Overton's younger sister, Olivia, comes for a visit, and Overton is extremely protective of her. When Overton can't make their planned trip to the botanical gardens, Olivia suggests that she could go to a movie with Kyle (with whom she had been flirting). Overton catches them kissing in the hallway and throws a bucket of water on Kyle, ruining his suit. Meanwhile, Regine decides to become a vegetarian, and forces her beliefs on her roommates by throwing out all the meat. Khadijah plots to convert her back to meat-eating by holding a barbecue and giving her nothing to eat but celery. Regine does not give in, but she and her friends agree to respect each other's values. After a pep talk from Synclaire, Olivia finally musters the courage to ask her brother to stop treating her like a kid.

When Khadijah drops by Scooter's house on an errand before the Halogen Records Halloween party, Regine discovers a fax from a woman telling Scooter how much she had enjoyed the previous night. Khadijah finds a bottle of perfume under the sink, and grows increasingly suspicious. Khadijah, Regine and Scooter are embarrassed when they are the only ones in costume at the party because everyone else donated their costume money to charity. Khadijah gets upset when several women are surprised to learn that Scooter has a girlfriend, and orders him to introduce her to every woman at the party. He finally asks about her territorial behavior, and she tells him about the fax and perfume. He says that he had a business dinner with one of the company's artists, and that the perfume is a promotional item. He tells Khadijah that she needs to trust him, and points out that she is so devoted to her work that she has been neglecting him. Khadijah vows to correct this problem. Overton, Synclaire and Kyle hope to get a cynical Max into the Halloween spirit by scaring the "bejesus" out of her. She proves unflappable, until Overton fakes a fall down the stairs and serious injury.

Max and Regine are surprised to learn that Synclaire has yet to sleep with Overton, even though they took the vacation to the Bahamas together. They encourage her to take the next step, but Synclaire is uncertain. She and Overton finally agree to have a romantic evening at his apartment the following night, as Kyle is out of town. After they experience a series of mishaps (including Overton's allergy to Synclaire's perfume), Synclaire admits that she is paralyzed with fear. She tells him that she is just not ready, and that she is feeling too much pressure from her friends. They decide to wait. Khadijah refuses to consider that her string of bad luck may have been caused by a broken chain letter.

Max takes a job as a telemarketer, unaware that her sleazy boss is a scam artist who sells subliminal tapes that do not contain subliminal messages. She is arrested while talking on the phone with Khadijah. Meanwhile, Overton sets up surveillance and begins recording all the girls' phone calls in the hopes of catching a prank caller. When the public defender assigned to represent Max proves to be woefully incompetent, she decides to represent herself. She points out that the boss was the only person to run, and cites this as evidence that the employees didn't realize they were committing a crime. She adds that she was making a personal call at the time that the police raided the building, and proves this through Overton's tape. The judge dismisses the case, and all the other employees ask Max to represent them. The judge recommends Max to the public defender's office, which hires her immediately.

Regine's doctor recommends that she undergo breast reduction surgery to alleviate her chronic back problems. After the surgery, Regine loses her self-esteem and begins throwing herself at men. Kyle assures her that she doesn't look any different, and states that her confidence and personality are what make her attractive to men. Kevon and the other neighborhood children blame Overton when a greedy ice cream man (who had been operating in the middle of winter) suffers a heart attack while reaching in the back of the truck for the Nutty Buddy that Overton had ordered.

Kyle suggests that his firm take advantage of the untapped financial potential of Africa by creating a mutual fund, and volunteers to handle the project personally. Lawrence informs Kyle that the firm is concerned about using Kyle as a representative, as his appearance--specifically his hair--isn't "corporate" enough. Kyle does not want his career to be curtailed over such a trivial matter, so he considers getting a haircut. However, he then suffers a nightmare in which he turns into a jester who obeys his bosses' every whim (and is forced to dance before Queen Max). He calls a meeting and informs his bosses that his hair is a symbol of his pride in his African heritage. He had believed that the firm made its decisions based on merit, and will not compromise himself. Kyle learns that only Lawrence was worried about his hair, and that his concerns were dismissed. The African mutual fund is approved, and Kyle receives a promotion. Meanwhile, Khadijah is distraught when she continually misses Scooter's phone calls from the road. She finally realizes that she cannot put her life on hold while waiting for the phone to ring.

