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.

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.

In 1972, Bruno Baskerville Walsh took LSD at a party, and "flew" off the balcony where he stood, landing on a car in a parking lot. Ruth and George sleep together their first night of marriage...extremely loudly, annoying David and Keith, and Claire. The next day, Rico is guilty and tells Vanessa Angelica can stay however long she wants, but Vanessa actually kicks her out. Claire is furious with Nate for missing Ruth's wedding, until he returns home from sleeping with Brenda and announces her death. Claire tells Russell she aborted his child, and gets an amazing reaction. Rico goes to a church he doesn't attend and confesses his infidelity. Nate gets into an argument with Lisa's mother, who she never got along with - her mother insists she be cremated and placed in the family burial grounds, but Nate insists Lisa get her wish of a green burial in a national park without embalming. He and David can't see any way they can legally win, so Nate is forced to think of a solution that may not be legal, but right.