Jarod Burn comes to Clear Bay to work as an arsonist for Harold Kinkade.   The first thing he sees is a beautiful woman (Kristi), instructing the maitre de at her restaurant, Kristi's Cafe,  to give a man who is down on his luck and asking for work her private table - and to give the man, his wife and small daughter anything they want from the menu.   She also tells him to give them a picnic basket full of food and enough cash for them to be able to stay in a hotel for a week. 

Jarod approaches her to remark on her generosity and they have a short conversation.   He tells her that dignity is something that you usually see taken from people, not given to them.  Kristi says all the right things, especially so for Jarod, when she talks about the importance of keeping families together.   Jarod is impressed with Kristi.

Jarod meets with Harold Kinkade's representative, to talk about his credentials as an arsonist.   To provide an example of his "work," Jarod blows up Sheriff Carver's, beautiful boat!

At The Centre, Miss Parker notices Mr. Lyle sitting in a room, looking at a DSA and he's crying!   When she checks to see what it was that moved this cold and calculating man to tears, she finds that he was watching the DSA of their birth.   She finds it difficult to believe that Mr. Lyle is sincere. 

When Jarod meets Harold Kinkade for the first time, he tells Kinkade that he knows about the last arson job he had done and says that it was sloppy work - people died in the blaze.  Moments later, Jarod is shocked to find out that Kristi is Mrs. Kinkade ... Harold's wife!  Kristi appears to be trying to make a pleasant home for her husband, but he clearly isn't interested.  Kinkade tells her that Jarod is a designer to whom he's decided to give a shot at the building downtown.  Since it's high season and there's no place for Jarod to stay in town, Kristi puts her husband in the position of having to offer Jarod their guest house.

Miss Parker talks to Sydney about Lyle's reaction to the DSA, but their conversation is interrupted when Broots brings in an envelope that is addressed to Miss Parker that is obviously from Jarod.   Inside, there is a picture of an oriental girl and one of Jarod's cryptic messages ... "Trust can kill you or set you free."  Sydney says that the saying sounds familiar.  Miss Parker directs Broots to find out who the girl in the picture is.

Back at the Kinkade's, Kristi is walking Jarod to the guest house.  She tells him that she grew up in a trailer park just outside of Corpus Christy, living with her grandmother because her parents were killed in a fire when she was a baby.   Jarod tells her that he has a sister, that his brother was killed about six months ago and that he's searching for his parents.  Kristi tells him that he should never give up, because the thing you want most in life could be right around the next corner.  Kristi tells Jarod that she knows what her husband does, so she knows that Jarod isn't there to design a building - he's there to burn one down.  There's chemistry between them and Jarod tells her that it isn't really who he is.  Even though he doesn't elaborate, Kristi says that she believes him, that she can tell that he's a good man.

Back at The Centre, Miss Parker tries to talk to her father about Lyle, but he isn't listening.   He says that Lyle spoke to him in confidence about his past and that Lyle wants to change, to turn over a new leaf.   Miss Parker seems both confused and repelled by her father's willingness to accept Lyle at his word.  Personally, she is far from convinced that Lyle has changed. 

Jarod calls Miss Parker but imparts no information about the woman in the picture - just repeats what he wrote on the card - "The truth can kill you or set you free."  He tells her that she needs to see people for what they are, because, in the end, we all get what we deserve.  After he hangs up, he looks in his red notebook at the article about Kinkade's last fire.  The Clear Bay Register says that seven people died in the blaze.

That night, Jarod is awakened by Kristi's screams.  He hurries outside the guest house to see the second floor of the main house ablaze.   Kristi Kinkade runs into Jarod's arms, hysterical.   She says there was a terrible explosion in their bedroom and she couldn't get to her husband - he's still in there.  As she tells Jarod, an explosion blasts the windows out of her second story bedroom.  Jarod tells the maid to call 911, directs Kristi to stay where she is and hurries inside to see if there is anything he can do. 

Later, Jarod tries to shield Kristi from Sheriff Carver's questions, but, in spite of the fact that Kristi tells him that her housekeeper saw someone running from the house, across the grass,   he wants a statement from her anyway.  He takes Kristi downtown for the night and tells Jarod not to leave town.

Broots finds out that the girl in the picture is a mail order bride, Che Ling, from one of the forest regions in China.  She ended up in Las Vegas ... but Broots doesn't know who ordered her.   Broots and Sydney find some humor in Miss Parker's remark, "Men!  Ordering women like snow tires!"

Jarod picks Kristi up at that police station, where she was held all night, answering questions.   He offers to take her home, but Kristi says that she cannot bear to go back there.  Instead she has Jarod take her to a cabin just outside of town that she and her husband owned. 

