Any Day Now(1998–2002)

Unfinished Symphony

Present: Mary Elizabeth Sims, a Birmingham wife, mother, and aspiring writer, reaches out to her estranged childhood friend Rene Jackson, a prominent Washington attorney, when she returns home upon the death of her father. The friends reconcile, and Rene decides to remain in Birmingtham and take over her father's law practice. Past: It's 1962, and Mary Elizabeth and Rene strike up a friendship over a shoplifted pack of cigarettes. Rene, a recent transplant from Detroit, has difficulty adjusting to the segregated South.

Huh?

Present: Rene represents a woman whose rapist is suing her for shared custody and visitation rights to the child conceived during the rape; M.E. confronts Kelly about her failing grades at school. Past: After M.E. learns something about black families from Rene, she begins to confront the bigoted attitudes voiced by her parents and their opposition to her friendship with Rene.

Eve of Destruction

Present: Rene falls for the reporter assigned to do a story on her for the ""Birmingham Daily"" while turning down both Garrett and Graham; Colliar gets a job as a car salesman after he discovers that his back injury means that he can't do manual labor any longer; M.E. and Colliar sue their litigious and cantankerous neighbor after she has Scout impounded for knocking her down while trying to protect Davis and Kelly when she attacked them with a rake. Past: During the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, M.E. becomes very frightened that Birmingham will be bombed and stays close to home, leading Rene to question whether they're still friends. Grandma Otis invites the girls over for a slumber party.

It's Called Depression

Present: Approaching their 26th wedding anniversary, M.E. and Colliar are at odds and they each seek out Rene for answers about the other; Rene struggles to interject a note of friendship into a relationship with a new man who doesn't seem to want anything but sex; Colliar's plans for a romantic anniversary celebration turn out well, if not out quite the way he expected. Past: After M.E. gets into a scrap with Tully, Catherine insists that she attend charm school; Colliar and M.E. share their first kiss.

Making Music with the Wrong Man

Rene helps plan a ceremony honoring her father. She asks M.E. to write a biography of her father to present at the event. In doing her research, M.E. discovers information about Rene's father's past that could be emotionally scarring for Rene. Past: ""Project C"" is going on in Birmingham (the week leading up to the march on Birmingham) and Rene and M.E. help the Jackson family prepare. Also, Rene develops her first crush, only to have her heart broken

No Comment

Present: When an old family friend who is now a city councilman asks Rene to defend him against corruption charges, Rene agrees after being convinced by some members of the black community that the charges are baseless and rooted in racism; M.E. is appalled that her friend would represent someone so lacking in ethics, and is further dismayed when Colliar excuses the man's dishonesty as ""the way of the world""; after being lied to by her client and realizing that he is guilty of the charges, Rene withdraws from the case and is subjected to hate mail and a brick thrown through the window of the Jackson home; M.E. and Rene decide that politics will be one of the very few things they don't discuss. Past: As the Jackson family prepares to participate in the March on Birmingham, M.E. gives Rene her St. Christopher medal for protection.

Please Don't Tell My Mother

Present: After M.E. finds an empty beer bottle in the living room the morning after Kelly's party, she grounds her daughter for three weeks, even though Kelly tells her she didn't see anyone drinking; Rene pleads Kelly's case to M.E. by reminding M.E. how wild her own teenage years were and M.E. tells her to mind her own business, so she remains silent when she sees Kelly sneaking out of the house; Kelly is arrested for underage drinking when the driver of the car she's riding in is pulled over for driving under the influence, and she calls Rene from jail instead of her parents, which causes another argument between M.E. and Rene; Rene represents a woman whose son was threatened by a fellow student with a gun and who tragically takes matters into his own hands when the school administration fails to move quickly enough to help him; M.E. patches up her differences with Kelly and Rene. Past: Teresa takes her revenge after she discovers M.E. and Rene spying on her makeout session with her

Courage ... It Means Heart

Mary Elizabeth solicits the help of her family and Rene in caring for her aging Grandma Otis. Meanwhile, Rene is asked to represent a boy whose family refuses to give him his inheritance because he belongs to a spiritual group they believe is a cult. Past: With Rene's help, Grandma Otis teaches M.E. how to have a loving heart.

