A series of minor setbacks disrupt Denise and Ryan's plans for their wedding ceremony, culminating in Denise finding her engaged brother half-dressed in Shannon's apartment.

Kurt gets depressed after his dog dies, so his friends try to help by giving Bo a burial at sea, complete with tributes, even though they hated the ""furry Anti-christ.""

Carrie knows that his life as a fisherman is often frustrating to Mike, and, after much persuasion, convinces him to take his boat out on a whale-watching cruise. All Carrie's friends go along with Carrie, Mike and Steve on the trial run. Shannon takes Bethany, Scott's daughter, who she's still trying to make friends with. Denise goes with Ryan, who's just lost his job at Mulligan Marine while she's taking extra hours on her job because they need the money. Jesse is there, upset because he things everyone's forgotten his birthday, and Kurt, who's writing an article in hopes of getting a job at the local newspaper, is also aboard. The cruise comes to an abrupt halt when they run into a dead whale. Back on shore, Mike gets so much ribbing from the locals that he gets into a fight and ends up with a court date. Denise stops speaking to Ryan when she learns he's taken baby Conner along to a wrestling match as part of Jesse's birthday celebration. And Carrie can't believe her eyes when she

Denise and Ryan invite their friends and in-laws for a Thanksgiving gathering plagued by a cornucopia of mishaps.

As Gloucester braces itself for a huge winter storm, Kathy prepares to take charge of emergency procedures in the mayor's absence, while Marge and Jesse do everything in their power to make sure The Pelican is destroyed so they can collect the insurance and leave town. Carrie, Shannon and Denise worry about where they'd work if The Pelican were gone. When Kurt does a front-page feature on Ryan, his unemployment and the family's financial straits, Denise is humiliated. As weather conditions get even worse, everyone seeks shelter at the high school, and the three women observe that everyone is hanging out in their old cliques and behaving just as they did in school. The three get into a heated argument about who's the smartest that they settle by breaking into the guidance counselor's office and going through the files.