Joel Evans

Guardianship duties fall upon Lip, who bans Frank from smoking weed to make the house presentable to the social worker who will drop by at the house at any moment. After planning on taking Liam with him to his classes, Lip gets some unexpected assistance from Amanda in the form of babysitting and snacks from her family in Florida. Carl defends his family when two students at his school make fun of Liam's incident while on the bus. Mickey searches for Ian and discovers where he's at. After trying to talk him into coming home, Mickey waits for Ian to finish work, finds him passed out due to drugs and brings him to the Milkovich home. Debbie tries to make Matt a nice dinner as a part of their anniversary, Matt breaks things off with her, citing that she's too young. Fiona sees her public defender who says she may serve some time if she pleads guilty, though Fiona is stern to believe that she's not guilty. Later that night, Lip and Fiona fight and come to a realization on the incident with Liam. The Alibi Room gets robbed of what little cash Kev had saved up, prompting him to get a gun for protection. Meanwhile, Frank is trying to adjust to his conditions and decides to write a book about his escapades with alcohol and drugs, while Samantha interprets this as Frank's memoirs which angers him to hear. To calm him down, Samantha gives Frank hard drugs which causes him to pass out in the bathroom and soil himself, prompting Lip and the rest of the Gallaghers to kick her, Frank and Chuckie out. Fiona comes to her hearing where the judge states she be under house arrest instead of facing jail time and charged as a felon. When asked on how she is to plea, Fiona replies "I'm guilty."

Hank crashes with Karen and Becca while looking for power agent Larry Levine; when he finds him, Levine quickly sets up a meeting with German filmmaker and idol Lars Manderhoff; Hank also bumps into old flame Trixie. Emotional and distraught from recent losses, Charlie seeks comfort from Marcy while dealing with Lizzie getting her big-break role in Santa Monica Cop thanks to Stu.

Despite being very close to losing her job, Maggie is able to get herself assigned to the flight going to Rio de Janeiro. As she looks back on the path she took to get her job, she realizes she would do anything to keep it. Kate is given an assignment involving Niko, a Yugoslavian diplomat, and she tries to balance both the task at hand and her growing relationship with him. Dean is growing annoyed as Ginny continues to vacillate between him and her boss.

Eric meets with Harvey Weingard to inform him that Medellin is off the table. Vince and Drama take the mayor of Beverly Hills out for a night on the town, only to have his night exposed on a tabloid website. Ari's mishandling of a top-secret script lands him in jail.

Drama plans a welcome-back party for Vince at his new condo, but his obsession with keeping the place pristine puts a damper on the festivities. Ari and Mrs. Gold learn that their son may not get in to their daughter's exclusive private school. Billy's insecurities prevent Eric and Vince from seeing the first cut of Medellin.

Christmas signals Nathaniel's one year death anniversary causing everyone to reminisce; Margaret has a special present for Brenda. Nikolai is beaten and mugged on Christmas Eve and Claire brings her new boyfriend to dinner. Brenda is inappropriately intimate with a total stranger in the middle of an upscale clothing store.

The funeral for a psychic's husband raises many interesting questions; Ruth attends a self help seminar. As Mrs. Piper transitions her husband into the afterlife, Nathaniel questions his sons on where he may be.