You Shoulda Seen My Daddy

Rene is representing the parents of a child who has died of AIDS. M.E. tries bringing her friends and Rene's friends together. Past: Rene decides she wants to be a lawyer after watching her father in court. M.E. feels threatened by Rene's new black friend.

Call Him Johnny

Present: Rene represents a white couple prevented from adopting their black foster daughter; M.E. has an ectopic pregnancy which leaves her feeling a mixture of sadness, guilt, and relief; Rene tells M.E. about getting an abortion while she was in law school; M.E. starts an internship at a local paper. Past: Johnny gets grounded for taking M.E. and Rene to a drive-in for a soda and then protesting when the manager refuses to serve Rene; M.E. feels responsible for her father's migraine after she wishes he would get a new brain that wasn't hateful; after Johnny becomes ashamed when he concurs with his girlfriend's bigotry toward Rene, he stands up to Uncle Jimmy's racism and asks M.E. to tell Rene that he's sorry; Uncle Jimmy threatens the O'Briens with Klan retaliation over M.E.'s friendship with Rene.

It's Who You Sleep With

Rene represents a lesbian couple who are forbidden to marry on public property. M.E. suspects that Colliar is having an affair. Past: Rene and M.E. learn about sex.

Salamanders

When Rene defends a black family that has been kicked off their property, she must confront the Alabama law that states that interracial marriages are illegal. M.E. rediscovers her writing. Past: Rene is left to care for her father and brother for the weekend. M.E.'s parents discourage her from writing and encourage her to focus on meeting a man.

I Feel Awful

Present: Rene gets fixed up with a man who turns out to be a stalker; Teresa visits Mary Elizabeth and Colliar, and things go awry. Past: M.E. bosses Colliar and Rene around; M.E. and Rene try to pull a prank on Teresa and Rene gets hurt; Catherine is horrified and outraged when she takes Rene to an all-white hospital and they refuse treatment because Rene is black.

Quit Bein' Such a Scaredy Cat

Rene's stalker is still around and she has to get a restraining order. M.E. and Colliar are beginning their own construction business. Past: Rene and M.E. sneak out to a carnival and stumble upon a Klan rally.

Blue

Rene is reunited with her cousin who has spent the past 20 years passing for a white man. M.E. and Colliar bid on a construction company. Past: Rene worships her aunt who encourages her to sing in the church choir, while M.E. gets pushed aside.

It's Your Problem, Not Mine

Rene represents a white man who was beaten by the police. When Kelly brings home her black boyfriend, M.E. and Colliar react. Past: Rene has her first boyfriend.

Trust Me

After Rene agrees to hire a youth whom her boyfriend Bill mentors, she discovers that Bill is not divorced - only separated. M.E. feels guilty when she develops a crush on another man, but Colliar is confident that their marriage is safe. Past: M.E. and Rene witness Martin Luther King's march on Washington.

I Wish You Could Understand

Tully, a childhood friend of Rene and M.E.'s, offends Rene when he takes part in a bigoted, tasteless prank during a parade. M.E. and Colliar try to keep Tully from being fired from his job, only to find that they have alienated Rene in the process. Past: Rene experiences her first crush. M.E. accidentally breaks Colliar's leg when competition gets the better of her in a soapbox race. She makes it up to him by writing a love letter on his cast.

Chapter One

Rene sends some of M.E.'s stories to a publisher friend in New York. When the publisher visits M.E. on a trip to a Southern women's writing conference, M.E.'s writing career gets a jump start. To fight off her writer's block and help her finish the first chapter of her novel, M.E. returns to Port Dixie to revisit her childhood. Meanwhile, Rene and Detective Moody find themselves falling in love, and Rene is forced to deal with Bill's ex-wife and two children. Past: Rene and M.E. learn how difficult it is to be apart when M.E. visits her relatives in Texas. While there, M.E. must confront the horse that threw her during her last visit.

