Brian, Michael and Emmett swap stories of last night's sexcapades—and it's only after we've heard the details that we realize we're in the cafeteria of the hospital where Ted lies in a drug-induced coma, his survival in question. While Ted's friends confront the chill of this, Justin is hot from the memory of his triumph last night at Babylon (as seen in the pilot). At home, in the shower, he tries to scrub off the disco tattoo from his wrist while, unknown to him, his worried mom finds in his bedroom a sketchpad with drawings of naked boys in a locker room and a telltale name—BRIAN—written out hundreds of times.

Back at the hospital, the friends leave their sleeping comrade to go to work. Brian seems heartless, insulting Ted's lack of drug knowledge and his foolishness for taking drugs at all with someone he didn't know. No one can see out how he can be so cold at a time like this—but that's Brian, or so they think. . . .

And back to Justin, at school, half attentive to an earnest teacher's explication of The Great Gatsby as a parable of American yearning, super-attentive to the sight of Christian, the good-looking jock who sits in front of him. Christian gets into a punching contest with a boy next to him and is given clean-up duty as punishment. Justin, surprisingly crafty, comes in to (artfully) "help", and winds up giving the straight Christian a hand job.

Melanie, meanwhile, comes to visit Brian at his office, not in her capacity as pain in the ass but—a surprise—as the comatose Ted's lawyer. Ted, it seems, has made a living will in which he has named Brian to be the one who decides whether to pull the plug if he should ever find himself in a situation—well, like the one he's in. Melanie warned Ted about Brian's turpitude and flakiness, but he named Brian anyway—and now Brian is left with a real problem: Will he accept what Ted asked of him? Why does a responsibility like this fall on him?

Back to Jennifer, Justin's mother, who engineers a coveted trip to Niketown and uses the chance to bravely ask him if a) he's gay and b) who's Brian. Justin flips, unable to tell his mother the truth, and bolts from the car. Bravado on the dance floor is one thing....

At the same time, Michael gets some disturbing news from Ted's mother, to whom he's kindly brought food in the hospital. She's planning to go to his apartment and get some things for him to have around when (she's in denial) he wakes up. Denial or not, Michael hastily phones Emmett and tells him of a service they must perform for their friend. On his thirty-third birthday, a few months ago, his friends gave Ted thirty-three dildos. They have to collect them and all his porn before his mom gets there that evening.

Brian takes action, too. He goes to Lindsay and Melanie's house to decline Ted's living will request. Melanie uses this as an opportunity to express her deep contempt for Brian. Brian, afterwards, is joined by Lindsay, who sees the pain he's in and hears his real question. All these machines and beeps attached to Ted tell us he's alive, somewhere inside there. But how do you know you're alive—really alive—when you're just walking around, in non-extraordinary circumstances, just living your life? As the two old friends try to figure this one out, Justin, on his made course, convinces Daphne to help him find Brian. The worst has happened—Mom knows!—and only Brian, who in Justin's eyes knows everything, will know how to help him and what to do. Daphne, hesitant but turned on by the adventure of it all, agrees to help.

It's time now for the dildo hunt, at Ted's place. Michael and Emmett find the dildos, and the porn, and something else: many pictures of Michael, indicating Ted's secret feelings for him. As the two friends ponder what this might mean, the other two friends, Justin and Daphne, decide that the best way to find Brian is to find Debbie. The two teens wind up at her house and cause her to call her son Michael to come home and help figure this out.

While all this goes on Brian goes to the hospital where, believing himself alone, he speaks to the comatose Ted about the burden Ted has imposed upon him. But he hasn't been totally alone, it turns out; a sexy male nurse has overheard it all and, as he and Brian fall into an intensive-care screwing session, Ted's eyes open and he's once more among the wakeful.

Back at Debbie's house, a pissed-off Michael can't figure out how Brian's teenaged trick has wound up a squatter in his own mother's house. Debbie and Vic are both puzzled and amused by the budding little drama queen. Brian finally shows up, bringing news of Ted's recovery. Michael insists he go deal with Justin upstairs, and deal with him he does. It turns in to a furtive, hot little sexual encounter, which Michael first senses and then sees. Michael and Debbie wind up taking Justin home to his worried mother. The next day, Brian and Michael bring Ted home, Brian, in a moment alone with Ted, asks him why Ted chose him to be the plug-puller. "Because he's a heartless shit," Ted answers, never knowing the extent to which Brian has looked into his secret soul.