The Practice Episode Guide

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March March 26, 2000 Duh! The Academy Awards aired. March 19, 2000 A classic rerun from two seasons ago when this show was in its peak. March 12, 2000 I've said it before, and I'll say it now: Dylan McDermott is not a good actor. He may be nice to look at, but he cannot act. He is way too intense and thinks all too much of himself; if nothing else his performance explains why this thriller episode of The Practice only receives 6 Flushes. Now the script may have been bad (or it may have been great) but McDermott's performance got in the way of the words. The episode opens with Lindsay asking Bobby to choose a wedding invitation; she wants a beautiful selection, but he could care less. Bobby is on his way to a deposition. He gets to his car when a mugger comes at him from behind. Bobby immediately offers up his car keys, but the mugger says he does not want the keys; Bobby then offers his wallet with money and ATM card, but the mugger does not want those things. The mugger wants Bobby. The mugger takes Bobby to a house where Bobby is tied up. The mugger, who we can now call a kidnapper, begins to explain who he is. His name is Patrick Rooney, and Bobby defended Rooney in 1988 on a murder charge. Bobby advised Rooney to take a deal for manslaughter in the first degree and serve 12 years in prison. Rooney took the deal and has regretted that decision ever since. He blames Bobby for talking him into pleading guilty. Back at the office, Lucy gets a phone call from the man whose deposition Bobby is supposed to take. Bobby apparently has not shown up. Rebecca calls Bobby on his cell phone. At the kidnapping scene, Rooney picks up the cell phone and then smashes it with his gun. Rebecca can tell that someone picked up the phone and then disconnected it. In the meantime, Lindsay and Helen go to a wedding planner. Who is the planner? Rosie O'Donnell, who does a very bad job portraying an obnoxious wedding coordinator. Lindsay and Helen return to Lindsay's office where they find everyone nervous over the disappearance of Bobby. A quick call to a credit card company confirms that someone has been using his credit card to make big purchases. Helen uses her pull as a district attorney to catch the man using Bobby's credit cards. They find the man but this guy is not the kidnapper, it is just a guy who found Bobby's wallet when Bobby offered it to Rooney in the opening scenes. Back to Bobby, Rooney tries to explain Bobby's mistakes. Bobby defends his actions by saying that if Rooney had gone on the stand then his prior criminal activities would have been admitted. All of a sudden, we hear a crash in another room. Rooney goes to the other room and Bobby tries to escape. Rooney sees Bobby trying to escape and stops him, but Bobby learns that there is a man in the other room. Who is the man? Seymour Sternach! Seymour could have been a witness for Rooney, because Seymour saw Rooney waiting in a car while the murder took place. Rooney told Bobby about Seymour, but Bobby never found him. Bobby realizes that he acted irresponsibly, but cannot admit his irresponsibility because then he might lose his life. All of a sudden there is a knock at the door and a woman enters. The woman is Suzie and she was Rooney's girlfriend at the time of the murder. Rooney wants Suzie to learn that he was innocent. Suzie hears what has to be said and believes Rooney's innocence, but she cannot revive her relationship with Rooney, because she is married and has kids. While all of these revelations take place, the police discover a license plate number that used to belong to Rooney was seen in the vicinity of Bobby's kidnapping. They figure out what is going on with Rebecca's help. She remembers that Rooney used to be a client and the police know that he was just released from jail. A search through the firm's files helps us learn that Rooney's grandfather has a house in the area. Everyone comes to the house, and a hostage scene begins. Back at the house, the hostage scene is supposed to be intense. Bobby, as a hostage, negotiates the terms with the district attorney, Helen, on which Rooney will let them go. Rooney will not be prosecuted but he will get in trouble for violating his parole, but the sentence for parole violation will be suspended. Bobby gets Rooney this deal because he feels guilty for having sent an innocent man to jail. First Seymour is released and then Suzie, but before Bobby is released, Rooney hears on the television that a deal made under duress can be nullified. This means that the deal the DA made about Rooney not going to jail may not be upheld. He freaks and takes Bobby outside with a gun to Bobby's head. Rooney says he wants to talk to the district attorney on the count of three. Helen says she will go in to talk to Rooney, but the police will not let her. Rooney counts, 1, 2 and then a shot is heard when a sniper takes Rooney down. Rooney dies, Bobby is released. That night Bobby feels guilty because he was responsible for ruining someone's