Julia's crafty and controlling mother, Erica, arrives in Los Angeles with her new Italian, boy-toy husband, Renaldo Panettiere, in tow. Shortly after her arrival, Erica announces to Sean and Julia her plans to take both Annie and Conor into her sole custody, manipulating an incarcerated Matt to testify against his dysfunctional parents in the process. Meanwhile, Mike announces his engagement to Kimber, an event which forces both Christian and Kimber to reconsider their own complicated relationship. Liz attempts to fix the situation between her and Christian. Elsewhere, Christian has sex with yet another random woman, Alexis Stone, a bartender who soon reveals that she is a male-to-female transsexual who wishes to undergo surgery to become a man once again.