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The Practice Episode Guide
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DecemberDecember 26, 1999RerunDecember 19,1999I cry that this episode had to be a rerun.December 12, 1999This was a truly stellar episode and an amazing television experience. The entirety of the episode was a single trial. Not the crime, not the preparation for trial, but the trial itself. The story: Bobby and Eugene are defending a drug dealer named Eddie Nicks. Nicks is a long time client of the firm, but this trial is Nicks' first murder trial. Helen Gamble as prosecutor claims that Nicks murdered a man who owed Nicks $60,000. Nicks says the homicide was self-defense...that the victim was strangling him and that he stabbed the man seven times to get the man off of him. As the trial opens, Eugene and Bobby are angry with Nicks' decision to not plead guilty to manslaughter one. Nicks reminds Bobby that he will defend him because Nicks had laundered money through Bobby's firms in the past. Apparently, Nicks was one of Bobby's first clients and Nicks used to give abnormally large retainers for short trials. The trials would end, and Bobby would return the unused money to Nicks, and at that point the money was clean.As the first witnesses go on the stand, and Helen questions them, we see the judge whose name is Judge Philip Swackheim roll his eyes at the thought of Nicks' innocence. Bobby calls Swackheim into chambers and asks for a mistrial, but Swackheim says that he wasn't making any facial gestures. Anyway, Gamble's case hinges on the testimony of the medical examiner, Dr. Foster played by Ed Begley Jr. Foster testifies that the killing could not have been self-defense. Upon hearing this, Nicks leaps from his chair and assaults Helen. Helen is headed towards the hospital. Richard (remember him...the short little guy) sees Helen and tries to get to her. He wants to go to the hospital with her, but the paramedics won't allow this, so he says that Helen is his girlfriend. She shouts out that he isn't. He says that they went out on a date. As Helen lies on a stretcher headed towards the hospital, she proclaims that Richard is not her boyfriend. Because of the assualt, Bobby calls for a mistrial. Swackheim won't grant it even though any one can see that the jury is now prejudiced. Bobby and Swackheim fight. Richard decides that he will take over the prosecution, but Helen wasn't hurt, and she is released from the hospital so she wants to continue with the trial. She'll lead, and he'll second chair, but as the two talk, they discuss their date. He asks about their kiss and she tells him that he wasn't the best kisser. The trial resumes, and Bobby and Eugene do a hard cross on Foster. Eugene questions previous cases in which Foster fouled up. Helen objects. The judge sustains saying that any mistakes Foster made outside of this case do not apply. Bobby objects to this, and they all end up in chambers. Bobby and Swackheim verbally assault each other and Swackheim agrees to let Bobby cross the medical examiner. Bobby asks Foster if he had ever ejaculated over a corpse before...the answer is yes. Bobby then totally humiliates this guy in every possible way. After his testimony, Foster talks with Helen and says that the judicial process is a sham. Helen realizes he is right. After this, Nicks goes on the stand and he says that the death was self-defense. Helen does a rather weak cross-ex. In the meantime, Swackheim continues to prove a challenge to the defense. Closing arguments come, and we see some of the most persuasive and best monologues of the TV season. In the end, Nicks is found not guilty. Helen is so angry about this because she feels that justice has totally been perverted in this trial. She starts yelling at the jury. She is thrown in jail for contempt. Bobby is also thrown in jail for contempt because of all of his fighting with the judge (the two even fought during Bobby's closing argument). The two are thrown in the same cell, and the judge talks to them. The three discuss the judicial process, and Swackheim realizes that he may not be fit to be a judge any longer. I hope to see that part of the story continue in future episodes. The episode was four stars and a ten.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:Why don't you and Judge Judy go off and mate?! --Bobby expressing his anger at Swackheim
