Synopsis of Story of Love

Written by Dana Hagerty

It looks as if Ally is having a pretty good day. She strolls down the street, buys a paper, pets a dog (Calista's own dog, Webster), then she makes the mistake of stopping to ask a girl (who is sitting on the sidewalk crying) if she is okay. The girl is very sarcastic to Ally, who explains that she was just concerned and wondered if she could help. Again, the girl is rude to Ally, telling her that she's just come from the doctor where he diagnosed her with an acute courtesy disorder, which makes her be impolite. "I'm sorry if I upset you, bitch," she says to Ally, throwing her used Kleenex in her face. Ally tells her she made that up and turns to walk away, when the girl stands up and throws her purse at Ally, hitting her in the back and knocking her down. The girl tells Ally she's sorry, that she dropped her bag, and asks Ally to get it for her. Ally smiles, picks up the bag, returns it to the girl, then steps back and kickboxes her to the ground. "Get up," Ally says, "It's your turn." "Can I play?" says a cop who happened to witness the altercation.

Cage is working on Stefan's training. He places the frog on the stair next to him, tells him to settle, and then takes a step down. Stefan jumps down a step. Cage takes two steps – Stefan jumps down two steps, and so on until they reach the floor. Cage picks up the frog, and walks over to introduce him to Nelle. One look and she starts screaming. The frog leaps out of Cage's hands, Nelle thwacks it with a file, and it goes flying across the room. Luckily, Richard catches him with one hand. Cage screams, and goes running over to see if Stefan is okay. He's very upset at Nelle for what happened. George Madison (John Ritter) walks up and asks to see the frog. His father is a vet and he thinks he will be able to tell if Stefan is hurt. He says the frog seems to be okay. George asks if the frog is a White's Tree Frog, and Cage says yes, taking the frog and walking away from Nelle.

Ally and the girl, Hannah, are escorted into a jail cell. Hannah says Ally cracked a rib, then asks if a bruised rib can get her out of a court date. She says that she's being sued the next day and her lawyer dropped her. Ally tells her that they won't make her go forward without counsel, then asks what she's being sued for. Her ex-best friend is suing her for assaulting her. Hannah says she is her "ex" best friend because she slept with her boyfriend. Renee shows up to tell Ally and Hannah that they are both free to go, unless they want to make a citizens arrest against each other. They both say no, and as they are leaving, Ally asks if Hannah would like for her to be her lawyer, in exchange for her not suing Ally.

Elaine sees George and thinks that he has come to the office to surprise her. She is surprised to learn that he wants to get Ally to help him start his own magazine. Elaine tells him that Ally is a litigator, and Richard and Nelle handle matters like this one. She says she will set up an appointment with one of the, and he turns to leave. Ally gets off the elevator with a cappuccino, and runs right into George, this time getting the foam all over his face. She reaches for a napkin to wipe it off, (imagining that she slurps it off with her tongue), and apologizes for not watching where she was going. He admits that he came there to see her, and when he tells her why, she does agree that Richard or Nelle would be better equipped to handle his case. He says he would really feel more comfortable with her since she has worked with him before, so she agrees to meet him at the office at 6:00 that evening to discuss the case.

Cage is in his office working with Stefan when Nelle comes in, sees the frog, and yells again. Stefan leaps up and lands on Cage's head. Nelle apologizes to Cage for earlier and tells him that she does know that this competition is important to him.

In court, Ally learns that this is Hannah's fourth continuance and that her case has been marked 'no further continuances.' She also learns that Hannah didn't get dumped by her lawyer – she fired her lawyer on the eve of the trial, just like she fired all her other lawyers. Since Hannah hasn't been truthful to her, Ally tries to dump her client, but the judge won't allow it. When Ally tells the judge that he can't make her be Hannah's lawyer, he says, "The bad news for you is I can. The good news: Dress however you like."