I'm Not Emotional

Mary Elizabeth and Colliar deal with Davis's suspension from school for ""sexual misconduct,"" and try to raise a son and a daughter in the '90s without gender-typing them. Meanwhile, Rene fights to have a strip club's billboard removed from the vicinity of her office, and Mary Elizabeth learns that Colliar plans to attend a friend's stag party at a strip club, opening the debate on what men see about these clubs that women ""just don't get."" Past: M.E. and Rene are determined to get into a ""boys only"" tree house. Then Rene's world is devastated when a friend from the church choir is killed when the church is bombed, and Rene realizes that she would have been there, too, had she not been sick.

Music from My Life

Mary Elizabeth and Rene go to Los Angeles to visit Mary Elizabeth's sister Teresa, whom they must help come to terms with her fiancé's less-than-honorable motives. When lovesick Teresa returns to Birmingham with Mary Elizabeth, she confronts the chilling memory of being molested by her piano teacher - the same man who now gives Kelly piano lessons. Past: M.E. and Rene run away from home, forcing Matt and James to work together to find them

Nope

Rene takes the case of a 14-year-old boy who is on trial for murder. The prosecutor wants to try him as an adult. M.E. is frustrated with her lack of control when Colliar quits her job for her and gives her an allowance. Past: M.E. and Rene experiment with alcohol; disaster ensues

It's a Good Thing I'm Not Black

Present: When Rene is pulled over on a mistaken warrant and humilated by the police officers, she sweeps it under the rug despite the urgings of Lakeisha and M.E. that she file a complaint. When she witnesses a college student going through the same ordeal shortly thereafter, she offers to represent him pro bono in a lawsuit against the police department for racial profiling. When he challenges her to stand up for her own rights, she finally files her own complaint against the police. Davis dates an older woman and seeks Colliar's advice for putting the brakes on the relationship. Glenn assigns M.E. to a story about road construction in a neighboring town and Kelly offers to help her research it. Past: Elston clashes with his father over Malcolm X and his becoming a Black Muslim; M.E. wants to support the civil rights movement by forming a group of White Muslims consisting of Colliar, Tully and Bobby; the Jackson family grieves together when Malcolm X is assassinated.

Three Hours a Week

Present: M.E. is elated when her book sells out at the local bookstore and she's invited to appear on a local tv show; Rene is accepted as a mentor in the Girls at Risk program, but things don't go smoothly with her mentee April. Past: After losing the captaincy of the cheerleading squad, Teresa decides to become a nun and makes Rene the unwilling receipient of her acts of charity.

The Dust of Life

M.E. is shocked when a Vietnamese man named Tuan appears in Birmingham and claims that her brother Johnny is his father. Rene represents a man who is trying to gain full custody of his children by enforcing a prenatal contract he made with his ex-wife. Past: When Johnny finishes boot camp, he comes home for a short leave before heading off to Vietnam. When Colliar and M.E. get into an argument, Colliar turns to Johnny for advice on women, so Johnny agrees to double-date with Colliar and M.E. Before he leaves for the war, Johnny makes M.E. and Colliar promise they will stay together forever.

Three Lucky Ladies on the Line

Present: Tillie Sims arrives for a visit and once again puts her son in jeopardy when a loan shark follows her from Florida looking for the money she owes him, prompting M.E. to give Tillie an ultimatum; worried that April's incoherent behavior means that she has a substance abuse problem, Rene forces her to take a drug test, which turns out negative; when April begins to exhibit delusional behavior, Rene gets Mrs. Samuels' permission to take her to a doctor. Past: After James is attacked by the police during the march on Selma, Elston and James disagree about the effectiveness of non-violent protest; after federal troops are sent in to protect the marchers, the entire Jackson family joins the march; Rene is forced to reconsider the practice of non-violence when she is tormented by Tully's constant bullying; Colliar's mother doesn't intervene when he is abused by his father.

