Retiring Santa Claus (Colin) hosts a "Press Conference"; "If You Know What I Mean" at an office, featuring Brad, Colin, and Ryan; "Show Stopping Number" casts Ryan, Colin, and Wayne at a veterinarian's office; "Dubbing With an Audience Member" places Brad's voice into audience member Betty's mouth, and she plays a cheerleader watching quarterback Colin work out when her boyfriend, Ryan, walks in; "Scenes from a Hat" include "times when eenie-meenie-miney-mo is not an appropriate selection method" ("Congratulations, Mr. Bush").
Wayne wins, so the rest sing the doctor "Hoedown".

The teams start out in the Sahara desert. Kevin and Drew are the first to depart. The clue reads that they must get to the Palace Hotel in Tunis,300 miles away. Joe and Bill are the first to arrive at the clue. They must get to a spot outside the famous Coliseum in Rome. The teams head to the Tunisian airport. Tensions are high at the airport. At one point, Drew ask Team Guido if they want to have one of their legs broke. Joe and Bill laugh at this and don't see it as a threat. Drew then tells the team he was joking. Joe and Bill are the first of the teams to get tickets on the plane and are the last tickets on that flight. When the other teams arrive at the airport, the Guido's (all ready to go) decide to spy on the other teams and at one point, decide to eavesdrop. Teams are getting extremely frustrated when they learn of the air strike in Rome. They are having serious trouble getting tickets. With "charm," Kevin and Drew get tickets for themselves and two other teams (Nancy/Emily and Rob/Brennan).Team Guido discovers that these three teams have gotten better flights then them but they have a plan. The Guidos decide to cut them off at the boarding gates. This act makes most teams dislike Joe/Bill for a long period of time. It causes Kevin to get angry and Emily to cry. Nancy claims that she was pushed by one of the Guidos. Frank/Margarita get a flight to London and Karyn/Lenny are still looking for a flight. When they arrive at the flag outside the Coliseum, they are given a Detour. They have to chose between finding a statue of a foot and a statue of a hoof. The clue reads that they may pick up speed if they go for the hoof. Lenny and Karyn decide to go for the foot. The clue tells them that they must get to Castle Franco Emilia goes through Bologna by taking a train. Frank/Margarita and Joe/Bill take a cab and at the end of the leg are given a time penalty for this fault. Both teams say they did not take the taxi to cheat but misunderstood somehow. When the teams arrive at the Roadblock, one team member must drive a smart car to the pit stop and the other must be professionally driven in a sports car to the destination. Lenny and Karyn are the last team to arrive but this leg is the first of three non-elimination points.

When Trip is dispatched to assist an alien ship with its power source problems, he is delighted to have a friendly encounter with one of the ship's female engineers. But after discovering that their special moment has resulted in his becoming pregnant, he realizes he's had an unwitting experience with alien sex. Archer and his crew must then try and return the rapidly growing alien baby to its mother.

Dawson flies across country after being fired from his internship to visit Joey unaware that she left him a message telling him she was letting him go. After spending the weekend together, Dawson finally hears the message and things are awkward between him and Joey. Joey spends Dawson's last day in Boston chasing after her writing professor so she can drop her class while Dawson spends it with Audrey. Jen runs into Charlie the guy she met at the party. Pacey gets a job at a restaurant.

Cheryl's 15 year-old cat Mr. Feeney dies and she wants Jim to bury it on the backyard, but Jim desperately wants to go to the Bears game. He sticks the cat in the garage freezer, planning on burying it after the game, but Cheryl finds out before he comes home. She is hurt that Jim doesn't listen to her nor care about a cat that has been longer with her than anything in her current life. Jim, feeling guilty, provides a proper funeral for Mr. Feeney and gets her a brand new dog, which she doesn't like very much at first, but starts to accept it later.

Goren and Eames investigate the death of church sexton Morris Abernathy, but soon find their chief suspect, Kevin Donovan, dead in his apartment. After realizing someone had performed last rites over Donovan's body, the police believe a priest was involved in the murder, and are led to a priest who has been desperately trying to keep a twenty-year-old secret hidden. Goren risks the prosecution's case by protecting an innocent third party who could lose everything if his own secret is revealed.

In part two of the season premiere, the staff continues to refine Bartlet's re-election announcement to the American public and call in a political strategist to help them decide whether or not Bartlet should publicly apologize for not disclosing his MS. C.J. continues to deal with the aftermath of her statements of the press conference. Meanwhile, Bartlet continues to make peace with Abbey while contemplating if he should accept the requests of the Haitian leader.

Tonight, rapper Snoop Dogg.

Out in deepest space lurks a force of almost unimaginable power. Explosions of extraordinary violence, are blasting through the Universe every day. If one ever struck our Solar System it would destroy our Sun and all the planets. For years no one could work out what was causing these awesome explosions. Now scientists think they have identified the culprit. It's the most extreme object ever found in the Universe; they have christened it a 'hypernova'.