The episode takes place at the end of the school year as graduation approaches; despite the fallout from the death of his parents at the beginning of the season, Derek "Wheels" Wheeler (Neil Hope) manages to pass, but Christine "Spike" Nelson (Amanda Stepto), who is raising her daughter Emma, must make up for poor grades over the holidays, something which she does not react well to.
Christine "Spike" Nelson (Amanda Stepto), who is exhausted and disillusioned taking care of her daughter Emma, arrives at school later to do hers alone with Ms. Avery (Michelle Goodeve).
Meanwhile, Ms. Avery visits Spike at her mother's salon with her grades, which are poor, and recommends she take correspondence classes over the holidays.
Spike reacts very poorly to this and balks at the prospect of her having a future while being a teenage mother, blaming Emma for her situation.
At the dance, Joey and Caitlin reunite and reconcile, and Spike approaches Ms. Avery for the forms for her correspondence classes.
They investigate the smoke and then open the boiler room door, revealing a massive fire inside that starts to spread towards a group of gas barrels left by the maintenance.
Caitlin doesn't see Joey and starts panicking until he arrives and embraces her, and everyone watches horrified as the fire rages through the school.
[5] Writing for the Montreal Gazette, Janice Kennedy praised the episode, calling it "artful, tightly scripted, [and] entertaining",[6] but noted that a "colossally poor bit of directing and/or editing"[6] made character Joey Jeremiah look missing during the scene of the school burning down, appearing to end the series on a "Who shot J.R.?