The worst episodes of Ally McBeal
Ranked by viewer rating, lows first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
Nelle schemes to leave Cage & Fish in order to start her own firm and it leaves both Richard and John furious. Elaine accepts Nelle's offer to leave the firm and go with her. Ally dates Brian Selig.
- 02
John's idol, Nicholas Engblume, shows up and needs his help in court, and then Nicholas's wife shows up and needs his help in getting a divorce.
- 03
Richard and John's relationship grows more tense than ever and so they attend couples therapy; Jackson's presence has a profound impact on Elaine; Jackson represent a woman being sued for firing all her male employees.
- 04
Cage's 'oddball' client is accused of murdering his old boss and the firm gets involved in their first murder trial. Suspecting he's been set up, Ally plays detective and goes snooping for additional information. Meanwhile, back at the office, Nelle has a few surprises up her sleeve.
- 05
Brian asks Ally to move in with him, but she questions the entire relationship mostly because their sex life is lackluster. She turns to Renee and a new therapist, who has oddly taken over Tracy's office, for advice. At the firm, Cage and Fish represent a woman who wants her six-year-marriage annulled because she suspects her husband married her for her money. The woman, who is unattractive, says she and her husband were always great friends and she believed he just had no interest in sex. However, after she catches him cheating on her with a model, she changes her mind about him.
- 06
Richard and Ling take Cindy McCauliff's case. She was fired for refusing to take a physical, afraid people would find out she's a man. John and Nelle handle a case about a woman being sued for sexually harassing a man.
- 07
The Christmas season is approaching, and while Ally is thrilled about it, Larry has nothing to celebrate. He confesses to her that he has a 7 year-old son who lives in Detroit with his mother, and ever since they split Larry finds Christmas sad and lonely.
- 08
Elaine gets sued by a former office clerk because she called him "peanut" due his size. John thinks Larry was ridiculing him by making fun of his relationship with Kimmy and her mother. Nelle and Ling compete about who will have the most bids from the charity auction dinner date and Cindy has plans for Richard for the charity auction.
- 09
John and Nelle defend her father who was fired from his job as a teacher because he claims he's Santa Claus; Ally feels threatened when Larry's ex comes to town;Richard and Ling lip synch at the office Christmas party.
- 10
With Larry gone, Ally is hallucinating. This time it's Barry Manilow and therapy has taught her to physically fight her hallucinations. Richard has just hired a new lawyer, Jackson Duper, but he thinks it must be all a joke since his trial has a man wanting to dissolve his marriage to a nymphomaniac and then suing the priest who married them.
- 11
Ally and John defend Whipper's friend on a solicitation charge. While working with John, Ally notices his unique approach to work. During another case, Ally gives mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an overweight lawyer working with the opposition when he suffers a near heart attack.
- 12
Ally engages in a little virtual sex, with a guy she's been writing to online for the past few months. At Renee's prompting, Ally tries to arrange a meeting. Eventually, she does. By this time, Ally, or "Lover Lips" as she calls herself, thinks she's found her "Thunder Thighs". Upon seeing Brian, the opposing counsel in a case she and Mark are trying, she immediately is drawn to him. Later, Ally is in hot water when she realizes she's been chatting with underage kid.
- 13
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.
- 14
Ally takes the case of a Jewish lady who wants her rabbi to grant a spiritual release from her marriage, because her husband is comatose. Ally and the rabbi insult each other repeatedly. Georgia is asked to leave her law firm, because her boss' wife is uncomfortable with her husband working with an attractive woman. Richard offers her a job at Cage and Fish.
- 15
Cage and Fish represent a group of "oddballs" who were fired by a boss who claims their "oddities" were preventing them from fulfilling a new job requirement to bring in new clients, even claiming they offended some clients. Cage begins to take the case personally, considering himself an oddball.
- 16
Ally runs into Kimmie Bishop, an old friend of hers from college. Ally makes fun of her in front of her fellow puritan friends, and Kimmie is so outraged she decides to sue Ally for defamation.
- 17
Kimmie comes to Cage & Fish looking to hire Ally. She's suing her old firm for wrongful termination. They fired her for being too puritan, and the opposite lawyer is Larry.
- 18
Ling's ex-fiancé is about to get married, but he's still in love with Ling. Larry's ex, Jamie, is back in town, and she's determined that it's going to work out for them this time.
- 19
Much to Richard's surprise, Chubby Checker is not dead, but is in fact at the bar with a charity Twist contest. Elaine & Mark, Ally & Larry, and Ling & Richard are in their competitive mode, and Ling gets a hot Spanish dancer to team up with and coach Nelle. Meanwhile, Melanie invites John back to her place and introduces him to local homeless man, Mr. Bo. John think he's being stalked by him, but then finds out he means more to Melanie than he assumed.
- 20
In search of the most homophobic, bigoted lawyer she can find, Mark's ex-girlfriend Cindy comes to Richard to get the courts to allow her to marry. Nelle's dance partner hires her to sue over patents to his dance moves, but when the woman they're suing is his ex-girlfriend, it becomes very personal for Nelle.
- 21
Jackson and Renee's one night stand turns into something more; Ally visits several therapists to get over her hallucinations of Larry, who eventually appears in the flesh; John represents a man who wants to annul his marriage after his wife decides she doesn't want to have kids, a case that carries over into John's relationship with Melanie.
- 22
To escape their ruined love lives, Richard and John go for a vacation to Los Angeles. It turns into a working vacation however when John not only must get Richard out of legal trouble but also helps a woman divorcing her wealthy husband who paid someone to seduce her.
- 23
Ally wonders why Ronald failed to kiss her after their first date. Georgia and Ally work on an age discrimination case where the opposing litigator is the ex-colleague Ally sued at her previous law firm.
- 24
Ally McBeal: The Musical, Almost
Things go awry when Ally introduces Brian to her parents, resulting in conjuring up old pains and hurt feelings. Nelle regrets her decision to leave Cage and Fish, and takes steps to rectify it. A good season ender -- emotional, entertaining, and lots of musical numbers.
- 25
Mark's girlfriend finally reveals "her" secret; Ling and Nelle represent a woman suing a relationship guru whose advice ruined the woman's marriage; Ally is dating two different men who end up being related.
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