December 5Didn't airNovemberNovember 28, 1999I suppose that this was a good episode. It made me laugh, but it didn't bring out any really great drama. First, Jimmy helps this old girlfriend of his in court. She sells her eggs (as in eggs to have a baby) over the internet, and one of her clients doesn't pay his bill even though he receives the eggs. Jimmy is repulsed by the practice of selling eggs to make money, but he helps his friend anyway. He argues that although the practice may be despicable, it is perfectly legal to sell the eggs, and it is the legislature's job to correct any error in egg-selling, not the court's. The court agrees that the contract between the buyer and seller must be enforced. Jimmy's client, Susan, then asks why her and his relationship failed. She realized that it was because Jimmy finds himself morally superior, but he wants to change. He realizes that with Susan he can have a family and children. Jimmy then goes to break up with Roberta Kittleson. Kittleson says that Jimmy can break up with her, but that he'll be back in a short while, because he needs Kittleson for her sex (as a Catholic Jimmy was sexually repressed and only Roberta can sexually awaken Jimmy). Jimmy realizes she is right. Jimmy goes to break up with Susan, and Susan kisses Jimmy good- bye and then Jimmy walks her outside, but Kittleson saw this and mistakes it for a relationship. What will she do? Who knows!Ellenor and Eugene go up against Richard Bay, an assistant district attorney that really hates Bobby's practice. Richard claims that Ellenor and Eugene's client tried to run over her husband. The problem: the husband is on his death bed and only he can testify to the wife's motives. The solution: videotaped testimony from the hospital. Richard does a direct examination and then Ellenor starts her cross-ex. She fears that if she crosses him too hard that she'll appear unsympathetic. She goes hard anyway because she has to vigorously defend her client, and she ends up sending the man into a heart attack. Richard continues to ask the man questions as the man has his heart attack. It's quite funny even though the man dies. (morally, is the prosecutor just as evil as Ellenor for asking the victim questions as he's dying, only to later use this as evidence in court?) Ellenor and Richard continue to fight (sometimes physically, sometimes with personal accusations) in the judge's chambers until they are thrown into jail for contempt. In the end, the defendant is found not guilty, but the battle between Richard and the Practice continues. Either out of pity or stupidity, Helen agrees to go out with Richard Bay. Keep in mind that he is short and ugly while she is hot, hot, hot (Please see December's Maxim magazine). At the end of their date, Helen has had a miserable experience but agrees to see Richard gain so he kisses her big time. What is with this mismatched romance? By the way, to understand Richard Bay, think the Biscuit from "Ally McBeal" but nasty. IN TWO WEEKS: Bobby gets threatened by his client and then yells at a judge. November 21, 1999On a one to ten scale, this was like an seven and a half (keep in mind this scale judges The Practice against other episodes of The Practice, not against Beverly Hills 90210 b/c then this episode would be like 100). So there were two stories, and because I like Eugene, we'll do his story first. Eugene gets a phone call informing him that a man has been found dead in his ex-wife's bed. His ex-wife is Sharon and both she and her son (by Eugene), Kendall, are suspects. Sharon went into the shower, and when she came out, Sharon's boyfriend, Scott, had been beaten to death with a bat. Kendall had just come home from spending the weekend with Eugene. Anyway, there is a third suspect...Scott's business partner, but it is highly unlikely that he did it. So the prosecutor in this case is Richard...the short guy that doesn't get along with Ellenor and Eugene. Oh yeah, Ellenor helps Eugene on this case. Richard brings Kendall in for questioning and asks Kendall if he did it and then asks Kendall if he saw his dad drive away in the car (as in maybe Eugene committed the murder out of jealousy). Eugene gets upset and ends the questioning. Eugene asks Kendall if he did the crime, and Kendall says no. This whole ordeal takes place over like a week. Finally, Eugene gets a phone call saying that a hair proves that Scott's business partner had been in the house and this partner has some of Scott's blood on his shoes. Kendall didn't murder anyone. BUT Eugene is still upset because he realizes that he thought his son might have committed the crime. Eugene feels out of touch with his son and tells this to Sharon. Then Sharon and Eugene kiss...fade out.Lindsay defends a man named Walter Arens who stabbed five girls to death twenty years ago. Arens has been in a mental facility, and his psychiatrist says that as long as Arens stays on his medicine that he will be fine. Lindsay is scared to take the case because she was stabbed not too long ago, but she does take the case. She realizes that this man is totally different from the man that killed those girls and defends him rigorously. At trial, the prosecutor raises some interesting questions: what happens if Arens stops taking his medication? What happens if Arens becomes immune to his medication? What if the outside world is too much for Arens to cope with? But the best question he asks is why didn't Arens turn himself in when he was cognizant of the evils that he had committed (apparently, the condition came in episodes, so the question is why didn't Arens seek treatment before killing again)? All of these are good questions, but the jury decides that Arens IS sane now and that he should be released. The night of his release, Lindsay gets a phone call. Arens has held up a gas station. Apparently, the prosecutor's questions made Arens think, and Arens wants to go back to his mental facility...he is too scared of the outside world. The only way he can get back in is to commit another crime, and so he did. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: You're not congressmen deciding what the
