Ricky is ignoring his chores to spend time with his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Ranny has started looking for his biological mom, and Bethany feels rejected at school because of her race.

When Noah tries to get Ricky on the high school basketball team, he is asked to coach it instead. Meanwhile, Jesse faces her own mortality, as she deals with the death of one of the zoo's beloved chimps; and she reaches out to Ricky's girlfriend, Darby, who has run away from her grandparents and is staying with the Becketts.

Ranny hurts Jesse's feelings by trying to locate his ""real"" mom; Darby's big break, an offer to join a band, threatens to break up her relationship with Ricky; Luis learns a lesson in honesty when Noah bends the rules and builds him a soap-box racer.

A hurricane strikes while their parents are away, leaving Ricky and Roxanna scrambling to protect the younger kids as the storm pounds the house and the alligators escape from their damaged pen. Meanwhile, Noah and Jesse race to get home, out of their minds with fear.

Jesse's trust in human nature is shaken when she saves a woman's life and is rewarded with a malpractice suit; Roxanna's doubts are confirmed when her prom date can't seem to forget his ex-girlfriend and threatens to turn the evening into a humiliating experience.

When objects start disappearing from the Beckett home, could the culprit be a ghost, as the kids believe. Or could it be Bethany's new friend, a strange, yet charming vagrant who lives in the woods and tinkers with his ""time machine?""

A flirtatious cheerleader causes Ricky to ponder a little extracurricular activity behind Darby's back. Meanwhile, Danny's secret crush on Shirley

Noah's intimidating father-in-law is a retired judge, who heightens the usual tension between them, first by blurting out the reason he's never had respect for Noah, then by introducing Ricky to hunting-against his parents' wishes.

Bethany and Hannah arrange a blind date for Shirley with their black teacher-without mentioning his color-and discover how race can divide good people. Meanwhile, a pregnant girl falsely accuses Ricky of being the father.

Ricky confronts the owner of a mistreated dog, spurred by memories of childhood beatings. Meanwhile, Bethany wears a hangdog look when Hannah wins the title role in a school play, and Ranny dupes Luis into enduring a broccoli-laden ""fast growth"" diet.

Ricky is upset when he finds sketches and letters that he thinks are signs of an affair between his mom and his dad's brother Travis, a free-spirited artist.