Ally McBeal

It's a new year at the firm, which means changes - big changes! Still getting over Larry and renewing her faith in love, Ally decides to start fresh and let nothing get in her way. That is until she barrels into a woman on the street with her Razor Scooter. She runs into Jenny Shaw (Julianne Nicholson) and instantly bonds with this new broken-hearted stranger. In the time it takes to walk the rest of the way to the office, Ally finds out that Jenny's best friend is her ex-boyfriend, former co-worker and that Jenny is a lawyer without a firm and with a class action lawsuit housing 72,000 plaintiffs! Ally brings Jenny into the firm and announces that she's hiring her. Of course Richard is surprised because only he has hiring authority. He then lets Ally know that he already hired the latest addition to the firm: Jenny's ex-boyfriend Glenn Foy (James Marsden). Ally argues that he should also keep Jenny however because of her 72,000 plaintiff suit. Dollar signs light up in Richard's head « read less

Ally has a dream about Raymond and Glenn. She thinks it's a sign they'll lose the phone company case, and Glenn sees it as a secret attraction of Ally for him. After Raymond makes a 125,000 dollars offer for the phone company case, Ally decides to make an infomercial using Ling's TV show crew and Claire Otoms as the announcer. They threat to run the infomercial nationwide on primetime, and the threat of losing hundreds of millions of dollars scares Raymond's client. Cage & Fish settle for 15 million dollars, the biggest settlement ever, which makes Richard cry of happiness. Meanwhile, Ally is still divided with her feelings for Glenn and if she should date him or not. Glenn says he's not interested in her, and Raymond asks Glenn if he should date Ally. To make things even better, John decides to confess his feelings for Ally and is very disappointed when she says they will never be more than just very good friends. « read less

Jenny's mother comes to hire the firm to take her wrongful termination case. She's being fired from her job for dating a 20 year-old. Jenny wants Ally to purposely lose the case but Ally can't do that. The case ends up serving as a mirror to Ally and Glenn's relationship. Ally's closing makes Jenny change her mind and she accepts her soon-to-be step-father. Glenn tries to reach Ally, but Ally, as always, is afraid she's going to end up broken hearted. Meanwhile, Ling looks for more exciting cases for her show and brings an entire orchestra to her court. Richard obsesses with Ms. Shaw's waddle, but Francis shows him he's way out of her league. « read less

Ally helps a minister who was fired from his church for not believing in God. Ever since his wife was brutally murdered, he has been questioning his beliefs and he asks Ally to talk to his son. Ally is surprised to see Malcolm again and encourages him to sing at his father's service after he is hired back. Meanwhile, John takes a case opposite a mayor who cancelled the Christmas parade of his town due to a disaster in which people died. Very moved, John proves that Christmas is what they need the most in this time of deep grief. Back in the office, Jenny and Elaine confront each other about Elaine's performance with Glenn in the office's Christmas party. « read less

Ally impulsively buys a house, to which Dr. Milter concludes is a way of her to take care of herself, since Ally sees herself as a 'work in progress'. Richard gets the others to help paint the house as a surprise for Ally, who hires the handyman Victor to fix the house for her. Meanwhile, Ally handles a case of a man who spent too much money buying gifts for his wife until they went bankrupt. And Jenny has some back problems, to which Coretta recommends a chiropractor who has a special chair. Glenn gets extremely jealous that a chair is giving Jenny more pleasure than him, while Nelle tests the chair. « read less

10 year-old Maddie Harrington shows up on Ally's door saying she's her daughter. She's the result of a mixup on the egg bank Ally deposited her eggs ten years ago. Since Maddie's father died six months ago, she's been living with her aunt, who sings TV themes on nightclubs for a living. After a lot of talking, Maddie decides to stay in Boston with Ally on a trial basis until they resolve where she will stay. Meanwhile, Richard takes the case of a man who killed his wife after kicking her in the head when he mistook her for a soccer ball. John doesn't think he'll be able to win the case because he can't litigate, but Richard surprises him when he wins. « read less

Ally decided that in order for the firm to get out of the financial crisis it's going through, someone will have to be let go. She chooses Jenny, who between all the lawyers of the firm had the least number of clients and experience. Glenn takes Jenny's dismissal offensively and decides to quit, taking all his clients with him. Ally accepts his resignation, but Victor convinces her to hire him back since the firm can't afford to lose any clients. Glenn and Jenny decide to start a new firm together and leave Cage, Fish & McBeal once and for all. Now the other lawyers will have to do extra work to make up for the loss. Among the changes Ally is making on the firm, she wants Nelle to be nicer and asks her to perform at the bar, something she has never done before. Afraid of embarrassing herself, Nelle goes to Ling for help. They decide to have backing vocals, a plan that backfires when the singer who was going to dub Nelle suddenly loses her voice and Elaine has Claire Otoms to replace he « read less

Richard and Raymond are hired to represent Serena Feldman, a 16 year-old girl who will die unless Judge Hall consents her a heart transplant from her convicted father, who is the her only match. Serena's aunt is against the transplant because Serena's dad murdered her mother , and Claire interferes with both her and the judge in order to help save Serena. The case is tough, and afraid his daughter will die after Judge Hall denies the transplant, Serena's father escapes and kills himself. Meanwhile, Maddie is caught smoking and reveals to Victor that she wanted to be suspended to avoid father-daughter day at school. She questions Ally why she and Victor can't be together, and Victor overhears Ally telling Maddie that they come from different worlds. Angry at Ally for being elitist, Victor quits, but Ally goes after him to ask him on a date. In the last minute she freaks out, and Victor is called in for help. Ally is still in love with Larry and thus can't date Victor. « read less

The judge forbids the lawyers to interfere on Claire's engagement, and her fiancé decides to call the wedding off. Devastated, Claire goes to Ally for help. Ally is still shaken with the memory of Larry, and isn't sure of her feelings for Victor anymore. In the middle of that there's Todd, whom Ally turned down as an attorney, but who asked her out on a date. He gets on her nerves and they fight a lot. On their date, Ally confronts Victor and tries to pick a fight with him. John and Nelle try to settle upon their imminent lost in court, but Liza has now lowered her offer. John is furious and decides to take her down. « read less

Ally and Victor return from their Bermuda trip. Ally feels their relationship is in crisis because they weren't able to connect without Maddie around. Victor is being sued by his former girlfriend for breach of contract. Ally discovers that Victor is a painter and never told her. She's angry, but not as angry as when she sees his painting of her with cellulite. Nelle and Wilson team up against a woman who was blackmailing their client in order not to come public with a tape of their lovemaking. Richard obsesses over Liza and has Claire do the talking for him through a hearing device, afraid she's going to turn him down - and even more afraid she'll say yes to him. « read less

The lawyers at Cage, Fish & McBeal split when both personalities of the same woman hires them to represent each in court. One of her personalities is a strong, decided and bitchy woman that goes by Helena Green. She wants to divorce her husband, who years ago married sweet, warm hearted but weak Helen Green. Helena has Liza and Richard on her side – a couple who is struggling with the imminent commitment – while Helen hires Ally and John – who but those two could represent a suppressed personality of a woman who has love as her life incentive? « read less