Karen Postell Pepper suffers a hemorrhage to the nose while preparing to enter the "Making Love Work" TV studio with a question to ask Dr. Dave. Nate prepares to go on his first camping trip in 2 years (where he went without Brenda), with Lisa, Maya, and Dana, Todd, and their toddler daughter Spencer. By the time they arrive, though, he realizes he won't be able to drink 3 cans of beer that night or smoke cigarettes. Ruth becomes interested in Arthur the more she gets to know him, and rents a movie whose score he says he favors. David believes Russell is gay, though Claire doesn't and defends him from Olivier's harsh criticism. An obese man's body causes trouble for everyone when it falls from its extra-large coffin and Arthur, Ruth, Claire, and Russell must move it back. Lisa is annoyed with their friends' constant claims of affection for one another, but Nate simply grows jealous and worried that he can't seem to have any of those moments with Lisa refusing to smoke or hike with him. After mutilating a snake and forcibly demanding why no one will join him, he hikes alone to a towering mountain where he finds Brenda has been pursuing him. He agrees to kiss her but then sends her away - and she leaps off the cliff, and Nate wakes up from his dream. When he and Lisa finally do go out hiking, it's anything but peaceful when she takes his remark on how they differ from Spencer's parents to mean he rejects her, and he retorts that she won't accept him without change. They end up sleeping together passionately before returning home.

63-year-old polygamous family leader "Daddy" leaves behind 5 wives and numerous children of The People clan, making the Fishers intrigued about their spiritual and cultural beliefs, like their guarding his body throughout the embalming. Ruth gives Arthur an unwanted kiss and instantly breaks her vow not to do it again, so struggles to find a new way for her to express her passions for Arthur. Terry and Patrick invite themselves to Gay Paintball Day - which plays right into Keith's hands since he chooses to be on the opposite team as David as revenge for being taken to the hated brunch. Lisa schedules an appointment with Brenda under a false name to see if she and Nate are still passionate, but hears that Brenda has gone through some difficult times love-wise lately but is ultimately content now. Claire becomes suspicious of Olivier's motives for not letting Russell go on her errands with her when, in Azusa, a former assistant tells her she enjoyed sleeping with him as her job, then asks if this is a year he's chosen a male as his partner when Claire says she's never been in that position. Rico's concern for Vanessa and her possible depression turn to certainty of and anger for it when, despite his pleas for her to try to reconnect with her family, he finds she's neglecting them.

Melinda Mary Bloch shuts herself in he garage in her activated car by way of suicide, leaving behind only a guilty ex-lover who worries Rico when he mentions she'd actually received treatment for depression, and Nate when he admits he'd tried to end their relationship more than once but wound up staying longer than he wished. Lisa, who's been having arguments constantly with him, officially meets Brenda at Claire's art show where Billy also has a display, and Brenda confronts her about her sneaky meeting and assures her she isn't close to Nate. When she and Olivier run into Billy, Claire learns that Billy slept with Olivier when he was his student, heightening her worries about Russell. David and Keith, after both their secrets of paint-ball and 3-way sex have slipped in counseling, get approval from Frank to do the latter if both of them so desire, but David's agreement in public doesn't match his private doubts later on. Arthur gets close, in both senses of the word, to Ruth and they almost sleep together, but then he leaves abruptly, puzzling her.