Nothing Personal

Present: M.E. is upset when Rene hires a black contractor instead of Colliar to do some renovations on her house; M.E. is put in the middle when Colliar sues one of Rene's clients for reverse discrimination when he loses out on a job to a black contractor who submitted a higher bid; April is diagnosed as bipolar, but resists taking her medicine; Kelly and Ajoni start dating again. Past: Inspired by their favorite mystery books, Rene and M.E. decide to play detective and follow James, and accidentally help him to discover that the F.B.I. is tapping his phones.

Life

Present: M.E. decides to write a book about the unsung heroes of the civil rights movement after learning about Mrs. Samuels' experience as a cleaning lady for Dr. Martin Luther King. Rene is reunited with a friend who was once an active student leader at Morehouse but is now serving a life sentence. Past: M.E. and Rene learn how involved Sara is in the civil rights involvement after James is arrested during a protest and Sara steps in to take his place as a leader. Rene is surprised when she sees her mother step back into the background upon her father's return.

Love Is Love

Present: The fur flies at the Sims and Williams households when M.E discovers Ajoni asleep in Kelly's room one morning, even though both teenagers insist that nothing is going on between them; Ajoni's parents are upset about the interracial relationship and concerned that Kelly will keep Ajoni from attending college; after Ajoni's father throws him out of the house when he persists in dating Kelly, M.E. and Colliar allow him to stay with them; Rene and Joe explore the possibility of expanding their relationship. Past: Rene incurs the wrath of her beloved Cookie Grandma when M.E. reveals that Rene has a crush on a white boy.

There Are No Rules

Rene and M.E. take a road trip that turns sour when they are car-jacked and Rene is arrested for car theft. When Rene calls Lakeisha for help, she discovers that she has been asked to run for district attorney. At home, Colliar struggles to hold things together when Kelly loses Rene's dog and Davis announces he wants to be a priest. Past: M.E. and Rene explore the possible existence of aliens

The Outsiders

When interviewing a Baptist minister for an article, M.E. discovers he doesn't practice what he preaches. Now a candidate for district attorney, Rene faces her first critics when she refuses to drop a client who is an illegal alien. Past: M.E. threatens to break up with Colliar if he doesn't let her join his band. She's surprised when he dumps her.

It's a Mother-Daughter Thing

Present: When Kelly follows in her mother's footsteps, M.E. and Colliar are thrilled by her being elected to the homecoming court and have a complete meltdown after she reveals that she's pregnant; Rene is appalled when she discovers that rapes are being deliberately underreported by the police and underprosecuted by her opponent. Past: M.E. and Colliar go through a difficult patch; Rene gets a new boyfriend named Henry.

Lighten Up, Rene

Present: Nick hires an election strategist who rubs Rene the wrong way when she attempts to ""lighten up"" Rene's image by setting her up for an endorsement by a politically influential group whose color-struck policies and members she abhors; although the Sims and Williams families agree to support Kelly and Ajoni in keeping their baby, Colliar continues to have a hard time dealing with Kelly's pregnancy. Past: M.E. humiliates Rene in front of Henry when she pushes her in the pool and ruins her hair, so Rene forces M.E. to sit with her through the four-hour ordeal of getting her hair relaxed.

Where's the Justice in That?

Present: Rene creates a firestorm a few days before the election when she admits during a call-in radio show that she experimented with drugs during the seventies; M.E. struggles for creative control when Kelly's sixth grade teacher asks her to sanitize the adaptation of ""Port Dixie"" that M.E. has been asked to create and direct for the Fall Drama Festival; Rene catches April smoking a joint and April admits that her mother is incarcerated on a drug-related charge; after visiting April's mother in prison and hearing her story, Rene campaigns for more equitable drug offense prosecution and sentencing; M.E. does her best to support and educate Kelly during the early stages of her pregnancy; Rene loses the election.

Five Golden Rings

Rene embraces the holiday season, but things turn sour when her attempts at planning a holiday party for the lawyers association fall flat. Luckily, she is still able to have a great Christmas with Elston, his partner and their son, Victor. M.E. is determined to have one more old-fashioned family Christmas, but things go awry when Ajoni proposes to Kelly on Christmas Day. Past: The girls begin a tradition of donating gifts to those who are less fortunate.

