suggests they sleep together. Claire is also surprised at school when she learns that Billy Chenowith will be their substitute teacher for the rest of the term. In the year he's been away he seems to have gotten his act together but does admit he's not seen his sister Claire in that time. Brenda and Nate are sleeping together regularly but her admission that she loves him elicits a strange and unexpected response. Ruth has no interest in returning home and she and Bettina set off for a holiday in Mexico that has its own surprises for them. At the funeral home, Nate and Rico's latest client is Lawrence Tuttle, a comic book collector who died when a bookshelf fell on him. Rico is still living at the funeral home and pining for Vanessa and the kids; George suggests it's time to move on and find a new woman.

When the funeral director is killed in an accident, the family comes together to mourn and decide the fate of the funeral home.

Devoted Christian Dorothy Sheedy mistakes inflatable dolls floating from a truck bed for angels, and jumps out of her car, unaware of her surroundings, and is hit by another driver. Her husband, also strong in his faith, doesn't know whether his wife's death was an odd accident or suicide but remains calm about it, believing it was simply her time to die. Nate doesn't accept that and when David forces him to stop pressing the man with questions on why his beliefs are thus and why he won't appear more angry or saddened, he quits the business and confronts Ruth for trying to persuade him to stay at all. Keith goes to a job interview to be a celebrity's security guard. A plumbing-system problem causes blood to arise in all the building's drains, and David has an interesting reaction to the plumber that Keith takes in stride. Everyone else gives Ruth a hard time for putting George's belongings up in place of the family's. Rico continues to weakly answer Sophia's pleas to see him, spending less time with his family or at work.

Lila Simmonds Coolidge passes away just before her 95th birthday...which she happened to share with Nate. This year, Nate's 40th is marked by the news that he'll be a dad, which he doesn't react to as enthusiastically as Brenda had hoped. Claire breaks off with Billy after a final night together because of his wild behavior off medication, while George's apologies to Ruth don't lessen her impatience toward his problems. Rico sleeps with Vanessa when he shows up to remind she forgot to pick their son up, but she ensures it will be the last time. At Nate's unwanted party where his mood is already low after accidentally revealing Brenda's pregnancy and creating more friction, a bird some consider to be an omen and others merely to be an annoyance continues to invade the house. When Nate is insulted for allowing its return by not closing the window it originally entered through, he takes out all his frustration on the bird.

A drug-addicted actress dies from a cocaine overdose and leaves her fellow cast and crew members to set up the funeral.

The family prepares for the worst funeral of their lives. Ruth makes things worse on David by taking out her pain on him until he stands up for himself, and Nate makes things worse for Brenda by reminding her she had the chance to marry Joe if she doubted him. Claire, troubled by the fact that mainly negative memories come to mind, again finds comfort in Ted, who explains that it's not unusual. In the middle of the preparations, Keith gets an emergency call from Roger to remove a breaking-and-entering actor...who reveals Roger taped their affair as he promised he wouldn't, so Keith quits working for him. David has no other business so concentrates on the funeral to keep himself together, especially after a brutal insult from his father, who dodges the question on whether he had favoritism among his children but openly condemns David's gayness. Ruth's pain increases when learning it's a green burial so helps David in order to see the body. At the private burial, David is terrified when he imagines he's attacked by Jake in an orange-sweatshirt in the car and suffers another panic attack, so doesn't help. Ruth gets some comfort with Bettina's visit and, after the funeral, with Brenda's request for her to watch Maya until she can recover from her own pain...and anger.