Jeanette Louise Bradford has an allergic reaction to a bee-sting in Balboa Park, causing Keith to go to San Diego for his aunt's funeral and David to join him, encouraging him to discuss sleeping with a third man with him and to confront his father on his abusive childhood after the funeral. Russell admits he was sleeping with Olivier and an angry, betrayed Claire demands he leave her alone from now on. She and Ruth talk with each other about their relationship problems when Ruth learns Arthur is a virgin so there's nothing new to be gained from spending time with him. Vanessa is now again living life to the fullest, taking dance classes with Rico, but then collapses one night from too many medications. Billy, remarkably depressed after watching a poor video version of his and Brenda's beloved childhood book "Nathaniel and Isabel", kisses Brenda, who goes to visit Nate. Alone with Maya while Lisa goes to visit her sister's family in Santa Cruz, Nate consoles Benda until she begins to appear to want to become closer to him, and she quickly stops herself and departs. Keith and David are relieved to hear that Taylor is doing fine with Lucille and Roderick, but when Keith finally chooses to tell his father he's willing to forgive him for beating him and his sister, it's met with denial and quickly becomes a fight...and when David tries to calm both of them down for Keith's sake he's insulted by Roderick and unappreciated in his efforts by Keith, so leaves. When Nate calls Lisa's sister's, he learns Lisa hasn't yet made it to her place as expected, and isn't worried when he can't get through to her phone the first time...but he does start to be when he continues to call with no response.

Convience-store owner Dorothy Kim Su is fatally shot during a robbery. Nate is forced to file a missing-person report when he continues to hear nothing from Lisa. Construction-worker Edward Tully hits some electrical wires in the site where he's working during an earthquake, is electrocuted, and falls to his death. Nate calls David, where he's sleeping with Patrick, and tells him he's starting to panic, especially after the earthquake. Ruth has convinced herself, as usual, that everything, including Lisa, is fine, but doesn't convince Claire, who is set to believe she's died. David Jordan Monroe suffers a fatal heart attack while on a treadmill at his health club, giving Fisher & Diaz a full schedule of 3 funerals in one day, 2 at the same time. forcing David and Rico to quickly escort the mourners out. Brenda is now living in an apartment to avoid Billy, but Margaret forces both of them to show up to dump Bern's ashes, and when she can't be persuaded to place them where her kids know he would have preferred them, she chooses an unorthodox place to put them. Vanessa sees a psychiatrist who reduces her medication and her pushy sister Angelica comes over to help...by encouraging her to spend freely without Rico's consent, and ignore any practical advice he gives. Claire again refuses to take Russell back and confronts Olivier - before discovering that she is pregnant. Ruth finally accepts something terrible must have happened to Lisa and ends up crying on a man's shoulder when he comes to reclaim his glasses in the funeral home, but Gerge Sibley is accepting and sympathetic to her worries. When Lisa's car and cell phone are located in a state park, deserted, Nate checks into a nearby hotel and waits in despair, while David and Claire try to console him.

Woman-killer Carl Desmond Williman finally receives the death penalty by a lethal injection in Texas, and his unemployed daughter hires Fisher & Diaz for the funeral, and sleeps with Nate since they're both miserable and want to escape their problems, but he treats her unsympathetically the following day out of sheer guilt. David breaks up with Keith after spending more time with Patrick. Claire chooses to get an abortion and calls Brenda when she learns she needs a driver, who accepts. Ruth considers marrying George but does decide to slow things down a bit after learning he's been through 6 marriages. Angelica continues to give Rico grief at home. Claire tries to convince Nate to speak to Brenda after her favor to her but Nate's too wrapped up in thinking up everything that could've happened with Lisa to welcome her in, or pay attention to much else.

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.

Nate meets a divorced mom with a tot the same age as Maya and they soon arrange for a play-date for the kids - which turns out to be quite playful for them as well. David works with Arthur on his appearance - he buys him a new suit - and on his technique for dealing with clients. George and Ruth receive a wedding present that contains a tin of feces. She's convinced she knows who sent it. Sophia has Rico wrapped around her little finger and he agrees to pay for her new boob job. Claire is surprised when she learns that Edie is a lesbian. Joe tells Brenda he wants to spice up their sex life with a little role play.

Ruth is more convinced than ever that Arthur is responsible after they receive yet another package with feces. She decides she's going to lay a formal complaint with the police but George finally tells her it's not Arthur and knows who is sending these packages to them. David receives a frantic call in the middle of the night from Jennifer, his one-time fiancée, telling him that her father Lawrence Mason died from a lightning strike. He wants to help her out as much as possible but worries when her current fiancé seems less than supportive. When he reaches out to her she unleashes her pent up anger over their failed relationship. Nate begins to think that Lisa may not be dead. Brenda and Joe have dinner with Brenda's mother and Olivier. Keith has yet to come out at work and it's starting to weigh on him.

