Episode list

On her way to Cage and Fish, Ally runs into herself, better known as Jenny, a young lawyer just fired and heartbroken over her ex. So Ally hires her. Problem is Richard has also hired Glenn, Jenny's ex, better known as the cute uterus-tickler. To help her deal, Ally hires Attorney Steven Mittler as her therapist. John is irreparably fraught when he thinks Ally loves him as a lover rather than a friend.

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. That worry is not alleviated when Claire Otoms arrives at Cage and Fish as the main plaintiff in Jenny's class action lawsuit. Jenny thinks Ally likes Glenn when Ally keeps finding herself looking at him while they are second and third chair in Jenny's case.

Jenny is concerned when Ally has a dream that Jenny had a dream that had Glenn and Raymond boxing. Glenn assures her that it has nothing to do with their case, but just that Ally has repressed feelings of sexual intimacy for him. After crawling out from underneath her desk, Ally finally admits that she's interested in him, but he denies having any sort of feelings for her. Meanwhile, John is embarrassed by the new body suit that Coretta designed for him, and just has to bite the bullet and let Ally know the truth about what he feels for her. He is not prepared when Ally counters back with her own harsh truth.

Raymond is sued for sexual harassment and he hires Jenny to defend him. The closer Raymond and Jenny get, the more they think they might like each other, and fewer reasons that Glenn and Ally have for not dating each other. Meanwhile, John is gone and Richard inhabits his hole.

Jenny's mother arrives at Cage & Fish in need of a lawyer. She has been fired for dating a younger man and she's suing for sexual harassment. Ally and Glenn take the case, and once again find themselves dancing around the idea of dating each other. Meanwhile, Elton John is at the bar singing about wanting love.

Ally has Glenn all hot and bothered on the dance floor, but then Glenn has Jenny all hot and bothered while singing Elvis Presley on her birthday. They're on a double date that is more awkward than imagined. John is back, but he's upset that Richard has violated his hole. Richard has become a trial lawyer, or a litigator, either way he's off to court, or to meet the client. This is the type of confusion that John's disappearance has caused in the office.

A widowed Reverend who no longer believes in God believes that Ally has been brought to him by fate and he hires her as his lawyer which brings Ally back to a former client. John is helping a man sue his town for cancelling Christmas, but the case hits a holiday nerve and John has become disappointed in mankind. Elaine is preparing a Christmas party duet with Glenn but Jenny is having nothing of it and is willing to fight over her man.

With Jenny's mother's wedding approaching, Richard is trying one last time to get with her, while Ally is concerned about all men's philandering ways and may have lost all hope for love. Meanwhile, Kimmie needs John's help to sue a matchmaker who has declared that there is nobody on this planet to love her. Kimmie brings out John's lip twitch and Coretta brings out his anger when she attempts to introduce surprises in the courtroom.

A wayward wind blows Ally's hat, causing it to land on a post with a "For Sale" sign. The house is in probate and the bank is anxious to sell it, so Ally buys it. Ally defends a man who is addicted to his wife's happiness, so he commits larceny in order to obtain gifts for his wife. Jenny's neck is hurt, so Corretta recommends a chiropractor who has a vibrating chair that induces orgasms in women.

The staff visit matchmaker Harriet Pumple, who matches Elaine with Victor Morrison. Victor talks to Ally about dumping Elaine. John Cage walks out of the initial session, and later the staff and Harriet do an intervention in his office and sing "We've Got to Get You a Woman". Ally defends a man who is dying of cancer and wants to fly off of his roof using custom-made wings.

A 10 year-old girl knocks on Ally's door, and suddenly Ally is a mother. The fertility clinic is mortified, but that doesn't change the fact that there is a girl looking for her mother, her irate aunt wanting her back, and a confused Ally contemplating how to be a mother. Meanwhile, Richard is on his first murder trial. The client, who kicked his wife in the head mistaking her as a soccer ball, is pleased that Richard has graciously guaranteed acquittal, but John is suffering from stress that Richard's trying of the case is causing him.

