As the episode begins, the Holdens have to break the news that they're leaving. When Claudia Joy shares the news, everyone is stunned.

Claudia Joy tries to tell everyone that they have to be rational about this, that they all knew that there would come a time sooner or later.

But it's not that simple.

Claudia Joy was the glue that held everybody together, and when confronted by her possible departure, several characters start falling apart.

Denise is so distraught that she literally runs away from the news, saying she can't deal with it right now. Pamela is so thrown by it that it seeps into her radio show, with very negative consequences.

When Pamela gets a caller who wants to ask about starting her own career for the first time, Pamela launches into a talk on how that is sometimes impossible, given that an Army wife must always play second fiddle.

It's entirely true, and while Pamela's tone during this talk was generally calm and reasonable, it starts a major firestorm as you can guess.

People start calling in with how disgusted they are by Pamela's attitude, even though that frankness was what people loved about her before.

The lines are lighting up with people saying that they used to love the show but are now so upset that they're no longer going to tune in.

Michael, meanwhile, breaks the news of his departure to Joan.

The twist is that Michael's replacement as commander of Fort Marshall is neither Joan nor Evan. It's an outsider, General Rutledge.

Unfortunately for Joan, Rutledge may be an outsider to her, but he's an old friend, coworker and drinking buddy of Evan's. Joan sees the writing on the wall. The new commander is going to make Evan his #2.

By the end of the episode, that becomes official.

Of all that was speculated about him, the one thing Evan had done that was really nasty was trying to censor Pamela's radio show. Now, following her latest fiasco, Evan tells Pamela that the show is being axed.

Her replacement on the air? None other than Jennifer.

Joan, meanwhile, has even worse news. Not only is she being stripped of her position on post, but she's being shipped off altogether.

Joan is going to be sent off to Iraq, just months after giving birth. She laments how awful it would be to have to miss out on Sara growing up, but suddenly she has no choice.

While Joan now dreads having to be sent to Iraq, Trevor is still anxious to get back there as soon as he can, although he something else he wants to do before he deploys next - make a baby with Roxy!

Given everything that's been going on lately, Trevor has been thinking about mortality and wants to make the time he has count. Roxy argues against it for now, although she is open to it down the road, of course.

Meanwhile, Betty's nephew Collin shows up in town. Roxy was right that Betty had to have had family somewhere. Collin now owns half the bar, given that Betty did not have a will and he inherits her possessions by default.

Trevor suggests that it might not be the worst thing in the world for Roxy to have a partner - it might allow Roxy to raise a new baby, for starters.

Worse, it turns out that Collin doesn't actually want half - he wants the whole thing. He makes a cursory lowball offer to buy Roxy's half, but when Roxy declines, Collin says that he'll probably win it in court.

Sherwood family drama continues as Jeremy catches his father with Jordanna. So the cat will finally be out of the bag for Jeremy.

Jeremy has no way of knowing that Denise is up to far more back home. Denise isn't really having second thoughts about her marriage; she seems to be completely ready to pursue a relationship with Mac.

But it's Mac who may put the brakes on that relationship, as his ex shows up and announces that she intends to win him back.

After freaking out upon hearing the news that they are going to be moving, Emmalin tells Claudia Joy that she has accepted things.

Talking it through with Logan helped Emmalin decide that they can simply become pen pals, like they were before.

Everything is packed up, and the Holdens are ready to depart. Claudia Joy had had a lot of trouble packing things up in the house, having to come to grips once again with Amanda's death by packing all of her things.

But in the end, it's not Amanda who may end up keeping the Holden family in town after all. Emmalin is gone. Vanished. Her talk of how she and Logan would be able to accept being apart was either a lie, or she couldn't bring herself to at the last second.

Emmalin and Logan are AWOL, driving off together, destination unknown.

Fade to black.