Lloyd returns to Stuckeyville, and his new scheme is selling makeup for men. When he's prosecuted for being part of a pyramid scheme, Ed doubts Lloyd's claims that he knew nothing about it, creating friction between the brothers. After Mark's father has a heart attack and Mark gets bad news about his own health at his annual checkup, Mike and Warren convince him to have gastric bypass surgery. Ed and Carol smooth over the rough patch in their relationship and become friendly again.
Don Rickles plays a neighbor who dispenses some unorthodox advice when Bernie is told he has high cholesterol. Though it's a sore shoulder and badgering from Wanda that sends Bernie to the doctor, he comes away sore at the physician for weighing him down with bad news. The problem can be controlled through diet and exercise, but that would mean avoiding the finer things to which Mac is accustomed... like fries from Royal Burger. But neighborly Don Rickles suggests that stress is the real problem, and what causes stress? Why, dieting, of course! And that's the case Bernie presents to an incredulous Wanda.
Trip boards an alien cargo vessel to help repair a stasis pod, which holds a beautiful woman in suspended animation. When the woman accidentally wakes up, she reveals she's not a passenger, but a prisoner.
Grissom, Warrick, and Nick investigate the case of man who apparently was murdered and pushed off a six story building. Grissom's involvement is cut short by renewed hearing problems. Catherine looks into the murder of man outside of his regular bar.
General Beers kidnaps Allie, an alien-hybrid, and plans to use her as bait to lure the aliens into his trap.
Jay decides to attend a ""Open Your Heart"" seminar for struggling couples, even though she and Michael are happier than ever. Her excuse is ""prevention"", but Michael warns her not to try fixing something that isn't broken. At the seminar, they are teased against each other and stop talking to one another. It takes Kady suffering an accident at school for them to realize how important communication between them really is. Meanwhile, Michael wants his children to learn the value of money and tells Jr. to start his own business selling monkeyfish like he. Jr., instead of the monkeyfish, decides to get 100% refunds on the clothes Claire buys with a 40% discount at the store she's working. When Jr. gets caught, Claire gets fired and Michael punishes him by making he wear the clothes he wanted refund.
In an effort to redeem himself days before Christmas, Cartman decides to bring Christmas to the Iraqis. So, along with Stan, Kyle, and Kenny they catch a ride with Mr. Hankey to the North Pole to bring Christmas to Iraq.
It's December 23, and the holiday brings several visitors to the White House: Zoey comes home with her new French boyfriend in tow; aided by Josh, Toby's father seeks a reconciliation; and Danny arrives bearing gifts of gold and a heads-up for C.J. about Shareef's death. Will moves into Sam's office at Toby's insistence, and is treated to some good-natured ribbing by the rest of the staff. Bartlet and Leo try to exorcise their guilt about Shareef by adding eleventh hour funding to combat infant mortality in the federal budget, and promoting peace in the Mideast, respectively.
Will Truman and Grace Adler are best friends living in New York, and when Grace's engagement falls apart, she moves in with Will. Together, along with their friends, they go through the trials of dating, sex, relationships and their careers, butting heads at times but ultimately supporting one another while exchanging plenty of witty banter along the way.
The smoldering corpse of an Asian girl found outside the Chinese consul general's apartment leads the detectives to believe she had made a political statement. When forensics shows that she had been murdered beforehand, they find themselves in the middle of a religious conflict with the consul general their prime suspect and his attorney an old friend of District Attorney Branch.
When Angie's parents, Vic and Emilina, come to visit the family for Christmas, George thinks they still believe he's not good enough for their daughter. But George shows he can take care of his family without their help and battles it out with Vic for the best Christmas.
Paul tries to find perfect gifts for the family to make up for last year's Christmas fiasco. Kerry finds a stray dog during the holidays. Cate is overjoyed when she is asked to sing a solo at the church's midnight service, but fears that seeing her family there will make her nervous.
Misty has returned to Cerulean City to step in as the Cerulean Gym Leader. But as soon as she arrives, she hears a news report about the Pokémon Investigation Agency closing Gyms that fail to meet proper standards—and rumor says Cerulean City is their next stop! Unaware that three of her enemies are in town, Misty rushes to the Gym and finds an out-of-control Gyarados in the pool. Neither Nurse Joy nor her sister's fan club can control it, and she can't just stick it in its Poké Ball while it's still upset. It's Misty's duty as Gym Leader to solve the problem, except she's also had a Gyarados phobia ever since she was a baby! Misty puts on a water show costume and swims in the pool, hoping to stir Gyarados's memories of performing together back when it was a Magikarp. Instead, Gyarados turns the pool into a raging whirlpool, and Misty blacks out. As her Horsea rescues her, she dreams of Ash and Brock telling her she can do this on her own.
Zim's Yuletide plan to overtake Earth by posing as Santa starts to backfire when he takes on characteristics of the Jolly Old Elf. Dib, meanwhile, tries to save the population from impending doom.
A business trip to France is at stake as Andy and Byron jockey for Jessica's favor, with Andy promising to care for her cat, which he loses.
When Jackie's father is arrested for bribery, Kelso thinks she'll come running back to him. But when Hyde and Kelso get into a brawl over Jackie, Kelso accidentally shoots Hyde with a BB gun and all hell breaks lose. Donna and Eric argue over how Hyde should deal with Jackie's pain. Meanwhile, Fez realizes he has a crush on his boss at the DMV.
Frasier and Niles bicker over who gets to host the family Christmas celebration. When it seems that Martin will have to work, they decide to bring Christmas to him, with disastrous results. Meanwhile, Roz finds herself attracted to a hunky shopping mall Santa.
Andy and Theo move out. Tony thinks about calling it a day with his ex-wife. Sipowicz and Clark Jr look into the threats made to Clark Sr. A distressed, schizophrenic young man keeps saying "she can't breathe".
Kelly travels to Europe for a series of interviews and appearances. She is upset when her bag is lost (apparently seized by security because of concerns over her gun-shaped pin), leaving her without any extra underwear. She first visits Germany, where she deals with several adoring fans and tries to fake her way through a radio interview conducted in German. Kelly then goes to England to perform ""Papa Don't Preach"" on Top of the Pops. Jack heads to North Carolina to film a guest spot for Dawson's Creek. Sharon is depressed about the fact that everyone is away at the same time. Ozzy tries to cheer her up by building a fire outside the beach house so that she can spend some time outside. The fire department gives him some advice on building a pit for the fire, but the ocean is not very cooperative. When the fire finally gets going, Ozzy gives Sharon a good laugh when he tries to catch a fish in the ocean--and ends up falling on his butt.