life. Lindsay tells Bobby that it is all over now. Bobby says that while he was being held hostage the only thing he could see was Lindsay's face and now the only thing he can see is Rooney's face. The end. I'm sorry that I used the word Rooney so much. NEXT WEEK: ABC promised to show scenes from the next but did not, so I don't know if we will have a new episode. March 5, 2000 Rerun. February February 27, 2000 No episode. Part I of The Beach Boys: An American Family ran. But check out Dylan McDermott on the cover of this week's TV guide (Feb 26 - Mar 3) February 20, 2000 What is justice? We really wonder the answer to that question in this 7 Flush episode of The Practice. Last season, Henry Winkler guest starred as Henry Olson, a dentist with a bug fetish accused of killing a patient. Olson's son, Steven, killed the woman, but Henry does not want this information to be spread so he goes on trial and is found guilty. After Henry is found guilty, Jimmy tries to get Steven to confess to the crime. Instead of confessing, Steven hangs himself. This week Henry is back and asks Jimmy to get him out of jail. Jimmy goes to the district attorney who tried the case, Richard Bay, and asks him to reconsider the guilty verdict. While the two talk, Bay appears at the arraignment of some random criminal named Clyde Miller. Miller has no attorney. The judge presiding over the arraignment sees Jimmy in the courtroom and appoints Jimmy to the case. In the meantime, Jimmy tries to get Henry's conviction overturned. Jimmy goes to court and puts Henry on the stand, but the judge rules that a convicted criminal and this criminal's lawyer's testimony is not enough to free a man. The judge says that if the DA were to agree to freeing Olson then that would be a whole other story, but in the meantime, Henry is guilty. Going back to Clyde Miller. Miller is being charged with murder one for killing and robbing a rabbi. Miller says that he did not know the man was a rabbi and also that he was only trying to mug the man. Nonetheless, Miller tells Jimmy and Ellenor (who is helping Jimmy on this case) that he did kill the man. Keep in mind that Richard Bay is prosecuting this case. Jimmy comes up with a plan. He goes to Bay and offers Bay a deal. Miller will cop to murder two if Henry Olson is freed. Bay agrees as long as Olson passes a polygraph. First things first, Miller pleads guilty to murder two. Ellenor learns about this and is pissed. She does not understand why Jimmy would have Miller do this when they could have argued that Miller touched the murder weapon after the crime was committed. As she is yelling at Jimmy, the phone rings. Lucy reports that Olson passed his polygraph. Ellenor and Bobby realize what is going on. Bobby yells at Jimmy, but Jimmy says that he did what he had to do. He gave up a guilty criminal for an innocent man. Bobby disapproves of the deal, but let's face facts...Bobby has done things equally creepy in his time. Olson is freed. Miller is in jail. Rebecca and Eugene represent the widow of Morris Riley. Morris died during liposuction. Mrs. Riley is suing the doctor who performed the liposuction. The case is straightforward: standard practice says that when performing liposuction outside of an office that the doctor should not extract more than 12 pounds of fat nor should he use too much lidocaine (a drug that slows down the pulse and heart). The doctor, Dr. Stiles, extracted 22 pounds of fat which forced the doctor to use extra lidocaine. Morris ended up dying of cardiac arrest. The case seems easy enough, but the attorney for the doctor, Bradford, indirectly attacks the characters of Rebecca and Eugene simply because they are black. He says that this trial is a "civil" trial and that Eugene is resorting to urban street fighting tactics. Bradford questions the legitimacy of the entire case. Eugene tries to swallow the whole racial problem, but Rebecca cannot. She stands up during a rebuttal closing argument and confronts the issue. She says that the case stands on its own regardless of the lawyers. She is right: Morris wins the case and Dr. Stiles will have to pay $6 million dollars. NEXT WEEK: I think ABC is airing The Beach Boys Movie. February 13, 2000 A nine flush episode of The Practice that did not rely on surprises (although there were some) and high drama but on simple, gritty tales. We begin with Ellenor. She defends Darryl Hutchins, a 17 year old, who is slightly retarded. Ellenor describes him as "17 going on 12," but Darryl, who is found mentally capable of standing trial, insists that he is not stupid. The prosecutor is Richard Bay who has a never ending battle with Ellenor. Darryl is being charged with murdering an 8 year-old boy named Brian Tebbett. Brian was found in an abandoned house that neighborhood kids hung out in. The evidence is Darryl knowing about the body and his fingerprints are found on the murder weapon, a wooden plank. Ellenor's case is that Darryl entered the house where Brian was found dead after the boy was killed and that another kid, Kenny Sutton, murdered