Although their earlier visit did not go very well, Ruth suggests they invite George's estranged son Kyle for dinner. She's also thinking of inviting a friend of hers and introduce them. Nate goes to a grief management class but has trouble relating to the other participants. At the funeral home, Rico and Dave console Anne Thornton's husband who blames himself for his wife's death. Claire doesn't react well to criticism of her self-portraiture photos. David picks up an apparently stranded motorist but it all turns nightmarish for him.

David has recovered physically from his carjacking but refuses to tell his family what really happened to him. At the funeral home, he has the case of Robert Meinhardt who he thought was a suicide but then learns he was shot in the head by burglars. David has a panic attack and has to call 911. George and Ruth attend an academic receptionist where she overhears a conversation and learns of George's philandering ways. It's David's birthday and Ruth has organized a dinner to celebrate the occasion. In the kitchen she lets slip to Vanessa that Sophie visited Rico. She also embarrasses George by lashing out at him. Nate gets a new job taking care of dogs in a canine retreat and is at peace with himself. Joe has found a house for he and Brenda but she drops in on Nate, not sure she can live a simple life with Joe.

Claire has taken a liking to her friend Edie but is having difficulty coming to terms with her emotions. With Vanessa suspicious, Rico decides to tell Sophie he can't come by anymore. She's at her manipulative best and he can't bring himself to break away. Vanessa follows him and assumes the worse when she sees her. Nate and Brenda have been sleeping together but he also goes on a date with a fellow worker from the pet retreat. George and Ruth's relationship is strained and he invites her on his annual fossil hunt. Their outing doesn't go well and they end up at her sister Sarah's house. Sarah's overcome her addiction but Ruth realizes she may have more in common with her sister than she would like to admit. Keith is on tour with Celeste who takes them to a gay bar.

David is living at home alone now that Keith is on the road with rock star Celeste. He does take advantage of an out of the blue call from an old acquaintance, Sarge, but still suffers from post-traumatic stress. Keith finally comes out to one of his co-workers but it's an encounter with Celeste that sends him packing. Ruth has come to the end of her tether when she returns from church to find that George has trimmed a tree her first husband had planted in the yard. She leaves a note saying she's gone away for awhile. Having told Joe that she has slept with someone on the side - without identifying who - she undertakes to try harder to be good. When Joe unexpectedly comes home and finds Brenda and Nate on the sofa half-naked, he doesn't have to guess who the other guy was. Claire comes to a decision on advancing her relationship with Edie but it leads to frustration all-round. Vanessa and her sister Angelica decide to visit Sophia and let her know just what they think of her fooling around with Rico.

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.

Nate dreads having to go to Idaho to visit Lisa's family and attend a service they have arranged. He and Brenda have reconciled and she convinces him that going is the right thing to do. He asks her come along. The visit goes well but after Nate returns to LA, the local funeral director tells Lisa's parents he doesn't think the ashes they interred were in fact Lisa's. David and Keith attend a friend's wedding and decide they want to adopt a child, though David seems to think it's more pressing. Ruth returns home and tells George what it will take for them to continue as a married couple. She invites George's son Kyle and her friend, who are now a couple, to dinner. Claire has a final confrontation with Edie and seems to be getting friendlier with Billy. Rico is happy to have spent some time at home with the kids but is quickly dismayed when he realizes that Vanessa has asked an old high school friend to visit her.