Ally is in her office trying to get ready for Hannah's case, and apparently she's been "snappish" to Elaine, who is telling Ally not to take it out on her. Ally says that is what Elaine is there for. "So you're unprepared. It's not like people will notice," Elaine says. "Excuse me," Ally says. Elaine assures her she meant it in a good way because Ally is so great off the cuff. George comes into the office, and Elaine again thinks that he came to see her. He explains that he came to get started on setting up his corporation and that he decided to work with Ally because he had worked with her before. Ally asks George to sit down and Elaine to hold all her calls. She reluctantly smiles and walks away, closing the door behind her. Ally has already told George that she is busy preparing for court, and she quickly begins telling him what she thinks he should do. He stops her and says that he doesn't care about that – he's just trying to find a way to be in a room with her. He says he hasn't been able to stop thinking about her. Ally tells him that he is Elaine's boyfriend, so that is the end of the story. He tries to explain that he and Elaine are not exclusive, and Ally says that she's flattered but it isn't going to happen.

In court the next day, the ex-best friend, Laura, is on the stand testifying about the incident. She says that she was working behind the bar at her job when Hannah comes in, grabs her by the hair, picks her up, carries her to the garbage canister in the back and dumps her in it. Ally asks Laura why she started dating the man her best friend was in love with, and Laura says she had fallen in love with him, too.

Richard and Billy are walking into the unisex when Billy asks if Richard thinks he's in love with Ling. Richard says he wouldn't know because they haven't had sex. Georgia is already in the unisex, and asks why Richard has to have sex with someone before he knows he's in love with them. "Because, men love any woman they want to sleep with," Richard says, "it's the ticket to admission. Fishism." Georgia opens a stall door, and screams when she sees Stefan sitting on the toilet seat. Billy and Richard come over to see. "That's John's seat," Richard says, "he probably likes the scent." Richard leans over and attempts to pick up the frog, but instead it falls into the toilet. They start arguing over who is going to get the frog out now, and before they decide, they hear a flush. John has hit his remote toilet flusher, and the frog doesn't stand a chance. They watch with amazement as the frog disappears and then turn to see John enter the unisex. Billy tells John that Richard has something to tell him, then he and Georgia quickly leave. Richard tells John, "Good luck with the competition," and quickly leaves as well.

Back in Richard's office, Billy can't believe that Richard didn't tell John. Georgia asks what they are going to do, and Richard thinks they should just let the frog be missing for a while. Cage opens the door and says, "Excuse me," which causes Georgia to scream again. He asks if any of them have seen Stefan. They all say no. When Cage leaves, Billy tells Richard that since he's known John the longest, and since he was closest to the frog when it jumped, he should be the one to tell him.

Ally and Hannah are walking down the street. Hannah says Ally reminds her a lot of herself, and Ally says she's sure that at one time, Hannah was a very nice person. They say goodbye, and Ally turns and almost runs into George. He was on his way to see her to apologize for putting her in an awkward situation. He tells her that working with her was a treat. She asks him to do his wiggle walk for her when he leaves. "I think just letting you walk off would haunt me," she says. He turns, and does his wiggle walk as everyone on the sidewalk watches.

Cage is walking around his office with a whistle looking for Stefan. He tells Richard that something is wrong because Stefan usually comes back quickly. Richard finally tells him that the frog isn't coming back. After telling him what happened, Cage is crying and asks if Richard is sure Stefan didn't get out of the toilet. Richard tells him he's positive, and John asks to be left alone. Richard sees Ally outside the office and tells her what happened. Ally immediately walks into John's office and holds him.

In court the next day, Hannah is on the stand and Ally is asking her about how she felt when her boyfriend broke up with her. She says that the only person she could turn to was Laura. She says that when she assaulted Laura, she thinks she just lost herself. "For me to even be able to lift her shows I had to be on some sort of adrenaline explosion," Hannah says. "She weighs at least 25 pounds more than me." Laura asks her attorney to get that stricken from the record. Ally is finished with her questioning, and as she turns to go back to her seat, she sees Oren Koolie. (Oren is a ten-year old attorney – a genius with a hormone deficiency -- who was first seen in the episode "The Playing Field" last season.) He has filed an appearance to represent Laura as co-counsel, and Ally isn't happy about it at all. Oren questions Hannah about her first meeting with Ally and when she tells the court that Ally kicked her, Oren tells the judge that Ally also kicked him. The judge tells all of the attorney's to approach the bench and asks Ally if she really kicked Oren. She explains that she thought he was a baby. The judge wants to say something to Oren, and the other attorney picks him up. He tells Oren to keep his focus on the witness.

In the hallway, Oren tries to get Ally to settle the case for $55,000, but Ally says no.