Khadijah's long-time friend Sheri accepts a job as a columnist at Flavor. She quickly makes friends with Synclaire, and the two go out to lunch every day and constantly joke around at the office. An annoyed Khadijah claims that their antics are disrupting the office, but she is actually very jealous. After she loses her temper and stomps off to her room during a game of Clue at the apartment, Synclaire confronts her. Khadijah apologizes and admits that she has been feeling left out. Sheri quits her job at Flavor, as she earned more money free-lancing. Overton suffers from insomnia after buying a new box spring. He does not sleep for days, and behaves erratically. When he goes upstairs to check on Khadijah and Synclaire, he falls asleep on Khadijah's bed.

After observing the depressing lack of talent at the cafe's open mike night, the group persuades Kyle to sing the following week. Overton agrees to perform his stand-up comedy act in exchange for Kyle's participation. Kyle starts out well as he performs "When I Fall in Love," but begins stuttering when Max enters in a low-cut gown and sits directly in front of him. He runs out of the cafe, thus ensuring Overton's victory. Max teases him mercilessly about his failure, while Overton believes that Kyle's unresolved feelings for Max are responsible for the incident. He urges him to get back on stage to prove himself. Kyle delivers a brilliant performance of "My Funny Valentine." He sings most of the song directly to a swooning Max. While the girls needle Max, Kyle thanks Overton for his advice, which he believes has freed him from Max's influence. At that moment, Max looks over her shoulder and smiles at Kyle seductively. He returns her gaze. "Oh Lord! There they go again!" Overton sighs. Regine tries an unusual method to help Khadijah overcome her fear of public speaking for an interview with Black Visionaries.

Stetsasonic rose to stardom as “Hip-Hop’s First Band.” Step back in time with the seven-member band as they chronicle their electrifying musical journey.

Leon is uncensored about his 40 year journey as an actor. He has played iconic roles in award winning series like The Temptations and classic films like Waiting to Exhale, Cool Runnings, and The Five Heartbeats.

Dwayne begins teaching classes as Whitley takes a job as a director of a new dorm, encountering her first problem with a freshman seeking a place to stay.

Whitley tries to assign her dorm duties to Kim, the resident assistant. Lena faces trouble with the dean when she starts a fire in the dorm.

Whitley discovers Lena has a crush on Dwayne after he agrees to tutor her in calculus. Realizing Lena is homesick Whitley agrees to be her confidante.

Whitley organizes an art exhibit for the dorm dedication ceremony. Kim has objections to images that Whitley wants to include

Lena struggles to keep her grades high enough to maintain her engineering scholarship. Whitley wants to understand the issues of Byron's campaign in order to help him win.

Ron is hired to promote Dion's (a.k.a. I'm Down) concert. Freddie thinks that Gina is in an abusive relationship.

Dwayne and Whitley recall their honeymoon in Los Angeles. Whitley insisted on going shopping in Beverly Hills while Dwayne drove to Inglewood to pick up basketball tickets. During her excursion, not-guilty verdicts were announced for the police officers who beat Rodney King. The shopping center closed after the riots broke out, leaving Whitley stranded. After hearing the verdicts, Dwayne got out of his rental car and began kicking the tires. A cop drove by and decided to arrest him, much to the chagrin of his partner. The students and staff of Hillman discuss the case. Lena sees it as just another example of the injustice toward her race, while others criticize the prosecution for overconfidence. Freddie arrives, and stuns everyone by sporting straight hair and a business suit. She is enrolling in law school and helping med student Kim run the dorm. Lena calls her a sell-out, but Freddie argues that she is trying to make a difference from within the system. She feels that Lena's militant attitude will only land her in trouble. Charmaine, the talkative student who toured the campus the previous spring, enrolls at Hillman and rooms with Lena and Gina. A goofy freshman makes a fool of himself as he tries to hit on Lena, while she drools over a new basketball star.

Dwayne and Whitley recall their honeymoon in Los Angeles. Whitley insisted on going shopping in Beverly Hills while Dwayne drove to Inglewood to pick up basketball tickets. During her excursion, not-guilty verdicts were announced for the police officers who beat Rodney King. The shopping center closed after the riots broke out, leaving Whitley stranded. After hearing the verdicts, Dwayne got out of his rental car and began kicking the tires. A cop drove by and decided to arrest him, much to the chagrin of his partner. The students and staff of Hillman discuss the case. Lena sees it as just another example of the injustice toward her race, while others criticize the prosecution for overconfidence. Freddie arrives, and stuns everyone by sporting straight hair and a business suit. She is enrolling in law school and helping med student Kim run the dorm. Lena calls her a sell-out, but Freddie argues that she is trying to make a difference from within the system. She feels that Lena's militant attitude will only land her in trouble. Charmaine, the talkative student who toured the campus the previous spring, enrolls at Hillman and rooms with Lena and Gina. A goofy freshman makes a fool of himself as he tries to hit on Lena, while she drools over a new basketball star.

