The essential episodes of Ally McBeal
Watch these 15 in order and you've got Ally McBeal — each pick states its reason.
- 01
Ally loses her job at her law firm when she files a sexual harassment claim against a colleague. A chance meeting with ex-classmate Richard Fish results in Ally being offered a job at his new law firm. To Ally's shock, Billy works at the law firm and he has an attractive wife, Georgia.
- 02
Richard asks Ally and John to represent three people requesting the right to legally have a three-way marriage. Ally is disgusted by the idea until Georgia points out the similarities between the case and the triangle they are in with Billy. Richard feels forced into proposing to Whipper. Richard is hosting the annual Christmas party, and John wants to ask Ally to be his date.
- 03
Ally, Renee, and Georgia take an art class and are all drawn to a well endowed male nude model. Ally is assigned the case of a 19-year-old charged with assault after punching the ex-boyfriend of his date when he verbally abused her. Ally is disturbed that she finds herself attracted to her client despite his young age.
- 04
Ally, Georgia, and Renee join a kickboxing class, and Ally and Georgia are scheduled to fight together. Ally defends a surgeon Greg charged with performing a controversial operation and finds herself attracted to him. John suggests Ally visits his therapist.
- 05
Ally and Greg are involved in a car accident. Ally discovers her latest opposing counsel is a 10-year-old genius; but only after she kicked him, believing him to be the dancing baby. Richard represents a woman suing for sexual harassment after being passed over for promotion for refusing to sleep with her boss.
- 06
John represents his cousin who feels a strange compulsion to hit people over the head to get them to realize who they love. Ally represents two men who want to swap hearts; one wants to give his healthy heart to his sick friend, but Ally is forced into making the final decision in the case. Georgia and Billy decide to be more spontaneous and risky with their lovemaking in order to spice up their marriage.
- 07
Ally defends George Madison, editor of a feminist magazine fired for his religious views on women. Ally finds herself attracted to George, but Elaine implies that she and George are an item. Ally is told to stop wearing miniskirts in court; and when she refuses, she is held in contempt and taken into custody. Ally throws a dinner party that descends into anarchy when an argument over women's rights erupts.
- 08
Ally finally shakes the pesky Wallace. Ling rescues Stefan the frog from a suicide jump only to have him served up as dinner. The gang at the firm mourns the untimely death of Judge Happy Boyle.
- 09
Ally befriends a homeless man who turns out to be a writer doing research on homelessness. They hit it off and just when Ally starts to think the man could be Mr. Right, she is stunned by what she finds about him. Meanwhile, Ling is arrested for running a brothel when one of her escorts has sex with a high school boy.
- 10
Ling defends a dear old friend who is asked to leave his retirement home because the director finds his exuberant imagination disruptive for other residents. While Ling tries to decide whether her friend truly believes in his make-believe world or just pretends to, he suffers from a hallucination that has fatal results.
- 11
John loses his ability to channel Barry White while going up against Larry in a case involving a man who wants to clone his late wife; Nelle hooks Elaine into on-line romance; Ling's feelings for Jackson grow more intense.
- 12
When Ling is sarcastically nice to a stranger, she gets a surprise promotion as a judge. John is still irreparably fraught over thinking that Ally loves him, but he's concerned that only crazy people are attracted to him.
- 13
Jenny's mom's wedding is approaching, and Ally is shocked when Tim gives her a certain look that suggests a move. She talks to Jenny, and they decide to test him. Ally makes a move on him, and he offers her to have an affair.
- 14
Ally defends a man who broke into his old house to jump out of his old bedroom window. Harvey Hall believes he can fly using wings he made himself.
- 15
After Maddie passes out Ally finds out she is suffering from a nervous reaction to all the changes in her life, so Ally decides that the only way she can help her daughter is to move back to New York.
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