Life Isn't Fair

M.E. is outraged and decides to fight the school board when Kelly is asked to switch to another school because of her pregnancy. Rene meets an interesting man while representing Kelly. Past: Rene and M.E. get to ""first base"" with their boyfriends, but M.E.'s Catholic sex (mis)education deters them from going any further.

10 Days? Are You Crazy?

Kelly and Ajoni announce that they are getting married in 10 days, but M.E. and Colliar refuse to sign the parental consent forms. Rene's identity gets stolen. Past: Rene and M.E. learn more about the Vietnam War when Elston runs away to Canada to avoid the draft.

Tick, Tick, Tick

Tension runs high as M.E. helps Kelly get ready for the wedding. Rene tries to convince one of her clients to leave her abusive husband. Ajoni and a very pregnant Kelly get married and spend their wedding night at the Sims house. Past: M.E. smokes Theresa's marijuana, mistaking it for a cigarette. Rene and M.E. argue about courage as Rene prepares a care package for Elston in Canada.

Don't Tell Me It's Not About Frankie

Colliar tells M.E. that he's moving out. When he returns after a few days with an idea to give Kelly and Ajoni $5,000 so they can get their own place, everyone is furious with him and accuse him of being a racist. M.E. and Colliar have a huge fight which ends with M.E. moving into Rene's house; Meanwhile, Rene represents the a woman who accuses the new district attorney's nephew of rape. Past: A bewildered M.E. and Rene watch Colliar and Henry become supercompetitive at the Spring Fair.

What If?

Present: The road not taken intrigues M.E. and Rene as they wonder what would have happened had they switched houses and destinies many years ago. Rene sees herself in a loving marriage with two children as she struggles to maintain her own priorities in her father's law firm and pleads with her parents to accept Elston. M.E. is single and an extremely wealthy, successful, and prolific writer who owns a newspaper. After she is reunited with Colliar at his father's funeral, she realizes how much she regrets missing the opportunity to make a life with him. Past: M.E. fears that she will never see Colliar again after he and his mother leave Birmingham to escape being beaten by his father; Rene realizes that Henry is not the boy for her.

Children Are the Most Important Thing

Present: Rene represents a woman who was fired when she protested against her employer's preferential treatment of workers with children; M.E. helps Kelly and Ajoni move into their new apartment; Matthew's demetia worsens; Rene realizes why she lives alone as M.E. begins to wear out her welcome; Colliar seeks out Rene's help when M.E. seriously begins to contemplate a divorce; inspired by how Catherine cares for Matthew during difficult times, M.E. moves back home, but into Kelly's old room. Past: The O'Briens are devastated when Johnny is killed in Vietnam; when the Jacksons come to pay their respects, Matthew asks Rene to come into the house and visit with M.E.

It's Not Just a Word (1)

Present: Uncle Jimmy dies and M.E. ensures that he's not buried with any Klan insignia; Rene refuses to assist Joe with the case of a wheelchair-bound man who feels discriminated against when a strip club won't allow him to get a lap dance; Rene represents Ajoni's teammate Richie when he is arrested for manslaughter in the death of a teenager he hit during a post-game fight, and mounts a self-defense trial strategy based on Richie's fearing his life was in danger after the other teen hurled a highly charged racial epithet at him. Past: The O'Brien family continues to mourn the loss of Johnny; Teresa devises a highly effective plan to keep the O'Brien girls out of having to go to an all-girls Catholic high school; M.E. is outraged and disgusted when the veterans parade to which Uncle Jimmy invites the O'Briens turns out to be a Klan rally; Rene is excited at the prospect of being named valedictorian.

You Promise? I Promise

In court, Rene defends a developmentally disabled man who wants the right to be a father someday. Her case to save him from a vasectomy falls apart, however, when the man kidnaps a baby for Rene after she mentions wanting to have kids. Meanwhile, Mary Elizabeth starts her magazine internship and has a tough time fitting in with all the younger employees. Past: Rene and M.E. sneak off to a rock concert attended by both blacks and whites; but the girls find themselves in danger when the police get involved.