Charmaine annoys the other students with her pushy attitude in Dwayne's statistics class. Someone tapes a sign to her back that reads "digit ho." She assumes that Terrell is responsible, and he refuses to apologize. She calls him a hood, and they nearly get into a fight. Charmaine feels that Terrell humiliated her by publicly calling her a whore. She files a formal complaint. Although she finds his behavior deplorable, Freddie offers to represent Terrell in student court. She defends his right to free expression, points out that he was joking, and gets Charmaine to admit that she had also insulted students. Freddie finally realizes that Gina was actually the one who taped the sign on Charmaine's back. Terrell explains why he didn't deny the charges. He didn't think anyone would believe him because they had already assumed that he was a thug. Charmaine and Terrell make peace, and Gina is placed on academic probation.

During their Halloween party, a drunken Dwayne responds sarcastically when Whitley and friends discuss women's rights and the "Year of the Woman." He falls asleep on the couch after the party, and dreams that all of the candidates in the upcoming presidential election are women (including incumbent Georgia Mush and eccentric Texas billionaire Rose Godot, who can't decide whether or not she is in the race). Whitley is the philandering Jill Blinton, who frustrates husband Hilliard (Dwayne) with her lying and infidelity. Hilliard agonizes over the fact that no one--including his own wife--has any respect for his opinions. Dwayne wakes up and apologizes to Whitley for his sexist comments.

While Dwayne is out of town, Whitley buys a $700 business suit for a job interview. She fails to get the job, and accidentally stains the suit, which she had planned to return the next day. Freddie recommends that Whitley file for unemployment. Whitley irritates a claims officer with her self-important attitude and ignorance about the workings of the unemployment office. Whitley grows tired of being given the run-around and decides to get the money on her own. She sells several appliances and takes a phone sales job. The girls discuss Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale in their women's literature group. Dorian impresses Lena when he crashes the group meeting with Terrell. Charmaine constantly brags about her relationship with Lance and mocks her friends for not having boyfriends. However, Lena comforts Charmaine after Lance chickens out of a visit and breaks up with her over the phone. Ron and Freddie struggle to find time alone together.

Whitley takes a job substitute teaching for an unruly remedial class at a run-down junior high school. The students are completely out of control the first day, then suddenly behave themselves perfectly. Whitley discovers that they all purposely failed their tests. She considers giving up, but instead challenges the students to prove their intelligence. At the principal's suggestion, she uses her own background to cover the material left out of the outdated textbooks. Dorian finally asks Lena on a date. He stuns her by revealing that he does not believe in pre-marital sex. She decides that she is still interested in having a relationship with him.

Dwayne discovers that Whitley has goaded Kim into letting her assist in the planning of her own surprise birthday party. Dwayne takes Whitley to a cheap dinner and tells her that he scrapped the party. She feels that she deserves a nice birthday after her rough year, while he insists that she should have trusted him to plan the party on his own. Dwayne sends Whitley into the kitchen, then sneaks all of their friends into the living room to surprise her. Charmaine and Terrell struggle badly in French class. They refuse to accept help from prize pupil Gina, and all other tutors dismiss them as a lost cause. Terrified at the prospect of having their perfect grade point averages ruined, they hide a baby monitor in Gina's bag in an attempt to learn the contents of the oral midterm. Charmaine and Terrell get caught and automatically fail the midterm, leaving Charmaine humiliated. She admits that she wouldn't have been so desperate to get a good grade if Gina hadn't taunted her about her struggles. Gina points out that Charmaine treated her the same way in math. They apologize, and Gina offers to help her improve her grade.

Whitley lets Dashawn stay with her and Dwayne for the weekend. Ron helps Freddie plan a charity dance-a-thon.

Lena's childhood pals from Baltimore visit her at Hillman and proceed to butt heads with her new college friends.

