Despite Valerie's warning to stay away from him, Kelly decides to pursue Tom, which adds an extra dimension when he and Brandon, who still holds feelings for Kelly, face off in a hockey game. Donna is denied a permanent restraining order against Slan, while David becomes overprotective of her. Meanwhile, Tracy lets slip the three words "I Love You" to Brandon. Also, Clare and Steve's weekend of house-sitting at a bungalow prompts talk of them living together.

Donna's stalker, who is finally revealed to be a disturbed TV station worker, named Evan, takes her, Brandon, Tracy and a group of other people hostage in the campus TV station, where Brandon tries to calm down everyone's heightened tensions as Donna sits in front of the running cameras with a gun to her head. Meanwhile, Steve and Clare travel with their parents to a getaway in San Diego where they try to cool down the burgeoning romance between them. Also, Tom and Kelly's attraction between each other increases and David finds himself drawn to Chloe Davis, a aspiring singer determined to make it big.

On Valentine's Day, Donna's former beau, Cliff Yeager, shows up and causes concern for her and David. Meanwhile, Valerie's mother, Abby, whom she can't stand, arrives in town from Buffalo for a visit and asks Val for financial support. Steve commits yet another error with Clare when he decides to take up smoking pot with Dick Harrison. Chloe makes her singing debut and David get to be the MC for Luther Vandross at the Peach Pit After Dark's Valentine's Day party. Kelly continues dating Tom, and an unhappy Valerie tries to halt the union. Also, Tracy gets a big surprise from Brandon when she mistakenly thinks he bought her an engagement ring.

Kelly learns that her old engagement ring that Brandon bought for her years ago is the cause of the continuing friction between him and Tracy. Meanwhile, Donna can't decide whether to be with Cliff or David, while Chloe makes a move on David after she tells him that Donna is not the woman for him. Clare tells Steve to give one of his step-brothers, Ryan, an advance talk about the birds and the bees. Valerie finally confronts her mother and tells her the true, long-kept facts behinds her father's suicide which are: her father killing himself on the day Valerie and Tom threatened to go to the police with the fact that he's been molesting her. Also, Abby then flies back to Buffalo and Tom soon follows suit.