Don't Forget to Take Out Your Teeth

Present: Events put a damper on Rene's plans to move into a new office suite; Kelly brings a new dimension to nervous new motherhood and exhausts her parents with her constant, frantic calls; Rene loses an employment discrimination suit for her deaf client, but manages to gain a new case clerk and a new associate from the experience; inspired by Colliar's pillow talk and unwilling to sit down and take the absence of romance in their relationship quietly, M.E. devises an innovative way to spark up their marriage; Joe and one of his Harvard classmates become new associates in Rene's firm; at the first Jackson & Associates staff meeting, Rene discovers that her skills in researching and interviewing prospective employees could use some work. Past: Colliar, Tully and the girls endure the torture that is freshman hazing on their first days of high school; Rene joins Black Students Unite, and M.E. joins the pep squad.

No More Forever

Present: Stacy introduces Rene to a handsome and opinionated judge, who ends up hearing the case of a Native American artist Rene represents when a controversy arises over a Holocaust mural he painted for a museum; M.E.'s back goes out, and she wiles away her recuperation by making friends with her new neighbor's little boy. Past: Rene tries to keep her father from discovering that she's dating a senior.

Everyone Deserves to be Loved

A mentally disabled man seeks Rene's help when the state threatens to separate him from his aunt and place him in an institution. M.E. faces the severity of Alzheimer's disease when her father arrives for a visit. In the past, Port Dixie is invaded by Rene and M.E.'s new high school friends.

Don't Give Up

Rene takes on big business when she represents a group of children diagnosed with lead poisoning. M.E. and Davis share some quality mother-son time together. In the past, the girls perform in the school play.

One Hour of Drama

A tornado ravages the Sims house while M.E. and Rene are trapped inside Rene's law office with a parolee. In the past, Sara discovers that young Rene is dating an ""older man,"" and Teresa contracts chicken pox.

No Place in This World

Rene fights for the rights of a homeless woman, while the newly homeless M.E. and Colliar search for shelter and comfort. In the past, unwelcome guests crash the girls' pajama party.

Peace of Mind

Present: While the future hangs over M.E.'s head like a storm cloud, Colliar looks ahead to growing old with his wife in their dream house. Meanwhile, Rene defends Joe in court. Past: Colliar and the girls take aptitude tests with less than desirable results.

The Contest

Present: Rene and Turk have a spirited disagreement over potential candidates for a Girls At Risk scholarship before Turk finally gives in to Rene's choice; Sara busily plays matchmaker even though Rene vehemently tries to discourage her; Rene's ex-husband comes into town on a three day business trip and tries unsuccessfully to woo her until her resistance finally fails, and they fall into each other's arms; the next morning over breakfast, they agree that although they are great lovers they are not in love with each other, and Rene somewhat reluctantly sends him back home to Houston; M.E. and Colliar struggle to adjust to living in an apartment building with noisy, incense-burning, chanting neighbors as well as airplanes flying closely overhead, a smelly carpet, and plumbing problems. Past: ""Bob Goodie's Dance Machine"", a TV dance show, is coming to Birmingham and Teresa desperately wants to be one of the featured dancers on the show; in exchange for dance lessons from Rene, Teresa pr

This Is Not Foreplay, This Is War

M.E. and Colliar practice tough love with Kelly when she and Ajoni are unable to find a babysitter; and Rene defends the civil rights of the dead. In the past, the girls experience the hippie movement.

Blinded by the White

Present: As M.E. visits Fillmore to speak with Davis's teachers about his slipping grades in the aftermath of the tornado, she is caught in the middle of a school shooting; shocked and devastated by having to watch a student die in the gunfire, M.E. turns to food for comfort; after Rene suffers an arrhythmia while they're on a date, Turk insists that she see a cardiologist; on the strength of the article M.E. writes about the shooting, Glenn offers her a weekly column; Rene inspires her neighbor Muriel to take the positive step of creating an animal rescue organization after Muriel's beloved dog is accidentially put to death at the pound. Past: Colliar is bullied and beaten when he supports Rene's running for Freshman Class Representative; after trying to help Colliar during the beating and getting a black eye herself, M.E. is angry when he succumbs to pressure and votes against Rene.