John decides to leave the firm as a named partner and work part-time. Fish makes Ally partner. Nelle is upset. Ally reviews the books and discovers that Richard has been paying the employees out of his own pocket. Richard agrees to Ally's terms of working no later than 5:00pm, no weekends, and missing some days entirely. Ally tells Richard they need to let some people go. The realities of motherhood collide with Ally's fantasy of what motherhood is about. The show starts with Ally squeezing orange juice and milking a cow. Ally then fights with Maddie because Maddie doesn't want to go to school. Maddie tests Ally in several other ways. Ally over-involves herself by attending Maddie's class. Victor steps in and helps clear things up. Maddie has a bad day at school and Ally gives her bad advice for getting even. Victor offers to watch Maddie after school while Ally is at work. Ally comes home to a home-cooked meal made by Victor. Corretta defends Kelly Bridgeman, a junior attorney who says she was fired because she has AIDS. She has become symptomatic and the doctors give her two years. Owen Cobb, one of the senior partners, fired her because she's dying, and because the firm lost two lawyers on the first plane that hit the Twin Towers. It's revealed that his son died from AIDS a year before. Raymond defends the employer, but loses.

In her first duty as senior partner at Fish, Cage & McBeal, Ally has to fire someone. It goes even worse than she expected when Jenny takes it personally and Glenn takes the stand that if she goes, he goes. Nelle does not get fired but Ally makes her sing at the bar and her plan of deception backfires once Richard hires Claire Otoms as a secretary. At home, Ally has to deal with Maddie's first sleepover and leans on Victor for support.

An old woman shows up at Ally's house and mistakes Victor as the former tenant and her soul mate. Ally, concerned that somebody might be able to come and take Maddie away, decides they need to get DNA tests done, but then fails to recognize the cause of Maddie's recent outbursts at school and home. After the loss of Glenn and Jenny, Ally extends a job offer to Raymond but only on the basis that he is not allowed to act like a misogynistic, chauvinistic pig.

Ally tries teaching her daughter some moral lessons but they backfire when Maddie suggests that Ally and Victor should be a couple. Richard and Raymond are defending a teenage girl with a heart defect who is trying to get a healthy heart from her father, a convicted felon.

The firm has a new case where they up against a formidable young lawyer named Lolita ('Christina Ricci'). Concerned about her reputation, Nelle and Richard are off to a Mexican restaurant to retrieve their own Biscuit, John Cage. Ally is attempting to hire a top billing lawyer Todd (Matthew Perry) but she's concerned about the lack of action in her and Victor's relationship and has decided that Todd is attracted to her.

John is up against Lolita (real name Liza) in court but he has met his match when the young vixen ups the ante of his usual tricks. Todd reminds Ally of Larry and as she tries to pick a fight with Victor she ends up in the arms of Todd. Claire Otoms' wedding is put on hold when the firm decides she needs a pre-nup, but Coretta is off to play matchmaker again.

John extended an offer of employment to Liza and she is happy to join the firm with a hire of her own, Wilson. Wilson recruits Nelle to join him in playing cold and dirty lawyer tricks with a sexual harassment case. Liza and John are defending a polygamist who isn't satisfied with only one husband.

Ally represents Victor when he's sued by an ex-girlfriend, and is appalled to discover that Victor created a painting of her... complete with cellulite.

When Fish's father is sued for sexual harassment, Fish's mother asks for a divorce; Elaine has high hopes when she tries out for a role in A Chorus Line; Fish finds himself increasingly drawn to Liza.

The attorneys represent a woman with a split personality: the submissive Helen, who's deeply in love with her husband; and the aggressive Helena, who wants a divorce.

When Maddie suffers a nervous breakdown, Ally decides to move to New York, leading to tearful goodbyes with her friends; Fish and Liza decide to wed.