As Kelly and Valerie pack Brandon's belongings for shipment, Kelly discovers a letter in which Val advised Brandon not to marry her. She turns everyone against Val and gets them to boycott her Thanksgiving gathering. Hoping to help Kelly understand Valerie's behavior, David details her troubled childhood. Although Val is not interested in her pity, Kelly insists on helping with Thanksgiving dinner. Kelly and Valerie establish another truce, but Valerie suddenly announces that she is moving back to Buffalo. She apologizes for all the trouble she caused, and thanks everyone for their friendship before leaving. David has a one-night stand with an apparent groupie, unaware that she is just seventeen years old. He faces statutory rape charges after the girl confesses to her parents. Noah blacks out while driving drunk and crashes his car. He fears that he may have been involved with a hit-and-run, and turns himself in. Donna's cousin Gina comes to town with an ice show. She loses her job and agent, but tries to hide the truth from Donna, who has always had a more privileged lifestyle than Gina. Noah goes on a bender following the death of the hit-and-run victim; Gina offers to watch over him. She kisses him in a photography booth at the amusement park. Noah is relieved to learn that he did not hit anyone with his car, and vows to stop drinking. Donna asks Gina to move into the beach apartment. Janet agrees to continue sleeping with Steve, but wants to see other people. She later admits that she isn't seeing anyone; she fears that Steve would hurt her if they dated. Matt and Kelly grow closer and share a kiss. Dylan surprises everyone by showing up at the house on Thanksgiving night.

After Kelly's grandfather nearly dies of pneumonia, she reluctantly gives the doctors permission to hook him up to a ventilator. Jackie and Kelly realize that the machines are taking away Ed's dignity without improving his condition. They decide to bring him home to spend his remaining time with his family. Kelly grows angry with Matt when he takes a case defending a tobacco company. He drops the case and quits smoking to impress Kelly, but she kisses Dylan. Donna agrees to let a troubled fifteen-year-old girl buy a dress on layaway. The girl's fellow gang members convince her to slice up the dress and return it as damaged goods. Sonia later apologizes and offers to work off her debt at the store. Dylan takes his bullet-riddled Porsche out of storage. He impresses Gina by coming to her defense when a drunk harasses her at the club. Dylan catches the guy and his friends vandalizing the Porsche; he gets a knife away from one of them and threatens to kill him. Dylan suffers nightmares about Toni and decides to sell the car. He burns the money he receives from the sale, then buys heroin in an alley. The network fires Samantha from her new show after she admits that she is gay. Samantha fears that Steve is ashamed of her.