Brian. A guy named Eddie Chessler comes to Ellenor and says that he saw Kenny enter the house then he heard the scream then Darryl entered the house then Kenny left. Ellenor prepares to put Eddie on the stand even though Richard does not like this. BUT Ellenor discovers that Eddie may be lying so she takes him off of her witness life. Bay wonders why Ellenor does this, and he goes to speak with Eddie. Bay will now put Eddie on the stand to testify that Darryl entered the house before the screams. Ellenor objects saying that Eddie's testimony is a lie, and Eddie just wants fifteen minutes of fame. The judge rules that Eddie's testimony can be admitted. Eddie is called to the stand, but he testifies to his original story that Darryl entered the house after the screams. Bay is flabbergasted and wants to withdraw the testimony, especially since Ellenor knows it to be a lie, but the judge says that Bay is stuck with the evidence. Richard actually accuses Ellenor of orchestrating this entire witness scandal, but it is of no help. Anyway, surprise of surprise, Darryl is found not-guilty. At the end of the case, Darryl turns to Ellenor and says that he knew if Eddie did this tricky thing where he testified for the prosecution that Darryl would be found not guilty. That's right...slow Darryl orchestrated this entire thing with Eddie. Sort of scary, ain't it? I guess Darryl is not stupid. Also of note, the father of the murder victim was very hurt by Darryl being found not guilty. He looked like he might kill Darryl. A kid by the name of Scott Lopes is arrested. Helen suspects that Scott's girlfriend, Wendy, killed her father after he beat her. Wendy will not say what happened, so Helen says that Scott may know something. Scott will not testify as to Wendy's activities, and when he is continuously questioned by police officers, Scott asks for a lawyer. Helen learns that Scott's dad is a cop so she calls his dad. The dad comes and speaks with his son at which point the son says that Wendy did not kill her father. Scott knew that the father was beating Wendy so he went over to talk to the dad at which point the dad fell down a flight of stairs and died. However, Helen does not let the story end here. She searches Scott's house and finds a gun which was used at the scene of the crime. Scott now claims that he waved the gun at the dad and even shot at the dad, but he missed the dad. Scott claims to have missed on purpose. It was not until later that the dad fell down the stairs. Helen does not buy this story, so she arrests Scott. Who will be his lawyers? Bobby and Eugene. They ask for a pretrial motion and ask for the confession against Scott to be dismissed. Eugene says that Scott asked for a lawyer and instead received a cop, his father. Helen says that the call to the dad was out of respect for the father who is a good cop. Eugene puts Helen on the stand and questions whether or not she called the dad when the interrogation began. Helen did not. Helen did not call the dad until Scott asked for a lawyer, proving that Helen did maybe want to use the dad as a tool of confession. Helen denies this, but the judge rules that Helen has a reputation for being a tough lawyer who will win at any cost and that maybe she wanted the father cop to illicit a confession. The confession is suppressed, and the gun is now fruits of the poisonous tree, and Scott is released. Helen is pissed. Helen and Richard go out for dinner. They are both miserable, because they both lost their cases. Helen says she needs to be cheered up. Richard gives some corny speech about how prosecutors save society by taking action to keep criminals off of the street and that they are heroes who never receive credit. His speech was very uplifting, but when he finished it, he asked for Helen's pickle. A nice contrast of how life goes on beyond the courthouse. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:Would your honor have a big long stick handy? Preferably barbed. I'd like to bend over and have it run up my ass to complete the experience of appearing before you. --Helen to the judge after her integrity was questioned NEXT WEEK:Rerun..maybe? February 6, 2000 It's trial time in the case of Dennis Mills. Jimmy does an excellent job cross-examining Detective Doaks in making him look lazy and a drunkard who did no research on the case. Ellenor does well with the nun who says that there is no way that her sister, Stacey Kingman (the victim), would have met with a total stranger. However, the prosecutor, Fox, gets some letters admitted. The letters are of a sexual e-mail correspondence between Dennis Mills and Stacey Kingman. Ellenor argues that the e-mails are inflammatory, but the judge, who hates the defense team, admits the letters into evidence. Dennis Mills reads one of the letters which says that he can see Stacey's body vacant and empty. Mills says that he never wrote that e-mail. He admits to having written the other e-mails, but not that final one. Fox asks how the letter got on his computer if Mills did not write the letter, but Mills does not