Although he still hates his job, Paul settles into life at the electronics store. He bonds with a fellow employee, a young Ukrainian immigrant named Mykail, who in turn bonds with one of his customers. While Paul still struggles with his job situation, that struggle which includes reporting to a barely of age weaselly assistant manager, Cathy aims for an extra job at the school with more pay as the girl's swim coach. She is able to convince the principal to give her the job at least temporarily until the principal can find or wants to find a more permanent coach. Cathy believes she is both well suited to the job, and something she needs in her life right now. The only aspect she doesn't like is dealing with "stage" parents, one in particular who thinks he can do the job better than her. Meanwhile, Adam brings something into the house that threatens both his relationship with Mia as well as Cathy's position as swim coach.

Cathy receives two minor pieces of bad news on her latest check up. The first is that none of the drugs' listed negative side effects have afflicted her, which to her means that the drugs aren't working. The second is that she has high blood pressure. Despite Cathy disregarding it upon Sean's suggestion, Cathy takes Lee's advice to visit an acupuncturist - his acupuncturist - to treat the high blood pressure. The acupuncturist has slightly better news: she immediately relaxed, which means a drop in blood pressure, when Lee entered the room. The acupuncturist attributes that relaxation to her and Lee being soul mates, which to Cathy can only mean in the spiritual but non-sexual sense seeing as to Lee's homosexual orientation. But those homo/heterosexual boundaries between Lee, Cathy and Paul are tested, as are Cathy's notions of what it means truly to be one's soul mate. Meanwhile, Mykail is anticipating his first date with Andrea and what he hopes will happen.

Cathy, Paul and Adam are getting ready to head to Italy for the Christmas holidays using Paul's cut from the electronics store thefts. They still haven't found Sean, but they feel they need to focus on themselves as a family. They are also leaving behind Andrea who is in engaged bliss to Mykail, with who she will spend the holidays. Owen tells Paul about the imbalance in store inventory, which leads to a revelation from Mykail which could affect his relationship with Andrea. Adam spends time with Poppy before he leaves. But he also finds out some information about Poppy's reality, which ultimately makes him understand why she acts the way she does. And Dr. Sherman asks Cathy to be "show and tell" to one of his classes. She tries to make her reality and the students' reality a little closer together. And just before the Jamisons are ready to head to the airport, Cathy receives a telephone call from Lee, who has an important pre-Christmas request from her.