law should be, you're jurors, and it's your duty to uphold the law. --Lindsay arguing that
the law must come before emotions
November 14, 1999I'm not sure that I'm willing to call this a great episode. Do a few good scenes make up for an otherwise slowly-paced episode? Maybe it was slow for effect. So anyway, Jimmy defends a woman who is on trial for murder two. Her name is Darlene Keating, and she killed a man an hour after he raped her. Jimmy is court-appointed on this case, and Darlene resists Jimmy's help. He tries to defend her with temporary insanity, but she rejects this story on the stand and embarrasses Jimmy. Even his ethics are questioned when it seems that he coached her into claiming temporary insanity. She admits that she killed the rapist out of revenge and that she would do it again. Suffice it to say, she is found guilty, but Jimmy says that he'll still try to help her on appeals. However, I doubt that we'll see any more of this lady.Also, this week Lucy is at the doctor and discovers that she has been bitten in the breast, and as a result has a minor infection. The doctor treats the infection, but Lucy is not sure who bit her. She asks her boyfriend, but he is a traditional lover and would never bite. Lucy decides that it was her dentist who must have bit her last week when Lucy was put under when her wisdom teeth were removed. The problem: the dentist is Bobby's cousin. Bobby insists upon defending his cousin, but this angers Lucy and every one else in the law firm. Eugene and Ellenor defend Lucy and arrange to have the dentist give Lucy $85,000 as well as have the dentist get psychological treatment. Lucy then quits even though she realizes that she got a good deal. Lucy rejects the deal and has Helen put the man on trial. He pleas guilty and will have probation as well as psychological treatment. Bobby then talks to Lucy and asks her why she quit. She says she quit to punish Bobby. She also says that she wanted the dentist found guilty, because last year when she was videotaped in the shower she lost control and this was even worse. Lucy will, however, stay at the office because she is loved by everyone at the office.
November 7, 1999Eh. This was a pretty bad episode. Not as far as TV in general, but as far as "The Practice" goes this was about as bed as it gets. So, Bobby and Lindsay get in a fight. Bobby wants Lindsay to wear his mother's wedding dress, and Lindsay doesn't know how to tell Bobby that his mother's wedding dress is one of the ugliest things she has ever seen. Lindsay finally tells Bobby that she wants to wear her own wedding dress and Bobby gets upset...why won't she let him have this one thing. Lindsay then explodes and explains that everything is being done Bobby's way (a Catholic service, the catering hall, and now the dress). Lindsay calls the wedding off because Bobby is too demanding. He loved his mother so much and was so hurt by her death that he won't let anybody else into his life. In the end, Bobby admits that Lindsay is right and that he wants to be vulnerable to Lindsay and the wedding is back on. Also this week: Rebecca and Eugene defend a woman who is accused of killing her mother. The defense is temporary insanity. The woman has been having flashbacks of her sexual abuse as a child. A psychiatrist testifies that this is possible. The woman's sister says, however, that she was never molested and doubts that her sister was. Then the sister's husband (as in the husband of the sister that did not kill anyone) tells Rebecca and Eugene that he thinks she was molested. The sister is recalled to the stand and Eugene almost gets her to admit molestation, but she doesn't. However, it is obvious that she was. In the end, the woman is found not guilty. We are so happy, but the prosecutor thinks this is ridiculous...there was no proof of a disease. That night, we find out that the woman killed her sister while her sister came out of a fast food joint..the two of them were celebrating the verdict. It turns out the woman did have a disorder, too bad she wasn't treated.QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: If I have to eat communion, you can swallow [my decision]." --Lindsay NEXT WEEK: Jimmy defends a girl on trial for life. Lucy has a conflict with a client. OctoberOctober 31, 1999An exciting rerun that there's no need to recount.October 24, 1999Eh, this was pretty good up until the melodramatic ending. So it's time for the trial of Raymond Oz. Oz is doing a really good job of defending himself until a friend of his testifies to Oz's hatred of his wife after she started the legal proceedings against him. At this point, Bobby sees how Oz is and he yells at Oz. Bobby says that in preserving his legacy that he is harming his wife's legacy by claiming that she tried to kill him. At this point, Oz agrees to change his plee to not guilty by reason of insanity by Judge Kittleson says no. So, Bobby decides that Oz has