Dean Davenport gives her students an assignment to write a dialogue detailing what might have been said during the only meeting between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Terrell and Charmaine show up late for an appointment with their friends. They reveal that a pickup truck full of guys harassed Charmaine, then tried to run them off the road after they retaliated. Charmaine files a police report, while Terrell becomes obsessed with proving his manhood. Dean Davenport discovers that Terrell has brought a gun to class with him. She announces that she is expelling him. Dwayne asks her to reconsider because Terrell is such a fine student, but takes him to task for his behavior. Terrell shows up to class so that he and Dorian can complete their assignment. He plays the role of Dr. King and speaks of the need to seek change through education rather than violence. The dean is impressed and decides to let him stay in school, provided that he keeps his grades up and completes a community service assignment. Meanwhile, Spencer repeatedly asks Kim to marry him.

Lena, Gina, Charmaine, Dorian and Terrell decide to rent a house together. While seeing the temperamental landlord about a plumbing problem, Gina, Charmaine and Terrell discover that he is Langston "Sweet Knuckles" Paige, a former major league baseball star. He is unsure about what to do with his life, so they encourage him to enroll in college. Langston accompanies Terrell to class to check out the Hillman campus. He finds that the professor is an old flame. Gina's abusive ex-boyfriend Dion violates his probation by contacting her. He finally shows up in person in an attempt to win her back. She repeatedly turns him down, and learns that Dion hasn't really changed at all. Langston steps in and manages to convince Dion to leave Gina alone.

Dwayne begins teaching classes as Whitley takes a job as a director of a new dorm, encountering her first problem with a freshman seeking a place to stay.

Whitley tries to assign her dorm duties to Kim, the resident assistant. Lena faces trouble with the dean when she starts a fire in the dorm.

Whitley discovers Lena has a crush on Dwayne after he agrees to tutor her in calculus. Realizing Lena is homesick Whitley agrees to be her confidante.

Whitley organizes an art exhibit for the dorm dedication ceremony. Kim has objections to images that Whitley wants to include

Lena struggles to keep her grades high enough to maintain her engineering scholarship. Whitley wants to understand the issues of Byron's campaign in order to help him win.

Ron is hired to promote Dion's (a.k.a. I'm Down) concert. Freddie thinks that Gina is in an abusive relationship.

Charmaine annoys the other students with her pushy attitude in Dwayne's statistics class. Someone tapes a sign to her back that reads "digit ho." She assumes that Terrell is responsible, and he refuses to apologize. She calls him a hood, and they nearly get into a fight. Charmaine feels that Terrell humiliated her by publicly calling her a whore. She files a formal complaint. Although she finds his behavior deplorable, Freddie offers to represent Terrell in student court. She defends his right to free expression, points out that he was joking, and gets Charmaine to admit that she had also insulted students. Freddie finally realizes that Gina was actually the one who taped the sign on Charmaine's back. Terrell explains why he didn't deny the charges. He didn't think anyone would believe him because they had already assumed that he was a thug. Charmaine and Terrell make peace, and Gina is placed on academic probation.

Thelma has written a full length play and is ecstatic when it is chosen to be produced as the local theater's latest production. Thelma quickly realizes a few changes to her manuscript may be needed, but it soon feels like almost everything will need to be changed to please the theater owner.

Willona's boyfriend, Frank, continues his efforts to try to get her to marry him. She finally agrees to it and begins wearing his engagement ring. Meanwhile, down at the boutique, Willona gets a promotion but Frank is determined to get her to turn down the offer. It seems Frank holds some old-fashioned thinking, when it comes to being the breadwinner in the family which leads Willona to have second thoughts about marriage

The Evans children and Willona are pleasantly shocked to learn that Thelma has been dating the nationally renowned football player Keith Anderson, a Heisman Trophy candidate currently negotiating a 1,000,000 dollar professional contract with the Chicago Bears. When Keith proposes it only remains for Thelma to phone her mother in Arizona to ask her blessing.

Florida arrives home after hearing the news of Thelma's engagement. However, Thelma's impending wedding may never take place, that is if she lets her pre-wedding jitters get the best of her. Meanwhile, J.J. loses his job.

After losing his job, J.J. takes out a $1,000 loan from Sweet Daddy Williams, to pay for Thelma's wedding. The wedding finally goes off without a hitch, but after the ceremony the couples' exit down the aisle ends with Keith breaking his leg.

It's the day after the wedding, and J.J. does his best to make newlyweds Keith and Thelma comfortable, but Keith snaps at him. Florida tells him that the Evans family had faced a lot of adversities but they have always stood together. And not a moment too soon, because Sweet Daddy Williams and his flunkies have come to collect their loan!