Brenda feels the clock is ticking and wants to have a baby sooner rather than later. Nate wants to think about it for a while. A lunch with her mother Margaret doesn't go particularly well - Margaret is rushed to the hospital. The event does give Brenda and Billy a chance to see each other again. George feels they should be preparing for whatever catastrophe may befall mankind. Ruth tells him of the old bomb shelter and he thinks it's just perfect. Claire's latest project gets raves from Billy and several of her classmates but she reacts badly when Russell claims to have originated the concept with her. She's thrilled though when she gets the opportunity display some of her work at a show. David learns that the man whose ear he's bitten is suing him for $500,000. There's one way he can get out of it but it involves Keith. At the funeral home, Rico and Nate deal with a particularly tragic case when four members of the Gorodetsky family - parents and two children - are killed in a car accident leaving only their eldest son to deal with it all. Nate is forced to admit to Lisa's sister Barb that he buried her in the desert.

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.

The insecure Andrea Kuhn is encouraged by her psychiatrist to disclose her true feeling to her family, and when she is happy being herself, her husband accidentally kills her after an argument. Ruth recalls how stress triggered a depressive psychosis in George and his treatment with electroshock. Brenda has a miscarriage in the eve of her wedding day. Billy invites Claire to move to his place. David and Keith are discussing the alternative for their baby, adoption or to rent a belly. Rico misses a steady relationship while dating women from an Internet site.

While trying to reach the newspaper on the sidewalk, Samuel Wayne Hoviak, who was the best high-school friend of Nate, falls and his truck run over him. In the funeral service, Nate meets their other former best friend, Tom Wheeler; they recall their adolescence and realize that they are getting up. The bitter and deranged Ruth has no patience with George, and they receive his daughter Maggie. David proposes Claire to donate her eggs for the baby of his own with Keith, but she refuses. Claire feels her art rejected by the owner of a gallery and Billy misses his former personality. Rico dates Sharon and does not understand her hint that she does not want to see him again. Brenda begins an internship in a free clinic and does not support her first day, seeking Margaret's influence to help her to find a better place to work.

In 1954 Loretta Smith Sibley committed suicide in front of her son George. With the anniversary of September 9th approaching, George is haunted by her presence enough to distract him at home, repeats his habit of placing unwanted food in his pockets, telling Ruth he was saving it, and confesses to Maggie that he again needs therapy. Ruth also has to deal with Claire confronting her after she freezes her account since she's no longer in school. Billy buys her the camera she wanted to purchase herself as they consider leaving for Spain, but Ruth disapproves of the whole thing. Rico runs into but is rejected by Vanessa at a church dating meet, so dates his former replacement Angela. Brenda befriends a co-worker after her first counseling experience results in a physical attack, and Nate befriends his stepsister Maggie, a divorcée whose son passed away at a young age.

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.

Diabetic Daniel Holzenchenko succumbs to the call of canned peaches...and leaves behind 2 brothers and 2 sisters who seem unable to agree on anything from refreshments to music to be used at his funeral. While trying to mediate them, Nate also has to figure out how to convince Brenda not to tell Maya that she is her stepmother and her real mother Lisa is dead. David and Keith go to an adoption agency picnic where they meet Anthony, and choose to foster and possibly adopt him and his brother, when Mary's news about conception changes to news of an error. Ruth tells her knitting group her patience with George has officially ended, and at their urging convinces him to find an apartment for them and a job for himself - but actually plans to leave him with the apartment. Claire has a worse time leaving Billy, pressured by Margaret as well as him. Julio torments another student so Rico volunteers to go in and explains his anger is actually from his parents' divorce, but Vanessa confronts him about what he says. Nate is advised to make a choice about talking with Maya from an interesting source, and gets a surprising response from Brenda.

Sarah O'Connor's best friend and Nate's first love Fiona Lenore Kleinschmidt falls down a mountain on a hiking trip with Sarah, causing she and her friends to stay a few days at the Fishers' and giving Ruth a good excuse not to show up to George's apartment for a few days...until Maggie notes she's put nothing of hers in the place. Claire applies for a temp agency job but the blandness of it is disappointing, especially with an art grant's rejection at about the same time. Anthony's older brother Durrel proves a rebellious, trouble-making thorn that Keith is all too eager to rid himself of but David wouldn't mind adopting, causing tensions to quickly mount as the social worker's visit nears. Vanessa's housekeeper Donna proves to have issues so Rico is unexpectedly asked to return to help with work. When Ruth finally does make it over to George after Sarah, Bettina, and the other drinking, smoking mourners have cleared out, he coolly reveals he knows her plan and breaks off with her, saving her the trouble.