Rebel with a Cause

Present: Rene represents an elderly couple facing eviction from their retirement community for publicly displaying their affection. Rene and Turk take the big plunge and make their relationship public. M.E. writes a spirited column defending Dixie, which brings an offer from the Cross-Bearers of the Confederacy to make a speech at their Confederate Flag Memorial Rally. Unsure of whether to accept the offer, she ponders the symbolism and meaning of the Confederate flag and discusses it with her family and Rene. She finally agrees to attend the rally as long as Rene comes with her. During her speech, she questions the wisdom of the South's defining itself by the Civil War, and urges the audience to adopt a new symbol for the South -- ""one that unites and points to a future healed by peace and tolerance instead of a past wounded by war and racism"". The speech proves wildly unpopular, and M.E. and Rene flee the rally in a hail of boos and racial epithets.

Stay of Execution

Still My Little Soldier

Present: Rene starts down the long slow road to recovery at breakneck speed. Although she is weak and in pain, she is determined to tough it out on her own without any help from anyone, both at home and the office. While she is in the hospital, she dreams that her father is at her bedside telling her, ""My little soldier can take care of herself"", something he said often when she was younger. Despite pleas by Sara, M.E., Turk and Joe to take it slowly and let them support her, she remembers her father's words and rushes to regain control of her life and get things back to normal, even after Sara tells her that her normal has changed. Against the advice of her doctor, she insists upon getting a copy of the videotape that was made during her surgery. As soon as she is home, she shoos everyone anyway and watches the tape. The stress of seeing the video, coupled with how hard she has pushed herself to recover, causes her to collapse and be rushed to the emergency room. When she returns from

It's Not Karma, It's Life

Present: Rene returns to work and finds that her illness has shaken her self-confidence. Several clients, concerned about how much her health may impact her ability to represent them, have left the firm, and she is scrambling to retain the ones which remain. She is particularly troubled by an obnoxious client who is suing his employer for wrongful termination and is being countersued for sexual harassment by his supervisor. After a pre-trial deposition, she realizes that her client is lying and that his lawsuit is frivolous. With the help of a little pep talk from Joe, Rene rediscovers her spunk, tells her client just what she thinks of him, and fires him. At home, her self-consciousness about her scar initially creates a barrier to intimacy with Turk before she finally regains her sense of herself and her trust in his love. M.E.'s whining and self-pity about her weight reaches a fever pitch, and she starts to drive everyone crazy. While she acknowledges that she's ""sad, angry, despera

The Real Thing

Present: After M.E. is selected for jury duty, she mounts a one-woman jury nullification campaign when she refuses to convict an elderly woman who was charged with drug trafficking for growing and distributing marijuana to cancer patients; Rene represents Charley Majors when the U.S. Attorney's Office goes after him for painting pictures of U.S. currency; M.E. continues to meet with a therapist to uncover the reasons for her eating disorder; Rene wonders exactly what she and Turk are to each other, and begins to pull away when he introduces her to his former flame as a ""friend and colleague""; Turk tells her he loves her and is determined not to let her go, even though she is afraid to get close to him; after a few days apart, Rene realizes how much she loves him, and they are reunited. Past: M.E.'s and Rene's teacher begins to date Uncle Jimmy, and Rene suffers the consequences when they tell her that he's a member of the Klan.

