Freddie Cork threatens to kill Michael unless Tommy gives up the state contracts to him. Meanwhile, Michael takes on one of Freddie Cork's underlings, who controls Michael's old territory. Eileen, Tommy's wife, is sleeping and doing drugs with Carl, her ex-boyfriend. Michael eventually strikes an agreement with Freddie, at least for now.
Defying Freddie's direct orders, Michael and his old partner, Pete McGonagle, intimidate a local merchant into selling them her store for half its worth.
A local garbage strike puts Tommy in the difficult position of mediating between the garbage collectors' union, controlled by Freddie Cork, and the mayor of Providence.
Tipped off by Moe Riley, Treasury agents who are looking for Michael's counterfeit currency raid Rose Caffee's house during Sunday dinner, while the entire family is present.
When Freddie Cork refuses to let Michael and Pete play on his softball team in a local bar tournament, Michael goes out and takes over his own bar. When the two teams meet, tensions rise.
When Declan and Ralph mistakenly shoot an undercover federal agent, Michael steps forth to help them get rid of the body. Though Declan and Ralph get away clean, their partnership is now contaminated. Tommy's embarrassed that he had to borrow money from his in-laws and sets out to pay them back. Using his political pull with the zoning board, Tommy lands himself a hefty real-estate commission.
When the owner of Tommy and Michael's childhood movie theatre ends up in debt to Michael, Michael convinces Tommy to help save the theater from the wrecking ball. Tommy agrees, on the condition that Michael have nothing to do with the big benefit Tommy organizes. Michael sticks by the deal, but Freddie Cork steals the fundraiser proceeds and the theater is forced to close.
Michael takes his old girlfriend Kath Perry on a milk run to New Jersey to pick up some money for Freddie. When the plan goes awry, Michael resorts to what he knows best - violence. Kath sticks by him, and he realizes how much he cares for her. Sensing Michael drifting away from her, Rose goes overboard in planning a surprise birthday party for him, only to be angered when Michael shows up with Kath in tow.
A bus loaded with people from "The Hill" crashes while returning from a Patriots football game. The accident is caused by a suicide-jumper, leaping from a highway overpass. The jumper was Freddie Cork's oldest son Ricky. Freddie enlists Tommy to get Ricky a proper Catholic funeral. Michael discovers that Ricky was gay.
Neil Caffee, Tommy and Michael's father, threatens to sell Rose's house unless they bailed him out of a financial mess. Tommy and Michael want Neil out of their lives.
Everyone attends a big Irish wedding. Moe Riley, now out of jail, is ordered by Freddie Cork to kill Michael by the end of the wedding. Tommy finds out, but is threatened by Freddie not to say anything. Declan is torn about what he should do when he finds out what his boss has done. Eileen has a chance encounter which changes her view of the wedding.