Maggie Sibley's friend and fellow Quaker Peter Thomas Burns suffers a heart attack while watching a play, and Nate becomes intrigued about her faith when she brings it up. Brenda's blood tests reveal that her and Nate's child has a higher-than-usual possibility for developing Down's Syndrome or other complications at birth, and the doctor recommends amniocentesis to eliminate these factors. Ruth, feeling a misfit among other women in the sudden free time offered her without George, is displeased to hear that he wants the briefest divorce possible since he's already found another woman, so warns her she'd be marrying a depressed, sick man. Meanwhile, Rico is disgusted that sleeping with Vanessa is brief, to the point, and unenthusiastic, almost like another chore for him to help out with. Claire meets Ted, a lawyer, at work and eventually chooses to try to connect with him. David accidentally learns that Durrell will be performing in a school musical, and, remembering what it was like to have a parent who didn't have time to do it for him, he insists to Keith that they should go see him in it...despite the fact that Durrel's embarrassed enough about it not to want them to. After hearing Maggie admit her handicapped son's life was painful for her, Nate is inclined to agree with the doctor that Brenda should test to ensure there are no problems with her pregnancy, but Brenda is doubtful enough of his support to refuse.

Pilar Sandoval attempts to Rollerblade a steep hill while walking her dogs but literally doesn't make it when she loses control and is hit by a car. Brenda is upset with Nate's fists-up attitude toward the daughter they'll have, and is suspicious that his latest wish to attend Quaker meetings is simply to join Maggie. David, Nate, and Rico try but fail to agree on how to invest on the business, but it gives Rico a good opportunity to focus on pursuing his relationship with Vanessa. Ruth's babysitting experience with Durrel and Anthony goes sour when they don't return from playing basketball until Durrell drives the SUV home, and, only after David blames Ruth, is learned to have done it before. Later Durrell threatens Keith during a confrontation over it, and David learns from Anthony that he doesn't get they won't have to eventually leave. Ruth, encouraged by Claire to get a haircut, goes camping with Hiram again. Claire herself only attends Anita's show when Ted offers to tag along, and it goes smoother than she expects. The second night Nate attends a Quaker meeting with Maggie, Brenda goes there after her ultrasound with Jackie, only to find Nate absent, since he and Maggie got wrapped up talking and never went. As Brenda waits for his arrival, they sleep together...then Nate gets up, and immediately goes numb and collapses.

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.

Iraqi War veteran Paul Ronald Duncan receives a euthanasia in the hospital - and Claire, on drugs, takes out her own loss on the family by denouncing the war in general but also them for letting their son serve. Later, after several days of drinking, she is fired and fights Ted for taking her keys, then later crashes her car by trying to avoid hitting a deer when going to visit the family's newest grave. David can't find a way to express his feelings so colorfully, so is still plagued by nightmares and daydreams 6 weeks after the funeral, mostly involving an orange-hooded figure resembling his attacker. When reports come out that a similarly-clad child-killer is loose, David becomes increasingly worried about the boys, troubling his family enough to have Keith suggest he leave until he's calmed down. He's too distracted to talk business yet, so Rico begins to plan ahead for himself at Vanessa's advice, finds an available spot, and learns she's a natural when it comes to consoling mourners. Nate supports Ruth's keeping Maya permanently, so she argues when Brenda first attempts to pick her up until it's agreed to lengthen her temporary stay. Brenda plans to have Billy help raise Maya and her second daughter, until a troubling dream changes her mind. When attempting to reclaim Maya for a second time, Brenda's proposed argument is about to be delivered, when she goes into labor prematurely...

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.