Joey starts a fire while on a field trip with his class, causing Kim and Jimmy to reevaluate their parenting styles and inspiring Kim to try to rebuild her family, starting with a reconciliation with Jimmy. But Jimmy's relationship with Brooke is not nearly as wobbly as Kim would like to think, and Kim ends up jumping into bed with a stranger and then commiserating with her mother over her problems with men, ending in a confrontation with Brooke that forces Kim to rethink what's best for Joey in the matter.

Bobby's attempt to keep Paulie away from drugs ends tragically.

Faith and Bosco hunt down the dealer who distributed a batch of lethal heroin; depressed over Bobby's death, Kim attempts suicide.

Ty, Sully, Bosco, and Faith rush to the scene of a school shooting; Sully and Tatiana ponder their future together; Kim continues to struggle with her depression.

On September 10, 2001, Ty and Sully are in Atlantic City on the eve of Sully's wedding to Tatiana. Kim sinks deeper into depression. Bosco searches for anything to do after someone lets out the result of the Giants game he had taped to watch after shift. Jimmy keeps trying to catch up on some sleep after nursing a sick Joey.

It is September 21, 2001, and the squads continue to battle through their emotions and their misgivings about their hero status, while working double shifts and spending every free moment at "the pile" searching for the missing. Kim returns to work and teams up with Doc, which allows an emotionally frayed Alex to return to paramedic duty; an exhausted Sully attempts to co-exist with his prospective in-laws while he waits for an opportunity to marry Tatiana.

Bosco runs from the present and his past when he is wrongly suspected of murdering a sexual assault suspect. As Faith tries to gather evidence to clear him, Bosco turns to his dysfunctional family, including his alcoholic mother, drug-addicted brother and estranged, abusive father. An emotionally rattled Kim virtually kidnaps Joey from Jimmy while Carlos actively solicits Ty to be his new roommate.