to take the stand. He's doing a great job on the stand until Helen attacks him. She finds his lowpoint and attacks him until he cracks and yells at her. We see that he's cracked. Bobby realizes that he may lose so he goes to Kittleson and says that she should declare a mistrial because she's sleeping with Bobby. Bobby says he just discovered this and this is why he's asking for a mistrial now. Anyway, Kittleson says no and then when Jimmy finds out what happened he yells at Bobby. In the end, Oz gives a phenomenal closing and wins the case for himself without ruining his wife's legacy. It was nice. But at the very end, Bobby starts crying, because he realizes that Oz is insane and needs help. But it's just extraordinarily pathetic. NEXT WEEK: I forgot, it's new, but I forgot what it's about.October 17, 1999A fine episode indeed. Ellenor deal with her grief now that Vogelman is dead. She blames herself for letting him into the law firm and apologizes to Lindsay...Ellenor says that it was her own fault that George attacked Lindsay (the attack was meant for Ellenor). Eugene served as co council alongside this scummy lawyer who has never won a case. The defendant is charged with exposing himself in public. The defense is to show the defendant's penis which is much larger than the victim says. The defense does this, but the guy is found guilty anyway. One of the jurors tells Eugene that he is a plastic surgeon and could tell that the penis has been enlarged...this explains the guilty verdict. Eugene calls for a mistrial but is happy when the judge suspends his client's sentence. As for the big storyline, Bobby's mentor, Raymond Oz (you may remember him from the first season) comes to Bobby asking for help. Joanne, Ray's wife, claims that Ray is incompetent. She details his wasteful spending and delusions. Ray suspects that Joanne is having an affair which she isn't. At one point, Bobby finds Oz naked in the bathroom and Oz claims that Joanne is waiting outside, ready to kill him. That night, Oz kills his wife, supposedly in self-defense. Helen is prosecuting and she'll accept not guilty by reason of insanity, but Oz won't agree. Bobby is upset and knows that Oz needs help, but Oz won't take it. Oz decides to defend himself. Judge Roberta Kittleson (the one that's dating Jimmy) makes Bobby stay on as co-council.NEXT WEEK: The trial of Raymond Oz. October 10, 1999It's the moment we've all been waiting for. The final showdown, but first let's talk about Rebecca. She's defending a man being charged with vehicular manslaughter. The guy has signed a confession., bt he tells Rdeecca that he wasn't driving the car, and that he's being paid to say he did. Rebecca believes him and then confronts the man that payed her client. The client then goesback to the story where he was driving the car. He even testified on the stand (at the prosecution's request) that he drove the car (probably b/c he was going to get paid a lot of money). However, due to Rebecca's amazing lawyerly skills, the client was found not guilty. Now for the showdown news. In the office Lucy finds a photograph of a nun holding yesterday's newspaper. Obviosuly, Lindsay's attacker is back. Lindsay and Ellenor go to buy a gun for Ellenor (Lindsay already has one). Bobby finds out about the illegal guns and Lindsay and Bobby get into a fight (this as they move in together). The day of the photo-find and the gun purchase, Jimmy goes home and can tell that someone has snuck into his house. He calls the cops (before he enters the house), and the police come in. They search the house and find Judge Roberta Kittleson, waiting for Jimmy, only she's naked. She is totally mortified and runs out of the house. The next day, Jimmy goes to see Roberta and the two of them are back on track. Anyway, the next day Lindsay can smell the scent of her attacker in the office. That same day she plans on moving in with Bobby and Ellenor plans on moving in with Helen. George Vogelman helps Ellenor move in. As Vogelman goes outside to pick up the last box, Helen and Ellenor say some pretty nasty things about him. It turns out that he overheard some of them, but he doesn't let them know this. Ellenor invites George to stay for dinner (she's about to go out to the supermarket), but he declines the invite. He then walks her out of the apartment. When Ellenor comes back, she sees Helen lying in the bathtub dead. Ellenor turns around and sees George standing in a nun's outfit (this confirms that he's Lindsay's attacker). They talk and he tells her that he hurt Lindsay and has now, not killed Helen, but given her chloroform to make her pass out. The two get into a fight and Ellenor gets her gun. George tells her to shoot him. To all of our surprise, she does. Then she goes to wake Helen up. As she's doing this, George comes back. The bullets in Ellenor's guns were blanks (George switched them earlier). The two get into another fight and as he begins to attack her we hear gun shots. Helen, who had prosecuted George, has just shot him. The end.NEXT WEEK: Bobby defends his mentor. Eugene assists a sceevy and bad lawyer. |
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