know. The evidence is so much against Mills that everyone thinks they should Plan B the victim's husband, Zach. Before they can do this, Fox calls Mills's wife, Karen, to the stand. He has her read an e-mail correspondence. As she reads the letter Lindsay's mind begins to unravel. She goes up to examine Karen and asks her if she killed Stacey Kingman. Lindsay's theory is that Karen was having an affair with Zach. But both of them were married. When Karen discovered her husband's e-mail fascination, she took advantage of it and had Zach correspond with Dennis Mills (so the nun was right that Stacey would never be in this sordid e-mail affair). Zach then kills his wife and frames Dennis with help from Karen. Karen refuses to confirm or deny this plot by pleading the fifth. The judge then directs a verdict of not guilty. Karen and Zach are arrested. The ending was kind of obvious if you watch any David Kelley series on a regular basis. But this did make me think of the episode a few seasons back when the doctor was convicted for killing his lover when the wife was the killer...but in that episode the wife got away with the crime. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: I think I always believed if you had an innocent client and you tried your hardest you'd win. That's how it should be. --Lindsay when she thinks she is going to lose the case and that Mills, an innocent man will go to jail. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: Please believe in what you do, and believe in what you are. You're all special people. --Dennis Mills to his attorneys NEXT WEEK: ? January January 30, 2000 As everyone else in America turned off their television sets when then Super Bowl ended, I turned mine on to watch an all-new and highly-anticipated episode of The Practice. I must say that I was very disappointed. Lindsay goes to Los Angeles to find out about a potential client. The man's name is Dennis Mills, and he is being prosecuted for murder. Mills allegedly killed a woman whom he met on an internet chat site (this is why the toilet tube has no chatting). The evidence against him: her body was found in the trunk of his car, and his fingerprints were found on objects in her house. Mills contacted Lindsay, b/c he took an art class with her last year when he lived in Boston. He trusted her and not his current attorney who is too busy with a civil case to focus on Mills' defense. But let's talk about Mills for a moment. I see the man in a jailhouse uniform and say to myself, "Peter, where have you seen this man before?" And this little question is nagging me for a number of minutes until I realize that he was on the January 10 episode of Ally McBeal as the homeless, schizophrenic Louis who was destined for forty-five minutes to be with Ally. The actor's name is Ted Marcoux. I will now write another letter to David Kelley. Dear Mr. Kelly, You have two shows on television that are both very enjoyable. These show are Ally McBeal and The Practice. These shows are so great because they are so original. This is why the two shows should never cross. The characters should not appear on each other's shows, and the story lines should never intertwine. And if you feel compelled to use the same actor in two different roles, please give me at least two months to get the image of homeless Louis out of my head before I have to see Ted Marcoux as innocent-until-proven-guilty Dennis Mills. With thanks, The TV Toilet Tube Anyway, Lindsay realizes she has to help Mills so she flies in Bobby, Ellenor, Jimmy, and Lucy. Each person gets his/her storyline. Jimmy has to gather evidence from the head detective on the case. The detective is uncooperative so Jimmy gets personal and discovers that he has a drinking problem. Ellenor interviews the victim's sister. This sister is a nun. The nun tells Ellenor that there is no way that her sister would have met someone she only knew through an internet chat site and that if she did meet this guy then she deserved to go to Hell. Ellenor is taken aback and learns that the nun was once busted for drug possession. Ellenor thinks this nun may have done it (especially since Ellenor's last nun friend, George Vogelman, was a killer). Lindsay is busy with Dennis Mills. He needs to trust her. She explains that the evidence is strongly against him, and that he may get a lethal injection. Lindsay also deals with Mills's wife who is unsure about her husband's innocence. Bobby is rather confrontational with the judge who does not like lawyers from Massachusetts (I suppose he has more contempt of this gang than Samuel Chase had of Philadelphia lawyers...if anybody understands that joke, e-mail me and win a prize.) Bobby interrupts the judge and stares at him...the judge apparently hates this. The judge is very abusive with his powers and just nasty...apparently, Pete Wilson appointed this guy. But from the way this judge runs his courtroom, I feel more like we're in Alabama than Los Angeles. Also, Bobby is confrontational with the prosecutor who is basically withholding evidence like a photo of the defendant with the victim even though Mills claims never to have met the victim (Mills claims that he told her he would be at this place and she must have followed him. As for the fingerprints, he claims he is being set up b/c none of the objects with his prints are permanent fixtures in the house.) As for Lucy, she just wants to get a suntan. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:"Do you think I look scared?" -- cop "You're too stupid to look scared." --Jimmy NEXT WEEK: The trial begins. January 23, 2000 Rerun January 16, 2000 Rerun January 9, 2000 Dear Mr. Kelly, You have two shows on television that are both very enjoyable. Those show are Ally McBeal and The Practice. These shows are so great because they are so original. This is why the two shows should never cross. The characters should not appear on each other's shows, and the story lines should never intertwine. However, the differences of these programs are greater in that Ally explores freaky cases that could never take place in real life, and The Practice examines cases that could happen in a violent and evil world. This is why it is wrong to sue a cigar company for breaking up a marriage on The Practice. Bobby put this idea best when he asked Lindsay if she really thought that a tobacco company should be held liable for breaking up a marriage...the obvious answer was no, and because the answer was so obvious the story line belonged on Ally. Sincerely, The TV Toilet Tube But now onto the merits of the show. Lindsay sues a cigar company on behalf of a woman, Martha, for breaking up a marriage. Lindsay's argument is that the husband had just been demoted, and he turned to the cool, cigar world of luxury for release. She says cigars are addictive and dangerous. The addictiveness & dangerousness led Martha away from her husband, and the luxury & comfort of the cigar world with its clubs & magazine led the husband away from Martha. The cigar company is hesitant to pay anything for this case especially since nobody, not even Lindsay, thinks she'll win in front of a jury, but it might be less expensive for the cigar company to settle because of attorney fees. In the end, Lindsay gives a truly passionate speech which was worthy of an Emmy nomination that basically says the case will make it to trial where Lindsay will hammer out the facts that cigars are dangerous and addictive. So far, all cancer attention has been focused on cigarette companies, but Lindsay will shift some of this focus, and she has the power to shift focus, because she has already beaten the cigarette companies (remember with Anderson Pearson?!) She gets $270,000 for her client. But we learn that Lindsay has only taken this case because of her own insecurities towards her relationship with Bobby. Apparently, the two have decreased having sex from 3.9 times a week last year to 1.6 times a week this year, and yes, Lindsay does keep track. She fears that the two of them will fall out of love, but Bobby reassures Lindsay that he has only begun to love her. Also this week, Rebecca and Ellenor defend an ex-boyfriend, Craig Armstrong, of Rebecca's against a charge of murder two and manslaughter one. Helen Gamble is prosecuting and initially offers Craig an offer for only six months in jail, but Rebecca says no. Ellenor says its a good deal and that Rebecca is only prejudiced against the plea offer b/c of her relationship with the man. Rebecca says that Ellenor is a hypocrite because she defended George Vogelman, and so Ellenor says that we all know what a freak Vogelman turned out to be. Anyway, Craig, a policeman, is charged with shooting a kid in a convenience store while he is off-duty. Craig's defense is that he saw the kid holding a gun outside of the store, and as it turns out, there was a gun found on the kid's body. Craig's case is going as planned when Craig testifies. His direct goes well, but on cross- examination Helen accuses Craig (who happens to be black) of shooting the kid because the kid was black. Helen then calls an ex-girlfriend of Craig's (not Rebecca) to the stand, and she confirms that Craig is racially prejudiced and thinks many black kids are punks. Rebecca wants to put the kid on trial here so she tries to admit the kid's juvenile record. The judge says no, but as Rebecca looks at the kid's criminal record she sees that the kid shot one of her and Craig's friends. Rebecca realizes that Craig shot the kid on purpose after the kid wasn't found guilty for shooting Craig's friend. Craig then planted the gun on the boy. Nonetheless, Rebecca argues for Craig in court saying what motive would Craig have to shot the boy? and what would have happened if Craig hadn't shot the boy with the gun? Maybe the store would have been held up. Craig is found not-guilty. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE:The merits of the actual case sometimes have nothing to do with the outcome. --Lindsay NEXT WEEK:Bobby and Lindsay face a hostile, courtroom environment when they defend a murderer in California. January 2, 1999 College Football aired.