Marie takes the entire Barone family on a trip to Italy, much to Ray's dismay. While he stews and has a miserable time, the rest of the Barones take in the sights, at which time Robert falls for a beautiful Italian girl whose father, he soon learns, can't stand him.
When Marie ends up driving the car through Ray's house by accident, he lays down the law on his parents invasiveness, and this time it's Debra's turn to smooth things over.
When Robert decides to fully commit to Amy, he tries to come clean about his last two relationships, but chickens out after she reacts poorly to the hearing about the first one. Unfortunately, Debra inadvertently fills her in and she leaves him.
Ray holds a funeral for Ally's pet hamster after they find it dead in the freezer to help her through the trauma, but it seems to weigh heavier on him.
When a publishing company passes on Ray's pitch for a sports book while Robert gets a promotion to lieutenant, the two find their roles reversed, with Robert riding high and Ray worried about falling into a tailspin. The resulting conflict between them leads to a major fight.
Ray bumps into a woman he dated many years ago in high school and confesses his agony at what he perceived was his poor treatment of her. The admission prompts her to tell him why she really went out with in the first place. Meanwhile, he is unable to give Debra a concrete example of a major regret in his life.
Debra and Marie disapprove when Robert starts dating a woman in her early 20s. Things go sour, however, when she learns he's 43, and he learns she's actually 19.
Debra learns that her parents are not really in love when Ray overhears them talk about their marriage counseling sessions.
Someone sneezes on Ray, prompting him to worry that he's coming down with an illness. Despite his irrational fears, Debra, then Marie, attempt to take care of him.
Ray tries to coax Debra into allowing him some golf time with some expensive Christmas gifts, but she shells out for a DVD player and several DVDs for him, which gets him wondering what her angle is.
When Ray is helpless to do anything during an incident in which Debra chokes, he is labeled as ineffective by his family.
Ray takes Gianni with him when he has the chance to cover the Superbowl, but when he realizes the journalists brought their wives, he tries to show Debra how much he cares about her by flying her to the event and ditching the game.
Ray gets upset at Marie when he learns that she's read a private journal he used to keep in his teen years.
When Ray and Debra find themselves less communicative, they realize their only topic of conversation is their children.
When Debra enters the boys in the school play as fairies, she is surprised to learn that Ray is upset about their roles.
Marie tries to boost Robert's spirits by inviting Stefania, the woman Robert fell for in Italy, to come down. She brings her father with her, and he decides to buy Nemo's restaurant.
Ray's new vacuum cleaner purchase creates an unexpected problem when Marie and Debra go to war for a cleaner house.
Debra and Marie fight over a canister of Debra's that she discovers in Marie's house.
Debra gets angry with Ray when he invests $1,000 into his friends' business venture wthout discussing it with her first.
Doris gathers the women in Robert's life to discuss his relationship history and assess his shortcomings.
Ray is jealous when he starts to feel like the kids are spending more time with Robert than with him.
Debra is shocked when her parents tell her they have separated.
Frank offers to paint Ray and Debra's house, only he won't paint it in the color they've picked out.
While acting as Ally's escort to a father/daughter dance, Ray looks back at the day she was born.