In Too Deep

Present: M.E. is forced to reexamine her views on capital punishment when Glenn arranges for her to witness the execution of a man convicted of a rape-murder and to write a column on her emotional reaction to the event. When Davis comes home to Birmingham to protest the execution, he clashes with Collar and M.E. on the topic and tensions run high in the family. After visiting the prison and speaking with the mother of the victim and the mother of the man on death row, M.E. writes a column which reveals that she has completely changed her point of view on capital punishment. She reconciles with Davis before he returns to Wisconsin. Rene represents a student who was kicked off a university women's volleyball team because she violated the athletic code of conduct by working as a stripper to pay her tuition. When she proves in court that male athletes who had also violated the code of conduct were not punished in the same manner, Rene is successful in obtaining a reinstatement to the team

Call Him Macaroni

Present: M.E. and Gail politely jostle over planning Emmett's first birthday party, but get into a really serious disagreement over his racial heritage. Gail insists that Emmett is a black child with a white mother and that everyone who looks at him will consider him black as well. M.E. maintains that he is biracial -- both Irish-American and African-American. When Kelly and M.E. find out that Emmett's birth certificate lists him only as black, they enlist Rene's help in getting it changed, so that Emmett will always know that he is part of two families that both love and fully accept him for all that he is. At the birthday party, the two grandmothers come to an understanding and agree to start new traditions for their families, blended and bonded by their love of Emmett. Rene takes on a sexual discrimination case on behalf of a woman whose group health insurance carrier will cover the cost of Viagra, but not the cost of contraceptives. Joe is reluctant to take on the case at first, bu

Truth Hurts

Present: Rene represents a 14-year-old boy in a custody dispute; M.E., Colliar, Rene, and Turk go to a night club where the ""comedian"" targets M.E. and another woman with offensive comments about their size; when the other woman asks M.E. to join her in a class-action lawsuit to protest this harassment, M.E., with the help of a little straight talking from Rene, is forced to face the truth about about her body image and weight obsession issues; Colliar and M.E. take turns speaking to Turk about his intentions towards Rene; after M.E. gives her some wise advice about marriage and relationships, Rene faces the truth about her feelings and proposes to Turk. Past: Rene and M.E. trace their family histories for a school project and discover the historical links between their races; after Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated, the girls arrange for their mothers to meet, and Sara and Catherine realize that they share a common bond of grief over his death.

Boys Will Be Boys

Present: Stacy and two other women are groped by a crowd of men during a convention. When the police don't arrest the men, Rene files a civil suit on behalf of the women. Rene meets Turk's sister, Rita Gail, who gives Turk an ugly family heirloom to use as Rene's engagement ring. After Turk and Rene agree that the ring has to go, he presents her with the ring of her dreams. When Ajoni is offered a promotion, but quits his job instead because he is angry about missing college, M.E. urges them to talk things out. Ajoni decides to move out temporarily, but his angry wife tells him not to come back. Past: Rene wears a revealing go-go dress to a party against her mother's wishes, and she and some other girls get groped by the boys in attendance. Rene's parents find out when one of the girls goes home in tears, and the adults blame what happened on Rene for wearing the dress. Rene and M.E. unsuccessfully attempt to organize the other girls against being victimized.

Let the Games Begin

Rene represents Lakeisha's boyfriend when his employer fires him for adhering to the tenets of his Rastafarian religion by wearing dreadlocks; Kelly quickly gets burned out working double shifts to support herself and Emmett, so M.E. and Colliar bring her back home to live with them; Ajoni is living with his parents and still not working, so he tells Kelly that they should give up their apartment to save money; She agrees, heartbroken that their marriage seems to be coming to an end; M.E. and Sara disagree with Rene's decision to hire a wedding planner, and join forces to convince her that M.E. is the woman for the job; Colliar has difficulties getting M.E. to schedule some time to make decisions about the interior of their new house.

Just the Beginning (1)

Present: M.E.'s and Rene's attempt to have Catherine and Sara resolve their issues only results in creating conflict between M.E. and Rene; an angry M.E. decides not to participate in the wedding in any fashion; Rene's in the middle of a controversy over a slave burial ground and the hearing on the case is set for her wedding day; Kelly and Ajoni add to M.E.'s misery when they announced that they're moving to Atlanta; Colliar presents M.E. with her dream home; M.E. and Rene patch up their differences. Past: Rene enters a pageant, despite M.E.'s disapproval; Elston comes home for a visit.