With Harold Kinkade dead, there's no reason for Jarod to continue pretending to be an arsonist ... so ... At the cabin, Jarod finally gives in to his hormones and begins to tell Kristi who he really is.   Just before he does, Jarod smells gas coming from the fireplace and stops to investigate.   Kristi tells him that the fireplace has been leaking gas for a long time - she says that every time Harold had someone come out to fix one leak, another would spring up.  The phone rings and it's Kristi's attorney, Tom Biner.  Kristi becomes agitated, tells him that she'll call him later and hangs up.  She tells Jarod that she isn't sure she can deal with all of this.  Kristi is certain that the police think she had something to do with her husband's death because the estate is worth millions.  Jarod tells her that he will make sure that the police believe the housekeeper's story about seeing someone run from the house because he will prove that someone else was there.  Kristi is grateful and relieved.  She tells Jarod that it's been so long since someone has really taken care of her ... then she stops and caresses his face while looking at him with liquid eyes.  Jarod is caught up in the emotion of the moment.  He takes Kristi into his arms and kisses her and she returns the kiss.  Jarod breaks it off, then begins apologizing to her.  She tells him that it's okay.  Jarod grabs his jacket and leaves the cabin.

Miss Parker goes to visit her mother's grave site and, much to her surprise, finds Mr. Lyle there.   Lyle tells her that he was never allowed the chance to know Catherine Parker, but he is still her son, and he would like a second chance with Miss Parker.  He says that he's not going to use his past as an excuse for the things that he does anymore, that he cannot move forward without a clean slate. He leaves a single, red, rose on Catherine's grave stone and walks away.   Lyle seems so sincere that Miss Parker begins to wonder if she hasn't been wrong about him - maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt.

Jarod begins to investigate the crime scene, but is stopped by the sheriff's deputies from fully exploring the ruin that was once the Kinkade's bedroom.   She wants to know who he is. Jarod tells her that the only thing that he is guilty of is bad timing.  The deputy says that she doubts that Mrs. Kinkade would agree with that - she seems relieved to have someone like Jarod to lean on.  Jarod insists that Kristi had nothing to do with what happened. The deputy says that maybe Mrs. Kinkade did and maybe Mrs. Kinkade didn't, but either way, she'd appreciate Jarod leaving the investigation to the police.

Jarod checks out the woods by the house, where the maid claimed to have seen someone running right after the explosion.   He finds fresh footprints and a broken branch on a tree that looks as though it might have some blood on it.   Before he can go any further, Jarod runs into the sheriff, who is obviously not very happy to have found him there.   He says, "they say the killer always returns to the scene of the crime." 

Miss Parker is talking to Sydney.  She tells him that she wants to believe Lyle, but ... he interrupts her to tell her that he remembers where he heard the saying, "trust can kill you or set you free."  Sydney tells Miss Parker that it was her mother that said it.  At that moment,  Broots comes in and tells Miss Parker and Sydney that he has managed to get a recording of a 911 call made by the mail order bride, the last call she made before she disappeared.   In it she begs the police to hurry to 223 Desert Vista apartments - before he returns to continue beating her.   Sam delivers another missive from Jarod to Miss Parker.   This one contains a picture of her father, walking away from the Desert Vista apartments!  Miss Parker grabs all of the paperwork and starts to leave.  Sydney asks her where she is going.  Miss Parker, turns, looks at Sydney, and says, "To try to find someone to trust."

The sheriff has now taken Jarod in for questioning, and seems to have no intention of letting Jarod go.   The sheriff has run a "rap sheet" on Jarod Burns and has come up with the arson filled background that Jarod had prepared to fool Kinkade.  Now, Kinkade is dead, and arson could easily be the cause.  Jarod asks the sheriff how the boot print in the woods fits in to that theory.  It isn't Jarod's size.  The sheriff says that Jarod could have planted that to mislead everyone.  Behind the two-way mirror, the deputy is watching the interrogation. However, it doesn't last much longer, because Kristi Kinkade's lawyer, Tom Biner, arrives and tells the sheriff to either charge Jarod or set him free.  The sheriff has no choice but to free Jarod. 

On the steps of the Police Station, the deputy asks the sheriff what Jarod meant when he asked him about the boot prints in the woods.  The sheriff doesn't answer her.  Instead he tells her to get back out on patrol. 

Like a moth to a flame, Jarod flies to Kristi, but before he can explain to her about why he was supposedly going to work for her husband, the maid calls her away.   When Kristi returns, she has a duffel bag that the maid claims to have found in Jarod's closet.   In it are all the "tools" needed to have set the explosion and cause the ensuing fire in Kristi's bedroom.   Jarod denies having ever seen the bag ... begs Kristi to believe him.   She finally says that she does believe Jarod ... but the sound of sirens begins to fill the room.   The maid has called the sheriff! 

Kristi pleads with Jarod to run ... to go to the cabin and wait there for her.   Jarod does not want to go, he wants to stay and prove his innocence.   But Kristi prevails, and Jarod finally goes - moments before the Sheriff arrives. 