Elaine is with Nelle and Richard in Richard's office. She has found the pieces of John's remote toilet flusher on his desk. She says he crushed it. John comes in and tells Richard that he wants to have a memorial service for Stefan. They decide to have it in the office.

Nelle walks after John into his office and explains why she acted the way she did with Stefan. When she was seven, she had a hamster named Millie. She loved the hamster so much that she would race home after school to see her. In high school she was the star of the track team and everyone always wondered how she got so good. She would tell them that it was just hard work, but in all honesty it was because of always running home to see Millie when she was younger. One day, her brother put an Argentine Horned Frog in her terrarium and it ate Millie. Nelle said it was a year before she forgave her brother, but she never forgave the frog. John says that Stefan never hurt anybody or anything, and she says she knows that, but she was just trying to explain. She tells him she is sorry for his loss.

Ally and Renee go the bar that night. They sit at a table, and soon they see that Elaine and George are there, too. They are on the dance floor, and it isn't long before George notices Ally. He waves at her, and Ally smiles. As they turn around on the dance floor, Elaine sees Ally smiling.

Renee walks into Richard's office, sees everyone else is there (except Ally, who has gone to court), and wonders why she's been called there. Richard says that he wants anyone who plans to be at the memorial service later to look over a mock eulogy he and Elaine put together so that if they want to laugh, they can get it out of their system now.

In her closing argument, Laura's attorney says that Laura fell in love, and while it's unfortunate that the man was her best friend's boyfriend, what was she to do? She says love isn't like a train where people can just say they will catch the next one. Ally begins her closing, and when she mentions Oren's actions in the courtroom, Oren starts crying. "She hurt my feelings," he says.

The memorial service begins with Cage playing his bagpipes. We see that he has placed a picture of himself holding Stefan at the front of the room for everyone to see. He tells the group that he isn't ashamed to miss Stefan. "To know that it was my own hand that pushed the button," he says. "To know that it was me who had the toilet altered so that there would be a stronger flush, because I like a fresh bowl and remnants upset me." It's becoming harder for some of the attendees not to laugh. "Imagine what it must have been like for him to suddenly be caught in a violent whirlpool, cascading. I can only hope the bowl was indeed fresh when he fell into it." Ally and others can't hold it in any longer and a few laughs escape. Ally apologizes, telling Cage that she uses humor to preempt the pain. John walks out and Ally follows, calling after him. "I think you tried to make us laugh," she says once she finally gets him to stop. John says he wasn't trying to be funny and Ally tells him that sometimes he just is. She reminds him of the time when he told her that people see him as funny strange, but she sees him as special strange. "Well, everybody in that room thinks your special, so go and finish your service," she says. "If we laugh, we laugh, but go finish." He says okay, and when Ally turns to watch him walk back into the office, she sees George standing there. He tells her that he can't walk away from her. Elaine has come up behind him, and Ally sees her watching them. Just then, her beeper goes off. The verdict is in. She leaves. He watches her walk away.

In court, the jury finds for the plaintiff, but they only award damages in the amount of $1. Oren starts crying again. His co-counsel tells him to give it a rest, and he stops immediately.

When Ally exits the courtroom, she sees Elaine standing in the hall. She asks her what she is doing there. "You can have any man you want, Ally," Elaine says, "please don't take mine."

Cage is putting his bagpipes away when Nelle comes in with a small box, which she hands to John. It's a tiny American Tree Frog. She leaps out of the box and lands on John's nose. He asks if he can call her Millie, and Nelle says sure. "You're a kind person, Nelle," Cage says. She asks him not to tell anyone and he agrees that it will be there secret.

Ally returns to her office, and finds George waiting for her. He tells her that he doesn't want to hurt Elaine. Ally tells him that he and she are not right for each other. He says he won't end up with Elaine, and Ally says that may be the case, but she's not going to be the one to come between them. "I haven't so much as held your hand and already I'm in love with you," George tells her. Ally tells him that it isn't going to happen. "If you tell me you don't feel a little of what I feel, I'll leave," he says. She looks at him and says, "I don't feel what you feel." He turns and walks to the elevator. Ally stands in the doorway of her office and watches him as he walks out of her life.

©1998 Dana Hagerty. All rights reserved.


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