Back at The Centre, Miss Parker is about to ask Lyle for help in dealing with their father over the situation at the Desert Vista apartments, but Broots and Sydney interrupt her just in time.   The sheriff in Las Vegas found Che Ling's body, three days after the 911 call was made.  She had been beaten to death and then dumped by the side of the road.  No one claimed the body.  The marriage records were erased, but Broots has managed to find a "wedding photo" in an archive copy of a Las Vegas newspaper.   He shows it to an impatient Miss Parker ... it is a photo of the missing girl and Lyle!

While Jarod paces at the cabin, he again smells gas from the fireplace.   This time, he decides to take a look for himself.   Sliding into the fireplace on his back, so that he can see up the flue, Jarod doesn't find a leaky pipe - instead, he finds a bomb, with a 5 minute fuse attached ... a 5 minute fuse that is running!

Just then, Jarod hears a car approaching, peeks out the front window and sees that it is Kristi with the sheriff!  A stunned Jarod realizes that he's been taken.   As the sheriff enters the front door of the cabin with his gun drawn, Jarod approaches Kristi from behind.   Startled not to find him in the cabin, she begs Jarod to go back inside to "talk" to the sheriff.   Jarod tells her that he doesn't think that the sheriff intends to do much talking, since he went in with his gun drawn, but Kristi insists that all the sheriff wants to do is talk to Jarod.   Jarod gives in and walks back into the cabin and as he goes, Kristi calls to him ... she says, "I love you."   Jarod just turns and keeps walking. 

Moments later, the entire place explodes and then begins to burn.   Kristi turns away, a twisted and satisfied look on her face, thinking that her evil plan has worked. 

Miss Parker is livid with anger - she tells Lyle that she was "this close" to believing him when he said that he wanted to change, that he had changed!   But her anger quickly turns to a sort of horror and then to a deep and dark sadness as she listens to her father telling her that he knew about the fiasco at the Desert Vista and that "family" means looking out for one another.   Lyle says that he came home one day and Che Ling was gone.  He heard that she had run off with some drifter.  He never hit her and he never killed her.  Mr. Parker is nodding in agreement.  He believes his son.  It's apparent to Miss Parker that her father is willing to "overlook" anything that his son might do.  He says that if you can't trust your family, who can you trust?  Then, with one arm around Miss Parker and the other around Lyle, Mr. Parker insists that they all go out to dinner together.

Kristi is preparing to flee the country and go to Paris.   Her lawyer is telling her that her husband has been dead less than a week, and just yesterday, Sheriff Carver and Jarod Burns were blown to bits in her cabin ... it might look better if she weren't in such a hurry to leave town.  Kristi doesn't care.  She says that Jarod Burns killed her husband, then screwed up trying to kill Sheriff Carver and that's just her good luck.  She's leaving.

As she packs, her lawyer gets a call and tells her that there is another part of her husband's will that she must sign, or she will end up forfeiting $50,000.   The lawyer tells her to just go - to catch her plane.   He reminds her that she has already inherited over ten million dollar and says that he doesn't think she needs the $50,000.   Kristi becomes angry, tells the lawyer that she doesn't pay him to think.  Then he tells him to switch her flight to midnight and have his assistant send over the papers for her to sign. 

As she finishes a swim in the backyard, Kristi is appalled to see the family she helped at the beginning of the episode walking toward her.   This time, she is not pleasant, nor understanding.   She tells them to get out, that they are trespassing on private property, and she throws down a bouquet of flowers that the little girl gave to her as a "thank you" for her help.   Flustered, the man says that the deputy at the gate told them that they could just come on in and Kristi becomes confused ... she doesn't have a guard at her gate. 

She turns to see the sheriff being brought toward her in handcuffs.  From the other direction, Jarod is walking toward her.   Kristi is totally flabbergasted!   She was certain that both men were dead!   Jarod tells Kristi that what she didn't see was that he and the sheriff went out the back door before her bomb went off.   The sheriff and Kristi plotted to kill her husband ... they were supposed to lay the blame on Jarod and then flee together.   When the sheriff realized that Kristi had tried to kill him, along with Jarod, he confessed everything.   Kristi is hand-cuffed and taken away.   As she is being lead from the pool deck, she looks at Jarod and tells him that it was never personal.  Jarod tells her that she's wrong ... it was very personal.

Jarod calls Miss Parker again ... he reminds her that she only knows what The Centre wants her to know.  She asks Jarod what he wants from her and he says that he wants the same thing that she does - a little trust.  Before hanging up he reminders her again of  the words that Catherine Parker spoke ... "trust can kill you, or set you free."

The Parker family is going out on the town and Miss Parker is dressed to kill.   One last time, she tries to talk to her father, but all he can say is that Lyle will meet them at their destination.   He tells her that Lyle doesn't want another minute to go by without a proper burial for Che Ling and he's making the arrangements.  Miss Parker realizes that her father will never turn on Lyle and seems to resign herself to it. 

Lyle sits alone at a table, covered with mail order bride "catalogs" ... he's cutting out pictures, clipping them carefully.   Is Lyle making a scrapbook of his past brides, or is he looking for the next one?

And the scene fades to black ...

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